I might have mentioned in the blog already that I’ve mostly gone vegetarian. It isn’t an ideological thing. I’ve read a lot recently about climate change, how many more resources it takes to raise an animal for slaughter, compared to “raising” a plant. So it is just a desire to be responsible for less. It isn’t something that I’m evangelical about – I’ve kind-of decided that, for the moment, fish and dairy are still on the menu – I had a fish finger sandwich yesterday! – but obviously this might change as I learn more.

Actually, I was vegetarian for several years, starting when I was a student at university, back in the Eighties. But my diet then was quite poor, pizza and chips, and this time around I have resolved that I must eat proper food. I always had a downer on ready meals – you never know exactly what is in them – so even though the selection is far better now than when I was first a vegetarian, I’ve been trying to cook for myself. One of my staples over the last few weeks has been tofu stir-fry. Probably four nights per week.

The funny thing is that I’ve seen really good results when I test my sugar each day. i suppose it shouldn’t be surprising, since the tofu is high in protein and the stir-fry is just vegetables. Rather than those sugary, ready-made sauces, I’ve confined myself to cooking in sesame oil and adding a little Soy Sauce. Soy Sauce is low in sugar but, I think, quite high in salt. It certainly tastes salty. Yesterday I tried Worcester Sauce instead, but that didn’t really work.

I mean, in the grand scheme of things, my sugar is only about 20% lower, but, actually, 20% is quite a lot. My average sugar over the last seven weeks has been just over 9mmol/l (about 170 mg/dl) but in the last seven days has been in the low 7s (130).

Mixed in with the stir-fries, so far, have been a couple of ready meals, although I’m weaning myself off them, there is still the one pizza per week, plus other assorted things from the vegetarian aisle – I picked up some frozen mushroom Kievs yesterday, which will prove to be interesting! But I’m still really in the experimental phase. I’ve found that I like tofu, but not so much Quorn. And not Linda McCartney stuff! These last few weeks I have gradually been getting rid of my meat meals in the freezer, e.g. chicken Kievs, to be replaced with veggie food, although I’m finding that quite a lot of veggie food must be eaten fresh. I need to replenish my supply of frozen fish, just in case I run out of fresh stuff.