What I eat in a day

I’ve been asked to share what I eat in a day, and I’m happy to do so.  I’m always curious to find out about daily things that other people do too.  It’s always really interesting!

Starting off in the morning when I first get up at 6am I have a big glass of water then make myself a steaming hot cup of tea (trim milk, no sugar thank you, nice and strong).  I drink this, sometimes two if it’s a Sunday morning.  I then go for my walk if it’s possible time-wise/weather-wise, otherwise I go in the afternoon.  After my walk I have a shower and then my breakfast.  For years now I’ve eaten chopped fresh fruit with mixed raw nuts and sometimes other goodies like sunflower or chia seeds for breakfast.  After that I have a homemade soy latte.  I brew up my Bialetti and stir in with soy milk I heat in the microwave.

On the weekends I might have gluten free toast with butter and jelly or gluten free bagels with cream cheese.

I don’t do morning tea, just another cup of tea and a few more glasses of water throughout the morning.  At the Estee Lauder event featuring makeup artist Victor Henao someone in the audience asked him how to do your foundation so it lasted all day.  His answer was surprising – drink more water!  He said dehydrated skin sucks the foundation in and it makes a big difference when you are properly hydrated from within.  Fascinating!  I’ve always drunk a lot of water - for decades - so maybe that’s why I get comments on my skin being nice.

Lunch is usually a big salad on weekdays, made up with whatever ingredients we have around – lettuce, tomato, cucumber, celery plus protein such as cold roast chicken or lamb and chopped avocado.  On Fridays we have ‘bought lunch’ (just like at school) – our favourite is sushi, I have fresh (not smoked) salmon and avocado.  Lately on Saturdays we’ve been making gluten-free mini-wraps topped with gourmet sauce as a base, shredded mozzarella cheese, sliced mushroom and capsicum and salami.  Sort of a mini-pizza.  Sundays are a bit more loose too - I'm more relaxed on the weekend and don't worry so much about getting scurvy from not enough vegetables (although I probably do still have my 5+ a day even on a vege-lite day, what can I say, I love vegetables).

When it’s colder we have homemade soup or quiche for lunch and a side salad.  Since my husband and I work together we eat the same 99% of the time.

Afternoon is my danger time for nibbling non-nutritious snacky/sweet foods, so I have a handful of raw almonds if I get hungry.  Mostly though, if I make sure I have enough protein at lunchtime, that gets me right through to dinner time.  When I had a personal trainer for a while years ago, he looked at my food log for the week and told me I didn’t eat enough protein ‘like a lot of girls’ were his words.  It’s true too, I’d rather have carbs than protein.  But I do it, I eat the protein and try and keep a lid on the carbs (and by carbs I mean potato chips, not good carbs) because I want to have a long and healthy life.

Dinner is quite early at the moment because it’s Autumn here and it gets dark just after 6pm, so it already seems later than it is.  We usually eat not long after we get home from work and that way there is a lovely long evening stretching out in front of us and plenty of time to digest.

For dinner we often have oven-cooked meals like roasts or bakes, and always with loads of vegetables.  It’s not often that we’ll have rice or pasta meals, they are kept for occasional treats.  In my new book 'Thirty Chic Days: Practical inspiration for a beautiful life' I devote an entire chapter to the topic of eating real food because I believe it is so important.  I promise the book will be out very soon; it's in the final, final stages of proofreading and editing!

After dinner I usually have a peppermint or fruit tea with two squares of dark chocolate.  It’s best that I have only that type of chocolate in the house because if there's anything more junky I'll eat it like there is no tomorrow.  Dark chocolate is different though, I can happily have just a few pieces and put the packet back in the pantry.

Edited to add photos:

Breakfast on a normal morning - this one is feijoa and pineapple sprinkled with gluten-free berry flakes cereal, chia seeds, walnuts and coconut flakes.  Soy latte for afters.  I usually have more nuts but I was running low.  I like a couple of brazils for selenium (New Zealand has very low selenium soil), almonds, macademias etc.  Sometimes I have a few big spoonfuls of thick, unsweetened green yoghurt and sometimes I don't.  I don't add milk.

Salad for lunch.  Lettuce, homegrown tomatoes, capsicum (bell pepper?), cucumber, avocado and chicken breast cooked the night before with double cream brie on gluten-free crostini.  I didn't have dressing this day because the avocado makes it all so yummy together.  We try to always have avocados on hand to have half or one every day because they are soooo good for you.  I don't usually have the cheese and crackers every day, that's a treat for when I'm at home/maybe once a week.  At work I'll just have the salad bowl.  It's a big bowl though!  It takes me ages to get through (I'm quite a slow eater) and, when it contains both protein and avocado, keeps me full right through to dinner time.

I finally remembered to take a photo of my dinner before I scoffed it down (chicly scoffed it down).  This night we had crumbed chicken thigh cutlets (I usually have one piece, but they were small so I had two).  I make my own coating with gluten-free crumbs, and have a play around with seasonings.  This mix was particularly delicious using chicken salt, yellow curry powder, cumin and hot chili flakes (it wasn't too hot overall though, just a light tang).  With the chicken we had roast potato, pumpkin and onion, and steamed cauliflower and broccoli.  With gluten-free chicken gravy (not homemade but I do homemade with a proper roast).  It was delicious!

And that’s me!  What I eat in a day.  If you have any specific questions I’m happy to answer them in the comments.  I’d also love you to let me know any tips you have for eating in a chic and healthy way.

Chic Technique: The Chic Pattern Interrupter

I’ve heard this term ‘pattern interrupt’ and it seems to be used to describe anything you can use to stop you doing what you’re doing and go in a different direction.  It’s most popularly used to help you exchange bad habits for good ones.

