I went shopping today to buy a party outfit for the festive season. I hate shopping for clothes at the best of times and was not looking forward to it at all. I just wanted to share my day with you.
After much searching, I found a nice top in Next so I went to try it on. I took an 18 and a 16 into the changing rooms and was very happy with how the 16 looked. That cheered me up quite a bit. This time last year I was struggling to fit into an 18! So now I needed an nice pair of trousers to go with it. I got two pairs in the end as I wasn't sure whether the first pair would go with the top or not. Annoyingly though I had to buy them both in a size 18. I could have got 16's but I would have looked like a pound of sausages! The 18's are too large really but at least there will be room for when I eat ha ha! What bugs me is that I have been wearing size 16 jeans for a few weeks now and they are actually getting lose. Sizes eh, I'll never understand them. That's why I dont take too much notice of what size I wear as long as I look good. I think it is usaully better to buy a bigger size than try to squeeze into something and bulge out of it.
I was feeling quite good about what I had bought, so I bought some blinging accessories to finish of the look. I even bought some earings, which if you know me well you will know I very rarely wear. Just for insurance purposes I bought a shapewear bodysuit just to iron out the wrinkles :-)
When I got home I thought I would try on the whole look all together. Turns out the first pair of trousers looked good. The Shapewear was awesome and if I do say so myself, I looked pretty good :-)
So all in all, I am a very happy bunny this evening and looking forward to wearing my outfit next week. Only downside is that I will probably only get a couple of wears of the trousers before they are too big. I may have to go back and get them in a 16 too!
Friday, 19 November 2010
Sunday, 14 November 2010
Turkey & Leek bake
Turkey & Leek Bake
Ingredients:
500g Turkey breast
6 carrots
2-3 leeks
1 tin chicken & veg soup (or similar)
3 tsp chicken seasoning
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried thyme
1 chicken stock cube
2 tbsp flour
1 tin water
1 glass white wine
450g potatoes thinly sliced
Fry light
Butter/oil
Method:
Melt a little butter and oil in a pan (oil stops the butter burning). Chop and fry the leeks and carrots for 5 mins. (Add the herbs after a minute or two).
Dice the turkey breast and season then add to the pan. Brown the turkey.
Sprinkle in the flour and stir well. Cook for a couple of mins.
Add the wine and simmer for a couple of mins. Add the stock cube
Add the soup then fill the tin with boiling water (from the kettle is fine). Add to the pan. (Add a little more water if neccesary).
Simmer for 10 minutes
Transfer to oven on a low heat for around 40 mins.
Transefer to a baking dish and stand to cool for 5 mins.
Top with the sliced potatoes. Spray lightly with fry light.
Bake on a low heat until potatoes are golden brown.
Serves 6
Kcal: 305
Carbs: 38
Protein: 20
Ingredients:
500g Turkey breast
6 carrots
2-3 leeks
1 tin chicken & veg soup (or similar)
3 tsp chicken seasoning
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried thyme
1 chicken stock cube
2 tbsp flour
1 tin water
1 glass white wine
450g potatoes thinly sliced
Fry light
Butter/oil
Method:
Melt a little butter and oil in a pan (oil stops the butter burning). Chop and fry the leeks and carrots for 5 mins. (Add the herbs after a minute or two).
Dice the turkey breast and season then add to the pan. Brown the turkey.
Sprinkle in the flour and stir well. Cook for a couple of mins.
Add the wine and simmer for a couple of mins. Add the stock cube
Add the soup then fill the tin with boiling water (from the kettle is fine). Add to the pan. (Add a little more water if neccesary).
Simmer for 10 minutes
Transfer to oven on a low heat for around 40 mins.
Transefer to a baking dish and stand to cool for 5 mins.
Top with the sliced potatoes. Spray lightly with fry light.
Bake on a low heat until potatoes are golden brown.
Serves 6
Kcal: 305
Carbs: 38
Protein: 20
Saturday, 13 November 2010
13 weeks gone
34lbs lost.
Very happy with progress. Averages at 2.6lbs per week which is what I have been aiming for. I put on half a stone during the 5 days in France but thankfully shed it pretty quickly once I resumed my normal habits.
Calories are tracking at approx 1700 per day. My cooking skills are getting better too and I am getting quite a good variety of recipes now. Anyone who says diets are all about eating salads and soups is crazy (although I do eat quite a few soups). I have recently cooked beef and ale stew/casserole (as seen on this blog), a lovely leek & bacon gratin, meatballs with pasta, cottage pie. Good wholesome autumn comfort food.
