This blog is an exploration of my personal journey to prioritise my health through changing lifestyle factors such as food and exercise. It's mostly food talk here as I work on developing a new relationship with Low Glycemic Index carbohydrates. I've started developing my own recipes for Low G.I. meals and am really excited to be sharing them here - however, I am not a nutritionist nor a dietician so please refer to those professionals to develop your own personalised eating plans.
I have recently been planning my dinner meals for the weeks ahead before time, and while that is already helping with budgeting and time management, it can turn out to be a bit of a nuisance when I've planned to make a roasted parsnip and garlic soup and the weather has warmed up to a spring-like 19C. I did not want the oven on for 40 minutes, followed by a pot on the stove for a further 30 mins, so I determined a little flexibility was in order, and made a salad.
Creating
When I worked in hospitality I learned that making 'do' with what produce you have access to is the only way to get something into the cafe cold-display, and if you have a limited amount of things in your weekly order you really have to get creative with your mixing and matching. Give me access to a few leaves, some fruit and veg, and some creative freedom, and I can invent a salad within a few minutes. It's funny, because as a kid I did not like salad at all, and had no idea of what kind of variety and pairings that could turn a nominal side into a stellar main. No more soggy iceberg lettuce and cucumber swimming in gloopy mayo (I am still not a fan of cucumber). Working in a small cafe with limited produce really honed my creativity when it came to putting a salad option together.
Dressings
I've also learned that a nice salad dressing does not come from the supermarket in a bottle. There's nothing wrong with that, but when it is so simple to mix vinegar and oil I just can't fathom the need for store-bought mass produced dressing. And if you're anything like my family was, the dressing might get used a couple of times and then it's doomed to a life of lurking in the bottom of the fridge, awaiting the next blue moon when you have the fixings for a salad. One of my favourite dressings is a mix of apple cider vinegar, olive oil, cracked salt and pepper. Another fave is a crushed clove of garlic, olive oil, salt and vinegar. I've also become a BIG fan of sherry vinegar, or Vinagre de Jerez, a beautiful Spanish red vinegar that has such a light quality. Red wine vinegar and white wine vinegar also get a mention here, I like to use red wine vinegar with tomato salads and white wine vinegar is great on a white bean salad. I've even used sushi vinegar as a salad dressing ingredient in the past.
Ready-to-hand
Today's salad turned out to be inspired from my "apple and onion salad" of last week. It follows, since I still had half of the small red onion in the fridge, and one lonesome granny smith in the crisper draw. I also had a small amount of baby spinach and some baby rocket from the weekend. I pulled out a jar of roast capsicum and a jar of anchovy stuffed olives from the fridge, but didn't end up using them. I mention this to highlight that I did not have a solid plan of what was going to end up on the plate in the end.
I knew I wanted to use the apple and the onion. We have some lemons from Mr. Oso's mum's tree and I used them as an acid to keep the apples from turning brown and soft. I squeezed the juice of three lemons into a bowl, added some water, and quartered the apple, cored it and thinly sliced it into crescents. Once sliced it went into the lemon juice mix.
I decided then to nix the roast capsicum and olives, as the vinegary/oily/salty tastes weren't what I wanted. So I grabbed a carrot from the fridge, peeled it and shredded it as if for slaw. I poured the lemon juice mix from the apples over them for a few seconds, strained them and then added a sprinkle of salt. Then I took the half onion and sliced it very finely with a mandoline and was ready to build.
The Build
I like to build salad onto the serving plates, rather than placing into a bowl. Firstly, it saves me washing up, and secondly, things don't end up swimming in dressing. I like crispness in a salad. If a salad is a side, it's not going to soggy up the accompaniment, and if it's a main, you're not going to have a plate with a puddle at the end of dinner.
Basically, you want to layer everything. I started with the spinach and rocket and then made a 'clock' with apple crescents, then a pile of the grated carrot in the centre, then scattered thin onion rings across. I then placed another layer of rocket over that, in the centre, with some more carrot sitting at the 'peak' of the salad, and more onion rings. Then I took the remaining apple slices and placed them facing the opposite way in a smaller 'clock'. At this stage I thought I needed something else, and was tempted to use pine nuts, but then remembered I had a packet of dried cranberries we add to our home-made muesli. I have seen combinations for apple and carrot and cranberries before, so I knew they would compliment. I scattered a few in the centre, and then around the edges, then seasoned the salad with rock salt and freshly cracked pepper, and splashed a bit of olive oil across the whole thing. I didn't think I needed to add an acid as the apple had soaked in lemon juice, as did the carrot.
