I hate this photo….
Hi- my name is Carolyn Ekins (Hyland) and I am now a single mother of 3 children at home (ages 11 thru to 20)
My interests are people, community and our environment (besides a whole host of other stuff…read on)
My day job is web manager at Lighthouse Media Group where I enjoy my work and have some great work colleagues too..
I also love waffling about trying to be greener in my blog www.frugalandgreenish.com
My passion is believing that people themselves will voluntarily commit to working together to improve their communities, environment and ultimately the planet without peer pressure in a negative way…. finding the right way to inspire people to do so, I feel, is an important corner to turn..
WWII Homefront
One of my big interests is cooking simple food as frugally as possible..I do like the notion of mending and making do. I guess this has lead to my interest in domestic life during WWII especially how families and the housewife adapted to food rationing.
I am CONVINCED we have so much to learn from this period of time and I truly believe that by following a rationed diet from the 1940′s will improve my health, allow me to lose weight and above all be a LOT kinder to our planet (sourcing local foods, using less imported goods, less packaging etc)
In 2006 I lived on a ration diet for 4 months (100%) and lost 57lb. I felt great… now I need to repeat that success and stick with it for 1 year to lose 100 lb. ***** Sorry this web link is broken- I will try and get the old blog up
Weighing in on August 5, 2009 at 315 lbs (22 st 7 lbs) this attempt must be successful..
(Note: I started my third and final attempt on October 1, 2011 living on a 1940s ration book diet for one year in the hope to lose 100 lbs- so far, 5 months in, I have lost 51 lbs and on target to lose 100 lbs)
Thank you for reading my therapy blog (I guess I need lots of therapy!)
Carolyn Ekins (Hyland)
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Here are a few of the interesting jobs I’ve had and some of the highlights of them……. ermmmmm
Seriously, I am NOT making this stuff up. You couldn’t unless you were a writer of fiction with an overactive imagination..
Nurse early days: On my 18th birthday I left home forever to persue a nursing career. It made me grow up very quickly. However, nothing quite prepares you how to deal with transporting a dead body down to the mortuary with a porter (with a steel plate in his head) who locks himself in the mortuary with you and proceeds to sing ‘ Mammy’ to all the dead people in the fridges……. luckily he unlocked the door afterwards and I made a mental note never to accompany him again.
Baby Carrot Packer: vans squeezed with knife weilding land workers (reminded me of Gangs of New York) from all over the countryside to a vegetable packing plant in rural Norfolk. It was a tough job, standing in freezing sheds, noisy machinery, veggies coming in from the fields, through the washers and onto the line where they were sorted and graded, where frogs, dead birds and condoms were removed, before being placed in bags and punnets for the oblivious consumer.
Gunner- Reserve Forces: An enjoyable short career which opened my eyes to the military and the training of personnel. Highlights of this career were observing and listening (bugged) to the interogation techniques used on the Auxiliary SAS as part of their final assessment. Strictly ‘Geneva Convention’ you understand (yeah right)…..
Goat Inseminator: Although I never made this a career, I did infact train to be a goat inseminator and possibly made a number of goats pregnant during my training. Goat sperm is collected, washed and stored in minute quantities in what are called straws and stored frozen in liquid nitrogen. The straws are very fragile and snapped easily in their frozen state. Highlight of my training had to be the lecture given by a Polish insemination proffessor who became rather animated when removing various straws from the nitrogen tank in the classroom…
“Do not bend ze straws az they may snap like zis” and with a crack a lump of champion Anglo Nubian goat sperm whizzed through the air to land cleanly on my shoulder…
Quick thinking and a quick flick on my part insured that my clothes were not left with an embarrassing stain that could not be explained away…
More to come soon including the night I spent with a very rich Baronet in Norfolk- life is very strange!
Hi Carolyn,
I just read your entire blog. I love it and I look forward to reading your future posts.
I was also quite overweight. I lost 40 pounds during the past year on Weight Watchers. The key is exercise (so you may want to emulate women of the forties and find ways to get exercise using yourself as transportation and using chores as your gym) and portion control. I truly believe you will be successful just because you will be going back to a portion controlled, “from scratch” way of eating. My only concern for you is that you drop the margarine and use butter where necessary. The kind of margarine that is authentic for the time period you are cooking from is laden with deadly trans fats.
