Nakd Treats

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Nakd bars and nibbles have been my go to treats these last few weeks ever since I got my results.  I have a major sweet tooth, like a major one.  I feel like I need something sweet after every meal, which I know probably isn’t very healthy but I just can’t seem to shift the habit.  Nakd have really helped me out with this problem any time I’ve ever tried to diet or give myself a health kick.  More so now though, that I can’t sit back with a bar of chocolate or just any regular slice of cake.  They’ve been my saviour for my cravings, and a really healthy one at that!

Nakd treats are made with 100% pure and natural fruits and nuts, making them perfect for a quick snack or pick me up throughout the day. All bars and nibbles are gluten/dairy/wheat free, as well as being suitable for vegans too.  The majority of Nakd snacks have a total of 3-7 ingredients in them – and better yet, you can actually pronounce and would probably recognise them all if they were laid out in front of you to see!   Nakd have such a wide array of flavours that are available now, with anything from pecan pie to chocolate orange to ginger bread.  With so many flavours to choose from, and trust me… there have been many occasions that these bars have helped me out – I’ve been able to select the chosen few that makes me sad to run out of at any time.

Cherry Bakewell has been a favourite treat of mine for many years now, I love the sweet taste of the marzipan and the cherry with the icing – and I’ve been lucky enough to find a gluten and dairy free alternative of the real deal too.  When I spied that Nakd had created a healthy bar of one of my favourite treats – I grabbed it and can say with 100% honesty that it is the exact replica of the pretty calorific tea time tart!  From the smell, to the taste and even the texture, Nakd have managed to whip together the most perfect healthy alternative that there possibly could be.  Bakewell Tart is my absolute favourite out of all of the bars, and I try to always pick them up whenever they are available to buy.

The Fruit Salad Nakd Nibbles have been my go too snack for whenever I fancy a sweetie style snack.  Depending on what I have just had for my tea, I either like to have something chocolatey or fruity – so the Fruit Salad and Mint Humbugs have been my favourites for these occasions. They are perfect for munching straight out of the bag, or mixing in with a yoghurt or even in some cereal throughout the day.  Surprisingly enough too, they are actually pretty filling on their own, so they are great for munching in-between lunch and tea time to keep you going. 

My all-time favourite chocolate snack is always anything chocolate orange flavoured.  Coffee, body scrub and the real deal itself, if its chocolate orange – I’ll probably love it.  So the fact that Nakd have managed to create another one of my all time favourite treats was absolutely fantastic news for me.  Although slightly more chocolatey than orangey, it really is a yummy snack to munch on whenever I’m feeling the need to satisfy my cravings.  Not quite as good as the real deal, but hey – they can’t all be perfect!

If you’ve not tried out any of the Nakd nibbles or treats yet, then I highly recommend that you do.  They are the perfect little sweet treat to munch on, and are pretty much guilt free too!  I'm keeping my eyes peeled for the mint chocolate bars right now, but I can't seem to find them anywhere!

What is your favourite Nakd treat?

Until the next one,

Food Intolerance Test – Foods I Can Eat

I’m now starting my fourth week on my yeast/dairy/gluten/garlic/chilli/ginger free diet – what a mouthful, huh?  It was really daunting and difficult to start off with, but I can actually say that I’m almost enjoying it now.  I’ve seen a great improvement to my overall health this last month; I’m not bloated every day, my skin feels and even looks healthy, I’ve lost weight and I’ve felt that I’ve had a lot more energy overall.  I don’t tend to take many naps anymore either, which was something I used to do near every single day!  So yeah, I’m really happy that with another two weeks to go, there is still potential to see even more good come from my diet change. 

Mum made me some blueberries muffins!

At the end of the six weeks, I’m looking forward to introducing garlic and chilli back into my diet… slowly.  I’m pretty content now with my gluten/yeast/dairy freeways, but I’m really excited to get some flavour back into my life!  I’m just really hoping that these are not the foods that are contributing to my eczema, as the one thing I miss the most from this whole experience is garlic! 

When we discovered that chilli and garlic is in almost every single jar of pasta sauce, we improvised and made our own!