Examples I've heard are wearing a hairband around your wrist and snapping it when you find yourself in a bad habit such as thinking negatively or gossiping etc.  You can also use a word or affirmation to snap yourself out of an unhelpful train of thought or when you’re about to indulge in a habit you want to change such as snacking between meals and eating when you’re not hungry.  Something as simple as the word 'chic' or 'I am chic today and always'.

In today’s video I share some of my ‘chic’ pattern interrupters; ideas that I have found really useful as I build my desired life day-by-day.  Please enjoy the video for more information; you will also find a list of what I discuss below:

Fiona’s Chic Pattern Interrupters

Watch a chic French DVD

Go to the movies and see something stylish

Dress up and go out – even if just to window-shop

Go for a walk

Book a haircut

Pick something off your wish-list and make plans for it

Read a book from my shelf at home.

Do the opposite of what you’d normally do.  For me, I’m so frugal – it’s a habit now – even though I don’t need to be as much these days as opposed to five years ago, so I chose two things and spent money on them (still not that much).

And a few more I thought of afterwards:

Swap lipstick for gloss or vice versa

Change the side you part your hair on

Paint your nails if they’re normally bare

Move clothing around in your wardrobe so that different pieces are at the front

Sort and fold a clothing drawer – the next day feels different when I’m getting dressed!

Move furniture or pictures around

Change anything ornamental on display

None of the above are very earth-shattering, but I find it’s the tiny changes that are quickest and easiest to make, and they still have an effect.  Minimum effort, maximum result - that's what works for me.

I do hope you view the video and I’d love to hear any ideas that come up for you.  As always, I enjoy adding new ideas to my list.  I have a whole folder on my computer called Fiona’s Notebook and it has lists such as the one above.  I love visiting this folder for a browse and to be inspired.  I decided to name the folder ‘Fiona’s Notebook’ instead of ‘My Notebook’ and any files I add now are called (for example):

Fiona’s Journal Prompts

Fiona’s Décor Style

Fiona’s Favourite Quotes

Fiona’s Affirmations etc

From this simple naming change I find that I love them more.  One of Dale Carnegie’s tips in How to Win Friends and Influence People (such a great book) is to use a person’s name when you are speaking with them because the sweetest word in the entire world to a person is their own name.  Why not use the same technique on yourself by personalising all your inspiration files?

I remember a funny story about that book - I was reading it on a plane trip home many years ago and I'd just finished the 'use the other person's name' chapter when we landed.  I thanked the stewardess by name as I disembarked (she was wearing a badge) and her whole face changed into a big smile.  I was quite taken aback at how quickly Mr Carnegie's tip was proven correct!

The lazy girl's guide to chic

Personal style laziness is something I confront most days of the week. I love to see ladies (and guys) make the effort to look good and I like to look like I care as well, but seriously, it’s often an uphill battle.

I’d rather read a few more pages of my current book (After You by JoJo Moyes, so good, but you have to read Me Before You first) than spend the extra ten minutes making my blow-dry professional rather than perfunctory.

I’d rather eat a few more chocolates than be stylishly skinny.

I’d rather stay in and knit on the sofa than hit the latest hotspots.

But you already know those things about me I’m sure.

To not slip completely into a fashion abyss, what I’ve been doing lately is sneaking little bits of style into my day without me even noticing. And when I do, I tell myself it’s easy, it’s not an effort, it’s no problem. I cajole myself along like a child.

In my dream world, I would look effortlessly chic without effort. But I know that doesn’t happen in real life. In the real world when I don’t make an effort I look like I’ve given up on life. Apparently, those sneaky French women make a ton of effort, but the whole goal is to look uncontrived. It takes a lot of effort to look uncontrived!

But I’m willing to learn. I have my bible How to be Parisian wherever you are and it speaks my language. The French girls do make an effort but they do it in a fun and sexy way. If you have your life set up so that your only choice is a chicly curated wardrobe of fabulousness, you can’t go out in something that you know deep in your heart is telling everyone that you come from Frumpsville. If you don’t have a pantry full of different genres of snack foods then you have to eat a piece of fruit instead. And if you tell yourself you’re wearing high heels to work today even though flats would be so easy, you just do it.

And that’s my current ‘thing’. I’m wearing high heels to work. And it feels good! I accept compliments from my husband and feel sexier in myself. In skinny jeans, a slouchy top and high-heeled sandals, I feel chic and like I could happily pop into a cool bar after work. In the same outfit with flat sandals… I don’t. Not that I ever do pop into a cool bar after work, but I could, if I wanted to.

I was telling a customer a few weeks ago that she was the inspiration for me wearing heels more. This lady is a few years older than me and has high-school aged children. I have never seen her in flats. She’s always elegant and wearing heels, and permanently sunny in nature. My husband overheard what I was saying and told her it was true, I did say that. Our customer then told us that her inspiration is a 83 year old lady who still wears high heels and our customer would say to herself ‘well if she’s still wearing heels then I can too’.

How funny is that? The inspiration goes on, passing from one person to another. So you never know who you will influence by doing that one little extra thing on your appearance today. And that’s how I keep laziness at bay, one sneaky trick against myself at a time, one tiny tweak or upgrade.

And just in case you think I’m wearing 5-inch heels, I’m not. The heels I’m currently wearing are a little bit higher than I’d normally wear, and I’m a big fan of finding heels that are all-day-wearable. They do exist and it’s just a matter of looking around at them, not just discounting all heels as uncomfortable.

What’s the first thought that popped into your mind that you could upgrade easily and effortlessly? We’re talking minimum effort/maximum payoff. Please share! And let’s all wear our heels tomorrow shall we?