Restrictions on the million or so very vulnerable people shielding from coronavirus are to be eased. As a liver transplant recipient with a suppressed immune system, I am classed as “clinically extremely vulnerable”.
From Monday July 6th, we will be able to meet up to six people we do not live with as long as it’s outdoors. Also, I will no longer need to observe social distancing with other members of my own household - I wasn’t aware I should have been. I wish I’d known!
This means that for the first time in 16 weeks, I have government approval to leave my house and meet someone from another household as long as it’s in the open air. From August 1st, I can go outside for exercise and to buy food but I must maintain strict social distancing. If I lived in Scotland or Northern Ireland, I couldn’t even do that.
So, what is the scientific evidence that has allowed this new freedom in England for vulnerable people like me? I have no idea because I haven’t seen it. If there is some, it’s being kept a secret but I doubt there is any.
It seems to me that government measures are being driven by economic rather than scientific reasoning and people like me are still at a huge risk so I am staying here in my cocoon.
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For the past 16 weeks, as we are both shielding, we have been going online to order supermarket food for delivery. It is a very good system that has been working very well.
Usually, we make and then amend our orders in the evenings after we have both had our last meal of the day. Consequently, neither of us is at all hungry when we choose food for the basket and so there’s been no impulse buying at all.
I haven't actually set foot inside a supermarket or any other shop since March 10th. I wonder if it is just a coincidence that I’ve lost more than 10 pounds in weight in that time. I am sure it isn’t. However, not everyone is losing weight as the Covid pandemic has been said to have contributed to an increase in obesity rates in the UK.
This is because the need for self-isolation has caused many people to rely on processed food with longer shelf life instead of fresh produce. For the same reason, people have been eating more canned food that has higher quantities of salt. Weight increases are bound to happen if this pattern of lifestyle persists.
It has been said that wealthy countries appear to have higher Covid mortality rates than impoverished ones and it has been suggested that this is mainly due to there being higher obesity rates in the developed world.
I haven’t eaten a biscuit, a cake, a pie or any chocolate for 120 days because that was the last time I walked down a supermarket aisle and saw a bargain pack of 9 mint Kit Kats, or a family bag of liquorice allsorts, or cream cakes and thought, “Oooh, they look nice. That’s a good idea.”
I find that my craving for something sweet usually hits at around 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Before Lockdown, I would have had a chocolate biscuit or two. If the biscuit tin were empty because I had eaten them all, I would have jumped in the car and driven to the local shop and got a bar of chocolate.
Not any more. Here’s a tip for Weight Watchers that you too may find useful:
When I am desperate for sugar, I drink a glass of ice-cold, sparkling water. The shock of the cold bubbles hitting the back of my throat somehow and miraculously stops the sugar craving immediately - it really does.
Maybe, meat is something we hanker for only when we are really hungry. I wonder if it’s because Caroline and I order food in the evening on full stomachs that we have been buying a lot of fruit and vegetables and very little meat.
Whatever the reason, I’ve been cooking a lot of vegetarian meals recently, including stuffed peppers, spanakopita, vegetable curries, omelettes, stuffed butternut squash and various vegetable rice dishes.
I’ve made an incredible discovery that will alter the lives of vegetarians everywhere:
You must believe me when I tell you that every one of those dishes is greatly enhanced and vastly improved by adding chopped chorizo. Try it, they really are!
All you veggies will thank me for that tip one day.