The Result
A really filling main meal, delivering lots of vitamins and fibre with no meat or cheese.
Last week I had some pork cubes in the freezer that I needed to use, so I looked in my magazines for an idea and came across a pork chop recipe that looked adaptable.
It calls for the pork to be marinated in a mix of orange marmalade and mustard for 4 hours, or overnight. I decided to have a go, and while everything turned out well and Mr. Oso really enjoyed it, I found myself not liking it all that much. I think the next time I do something like this I'll stick to a more Chinese-styled plum sauce with soy and crushed garlic marinade, or with an apple cider brine.
Anyhow, the pork was very lean, and a great source of protein, even though it had the added sugar of the marmalade. Speaking of which, the recipe called for the use of a whole small jar, and I halved that amount and just added water to make the marinade cover the meat. It's always a good thing to look at something and say "I don't need to use that amount, I can cut it and substitute and end up with less sugar/salt in my meal".
Because I'm working with an electric stove top and oven it is hard to get a nice grilled result, but I managed to make a decent product all the same. I browned the skewers in a cast iron pot with some very hot rice-bran oil and then placed them in a ceramic oven dish and into the hot oven. After about 20 mins in the oven I took out the ceramic dish, drained the meat juices from the bottom and turned the oven to the 'Grill' function. I then laid the skewers across the top of the baking dish so that they were sitting rotisserie style and grilled them from above, turning over a few times.
With the marinade and meat juices from baking I de-glazed the cast iron pot and made a thick sauce to go with the skewers. I strained it to get rid of the rind from the marmalade and the mustard seeds and served it spooned over the vegetables and pork.
For a side I grabbed what vegetables were in the fridge, which turned out to be sweet potato, brussels sprouts and French beans. Since the oven was on anyway I roasted them in a splash of olive oil and salt. The brussels sprouts were my favourite thing out of this meal. The green beans were really lovely roasted also.
For the past six months or so I've been hearing about Melbourne's new love affair with American-style Southern Fried Chicken. I've read reviews for many places in the cooler, more hip suburbs of Brunswick and Fitzroy. I'd love to go and try it, but to be honest I'm not one to go out to eat very often. I think it comes from the way I was raised and the years I spent working in the hospitality industry. I know that hard work goes into the meal you've made for me, Food Establishment, but I like doing that hard work myself, and testing my skills and abilities when it comes to cooking and creating. As kids we weren't taken to restaurants because my mum was convinced that for the amount of a single steak dinner she could make a hearty beef stew that would feed six people, and you know what? She has a point. If you're budgeting in any way it is cheaper to prepare your own food. It's just a good thing for myself and my partner that I happen to really enjoy cooking.
But the one reason why I haven't attempted this recipe before now is because it's fried. I just can't square with the idea of frying at this point in time, and I think it's because I know how easy fried food is to make, and how delicious it can be. So I try to steer away from food in hot oil, apart from roasting veggies as a side to a meal. What changed my mind about trying this buttermilk recipe is the understanding that I can just bake the chicken in a hot oven and get a similar result with less oil.
For this attempt I'm using chicken 'ribs', which are a cut of chicken taken from the scapula. I discovered these little delicious nibbles after eating out at a Vietnamese restaurant and asking about them. I like chicken cooked on the bone, there is just so much more flavour present, and while the meat on 'ribs' is white meat, it doesn't have a chance to dry out like breast does. I also prefer using this cut over using wings, as there is more meat on the 'ribs'.
As I've said before, I rarely follow a recipe to the letter, as I find it more freeing to get the basic idea of the method and basic flavour profiles and then tweak them to my own tastes and pantry stock. So I've made a few changes.
I soaked 14 ribs in 220 ml of Buttermilk for about 3 hours in the fridge, turning once.
