We have arrived and embarked on our first eating out attempt today.
We were doing well thinking we ordered chicken. But when it got to our table, I suspected we had ordered intestines. I’m ok with food, but not offal!
We have arrived
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Tag Archives: food
Diary of the Dietary Challenged
The new eating plan is doing wonders for me physically and mentally.
My skin and circulation has improved, my stomach pain has decreased as has the bloating, I’ve lost 4 kilos (amazing as this wasn’t my aim), my energy levels have definitely increased, my headaches are gone and my cravings have decreased – finally. I know I’ve seen other benefits, but this was not the intention of this post.
I wanted to share with you my experiences of eating out as a person with ‘special needs’, as my partner so kindly puts it (in jest, of course!).
[In case you've missed my story, you can catch up on it here].
Eating out experience 1: A well-known pub in the suburb of Victoria Park. I was treated like I had two heads for asking for the fish dish minus mashed potato and other items I couldn’t eat. I was then passed over to the bar manager, who looked like she really loved her job, where I could state my request again, nicely asked for some salad, or perhaps some extra broccolini instead? I wasn’t sure if she heard me as she didn’t even acknowledge I existed, but she spent a lot of time poking at the screen in front of her…of which I figured was our order (or maybe Facebook?!). When the dish was placed in front of me, it included a sauce of which on the menu had said ‘a light herbed lemon sauce’. I should have questioned it, as it came out as a ‘creamy herbed lemon sauce’. I had to eat it – I was close to collapse.
Eating out experience 2: A food hall after late night shopping directly after work. Do you know how hard it is to find something without dairy? Add to that gluten and wheat, then tomato, garlic and so on. I opted for the teriyaki chicken, but now I think about it the sauce has gluten in it. I hadn’t expected it to come with gelatinous rice though, and a cabbage and tomato salad – neither of which I can eat at the moment. I was so bloody hungry, and went home starving, to gorge on gf corn chips.
Eating out experience 3: An Italian restaurant in the suburb of Fremantle. The odds were against me from the start, but my friends and I had this night planned long before I’d done my allergy test and started my diet. Thankful for the wonders of technology, I consulted the menu on-line before going and found that they served grilled fish with steamed veg (they didn’t serve gluten free pasta at all – I did ask the waitress who looked at me dumb-founded). When the dish was placed in front of me my heart sank. I was so hungry but the fish looked and tasted disgusting. It tasted like nothing – well, maybe water. I suspected it had been quickly defrosted and grilled. Not even a load of salt gave it taste as it was absorbed by the water. And the steamed veg – of which I had high hopes for? Packed veg, boiled and some sad excuse for roasted potatoes I couldn’t eat (do roasted potatoes count as steamed veg?). So I went home hungry again, to gorge on gf corn chips.
Eating out experience 4: Catering during a full day of meetings at work. I had thought about this one in advance and had made sure that my dietary requirements had been sent to the caterer. I don’t know what they didn’t understand about ‘no dairy’, but the creamy sauce smeared all over everything looked like dairy to me.
So I’m sure there are places out there that don’t treat people like they have two heads when they ask for a deviation from the menu item nicely. I can understand if I was a rude, snappy bitch – I’d deserve a mishap with my dish. But seriously. And what’s with the misrepresentation of dishes on menus?
I know what the answer is – to eat at home for the time being, and to be smart…prepare my meals in advance! Oh, and to start liking cooking…that would be a great start!
Do You Like a Challenge?
Do you?
Cause I need some help, and my lovely friend Barbara Klein from Late Bloomers suggested I call on my friends for help – so here I am calling on you to help me!
You see, I’m struggling to come up with new ideas for meals and snacks on my new diet (I detest calling it a diet – so let’s say ‘eating plan’).
I am now on day 12, and need to make a good attempt at sticking with this until my next allergy test on the 5th of January 2012 – when hopefully I can re-introduce something on my ‘can’t eat’ list. I just know that I have rapidly tired of chicken, pumpkin and sweet potato and am desperately in need of some ideas / recipes to help me along my way.
So here is my challenge to you.
Using the information below, please help me by providing me with some tips, advice and/or recipes. You can either leave it as a comment to this post, so that others who go through this in future can refer to the commentary, or email me directly at janine.ripper@gmail.com. And if you are up for even more of a challenge, have a go at providing me with a meal plan for a day or week! I would be oh so grateful!
