Fresh food is still plentiful. Hashtag grateful.

Life has changed a great deal for most of us over the past month.

The act of popping to the supermarket, knowing you would be able to find exactly what you need and purchase it in whatever quantity you desired, and knowing if you ran out of something you could easily replace it, feels like a long time ago.

Let’s be honest, it was a privileged and fortunate time.

We have to adapt to our new circumstances, given that the current way of things is probably how life will be for the foreseeable future.

Yet, every time I have braved the local food shop (or Woolworths or Coles), I have been comforted by the fact that there is still plenty of fresh produce available. You might not be able to get tinned tomatoes, but there are still plenty of fresh ones, as far as I can see. Friends and neighbours have been lavishing their excess produce on me, in exchange for some of what I make with it. And I’m learning to be flexible too. If I can’t get red lentils, I buy yellow split peas instead.

I don’t think we’ve had this varied and interesting a diet for some time. As a result, I’m enjoying cooking, preparing food and eating it more than ever. I can’t remember the last time I planned every meal with such care and thought, determined to make the most of what I had. It has been a welcome distraction and helped me feel focused and purposeful.

It’s also ensuring we use what we already have in, preventing any unnecessary trips to the supermarket. I was as guilty as the next person of picking up bits and pieces at least once a week, even when I had plenty already at home. Now that I plan each meal, I’m minimising waste and ensuring everything is used.

I hope this is a permanent change in my habits, whatever happens.

So, what are you cooking right now?

What other people cook, and their favourite standby pantry dinners, have always intrigued me, and never more so now. It gives me new ideas and encourages me to try different things.

So I thought I’d tell you what we’ve been eating this past week, and tomorrow I’ll post what my plan is for this coming week. Please join in!

As Tom and I are both working from home now, we’re enjoying all our meals together so I’m planning lunches as well.

I made a list of all the meals we have ingredients for and then made a plan based on what needed to be used up first (fresh vegetables, already opened dairy/tofu/pastes, leftovers). We have a small vegetable garden still producing ample silverbeet and zucchini (though I suspect the latter’s reign is coming to an end).

I am also making bread every few days. I’m not sure what we’ll do if we run out of flour! But we have plenty for now.

Phil’s No Waste Lockdown Meal Plan

Sunday 29/3
Lunch: Veggie burger
Dinner: Tomato, coconut and silverbeet dhal + rice

Monday 30/3
Lunch: Leftover dhal turned into soup + bread
Dinner: Tofu noodle stir fry

Tuesday 31/3
Lunch: Leftovers fried rice (rice from Sunday, tofu from Monday, with greens, soy sauce, chilli)
Dinner: No Waste Buddha Bowl

Wednesday 1/4
Lunch: Silverbeet, lemon and risoni soup + bread
Dinner: Zucchini slice

Thursday 2/4
Lunch: Leftover soup and zucchini slice
Dinner: Jacket potato, beans, spinach

Friday 3/4
Lunch: Zucchini slice
Dinner: Silverbeet and ricotta cannelloni

Saturday 4/4
Lunch: Haloumi and fried egg rolls
Dinner: Leftover cannelloni + green veg

I don’t know about you, but cooking has been something wonderful to focus on these past few weeks. It’s helped quieten and focus my mind. I waste nothing, I think before I use anything, and value my food in a completely different way than I used to. I hope that seeing what I’ve been up to inspires you to do the same.

I could have written a post about "this time 10 years ago" but I think you all know that story by now.

I could have written a post featuring some old pictures of me, and pictures of me now, but while I'm proud that 10 years later I'm still a healthy size, what I've tried so hard to do with my book, and with my mindset in general, is resist getting stuck in 'before and after' thinking. Reaching goal is never the end of the story, and the 'after' photo is actually just a moment in time. Holding on to it is rarely straightforward. Weight loss success stories are certainly very motivating to read, but I think it would be far more interesting to check in with them 10 years after their 'after' picture is taken and see how they're doing then.

And I'm also not going to write a post about 10 years of maintenance, because when I consider the stretch of time between 25 April 2006 as I stood on my set of scales in my bathroom in Melbourne and saw a number I longed to see staring back at me, and 25 April 2016 as I type this in my study in London, "maintenance" is the last word I'd use to describe this period in my life.

