Tell us about something you’ve tried to quit. Did you go cold turkey, or for gradual change? Did it stick?

Source: Happy Endings | The Daily Post

Not so much quit as change for this one…generally I go for gradual change: hard hit cold turkey might give an immediate result but all too often the shock effect boomerangs and undoes the original good. Like gyming and other things, the trick is to make the change a habit, something so natural that you think when you don’t do it…

I’ve always eaten relatively healthily but there’s always room for improvement. Around Christmas, I was messenging with Bubble in the US, just chatting and this is where the seed was sown…

Me
Aaahh…nothing quite like coming down to the wafting aroma of fresh bread…

Bubble
Mmm bread
I caved and had some sprouted grain toast. Amazing

Me
Healthy bread is OK…just not that horrible commercial white stuff…
The more lumpy bits the better…

Bubble
That looks amazing.

Me
…should have proper fresh yoghurt up and running…am doing it out of a packet now but want to get a proper culture up and running…

Bubble
I wanted to attempt to make my own coconut yoghurt, apparently you can do it by mixing in probiotics with coconut cream and incubating in the oven!

Me
Great minds!! Was coconut yoghurt (from a packet) that I made last night…very nice taste and texture…like coconut in cooking a lot…

Bubble
So is it dairy free the yogurt?
Don’t get me wrong I love dairy but I realised I was having a lot. Have you seen Cowspiracy? Very interesting

Me
Just had a look at the packet…milk power-based so ‘no’ but same here…looking to reduce not eliminate dairy…soy in a cuppa would be heresy!!!
Plus think I have mastered the bannoffee breakfast drink now and must have milk for that!!
Will have a look for Cowspiracy…
It’s all about healthy choices in food and exercise plus it’s good to make things at home rather than rely on store-bought the whole time, even if it is some extra work and usually not as cheap…as above, you can’t beat waking up to the smell of fresh bread…

Bubble
Sometimes milk is needed (e.g. nice cafe latte) other times vanilla almond milk is great (smoothies, cereal and instant coffee!)

Working on the principle that a change is as good as a holiday, I picked up a litre of almond milk on my next foray into the supermarket. My first impressions were not confidence-inspiring it made the taste of everything way too nutty, even just a dollop in a coffee. Perseverance is the secret of success though and I bought some more on my next resupply – that first one must have just been a dodgy batch because that too-nutty taste didn’t recur…

More on Cowspiracy in a follow-on post but I should say that I’m not a member of the culinary tinfoil hat brigade…the attraction of this change for me was more the culinary challenges that come from reducing, maybe even removing, a major food group, dairy in this case from my diet…Great Goudas, Batman! How will I get by without cheese, ice cream and yoghurt…?

So six weeks into the experiment, I haven’t bought any milk since but needed a (small) bottle of cream for my Pour Some Sugar On Me post and have had a milkshake with lunch at Pihanga twice…so far so good…oh, yes, and I mozzarella’d up an otherwise healthy pizza too…

To be continued….