For the crumb mix I used standard bread crumbs mixed with paprika, peri peri salt, ground white pepper, ground corriander, cround cumin, fenugreek and nigella seeds.
After crumbing I placed the ribs in a roasting pan on the removable roasting rack, as pictured
and after baking for 25 - 30 minutes, dinner was ready!
I really liked the flavours of fenugreek and nigella seed, and the little black spots make for an attractive crumb.
We had these little ribs with a potato mash and peas.
Recipe
Ingredients
14 chicken ribs, skin off
breadcrumbs
spices
Method
Preheat oven to 220c. Take the chicken ribs out of the buttermilk one at a time and let excess drip off. Place rib in crumb and spice mix and coat well. Place coated chicken ribs in an oven tray with a roasting rack big enough to accommodate them all. Bake in hot oven for 10-12 mins, turning once, and bake a further 15 mins until cooked.
Notes:
Next time I will not be making so many ribs. I used a packet from the freezer which was far too large, but needed to be cooked after defrosting in the fridge overnight. Next time I buy a bunch of chicken ribs I'll have to portion out before I freeze. I think this will help in the baking too, as the fit in the roasting tray was a little squeezed. More circulation of hot air means a crispier coating, so I will be re-visiting this meal again to experiment. I also think next time I might blot off all the excess buttermilk and use an egg wash before coating with the crumbing mix. Well, what is all this about if not for learning? I think I ought to use a different pan, as the roaster I used has quite deep sides and that could have impeded that air flow I needed for crisper chicken.
As I very rarely follow a recipe exactly, I tweaked as much as I wished too. My version is as follows:
Recipe
Spinach, Ricotta and Egg Pies
Ingredients
Filling:
1 packet of frozen spinach, defrosted in fridge overnight
150 grams ricotta cheese
30 grams grated Pecorino Romano cheese
1 garlic clove, grated
1 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
Pastry:
1 1/2 cups Wholemeal flour
1 x 7g sachet dried yeast
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup of water
Method
Pre-heat oven to 220C.
Squeeze out excess liquid from defrosted spinach and place into a bowl. Add the ricotta cheese, pecorino, grated garlic, peppers and salt and mix well.
In a separate bowl place wholemeal flour, yeast, sugar, and salt. Make a well in centre and add the water. Mix with a blunt butter knife until a soft dough forms and halve the dough. On a floured board roll out one half of the dough into an oval shape about 25cm long.
Place spinach in centre of dough and fold up the sides, squeezing the dough to make it secure. Once sides are folded up, place on a greased oven tray. Make a well in the middle of the spinach dip and crack an egg into it. Bake until pastry is cooked and egg is baked, around 20 - 25 minutes.
Apple and Onion Salad
Ingredients
1 granny smith apple
2 lemons
1 small red onion
baby spinach
splash of olive oil
Method
Squeeze lemon juice into a small bowl, add some water. Take the apple and core it, then slice it in thin wedges, placing the wedges into the lemon-water mix. Make sure each wedge is covered, you can add more water if needed.
Thinly slice the red onion with a mandolin slicer on its thinnest setting.
Place baby spinach, onion and apple on serving plates in alternate layers. drizzle a little bit of olive oil over the salad.
Notes
A small rant:
The trouble with some recipe magazines is that they neglect to list any quantities of water needed in the initial ingredient list, and only list it in the method. I've found this annoying for years. There are places in the world where you can't just turn the tap on and use the water from it without distilling it first, and though I don't live in that situation I think it's stupid not to list water in the initial list. It can also help people make mistakes. Like me, tonight. Even though I mentally halved the amounts I needed of everything, when the recipe stated "add 1 cup of water to flour mix" that is exactly what I did. I didn't realise my mistake until the filling was sitting on the pastry, and by then I was over it and zero f--ks were given, and as it turned out, the pastry was pretty good with the extra water. I guess this might be because I used all wholemeal flour and not a mix of wholemeal and white. Wholemeal flour tends to be a thirsty flour.
Size:
These pies turned out HUGE. I think I could easily half the recipe again and it would be enough food. In that case, it would be an idea to get some quail eggs for smaller pies, or just add the egg beaten into the spinach mix. Carlos and I ended up halving one pie between us and keeping the other for lunches. This pie will definitely be made again, I've already received the request from Mr. Oso.