There are a number of foods that I have come across this last month that are surprisingly gluten/dairy/yeast free – which have pretty much been my go too snacks and dinners:

-baked beans         

-almond butter                 

-quorn roast chicken peices

-pombears             

-kettle chips                     

-quorn peppered steak

-ruffles bars           

 -seabrook lattice crisps     

-linda mcarthney red onion sausages

-skinny popcorn      

-propercorn                      

-quorn bacon

-nakd bars              

-eggs                               

-fruit yoyos

-rice cakes              

-rice                                 

-fruit winders

-plant based milks  

-violife cheese                   

-free from salad cream

-free from pasta     

-free from chocolate          

-fruit and veg (low sugar preferably)

-frys peppermint creams                                  

-tellytots                         

-alpro yoghurt        

-lizis granola                     

-seabrook ready salted crisps                       

-coconut oil            

-nutribix                           

-tofu 

-ninebars  

There really isn’t that many things that are suitable, but at the same time I’m still really surprised by the amount of choice there is for the people who simply cannot eat gluten or dairy alone.  I thought that these two would be the most difficult for me to stick too – but it turns out that finding foods without garlic, ginger and chill has been just as equally awkward!

Overall, I’m pleasantly surprised by how much I have actually enjoyed watching what eat, I feel really good about my overall health at the moment and I hope that I have the will power to keep going in the long run!  I’m hoping to be able to cut back on the flavoured water that I drink daily too, because I’ve recently become more aware of the artificial sweeteners and how they can affect the body.  One thing at a time though kids!

Do you know anyone adjusting their diet right now too? 

Until the next one,

Food Intolerance Testing

Back in April after another trip to the doctors regarding my eczema, my dad very kindly offered to pay for me to go and see a nutritionist.  My little brother had just received his results from his own trip, and after it flagged up that he had an intolerance to  foods that we never would have suspected – he thought it would be a great idea to see if there was something that I was eating that could potentially cause my skin to flare up. 

The test consisted of a few general questions about my current eating habits, what my diet is like and how often my skin acts up.  She then went on to take a small blood sample from my finger by pricking the skin – as this would allow her to test for up to 50 foods that I may be intolerant to.  A week later, my nutritionist got back to me with some surprising results.

Nakd bars have been my saviour

The three foods that first flagged up as triggers were chilli, ginger and garlic.  I wasn’t quite so surprised by this, as when I actually sat down and thought about it, it made perfect sense that this could be causing my eczema.  I live at home, and thankfully my mother is still more than happy to feed me and cook me dinner (god bless you mumma) – and as a family we eat a lot of spicy food.  We also like garlic.  My mum really likes garlic – and so chilli and garlic tend to end up in most of the foods we eat.  I tend to have ginger on occasion, usually it’s in a sweet treat or tea – but not as often as the other two.  So yeah, it made perfect sense.  I’ve been advised to cut out all three for up to six weeks, and then slowly introduce them again to see if it makes an improvement or causes another flare up when I start eating them again.  So these last two weeks, my foods have been really, really bland – it turns out that it is not just my mum who puts chilli and garlic in everything.  The shops do too.

The most shocking intolerance for me anyway, and the one that has caused me the most problems is the intolerance to yeast, which appears to be the major one.  Again, yeast appears to be present in a lot of the convenient foods that I would normally go for – cereals, bread, frozen foods and even some sweets.  It was a real challenge to find foods that are chilli, garlic, ginger and yeast free to begin with.  Then we had to add gluten and dairy to the mix.

To allow myself to rid my body of the bacteria’s that could potentially be there as a result of consuming yeast products, I also have to follow and gluten and dairy free diet.  Now if you thought it was bad enough going gluten or dairy free alone, you have no idea how much more difficult it is to do both.  And avoid yeast.  And chilli, garlic, and ginger.  It’s madness. Especially when I’m already a vegetarian.   

But yeah, this is what I’m doing right now.  And honestly, although my skin hasn’t improved as of yet (it can take up to four weeks for any noticeable difference to be seen), I actually feel a lot better overall.  I’ve not felt bloated daily, nor have I felt the need to take naps throughout the day every day.  It’s definitely a work in progress, but I’m really excited to see if this could be the cure to my skin problems one and for all.  I plan to share the foods that I have been able to eat in a week a so, just in case there does happen to be anyone out there who is illuminating foods like me.

Until the next one,