Getting to grips…

So this week i’ve spent most of my week with my head in this…

I basically have a list of free foods which include fruits, veggies, meat, fish, eggs, quorn etc… I have to fill myself up on as much as the free foods as i can.

My only problem is i love cheese and bread! But this is not so much of a problem as the lovely people at Slimming World offer healthy extras, i get an a) option which is a choice of either milk or cheese and a b) option which is a choice of bread, cereal or nuts – how nice!

Everything else that doesn’t fit into these 2 categories are a SYN (boo! Syns are bad!! Well if you eat more than 15 in a day they are!)

So here is what today looks like for me on Slimming World.

Breakfast: was a completely free meal, i had a mullerlight vanilla with chocolate sprinkles, with banana, Clementine and grape all mixed together. It was delicious and i shall be having this again… most likely tomorrow morning. I washed the lot down with a Twinnings Morning Detox tea.

Lunch/Dinner: I love the idea of a Sunday traditional roast but am still feeling a bit iffy about eating meat (however you will notice that i am back on the eggs and dairy). So today i made a kind-of-ish Sunday roast. I now use a smaller dinner plate as my previous one was huge and i had a tendency to overfill it, i sometimes think my dinner won’t fill me up when i dish up Ollie’s man size portion on said huge plate, but i always feel fine and full after. I roasted Ollie’s veg as normal in olive oil but i roasted mine seperately with spray oil as this is counted as free, with no syns! I had roast potatoes, carrots, parsnips & courgette, with peas and sweetcorn. Instead of meat i had a Tesco meat free mexican burger, it was quite spicy which i like but i plan to have a go at making my own version soon, as this set me back 5.5 syns and i know that i could make it a free meal if i made it myself.

I have also snacked on a Muller light toffee yogurt which was free – my a) choice [calcium] was skimmed milk, which i have had in my decaf tea/coffee today and my b) choice [fibre] has been 20 almonds, which i consumed whilst putting this post together!

It’s 9pm so i’m going to venture up to bed, i have got a few books out from the library so plan to start one of them tonight and I’ve also purchased a lovely page a day diary which i’ll show you all tomorrow – i want to write my first entry in it tonight. Night All x

It’s A SYN!!!!!

**Apologies for wordy post… I will write a proper post later this evening!**

Sorry for disappearing but i am hopefully back!! Last week i was having my detox week, so i excluded meat, wheat and dairy from my diet as much as i could… in my naivety i didn’t realise Quorn had egg in it duh! And i also had egg on my meal out in Dawlish last week. The rest of the week i followed a vegan diet.

The reason for the kick start? To kickstart my weightloss, did it work… nope i don’t think so! The other reason i wanted to elliminate some foods was because i was having some very painful tummy aches so i wanted to see if my diet was the cause… it just so happens that food wasn’t the cause, but i did get to the bottom of it (literally) on Sunday on what the problem was. Without going into too much detail, when i left my job after maternity leave it was because they had made it impossible for me to go back. I was going to take it further and have been speaking to solicitors, citizens advice etc and if i want to take it to tribunal i would have to represent myself. The deadline to do this is coming up and i think even though i have felt ok about it all my body has been trying to tell me something different. On Saturday night i had the most horrid IBS reaction, which continued all day Sunday. Sorry if tmi but i could not be more than a couple of steps from the toilet… this is when i knew enough was enough. I have decided to omit this stress from my life and just drop the whole issue. I know it will be at my loss and someone else may get treated the same but i just can’t put myself through a tribunal that could last 6-8 months.

After making this decision, i really have felt a weight lift off my shoulders and feel that i can concentrate on more important things, like my healthy eating and exercise.

My MIL was brilliant on Monday, she watched Rowan so i could remain in bed and recuperate, she also knows that i would like to join a slimming club but the pennies are a bit tight so she offered to pay my joining and 6 weeks for Slimming World!!! So last night i went to my first meeting, my head is swimming with how the plan works as i have only ever done weight watchers in the past. The plan seems a lot simpler than WW and the food looks more suitable for me to make for Rowan and Ollie to eat also… the proof will be in the pudding next week when i step on those scales!! I must remember a tablespoon of Peanut Butter is 4.5 Syns!!! (but i am allowed 5-15 syns a day)… Wish me luck!!!

