Ahhh France, beautiful wine, rows and rows of glistening pastry delicacies, baguettes...
Well, not for this mademoiselle!
It's almost a couple of weeks into a re-focused health and nutrition mission, so far so good.
The first week was a strange one, yes I didn't eat the above-mentioned French delacacies, it felt like I didn't indulge in those usual treats but equally - I didn't eat fresh whole ingredients all week either. Lyra and I were road-tripping, staying in different places each night and so I had a good supply of bottled water and 'snacky stuff' in the car which saw us through most of our breakfast and lunches. Truly not the end of the world, but eating cereal bars, nuts and bananas isn't quite what I had in mind. It was also a lot of time in the car and walking, but not much in the way of workouts or exercise, so when the scales indicated I'd only lost a pound or two, that made sense.
It did get me thinking about different cultures and our different approaches to food, nutition and wellbeing though. It seems like a cliché to mention a native French walking down the road baguette under arm, but it really is accurate. Everywhere you go there are people popping to the locl boulangire for their daily bread. You see people walking or cycling with baguette (or 2) in hand or sticking out of a bag. And that's before you get to the croissants, pain-au-chocolats, tartes and fromage...
...But then there's also a stereotype of the glamorous slim French woman, interesting how the two co-exsist when we so often demonise bread and carbs. It might be that the French (also Italians, and probably genereally Europeans) have developed biolgical systems that totlerate wheat and dairy quite well, and historically those things have been sourced in a wholesome organic way. I've heard a few podcasts, for example, based in America who have shared that whilst most American people's bodies don't tolerate dairy very well, they seem to be able to do so better if they ever visit Europe and comsume dairy here. So there are inherent differences in the nutiritional make-up of these foods depending on where they are created, and also inherent differences in our bioligies depending on where we're created. As well as where, I feel like when plays a part too. The nutitional density, and content of the food we consume now is wildly different to how it would have been 100 years ago for example as we have gradually depleted the quiality of the soil, started to use chemicals on our crops, ramp up processing and goodness knows what in animal production...
I mean, a free range chicken from the family farm, and some home-grown tomatoes from granny's alotment 50 years ago is wildly different picture from plastic-wrapped, plumped up chicken breast from Sainsbury's and a punnet of anaemic looking just-about-red tomoates in a plastic box, no? I wonder how further it will progress or if there'll be a U-turn to more organic and healthier food production somewhere along the line...
Also, back to the point - I don't think French people snack. That might be a random notion I've picked up somewhere along the way.
I went to school in France, and I distinctly remember having baguette and Milka cholcoate as an afternoon snack after school (incredible.) But I think it's seen as a very childish thing, adults have a breakfast, long 'proper' lunch and a dinner. Sounds stupid, and I'm sure y'all do this too... but generally, as a culture - perhaps influenced by America, and most certainly initiated and heavily encouraged by the food industry: snacking has become a thing, and the downfall of so many (myslef included!) I think. Even if it's a healthy snack (I love a piece of fruit with PB for example!) those extra little calories here and there as well as the constant input of food with no down-time for your body to rest and reset and let your blood sugar levels return to a low level, does have an accumalative impact.
I have been back in the studio for two days and it felt so great to backk on the reformer and back to that focused, deep, full body movement that we know and love as Pilate, my body really missed it having two weeks off!
I'm off to the gym this morning for a spin class to get the cardio back into my routine too which will be fun, and I've enjoyed being home to cook lots of fresher healthier recipes, like this halloumi salad for example!
leaves
cucumber
radishes
red onion
pomegranate seeds
halloumi
honey
chilli flakes
Well, that's my musings for this week - I'll check back in again soon!
S xx
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