While working with my psychiatrist I was lamenting the sad truth that I never had any kind of responsible food education as a small child. This isn't a rare thing, but I felt (and feel) cheated in a way. I read a lot. I don't have children, but I'm aware of the shift in focus when it comes to nutrition and today's little people. It makes me envious and frustrated at times, because of my personal disastrous relationship to food and nutrition, I feel as if I was cheated out of a good start by my care-givers, namely, my mother and older siblings.
My mother tried her best, but when you're a single parent trying to keep five children fed, clothed, and in school there's not a lot of energy left over at the end of the day. Not to mention money. Add to that a fussy-eater (me) and soon enough that fussy-eater is going to be given the small variety of food that they will accept. So I ate badly, as lots of fussy-eater children end up doing. I think there are a number of key factors involved, and I want to break them down in a logical manner so I can objectively assess the situation.
Lack of Supervision
I think in a larger family unit, with two parents, or even with hands-on grand-parents, it would have been easier for my mum not to give in to the demands of a fussy-eater. The percentage of supervision while eating would be higher than in a single-parent home, and there could have been somebody saying "You're not leaving the table until you've had one more piece of broccoli". Usually when my mum gave me and my younger brother our dinner she was finishing the preparation for her and the older children's dinners, and myself and my brother were unsupervised as we ate. There are a number of consequences to this, including bolting down our food - children want to eat quickly so they can get back to the games they were playing or the television show they were watching. Another reason could be that we were in competition with each other. In either case, we did not have a present parent watching over us and giving us guidelines on how to behave at the table.
Financial Stress
Living on a tight budget is hard enough without your children turning their nose up at the food you put in front of them. What happens to the food they refuse to eat? If it can't be used as a left-over, or is perishable, then it gets thrown out. After the umpteenth time of the above scenario, how long do you think it will take for that parent to become dispirited enough to give the fussy-eater party pies and 2 minute noodles?
I remember when I was in primary school my mum would pick us up after school and we'd drive to the shops. She would have gone through all the catalogues and budgeted what she could afford to buy. We'd stop off at Coles and get a number of items. Then we'd drive to Tuckerbag and buy a few things there. Then we'd drive to Franklins and buy what we needed on special there. By the time the weeks shopping was done, we would have visited 3 or 4 different supermarkets. Why? Because my mum had to. She couldn't afford to buy our necessities at the one store if they were not on special that week. So she'd hunt for specials on toilet paper and pasta and frozen pies with an eye on her dwindling budget, and squeeze the last dollar till she could cover all our needs. And then she'd have to do it the next week, and the next, and the next.
I can't even begin to imagine the kind of stress that puts on a parent, the weight of having to provide for the children, with minimal funds. So it's no real wonder that me-the-fussy-eater ate the kind of high-salt, low-nutrition food I did. Because I wouldn't eat other stuff, and hot chips were cheap and easy to make.
I think the above might paint the picture that my mum bought jars of pasta sauce and frozen pizza and chicken tonight and that's all, but it's not the case. My mother hates food out of jars, and would always make her own pasta sauces with heaps of celery and carrots and onion. She would buy things like pork chops and vegetables and her and my older siblings would eat that. My mum grew up in post-WWII England and knew how to cook and budget and scrape the last penny of its value, and she knew the importance of vegetables in a growing kid's diet. But what do you do if that kid refuses to eat, and you're worn out with the business of subsisting that you don't have any energy left to combat the will of a sullen five year old?
Power Politics
I was the second youngest child in our family, and the youngest girl. I liked attention and I loved being fussed over. In recent years I've tried to think about the reasons why I was such a terribly fussy eater. My Partner has three young nephews, all brothers. The second youngest is a fussy eater also. The eldest is the pride of the family, and the youngest is the eternal baby, but the middle son is treated as an afterthought sometimes, and not with the same tone of voice that either the eldest or youngest are given. Often times the tone is more harsh and demanding. That sort of imbalance in his power-dynamics manifests in different ways, and I think his fussy-eating is a part of that.