Thanking you in advance, and thank you to Barbara for caring 
Janine
Janine CAN eat
Protein - Fish, Chicken, eggs (twice a week – 4 days between each)
Fruit - Mango, banana, Nectarine, Peach, Pawpaw, Pear, Plum, Apricot, Figs
Vegetables - Broccoli, Radish, Zucchini, Peas, Corn, Green Beans, Parsnip, Broad beans, Spinach, Leek, Pumpkin, Sweet Potato, Beetroot, Lettuce, Celery, Avocado, Carrot, Asparagus, squash, spring onion, chilli, leafy greens like pak choy, buc choy, etc
All Herbs & spices (except garlic)
Grains - Corn / Maize, buckwheat, millet, Rice, Lupin, arrowroot, amaranth, tapioca
Sweeteners - Maple Syrup, Rice syrup, Stevia
Dairy - Rice milk, non-dairy margarine
Oils - Rice bran oil, extra virgin olive oil (cold pressed)
Other -rice vinegar, rice / corn crumbs in place of bread crumbs, egg replacement (gluten free)
Janine should avoid eating
Rye, barley, oats, chickpea flour, potato flour, sugar, wheat, gluten, dairy, yeast, lentils, MSG, soy, soy sauce, coconut milk, honey, vinegar, garlic, nuts, seeds, shellfish, red meat, caro, cocoa, coffee, tea (caffeinated), potato, capsicum (peppers) onion, tomato, cucumber, apples, alcohol, lupin, jam, melons, grapefruit, lemon, oranges, mandarins, grapes, berries, pineapple, rhubarb, passionfruit, kiwi fruit, dried fruit, mushrooms, eggplant, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, legumes, etc.
Overcoming Hurdles
I’ve been giving this whole healthy living thing a go over the last few weeks – a real good go. And I stuck to my word about doing in gradually…well, I thought I did.
That was until last weekend. I had spent about 2 hours in the kitchen making some vegetarian dishes to accompany the fish for dinner and I was chuffed, but I had been feeling progressively ill throughout the day (I’d felt woozy for most of the day), and once dinner came round I could hardly stomach it. I was gutted.
To be honest with you, I think I’d probably gone overboard with kicking the coffee, dairy, most breads, decreasing my alcohol and meat intake, and increasing the fruit and vege intake (including daily green juices). Obviously all of that healthy living had made me sick…because you know what made me feel instantly better?
Ice cream.
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
As a kid I loved Cyndi Lauper…’Girls Just Wanna Have Fun‘, ‘She Bops’, and the classic ‘Time After Time‘.
I woke up yesterday, after having a weird sleep. I’d been stressing over work in my sleep, had woken to stressing over work, and had fallen back to sleep to only have nightmares about…you guessed it! Work. Anyhow, I woke up in a state of weirdness, and grabbed for the dog for my morning cuddle. I then stumbled out into the lounge room to find Denis with his headphones on, playing soccer on the x-box, and a clock displaying 11.30am. Sheesh! I must have needed a lie in! And do you know what was really weird? Denis had let me have a lie-in! Bless his cotton socks
Anyway, after the trauma of the night and morning I had experienced, I decided to throw routine to the wind…Well, actually – I had already told Denis before I’d trundled off to bed the night before that I just wanted to have some fun. So – that is what we set out to do on Saturday. Forget the house cleaning. Forget the grocery shopping. Forget normality…we set out to have some fun (and since I obviously needed some therapy, the ocean was the direction we headed in).
My driver - thy name is Denis
My ‘driver’ – as he calls himself (he has watched too much of Jason Statham in ‘The Transporter‘) – hit the coast road…one of the many in Western Australia…and it was just what the doctor ordered.
After a minor hiccup, which saw my right leg forgetting how to walk in the middle of a car park, resulting in a twisted ankle, grazed knee and cut hand – and possibly lost humility – we found a place to settle down in the sun (The Monk, Fremantle), to wine and dine (the fall was BEFORE the wine).
Janine plus Vitamin D and a glass of wine
It was a lovely afternoon out. We took the SLR camera and had a play around. We had some lovely food and beverages in one of my favourite towns in the world – Fremantle. We explored the markets and picked up some incense from one of my favourite shops in the world – The Blue Buddha (as well as freaking out as I was drawn to a stone called Kyanite which – as the story goes – ends up being JUST WHAT I NEED now!).
