Wedding weekend

 So, I’m half a stone lighter than I was at the Hen do. Which, if I’m ho set could have been more but hey ho. I’ve two choices of posh frocks as a result. I am ready to proper buckle down for a good couple of weeks at least - as my friend said, Weddings don’t come along so often so enjoy it. 

I chose the best I could from the wedding menu and opted for the melon fruit platter starter I think ( will update after the event ), the roast beef dinner and the white chocolate to let one cheesecake ( there was sticky toffee pudding and a cheeseboard on offer too ) I love cheesecake and never have it at home because there’s only me that likes it and it’s a very posh hotel so the plates will be huge and the portions teeny. I’m not planning on drinking much. A few glasses of wine with soda I think. 

Back home tomorrow after breakfast which I’m just going to look at the menu now 

Hmmmm I’ll probably go for the full English, but I do like the vegetable option.Also I do love pancakes and the eggs portobello look good. Decisions decisions. All of it will taste amazing and be fully appreciated because someone else has made it for me! 

Once back home and unpacked. I’m planning on going to class. Not looking too deeply at the numbers because they will most definitely be up, but in the bigger scheme of things it’s ok. Too much else in the world to worry about. The numbers will come down again for sure. 

Ttblf one wedding at a time ! 

Another day, another quiche!

 Morning all! 

Well Monday was the taster party night as two lovely members are leaving to move out of the area. 

I hopped on and off the scales and dare not peep! Yes it wasn’t a loss but I’m so glad I went because it was nowhere. Eat as bad as I thought! 

Efforts renewed! Also with Mr 24 with his new job means I’m walking Bluebs at lunchtime so less time to be in the danger zone ( the kitchen ) and more steps but my watch needs charging so I’ve no idea how many steps I’m getting in! 

So yesterday I had a jacket potato with cheese and some beans that were open in the fridge - when you are being as sugar free as the F8 part of my plan, you can really taste how sweet baked beans are. I thoroughly enjoyed them and that’s why I’m loving the SW part of my plan. 

So the quiche that’s good n the oven right now is 

Onion, leek, ham & mushroom with a smattering of tomato and flame roasted red pepper. 

Just about to go in the oven. 

Here’s how…

I used 7 sprays of olive oil at 2 cals per spray according to the bottle. I slowly fried a sliced onion then when that was on its way, I added a thinly sliced leek. 

Once this was on its way I added 4 large mushrooms sliced, cooked them down, so next was added a few slices of wafted thin ham that I’d ribboned. I seasoned it with some season all and some onion granules. I then added the chopped bits of the tomatoes not used for garnish and the chopped bits of the flame grilled pepper from a jar I decided to put in. 

I then let it cool slightly. 

I used 3/4 of a tub of my favourite Longley farm cottage cheese with 5 medium eggs. I stick blended them together with some more onion granules and some black pepper. It goes to a double cream thickness and texture. I grated 120g of mature cheddar meaning if I eat 1/4 of the quiche a day, it’s a full half a healthy extra A. I mixed half of the cheese in with the egg mix.

 I dried off some tomato and pepper for garnish. Put the onion mix in my dish, stirred through the egg mix, garnished as per photo above and baked in the oven for about half an hour until now! It’s well browned and firm. Probably a tad browner than I planned ( but that’s where blogging gets you!!! ) - it will still be delicious and will slice up lovely! 

I am really looking forward to my lunch today! 

Hope your Wednesday goes well. I am trying to rein it in before I go to a wedding on Sunday with a stay over and a luxury breakfast included in the swanky hotel I’m paying ££££££££ to stay in! 

TTBLF one caramelised quiche at a time!!! 

Take my own advice!

These are about the healthiest meals I’ve had all week! I need to look back at my posts and take my own advice! I am STILL suffering ( woe is me ) with this effing cough and even though I am trying every single day, I am not being 100% on it and then getting annoyed with myself when I’ve been languishing in this stone bracket FORRREVERRR. 

This is me. 

Ho hum 

Let’s try again today! I have made overnight oats but with shredded wheat! Frozen peach slices and raspberries - will have that at lunchtime. Cold roast chicken salad for tea. That’s the plan! 

