20th Day in a Chic September

For the month of September I plan to document daily steps I have taken towards a chic, elegant and healthy life. My goal is to keep uppermost in my mind the kind of life I want to live. I will be focusing on all the small things I do each day that lead me towards my goal, rather than away from it.

Here are today’s mini-chic accomplishments:

I had a little breakthrough today. After beating myself up for indulging in too many unchic and high calorie foods over the weekend, and not wanting the hemmed in feeling of tracking Weight Watchers points, I thought to myself ‘what if I’m just normal’.

What if I eat normal foods in normal portions at normal times. I can be normal! For some reason (that I would love to know), I can happily spend months at a time following Weight Watchers to the letter (or point), and then I get to a stage where I want to run in the opposite direction. I’m off the diet, so I eat everything I’ve limited myself of, and enjoy indulging with wild abandon.

But today’s thought was something else altogether. I am normal. I know how to eat normally, I’ve done it for many years before I decided I wanted to lose weight and got into the dieting thing.

Normal isn’t lollies and excessive chocolate and fatty takeaways or snacks. Normal is real food in reasonable quantities. And it’s never normal food that we want to excess. It’s the other stuff, the refined carbohydrates that never fill you up, at least with nutrition anyway.

So today, whenever I felt like eating something tacky, or worried that I wasn’t writing my points down, I just calmed myself with ‘I am normal, I am eating normal food’. And the thoughts of revolting low-nutrition foods melted away.

There’s only one mini-chic accomplishment today, but for me it’s a good one.

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If you feel like you want to make September a chic month for you as well, please join me. You are welcome to share your mini-chic accomplishments for the day (or the previous day if you read in the morning) in the comments section. It would be lovely to have you along for the ride!

Becoming and staying slim

Back when I started this blog, just over a year ago, I wrote my first post giving up all my body secrets. How much I weighed at the time, my height, my calculated BMI and my dissatisfaction at this weight. At the time only two people, who did not know me in real life, did not even live in the same country as me, knew about my blog.

Over time, I have told my sister, mother, and one girlfriend about it. And many other people who don’t know me in real life started reading too. Even though my body was still bothering me, I felt shy about sharing it. I was also worried about jinxing myself too. Mere seconds (or so it felt like) after sharing my Countdown to 40 post, I fell off the healthy living wagon and was not as svelte and slim as I would have liked for my birthday.

For the way my mind works, I find it doesn’t work for me to have a goal time such as a birthday, Christmas, wedding or summer. I just rebel against it straight away. When I was married three years ago I was a little slimmer. I had it in my mind I would look lovely in the photos and then, relaxed. I slipped back into some old habits and as a result every time I look at our wedding photos all I can see is a podgy stomach in my satin dress. The poor posture didn’t help matters either.

The trouble with me is that I am not a naturally thin person, who happily chooses the low-calorie option. My sister has a current obsession with carrots and can’t get enough of them. I, on the other hand can be obsessed with any of the following: popcorn (non-natural), potato chips, ice-cream, etc. Do you see the difference here and how it would translate to the hips?

In the past I have dieted with Weight Watchers and achieved great results. Unfortunately my maintenance follow-up was not so great. Rather than continue on with my healthy eating, I would assume that once I was skinny, I would just stay that way. Sadly, that is not the case. By slipping back into my old habits, the weight would creep back on and the 5kg (11 pounds) I had been so diligent about saying Au Revoir to, was back with me. Bonjour!, it would say.

We all know that the ideal French woman (and indeed many real ones) are very disciplined with their caloric intake, thus ensuring they stay their ideal weight and are making the most of their lovely clothes, which are all the same size, not varying from 10 up to 12-14 as mine are.

Even though I said to myself ‘no more Weight Watchers’ after finding it too restrictive, earlier this year in March I found myself turning up to a Weight Watchers meeting near work. I decided that I would try the new points programme and told myself I would continue going to meetings until I reached my goal weight of 57-60kg (125 to 132 pounds). I was over 70kg (154 pounds) at the time, almost exactly the same as listed in the first post of this blog.

Clearly I needed a little external discipline to help me along as I hadn’t lost anything myself. And if I had, it was back. Now, I don’t buy this ‘perhaps that’s the weight you are naturally’ business. Not for me anyway. I could shovel in all sorts of crap foods. Sweet or salty snack foods are designed to make you want more. And I wasn’t happy with how I felt or how my clothes (the ones I could fit) looked.

I have found that you can train your palate, and that the more you have of something, the more you want of it, whether that something is a big, crunchy, plain salad, or a large bag of jellybeans. Even knowing this, and knowing how those two things make me feel (one, vibrant, alive and quenched, the other, a hot headache and craving for sugar) didn’t help me make good decisions all the time.

