For my video I have recorded everything I have eaten for 4 days living on WW2 rations including breaking every meal down by calories.

I try not to count calories but the last two months my weight loss has slowed quite a bit so I’ve tracked my calories for several days. Actually making a visual record of everything you put in your mouth is an excellent way of making you think before you eat something because you have to pull your phone out to take a photo.

I’m not restricting in any way at all.

This journey for me is about:

a) Recording what impact living on a WW2 Ration Book diet has on my health (and weight)

b) Removing bingeing and overeating from my life by filling my diet with lots of nutritious wholefoods and reducing Ultra Processed Foods

It’s been 10 months since I’ve binged.

This has literally been one of the best positive things about living on WW2 rations. I haven’t binged in 10 months! I can’t really explain what a relief this has been. I had felt very much out of control and overeating or bingeing was happening 3 or 4 times a week. Not only was this making me feel horribly sluggish with increasingly bad headaches but the mental/emotional turmoil of dealing with the aftermath (which is typically guilt and disgust and quite honestly, a failure) has gone.

The other plus is that my back pain has gone (it was crushingly AWFUL), my hip pains are mostly gone and my knee pains have decreased significantly… and hopefully these will continue to improve as I move towards a physically healthier BMI.

So how did the calories break down over the 4 days?

• Sunday = 2050
• Monday = 1660
• Tuesday = 1600
• Wednesday = 1400
• + 15 mugs of tea = 375

Grand total = 7085 /4 = 1771 average cal. per day

I’ll be doing my monthly weigh in next weekend and then it’s just two months to go!

C xxxx

10 months into living on WW2 rations, it’s been a rollercoaster, quite honestly it’s been a looong time.

Luckily for me, as I was unpacking some old boxes (yep, 3 years after moving in), I found an old shirt I bought several years ago. During that period of time my weight had spiralled up again, I may have been over 300 lbs again. All I know is I bought the shirt for wearing it to the office, it was the biggest size they did and it NEARLY fit (but not quite). I put it aside in the hope it would soon fit properly.

Somewhere between all the house moves since returning back to the UK in 2013 (there have been 4 moves) it got put in a box and stayed there. We’ve moved so often I rarely unpack all my boxes.

Finding the shirt brought forth a myriad of conflicting emotions, especially when I tried it on. Delight and relief that the shirt was now so big, but also recognition of the physical and emotional pain that I was going through during that time. Medicating oneself with food IS A THING, I know it, don’t tell me it isn’t. These actions aren’t about greed or gluttony. The food (especially the Ultra Processed Foods) were the drugs that quietened my mind, that made me calm down, that gave me that comforting hug, just as someone might reach for alcohol, or opiates or a joint.

For me, reaching out and eating vast quantities of “Ultra Processed Foods”, soon became an addiction and has been something I’ve struggled with for nearly 30 years. It waxes and it wanes, it never disappears but sometimes it takes a vacation. It always comes back home though.

Living for the past 10 months on a diet that is mostly whole foods, and very little Ultra Processed Foods has seen the addiction take an extended holiday. I feel happiness, the physical and mental pain is dissipating, I feel stronger and I want more from life that I did in January.

I’m REALLY going to make these final TWO MONTHS of the 1940s Experiment count!

C xxxxx

My throat has been very, very sore since Friday. It all seemed to hit at once after one of my back teeth crumbled away leaving a long, sharp spike which caused a very painful wound on my tongue.

My immediate thoughts were “what would someone have done during WW2 with such a problem?” I am almost sure that dental care was likely to be expensive and sporadic and quite honestly I don’t even have a dentist! (if you live in the UK you’ll likely know the reasons why!)

Home tooth surgery was in order. My trusty nail file (for my toe nails – I know you’ve just gone ewwww) was disinfected thoroughly and it took me 30 minutes to file what was left of my tooth down to a short and smoother nub. I simply couldn’t take the pain anymore…

My throat has been causing much pain too during the last few days when trying to swallow, even drinking is pretty ouchy! So when a subscriber (thank you Cindy!) to my YouTube Channel suggested a sage tea salt water gargle, I immediately ran (OK walked slightly faster than I did at 299 lbs) down the garden to pick sage leaves.

Making the sage tea was so easy! The taste was so refreshing and I am going to actually bring fresh sage leaves to work with me (just to be even odder than I already am) so I can make more of this delicious elixir! Anyway, 2 or 3 teabags (1/4 oz tea) a day doesn’t go very far when you are living on WW2 rations so this will provide a pleasant alternative.

Making the gargle was easy too. I simply added 1/2 teaspoon of salt to 1/4 cup of the sage tea and went for it!

Here is the recipe…

Sage Tea (to make 2 mugs)

• Several fresh sage leaves
• Very hot water
• Teapot

Method

1. Heat water to almost boiling point
2. Lightly bruise (or you can snip the leaves in half) the leaves
3. Add to teapot and add two mugs of very hot water
4. Stir then leave for 5 minutes to infuse
5. Pour and drink!

Hope this helps, it seems to be helping me!

If you have any herbal drinks you recommend, please let me know!

C xxxx

Dear all,

I was searching for WW2 content to watch on YouTube last week and came across the evacuation scene from the 1987 film set during WW2 called “Hope and Glory”.

Hope and Glory is one of my favourite wartime movies because it is a simple slice of life of a family living in the London suburbs, showing the experiences of the home-front, through the eyes of a young boy. It focuses on the impact war has on his family and his neighbours, the good, the bad and the heart ache and those moments of delight where the war was forgotten momentarily.

Arguably the most heart wrenching scene was the wartime evacuation of the young children during June of 1940. It makes me cry unapologetically, every-single-time. Sarah Miles did an incredible job in that scene (as did the children).

