Healthy eating with a hangover

I haven't been this hungover for years.

Had THE most amazing day yesterday - however my friend and I went out drinking last night and decided (God knows why) on 2-for-1 cocktails. It was fun... but it was messy.

We had porn stars (which came with a shot of Prosecco for some reason)

We had some 'Undercover Squirrels'

We had some Woo Woo's...

And to finish, we had a chocolate nut cocktail (me) and a liquor coffee (my friend)

We ALSO had some 'Blueberry Muffin' cocktails and some screaming orgasms... (cocktails, nothing else!) :-) After getting very, very drunk... we were also starving as didn't have any lunch, we had just had breakfast (Which was an experience in itself as we went to a Harvester... I'd never been to one before!). So at 9:30.. we went to a fish restaurant along the sea front...In my drunken haze I kept thinking 'Fish is healthy'..

Behold our dinner! A fish platter - Not entirely sure it was the best thing on the menu (in fact, I'm sure it wasn't) but it was really nice and I'm glad we didn't eat a McDonalds or a massive burger... 

I am really, really, really dehydrated and feeling rather knackered so will update again once I've got rid of my hangover... Currently I'm just drinking lots of water :-)

West Berkshire BreweryTour

Today has been really nice and chilled

After breakfast, I picked my boyfriend up and we went on the West Berkshire Brewery Tour. It cost £12.50 each and only took 45 minutes to go round as it's not the biggest brewery in the world, however the tour also including a pint glass and three pints, which they were only too happy to serve you. I don't like beer, I never have, so settled for a diet coke instead, however my boyfriend was more than happy to indulge! It was interesting tasting the different types of malt that goes into beer - some tasted like Maltesers, whereas others were more like burnt toast and coffee. 

The tour was pretty cool and the bloke giving the tour obviously knew an awful lot about beer. We've been on quite a few brewery tours - Binghams Brewery, Wadworth 6x in Devizes in Wiltshire... About 5 in total, I think? I was the only woman in a group of about 15 men which was slightly odd, however I guess it's not the typical thing that women like to do? Shame really, as it's quite interesting :-)

Once we'd been round, we headed back to the bar and it was already 12:15, lunch time.

Thankfully I'd already planned ahead, I had half a pot of houmous left over from yesterday and some wholemeal pita bread, a pepper and another nakd bar. I'll be honest, it wasn't as tasty as usual and I think that was due to the fact that the houmous was in the car for an hour - it's quite impressive the difference in both taste and texture if you eat it straight from the fridge, versus when it's left in the car for over an hour - Don't think I'll be doing that again.....

After the tour, we headed back via Reading so stopped to get some petrol and got some fish to cook for tonight as we'd decided on how we were going to use the Riverford Vegetable box veg - Oven baked cod with crisp potatoes, wilted spinach with nutmeg and steamed carrots...Yummy. I also decided to stock up on a few essentials - More porridge and more nakd bars. The Bakewell tart one is quite hard to find, so I decided to make the most of the fact that they had a large number in, and bought have a box - Doesn't exactly look like the most balanced shopping list, however I do have a lot of fruit and vegetables at home and I now have enough porridge and snacks to take to Northumberland with me, so I don't have to give in to my partners Mother offering me cakes and sandwiches every 5 minutes.

After dropping the fish and other food stuffs at home, we headed out for a drink in a local pub - I'm trying to drink less diet coke and Pepsi Max (although it's still one of my vices I don't want to give up altogether, so am just drinking it in moderation) so actually ordered a mineral water instead.. 

I also think it's a bit silly to be mindful of the calories you're eating, but totally oblivious or not mindful of the ones you're drinking. Apparently there's 139 calories in a can of coke and 35g of sugar. I know 'pub coke' is different, however I still think I'd rather not drink a lot of it. Apparently you'd have to do a lot of exercise, just to burn off one can of the stuff.

It was nice sitting in the sun, having a chat - We don't usually do that, we're always doing one thing or another and to actually 'chill' and enjoy each others company was nice

Dinner tonight was a nice piece of cod with some lemon and pepper butter, with the organic carrots and spinach I had got from the Riverford Veg box, topped off with some thinly sliced potatoes which we boiled for 5 minutes, then put in the oven and roasted for 15 minutes with some groundnut oil and a little bit of salt - It was really nice.

We watched 'The Fast and the Furious 7', which I have to say, was pretty watchable if not ever so slightly unbelievable (they might be good, but driving a car across 3 buildings in Dubai? Hrm.... ) I thought they did a rather classy tribute at the end of the film to Paul Walker who sadly lost his life in a car crash. 

I'm now sat at home, watching 'The Woman in Black' on TV. I've got it on DVD as it's a Horror Movie and I'm rather partial to them, however it's on TV, it's not a bad movie and I'm happy to watch it whilst browsing eBay for more antiques :-)

Vietnamese River Cobbler

The word 'Cobbler' shouldn't make me snigger like a child, but it does.....

Considering I was back at work today after 4 days off, it hasn't been too bad. I even got an email from my boss with a smiley face in it! 

I had to drop my car off this morning at the garage as on Friday night (just as the Bank Holiday kicked in) it looked like it was growing a tail - Yup, that's my car and yup.. there's stuff coming out the back of the exhaust, which, after a quick Google, looked like it was 'exhaust padding'. I got rather upset (I love my car) and phoned the garage who booked it in for Wednesday after ordering the necessary parts. This meant getting up extra early and making sure that I brought all my breakfast and lunch with me (I usually eat breakfast at work, anyway). 

