This morning I spoke to an awesome colleague, one who conscientiously guards the expenditure of the organisation even at personal cost. This is gold when you run a not for profit. As we spoke on zoom her laptop was emitting a white-noise esq hum so loud that it was hard to hear her speak, something akin to a plane landing on her desk! Mildly irritated, I challenged her about the process of ordering a new piece of equipment to resolve the issue and this is the point at which her money saving instinct kicked in. You might rightly wish you worked with people like Mrs x. However there is a danger to the thinking. If we hold on for as long as we can to what we’ve got, even for good reason, inevitability dictates that a disaster is unavoidable. No-one enjoys that crushing moment when you lose a piece of work because your laptop dies. 

I’ve always loved food! Understatement! I may put it down to frustration being the mother of invention following my parents over-use of dried mixed herbs and plum tomatoes in cooking, or I may put it down to the passion flowing from the French bistro I worked in during my teenage years in Torbay. Either way I have grown up with a passion to cook great food, to bring people together and share in the table experience. That is my great reason- the problem is that there is also a sinister undertone to my passion. Occasionally appreciation, passion, creativity flair and sociability slipped slyly into comfort eating, self abuse, sabotage and desperation. Some readers will know instantly what I’m talking about, empathising with that snap-shot moment where eating has become shovelling and the shame filled desperation of the inevitable binge hoover. 

In 2016 at the age of 40 I had my first heart attack then four years later I found myself back in hospital for a month with repeated ventricular Tachycardia. That’s all a much longer story than one sentence, but in a nut shell it made me consider my life choices in regards to food. At this point my internal monologue is shouting at me that you might imagine my heart problems to be caused by the presence of multiple slices of pizza, chips and a pulled pork roll in my blood stream, so to quieten the voice I will explain that my plumbing is fine, but the electrics in my heart were the problem. However on return from the second trip to hospital some friend of mine offered to pay for me to visit a nutritionist. Which I did. 

Subsequently I have been on a journey of rediscovering food with a different lens. I have lost over four stone and aided my recovery from illness, but far more importantly I have noticed some tangible improvements in my mental health, outlook and approach, for which I’m really grateful. Whilst there are a whole host of stories to tell and learns that may assist, the point of this piece is to say this: Please don’t wait for your health event to make the switch. I’ve had the benefit of professional help but if you are not in that position you can simply apply the following rules.

1. Three meals no snacks
2. High fiber
3. Low sugar
4. Low fat 
5. Mostly fruit and veg

These things will get to off to an amazing start.

Don’t wait for the mac to crash before you replace the hard-drive.