Meghan - Day 2

Today I started by leaning on the food that I prepared on Monday as I had a long and busy day at school. Breakfast was a hard boiled egg, and another purple smoothly on the way out the door. I know I should have enough time to sit and eat but I am not a morning person so I tend to sleep until the last possible minute. So I eat on the run. On Friday I hope to make a slow breakfast and sit and relax while enjoying the morning, fingers crossed. I had made up a salad the day before and had shredded the chicken breast so that along with my grilled zucchini, tomatoes from my patio container garden, cucumber from the Farmer's Market and my roasted squash seeds I would have something to sustain me midday when hunger starts to set it. My goal is never to get to the point when I am so hungry though that I need to eat and as such I have lots of small meals throughout the day normally. I sort of believe in the 6 small meals a day philosophy but that's really hard to do when you have to pack food for 8 hours and haul it around with you all day.

Lunch on the go

Anyway, the salad for lunch along with some cheese and an apple for the mid morning snack had me set, plus I knew we were going to be having a great healthy snack during our seminar presentation in the afternoon so I may be able to get all my small meals in for the day. During our seminar, we offered the class, some colourful local carrots, celery, broccoli, Ambrosia apples (story to come below), some D Dutchman Dairy cheddar cheese from Sicamous which I have found at Jimmy's Fresh Meat Market, Choices and Natures Fare. There was also rice crackers and bean dip which I had to pass on but looked good and appeared to be enjoyed by all. Great work team for putting together such a thorough snack and thinking of everyones dietary needs.

On Tuesday nights I visit my maternal grandparents for dinner before I go to class again, so it was hard to call them up (at 84 & 93 years of age) and say, you must provide me with food within 100 miles but they had heard from the grapevine that I was doing this so we did have local potatoes, turnips and a parsley, mint and green onion salad that was local and the chicken was free range organic but I don't think it was local. But as Juliana pointed out, the original rules for the 100 mile diet as laid out by the book say that if you are invited out, you can eat was is served, so luckily there are only two times this week (which had been set a long time before we decided to do this diet) that I will have to eat what is served.

After class was finished I had a little snack of hazel nuts before bed. I am noticing that when you have to do something with your food source so that you can eat it, that you tend to eat less of that product, which is what I am finding with having to crack the hazel nuts myself. Maybe it's just the time that it takes for each action which gives your body a chance to say "hey, I am satisfied" or not, but it is something to think about, conscious eating which I wonder how many of us actually do. For today, I met the fruit and veggie requirements again, meat and dairy for sure but still no grain. Going to the Farmer's Market in the morning so hopefully I can find something.

So on a side note, I though I would share the story of the Ambrosia apple to you, on the off chance that maybe you have not heard of it or even tried the apple (which I can not recommend highly enough).  Ambrosia is what they call a chance seeding as it's a fluke of nature. This random shoot surfaced in Cawston BC in the orchard of Wilf and Sally Mennell. Year after year, pickers would see this apple as different and eat it for themselves, even though pickers tend to not eat apples often. Noticing its popularity, the Mennell's propagated trees for testing and patented the variety to ensure that it could be developed as a new product. Ambrosia is now grown not only in British Columbia, but in other parts of Canada as well as in the US, Italy, Chile and New Zealand. The Mennell's named the variety Ambrosia, meaning "food of the gods", for its honeyed sweetness and juicy crunch. Ambrosia is bi-coloured with a luminous pink/red blush over a creamy background. It is low in acidity, a honey like aroma, crispy and yet juicy at the same time. It is also a slow browning apple after cutting making it great for lunches, salads and cheese plates. Ambrosia are available now through April and can be bought at many vendors around town. If they do not have it ask the produce manager to bring it in.

Source: Ambrosia Organic Growers (http://www.organicambrosiaapple.ca/)