I'm feeling happy
And we ended the day at the South Mole, Fremantle, walking, exploring, laughing (with Denis teasing me about spraining my ankle again on everything, including the rocks I was insisting on crawling over), and taking pics. Oh, and Denis picked up some fresh prawns and cooked him dinner. Bless him again.
Monday Photo-day: Food Around the World
Gallery
This gallery contains 4 photos.
Apart from the amazing landmarks, architecture, art, scenery and people, there is always one thing that is memorable when travelling – whether it be for good, bad or ugly reasons…and that is food! Here’s some of my most memorable meals … Continue reading
That terrifying feeling of contentment!
Image by ulterior epicure via Flickr
I realised something on the weekend that caught me by surprise. I was dusting, sweeping, cleaning – generally catching up with some cleaning…something I really have neglected lately as I’ve been so incredibly busy…when I experienced a moment of contentment. Oh – I had also raked leaves earlier that day, and the day before my partner and I had gone shopping for a dish washer (our first ever!).
But I digress. My moment of surprise came when, as I was cleaning, I thought to myself ‘I think my party days are over.’ And…I was fine with that thought…Woah.
It’s a huge moment for someone who has been known by many to be a ‘party girl’. From my mid-teenage years, I loved a drink, I loved to dance, and I loved to have a good time. That continued on and off (more often on than off) into my early 30′s. The last few years I’ve struggled with the whole buying a house and settling down thing, and have had a few moments of letting loose. When anyone mentioned the word ‘contentment’ to me I was one to scoff in their faces. ‘Content – pah!’ But today, at 33 and a half, I suddenly feel content not to hit the town to dance myself silly and write myself off, only to spend four days recovering.
No – over the last few weeks – especially – I have found myself enjoying such pleasures as whiling away hours in Ikea, putting up blinds with my man, airing out the house, and sitting on the back patio drinking a glass of wine whilst my dog plays with her new toy.
I know it’s partly an age thing, and it’s also partly to do with my new mentality. You could say that I’m ‘maturing’ like a fine wine or a good cheese?
Today I CHOOSE to eat
I’ll admit it, I’m in a bit of a funk. There is no reason. Everything is pretty good really. I have a job, a loving partner, a beautiful dog, amazing family and friends and a house. I’ve travelled, been to university, been given great opportunities in life, and I now have enough money to buy myself and people I love nice things. I want no sympathy. I’m just feeling low, and it’s all because I’m feeling fat. I’m find myself sitting here the biggest I’ve ever been and I can’t get used to it (although the blessing in disguise it that I grew boobs – not everyone can do that naturally at the age of 33!).
I’m 33. I was an Australian size 8, and am now a size 12. I am not a little girl anymore. I do realise that my metabolism is slowing down (supposedly what happens as you get older). I’m also not going hard-core at the gym anymore (for I was like a woman possessed – which in itself wasn’t healthy – and my muscles have now been given time to ‘relax’ – eek!)
I am also eating.
‘Eating’ you say. ‘Everyone eats!’ Well, everyone should eat. But from early in life I habitually denied myself food. To put it bluntly, I starved myself.
The earliest memory I have of this is from primary school. I used to throw my school lunches away because I was being teased for being fat. This progressed into my teens, where I was skipping meals to have a flat stomach as it was ‘more attractive’ and I was fat. In my late teens I started working out at the gym and eating properly – but my obsession then gravitated to over-exercising and going out on the town binge-drinking. That stopped when I had to give up the gym and move into a place of my own. That is when full-on depression set in, as did agoraphobia. I hated myself. I didn’t like my body. I didn’t want to eat, and I didn’t want to live. I just wanted to sleep. Of course, I knew I needed to eat, and I did – I just didn’t eat properly. I don’t believe toast passes as a sustainable and nutrition filled diet.
I was stuck in a vicious circle – in order to eat I needed to go to the shops to buy food, but when I finally got over the fear of going to the shops where there were people, I would find myself on the brink of tears, wandering the aisles distressed, dizzy, and so confused that I didn’t know what to eat.
