It’s October, peeps, and you know what that means!

The Autumn/Fall/Harvest Season, (or whatever you’re having yourself), is officially upon us! Halloween is just around the corner, the days are getting shorter… and the temperature is soaring and we’re cracking out the sun block.

California, you’re messing with my head!!

Autumn here is so weird. We get blue skies and sunshine (highs of 90F/30C this weekend according to SF Gate), just like summer. But at the same the leaves are falling off the trees and the stores are selling woolen sweaters, hats and scarves. It takes a bit of getting used to.

Beach umbrellas and leaves on the ground. Madness!

What I’m also seeing is pumpkin everywhere, which is also slightly incongruous with the good weather.

It was like as soon as the clock struck midnight on September 22nd EVERYTHING turned into a pumpkin. Cinderella would have been appalled.

And actually, probably a little excited. Pumpkin spice is kind of a great flavour.

As I sit here I can smell Venessa’s (vegan) pumpkin bread cooling in the kitchen. Intoxicating.

But food manufacturers are really taking it to the extreme- check out this list of pumpkin spice products, compiled by Grub Street. It includes vodka, marshmallows, peanut butter and margarine. Margarine! Utter ridiculousness!

I’ve seen the madness myself in Trader Joes, with their selection of Pumpkin Ales.

Pumpkin Ale. I’m tempted!

But whilst it’s so tempting to get swept up in the pumpkin tidal wave, I’m trying to make a big effort to pause and take a close look at what’s going into these foodstuffs. If actual pumpkins were going into the making of these products the country would be overrun with pumpkin fields. And as far as I can see, the only pumpkin fields around, are for people to take pictures with. (I definitely want a pumpkin FB profiler).

What brought this home was this article written by The Food Babe about the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte. Full of sugar and pumpkin spice and nothing at all nice or good for you basically. It’s pretty shocking. Have a read!

So, I think for the most part I’m going to be sticking to real pumpkin food. I’ve found these recipes that I’m dying to try.

• Pumpkin Pie Smoothie from Kris Karr
• Pumpkin Chickpea curry from Saveur
• Pumpkin Granola from PaelOMG (Ohhhh yeahhhhh!)

The only thing is that pumpkin is a bitch to cook! I always end up hurting myself. If anyone has an easy way of doing it let me know! Is canned pumpkin acceptable from a health perspective do you think?

Food and Excercise

• Breakfast: Scrambled eggs and egg whites, steamed kale and raw carrots/celery
• Lunch: Chicken with salad and lots of veg, avocado, olive oil and apple cider vinegar
• Snack: Banana with half a carton of Greek yogurt
• Exercise: Spinning (I was on the squeaky bike – it was so loud! So I couldn’t stand up for the hill climbs. Every hill climb was seated. My quads hated me).
• Dinner: Quinoa, green beans with some tofu, pulled pork and salad/raw veg.
• Snack: Half a pear and teaspoon of almond butter