 

Friday

 Well I have a proper chesty cough and sore throat and itchy ears and I'm moaning! I've LFTed and thankfully it is negative. Im too tired to really waffle on for a while. 

Been pretty much on track really. I baked two sweet potatoes and have had them for tea yesterday with the campfire stew and salad. I had one today for lunch with leaves and some branston pickle thats 4 syns but I really fancied some. 

Tea tonight was mix a bag of quorn pieces with a nandos paprika and lime seasoning for 2 and a half syns and shared it with my son. There's half left so I had a quarter. Was so fast and nice. Am off to watch comic relief. Not sure how much sleep I will get tonight with this cough. moan whinge. 

TTBLF a nandos quorn piece at a time!

Mid week catch up

 How is it Thursday already? 

The lapse/relapse thing is quite the powerful tool and it has really clicked in my mindset. 

I’ll share a little more about the planning tools they talked about. But this is stuff that’s been widely out there for slimmers for ever. 

1. Plan an escape route - you do feel good when you are ‘clean’ - for me, this means NO secret eating of crisps and chocolate and bread etc all the beige food! 

So deep down because you already know how a binge will make you feel even as little as 5 minutes in to it have a plan there - a real touchable paper/visual that you can use. 

Write down a list of tasks/activities that you can easily do at a moments notice within your means. 

Eg it’s no good planning to go for a swim unless you’ve a private pool or you can be in the water in 30 seconds. 

The self talk around it is 

“I know this urge will pass, I will have the things I want now but I’m going to do x or y first. In 15 minutes if I feel the same, I’ll have the crisps. 

Things like washing up, hoovering/sweeping stairs, tidying out a drawer, polish the family silver! 

Classic paint your nails, brush teeth, face mask, have a shower

Ten minutes weeding

Puzzle books, read a chapter of a book , look through your SW book at successes, work out how long in minutes, hours, days to next weigh in , try on some of your clothes that don’t fit. 

After the task- decide - is the urge still there? Is it close enough to a mealtime? ( the amount of times I’ve binged before a meal, then eaten the salad like I’m St Rachel of Lettuce is uncountable. If the answer is yes to the first, do another task. It’s all about letting your adrenaline subside - that adrenaline that’s gearing you up for the actions. Make your meal and have you lunch at 10am. Who says you have to have lunch at noon? Try something different to break your habit. 

One that is hard and possibly dangerous to do would be to go lay out on the worktop, all the things you are planning to eat and be brutally honest. Leave that room. Do not go back until you are in control and the urge has passed. Now go look see at the damage you COULD HAVE caused. 

The ideas are limitless and you can no doubt come up with your own as like that dangerous one that just popped into my head!!!   - because it has to be something created by you for yourself. I’m going to do the dangerous one  next time I’m about to revert to the old ways. That’s a plan! 

The times of meals came to me because since doing the F8, it’s all about meals like meal 1 2 or 3 really. We call them breakfast lunch dinner tea supper because everyone does. That’s fine but for me it’s about trying to change a lifetime of being fat to being less fat! 

Meals I’ve enjoyed since my last post have been on the right track. 

I’ve taken some homemade meals out of the freezer and yesterday I had paprika pork with cauliflower rice and side salad and it was lovely. 

I felt full and again went for a light meal after work of boiled eggs! I did have 3 digestive biscuits with a brew later on - not checked the syns but very probably 3 per biscuit so still within my allowance. I didn’t want yogurt as I’ve found if I have dairy just before bed my mouth is horrible and claggy the next morning! I’ve also taken a small portion of the Cajun chicken dirty rice out of the freezer and hip hip hooray - some campfire stew! I may have it with cauliflower rice and some ribbon mix! 

Ribbon mix is what I call a little stir fry/salad of carrot, parsnip and courgettes peeled into ribbons with a veg peeler. 

So it’s 5.30am and I’m about to go make a cup of tea. I’ve a sore throat and a cough that’s come from nowhere. I may LFT but don’t feel covidey. There’s only 2 members of staff yet to get it at work. 

TTBLF ‘one minute at a time if that is what’s needed.’