I have a real craving at the moment for a Burger King but I am trying to abstain for a while longer. I really want to look good for Christmas so I have decided that if I lose another half a stone before Christmas I will have the BK, but only if it is a few weeks before Christmas because I will be eating enough crap over Christmas without adding that to it.
The workouts keep getting tougher! I am finding now that my wrists are struggling with the weights more than my muscles so my next project is to do some exercises specifically to strengthen my wrists. On the other hand my knees are notibly stronger. When I started doing squats I needed to hold on to something to keep my balance as my knees were so shaky, now not only can I do them without support but I have introduced 5kg dumbbells too!
I really want to start doing some running soon to start training for next years Race For Life. The weather is very off putting though. How I wish I had a treadmill.
Oh well, onwards and upwards......
Very happy with progress. Averages at 2.6lbs per week which is what I have been aiming for. I put on half a stone during the 5 days in France but thankfully shed it pretty quickly once I resumed my normal habits.
Calories are tracking at approx 1700 per day. My cooking skills are getting better too and I am getting quite a good variety of recipes now. Anyone who says diets are all about eating salads and soups is crazy (although I do eat quite a few soups). I have recently cooked beef and ale stew/casserole (as seen on this blog), a lovely leek & bacon gratin, meatballs with pasta, cottage pie. Good wholesome autumn comfort food.
I have a real craving at the moment for a Burger King but I am trying to abstain for a while longer. I really want to look good for Christmas so I have decided that if I lose another half a stone before Christmas I will have the BK, but only if it is a few weeks before Christmas because I will be eating enough crap over Christmas without adding that to it.
The workouts keep getting tougher! I am finding now that my wrists are struggling with the weights more than my muscles so my next project is to do some exercises specifically to strengthen my wrists. On the other hand my knees are notibly stronger. When I started doing squats I needed to hold on to something to keep my balance as my knees were so shaky, now not only can I do them without support but I have introduced 5kg dumbbells too!
I really want to start doing some running soon to start training for next years Race For Life. The weather is very off putting though. How I wish I had a treadmill.
Oh well, onwards and upwards......
Friday, 5 November 2010
Beef Casserole
This one isnt really a diet option but is not bad either at around 420 kcals per portion but remember you may want to add a side dish of carbs eg potatoes or bread. And on the plus side it does contain lots of veggie goodness :-) Also a note on the amount of servings, sorry but those are the ingredients which were on offer so if you want to scale it down I'll let you do the math.
BEEF CASSEROLE
Ingredients:
760g Diced beef
2 bags (900g) mixed casserole veg
200g mushrooms (halved or quartered)
70g pearl barley
1 400g tin of Oxtail soup
1 packet minestrone cup-a-soup
1 beef stock cube
250ml good ale
1/2 tin water
dried mixed herbs
No clever tricks with this one. Throw everything in a casserole dish and cook it slowly (around 4 hrs on gas mark 4). Put the stock cube and the cup-a-soup in the soup tin (once you've emptied it) and mix with boiling water to disolve then add to pot.
Serves approx 7
BEEF CASSEROLE
Ingredients:
760g Diced beef
2 bags (900g) mixed casserole veg
200g mushrooms (halved or quartered)
70g pearl barley
1 400g tin of Oxtail soup
1 packet minestrone cup-a-soup
1 beef stock cube
250ml good ale
1/2 tin water
dried mixed herbs
No clever tricks with this one. Throw everything in a casserole dish and cook it slowly (around 4 hrs on gas mark 4). Put the stock cube and the cup-a-soup in the soup tin (once you've emptied it) and mix with boiling water to disolve then add to pot.
Serves approx 7
Thursday, 14 October 2010
Still making progress.......9th week
I've lost around 16lb now. This is still less than I had hoped for but not bad at 2lb per week (was hoping to lose 3lb on the occasional week). On the plus side, I can now see my body changing shape and I have dropped a size in jeans. I am thinking that maybe the weight loss is not so dramatic because I am working out and building muscle as I lose fat. To be honest, my shape and how I feel is more important to me than my actual weight anyway. I use my weight only as a guide to my progress.
I can feel my body getting stronger during my workouts too. Its not always easy to guage because the workouts change every couple of weeks to stop my body adjusting to them, but I have increased weights and reps on many of the exercises and I know I am doing some things that I wouldnt have been able to do at the begining. I thought my knees would be my biggest problem as they have been poor for years but I am suprised to find that actually my shoulders are giving me the most pain. I find myself making lots of noises during the upper body workouts (and lots of expletives!). It doesnt seem to be having any long term damaging effects on my joints though and I remain positive that if I can strenghten the joints I will get less pain eventually.
