Last night I ate three chocolate brownies.

Okay, even that’s a lie. I think I actually ate four, but somehow three sounds just a little less disgusting. They were about two inches square, so that’s quite a lot of brownie. Belle made them for me because I was hormonal and tired and they were delicious and chocolatey. I enjoyed eating them, but I also didn’t, because at the same time I was thinking about my thighs, and that took the edge off the fun of it a little bit.

To be honest, it scares me a little bit – my complete lack of self-control when it comes to food. I worry a lot about my complete inability to discipline myself, and what this is going to mean for me and my body over the coming years. That sounds very dramatic I know, but it definitely feels like an addiction. I have never taken drugs, and never been a smoker, because I just know that I wouldn’t be able to give up – I have no will power.

chocolate brownies self control over eating

I tested myself this morning. I had a bag of brazil nuts on my desk, and was eating them without really even thinking about it. I realised that that was probably a bad idea as it said there were 692 calories per 100g and it was a 200g bag, so I took our four and lined them up on my desk. I told myself that I would leave them there, and see how long I could make them last, that I would only eat them when I really wanted one.

Within two minutes I had eaten all four.

That’s not really okay is it?

(At this point I thought about taking four more brazil nuts out of the bag, lining them up on my desk, and taking a picture. I couldn’t take the risk though – no way would those brazil nuts go back in the bag – so instead I had to find a calorie-free stock image.)

brazil nuts self control over eating

I blame mindfulness. I’m so damn busy living in the moment that I find it hard to picture the future or make decisions based on long term consequences. All I can think about is how the brownie will feel in my mouth for those few seconds. And then afterwards of course I feel wracked with guilt and spend the half hour in bed before falling asleep fantasising about liposuction. 

I’ve even gone as far as to say that if I had one wish, I would wish that I could eat and drink whatever I wanted, without it ever having any negative consequences on my health or body. World peace? Pah! An end to child poverty? Nope. Calorie free brownies for me please.

Does anyone else feel like this about food? Does anyone else scare themselves with their complete lack of self-control?

Images – Igors Rusakovs and P-fotography from shutterstock

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We have a long standing Prezzo-related family joke. It’s not funny, I’ll warn you now. It’s so unfunny, that it barely counts as a joke, and I feel bad that I’ve even mentioned it now, when reviewing Prezzo. So bad, that I’m considering making up a funnier joke, just so as not to disappoint you. I can’t think of anything though. So, whenever we talk about Prezzo, we call it ‘Pressos’, in a strong Somerset accent. (We’re from Somerset so it’s okay.)

That is the entire joke.

I’m so sorry I put you through that.

Anyway, Belle and I went along to Pressos in Taunton a couple of weeks ago for dinner, as Prezzo wanted us to sample their new menu and let you know what we thought. (I’m stopping with the joke now, partly out of shame, partly for SEO purposes). Even though we’ve been back in Taunton for a couple of years now, I’ve not eaten in the Taunton Prezzo in all that time, so reviewing Prezzo in Taunton was a treat. (Weirdly, I have eaten in the Bridgwater Prezzo.) I don’t quite know why the Taunton version isn’t on my radar, as it has a very central location and, as I discovered when I went to the toilet, an outdoor seating area that would be lovely in the summer – definitely one to keep in mind for a cheeky summer lunch with a glass of wine.

I’m going to start with the pudding, as who doesn’t look at the puddings first and use that to plan their main course? No? Just me? View Post

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If you don’t have time to read this whole post, please watch the video of Belle making tomato soup right at the end as it’s very sweet!

As you may have read last week, we’re currently taking part in a 21 day healthy eating challenge, supported by The Co-op. Last week we kicked off by looking at a typical day in the life of Belle, and I was slightly ashamed by the prominence of chocolate chip brioche on the menu.

Still, looking on the bright side, it gave us a nice low starting point, so surely it would be easy to make a positive difference?

Well yes actually.

As we’re just about 7 days in at the time of writing, I thought it might be nice to pick out one easy change for each day. The idea with any change is that you don’t need to do something massive to make a difference, and in fact change is often more sustainable if you start small. All of these 7 changes are things that you could do yourself, this week, now even. So what are you waiting for? View Post

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We lived in Taunton first time around about 12 years ago when Belle was a baby. As she got slightly older and less likely to scream the second I broke physical contact with her, going out and about became easier and eating out less of a nightmare. Taunton wasn’t overrun at the time with nice places to eat, but there was one very lovely little restaurant down on East Reach called Tristans.