Weigh in news

 So I went to class and in the two weeks since I’d been ( I missed last Monday due to a later evening at work ), the scales said that 5lbs had vanished! Could

It be down to the fact I cut all my hair off? Wonder how much it weighed hahaha. I also got my Club 10 award and a shiny sticker!  I arrived a little early and saw one of the girls from my 2017/2018 stint so it was lovely to have a catch up. 

I also found out some FASCINATING info and news from the leader that’s not mine to share! But I was agog! 

In our Monday 6.30pm group, we have a married couple who are drug rehab counsellors and programme workers and I heard something that I found really useful. Apart from the parallels betwixt drug addicts and food addicts- if you feel the urge to binge, make yourself a list of jobs that will take approx 15 minutes as the adrenaline and cortisol the brain releases in preparation for a binge/hit will dissipate in about 15 minutes. It’s no good trying to write them in this moment. It’s a pre planned strategy - dieters have them too - drink water, paint nails etc it’s all delaying tactics 

But the one thing that stuck in my brain was the language that you use when you give in to the urges and then begin the negative cycle of eat crap, feel bad, eat  more crap to feel better, feel even worse, gain weight, feel fat and bad, comfort eat etc etc etc 

Do not think of these times as a relapse - because that then allows you the path of eating all the things for the rest of the day week. It validates your self sabotage. 

Instead allow yourself the fact you’ve had a lapse - a teeny pause in your quest for healthy and a better life - this will enable you to re begin the health eating at the next meal. Obviously numerous together  lapses will mean something else needs addressing for you. And could = a relapse. 

They actually said the most successful recoveries include a few lapses- because without them, you can’t really heal. 

I just found it interesting and had never really seen that slant to it. 

Anyway I have to report that my tuna/sweetcorn flan/quiche - fliche- ha ha - was 

A maze ing darling. 

I had half with salad after class last night and the other half with beetroot for speed at lunch today ( my lunchtimes are temporarily 1.1.15ish - 2.15ish ) so I’d had a coffee and tangerine about 12 breaking my fast and putting me on. 

So when it came to tea time I noticed I actually wasn’t hungry. So have just had some berries, yogurt and chia seeds for supper. 

 TTBLF 5lbs closer! 

Tuna flan post

 It’s Monday morning and it’s weigh in tonight. I’ve just written my main blog and am here now to share my recipe for this flan. I hope it’s good! It looks so good! It’s a bit deeper than I should have done because I couldn’t find my smaller flan dish but that’s ok. I’ve been so looking forward to it! I will try it with some salad for lunch today. 

SW wise mine will have a few syns per portion but it’s easily rectified by using fat free options

So here’s the details. 

Ingredients 

3 banana shallots fried in a spray of olive oil ( 1 syn per spray )

1 tin tuna ( protein and free )

1/2 big tin sweetcorn ( free )

1/2 tub full fat cottage cheese ( 4 syns ) 

4 medium eggs whisked 

6  laughing cow lightest triangles ( Hex A ) 

30g strong cheddar ( Hex A ) 

Salt & white pepper

Method 

1. Fry the finely sliced shallot in a spray of olive oil. Pat dry on kitchen roll and let cool

2. Mix tin tuna with some sweetcorn ( if using frozen, I’d let it defrost and pat well dry with kitchen roll - I used tinned, drained well and patted dry ).

3. Add the cooled shallot and mix with tuna/sweetcorn

4. In a jug, blend 1/2 tub cottage cheese, 4 medium eggs and 6 cheese triangles until creamy. Season with salt and pepper. 

5. Mix everything together well with 1/2 of the grated cheddar. 

6. Into an oven proof dish, too with the rest of the grated cheese and tomato slices and bake in a medium oven until we’ll done and firm with no wobbles. I’ve probably over done mine a bit because it was a deep dish. 

So 

In SW theory I could eat the whole lot in one go. for 5 syns. 

As there’s 2 allowable portions of HEXA and the rest is free food. However 

Half of it would be two eggs and 1 Hex A choice which is how I will eat it. I might have it in 1/4s throughout the day but it’s for lunch Monday Tuesday. It fulfils F8 because I used full fat cheeses and real olive oil. 

