Well I survived my holiday. Just about. We stayed in my parents' holiday home and as always my mother stocked the presses with loads of treats for the kids. Pringles in every flavour, mini mars bars, chocolate hobnobs, after eights. The kids did their best but I think it was the first time we ever finished the holiday with treats left over. It was kind of scary how much was left actually - do I really eat that much every other year? The sun shined enough to warrant having to purchase quite a few 99 icecreams - which were eaten with gusto by the children.

One child couldn't always finish her ice-cream. I would normally do the honours but this year I had to leave the remains to the nearest rubbish bin and the very grateful wasps circling around it. For the first time I was not able to eat at the local chipper - the Salt and Batter - but I had quite a few nice pasta dishes in the café next door, Belle's Kitchen. Our farewell treat is always an ice-cream sundae in Belle's - as you can see, the children certainly enjoyed theirs. I had a bowl of soup. :(.

You'd think you could avoid junk food in athletics...

Junk food is everywhere. You just can't hide from it. I've been running lately as part of the Limerick Sports Partnership Feet on the Street campaign - they hold races every Thursday night throughout the summer and I took part in a few of them. Full of healthy athletic people and a few stragglers like myself. It's good fun and it's pretty hard to eat junk food while running so at least it's an hour where I don't dream about chocolate or chips. But junk food still manages to inch it's way into the world of running. Take the lucozade drinks. Apparently they aren't really necessary for runners unless you are doing more than 5k but sure any physical activity is a good excuse to drink one. Now some might argue that lucozade is not a junk food/drink - after all they used to give it in hospital. But I would consider it a bit of a cheat. It's fizzy and full of sugar so for me it's in the borderline category. Then there are jellybabies!! Yes jellybabies are part of the athlete's diet apparently. There are super-dooper running ones that help release glycogen or something like that but I'm told ordinary jelly babies are just as good. An expert told me eating a few before a race will definitely help your stamina. But I'm not allowed jelly babies. Maybe that's why I haven't won any races. Then, there are the raffle prizes. A hamper of health food? Not on your nelly. Bottles of wine and boxes of chocolates. Thankfully, wine does not fall in the junk food category so I was happy when my winning ticket netted me a nice Sauvignon Blanc - but fellow runner Suzanne won the Dairy Milk selection and brought them into work to torture me. Thanks Suzanne.

Come Dine With Me?

Like most people in Limerick, I've been glued to Come Dine with Me all week - and last night I found I have a kindred spirit in one of the contestants. Like me, Kathleen admits to being a junk-food addict. However, unlike me, Kathleen doesn't seem to like anything else - she's barely touched a morsel all week. So, while I'm finding this no junk-food lark a struggle - at least I can enjoy other foods. I've got some good ideas from the show too. I'm definitely going to be trying that spinach and apricot stuffed pork steak - it looked delicious even if Kathleen couldn't eat it. As for Cyril's double deep-fried battered jam sandwiches served with Bird's custard - that's one junk food I think I can quite easily avoid. Even the sprig of mint carefully placed in the dollop of cream fails to make it tempting for me. Although the contestants all swear blindly they were delicious, I remain unconvinced. Cyril swears you can batter anything and deep-fry it. I'm sure that's true but it doesn't mean you can make it appetising. I confess though that I've always had a hankering to try that Scottish speciality - a deep-fried Mars Bar. Surely the ultimate junk food? There's a chipper near Westbury that does them. I think I might reward myself when the 95 days to go. Heck, after 95 days I might even eat one of Cyrils jam fritters. In the meantime - anyone who feels sorry for me can sponsor me here: http://www.mycharity.ie/event/nojunkfoodchallenge/ And a big thanks to Mary McMahon, Eddie and Aileen, Denise and Nuala for the latest contributions.

My Secret Weapon

I have a really sweet tooth. The hardest thing so far has been avoiding the sweet stuff. I miss the chips and pizza but that's really only a problem when I smell them. Sweet stuff has been the real killer. I never really feel like I've finished my lunch or dinner unless I have something sweet at the end. Tea and coffee taste so much better when you have them with a chocolate biscuit - even a digestive is better than nothing. So no biscuits and no chocolate has been the hardest part of the challenge so far. I've been eating a lot of fruit. It's not as bad as I thought it was but it doesn't go very well with tea of coffee. You can't really dunk a banana in your tea. Yogurts are my substitute for ice-cream. Again, a poor substitute, but they've been keeping me going. Thankfully, for the last week I've had a secret weapon which has kept my sweet tooth very happy. It's the most divine blackcurrant jam. I wouldn't be a big jam person normally - I mean jam really belongs in a Victoria Sandwich Cake under a layer of thick cream - but if I'm going to have jam at all, blackcurrant is definitely my favourite. A very kind friend gave me a pot of home-made blackcurrant jam (although I do wonder where he got the blackcurrants - they're not in season yet are they? There aren't any around the Canal where I can normally spot them). It's no ordinary blackcurrant jam - it's rich, fruity, lucious, sticky and very sweet. And, as it's home-made and full of fruit, it definitely doesn't come under the junk food banner. It's been my saviour - and doesn't go too bad on a sandwich with a cup of tea. So a big thank you to my generous jam benefactor - if you are reading this you might notice that the jar is nearly empty (hint hint;)). And to the rest of you, if you are enjoying my blog - and if you have a fiver to spare - here's the website for donations: www.mycharity.ie/event/nojunkfoodchallenge/

