First, let me apologise for the length of time that has passed since my last post..Over a month. Shocking.
I have been pushing myself a bit too far I guess between working my normal job and as an actress, studying to prepare for my first day at uni (now been and gone) and desperately trying to find a new home as me and Patch will be leaving our current one next week (still looking by the way, so should you know of any 1 bed in Crystal Palace....). A lot to take in.
The final blow hit me about 10 days ago, I had just worked non stop for 7 days, done my first weekend at uni which I found very overwhelming and then flew to Rome the morning after for an acting job.
Even though I absolutely loved being in Italy, getting the chance to see my best friends and working with some wonderful people, I also managed to catch some kind of virus but still the show had to go on, so I pushed my body through 4 performances and then collapsed at the airport on the way back.
The reason why I am telling you this is because I am always very good at telling my friends to take care of their bodies, mind and spirit but turns out I obviously didn't quite listen to my own words.
Yes, I have always eaten a pretty healthy diet, unfortunately taking the time to relax and breathe wasn't as high a priority on my agenda lately as I thought I was too busy for that but let me tell you, now that my body has decided to go into reboot mode, downtime has shot up to first place in the chart.
The diagnosis at the ER was acute gastroenteritis which means I basically haven't been able to eat almost anything for the past week and since I heard that lots of people are getting sick out there, probably due to the weather or maybe the very same bug I caught..I thought I'd share with you what I DID manage to eat and made me feel better while recovering. Maybe it might help you a little.
The first 24 hours i literally couldn't handle anything so I had one lemon tea (kindly offered to me by my ER doctor) and little sips of water throughout the day.
Then I moved on to rice and corn crackers. They literally saved me life. I couldn't even smell anything remotely sweet or with a bit of flavour and these were savoury but not too salty and the perfect consistence.
And now the Italian heritage comes in. My next stop was Fette Biscottate. I'm not sure what they'd be called here in the UK, toasted mini bread?Here's a picture to make your life easier..
The can be subtly sweet and in Italy we have them for breakfast with jam or Nutella or dipped in our caffelatte...Mmmmm..
I bought mine from an Italian deli here on Northcote Road and they fed me for the next couple of days, first two every couple of hours (my stomach has shrank ridiculously, so a bit of food at regular intervals...), plain or maybe dipped into a camomile to make them mushy and easier on my stomach.
then when i felt a bit bolder, i had them with some mashed avocado on top.
And a couple days later I added some smoked salmon on the avocado. So good.
It felt incredible to finally have something tasty after all these days..
Now, avocado has played a big part in my recovery as it was easy for me to digest and full of nutrients and good fats and since I have lost a lot of weight that it exactly what I needed.
Just make sure you get ripe ones because there's nothing worse than a hard tasteless avocado.
Here's how I quickly prepare my Magic Avocado Mash:
1 ripe avocado
Juice of less than half a lemon
Pinch Himalyan or sea salt
1/2 tbsp extravirgin olive oil
A little ground pepper to taste (optional. i didn't have it while ill but on a regular day I'd definitely have it on top)
Spoon the avocado flesh in a bowl, add the remaining ingredients and mash with a fork till smooth.
Spread on Fette Biscottate or Dark German Multi seeded bread (another of my favourite things when on a normal diet) and add toppings of your choice or just eat like that.
As for keeping hydrated, I could only take little sips of room temperature water for the first couple of days, then I started with slowly sipping on a cup of hot water with a squeeze of lemon in the morning and if I felt that food wasn't going down too well or started to give me pains I would quickly prepare my Healing Ginger Tea. This fresh tea has helped me through cold and nausea so far so here's the recipe:
1 thumb size piece of fresh ginger root
1 tsp manuka honey
1 squeeze of fresh lemon juice
Peel and slice the ginger and boil it for 15-20 minutes.
Pour it in your favourite mug (leave out the ginger bits!) and add honey and lemon. Stir, breathe and enjoy.
A few other things I built up to after all the dry foods were steamed spinach with a little olive oil and a pinch of salt or boiled courgettes with that same dressing. Everything back to basics in order to give time to my stomach to heal.
I'm still on the mend but slowly and surely moving towards full recovery which makes me oh so happy.
Before I leave you though, please make sure you understand that everything in this post is what worked for me and that everybody is different so these are ideas you could try but it doesn't necessarily mean they are going to have the same effect on you.
The main thing is for you to listen to your body because nobody knows it better than you.
Have a beautiful weekend everyone!
Love,
xxx
Valentina
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