Rather than rebelling against discipline, I have decided to look at it like money. If you spend more than you earn, you go into debt. In my younger years I did just that, but now, for many years I happily have savings building up, and not many problems resisting purchasing temptation.

Not so with food. Obviously I regularly went into debt with food and drink, and had the not-so-chic figure to show for it. I now look at my Weight Watchers points as a budget to spend. And so I won’t go hungry or over-spend, I have to use it wisely.

I can happily report that the new Weight Watchers programme is working really well for me, and seems much easier to stick to for the long term. I can have mini blow-outs every week if I want (and I usually do) and still decrease on the scales. This is the way to keep me interested. If it’s not fun, I don’t want to know about it.

I never attended meetings before, so that may be helping too. By saying to myself I am committed to attending until I am a certain weight, meant if I didn’t want to waste my money, I’d better do something about it.

I am happy to let you know I am now 6-7kg (13-15 pounds) lighter than I was, and at least halfway to my goal. I have had to buy a few new items of clothing, because my jeans are falling off me. Some have been put away to get rid off as they are ridiculously huge, and some I am able to cinch in with a belt for now. Jeans that I formerly could not sit in for more than five minutes at a time.

So I guess the purpose of this post is to face the fear and do it anyway. My fear was if I wrote about my weight loss, I would jinx it once again. Now I know this is silly. The books I have been reading lately, old books I have had for a long time (a few listed below) reminded me that I make up my mind, I make my reality. I wrote down a quote the other day which really spoke to me:

‘I know what I like, I know what I don’t like. I know the way I want to live, and I make it happen that way’. – Anthea Turner

Current reading:
Inspiring Messages for Daily Living by Dr Norman Vincent Peale
Seeds of Greatness by Denis Waitley
10 Days to a Great New Life by William E. Edwards
The Power of Positive Thinking by Dr Norman Vincent Peale (I’ve been listening to the audiobook in the car)

Best. Soup. Ever.

Originally posted on La Vie En Fifi, 24 October 2009

Bold statement I know. There are a number of reasons (and my sales pitch on) why this is the best soup ever.

Quick and easy to make
Frugal
Lots of nutrition - brightly coloured vegetables and good amount of protein
Low in fat/calories
Delicious

The recipe came from New Zealand House & Garden many, many years ago. Since then I have made it a lot (My mother is the soup queen and I think I have inherited this gene thankfully). It has an ingredient list that can be memorised easily, and I make different versions of it for variety of flavour, and to use up fading vegetables.

Here is the original version:

1 brown onion, chopped and sautéed in a little olive oil
1 400g-420g can of plain or flavoured chopped tomatoes and juice
1 cup red lentils (rinsed and picked over – take out the odd yucky looking one)
4 cups/1 litre chicken stock (or any other stock flavor you like). I use a mix of my homemade chicken stock and store-bought stock powder/cubes.

(In my head, the recipe is: one onion, 1 can tomatoes, 1 cup red lentils, 1 litre stock – easy to remember!). Also, all the basic recipe ingredients are 'store cupboard ingredients' - I always have them on hand.

Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

This soup has been my staple lunch at work for this past, and other winters. It reheats beautifully in the microwave. I have even been known to make it before work (when I really have no extra time). The really quick version involves throwing the onion into the other ingredients without sautéing and then cooking for 20 minutes. If you were really pressed for time you could use the stock, a can of flavoured tomatoes and the red lentils, no onion.

My current batch, which was extra tasty, involves a handful of fresh pumpkin cubes. These cook within the time frame and I just break up the pieces with a potato masher when done. It’s a nicer soup a little rustic than pureed smooth. I also added fresh oregano (just tore the leaves off the stem once washed) from my garden pot, dried sweet basil and six bay leaves (which are removed after cooking).

Other additions that are good:

As I said before, any tired vegetables can be chopped up small (since you’re not pureeing) and added
Fresh or dried herbs
A little tomato paste
Any cooked meats if you like, however the lentils provide good protein, so not needed for a balanced meal.
If you have any, a dollop of full fat plain unsweetened yoghurt added just before serving is divine, as is Parmesan. Yum
Different flavoured tomatoes or spices for a different type - Italian, Mexican, Indian

I also rarely make the single batch, even though it’s just me eating it. Doubling the quantities doesn’t take much more effort, and I often freeze the second container for an instant week’s worth of lunches. I either eat this by itself, or with bread, or cheese on toast.

I am a big fan of slow food and slow cooking, but this is my favourite 'fast food' recipe.

Update 9 November: I have just made another batch of this soup, including pumpkin as last time, but with Indian flavoured chopped tomatoes and an extra teaspoon of yellow curry powder. I also used dried soup mix rather than red lentils. Dried soup mix contains red lentils, barley, split peas etc. It needs to be cooked for an hour and a half rather than the 20 minutes for red lentils only. I think this Indian version is my favourite yet.

