Welcome back routine!

Over Easter I was privileged to have a two week break, while the kids were off school. It was a holiday of two parts, a break in Co Clare with the extended family to celebrate a significant birthday in my husbands family, this was self catering and the second part was in a hotel in Cork while my eldest competed in a sailing event where we had to eat out all the time.

Over the past few months I have been following the intermittent fasting. This means that I fast for 14 hours overnight. Finish dinner at 6pm and hen breakfast at 8am. I have found some positive benefits to this. More energy, better concentration, better sleep, reduced apetite, people have also commented how good my skin looks. Best of all when I went back to the nutritional therapist my metabolic age was 6 years younger than my physical age and my visceral fat (fat around your organs) was very low.

However, this routine was not followed over the past two weeks, and I really felt it.

Self catering in The Burren in Clare meant I was in control of the food, we had amazing meals, all cooked from scratch each person taking responsibility to cook on one night for everyone. It meant early evening G&Ts, late night chats with wine and for those with young kids, early mornings! Each morning I had my hot water with lemon on waking but as dinner was often late and trying to fit in with everyone else's schedule I didn't stick to my usual 14 hour fasting overnight. I began to feel sluggish, realised I was eating more than I usually would in 24 hours and wasn't as sharp as usual. I did bring my nut porridge and milk kefir with me so had this for breakfast each day, that was huge help. Despite several walks along The Flaggy shore to Linalla Ice cream parlour, I didn't eat any ice cream, left that to the kids!

Leaving Clare and heading to Cork I was already not looking forward to hotel breakfasts and having to eat out all the time. It was a great novelty for the kids to stay in a hotel and have a buffet breakfast each day! It was interesting for me to see how much more we eat because the food was there. For those who travel all the time it must be so challenging to stick to a healthy diet. The kids stopped taking certain items from the buffet as they just weren't as good as a home. However, I'm not sure my banana and blueberry pancakes are as impressive as the automatic pancake machine in the hotel!!

I will be developing a recipe for a healthier sweet and sour chicken as this was a big hit, so watch this space!!

Back home last night, called for a wholesome dinner of Roast chicken, roast veg, potatoes and of course gravy and stuffing for the kids!

I bought a large Irish Free Range Chicken, seasoned it and put an onion halved in the cavity, roast it for 1.5hrs, then I peeled rooster potatoes and steamed them for 15 mins before roasting them in olive oil, garlic and salt.
Next I prepared two trays of veg to roast, as in the photo above.

We all enjoyed the meal, even the kids ate more veg than they did roast potatoes, we were all craving simple, wholesome foods.

I also prepared nut porridge for this week to ensure we have enough for breakfasts and Dahl for lunches. I believe that the quality of the food we eat and when we eat it is so important to how we feel! Make sure you have healthy food to hand to help with your choices.

How do you feel heading back into this week of normal routine after the Easter break?