Diet wise I am loving the foods I am eating and am never hungry. I am aiming for around 1750-1800 kcals per day although on some days over 350 of those calories are from alcohol and on saturdays over 1000 of the calories are from cider :-) Today was a no alcohol day and I ate the following:
Bowl of Cheerios
2 Ryvita with 2 thin slices of edam
Homemade beef soup with 2 wholemeal slices of bread
small handfull of almonds
clementine
Banana
small handfull of raisins
turkey meatloaf with potatoes
small low cal cereal bar
3 mugs of low cal hot chocolate
(unlimited tea and water)
Romary conley's magazine is a great source of recipes too.
On saturday by comparison I eat closer to 2000 kcals (otherwise I would have no nutrition, only cider!) This is an example of a saturday's food:
2 slices wholemeal toast with scrambled egg made from 1 whole egg and 1 egg white & mushrooms
2 wholemeal toast with marmite
banana
cod in parsley sauce with pasta and broccoli & peas
approx 7 half pints of cider (thats 7 halves not 7 and a half)
The other good news is that as I build more muscle, my metabolism will get faster and I will either a. lose more weight or b. be able to eat more calories without gaining.
So in summary, its all good so far. we are going to France next week though and there will be astronimical amounts of good food to be eaten. My plan is to be a little bit careful but also to enjoy the lovely food on offer. Life is for living after all. Also starting to think about christmas and how to handle that :-/
I can feel my body getting stronger during my workouts too. Its not always easy to guage because the workouts change every couple of weeks to stop my body adjusting to them, but I have increased weights and reps on many of the exercises and I know I am doing some things that I wouldnt have been able to do at the begining. I thought my knees would be my biggest problem as they have been poor for years but I am suprised to find that actually my shoulders are giving me the most pain. I find myself making lots of noises during the upper body workouts (and lots of expletives!). It doesnt seem to be having any long term damaging effects on my joints though and I remain positive that if I can strenghten the joints I will get less pain eventually.
Diet wise I am loving the foods I am eating and am never hungry. I am aiming for around 1750-1800 kcals per day although on some days over 350 of those calories are from alcohol and on saturdays over 1000 of the calories are from cider :-) Today was a no alcohol day and I ate the following:
Bowl of Cheerios
2 Ryvita with 2 thin slices of edam
Homemade beef soup with 2 wholemeal slices of bread
small handfull of almonds
clementine
Banana
small handfull of raisins
turkey meatloaf with potatoes
small low cal cereal bar
3 mugs of low cal hot chocolate
(unlimited tea and water)
Romary conley's magazine is a great source of recipes too.
On saturday by comparison I eat closer to 2000 kcals (otherwise I would have no nutrition, only cider!) This is an example of a saturday's food:
2 slices wholemeal toast with scrambled egg made from 1 whole egg and 1 egg white & mushrooms
2 wholemeal toast with marmite
banana
cod in parsley sauce with pasta and broccoli & peas
approx 7 half pints of cider (thats 7 halves not 7 and a half)
The other good news is that as I build more muscle, my metabolism will get faster and I will either a. lose more weight or b. be able to eat more calories without gaining.
So in summary, its all good so far. we are going to France next week though and there will be astronimical amounts of good food to be eaten. My plan is to be a little bit careful but also to enjoy the lovely food on offer. Life is for living after all. Also starting to think about christmas and how to handle that :-/
Sunday, 19 September 2010
Diet update
So I have been on this new healthy eating plan for five weeks now so hows it going?
I have stuck to the plan fairly well. There have been a couple of BBQ's in that time and some other very heavy drinking sessions too! I have only missed one or two training sessions where there have been last minute changes to routines, but for the most part I have tried really hard.
I have started playing Badminton once a week with family which is really enjoyable. We are all rubbish at it but at least it gets you moving. I have had to scrap a couple of running sessions and bike rides due to the weather but have done something else active in the shed (gym) instead.
I have found that the weight loss was lower than I was hoping for. Some weeks I have lost 1lb and others I have not lost at all. I am aiming to lose 2lb per week. So with that in mind last week I lowered my calorie intake a little bit. Now instead of 2084 calories per day I am working at around 1800 to 1900 depending on whether I am exercising on that day and whether I am drinking alcohol.
I have lost 8lbs over the five weeks. I was aiming for 11lbs at this point. It would be hard on myself to feel disapointed with that though I think, especially with the social events thrown in to the equation. I am hoping that now I have lowered the calories a little I will see some better results.