Bon appétit!

Guest Post at Une Vie Chic

Recently Kalee at Une Vie Chic invited me to write a guest post for her food month. Kalee is doing a fantastic job at showing how good cooking at home is, and I particularly like her lists of kitchen essentials. She's anti-most-gadgets like I am.

Have a look at her entire month of November while you're there.

Thank you Kalee for asking me to be part of your food month!

30 Chic Days - Day Twenty Five

Day 25: Plan ahead

At this time of year there are many social events on. In the past I have found it quite helpful to plan ahead what I am going to consume, both food and drink, either on a normal day or going to a party or family gathering.

It's so easy to look forward to an outing as an excuse to eat (and drink) to merry excess, and be fatter the following week. I have had success walking myself mentally through an outing and planning what I am going to eat (or not eat) and what I will drink (or not drink).

For example, this Christmas day which I will spend with my inlaws, I am thinking about not eating any snack foods, chocolates or sweets, no matter what might be nestling enticingly in bowls. That way I will enjoy my mid-afternoon Christmas lunch and dessert.

And because it is likely to be quite warm, I will drink plenty of water and only a few glasses of wine over the meal. I often find wine on Christmas day, a glass here, a glass there, over the day ends up making me feel blah and slothlike. Definitely not drunk, too much time has passed between each glass, but it makes you want to go to sleep.

I've been rereading my Anne Barone 'Chic & Slim' printouts from her old website (unfortunately she took all her supplementary writing down when she redid her website recently) - specifically the section on surviving Christmas in a chic and slimming manner.

She has some great ideas, like imagining you are a chic French woman spending the holidays where you live. You have been invited to a New Year's eve party at the home of some locals. Anne says to think about this role, how you act at the party, how you are picky with the buffet, avoiding the processed foods (which you don't understand, being French), and tasting tiny bits of different foods to see what you like.

Because you are French, you don't eat with your hands, so everything you do choose to partake in has to be eaten with a knife and fork, so, sitting down. You will also remember to keep your posture perfect, and not eat anything that might smudge your lipstick (potato chips can make lipstick disappear within minutes). You will also think about what current events, latest books or movies you wish to discuss with people.

I also like Anne's thoughts on drink: 'Being French, you will also opt for a small glass of beverage of your choice, sipping slowly from it all evening. You won't want to overindulge because then you will not feel well the next day. And especially you will not look your most attractive, if you drink too much alcohol. A healthy look is the basis of an attractive look.'

Some of information in the printouts is from her books, which, if you don't have, I heartily recommend. I have reread mine over and over (and over), and love them. The first three (Chic & Slim, Chic & Slim Encore and Techniques No. 1) are all worth having, but unless you really want more, I wouldn't bother with the other two unfortunately.

I wish I liked her 4th and 5th books more but they are just not enjoyable reading. They seem like they are from a totally different author. If anyone has them and loves them, please point out what I am missing here! I would love to love them.

This planning ahead technique also applies to the everyday. I find it quite helpful if I sit down at breakfast and plan what I'm going to have for lunch and dinner, along with fresh fruit (making sure there is some available in the fridge at work) and even things like choosing green tea over black tea, or coffee.

I create a picture in my mind of a day of chic eating and look forward to and enjoy it.

30 Chic Days – Day Eight

Day 8: Give up soft drink

No good can come of soft drink or soda. It’s addictive and revolting, and makes you fat and unchic. And whether it's sugar or diet, they're both bad news (diet's even worse in my opinion).

I’m doing pretty well with my transition away from unstylish drinks. And I don’t really consider fruit juice to have much merit – why not just have a piece of fruit? My goal is to get down to a core of drinks, inspired by the French girl:

Tea/herbal tea (hot and unsweetened)
Coffee (ditto)
Hot chocolate
Water
Wine
Maybe a cold cider or beer on a hot day

Fizzy drink, fruit juice, spirits and flavoured waters are all unnecessary. Maybe I’ll have my favourite brandy and dry or a g&t on a special occasion, but it won’t be my everyday drink. Sweet soft drinks make it too easy to have more as they are so delicious.

To not want an alcoholic drink when I get home from work, I have stocked our fridge with sparkling mineral water. It really is quite different to still water and it’s entirely calorie-free. Anything sparkling is still corrosive though so I only have one glass of an evening.

I try and do negative-association with food items I want to avoid. So I imagine someone trashy, not classy and unhealthy guzzling down litres of fizzy. Most of the time it works!

I have even managed to order a sparkling water in a cafe when I am out. Normally I would think to myself 'well, it's only water, I may as well pay the same price for something that has stuff in it, like fruit juice or an organic lemonade'. Wrong answer! I feel way more chic and French when I sip on my sparkling mineral water when out for lunch.

