The world has gone mad for green smoothies. Wherever I look I find health food blogs proclaiming the fountain of eternal youth spouts whizzed up celery and spirulina, perhaps with a few chia seeds thrown in for good measure. And there’s always the photo of course: the jar, the rustic background, the recycled straw. Can you hear my scepticism? (Ironic, I know, given the intentions of this blog … ) Continue reading
Mastering self-control is much harder when you’re tired (and hungover to boot). Somehow indulging the body feels very justified, rather like when you’re a little bit ill or sad. And therein lies the fallacy of indulgence. That stodgy breakfast, milky coffee, late afternoon slab of chocolate may gratify your desires but won’t make you feel in better; indeed, it will almost certainly make you feel worse.
Pleasure is your goal, not indulgence. A tired day needs careful management right up to the point at which you can take pleasure in it again (especially in dark and chilly January). This longer term view should provide the discipline to carry you through those bleak hours of fatigue, which can rear up and tempt you throughout a day after a night before. Continue reading
I was at a birthday party a few weeks ago, and, after a couple of civilised hours chatting, sipping wine and swaying elegantly (or so I liked to think) on the dance floor, I found myself alone beside the buffet table. Despite having eaten a balanced evening meal only a few hours before, I was inexplicably and irresistibly drawn, in my two-glasses-of-wine haze, to what seemed to me to be a resplendent cheese board and accompanying tapenade. I started modestly – just two small slithers of cheese, one thin slice of baguette and a spoonful of tapenade. So far so good.
But with no-one there to observe my greed, I soon returned to the table and re-filled my plate more generously. The food was tasty, but far too rich for a midnight snack. It was on my third and greediest trip, as I plugged a large chunk of bread slathered with cheese and tapenade into my mouth without even putting it on my plate that I had a moment of clarity: no longer an interested taste, this had become a fully fledged gorge. I wiped my lips and stopped there. Continue reading
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Of Slender Means 