Healthy eating

I am not the biggest fan of 'healthy eating' and often take the easy route in the evenings (I'm too busy is the, often legitimate, excuse).  Also, our school staff room is a Mecca of doughnuts, biscuits, chocolates and other calorific nibbles.  So, although school has not singlehandedly slathered my body with the extra fat that cushions it - it has been a contributing factor.  And honestly, if a child has just thrown something across the room or you've broken up a fight there is nothing like an instant sugar hit to calm you down.

But!  Enough!  This must end!  I gave myself 'time trials' a few weeks ago and I cannot get my speed down, my body is presently incapable of going any faster than 13 1/2 minutes per mile.  To improve my speed I need to shed those pounds that are refusing to shift.

Now, those of you who have been with me since the start may be aware I have shifted 12-14lbs just through running three times a week.  For a good month or so my weight has stayed the same and I now need to do more to shift this.  Hence the current ambition to eat more healthily.


Now, I am a wrimo and we start again on November the 1st and on the London forum we were chatting about snacks to eat whilst writing.  One wrimo mentioned something called a graze box and I was intrigued so I clicked on the link (as you can do if you click on the 'graze box' above) and was taken to the Graze website.  Graze post you a healthy and delicious snack box as often as you want (UK only) and the best thing is your first box can be FREE!  Simply use the code H99VZLH3.  You will even get your second half price should you choose to continue grazing.


This is my idea of healthy eating!  My first box arrived today and I was a little dubious (see above comments re: healthy eating).  Inside my lovely box were four sections and an information leaflet which informed me of the calories and nutritional value of each section.  As one section was kalamata olives, a bamboo stick and a paper napkin were also included.  I tucked into the lovely olives immediately (I had already told graze on line that these were a favourite of mine, just as I had 'binned' anything with garlic in so I will never receive what I am allergic to) and then had a look at the other three sections; gojis, jumbo raisins and green raisins; brazils, pecans and almonds; vanilla pumpkin and sunflower seeds.  I have now sampled each section and am converted!  The vanilla and goji section are sweet enough to satisfy my sweet tooth and pecans are a new favourite - why have I never tried them before?  Brazil nuts I have never liked, but there are only a few in there and they are meant to be good for you, so I can suffer them!

One warning - the box contains about 800 calories in total so that still needs to be considered.  However, I'd like to think that my hand dipping into a 800 box of nutritional goodies will be better than dipping into pringles, biscuits or chocolates.  Each box should last a couple of days so as long as you remember these calories I don't see why this can't be a really healthy choice to make.  At least these foods provide nutrition unlike said pringles, biscuits, chocolates.

Benefits of grazing:

• maintains energy all day with slow releasing foods
• maintains blood sugar levels so that sugar gets burnt rather than turned into fat
• Improves level of metabolism
• Can boost immunity
• Nutritional value of healthy snacks significantly better than unhealthy snacks containing 'empty' calories
• A box on hand will stop you reaching for less healthy, nutritious snacks

There are also different types of boxes so after my energy box today I look forward to my wellbeing box Monday and my nibble box Wednesday!

Check out the website and see what you think! 

Doughnuts, biscuits, chocolate...