One of my all-time favourite feel-good books is Jemima J by Jane Green. In it the main character Jemima is transformed from a severely overweight girl into a slender, fit one. The thing that changes for her is that she changes her mind. She decides one day she's sick of being fat, starts exercising, changes her diet and off she goes.

The day she decides to do better, she goes out after work to a bookstore to browse the shelves. On the way she stops at a cafe, and instead of her usual order of a high-fat sugary coffee which would have more calories than a rich dessert, she chooses a mineral water and sips it outside, watching the people go by. Choosing the mineral water symbolises the new her.

30 Chic Days - Day Three

Day Three: Eat Fresh Stuff

Since making sure I have at least one piece of fresh fruit, a raw salad and steamed or stir-fried fresh vegetables every day, I've felt a lot more energetic and vibrant. I either have my piece of fruit in the morning or the afternoon, the salad with lunch and vegetables with dinner.


On days when I’m busy or lazy and don’t, I really miss it. In New Zealand there is a ‘5+’ campaign on tv encouraging five plus servings per day of fresh produce.

My fruit intake is one serving, and I would have at least two servings of vegetables in each of my lunch and dinner. And no, hot chips (fries) are not a vegetable serving. Jamie’s Food Revolution has just started on tv here. It’s rather shocking what people eat, and what is served in schools under ‘strict nutritional guidelines’.


You don’t need guidelines, you just need to eat real, good food. And I don't believe the advertising that says canned/frozen/dehydrated foods have just as much goodness as fresh. Nothing beats a bright green head of broccoli or a crispy carrot.

Now, there's no way I’m a saint, and there are certainly days when I have a fraction of the fresh food I need. But if I stick to my routine portions most of the time, I’m pretty happy with that.


All images from my kitchen tonight.

La baguette

Few images are as quintessentially French as the baguette. When I buy a baguette I always get a jaunty Frenchness to my step, and feel quite chic when I break a piece off at home. But invariably I eat some, enjoy, eat a bit more, get full and then leave the rest to go hard overnight.

I have decided to make the baguette a more regular part of my life, as I always feel more stylish breaking up a chunk than pulling a slice of square bread out of a plastic bag. What I do now is:

a) buy the baguette (yes I could learn to make them like Anne Barone does, but my breadmaking has turned out a little doughy for my taste so baking them is for another day when I’m in the mood to experiment) and then,
b) slice into 10cm/4 inch pieces.

The baguettes I most recently bought had exactly six per loaf. I then freeze them in a ziplock bag (after enjoying that day’s piece fresh). The day I want a piece I take it from the freezer, either in the morning, or at a pinch half an hour before I want it. They thaw very quickly at room temperature and if you’ve frozen them on the day of purchase they taste almost as good.

I have mostly been having them for lunch, either as is alongside a complete (‘with protein’) salad or split in half and both flat sides covered in something if having a side salad (raw veges and salad ingredients, no protein).

Two ‘somethings’ I have enjoyed lately are:

1 egg, hardboiled and fork mashed with a small dollop of Best Foods light mayo and capers, or
1 small portion of cold roast-chicken, cut up fine and mixed with the same small dollop of Best Foods light mayo and finely diced raw celery.

Top with a crunch of black pepper

It’s nice to have the bread always handy, and even though the portions seem to have shrunk since I cut them (and I thought to myself ‘should I have two?’) I have only ever had the one piece, and never thought afterwards ‘I’m still hungry’. I’m always perfectly sated. Portion control! It works!

The other night when I reheated the rest of my pasta bake and served it with a salad dressed with equal parts extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar (aka ‘the lazy dressing), my husband, whose favourite thing in the world is bread but doesn’t have it often said, ‘do you have some bread in the freezer?’ When I placed the baguette down in front of him (resisting saying ‘Et voila) he remarked that our table looked very Italian, and that the bread in the picture looked like it completed the meal.

If I was Sabine, living in my Paris apartment, with a boulangerie on the corner which I passed each night on my way home from the Metro station, then I would buy a half-baguette and eat it fresh. I can pretend that’s me when I have my piece of baguette with lunch and it actually has made me feel more chic all day.

That’s what it’s about for me, adding in little touches of chic Frenchness to my life, and this in turn encourages me to act chicly (in all ways, not just with food).

Comfort Food for a Sunday Evening

Sunday evenings to me spell something comforting in the kitchen. Often this means a casserole in the slow cooker, or an Italian dish. Last night I made a pasta bake which I am in the process of perfecting. Of course the fact that I like to use up what I have in the pantry means it will not taste identical every time, but perfecting the base recipe.