I've been told that as a baby and a toddler I'd eat pretty much anything that was put in front of me. My older brother Andrew was living with us at this time, and I've been told that I would spend long hours with him watching the cricket and eating whatever he was eating. I don't recall the age I was when he moved out, but I can remember myself, my younger brother and my two next-oldest siblings moving across the other side of the city. I think it might have been at this time when I started refusing food. I remember being not very sure about my place in my mum's life after she got a long-term boyfriend. I also remember being resentful over small things that don't even matter, but were sources of hurt to a young girl.
How much of my fussy-eating was a power-play to gain attention from my mum? I don't know, but I can suspect it had a role to play. I was thinking the other week about all of this, and how, as children, we are not that good at connecting to our emotional motivations. I started to wonder how many times I would say to my mum "I'm Hungry" when I wasn't actually hungry, but in need of attention. When little toddlers say they're hungry, they often get attention alongside their meal. A meal for babies who are breast-fed means secure arms wrapped around you while you feed. Is it any real wonder why food holds such a deep emotional draw for people, when the act of feeding is tied in with acts of affection and care-giving?
Do-It-Yourself
Of course, when I was older, around 10 years old, whining "I'm Hungry" at my mother did not generate the same response as when I was 2. Around this age I was shown how to make 2 minute noodles for myself, and french toast, and canned soup on the stove, and jaffles filled with cheese or baked beans. When you're 10 and put in charge of your own after-school snacks things can get nutritional-poor pretty quickly. I was also in charge of my own breakfast, and soon enough one weetabix turned into two, with milk and large spoons of sugar over the top. My older brother Dom was around 15 at this time and he would eat a lot. He'd get a large bowl and crush up 6 weetabix, add milk and fruit. I started to copy him. Why? I don't know. Because he was my hero, perhaps, or because I was greedy. I honestly couldn't say. This doubling-up also happened with 2 minute noodles. At first I'd make them with one packet, and then with two. If I made Jaffles, I'd make as many as the capacity allowed, which was four toasted sandwiches, with plastic singles cheese inside, or if I was making spaghetti or baked bean jaffles, I'd use up the whole can and stuff it into the bread. Think about that. A whole can of baked beans and eight slices of bread. For a twelve year old. It was pretty easy for me to increase the amount of food I ate when I was in charge of doing it myself. Sure, at this age I was growing, but I was learning self-taught behaviour patterns that lead to binging behaviours. When I couldn't binge I would get upset inside. For an example, if we could afford a treat, we would sometimes get McDonald's as a family. I was allowed 6 nuggets and small chips. I couldn't demand more because I couldn't pay for more, but I do recall thinking about the freedom of adulthood, and promising myself that when I was older and in charge I would get as many nuggets as I wanted and maybe even large fries. Unfortunately this promise has been kept, and even though I despise the food sold at McDonald's, in times of stress and depression I can (and have) ordered two burgers and two large fries and eaten them all in one sitting.
The Eighties
I was born in 1980, so I lived through a couple of decades where nutritional knowledge was pretty much under the radar. The great excesses of the 80's were marketed and purchased by most families living through that time. Popular snacks for children included muli-coloured popcorn, cans of soft drink, party pies, chips of all kinds, baked sara-lee snacks, snow-cones, street's Vienetta (Oh, you were a posh family if you had a vienetta). This is the age of microwave snacks, pot noodle, cup-a-soup and frozen dinners, Pizza pockets, pop-tarts, microwave popcorn and a fizzing river of Coke that never ended. In all reality it was a shit time for food, and a shit time to try and convince children that the adverts on the telly we're all lies aimed to saturate their desire-centres for instant gratification in the form of salty, processed convenience foods. The adverts encultured the gluttony-fest and convinced you that you should want to eat more than you could:
Because One Slice Is Never Enough
As my psychiatrist put it, there was a definite lack of community-knowledge-base about food in the eighties and nineties. Today we understand that drinking soft drink every day of your life will lead to type-2 diabetes. Today we understand that cookies are a "sometimes food". Today we understand what roles protein and carbs should play, and plan meals accordingly. The knowledge we have of food today is such that it is possible to re-educate ourselves as adults in order to live a healthier life. But it's hard. Those habits and tastes developed in a cultural storm that provided messages of worth and ideas of 'deserving'. It's a challenge to re-train the inner self away from the compulsions of the child, and towards those of an educated adult. I admit feeling defeated, and scared, and angry at the circumstances that surrounded the formation of my food-habits, but I understand something about myself that makes me very proud - I can learn. I can put that learning into action. I can determine how I live from this point on. And for that, I'm pretty thankful.