Saturday night  tea was a lovely large fruit salad with some slightly out of date yogurts to use up! It was a whopping 10 syn dish BUT I’m sure it was far better for me to spend 10 syns ( out of the allowable 15 limit ) on this than on delicious chocolate and crisps!!! 

It was some frozen then defrosted strawberries, some tinned mandarins in fruit juice, a chopped apple, 10g ( 3 ) chopped dates, 2 tablespoons chia seeds ( 1 HEXb ), full fat Greek yogurt and a pot of peach/apricot Greek yogurt and a pot of raspberry keffir yoghurt out of date for all but still fine and delicious. It was filling and satisfying and because it was sweet and lush, I didn’t crave Saturday night snacks. 

Sunday 

I was so cross that when my shop arrived that the eggs arrived with the same date as delivery ( refund requested in protest ) so after I’d used some in the quiche, I hard boiled the rest for the HG butties and my salad. 

I had lettuce, spring onion, tomatoes, carrot ribbons, eggs with celery salt ( from my tidy sorted herb rack! ) and some cold sweetcorn! 

My Sunday roast consisted of 

Roast chicken ( protein and free )

Extra special stuffing ( 2 syns )

Cabbage ( speed )

Carrots ( speed )

Carrot, swede and parsnip mash ( free & speed )

Broad beans

Turnip tips ( quite bitter )

Butter ( 2 syns )

Gravy ( 2 syns )

The stuffing is gorgeous - it’s a Sainsrobbers one. 

I used a teaspoon butter making it and put butter through  the cabbage for us all but as SW say to protect my weight loss, I synned it. 

Was too full for pudding. 

I’ve successfully fasted for last few days from about 7.30pm at night to 12noon the next day and I’ve really not snacked between meals. Even though it’s hard at first it does help me feel more energised. The urges are there all the time though to go and eat all the things. 

Back soon. 

TTBLF one quiche at a time!! 

Saturday catch up

 Well, here watching the rugby ( Oh dear - England player given a red card ) after having a stock take and clean of my many herbs and spices. 

They've all had a good clean -  they were slightly revolting! 

I've an online shopping delivery booked for tomorrow morning so have ordered some herbs I was low on but I definitely think I've got Cumin in all forms covered!

Meals since the last post have very much been on my F8SW plan and apart from some ( 3 small ) home made dumplings on my stew which was oh so good last night, I think I've been within my daily syn count pretty comfortably. I didn't go to class on Monday so I have no idea yet what the scales will say as I may have gone up a bit before coming back down! My next certificate is the 2 stone so fingers crossed I'm a bit closer. 

I made the SW book recipe creamy paprika pork and it was absolutely delicious. I made 4 portions and froze 2 portions without the yogurt - I couldn't get the creme fraiche it called for. 

Plenty of speed! Cauli rice, sprouts and green beans - on a small plate! 

I have had cottage cheese salads. Pics not great

One with ham one day, one without the next - mainly because I'd no ham left hahaha.

 I am still loving pickled red cabbage and beetroot on things! I made a oh my goodness it were good beef stew on Friday.

 I am convinced the secret is in using the Pott's stock. Sadly my local Sainsrobbers has stopped selling it but I managed to get one tin of the beef stock for a pound. Checked on the SW online and it's syn free so that's good! The HG had lots of dumplings, new potatoes and lovely crusty bread with his. I had cabbage and leeks and my pickled reds ans 3 ickle dumplings - I seem to have got really good at making those lately too! 

I'm going in the kitchen in a minute to put all the herbs n things back and make a tuna and sweetcorn flan aka crustless quiche. I've fancied it for a few days now and will have it warm with salad. Whilst I do have cravings to eat crisps etc because it's Saturday, I feel close enough to Monday's weigh in to want success! So I am resisting! 

TTBLF - Reeeeeally trying!! xx

Nil by mouth

 Why is it when you are stomach sick it’s always 3am when the hideous symptoms begin? 

Anyway that’s where I’ve been most of the night playing which end roulette! Not sure if it’s something I’ve eaten or a case of I’ve picked up something from school considering there’s a projectile vomiting bug picking the children off one by one. 