I can also make it less carb- and sauce-heavy than a traditional pasta bake. I don't use that much pasta in it, add lots of vegetables and use cottage cheese instead of bechamel or ricotta. Cottage cheese still tastes delicious but is low in fat and high in protein. This probably makes up for the amount of mozzarella I use.

It is comfort food, but it also means I can compile everything in one dish, put it in the oven for an hour or two and sit down with the Sunday papers. The aroma as it cooks is lovely too.

Here is my recipe:

In the deep lasagne or casserole dish add the following in layers (you don't need to worry about greasing or oiling the dish, just pile everything in).

Mix together in a big bowl the bottom layer then add to dish:

Diced pumpkin (about 1 inch cubes)
Silverbeet (chard), washed and chopped
One onion, chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
500g (about 1 lb) light cottage cheese
Seasoning - plenty of salt and pepper, this time I used sweet smoked paprika, chicken stock powder, dried chilli flakes and rubbed sage

With the first layer you can use any vegetables you want to use up, I always include pumpkin as it imparts a rich sweetness and thickens the pasta bake. You can use a small container of cottage cheese if it's a smaller dish you have. I ended up with servings enough for six, not two.

Second layer, sprinkle mozzarella cheese and then add dried, uncooked pasta. I see no point in having to cook pasta first. I am essentially a lazy (sorry, efficient) cook. You can use lasagne sheets, but all I had was macaroni elbows and they worked just fine. Use enough to cover the cheese in a single layer.

Third layer, pour a can or two of diced tomatoes over, spreading out the tomato pieces. Rinse out the can(s) with the tiniest amount of water and pour this in too. This time I added a splash of red wine (just into the middle of the mix, and let it soak in) as I thought there might have not been quite enough liquid in the mix. You don't want too much liquid though, just enough to absorb into the pasta.

Fourth and final layer, add another generous sprinkle of mozzarella cheese. Parmesan would be good too, if you have any (we didn't). Then breadcrumbs. You can use store-bought breadcrumbs or homemade. Since my sister gave us as a gift the wonderful Cuisinart mini food processor I haven't bought breadcrumbs. I save the crusts from bread in the freezer and thaw a few whenever I want crumbs. Place them (torn up) into the food processor, add a clove or two of garlic and any seasoning you might like and blitz. The garlic tastes amazing in them.

Sprinkle breadcrumbs on the top (hopefully you haven't reached the rim of the dish) and place in a moderate 180 (350) oven for at least 1 1/2 hours. I didn't cover mine at all last night, but next time perhaps I would for the first half of the cooking time. The crumbs weren't burnt, but they were quite crispy after the full cooking time.

When you want to check that it is ready, stick a fork in and check that the pumpkin is soft, and try a piece of the pasta to check it is cooked.

Bon appetit.

Countdown to 40

In a few months I will turn forty. I'm very happy to be going into the next decade. I feel like I'm already 'getting a good run at it' (as my husband says) with starting this blog and working out how 'chic' is defined in my life.

One thing that is still bothering me though, and which I've sat back and had a think about, is my figure. I stopped posting my Chic Eating updates as it was stressing me out. Saturdays came around very fast and what if that week hadn't been particularly noteworthy?

So I relaxed and thought to myself, how can I change this. Still no to Weight Watchers, it's too strict for me, but giving myself free rein is a recipe for disaster. I sat down a week ago and drew up some 'guidelines' for the way I want to live, to enable me to slim down slowly and quietly.

My guidelines are not a diet, and there are no quantities listed. Here they are (I've called them Countdown to 40, just for fun) -

Sunday to Thursday – alcohol-free nights
Friday night – Bubbly Friday (we've had Bubbly Friday for years)
Saturday night – snacks and drinks

- This means I've cut down drinks to two nights a week (from probably 5-7 nights, even one glass of wine each evening adds up to a lot of calories) and I only eat snacks one night a week. I've decided I would rather have some camembert and crackers than potato chips, but if I want potato chips that's fine too, only on Saturdays.

Salad with lunch every day
Vegetables with dinner every night

Protein at every meal, eg:
- Egg with breakfast
- Tuna with lunch
- Lean meat or fresh fish with dinner

One piece of fresh fruit every day

If I crave something sweet after a meal – 1-2 squares dark chocolate
If I crave savoury snacks, a small amount of rice crackers and cheese

Early nights – in bed by 9.30pm at the latest, preferably 9pm, to give plenty of boudoir time for reading and moisturising before lights out at 10pm.

Green tea first thing in the morning with blog time (6am)
Drink water all day

Two yoga classes per week
Three one hour walks per week (two included to and from yoga)

I have to say, having my guidelines has really helped me stay on track and have a balanced week with plenty of nutrition and good sleep. I started out by writing down what my perfect week would look like and added things as I thought of them.