Tristans was run, funnily enough, by a friendly chap called Tristan, and Tristan made just about the best eggs Benedict in the entire world. Brunch there on a Sunday was bliss, and not just because I could keep Belle quiet for a good twenty minutes by filling her mouth with hot buttered toast.

Tristans Bistro has changed hands a couple of times since then, so being newly back in Taunton Belle and I were very excited to be invited to visit for dinner and to see how it’s doing now. We decided it would be our date night and Belle made the effort to put on a pretty dress and wear a flower in her hair. It was very sweet.

On arrival we were greeted by very friendly and helpful staff and Belle set about assessing the surroundings. She really liked the cosy atmosphere and the cutlery passed her test – no ‘previous food’ to be seen. She even had a feel under the tables for gum and declared everything up to her high standards. View Post

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I am a big fan of breakfast. You know those annoying people who get to something ridiculous like three o’clock in the afternoon and then say ‘Oh silly me, I totally forgot to have anything to eat yet!’?

Well, I am not one of them. In fact, I love breakfast so much that my favourite bit about staying in hotels isn’t the comfy beds or spa facilities, it’s always the all-you-can-eat pastries and adorably tiny mini jars of jam.

Breakfast is important too – it sets you up for the day, gives your body a kick-start and gives you a reason to get out of bed, which is very important when you work at home and have a tendency to prefer to lie under a duvet reading Sherlock Holmes mysteries rather than sit upright in a chair and do something productive. Are you a breakfast person? What’s your favourite breakfasty treat?

This week’s Weight Watchers challenge then, to eat breakfast every day, wasn’t very much of a challenge for me at all. Hoorah!

Weight Watchers #StepIntoSummer challenge

Sticking to a Weight Watchers diet at the same time wasn’t even terribly difficult as there is so much flexibility. No kidding, you can genuinely eat everything in that picture and it counts as ‘diet food.’ I am a particular fan of the ‘healthy and filling’ food list that you use in the first few weeks of the Weight Watchers plan, as you are allowed to eat as much as you like from the list – no restrictions – which means you can have beans, crumpets, bacon, eggs, and all sorts of other yumminess and still have that smug ‘I’m on a healthy eating plan’ glow about you. Toasted crumpets topped with baked beans is one of my favourites, plus a side of scrambled eggs if I’m feeling extra excitable.

This morning though I shunned the crumpet feast in favour of something altogether more exotic – a tropical fruit fool. The recipe is at the end of this post but as you can see it looks amazing and brings a nice summer holiday vibe to your kitchen. I added the lime garnish to half convince myself it was as much fun as a mojito, which to be honest it almost was, expect without the hangover.

Weight Watchers mango fool

Weight Watchers mango fool recipe

Competition time!

If my deliciously tropical breakfast treat has got you fancying your own breakfast feast, then now is your chance to win this fabulous fancy toaster – perfect for toasting your crumpets.

Weight Watchers #stepintosummer competition

The competition is running across all the Weight Watchers social channels, so entering is easy peasy – all you have to do is take a picture of your breakfast and share it on Twitter with the #StepIntoSummer hashtag. You can also share it on Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest, just don’t forget to tag Weight Watchers and mention #StepIntoSummer.

Feeling fruity? Here’s how to make four very generous servings of tropical fruit fool…

Tropical fruit fool recipe

Peel the mangoes and slice the cheeks off. Cut one cheek into small dice and set aside. Put the remaining mango flesh into a liquidiser, and blend to a puree. Transfer to a bowl and stir through the seeds from 2 of the passion fruit. Add lime juice to taste.

Put the yoghurt into another bowl and and beat gently to soften. Gently fold through the passion fruit and mango mixture plus about half of the diced mango, leaving it rippled.

Divide the mixture between 4 glasses, and top with the remaining diced mango. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

To serve, scoop the seeds from the remaining passion fruit and drizzle over the top of the fools then sprinkle over a little lime zest. Serve immediately.

Disclosure: I am being compensated by Weight Watchers as one of their #stepintosummer challenge bloggers but all words and opinions are my own.

