Changing Habits Changing Lives by Cyndi O'Meara

Last Easter, I discovered this book by Cyndi O'Meara in a second-hand bookshop in Mornington.

I've been reading stuff about food, where it comes from, how to eat properly, stay healthy etc for years and years.
Where I can, I make changes in my daily eating habits.
Some of these changes stick; some don't.
Some work; some don't.

I employ a healthy amount of scepticism (and research) before doing anything drastic. I also use a certain amount of 'gut-feeling' (no pun intended!) about what makes sense and what doesn't.

This books works for me.

A couple of quotes might help to explain why.

"This is not a revolutionary diet...it's an evolutionary diet. It is not something new - it's something quite old...as a consequence, this is a diet which our bodies thrive on."

"A healthy diet is not just about the number of calories or the amount of fat; it should take a holistic approach. This book is about changing your lifestyle, the way you feel, the way you think about food."

"Most diets expect you to change everything overnight. That's why most people stick to such a diet for 2-6 weeks, and then go back to their old ways. The way to use this book is to read a chapter and then make a change...Once you've mastered that single change of habit and it becomes a part of your life, go on to the next change."

Makes sense doesn't it?

I've had this book for 13 months now and I've just completed chapter 10 "Go Back to Butter".

Some of the chapters were easy for me as they were habits I already had, or partially had. A couple were completely new ways of approaching things and took time. And Chapter 3 on eating slowly is still a work in progress!

Chapter 6 is about healthy reading. The main focus of the chapter is to read the information labels on the food you buy more closely. However I also took on board the idea of reading more about food and health to confirm/deny O'Meara's theories.

There is a lot of conflicting information out there. And a lot of it is sponsored research from multinational companies that make food products!

There are also people like Michael Pollan - a journalist and family man interested in healthy eating who decided to research what kind of food he and his family should eat.

The result has been several books such as 'The Omnivore's Dilemma', 'In Defence of Food' and 'The Botany of Desire'.

He is coming to Australia in July so I've been going through his book called 'Food Rules: An Eater's Manual' .

It has been a great complementary read to O'Meara's book.

Here's a few simple rules that I particularly like...

"Eat only food that will eventually rot".

"It's not food if it arrived through the window of your car."

"Eat your colours".

"Eat animals that have themselves eaten well."

"Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the colour of the milk."

"Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself."

"Have a glass of wine with dinner."

Speaking of which, my husband is serving up our homemade spaghetti bolonaise right now, which is my cue to pour 2 glasses of wine...and eat well.

Bon appetit!