I also like that they are not just about food, but incorporate lifestyle habits to aim for as well. I am still using my Chic Eating principles most of the time too (I can have anything I like as long as it is 'Chic' and 'Real').

If I ever feel like slacking off, maybe pouring a glass of wine on a Wednesday, I remember my Countdown to 40 list and I feel newly remotivated. I also have the Word document open on my laptop most of the time, so I see it whenever I'm on the computer.

Avoiding overeating

I had the house to myself last night. My husband went out to a fund-raising quiz night with a group of his friends and the evening was all about me, me, me. In the past I have looked forward to such an evening as a ‘treat night’ where I would think about what I wanted to make myself for dinner and also plan what crap I was going to eat as well.

I would cruise the aisles of the supermarket shopping in preparation for the evening. There would be hard jubes, popcorn, chocolate and ice-cream (any or all of). So foul I know, and I would feel disgusting afterwards. Just how is this a treat Fifi? Yesterday afternoon as I was thinking of going out food shopping, I thought about the French Chic life.

I pictured myself reading the posts I have printed out off the French Chic yahoo group and being chic and slender ideal-French-girl Sabine rather than a piglet on a sofa with junque food. Just imagining myself reading my inspiring French Chic ‘book’ was all it took to change my mindset from ‘treat night’ to ‘French Chic night’.

All I bought at the supermarket was a piece of salmon and some milk.

I made myself the Jo Dinner as I call it. My mum Jo eats salmon and stir-fried vegetables five nights a week, she would probably have it seven if she didn’t spend two nights staying overnight at her job in a private girls school. People often compliment her on her complexion. I think it’s all that salmon like Mr Perricone says, along with a consistent skincare regime of course.

My stir-fry vegetables last night were carrot, broccoli, cauliflower, onion, garlic, capsicum, celery, mushrooms and green beans, in lemon infused olive oil since I was having fish. I’ve run into trouble before when making stir-fry for the two of us when all the different vegetables add up and I end up with a wok overflowing with goodness. It’s not really the best start to the meal when your husband says ‘this is getting ridiculous’ in a good-humoured way (and he’s a big eater).

Is it possible to binge on vegetables I wonder? After a stir-fry I always have a ready-made lunch for the next day. Last night was no exception, I still made twice what I needed even though I only used ½ a carrot, a few florets of broccoli, three or four beans, three mushrooms etc. Those veges really play up in a wok and expand.

In the background while I was cooking played the latest Buddha Bar XII cd – it is so me – the inner leaflet has French imagery including the Eiffel Tower, and CD 1 in the set is called La Vie En Rose. I almost swooned when I realised all this. It’s not dissimilar to the other Buddha Bar cds but I like that. It’s new, but familiar.

Before dinner I had a glass of chardonnay with cheese and crackers. I already had some Laughing Cow cheese which I had read so much about on the French Chic yahoo group. It is very delicious spread on crackers but I noticed it was made in Poland. That’s a bit worrying, a French-brand cheese made in a nearby low-income country. It makes me think of problems with food made in China.

I could be totally wrong, it could be made in Poland because they have such high-quality milk from happy (laughing) cows. But normally these decisions come down to money. As nice as the Laughing Cow cheese tasted, the fact of where it’s made, and also that it’s processed, I don’t think I’ll be buying it again.

Later on I watched an episode of The Starter Wife. One of the characters attends AA and she reminded a character leaving rehab about ‘one day at a time’. I thought to myself that would be a good credo for anything you wanted to achieve in life, whether it is overspending, overeating, living the French Chic life.

It’s hard to imagine you doing (or not doing) something for the rest of your life and that scares you into going back to how you were before. If I say I can never have a mini-pigout again, I would likely fixate on that. By saying ‘just get through this day’ eating healthfully and in reasonable proportions, well, this is much more achievable.

Week 8 Update

I feel like a bit of a fraud this week. My blog should be called 'how to be chic - not' or 'how to not be chic' or 'how to be unchic'. I've been backsliding into potato chips and gained a kilo since my first post. And the past few days I've had a horrid headache that even painkillers can't budge. I try and fix it with food (sensible, I know) and eat stuff I think will make it go away. Hot chips with aioli doesn't help and neither do fruit jelly sweets apparently.

Beating myself up about it isn't going to do much good but I hope to be more successful with a chic diet so I have something more upbeat to report next week. If I can't do a better job I may have to knock my weekly updates on the head for the time being. Feeble excuses week after week are not that inspirational.

My exterior decor is chic though. I feel well-dressed today in black fitted shirt with lilac singlet top underneath, my new flare-dy jeans and black leather heeled boots, french twist hair, pearls and pink lip gloss.

