Change One Thing 1

Happy 2024 everyone! Hope you had a fab festive break and are raring to go with another new year. I luurve new year, as many of you know. Such a great opportunity for rethinks and new starts. A whole new blank 365 days to create upon; I get so excited. So, whatever you need to change, even if it is tiny, baby steps, take that chance if you can.

I am going to be making quite a few teensy health, lifestyle and maybe work swaps one at a time this January – about time for more self-care – so I shall share them with you as I go along. Hopefully, some will be right and stick, others may not – but the point is to try. I hope you’ll follow along with me with ones that resonate with you. Let me know – what are you changing this year that we could all learn from maybe?

Here’s my first one….

Swap to a Protein-Based Breakfast

I am now just over a year into my less-restricted diet since my hypersensitivity and MCAS improved dramatically – yay! I think I can start to relax a bit and trust that it is going to continue. Over this past year, I have continued to eat in patterns I learned when I was poorly and losing weight rapidly, which was very scary. I also didn’t want anything to do with restriction so have deliberately eaten joyfully, making up for 14 years of lost and bland food, you know!

I have also entered the menopause, which I always knew was going to be a toughy as I have had PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) struggling with my hormones and blood sugar control since my teens. Doctors told me I would diabetic by the time I was 40. I am not; I’ve held it off heroically! But I can feel it creeping up on me as the oestrogen and progesterone wanes – there is a definite link between these in my clinical experience.

The hormone change, I think, had a lot to do with the MCAS improvement – oestrogen promotes histamine release, for a start – so on the one hand it has helped me. On the other, I feel tired, I suddenly gained belly fat (literally, I woke one morning and my shape had changed – I’ve always been hourglass and now not so much, which saddens me!) and I can feel my muscle strength and fitness levels starting to sap.

I don’t like it. AT ALL.

So, my first health change this year is to start to control my blood sugar better. The best way to do that (for me) is to improve the first meal of the day and make it more protein than carb-based. You could intermittent fast or do the 5 day diet I released for you just before Christmas, of course. That is not an option for me currently until I get my sugars and sensitivity to supplements under more control. If I could, I would deffo be doing that.

Meantime, I have got into the habit of a sweet breakfast. I have been having a very rich smoothie, full of nuts, seeds and fruit. I did this deliberately as a kind of multivitamin/mineral as I still can’t tolerate supplements and knew with such a restricted diet for years, my nutrient levels would be on the floor. In fact, a colleague looked at a mineral hair test I did a while back and said: ‘how are you even standing up?!’ Sheer willpower, I suspect; my bloody-mindedness comes in useful, sometimes! But it is pretty calorific and high carb, and is very likely affecting my blood sugar more now. I do feel full until lunchtime, though, and I think it is very nutritious, so I shall see how I go. Maybe I’ll do it a couple of times a week, but not every day.

So, today, I changed to a poached egg on toasted almond bread with some salt and black pepper. It was delish. Getting eggs back has made such a difference to me, I can’t tell you. Little power-packs of protein and nutrition. I’m not sure I could do eggs too often and I may need two slices as, when I say bread, it’s a tiny slice. I’ll see. The protein and fibre in this meal slows any blood sugar spikes, it is low GL and nutritious. I may add some avocado or spinach, tomatoes etc to increase nutrient density even more, but in the spirit of one change at a time, I shall do that later.

I forgot to take a photo – I was hungry – so I’ve included someone else’s from here. But you get the gist. In the meantime, you can see more low GL recipes here if you are not into eggs but need more protein and blood sugar control. And, if you are still restricted and need some more breakfast ideas, see the TGF Breakfasts book here.

So, Day 1, first change made. Onward….