Tonight I got home late after meeting with a friend for a 3 hour chat-sesh and needed to spend very little time on dinner. I had planned on using fish, so that was de-frosting in the fridge. I grew up in a non seafood household, which means I like to do as little preparation as possible; a frozen fillet of boneless white Basa from Aldi is perfect for a fish- squeamish cook like me.
I wanted to cook the fish in an oven bag with some ginger, garlic and soy. I had planned on preparing the vegetables separately, but once I looked at how large the oven bag was, I decided to go the super easy, least work route and chopped up my greens and put them in the bag to cook with the fish.
I chose to use all green vegetables for an iron boost, so broccoli, brussels sprouts and beans went into the bag, topped with the fish fillets (still a little frozen) and the grated ginger, garlic and a table spoon of soy sauce with a half teaspoon of fish sauce to plump up the fishiness.
ginger, garlic and soy
Ready for the oven
Recipe
Ingredients
2 white fish fillets (I used frozen Basa from Aldi - sourced in Vietnam from a farm)
2 head of broccoli
10 brussels sprouts, chopped in half
green beans, topped and tailed, about a handful
1 table spoon soy sauce
1.2 teaspoon of fish sauce
1 colve garlic, grated
1 piece of ginger, grated
Method
Preheat oven to 190C. Place everything into the oven bag, layering the vegetables on the bottom, then placing the fish on top, and finally spreading the garlic and ginger over the fish fillets and pouring the soy sauce mixture over the top. Tie bag closed and punch two small holes in it. Bake in oven for 20 minutes, and dinner is ready.
Notes
To Rice, or Not to Rice
In the house I grew up in, this meal would most certainly be served with steamed white rice. Up until a few weeks ago I wouldn't have hesitated to cook some basmati to have along side it, but it would have been a much larger amount than is recommended on the Low G.I. eating plan. At this stage I'm trying to get used to the idea of less rice, and making meals with no rice a way of getting familiar with that commitment. I'll re-introduce rice in a few weeks time as I move into more confidence with my power of choices.
Firstly, I offer apologies on behalf of my camera. It is an old first generation digital beast that is on its last legs. Unfortunately I can't afford a new one right this minute, so it is with a make-do mentality that I post pics here.
Tonight I made a fairly quick salad for dinner:
Recipe
Ingredients
baby spinach
1/2 a small salad onion, thinly sliced
capsicum, cut into batons
feta cheese
1 small sweet potato, peeled and cut into rounds/"coins"
10 brussels sprouts
Method
Select some small brussels sprouts and take the tip off, then cut in half. Lay in a steamer and steam until just soft. When cooked, remove from steamer and place in a bowl of iced water, leave for a minute, and then drain. Set aside.
Take some baby spinach and wash in a lettuce spinner, spin until dry. Slice some salad onion and the capsicum into batons and keep to one side.
Take a small sweet potato, or half a large one and peel. Slice into coins of half a centimetre, place into a bowl and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil. Place in a flat-based sandwich press/Panini press and cook until soft and caremelised. If you do not have a flat grill, cook in a medium-hot frying pan for 4 mins, or until soft.
Once the sweet potato is removed from press (or frypan) take the drained brussels sprouts, and using the same bowl you oiled the sweet potato in, coat the sprouts in a little olive oil and grind some rock salt over them, mix them up and then place them face up in the press/frypan. Cook until browned on the underside (around about 2 mins) and then carefully flip them over to brown the other side.
Scatter some spinach on your serving plates and scatter with the cooked sweet potato, brussels sprouts and other ingredients.
Serve with a dressing of your choice, or forgo a dressing as there is a little oil from the potato and sprouts.