In regards to my healthy eating, it's been pretty darn good - I started off with my instant porridge with blueberries and strawberries (I know it's not as good as home made, but unless I can do home made porridge in 2 minutes, I'm not going to change - I need things that can work around my lifestyle!) and as I had yesterday off work, I'd planned what I was going to eat for lunch, which was peppers, cucumber, tomatoes, hummus and pitta bread and hey presto.. I actually stuck to it!

When lunch time came, my lovely work colleague suggested we walk into town - despite having my lunch with me, I said yes - It got me out of the office which is so good for my happiness, I got some fresh air and I got some EXERCISE :-) It was only 20 minutes of walking, but it always feels good to eat lunch after going for a bit of a walk and it's something I can certainly keep up - even when my work colleague isn't around, I sometimes go into town for a random reason 'Buy a birthday card for a friend' or 'Pick up some more milk', just so I can get out the office. 

The rest of the day went well - After work I saw my work colleague's friend who is a qualified beauty therapist and had a facial and had my eyebrows waxed. I am feeling really good about myself at the moment and just chilling for an hour, talking to her was great. Quite honestly, I have so much respect for anyone who waxes anything as my eyebrows hurt enough, I don't think I'd go any further than that!

I was starving when I got home this evening - It felt like the drive home was taking longer than usual and all the traffic lights were turning red out of spite. I always find that my motivation decreases when I'm really hungry, so I was mindful that I was really hungry and cooked as soon as I got in, rather than turn to something 'quick' to shove in my mouth, like biscuits... chocolate... etc.

I like fish, cod is my favourite - Sadly Sainsburys didn't have any, so I thought I'd try this, instead. Behold! The Vietnamese River Cobbler in all it's glory! I believe this has been introduced to try and encourage people to eat different types of fish and not just shove cod in their gobs? The name made me laugh, so I thought I'd try it - I was particularly taken with the low fat and low calories in it... as well as the rather cheap price!

It only took 15 minutes to steam in the oven in foil and I am now sat on my sofa, stuffed full of fish and steamed vegetables feeling both virtuous and awesome. Cobbler (*snigger*) is lovely - it tasted like a less strong kipper but still quite meaty and tasty. I'd certainly try it again. I think I'd probably serve it with sweet potato as well as veg, or some different vegetables as whilst my dinner was nice, it was slightly boring and I think I'd get a bit bored if I ate it more than a few times - Hrm... baby roasted potatoes with rosemary.... There's a thought!

Tomorrow night, I won't be getting home until about 9:30-10:00pm so it's really important I know what I'm going to be eating for dinner, so I'm not tempted to eat the Pizza / chicken wings that my friend (who does my eyelashes) offers me. I'm going to take an additional pita bread and investigate the new range of food that M&S is now doing..... 

A healthy choice in Greek restaurants?

Help! Once again I'm out with people in a restaurant I've not planned! 

Despite the incredibly wet weather in London yesterday, it didn't stop the enjoyment of seeing and spending time with my two youngest sisters. We met after work and headed back to my sisters flat in North London - after the delicious sushi I had at lunch time, I was actually quite happy to eat more Japanese food, however my sister suggested we try a Greek restaurant which is close to where she lives called 'Otto'.

As the world doesn't revolve around me and because I'm pretty happy shoving most food in my mouth, I said that's fine, however did say 'As long as there's a healthy option on the menu'. 

The menu was amazing and instantly we got a massive basket of bread and hummus - it looked amazing, however considering 100g of hummus apparently contains on average, between 300-350 calories, I knew that if I ate lots of it, it would probably contribute to my butt staying the same size for a bit longer. The square of bread I had was amazing, the hummus was delicious, but I stopped there - I tried it, but didn't want to spoil my meal or eat for the sake of it.

I also skipped the starter - they looked amazing and I'm not going to lie, it was really, really hard seeing both my sisters eating lovely feta cheese parcels and crispy calamari, however again, I didn't want to eat more than I needed and also wanted to make a healthy choice.

One thing I didn't realise - Greek food tends to have quite a big fish section in the menu, at least this place certainly did - Sea bass, salmon, all kinds of interesting and tasty sounding dishes. I chose a 'spicy fish stew' which came with vegetables and rice.

It was delicious - and very filling and I didn't feel guilty or 'bad' about eating it. I can't say I had any idea of the calories, however as the sauce wasn't cream based but tomato based, I don't think it was as high as it could have been and it was delicious, containing mussels, salmon, sea bass, prawns -  Lots of protein and healthy fats :-)

I can't say I go to a lot of Greek restaurants so, unlike Japanese or British restaurants, I'm not as good as choosing the really healthy options, however I need to take a pragmatic approach and remember: This isn't a diet, it's a lifestyle, a healthy lifestyle and one I want to enjoy and just make sensible choices.

After a lovely evening and night with my sister, I headed back from London this morning - I've never seen the tube so quiet! Got back in the office about 8:45 and am now just looking forward to going home and seeing what amazing vegetables have been delivered to me in my organic vegetable delivery - It's almost like getting a present each week!

TFI Friday! :-)