Mesh and Lace***

Right....things that I've noticed

1) weighing out portions
Reading the back of packets and finding out what the real size of a serving is has stopped me over eating and also means my food is lasting longer! Sounds simple but it goes further than that; by eating the recommended portion sizes it stops you from over eating, which means you don't stretch your stomach making you feel hungrier later!

I've chosen not to prepare my lunches at the same time as I do my meals as I know that i'd just eat my lunch... I have no self control!

2) Splashing out a little has mad ALL the difference!!! Pesto for 98p, cream cheese for 50p and it sounds silly but cake mix for 22p have been the highlights of the past week. With basic staples that had absolutely NO flavour....[wall-papper paste I'm sure has more gastronomic appeal than cous-cous I'm SURE] but hey ... slap a bit of pesto in and you're away!

3) The whole week I've been craving sugar! That's where the cake mix coupled with the marmalade came into play! 22p basics cake mix would have been awful and dry....very dry! I had wanted to but Lemon curd so I could do a makeshift lemon drizzle cake but neither supermarket had any. which is why I ended up with marmalade. I boiled some down and added it to the mix along with one of my eggs and the rest of the orange-jam-syrup concoction was poured over the cake once it was done! I WAS SO HAPPY! Was it the best cake I'd ever eaten? NO Did I care? NO! I had cake! I was happy!

4) It is REALLY hard to eat healthily on a budget! Cheap food is not healthy! I could have bought 20 sausages for a pound apparently...NO THANKS! Pizza's for 40p! chicken nuggets for who even cares! I don't want it! I want fruit and veg! I walked past the market and there was a stall with the most beautiful apples! I think I may have to indulge this week on some fresh fruit and veg but then there s the risk of it going off! Right now it's a risk I'm willing to take!

5) Something else I've noticed is that there is pretty much NO VARIATION in my meals! I saved up some of the more 'exciting' foods till the weekend so I had something to look forward to! The joke was on me! It got to Saturday and my stomach  had shrunk! I made myself a breakfast of two fish fingers, an egg, half a tin of beans and two slices of toast......I ate.......most of the beans, half the egg, a fish finger and one slice of toast...I WAS STUFFED! I ate the rest for lunch I wasn't going to waste it!

6) I do not drink anywhere near enough water! The first few days I had a constant headache and often contemplated just going to bed so I didn't have to think about food!

6.5) I snack ALL THE TIME! I recognised all of the times during the day when usually I'd have had a biscuit or a tomato or an apple or some sushi...I don't snack on normal things...which is probably why I nearly jumped a five year old with a pear the other day!

7) Alot of people at some point in the life have lived on less than a pound a day! My favourite stories coming from students that have lived of chopped tomatoes and toast...and I thought I had it bad!

8) Some of my friends are not the kind of people you really want to be around when doing this challenge. Having bananas waved in your face or dominoes pizza just being left beside you....NOT FUN!

9)It is worth it! On so many levels that I couldn't have comprehended before I started it is SO worth it. I have had loads of interesting conversations and had so much support not only for this but also my Global Poverty Ambassador venture for this year!