Wednesday 18 April 2012

I am on a diet.

[If anybody says to me "You don't need to go on a diet, you're skinny" I would like to take this opportunity to cordially remind you that going on a diet is not the same as trying to lose weight, that a skinny person is not necessarily a healthy person, and that skinny people don't always like to be reminded of how skinny they are, in the same way that fat people don't like to be reminded of their fatness.]

I was thinking of writing in my journal, but it's late and I don't wanna get out of bed to get it. And it's part of the reason I started this blog anyway, so I could write 'journal entries' without having to write in my journal.

I'm hopeful and optimistic about the future. We all have our own path to follow, and we all have to be the best person that we can be. And that's just what I want to do. I've been making major improvements to my lifestyle recently.

I recently changed my diet. This whole year so far I've been severely affected by severe eczema, which in January manifested itself stronger than ever before. It was stopping me from sleeping, I was itching constantly. I eventually made it to the doctor who gave me some creams which have been a great help in masking the symptoms so I could sleep and go about daily life easier without constantly scratching myself. They make going to bed uncomfortable, because I have to be covered in a really greasy emollient, but it's better than waking up with unbearable itching. Anyway, I recently read about a diet plan on a lady's website which she says will help naturally heal eczema:

A natural cure for eczema requires not only avoiding food allergies, but also following a complete and balanced nutritional program and including exercise, relaxation, social harmony, contentment. In short, a lifestyle in line with natural living - are necessary for complete healing of eczema through natural means.
I'm nervous about the exercising part, because when I get too hot I have a full body outbreak of the most severe itching, which is not a pleasant experience I can tell you (especially when you're with your friends in the middle of a busy nightclub and you have to walk 15 minutes to get home!). I'm going to give it a try though and go back to doing some Jane Fonda, I hope to exercise, or at least do stretching every morning. Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent, I wanted to talk about the diet:
  • I've had to stop eating a lot of foods I really love. I am a huge consumer of dairy, so it is really difficult for me to stop eating cheese and milk and the like.
  • I used to have a bowl of sugary cereal with milk every morning. Now I am not allowed dairy or processed grains, and breakfast is raw fruit. (I have an apple and a satsuma)
  • I am discovering the virtues of fermented soy products (unfermented soy is a no-go). Tamari sauce is amazing, and I am very much enjoying miso soup with its seaweedy goodness. I hope to soon discover the many uses for tempeh.
  • I eat vegetables every day. The recommended diet says you should have vegetable juice for dinner every day, but I don't have a juicer and I really don't think I could do that, so I make meals with lots of fried vegetables, sometimes just dinner, but sometimes lunch too.
  • I like meat, but haven't been eating it for a while due to the fact that I haven't been able to afford it. This diet recommends avoiding meat so I haven't really had a problem with this.
  • Hydrogenated oils are a no-go, so I am currently searching for coconut oil or ghee to do my frying with, but I've been so far unsuccessful.
  • I have a cucumber in the fridge and I'm still not sure what to do with it.
  • White rice and white flour pasta are off limits. Luckily for me, brown rice tastes just fine to me, and I have been able to find wholeweat penne, fusilli and spaghetti pasta, and I don't even notice a difference in taste.
  • High glycemic foods are off-limits. This includes, besides white rice and pasta, cakes and pies. I had recently gotten into the habit of baking myself cakes for consumption throughout the week, because I have a really sweet tooth and it's much cheaper to bake your own chocolate muffins than it is to buy them. That's stopped now, and I shed a tear every day for the empty box where I used to store muffins T_T
  • Other things I can't (or rather, it is recommended that I shouldn't) eat include: pastry, yeast (so most bread), crisps, salt, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, food colouring, and synthetic vitamin and mineral supplements.
So in synthesis, I've had to stop eating a lot of things which I loved to eat, and am currently searching for alternatives to them (gotta be really careful with my chocolate now, also I NEED CAKE), I read the ingredients of all the foods I buy, but I feel really good about eating so much fruit and veg, and it is much easier than I thought to do.

Monday 2 April 2012

Buses, Babs and the lengths I will go to for a reasonably-priced can of good quality hairspray

My hair is naturally straight and it is extremely fine, so au naturel it is a depressingly flat, shapeless mop on top of my head. I'd rather look like I am sporting a bird's nest to be honest. Hence I can't be without a comb and good hairspray. So anyway last week I ran out of hairspray, I use Tresemmé freeze hold, swear by it. But money is tight at the moment, could I afford 'fast drying', 'extra strong hold', 'professional quality', 'humidity resistant', 'climate controlling', 'used by professionals' hairspray? I didn't feel like I could justify it, so instead bought a 70p supermarket brand can. Bad idea. To my hair it was like Magikarp's splash... no effect. I sprayed and sprayed and sprayed, used half the can, and it did NOTHING. NO-THING. Tresemmé it is then.

The supermarket nearest my house (Sainsbury's, like 20 minutes away) carries it, but would have me pay £5 for it! Pah! I had seen it just days before in ASDA for just £3. SÃO, it was decided. I spent my afternoon getting the two buses to ASDA, to get a can of hairspray. Nothing else. And I don't feel like I wasted a single moment in doing this.


Anyway, normally when you signal a bus driver you want him to stop they'll indicate to show other vehicles, as well as your good passenger self that they are going to stop. Did the driver of the number 12 bus do this on hairspray afternoon? No. No he didn't. He didn't at all. So I signalled again at which point he was close enough for me to see him gesturing impatiently towards the bus door, was he trying to tell me it wouldn't open? Perhaps he wanted me to come and meet him halfway?? Upon the bus's arrival, I noticed the door was open, as if I should have realised that and stopped my irritating signalling -.-


Catching the bus is always sometimes interesting (even sometimes the waiting is interesting, not too often though). A regular topic of conversation in our house is the people on the number 7 bus, who we both know well from all the times we have caught the bus. We've started giving them nicknames now (well, those people whose names we haven't already found out), the nicknames began just last week as I was discussing a terrifying bus ride with "Babs", her kids, and her sister's kids running riot. It was decided that this woman's name should be "Babs" for some reason, she is loud, has loads of kids, and me and my housemate see her everywhere. When I think about the many, many hours I have spent traveling on buses, I think that it's nice I get to derive some form of enjoyment from all this time spent sitting down being ferried around the houses.


The bus drivers can also be a good topic of conversation. Also last week, one started driving away before I'd finished getting off AND I NEARLY TRIPPED. But I didn't fall over, luckily. My housemate says I should have, then I could have sued Stagecoach. She's probably right. Agck. Then the next day when I got the midnight bus home, the guy driving it looked about 80, srsly, he looked like he should have been at home tucked up in bed, asleep, like 6 hours before. His glasses were from the 1970s!!!!!!! I am not lying. And don't get me started on the ones that drive away when you've barely gotten on, though they're actually not that bad here. In Spain it's like they're really angry at you for making them stop, they're always in a serious hurry to get somewhere.


So who else have I seen on the bus, I hear you ask. (I feel like my blog is turning into a blog about the people I see on the bus D:) Well, last week I also saw a guy with wispy green hair. It was the grossest colour you can imagine. Green tinged with yellow. And wispy. It was wispy, and it made me sick. The day before I was on a bus with one other guy, with a decent haircut, but a really miserable face, and as he made his way down the gangway to get off, he did a pull up on the rings for standing passengers without a perfect sense of balance to support themselves at the front of the bus. I was like ¿¿??