Cows graze, I graze...

I'm a self confessed grazer. Similar to a cow's eating habit, I spend all day long eating various items of food without much thought as to why I snack as often as I do. Realistically, if I had the means of using an oven or hob at work I would attempt to eat simply a hot meal for lunch with perhaps an item of fruit or two, but without such equipment I am left in the all-too-easy-to-gain-weight trapzone of that which is British packed lunch. 

I find it a daily uphill struggle to think of enough items to put together to constitute a sufficient lunch. Let me rephrase that; it's easy enough to throw any old easy ready made items together - i.e. the really unhealthy stuff - but not so easy to create not only a healthy lunchbox, but a filling one too. Because, let's face it, fruit doesn't keep you full for as long as you'd like it to. That crosses the apple diet off of my list.

I have found a happiness with Belvita's breakfast biscuits, as I find them a good mid-morning snack to see me through until lunch. These and cereal bars have become a staple in my office lunch, because they both contain fibre and release enough energy to curb and keep my hunger pangs at bay. Being the chef that I am though, I decided to attempt to make my own healthy cereal bars tonight. Nothing too fussy or over-adventurous for a first go, just simple, healthy, granola bars. And believe me, they are seriously good stuff. 

If you want to have a go at making them too, here's my recipe:

1 knifeful's scoop of butter (I use margarine - slightly healthier)
1/3 cup/mug of honey
1/2 cup/mug of brown sugar
3-4 cups/mugs of granola
1/2 cup/mug whole grain flour 

It's super easy. 
1. Mix the butter, honey and sugar in a pan and bring to the boil. Make sure you keep mixing it all though so that it doesn't burn. 
2. Then, mix the granola and flour in a separate bowl and pour in the boiled mixture. 
3. Mix it all together and spread the mixture onto a baking sheet flat in a large shape which you can cut into cereal bar shapes later on. 
4. Put it in the fridge to allow it to cool and set in to shape and cut into cereal bar shapes once cool.

Bon appetit everyone :)

The unattainable image of perfection

Remember that time when I blogged about how the internet is destroying our attention spans? Well, I have to admit that as of late due to a hectic temporary work lifestyle, I've been a sucker for 'soft reading' i.e. reading an everlasting supply of popular culture magazines. Look, Grazia, Marie Claire, you name it I'm most probably reading it.

In my house we have three bathrooms and in each and every bathroom there's a stash of my mother's magazines. They have become the toilet-reading-types as far as I'm concerned. I always laugh at my mother's choice in magazines because I can predict, far too accurately, who will be on the cover each week. For the record it's only ever a choice of a Loose Woman, Holly Willoughby or Phillip Schofield. Richard and Judy used to feature a lot in past times, but I guess they just aren't selling as well anymore. So that's the front cover sorted. The insides are predictably familiar each week too... who's wearing what outfit best, the usual cleaning tips, a shocking story and then... well, a topic which seems to saturate not only every magazine my mother buys, but also every magazine I purchase too. Diets.

I'm the girl who has grown up her whole life surrounded by the media. Ever since I can remember I've been surrounded by perfected images of immaculate beauty and a barbie doll body. Unlike most women, I wouldn't say I'm anti this situation, I guess I am just more aware of what I eat and what I do. Thank you, media, for putting that voice in my head which tells me I really shouldn't have one more bite of that chocolate bar.

It's not even the fact that I dislike how magazines always promote exercise and healthy eating, because those two factors inevitably lead to a healthy lifestyle. It's the pictures of airbrushed celebrities that are placed next to these exercises that irritates me. As far as I am concerned, there's a simple reason why people like Kim Kardashian have the body they do; because they have the time and the money to invest in exercise. If I wasn't leaving the house at 8am for work and returning home at 6pm, and I had the means to eating as well as they do as well as having the use of a personal trainer tailoring an exercise regime specifically for me, then I'd quite frankly be shocked if I didn't boast a tiny, taut body.

I'm not even asking for yet more of those annoying be-body-confident campaigns where they use "real" women; because every woman on this earth is real, regardless of if you're a celebrity or not. If anything it makes me distrust those brands just that bit more, because you know they're only doing this to make you like them. It's just that I don't always want to see the "end result" heavily photoshopped image in the magazines because, if you think in the same way that I do, that just seems that bit too unattainable and daunting for someone just starting to change their dietary and exercise ways.