This is a time of year that a lot of people decide that a new start is needed and this year I am one of them. Like a most I always start with the best of intentions and by February it's all gone to hell, but this year I am resolute in my resolutions and this is a way of underpinning that.
I am currently a beauty/lifestyle blogger over at Too Dull To Blog, but I feel that for me beauty blogging has run it's course and it's time to take my writing experiences, my loves and my interests and move them on a pace. So here we are and Not Just Fuel is a thing.
Not Just Fuel is the much better and more eloquent title for a project that started out life called 'food, it's not just shit you put in your face that you output as shit'. Crass and crude, I know, but I think it's a pretty accurate representation of how a lot of people, including myself view food... let me give you a bit if background.
I grew up in a world where food was seasonal, it came out of the ground, or out of the cow, chicken and such. I knew how it grew, how it smelled when it came out of the ground, how to steal it out of the garden and eat it instantly... I knew a lot of the animals I ate and I was lucky enough to get the experience of being around and on farms a lot, having farmers in my immediate family and having farmer friends too. Then I lost it, and I'm not sure how or when but food became fuel, comfort and it had to be easy, quick and mainly cheap. I would eat anything, if I wanted it then I'd have it. I have never been anything less than a bit on the heavy side and I never really cared enough do do anything about it, I put on and lost weight like a yo yo, never finding a 'diet' that I could actually stick to.
Then I found out I wasn't very well at all and food became a big part of how I manage my illness. For years I had trouble with my digestive system and I was told by the medics to get plenty of fibre, to eat my fruit, my grains and my nuts and seeds. Then in August 2012 I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease and I was told to throw out all of those rules and cut down on fibre, cut out all fruits (and slowly reintroduce them), and eliminate nuts, seeds and anything that I found I 'passed' without processing or that made me not want to leave the bathroom. (I promise I will stop talking about output and get on to input pretty damn soon.) The upshot of this is that I have finally admitted to myself that I need to do something about the food I put in my body... so here we are.
My resolution for this year is to eat, not just better, but best - to fuel my body, my mind and my creativity with food to the best of my ability. I want to eat seasonally and shop locally, to cook with passion, to buy ingredients and not meals (what I mean by that is that I want to buy fish and potatoes, not fish cakes, if you see what I mean) and to feed my family, friends and most importantly myself and my husband, Brian, with love, not just fuel.
So this is my way to document it, to share the wisdom I glean along the way and to write my very own little cookbook food book. Wish me luck and come along for the journey if you fancy it, you never know what we'll learn along the way!
No comments:
Post a Comment