Can you imagine going to see an all-singing/all-dancin’ show about… meat! Or vegetables or fruit come to that. I thought about this as I watched Channel 4’s The Sound of Musicals last week. They are staging Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London’s West End. From the book – which I think was actually a short story as I do recall reading it in school – to the first film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory starring Gene Wilder to the later 2005 Tim Burton/Johnny Depp film which reverted to the original title of the story, chocolate sells. I imagine this musical will do very well; I was filling up just watching a programme about it being made. When that glass elevator lifts Charlie and Wonka into the star-filled sky to the strains of Pure Imagination I defy anyone to keep their eyes dry! Read More→

Well after my miserable poor poor me post earlier this week seems I have got my diet back on track! I don’t know what happened, I really don’t. But the switch in my head has clicked again and I’m back on Paleo and chocolate is banished from this thread. I mean this house. Not This House the play I loved seeing earlier this year and may have mentioned, no I mean my house, my kitchen, my life. So if chocolate tries to come back into my life then I am going to have to say chocolate – NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well till Christmas at any rate. As any ful well kno, it doesn’t count at Christmas. But was getting bit silly the amount I was imbibing and I use that word deliberately. For chocolate was a bit like imbibing alcohol or a drug for me. I’m not particularly interested in either of those mood-altering substances, save for the occasional glass of wine and the odd sleeping tablet when there’s a full moon no, chocolate is my drug. Or any kind of carb especially when combined with fat – a combination rarely found in nature. I swear the side of my head would glow whenever I ate fat and carbs, my favourite combo being hot chocolate brownie, slavered in cream and ice-cream and washed down with dark strong coffee. Better than any drug, those two combined can keep me high for hours. Read More→

Watched a programme last week about yoyo dieting. Seems some women have lost as much as 20 stone (280lbs/127kilos) in their lives – and put it all back on again with plenty more to spare. Dread to face up to this but I think I’m one of these women. Was looking at an old diary the other day, from 30 years ago. Weight gets mentioned a lot. Yet I was mostly only around ten stone (140lbs/63kilos) at the time. Even so, I was obsessed with my weight. Perhaps if I hadn’t been I’d never have gained weight, lost it again, regained it, lost it and so it yoes so it yoes. Read More→

Okay so it’s not officially Winter yet but, brrrrr…. it’s already pretty cold up here in North Staffordshire. And it’ll get worse. It always does. Increased heating bills and lowering temperatures. Not a happy time. And how on earth can you stick to a Paleo diet in a time of cold? As any fule well kno, you need fuel in Winter. You need food to keep you warm, wrap you up cosy and make you feel safe and secure.

Winter food is baked potatoes with melted butter slivering all over them, hot steaming pies, mugs of hot chocolate and freshly-baked rich fruit cake straight out the oven. The only thing that makes Winter bearable is eating hot carbs. How on earth am I going to resist? Read More→

So on Friday I revealed several of my teeth had come loose. I still have them though so that’s something to be very grateful for. I’m aware of course that it could have been SO much worse! You can survive with fewer teeth. Might not be pleasant but it’s not life threatening and for that I’m truly grateful. You really do have to make the most of what you’ve got and be glad to be alive. Each day is a bonus when you’ve lost people and seen how life can turn on a sixpence (Euro/dime) and change suddenly and horribly.

I am here. I’m not going anywhere and I’m incredibly fortunate in oh so many ways. Doesn’t hurt to remember that once in a while. I guess you could say I am checking my privilege which all privileged bloggers should do. I’m white, I live in the West in a country that still has a national health service, the roads work, water comes out my taps when I turn them on and I can afford to buy the medicine I need which is not free but is cheap and easily available. Read More→

Well what a year it’s been for me, healthwise. First I get a Diabetes scare, then my ex dies, then a couple of friends die and now my teeth are falling out. Boy am I eager to see the back of this year!

Bizarre thing happened to me yesterday. My dentist rings to say they’ve had a cancellation and do I want to bring forward my appointment due at the end of the month. Well as it happens I say, yes, thanks. Been having bit of jip with one of my teeth.

So my psychic dentist as he shall forever now be known asks me to explain the problem. Well you see the thing is, don’t laugh, but it’s, well, it’s like my bottom teeth are being forced up. And they’re very sensitive, though not exactly hurting oh and I had a gum boil the other day but it went so that’s fine, right? He shakes his head and all but sucks his breath in over his teeth the way builders, plumbers and car mechanics do… Read More→

Entirely unrelated to the diet I have sadly had to give up Twitter for a while, possibly forever. It’s sort of relevant because I do post links to my blog there in the vain hope of catching one or two followers. And I like to follow other Paleo fans and dieters but for now, it cannot be. And here’s why.

Twitter now allows – nay encourages – images all over the timeline thus ruining its USP. It’s hoping users will “embrace the change” which now makes Twitter the same as Facebook. But if you already have a Facebook page why bother? Wasn’t that the whole point of Twitter? That it wasn’t Facebook? Read More→