Compromise key word to happy, healthy living

Unless you were pre-occupied with putting together a stunning New Year’s Eve outfit or applying your Bond Street maquillage for the party of the year, you will have nipped outside between 9.22 and 10pm to check the night sky. Besides detecting the faintest of blue hazes shadowing the moon, you will also have noticed its partial eclipse.
Unlike the ancient Romans, we don’t live our lives according to omens and portents, but many of us regularly cast more than a passing glance at our weekly horoscopes and would prefer to walk around a ladder than under it.
So last year, when a benign full moon, a blue one to boot, shone down on Old Year’s Night, Zimbos of every hue and persuasion rejoiced. Could this be an opportunity to put the suffering and the shortages of the past decade behind us, and embrace 2010 with open arms?
There are as many styles of seeing in the New Year as there are ways to skin a cat, most of them involving excessive eating and drinking.
On November 10, I began a low fat and high fibre diet, designed to help me go from a size 16 to a size 14, and to squeeze into my party frockette. But before long, the season was in full swing and it seemed churlish to turn down invitations to festive lunches, glasses of sparkling wine and home-made mince pies. The regime was abandoned.
Christmas and New Year’s Day lunches inevitably took their toll, and reluctantly settling back into work mode in 2010, I find myself considering available options for resuming a healthier life style.
An online health club promises to help me get mind and body in tip-top condition. Hmmm. A tempting proposition. It offers tools, motivation and support to achieve this. I almost click on “yes” when I realise that my job as a food critic could be in jeopardy if I agree to a regimen of soya beans, bean sprouts and five different vegetables.
Perhaps I could strike a compromise and eat interesting power salads of broccoli, lettuce, carrot, avocado pear and feta cheese three times a week. Red meat, pork chops and sticky toffee pudding could be abandoned and replaced by fish, chicken and fresh fruit. Where’s the fun in that, you might ask.
An entrecote steak from a grass-fed steer is every Zimbo’s favourite food, and last year when all kinds of meat except pork chops vanished from the butcheries and supermarkets, we formed an abiding respect and love for pigs, our constant comrades in adversity.
It would seem that the key word is probably “compromise” and if you intend to live a happy and healthy existence during the coming decade, eat and drink everything you like, but in moderation. Alternate bowls of chickpea, chilli, spinach and yoghurt salad with tasty chicken pies made with melting flaky pastry, and vary deep-fried beef samoosas with crisp crudités of carrot, cucumber and snow peas, dipped in cottage cheese.
Even if you overdid the champagne and wine this New Year, think carefully before you decide to go on the wagon. A glass of red wine every evening is said to be good for the heart. And if you must occasionally go off the rails, make sure it’s only once in a blue moon.
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