I am also kind of geeky about researching food from a health perspective. I have found out that fermented foods are very good for us. In modern times, we dropped a lot of fermented foods from our diet due to refrigeration. It would be interesting to see how much fermentation is represented in your cookbooks. Especially vegetable ferments. I currently bake with sourdough which has the health benefit of making the bread more blood sugar friendly.
Good luck! You are a pretty lady and I look forward to seeing you transform into a more svelte version of yourself!
Mimi
Hi,
However, nothing quite prepares you how to deal with transporting a dead body down to the mortuary with a porter (with a steel plate in his head) who locks himself in the mortuary with you and proceeds to sing ‘ Mammy’ to all the dead people in the fridges……
llol. I love it, one nurse to another I salute you!
Ahhh a sister who can appreciate the quirkines of the nursing proffesion. Every nurse has stories that would make toes curl….!
Sometimes things are so pitiful, sad, scary and unusual that you have to giggle at them- its almost a coping mechanism..
However there is one thing I have NEVER forgiven myself for. As an underpaid, overworked, broke and very hungry student nurse, grateful parents of a kid on the Paediatric ward brought in a bag of 14 jam donuts to show their appreciation… “share these with the staff’..
I hadn’t eaten since the day before (20 hours). Took the bag of donuts into the washroom, sat in a cubicle and ate all 14 of them….
The guilt is STILL with me!
You must have some stories??
Hey Mimi- thanks for leaving a message!!
Exercise- yes you are sooo right! This is something I hope to start increasing as my weight decreases- I do very little exercise at the moment because quite frankly it is quite impossible but I know things will only get easier over the coming weeks.
Margarine- this is the one concession I have made and am using Becel instead of Margarine/Butter/Lard however I am setting by dripping (I don’t get much from just a few rashers of bacon every week) incase I run out of margarine. There is so little fat in the ration that this is necessary just incase..
I am very interested in your thoughts on fermented foods….I have NEVER made sourdough but genuinely would love to have a go- I guess this would be authentic to the time period yes/no??
Well done on your weight loss… 40 lb is a LOT of weight!!!
C xx
My GP, as I, do not advocate the use of marg as it’s so full of unnatural things. Butter is far healthier for you provided it is in small amounts. My mum never had marg during the war it was always butter if they could get it and I grow up on butter, only switching to marg when it became ‘fashionable’. I am now back on butter and have been for the last 6 years.
You do not need butter or marg in a sandwich 99% of the time. if you have a cheese sandwich and butter or marg the bread you are doubling the fat it contains. If the sandwich is ‘dry’ add a bit of pickle (homemade if you can). You soon get used to the less fat and start to dislike the taste of buttered sandwiches, and you enjoy the taste of the bread.
Carolyn,
I was looking at Wikipedia and it seems that active yeast was perfected during WWII so I imagine most people would have been baking with commercial yeast. Active yeast is more realiable and takes a shorter time to make bread than sourdough. I’m thinking that if flour was hard to acquire, maybe sourdough would have been a difficult thing to culture. Without refrigeration, the starter would need to be fed and baked with on a daily basis.
I was thinking that things similar to saurkrauts and fermented pickles would have been desirable to make since they could be stored on a kitchen counter and would preserve precious fresh vegetables. A great resource for learning more would be the book Wild Fermetation by Sandor Elix Katz. I made vinegar but I have not made any vegetable ferments.
Other fermented foods that people could have tried to make at home during rationing time would be cheese and yogurt (to preserve leftover milk – oh and butter though not fermented could be made from scratch if someone had access to cream instead of milk). Beer and fruit wines could be made at home as well as fruit vinegar. Pickles of all sorts both fruits and veggies. Meat ferments such as sausages and ham.
The advantage of fermented foods besides the obvious advantage of food preservation are the probiotics they provide. They contain beneficial bacteria and other micro organisms that aid our digestion.
Wow what an informative response!!! I do know something- if I buy sourdough from a framers market it costs a fortune! Taste’s VERY nice though…
Yes I have been reading that PRESERVING was a huge deal in the UK (and I guess else where) during the war years. The government even increased its sugar ration during harvest time so people could make preserves & pickles..
For authenticity I’ll make sure to do as much of the same as I can although I am lucky to have the use of a freezer and a fridge!
The BEER sounds interesting. I have made my own from kits before but will look to see how it can be done from scratch…same with wine
Thanks so much for your reply- really helpful Mimi!
