Vive la difference!

Bonjour readers!

First up a massive thank you to Miss Haribo for her excellent blogs last week - I've already had a couple of readers say how much they enjoyed them - I fear I may be out of a job if I let her continue!! I hope as a result you've all signed up for some cookery lessons and circus skills classes!

Miss Haribo always exemplifies herself with her blogging honesty, and so following in her footsteps I must confess that my wonderful holiday last week was spent breaking every single piece of nutritional advice I give (well bar not drinking too much - it only takes one glass of champagne to make me giddy these days!!).

As I've blogged previously, trying to follow a meat, dairy and gluten free diet in France presents a bit of a challenge - one that I've stepped up to in the past by travelling with vast quantities of gluten and dairy free snack, by scrutinising restaurant menus and generally avoiding eating out. However a combination of very little packing space and eating several meals en famille (yes NITC is infact half French) meant that totally avoiding these foods was near-on impossible without excommunication from the family (at one meal every one of the five courses involved either wheat or dairy). As a result I decided to throw caution to the wind and let myself have a full week off - which meant no gym, no yoga, and lots and lots of cheese and croissants!!

Whilst this was all highly enjoyable my 'Kirsty Alley' fear was at the back of my mind - that by letting myself eat with total abandon a switch would flip and I'd never be able to return to healthy eating. Fortunately these fears were unfounded ... by day four I found I'd reached my cheese quota and by day five I'd gone in search of gluten free bread (the larger French supermarkets have fortunately in the last year introduced comprehensive dairy and gluten free sections). I came home craving light low-fat cooking and delighted in my lunch of vegan Nori superfood rolls (courtesy of Pod) and dinner of Vietnamese Prawn and rice noodle salad ... yum!

Infact my week off made me appreciate healthy food even more and made me grateful to live in a city where healthy intolerance friendly food is available for every meal - try finding a takeaway snack that is gluten and dairy free in Paris! So whilst we might moan about the quality of food here, compared to on the continent, it's worth being thankful for the great range of food also available to us.

More on how the French manage to stay so slim on their cheese, chocolate and wine diet (most definitely not a myth) later in the week!

ps Popping candy on your breakfast is not endorsed by nutritional therapists!