I can feel my clothes getting baggier which is lovely and I did up a pair of jeans which I previously couldnt get past my hips the other day.
Also on a good note, my body is being reasonably kind to me. I am aching a bit but not too much that it puts me off exercising which is good. Week seven is when the workouts step up another level though so not looking forward to that!
I have been invited out to someones house next week for dinner/buffet where the food will include chicken nuggets and sausages, so I am told. I dont think I have eaten a nugget in about five years! I am not looking forward to eating such proccessed food but you have to be polite dont you. I suppose it will make me value my cooking a bit more he he!
I have stuck to the plan fairly well. There have been a couple of BBQ's in that time and some other very heavy drinking sessions too! I have only missed one or two training sessions where there have been last minute changes to routines, but for the most part I have tried really hard.
I have started playing Badminton once a week with family which is really enjoyable. We are all rubbish at it but at least it gets you moving. I have had to scrap a couple of running sessions and bike rides due to the weather but have done something else active in the shed (gym) instead.
I have found that the weight loss was lower than I was hoping for. Some weeks I have lost 1lb and others I have not lost at all. I am aiming to lose 2lb per week. So with that in mind last week I lowered my calorie intake a little bit. Now instead of 2084 calories per day I am working at around 1800 to 1900 depending on whether I am exercising on that day and whether I am drinking alcohol.
I have lost 8lbs over the five weeks. I was aiming for 11lbs at this point. It would be hard on myself to feel disapointed with that though I think, especially with the social events thrown in to the equation. I am hoping that now I have lowered the calories a little I will see some better results.
I can feel my clothes getting baggier which is lovely and I did up a pair of jeans which I previously couldnt get past my hips the other day.
Also on a good note, my body is being reasonably kind to me. I am aching a bit but not too much that it puts me off exercising which is good. Week seven is when the workouts step up another level though so not looking forward to that!
I have been invited out to someones house next week for dinner/buffet where the food will include chicken nuggets and sausages, so I am told. I dont think I have eaten a nugget in about five years! I am not looking forward to eating such proccessed food but you have to be polite dont you. I suppose it will make me value my cooking a bit more he he!
Winter veg soup
Winter vegetable soup
This is a nice warming chunky soup which is very satisfying.
Ingredients:
450g Carrots diced
420g Peeled & cubed potatoes
2 sticks of celery chopped
1/2 onion diced
2 cloves garlic chopped
4 tbsp peas
50g lentils
1 brocolli & cauliflower cup-a-soup (or similar)
1 minestrone cup-a-soup (or similar)
2 stock cubes
3 tbsp olive oil
Herbs and seasoning to taste (I use mixed herbs)
Method:
Heat pan and add olive oil. Fry first 5 ingredients until softened a little.
Put soups and stock cubes in a large jug or bowl with herbs and add about 2 litres of boiling water. Mix well then add to pan with vegetables
Bring to boil then simmer until potatoes are about half cooked (not crunchy anymore)
Removed about 4-5 ladels full of vegetables and some liquid and put in a jug or bowl. Use hand blender to blend until smooth. Add blended veg back to the pan.
Add peas and lentils and bring back to the boil. Simmer for around 20 mins or until peas and lentils are cooked. (also check carrots are soft).
Season to taste and serve.
I split this into 6 regular portions and 1 small portion. Based on dividing by 6 the nutrition is roughly as follows:
250 kcals
40g carbs
7g Protein
This is a nice warming chunky soup which is very satisfying.
Ingredients:
450g Carrots diced
420g Peeled & cubed potatoes
2 sticks of celery chopped
1/2 onion diced
2 cloves garlic chopped
4 tbsp peas
50g lentils
1 brocolli & cauliflower cup-a-soup (or similar)
1 minestrone cup-a-soup (or similar)
2 stock cubes
3 tbsp olive oil
Herbs and seasoning to taste (I use mixed herbs)
Method:
Heat pan and add olive oil. Fry first 5 ingredients until softened a little.
Put soups and stock cubes in a large jug or bowl with herbs and add about 2 litres of boiling water. Mix well then add to pan with vegetables
Bring to boil then simmer until potatoes are about half cooked (not crunchy anymore)
Removed about 4-5 ladels full of vegetables and some liquid and put in a jug or bowl. Use hand blender to blend until smooth. Add blended veg back to the pan.
Add peas and lentils and bring back to the boil. Simmer for around 20 mins or until peas and lentils are cooked. (also check carrots are soft).
Season to taste and serve.
I split this into 6 regular portions and 1 small portion. Based on dividing by 6 the nutrition is roughly as follows:
250 kcals
40g carbs
7g Protein
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