C xx
Dear Carolyn,
I found your original attempt while searching for a decent diet myself, and was fascinated! Tomorrow begins my attempt, and I found this site with a good bit of useful and just plain interesting information. Best of luck to you!
http://www.fortunecity.co.uk/meltingpot/oxford/330/ration/ratn2.html
Thanks for this link Sterling!
Hey there! I’m also a fellow web designer and it’s so easy to put on weight when you are sitting in front of a computer. It’s funny that quite a few of the weight loss blogs I’ve visited lately are web designers / computer people. We’re not alone. I really like you’re idea and take on things and will be visiting in the future. Thanks for the great site!
You carry your weight exactly as I carry mine! I am also starting out at 315 and have quite a few photos that look like that. I absolutely HATE the camera! LOL
Your blog is awesome! I am definitely adding it to my sidebar of favorites!
I can’t wait to read more updates!
~Kellie
http://www.chubbygirldiary.com
Thanks Kellie! I appreciate you adding mine to your sidebar- I’ll reciprocate too. Juts had a look around and your blog is fab! Wish you luck in your journey too!!
Yes I hate the camera if its
a) Someone else taking the photo where you can’t select what photo is shown
b) Anything other than head and shoulders..
I have the biggest horriblest tummy, droopy boobs and short stumpy legs!!!! Am hoping to lose these eventually!!!
Thanks for reading
C xxx
Updated… C
List of strange jobs updated… I could NEVER put this on my CV/Resume!
Found you through an IWM food blog – I love this idea of yours, living a life of 1940s food. Keep it up, and good luck with that weight loss – I could learn a lesson or two…
I hope you are in the process of, or at least, considering, writing a book. What adventures you have had!
BODA weight loss
Hi Carolyn,
Have been reading through your website and am very impressed.
I am a journalist and have my own blog called Vintage Foodie.
Could you please email me on samantha_elley@hotmail.com as I would love to send you a bunch of questions to do an article on your blog..that is, if you are interested.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Samantha Elley
Hi;
Just wondering if you have ever seen the BBC show called “1940′s House”. If you haven’t I’m sure that you would enjoy it.
Also, I have a recipe for something that my mom used to make called Corned Beef Hash. It’s delicious, and it really stretches the food.
Thanks,
Big Red
Hi Big Red!!! I sooooo have seen that series- infact SOMEWHERE I have the DVD and as I haven’t watvched it for SUCH a long time it would be inspiring to do so once again- absolutely LOVED THAT SERIES!!!!! C xx
Hi Carolyn
I’ve been looking into rationing as well and have found some more information on the points system that might help :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/84/a4537884.shtml
good luck with your experiment
Sarah
Hi Carolyn,
Yet another (now ex) Scottish nurse from Yorkshire in England here! You’re right, we all have a fund of weird & wonderful stories, but I doubt if people would believe any of mine! How is the weight loss going? I want to lose about 70lb, and so War is being declared at midnight tonight! We go on Wartime rations tomorrow, and I am half looking forward to it, and half petrified, but there you go…anyway, Good Luck with your weight loss, adn I’m looking forward to returning to your great blog.
Hi Carolyn! If you’re still having problems with your weight, I thought I might suggest you going on this diet:
http://www.archevore.com/
http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/
These guys are not health nuts who reckon they know this and that, and embark on crazy diets. They’re real doctors, and ever since I’ve started following their diet it’s done wonders for me. I hope you’ll at least consider visiting the sites, as at the very least it makes for interesting and informative read. Best of luck, I wish you health.
Hello Carolyn
Just found your great blog. I would like to contact you via e-mail but cannot find it anywhere on your site. Would you be kind enough to send it to me please as I have a business idea I would like to put to you. Rosemary
I would like your e-mail address please ot make contact. Thankyou
Hi Rosemary – my e-mail address is [cekins@southshorenow.ca]
Hello, I just found your blog while looking for recipes from World War II, and I am completely fascinated! I am also trying to lose weight after bed rest. I was in a terrible car accident two years ago, and I gained a lot of weight. I was 253, but have dropped to 180. Now I have to get down to at least 160 in order to continue on in the Army. It’s been hard work, and I do not want to do anything like Weight Watchers, or any other fad diets. I am GREATLY fascinated by World War II (Especially the Airborne {Easy Company to be exact} ), and I am going to give this a try!
Please feel free to e-mail me at megandmia@hotmail.com if you’d like! I would also like to know if you’ve done well on this diet? Have you kept off the weight?
Carolyn, just read about your jobs…LOL!…you’re a panic. Interesting stuff.