So here’s half of the first month gone. The new year has definitely started. You might have wondered where I was. I was starting to wonder the same thing. Well, life happened, like I mentioned in my previous post. I’ve got a 4-year-old getting used to (pre-)school life plus a new day care to match, and we got a couple of fresh poo-ey trousers to remind us that not having nappies doesn’t mean the (school) toilet is an attractive destination for every type of secretion. Well. It seems to have passed by now 😉
Energy level: December food and January blues
I half expected that two weeks of not working would restore my energy level, which happened to some extent – I did get outside more often, and I got a bit of much-needed rest. But the main difference came once I returned to a normal eating pattern. By which I mean not having quite so much sweet stuff. Most importantly, I returned to my favorite bowl of energy food from a couple of years back. Here’s the recipe, try it and see if you like it:
- oats (not corn flakes for breakfast. Oat flakes for lunch). I buy organic crispy oats with honey. The one without honey lasts longer because I’m the only one at home who likes it, but the shop doesn’t always have them so I end up stuffing the package into the back of the cupboard so I don’t end up finding everything gone. I’ve noticed I really need this kind of food whenever my battery is low.
- raisins (organic)
- add, if you like, some mulberries (organic. What did you expect?). It’s a new addition on my part, because I happened to buy some last month.
- I’ve been thinking about getting some sunflower seeds for an extra nutty flavor without the nuts (allergies).
- I used to add milk or yogurt until my maternity assistant told me that if I wanted to restore my blood iron level, combining oats and other foods with something like orange juice made more sense. Apparently calcium doesn’t help your body extract iron from foodstuffs, but vitamin C does. It took me some getting used to – the trick is not to overdo it and to drink (half) a glass of juice afterward.
So here’s my rather late resolution for this year: to have a bowl of my power lunch mixture at least once a week 🙂
How do you keep your energy level up in winter?
Content Rambler 
It slipped my mind that you have a young’un. Definitely that comes first, life comes first. Oh preschool, I do remember… 🙂
I like your mixture. I can imagine it would return your energy as it’s slow releasing energy, is oats – & raisins, I think. I used to eat sultanas like crazy – handfuls of them. Just loved them. But could never get Daniel into eating them. I just don’t know why!!
Here’s to your energy staying high – needs to, you’re a Mum 🙂
The things some kids don’t like – I’ll never understand, I know of several kids who don’t like any kind of fruit, or just one. Just one.
Thank you and you’re right: after all the sugary stuff, slow releasing energy is such a helper… Plus it adds iron, chlorine, magnesium and basically everything candy doesn’t provide 🙂
Oh those days of potty training. So much fun ;).
I don’t work. People assume that not going to a job makes life less stressful. So untrue. It means you’re working 24 hours a day, always on duty.
I get energy by going to the gym.
Yeah, I get that. Some say they’d get bored without a job, me, I’d finally get around to doing all the other stuff I either don’t do or squeeze into a spare half-hour.
But not having a job means you’re 100% accountable for all the other stuff. I recently said to my other half that if we wanted so-and-so we’d have to hire a housewife, because we definitely – visibly – don’t have one of those yet 😉