Eating healthy: Couscous, quinoa and brown rice

After a short, but intense bout of acid reflux over the last couple of months, I've decided that I'm going to eat with care, keeping in mind the fact that I really want to be able to sleep and not pace the floor with heartburn each night.

And the mainstays of my change in habits are whole grains, vegetables, and brown rice.

It worked. Five or six years ago, under extraordinary circumstances, I spent almost eight months trying to get this painful condition under control. This time, because I knew what to do, it took only three or four weeks. I knew what caused it - stress and lack of exercise and eating poorly - and I took care of all of those things. Even then, it took almost two weeks to get back to normal.

I had been eating couscous and quinoa and brown rice anyway - but I've now made them the centre of my diet. I often make one of these things with vegetables for dinner with chicken or fish (see above - isn't it beautiful?) and then have it for lunch the next day. It makes cooking easier - because I cook once for two meals, and it's good for me.

I can't promise I'll do this forever, that I won't fall back into bad habits, but I am going to try.

Kate