This settled down as I entered my first relationship at the age of 23. It became harder to skip meals when I moved in with my boyfriend, but it didn’t stop me from trying. And with my erratic blood sugar levels, I was susceptible to fainting and mood swings. I wasn’t a pleasure to live with. Eventually he realised that if my moods changed, he had to feed me. So, he started cooking for me. And I started eating.
At this stage I had started anti-depressants, was sleeping way to much, and had put on weight (on viewing the photographic evidence of me at this time – I wasn’t fat). I just didn’t feel good – I believed that I was the ugliest thing that existed. The fact that I had a boyfriend who adored me didn’t matter.
And then I went overseas for 9 1/2 months, travelled, worked, ate, explored, socialised, lost weight and felt truly happy for the first time that I could remember.
On coming home, initially I was on a natural high. I started seeing someone who was a lot of fun, and completely different. Unbeknownst to him, I had actually slipped back into my old pattern of skipping meals, and I was also drinking way too much. I had also started taking laxatives to give me that flat stomach look, and because I was having sever stomach cramps (I now know that I have IBS).
Predictably, my depression came back with a vengeance, and I slipped into the good old not-eating mood cycle again.
Hot Chocolate
Lucky for me the guy stuck by me – he realised what was going on. To this day he tells me off (nicely) when my mood starts to change, questioning if I have eaten or if I need to eat. He has also helped me to realise I am attractive, beautiful, sexy, and a woman (it only took me 33 years).
And for the record, I’m not fat – I never was. But who cares! More than anything, shouldn’t we be happy and healthy, as what is life without it?
So today I choose to eat.
Note to readers: I have only touched on child-hood bullying in this post, with no intention to trivialise the issue. There is just so much to write on that subject, and I will do that in future posts.
So much food, so little time
After a week and a half of Christmas celebrations and catch-ups, I am ready to boycott food!
The Weekend before Christmas
It all started with our road trip to see my Dad the weekend before Christmas. His partner is an amazing cook, and he’s not bad himself. We were welcomed with a barbecue – meat, meat and more meat, some champagne (beer for the boys), and a little salad. A lunch of gorgeous chicken rice followed the next day, with vinadaloo for dinner…mmmmm. Since the next day was Sunday, we had to honour Dad’s wishes of cooking us breakfast – so it was bacon, toast and eggs (fresh from the chicken coop), with tea. I forgot how good fresh eggs tasted. Yummo! Bypassing lunch, as our digestive systems were truly struggling with the intake of meat, we came to the reason we were there – to celebrate Christmas. And this couldn’t be done without food – so we ate…turkey, veggies, gravy, and more champagne to celebrate of course.
Christmas Eve Eve
Rolling back home from Dad’s, we managed to eat lightly for a couple of days (although Denis did make his first attempt at glazing a ham – which turned out beautifully – damn him!) until Christmas Eve Eve was upon us. This was when we celebrated Christmas with my partners kids (as we wouldn’t see them for Christmas), so he cooked up a lovely meal of gnocchi and salad – pasta is the kids favourite dish. Lucky for us Santa also visited us early that night!
Christmas Eve
I managed to escape any breakfast or lunch excesses on the 24th, surviving on a piece of toast and some left over gnocchi (which was a mistake, as my stomach reminded me for days!), and luckily avoided a huge dinner. We had spent Christmas Eve with some of my partners family – where santa again visited, bless him – and fortunately had to leave before dinner was served. The ham and salad sandwichI ate that night was welcomed by my stomach.
The 25th of December
All week I had tried to come to terms with the fact that we had to do both lunch AND dinner this year. I had kept telling myself that this would make sure that I didn’t go too mad at lunch – I would pace myself. But Mum outdid herself as usual…chicken, turkey, pork, veggies, bread, gravy, trifle, pavlova, fruit mince pies, crisps, chocolate, cheese, crackers…to name but a few. Plus champagne. I must give myself a pat on the back as I really didn’t go to mad at all. I was pleasantly content. And then dinner rolled around where we went to my Brothers house. Roast beef! Plus pork, turkey, vegies, more gravy…but hold the champagne! I managed a healthy sized serving (meaning nowhere near my typical sized serving), and sadly had to pass at the most gorgeous looking pavlova as I had to go back to Mum’s for – wait for it – pudding and custard. Now that’s a tradition of Mum and I. She always cooks me pudding and custard on Christmas night. Sometimes it seems like I am the only person in the world who east it, but it’s my little piece of comfort food that I have once a year.