So nothing for breakfast or lunch today. Depends how I feel later but I might have some iced water to sip and come tea time it might be a weak black tea and a probiotic yogurt or something plain. I had eggs last night which have not been a problem since I had my gallbladder out. But I’ve had similar none painful mind pre GB out symptoms . Will approach with caution. 

I’m so annoyed bc I cannot stand to be off work. My colleague will struggle and I lose the pay from the after school club. And I’d planned on a delicious crunchy salad at lunch and my son is making a paprika pork dish from my latest SW book. He will still make it. I’ll just have mine tomorrow I guess. Sigh. 

There may be bonus weight loss but it’s not real and will go straight back on - I am not advocating this form of diet plan!! 

TTBLF - hopefully with better innards tomorrow! Xx

Missed class

 Never went after work. Needed to just go home. 

I haven't sorted pics but Sunday I did lovely lean braising steak with mash, carrots n cabbage and I had leftovers Monday. 

will try to blog again every evening from tomorrow.

TTBLF xx

Saturday Sigh a day!

 Blimey it’s been a busy mad few days 

Have photographed a few meals etc with the full intention of blogging but I have been fast asleep by 8.30 on the couch every night. Pretty sure it’s covid related. 

Anyway am here now. Monday night’s weigh in will not be straightforward as I’ve to be at work until 7- 7.30 ish 

Anyway have messaged the leader ( I couldn’t go this morning as the SW week runs Sat to Sat )

And I feel strongly that if I kiss a week then I’m likely to stray into chocolate infested waters! As it is I had toast and jam for tea last night. Ridiculous of me when there was a fridge full of lovely healthy stuff. 

I’m current day 45 of my cycle and I’ve got all the way to day 49 before flipping lady week arrived so am waiting with baited breath. 

Recording it here because being menopausal ( hopefully nearer the end than the beginning ) for the first time in my life I’ve experienced some sort of pmt symptoms and on a separate dedicated period app I’ve noted the days running up to starting my period I’ve consumed and literally hunted out sugar in any way shape or form. 

Anyway 

Strange and genuine. 

So meals since I last posted have been from my batch cook stock from the freezer,  I’ve made soup with yellow sticker veg and enjoyed the rest of my quiche and I can’t recall the rest!! Will go look at pics! 

Tuesday lunch - quiche, pickled cabbage & beet

Tuesday tea - prawn salad 

Pudding was a pancake - I think I was sailing close the the Wind if not beyond synwise Tuesday. 

Wednesday

I decided to have overnight oats for my pudding after tea so I made it in my little trifle dish. 

I used 30g alpen dust and 10g weetabix dust from the bottom of the packets! Frozen raspberries and frozen blueberries and plain Greek yogurt. 

Soup to go with. 

So pretty 

Soup portion 

Repeated lunch! 

Popped this in a pan plus a chicken stock cube and water! Boiled and zizzed! 

Thursday was Cajun chicken from the freezer and leaves. 

So Thursday night I had some supernoodles from the cupboard with a chopped up frozen chicken burger thing from the freezer and some frozen mixed veg. Not the best tea and actually I felt off it afterwards with the HG reminding me last time I had supernoodles I felt badly - I wonder if it’s the wheat? 

Yesterday I had some corn thins and cottage cheese for lunch and for tea was jam on toast and a raspberry keffir yogurt. Too many synned things. Like a week of two halves. 

Today I’ve snaffles a couple pieces of well grilled bacon whilst making the menfolks a bacon butty. 

Showered and off out visiting now. Including an 8year Old’s birthday party!! I’ve some soup or some campfire stew that I will have for my tea and then whichever I don’t have will need eating for tomorrow lunch. 

Braising steak which is nice and lean. And plenty of speedy veg is planned for Sunday tea. I will try and keep syns to a

Minimum next week and use them solely on my Greek yogurt and wholesome food rather than processed - that makes me sound like a food snob and I’m a bit ashamed as there’s some people in this world who only have access to such things - food banks etc request such things. Sigh 

It’s a big old Saturday sigh.