All the losses and gains in my life since that day in 2006 have had nothing to do with weight. Everything in my life has changed so how could I possibly expect to maintain anything? It was an effort to get out of bed some days (occasionally it still is!)

Merely a few weeks after that scale victory, my life as I knew it fell apart. But thanks to having reached that goal, I had the courage to walk away from the wreckage and I knew that I could survive. Thanks to the highs, lows and plateaus of the previous year of point counting and weigh-ins, I knew I had the strength to persevere when I hit rock bottom, crawled back up, and got smacked down again. It was almost as though that year had been preparing me for what came next.

The greatest thing weight loss taught me was learning to believe in myself. I hadn't learned it when I was younger. Back then it was all about creating a life that looked good to the outside world rather than anything that felt true and aligned with who I really was. I designed my life with fear, anxiety and self-loathing as my architects.

Weight loss helped me kick those bastards off the job, and compassion, courage and self-respect took over the blueprints instead.

But while they're fabulous architects, they're not perfect employees either. Those three occasionally take leave when I least expect it - I wouldn't have you think for a minute that fear, anxiety and self-loathing have disappeared for good. They never did, and they never will. I've had to learn to deal with them when they show up in productive and conscious ways instead of going backwards, to the days when I let them run the show. I don't always succeed, but I can always turn the car around in time. If I've maintained anything over the past 10 years, I guess it's that.

Weight loss happened to be a tool I used to wake myself up, to get off my arse (literally) and start taking control of my life. But I outgrew it long ago. I don't need to get on scales to see how in or out of control my life is. I just pay attention. Life being in balance is something I feel now, rather than measure. It's not a number. It's not a dress size. It's a feeling. If that feeling is off, I try to do something about it. If I'm feeling good, I keep doing what I'm doing, until that doesn't work anymore. What works right now might not work this time next year. That's cool. Despite being a bit of a control freak, I try to roll with things. I try to have high standards but low expectations.

I have no idea whether 10 years later I am still at goal weight. But you know what? I don't care enough to find out. Because I'm healthy - physically and mentally - and I'm pretty happy with who I am. That's what matters to me. That's what I'm proud of. I have fought for the life I have now, over and over, every step of the way. I've used every brick thrown at me to build the strongest foundation I possibly could.

So what I'm thinking about, and what I want to celebrate today, is that 10 years after reaching 'goal' not only am I still healthy, but I've kept moving forward. It was not weight loss I had to maintain, it was all the other changes. And naively I thought that would be easy. But everything keeps changing, all the time. Nothing ever stays the same. You can't hit the 'pause' button once you've reached a moment where you think you've got it all. You have to keep working hard, even though you already have.

10 years ago, I chose the road less travelled by. And I keep choosing it. No matter what. I could give practical weight loss tips about eating more greens and exercising more, but it's all ultimately useless if nothing changes inside of you, in your head and in your heart. You don't have to be motivated. You don't have to live by a set of rules. You just have to start caring about yourself and paying attention to your life.

Keep choosing to be your best self and live your best life, every day. That's the secret. Stick to your path, even when the going gets tough. Don't retreat back to the smooth, safe highway. Stay the course. Keep choosing. Keep going.

Here's to another 10 years of that.

****

To celebrate this little milestone of mine, I'm giving away a signed, personalised physical copy of The Latte Years which I will post to you, anywhere in the world. Just read the T&Cs and enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below!

T&Cs:

One winner, one prize
No cash alternative
Open internationally
You can enter once a day until 12:00am (UK time) on 1 May 2016
The winner will be chosen completely at random by Rafflecopter on 1 May 2016
Once the winner is announced and notified via email, you have 24 hours to claim your prize or another winner will be chosen
PM will retain proof of postage but can't be held responsible for the vagaries of the postal system or the customs regulations/duties in your country.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck and THANK YOU for all your love and support, particularly if you've been following along for the whole of these past 10 years. I am so incredibly grateful xx

PS: The digital versions of The Latte Years are still discounted until midnight Australian time today!

lockdown meal planning

before, after and now