Tonight I made a very simple and tart dressing with a little seeded mustard, some apple cider vinegar and a touch of olive oil. Both of us really enjoyed our salad and because it had a medium carb load (via the sweet potato) and a high fibre content (thank you spinach and sprouts) we feel full and content.
My name is Esther. I'm 32 y.o. and live with PolyCystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) and associated Insulin Resistance Syndrome, alongside various related problems such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, Non-Alcoholic Liver Impairment and abdominal fat.
Me and my mum.
I've struggled with my weight since puberty, but I was always a tall girl with a layer of 'puppy fat'. My father is Rotuman, which is a small island in the Pacific, and my mother is from Cumbria in the north of England and is a mix of English, Scots, Welsh and Irish. I mention my genetic heritage because it's possible my particular "storm" of endocrine disorders come from my Polynesian genes. Well, the PCOS as well as my awesome curly hair, so there is a bit of the good, a bit of the bad, so to speak.
Up until the onset of puberty I had no real health issues besides asthma, but once all those hormones were kickstarted into producing it seemed like I just kept collecting problems. Severely irregular periods, weight gain, increase of body hair and the onset of facial hair - for a young girl turning into a young woman these things can really tear down self-confidence. I developed a hate-relationship with my body in which I pretty much ignored its existence. I escaped into books and music, and yes, food.
At that time it was the mid-1990's and I was stuck seeing bulk-billing GP's (General Practitioners) who had little time to devote to anything other than what illness you were presenting right at that moment. One doctor told me I "probably had PCOS" when I was 15 but that there really wasn't anything to be done about it. Thankfully there has been a great amount of research into PCOS by the medical community and now it is understood that there is a WHOLE LOT that can be done about it. But at that time, it sounded like a life-sentence, one that meant I was doomed to a life of struggle against these hormones I couldn't control.
When I was 29 I met a guy. We feel in love, you know, all the usual stuff. It took someone else caring about me for me to start caring about myself. So I started looking at getting my medical stuff in order. A lot of women find out that they have PCOS as a result of trying to have a baby and not being able to. That's not a part of my story. I had decided a long time before I met Carlos that I didn't want children, which doesn't mean I don't like children, or that I don't love the children in my life, it's just that I personally don't want to make that commitment. I mentioned this to Carlos on our first date, and with relief he said that he was also child-free. So we never began trying for babies; it was the other health stuff I wanted to get investigated and fixed. So at age 30 I started looking at finding the right doctors who could help me.
I had an emotionally fraught next year or so trying out different medications and seeing different specialists, and now I'm at a place where my medications are doing their job, and it's time to focus on the things I have control over - namely my lifestyle, with a focus on food and exercise.
It wasn't until I was diagnosed with PCOS and Insulin Resistance that I came to understand the role hormones have to play in my life, and what is needed in order to gain a handle on them, so my life is not ruled by weight that wont shift and cravings that get out of hand.
This blog is an exercise in challenging my relationship with food. I've never had a structured, informed approach to food, and I've relied very heavily on starches and the wrong kind of carbs through my adolescence and earlier adult life. I need to change this, and I feel that it is a good idea to start a chronicle of my journey, so that I have a series of real-time, real-life experiential snap shots of my growth and education, and yes, even my failings.
I will be posting a lot of food-related stuff, including what I cook for dinners most nights. I'll be using photos and adding recipes for Low Glycemic Index (Low GI) meals as this form of eating is what's recommended for PCOS. I believe the food I aim to eat and share here will also be beneficial for someone with diabetes, as a real focus I aim to pursue is to avoid high spikes in insulin production. But do be aware, I am not a dietician, or a nutritionist, nor do I have a medical degree. Everything in these pages is a personal story anchored in my sharing of my experiments with whosoever is interested.
If you are interested in learning more about the Glycemic Index you should search for books and information written by medical professionals with scientifically tested information. I would recommend anything from Jennie Brand-Miller and the University of Sydney's information portal at http://www.glycemicindex.com/
There are a number of different focused GI books such as gluten free, vegetarian, PCOS, Type 2 diabetes, pregnancy, and childhood diabetes. You can find a very extensive list here and I'd advise anyone interested to check with their local library to see if they have the books.