I attended my third yoga class and while I felt good afterwards, it wasn't as enjoyable during. It was hard! At one point I felt like my shoulders and arms were going to snap off, like the vampire fight scene in Eclipse. All for a good cause though, and I'm looking forward to becoming more flexible and stronger week by week.

Tomorrow I plan to start The Great Wardrobe Declutter of 2010. Perhaps a good bout of decluttering can distract me from junque food consumption.

Week 7 Update

Now I know why people go on about yoga. It's so good. I admit I've only attended two classes so far, but they have both been wonderful. It's strenuous and relaxing all at the same time, and after the class I feel like I've had the biggest and best stretch of my life.

I also feel taller, leaner and longer. I am seriously thinking about going twice a week, and maybe doing my own practice at home. I'll want to learn the positions correctly first though, no point in practising at home the wrong way.

When I thought about going twice a week I considered that it will a bit of an outlay, every week. The frugal side of me said this. But really, I would spend the amount of the cost of a class on other, less worthy things without a second thought. I need to get my priorities straight.

I love every part of my class, even the bits that hurt a little (like stretching beyond my comfort zone, or holding a pose for a while). The final ten minutes is worth getting to: you lie on your back with a bolster under your knees, warmly tucked up in blankets and with a rice-filled eyemask on while the teacher takes us through a relaxing meditation. It is simply bliss.

And in other breaking news, the french twist hairstyle has me in its grip. I simply cannot stop wearing my french twist/sheer soft-red lipstick/pearls combo. I am hoping people won't mistake me for a dotty old English duchess, fallen on hard times and living in denial, going around all grand in her pearls and chignon (whilst really working in a shoe shop with jeans on every day).

There's not much to report foodwise. I have been enjoying good, real food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and always a salad with lunch. But I have been having unchic snacks at drinks hour sometimes. What can I say, I'm relaxed about it right now. C'est la vie.

I did have a thought the other day, and it was quite an exciting one. What if I stayed the same weight I am now, for the rest of my life. If I didn't try to lose anything and just relaxed. I would still focus on chic eating and healthiness, and walk and do yoga, but for enjoyment and not weight loss.

It is actually quite a thrilling proposition.

Week 6 Update

This week I have a cold (it's winter where I live). And as much as the start of the week up until Thursday was chic in its eating, on Friday the wheels fell off. I embraced the medicinal properties of Doritos, brandy and Nestle Scorched Almonds. Friday and Saturday there was no salad with lunch. So shall we talk about chic improvements in other areas this week instead?

Thursday lunchtime I attended my first yoga class ever. And it's all thanks to LuxeBytes. Marsi's enthusiastic post extolling the virtues of yoga had me thinking (a lot) about going. In the past I've dismissed yoga simply because it's trendy. If everyone else is on the bandwagon, I'm no-where to be seen. Thankfully these people have moved on (maybe to Pilates?), and yoga is now just a fabulous and gentle exercise option.

It was Iyengar yoga, because apparently there are different types.

I am so pleased I went! There were only four of us in the class, so it was almost like a private lesson. The teacher is Swiss, and she was very helpful in a caring yet firm way. I have decided to go once a week at this stage and am really looking forward to next Thursday.

Afterwards I felt exhilarated yet calm, in a positive mood and nicely worked out without being completely wrung out. And once I know the moves and poses I can challenge myself more. I could feel that I had had a workout the next day, which is quite amazing considering it's not jumping up and down on a step or lifting weights.

I chose a class which is within walking distance of our shop. It is approximately 25 minutes walk there and back and I'm really glad that the walk will be part of my yoga class too. No-one there had fancy dri-fit clothing on either, which I'm really happy about. Making this observation I remembered the saying 'Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes' by Henry David Thoreau. I think about that saying a lot for some reason.

So, go the yoga, and merci beaucoup to Marsi at LuxeBytes.

On a totally more superficial level I have been wearing my hair in a French twist/chignon more often. Practice makes perfect, and I need the practice. I normally wear a sheer-ish pink-ish gloss lipstick, but with the chignon you must wear red.

With my fair colouring I don't want to be a caricature, so I choose a soft sheer red. And when I do this I automatically reach for my pearls. So two days this week I wore my hair in a chignon with red lipstick and pearls. Even in jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt I felt tres chic.

I really want to practice this hairstyle to have it be second-nature for me to do. I asked my husband whether I looked 'Paris girl or old lady' when it did it the first day. 'Paris girl' he said without missing a beat. Correct answer. He would always tell me if it was old lady though.

Sometimes when I ask him about an outfit he'll hesitate and say something diplomatic. He's a Libra after all. We Librans are known for our diplomacy (if I haven't bored you with this before, my husband and I were born on the same day of the same month, one year apart. I'm the older woman/cougar. It's fun having our birthday on the same day. Rather than buy each other a gift we do something like stay the night at a fancy hotel or go all-out for a posh dinner even though we're on a strict budget, ordering everything on the menu).

