Gluten free, dairy free healthy lunch - 3 bean tuna salad

Today I had the healthiest lunch in the world. Well, ok, perhaps not in the world EVER, but certainly compared to my recent crap eating, it's pretty healthy:

It is a tuna and bean salad: kidney beans, chickpeas, white beans, a red pepper, spring onions and tuna, with a balsamic vinegar, mustard, thyme-and-oregano and olive oil dressing.

It is lovely.

Which is good, because there is so much of it, I may be eating it for the rest of my life...

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Summer arrives - couch 2 5k and strawberries

The sunshine has arrived! This is a momentous thing, having come from the frozen north where winter lasts for ever (especially this year!) and it has inspired me to be healthier.

I know, I know, me and every other person in the Western world. But still. I'm at least 10 kilos heavier than I want to be, and 2 dress sizes bigger than I'd like, so it's time to do something about it.

In this case, "something" is starting out with beginning some exercise and eating more fruit and vegetables (bonus: they're cheaper than eating out, so there's that) - I think baby steps are definitely the way to go here.

I've started doing the Couch 2 5k programme again (I'm sure I blogged at length about this previously) - it aims to get people who do no exercise (hi!) from that point to being able to run 5km. It worked last time (in that I went from being totally utterly unfit to being able to run for 30 minutes consecutively without dying), and I surprised myself by finding I actually enjoyed it, so keep your fingers crossed for me this time too...

The first run went well - I didn't die - and I had breakfast on the beach. Strawberries are awesome. Tonight we are having salad nicoise, which rocks.

Breakfast of champions

(Side note while I think of it: I'm likely to write a bit about food and the like on this blog - and not all of it will be the super-healthy food you probably think I ought to be eating in order to lose weight. I thank you in advance for not commenting on this.)

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Today, I walked.

When we woke up, we decided to go for a walk this morning. From Monaco to Villefranche. For lunch. Google tells me this is 16ish kilometres, which is enough to make my legs a little bit sore now, and I may well be unable to move tomorrow.

But the sun was shining, the views are beautiful and once you're actually up at the Moyenne Corniche, the road is mostly flat. (Except the detours to avoid the motorway tunnel just before Eze. That introduces some startling steep hills.)

I'm glad I did it - it's not necessarily a walk I'd do in the middle of summer, but today was just lovely! (Photos might follow, if any of them have turned out well - you get a great view of Eze as you're walking up to it, with all its terraces splaying out down the mountain, but my camera was being a bit weird, so I'm not sure if it came out properly.)

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Post Office: reopened

The New Exciting Package that was waiting for me at the post office has been recovered: it's my yoga DVDs. As part of my continuing search for healthy, and since it's now too hot to go running any time after about 6am, I've decided to take up yoga. We'll see whether I like it or not...

This means your Heavy Exciting Package is still somewhere in transit, Fran. As is my new jewellery stuff - I'm going to teach myself to make soldered jewellery. Remind me to check the insurance cover on our house, to see what the fire damage section says...

ETA: Your Heavy Exciting Package was delivered this afternoon, Fran, along with a note that says I have another package waiting at the post office that they couldn't deliver because of roadworks. Sure. But thank you!! I am set for days and days of lying on the beach reading Guardian magazines; this makes me ridiculously happy! Now if only the weather will sort itself out, all will be perfect. As it is, it feels rather like being in England when global warming has finally kicked in...

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A vegan day

Today, I managed a whole day of meals that were completely vegan. And wheat free. I'm clearly adjusting to my new range of dietary restrictions...

For breakfast I had a melon - one of those little ones with green skin and orange insides. It was lovely.

For lunch, I had a (homemade) white bean, sun-dried tomato and peanut butter dip, with carrots. (It was nicer than it sounds.)

For dinner, I had sweet potato and chickpea curry with brown rice. (Much better than I expected, given that I was making it up as I went along...)

Aren't you all stunned and amazed by my healthiness? Go on, lie to me if need be...

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Sunshine's back

If I'd waited til now to go for a run, it would have been a good idea - it's beautiful, warm sunshine again. And the sea is all turquoise again and lovely. Albeit with slightly fewer boats than normal.

Today's healthy lunch is pretty similar to yesterdays, with carrot sticks replacing stew. Do I get a prize for eating more rice cakes in a week than anyone else? They're oddly addictive.

Also, I have succeeded in finding someone to fix my jeans. I bought some jeans months ago, that were the right size (well, they are now, anyway) but the legs were way, way too long. Apparently people with a waist my size ought to be about 6 foot. I am, as those of you who have met me will know, not quite 6 foot. So I have finally managed to find a woman who will fix them for me - and she didn't laugh too much at my utter incompetence sewing-wise. I know it's a simple thing to do, but I can't do it. I am ashamed of that, if it helps at all... Anyway, next week she'll have trousers for me that I can wear outside without trailing in the rain and dog shit. What more could anyone ask for?

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My fridge is full of healthy!

I have more vegetables and healthy things in my house than I know what to do with. I am super-healthy. Today's lunch is evidence. I even have ricecakes! Rice cakes! If that's not the very definition of healthy, I don't know what is.

Today's lunch, then, for your amazement and applause:

Beef and tomato stew, steamed broccoli, hummus and rice cakes. So healthy.

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