Much love, C xxxxx

Yesterday I did a video on everything I ate in a day living on WW2 rations.

I’ve been living on WW2 rations since January 8th, 2023 and am over 9 months into the experiment in the hope that I can normalise my eating habits (stop overeating and bingeing), become healthier, lose weight (I’m over 65 lbs down) and gain a deeper insight into how families ate during the war in the 1940s.

The video contains my thoughts and of course preparing my meals for the day but here is a list of what I ate:

Breakfast

Pinhead (Steel Cut) oats, a dash of milk, a little dried fruit and a spoonful of golden syrup (400 calories)

Lunch

Fried vegetables (cabbage, celery, onion and mushroom) on toast (400 calories)

Dinner

Irish Potato cakes cooked in fat with steamed cabbage (450 calories)

Dessert

Brown Betty (350 calories)

Extras

Milk (100 calories) 4 mugs of tea (2 teabags used twice)

TOTAL CALORIES = 1700

Protein wise it was a low protein day (about 50-60g) but on days I eat lentils and beans my average is 80-90g. My blood work during the summer showed optimal protein levels.

Hope this helps, C xxxxx

It was a chilly and rainy Friday afternoon when I finished work. The house was very quiet which suited me well and this enabled me to sit and contemplate life. I had no plans for what I wanted to talk about in this video but sometimes once you start it’s hard to stop.

I share with you some old photos and some recent videos of Nutty our garden squirrel, Ghost our garden fox and our clan of Badgers.

Much love, C xxxx

Another wartime 1940s Christmas recipe revisited! This time it’s Mock Marzipan and you can cook-a-long with me, step-by-step on my latest video on YouTube.

This “Mock Marzipan” never fails to come out well and while not quite the same as real marzipan, it does a really good job when rations are low and it’s impossible to find some in your local shop! It’s such an easy recipe too as you’ll see in my video!

Ingredients

• 4 oz soya flour
• 4 oz sugar
• 2 oz margarine
• several drops of almond essence (I used more!)
• 2 tablespoons of water

Method

1. Melt margarine in the water
2. Add essence and sugar and stir
3. Add flour and mix in bit by bit and then turn out onto a floured board and knead well
4. Roll out and cut to shape of top of cake using the tin to use knife to cut around
5. Smear top of cake with jam of your choice
6. Cover with marzipan
7. Cake can then be iced

Makes enough to cover a medium sized Christmas cake!

Much love, C xxxx

Another day, another video, after all it is #Vlogtober over on YouTube and I’m enjoying the challenge!

Yesterday I filmed a video showing EVERY SINGLE THING I ate in a day on my “Living on a 1940s Ration Book Diet” year. I worked out that I roughly eat between 1500-2000 calories per day and I feel full enough to not binge or overeat and to date I have lost around 65 lbs this year so I’m feeling a LOT healthier. My goal is to keep on going, keep on eating the “Ration Book Way” until I am in a relatively healthy weight range. I estimate that I will likely need to lose another 65 lbs which will take me down to about 170 lbs (12 stone ish). I anticipate this will take me about another year.

I made a delicious “Potato and Cheese Flan” for dinner yesterday (enjoy the cook-a-long video above!) and it was really simple to make. Yesterday I had been craving pastry so this meal really hit-the-spot. Today I couldn’t resist a cold slice for breakfast and another slice for lunch too! My eldest daughter had the remaining slice.

Here is the recipe from the “Eating for Victory” cook book

Potato and Cheese Flan

Ingredients

• 6-8 oz shortcrust pastry ( 6 oz plain flour, 2-3 oz of margarine, salt, cold water to bind)
• 8 oz cooked, cubed potato
• 3 oz grated cheese
• 3 tablespoons of grated or chopped celery
• 3 tablespoons of grated or chopped onion
• 1-2 teaspoons of salt
• Pinch of pepper
• White sauce (1/2 oz flour, 1/4 pint milk)
• Breadcrumbs

Method

• Roll out the shortcrust pastry and press into a medium flan dish (I used a 7 inch sponge tin)
• Place in over (200 C) for 10 minutes while preparing the ingredients
• Mix the cooked potato, celery, onion, cheese, salt and pepper, together and place in the pastry lined flan dish.
• Pour on the thick white sauce and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.
• Cook in over at 200 C for around 30-45 mins until pastry is cooked.

Serves 4 at around 400 calories per slice

Hope you enjoy it, I loved it! PS: I also added some dried herbs to the mixture.

C xxxx

Vlogtober continues! Today I had Bubble & Squeak (a variation on it actually) for lunch which hit the spot as I was FAMISHED!

I also did some more research into Gert & Daisy and the copyright on their little cookbook. Several people have asked me whether it would be possible to scan the book and create a PDF to share with people. I’d love to do it if I can find the time but have to be mindful of copyright. Now normally a book goes out of copyright in the UK, 70 years after the author has died. The last of the sisters to pass (their real names were Elsie and Doris Waters) did so in 1990. They also had an older sister and a brother.

Elsie and Doris lived together all their lives. They never married or had children so their only next of kin could possibly be children their sister or brother may have had. When they died, the copyright of the book would likely pass to the next of kin. I also looked for the publishers but Withy Grove Press dissolved as a company in 2016. I’ve looked on the Internet Archive and Project Gutenberg but there were no listings.

Therefore I surmise that the book is likely not in the Public Domain and still in copyright until 2063 ish! I will nevertheless see if I can at least share some of the recipes!

I think tomorrow I will look in their cook book and see if I can find a Christmas recipe to recreate so watch this space!

Have a wonderful weekend, C xxx