Last week I was coaching 15 year olds in a school in Bournville and living in the Norfolk Hotel on Birmingham's Hagley Road. I would have trouble recommending that hotel to anyone. No hot water for 3 days, no heating, a TV with just 5 viewing channels, two of which, had such poor reception they were unwatchable and a poky, smoky bar which charge 3.40 for a G&T! Not to mention the attitude of the hotel manageress. Apalling.
Anyway, having established that the fruit juice was pasteurised and the grapefruit segments of the tinned 'in syrup' variety, I opted to breakfast in my own room each morning on my own blend of muesli I'd brought with me. They did offer muesli, but you can be certain it will have contained sugar and salt and not much besides oats. My blend was organic oats, linseeds, dehydrated raw and untreated coconut chips, sultanas, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, brazils, hazlenuts and walnuts - all finely chopped and blended. I simply added a little bottled water and was away!
I had also taken some avocados, tomatoes, mixed nuts and my supergreen powders with me in case I got stuck at any point. Such planning was admirable; the choices I made once there less so.
Each day at school, a special lunch was provided for us coaches. It was really very thoughtful of the school to do this and each day there was salad of some kind, but I still ended up eating wheat in the form of pastry and bread. Of course, I could have left it, but coaching 28 teenagers is exhausting work and any fuel was better than none at all.
In the evenings I did a little better selecting fish, vegetable and salad dishes at various restaurants in the area, and I made sure I ate as early as possible. But I did give in to wine - most nights in fact. I never dared take a bottle of supergreens into school with me. I can only begin to imagine the kind of response that would have provoked.
But by the Thursday, this new diet got the better of me and I caved in and had 2 desserts of the chocolate variety. One cake for lunch and one torte for dinner!
On Friday, we had a special buffet which included little squares of pizza, cheese straws, bagels and various sweet and savoury pastries. And I had a bit of everything, rationalising that come next week, I'd be back on the straight and narrow.
Fortunately, none of these antics were enough to do any lasting damage. I had slight pain on Thursday and Friday, but nothing that a challenging class of 15 year olds couldn't take my mind off. And no other symptoms at all.
I'm now back home and have refilled my pantry and fridge with healthy supplies of nuts, quinoa, ocean caught cod, millet bread, corn and rice pasta and plenty of fresh produce. But the temptation to eat sweet stuff is enormous and I don't mind telling you that I'm finding it a challenge and I'm extremely tired.
Time for some affirmations and positive thoughts that serve me methinks...