You can't beat the Real Thing

My kids are healthier than I am ... which is a very good thing. They are normal kids so they are not joining me on this 95-day challenge which means I'm forced to witness them eat all their goodies. They've become very generous all of a sudden - I always get offered a few crisps or a bite of chocolate bar if they have one now - something I had to drop serious hints to get a few weeks ago. Then of course they fake the 'Oh, sorry Mom, I forgot!'. They are loving tormenting me. One bad habit that my girls have managed to avoid inheriting from me is my love of that all-American drink - 'Coca-Cola'. I wouldn't be the worst Coke addict, I cut down consumption some years back when I discovered other drinks such as beer and wine, but I do have a sincere appreciation for its finer qualities. Like red wine with steak and white wine with fish, Coke goes really, really well with pizza, burgers and/or popcorn. It's also a lot better at quenching your thirst. My son has got the Coke thing bad but the girls have always hated bubbles and won't drink anything fizzy. This can cause some problems - particularly when we go places where only fizzy drinks are served for kids. Recently my youngest was invited to a party at the cinema and like any sensible parent bringing 20 kids to the cinema the treats were dealt out of the boot of the car before the movie rather than investing an IMF-sized loan in paying for treats indoors. Unfortunately they only had fizzy drinks so I had to make a quick dash inside the Crescent to buy something non-fizzy for her ladyship. That meant queuing at BB's Muffins. Can you imagine it? A no-junk food challenge and being forced to queue for ten minutes watching and smelling the most delicious muffins ever. They even had a plate of free tasters on top. Torture. I bought the blackcurrant juice and fled.

Why don't cinemas sell healthy snacks?

Stupid question, I know - who the hell wants to munch on celery while watching a movie? Certainly not me. But the cinema is a real problem when on this challenge. I mean you can smell the popcorn from the carpark. My personal favourite is to get a big bucket of popcorn and then empty a giant bag of Minstrels into and give it all a good shake. Wash it down with a monstrous-sized coke. I would share my popcorn - I'm not a Joey (http://bit.ly/d8BUkA), but I'd probably be subconsciously counting every time a fist goes in the bucket to make sure I get at least 50 percent of the goodies. The whole cinema experience just demands popcorn. So, it was with much trepidation that I ventured to the Omniplex to try and enjoy a film with nothing to munch on. I was clever enough to choose a very hot day and an early showing which meant not too many people in the cinema and so a lot less smell of popcorn. I was also clever enough to arrive almost late so there wasn't even time to inhale the aromas as I passed the popcorn and goodies counter. I got through it. Granted, I felt a bit cheated of the whole experience but I saved a few bob and I proved it can be done. An achievement worthy of someone sponsoring me a fiver don't you think? If you do - then go to this website: www.mycharity.ie/event/nojunkfoodchallenge/and donate! Pretty please!

P.S. A big thanks to Katie Walsh for her donation yesterday. It put a big smile on my face.

Are Chicken Wings Junk Food?

So the latest debate around the water-cooler has been 'Are chicken wings junk food?'. Now, opinions on this one I have to say were very divided. I mean, chicken is just chicken, isn't it? Well if it's deep-fried in batter and has a KFC sticker on it, then even chicken is classed as junk-food. Or if it's been shaped into dinosaur shapes, alphabet letters or 'nugget's, covered in breadcrumbs and once again, deep-fried, it's definitely junk food. Or if it's shaped into a round, flat circle, slathered in mayonnaise and ketchup and stuck between two burger buns - even then - it really is junk food. But what about chicken wings? You can eat chicken wings lots of different ways. Barbequed or deep-fried, marinated in hoi-sin sauce or barbeque sauce or honey and ginger. Or turn them into buffalo wings. And what's with that? Why do Americans call chicken wings 'buffalo wings?' Buffalos can't fly. I always wondered about that but until now I had no desire to google it. Curiosity got the better of me today and I discovered that it's because they were 'invented' in the Anchor Bar in the town of Buffalo near New York City. Here's a link for the recipe if you want to try them: http://americanfood.about.com/od/appetizersandsoups/r/bufchicwing.htm

I decided that it's a bit touch and go with chicken/buffalo wings. The deep-fried kind that come in a foil bag at the local Spar or Centra are definitely out - but if they are stuck to a roast chicken I think I'm allowed them. The Cornstore on Thomas Street do some particularly good chicken wings with blue cheese sauce - much nicer than the ones in the picture. Something to look forward to 80 days time!