Christmas Food and Three Extra Pounds

"Christmas Cake - - One of your Five a Day!"


In an ideal world, there would be Government posters advertising this kind of thing.

"Apple and Blackberry Crumble? Two of your Five a Day! Eat Two and a Half Portions for Ideal Nutrition!"

Sadly it's not an ideal world.

I've put on three pounds over Christmas and it's all my own fault. Okay, and it's Park Hotel's fault for providing food that I like so much.

It's not that I haven't eaten healthy food: here's some healthy porridge, just like I have at home:

Except at home I don't have cream on it. Which probably isn't too healthy. But oh! it was delicious!

And I was very good, only had the full English breakfast on one of the days - - - though actually, this was partly because I'd never have been able to manage it. In the summer when I'm in Tenby I will have a long evening walk after dinner and then a half-mile swim in the pool before breakfast - - but since the pool is open-air and was frozen, and it was too snowy and slippery to walk after dark, I couldn't do that on this visit.

So I just wasn't hungry enough for a fried breakfast: so for breakfast on most days, after the porridge, I had this: it's called Fruit Platter and I wish someone would plonk such a thing in front of me for breakfast at home:

Luckily I love fruit and sometimes at dinner there was a fruity starter which was always good:

And my Christmas Dinner main course had lots of vegetables in it:

Peas! Cauliflower! Sprouts! Carrots! Parsnips! Potatoes! And surely cranberry sauce must count as a vegetable? Of course, the cauliflower was in a rich and delicious cheese sauce. And the sprouts had bits of bacon and croutons on them, just to slip in some extra calories. (I love sprouts. Yes, I know you may think that's weird).

Of course, after that lot I then said to my self, in an interesting burst of self-delusion: "Diabetic? Me? Not on Christmas Day, surely!" and ate Christmas pudding with brandy sauce - - and I loved it, sighhhh.

Of course, I could lie to you and say that's a small portion - - but it wasn't. Those bowls are enormous! On another day I had Bailey's Cheesecake which was one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten and probably contained enough calories to stretch to the Moon and back. Did I take a photo of it? No. Too busy attacking it with my spoon!

However, I didn't drink any alcohol - water or diet Coke was my drink of choice. And we did walk a lot round Tenby. But it's easy to see where those three pounds have come from and I am just grateful it wasn't more.

I know I was very lucky to have all this delicious food put in front of me this Christmas. I can't say that I missed getting up early to put the turkey in the oven. I don't regret all the food that I ate: it was fantastic. I'm sorry that I am three pounds heavier and I'd better get set to swim them off, but I loved every moment of my Christmas food.