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How is your post-Christmas diet shaping up? January is supposed to be a time for fresh starts – healthy eating, wholesome walks in the countryside, that sort of thing. Not so for me. We get given so many food related Christmas gifts that the first half of January at least is awash with sugar in a veritable sea of fudge, fruit liqueurs and violet creams.

Thursday was a particularly shameful day for me as I was entirely alone and so had no one to look at me, eyebrows raised, as I reached for the seventh biscotti.

Here’s roughly what I ate (in chronological order): View Post

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It’s here! My Win Christmas competition is here at last! Crack open the sloe gin and cherry liqueur chocolates and feast your festive eyes on the amazing array of prizes I have lined up for you.

Win Christmas

I really am very excited about this competition as I am a massive fan of Christmas. With a view to spreading the Christmas love I have been very busy over the last month getting dozens of companies on board and gathering prizes in what I now like to call ‘the Christmas room’. (Sorry Bee. It will be all gone by the time you come home for Christmas I promise.) It has been a wonderful way to get into the Christmas spirit without having to actually spend any money. Sure I don’t get to keep any of the prizes, but that’s OK, I’m just thrilled to be able to offer such a fab collection of goodies. View Post

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I made these mincemeat puff pastry swirls last weekend and just had to share them as they are so simple yet so impressive looking. They’re perfect if you’ve got friends coming round and need to whip up a tasty hot treat, so long as you don’t mind a bit of pastry on the carpet.

Puff pastry mincemeat swirls

Firstly, you need a packet of ready rolled puff pastry. Unroll it, but leave it on the baking parchment. Spread it with whatever you fancy – jam, mincemeat, or perhaps even some of my home-made lemon curd? We went for mincemeat as I have been planning my #WinChristmas giveaway this week and it has been making me feel rather festive. View Post

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Weight Watchers has just launched its new season diet campaign, Together is Better. The idea behind that campaign is that losing weight is easier if you have the support of a friend, someone to share the journey with.

I can totally empathise with this logic.

As you’ll have seen if you follow me on any social channels, I have recently taken up running. I’ve been doing it for four whole weeks now and am very pleased with myself. I call it running, but it feels a bit more like ricocheting off the pavement at the moment – sort of stumbling from one foot to the other. However, I can feel I am making progress. When I first started nearly a month ago, running for one minute without feeling like my head was going to explode was difficult – now I can do three minutes non-stop. Baby steps and all that. (Quite literally in this case.)

I have not missed a single session yet and have even gone in the rain. Look impressed. View Post

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Restaurants Blog Hop (1)I’ve never taken part in a blog hop before. I have heard that generally it’s a Good Thing though, so I thought I would give the Social Fabric restaurant blog hop a go…

I love food. If you’ve ever met me in person you can probably tell this by the size of my bottom. I don’t spend loads of money on things like clothes or shoes or holidays but I do like to splash a bit of cash on eating out. This is partly a laziness thing, but also I love the social side of it – it forces you to switch off from work and other worries and instead focus completely on the people you are with. At home, I like to making cooking easy – who doesn’t love a good spicy meal kit?

Moving to Bristol has been an absolute joy for food. Here are a few of my favourite places to go: View Post

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I had some friends to stay this weekend.

“What’s with all the posts you’ve been writing lately?” one asked, referring to the rather extensive range of blogging tips I’ve been sharing lately. “I couldn’t even understand half the words.”

“Ah yes,” I explained, “it’s all to do with this new job with Collective Bias you see, supporting my blogger community and all that.”

I can see though that it would be a bit dull for those of you who aren’t especially interested in wordpress plugins. So how about this – today I weighed myself for the first time in about six months.

Dum dum dum!! View Post

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It was my birthday yesterday, so to kick start my 40 things before 40 list, I did one straight away!

Pretty good going I thought. It will make up for the fact that the other 39 get done in the last six months before my fortieth.

Normally when my mum asks me what I want for my birthday, I am less than helpful. “Just buy me something exquisite and charming,” I say. She tends to look doubtful. This year though I knew exactly what to say. “I’d like to have lunch in a Michelin star restaurant please,” I said. It sounded a tad on the grabby side, but better than asking for a holiday to Iceland I thought. Plus that way we could have lunch together. Quality Mother and Daughter time and all that.

So yesterday lunchtime we set off to Casamia in Westbury-on-Trym. I put on my best shoes specially and even brushed my hair. It was all very fancy. View Post

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