The 26th of December
Boxing Day. Mum cooked us breakfast, and sent us on our way with a big bowl of trifle and a pack of fruit mince pies. On all appearances driving home in the morning, it was the traditional ‘day of shopping’ for people in Perth, as cars were parked on median strips, verges, parks – everywhere. Luckily we got to avoid the shops, as we had more food to look forward to at my partners Uncles 70th birthday celebrations. Now, my partner is Anglo-Indian, and the typical food fare at his family gatherings is curry. I never actually ate curry before I starting going out with him, but I have discovered that it is truly addictive once you develop the palate. I had planned not to eat at the party, but that was just plain stupid thinking. On walking into his Aunt’s place, well, you could just smell the curry and biriani cooking. NOOOOOO.
The 27th of December
You would think by now that the celebrations would have ended, but we had been invited to an afternoon with some friends who had a pool, which turned out to be a fabulous idea since it was going to be 40 degrees celsius. Luckily I still fit into my bathing suit at this stage – and everyone was pretty much in the same boat – so it wasn’t too much of an embarrassment. Some wonderful thinking by my friend, saw grilled vegetables served for dinner, with organic free range chicken, some prawns, bread, and corn on the cob.
The 28th of December
This brings me today. I feel like a beached whale, and have not even really been hungry, although I had to force myself to eat since I was giddy. I must say that I’ve never relaxed so much at Christmas, diet wise, and it feels good (well – at the time). I’m back to work tomorrow which is probably a god send, as I will be distracted by work.
There’s only one problem…New Years celebrations are just around the corner! It is at times like this I can see the benefit from living in a country where it is winter in December and January. At least it allows you to cover up all the excess blubber that you tend to put on over this period.
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I have a problem
It’s a serious problem.
Listening to people eat really stresses me out!
Okay, not ALL people. I would like to believe that most people are very quiet eaters. It’s the people who slurp, chew loudly, mouths open, gulp food and generate buckets of saliva when they eat.
- It’s partly about etiquette – it is polite to eat with your mouth closed. Thats good manners. Unless you can’t breathe through your nose – then I understand it’s a big ask…eating or breathing…hmmm. I know my brother and sister and I had this drummed into us growing up. No wants to ‘sea…food.’ hehehe – Yes that’s a bad joke.
- Gum chewers. People aren’t cows, and as far as I’m concerned gum is like food – and people should chew with their mouths closed. They really should! I work in an office where you can literally hear a pin drop. I used to sit next to a guy who did this. Lovely guy, really bad gum-chewing habit. Thinking back, there does seem to be a pattern here. I took a film course once at University with a really good friend. We spent many nights squished together in an editing suite trying to create our masterpiece, surviving on vending machine hot chocolate, chocolate, and gum. She chewed gum with such a ferocity, I’m surprised our friendship survived. I was so close to snapping! In hindsight, working part-time, studying full-time, filming and editing most nights, plus partying – whilst surviving on a diet of sugar, fast food and gum – it possibly wasn’t her fault! That would be my over-tired, unhealthy, anxiety riddled self. Apologies to the friend in question for being so grumpy!
- Fruit-suckers. Back to the office that is as quiet as a funeral parlour – or even more so. I used to sit next to a guy (different guy) who loved fruit. Bless him! I love fruit to. He especially loved juicy fruit, and when he ate fruit, he sounded like he was eating soup. This used to get me so anxious – I had to launch for the headphones of my iPhone – usually in the bottomless pit I call my handbag, frantically trying to untangle the headphones from the contents of my bag, and shoving them in my ears to drown it out with some music.
- Saliva generators. The person I refer to here will know I’m referring to them, and they know I have a problem. They don’t eat like this all the time, and they do love their food (and they are the best cook!) but sometimes when I hear them eat, I get very agitated. That’s when the volume of the TV gets turned up, or I go into the other room…for…something. Unfortunately for them this always seems to align with ‘that time of the month’ – I really do believe that my senses of hearing go into overdrive then! We figure if I get enough sleep, and pass on the sugar…I won’t snap.
Good news is I am working on my problem, but I still admit that the best way for me to deal with it is to leave the room. Continue reading