I learnt something this week. A valuable lesson. My winter cold started on Wednesday and by Thursday I was feeling much better as I had been bombarding my system with high doses of vitamin c (10,000 mg per day). This has worked for me in the past and seemed to be working for me this time.

We had a regular dinner date out with a small group of friends (7 including us) where we meet up once a month on a Thursday for dinner at a BYO restaurant. We would all take turns organising the restaurant so everyone had a chance to visit their favourite, and you would discover others favourites too.

The person who chose this time had made sure three weeks earlier we all knew the date. On Thursday, the day of the dinner we received a call half an hour before the time we were to meet to say 'bring a jacket, we're sitting at an outdoor table'. It is clear to me now that the person in charge of booking had not actually booked until the day, or possibly the day before, to be charitable to her.

My first thought was 'there's no way I'm going out with a cold, to sit outside on a chilly and rainy winter's night for dinner'. Then my husband and I decided we couldn't let them down at the last minute and went. We sat outside and froze. What made it worse is that the person responsible came a full one-hour late.

The next day I felt worse again, and it's only today that I'm starting to feel better. I know cold temperatures can't make you sick, but it can't be good for a body that is trying to recover to be subjected to low temperatures. Warmth is helpful.

As my Uncle T would say 'what would you do differently next time'? Next time I would put myself and my health first, not worry about putting someone out (even if they didn't bother themselves too much with organising the dinner) and sit this one out.

I was seriously annoyed with this person, and also at myself for going. I only thought afterwards that my ideal French girl Sabine would not have gone. She would have practiced self-preservation. A valuable lesson was learnt.

My Favourite Chic Breakfast

One of my favourite breakfasts is poached egg on toast. It is nutritious, delicious and keeps me going until lunchtime.

I used to make it in an egg poaching pan we have which has four little cups, one for each egg. If ever there was a one-trick-pony it's that pan. It's very quick and useful, but I never felt chic eating an egg which was moulded into a perfect round shape, like a jelly. And I had to use an aerosol oil spray to coat the non-stick surface beforehand.

I just couldn't imagine my ideal French girl Sabine using that pan or spray oil in her Paris apartment!

So I simplified to a small saucepan, in which I pour boiling water and a dash of malt vinegar (if you don't already know, a tiny amount of vinegar helps the egg white emulsify quickly for a more successful poached egg).

I'd also just like to say please use free-range eggs. I can't bear the thought of those hard-working little chickens crammed into cages. They deserve better than that. It always makes me sad when I see battery eggs in folks supermarket trolleys. Free-range eggs look a lot healthier too - bright orange/yellow yolks.

Once the water is on a rolling boil I crack in an egg. After a broken yolk disaster and advice from a cafe-owner friend I now open the egg into a small dish and have it waiting. Every so often if the yolk breaks I then have scrambled eggs (better to have it break in a dish, than in boiling water).

What I also do before the egg meets the water (like 'the rubber hits the road', but the kitchen version) is to swirl the water around like a whirlpool with a spoon. Then, when the egg is introduced, all the white starts wrapping around the yolk to make a lovely round bundle, just like you would receive in a cafe.

Oh, and use a deepish pot rather than a flat pan to poach with. Have the toast waiting, as it's only a minute or two before the egg is done (I take it out with a big holey spoon as soon as the white looks done, and the egg yolk is still beautifully runny).

I often ask cafe staff what their secrets are and they are always happy to share. One of the chefs from my favourite cafe was shopping in our store once and when he said where he worked I fell all over him - 'what's the secret to your scrambled eggs there?' I asked. 'Lots of cream and butter', he replied. So when I'm having a more treat-y breakfast I always add a dash of cream to my scrambled eggs and cook them in a little bit of butter.

But back to my poached egg breakfast. Whereas scrambled eggs require two eggs and a dash of cream (so a few more calories), I can happily exist all morning on one egg poached, on a piece of lightly buttered whole-grain toast (Vogels is great bread available here, it's very dense and heavy, chock-full of seeds and grains, and the slices are a lot smaller in size. Nice and chewy too).

Lately I have been tearing up a few basil leaves over the plated egg/toast since our herb pot is growing well. Fresh parsley snipped over the top would be delicious also. The touch of green looks very designer-y. A sprinkle of salt and a crunch of black pepper and it is a dish that would do Sabine proud.

And of course breakfast is not complete without a cafe au lait. I make mine with a shot of strong coffee (brewed in a Bialetti) topped up with with milk, then microwaved hot. If I run out of real coffee, I make a very strong coffee with a teaspoon of freeze-dried coffee and a tiny amount of hot water, then top up and microwave as before.

Bon appetit.