Can you overdose on soup?

Because i have been slurping eating quite a bit over the last 2 days!

Breakfast has been the usual porridge with raisins and dried cranberries for the past 2 days – my new fave combo,

then yesterday i decided to make something with this…

Can you guess what it is yet???? You’ll see what it is later!

I’ve been snacking on my vegan sausage rolls, they are so delicious!

And wholenut PB spread on rice cakes,

So back to that strange thing in the saucepan earlier… it’s just frozen roasted butternut squash! I melted it down with vegetable stock, added a tsp of chilli and coconut milk, blended it all together to make the most wonderful tasting soup! i added toasted bread as croutons. In fact i made so much soup that i have had it for lunch today and also had a small bowl before dinner tonight!! Thankfully it has now all gone until next time!

For dinner tonight i made Quesadilla.

My tortilla were almost dry fried with only a couple sprays of sunflower oil, inside contains Quorn chicken pieces, onion, red/yellow peppers, salsa and hummus, on the side are homemade curly sweet potato fries.

I have also started Jillian Michaels 30 day shred, i’ve dusted off my workout equipment once more!

The only problem i have is i am doing the 30 day shred from the videos posted on Youtube until my own DVD’s arrive, unfortunately they don’t play fast enough on my computer so i have been following off my phone! Magnifying glass anyone?

My DVD’s are set to arrive tomorrow from Amazon, i decided to buy the whole Jillian Michaels collection, she is going to kick my butt! She will be happy to know that for my dessert tonight i made myself an orange, pineapple and strawberry smoothie… it was sweet and delicious!

So keep this to yourselves, i’m going to have a square of this tonight – shhhh don’t tell Jillian!

Time for bed, i popped to the library yesterday and got a selection of books to read – nighty night!

Bubble & Squeak!

 

I started today with porridge again but opted for raisins and dried cranberries for flavour – think you’ll be seeing porridge on my blog quite a bit as i am finding it so filling which stops me from wanting to snack! I also had a decaf coffee made with almond milk, that’s why it looks so strong.

I needed all the energy i could get as we decided to meet with the in laws and go for a 5 mile walk between Dawlish and Dawlish Warren. We were going to head up to Dartmoor but the weather was a bit miserable and foggy so thought the sea coast walk would be better. So on went our rain macs and off we walked!

We walked along the lower path first, it was like an episode of Total Wipeout as we had to time it right between the waves crashing in at certain spots or there was a good chance we were going to get a bit wet!

 

We then headed up to higher path which was a lot drier… but high… very high… and no barrier YIKES!

Not only was it a sheer drop into the sea but on our other side was a teeny tiny wall and then a busy railway line… health and safety people come on?!!!!

We made it to Dawlish Warren, it was drizzling but so good to be outside in the sea air.

After our walk, my father in law treated us to lunch as we had all walked up an appetite. We headed for the Smugglers Inn, we had all heard good reviews of the place but none of us had been.

Although the weather was still grey, look at the cracking view!

Ollie and the in-laws went for the carvery, as i am currently trying to avoid meat and dairy i was hoping that they would have something i could have on the main menu…. and they didn’t disappoint! They had some lovely vegetarian meal options, i went for the bubble and squeak, fried flat mushroom and grilled tomato… i was really naughty as i should have said no to the poached eggs… but i didn’t… and i ate them!! All washed down with a sparkling water.

A nice lady took a group photo of us all after the meal… look how worried Rowan looks!

 

We got home, chilled out for a bit, i sorted out our car insurance renewal whilst the boys played like crazy things! I love hearing them playing and laughing together. Once we put Rowan in bed i was ready for another bite to eat, so went for a veggie burger (which contains egg – whoops) on a granary roll with Cheezly mozzarella, lettuce and ketchup and carrots with hummus.

Considering the cheese is not cheese and is vegan, i probably would not have noticed the difference! I tried a little bit out of the packet and thought the consistency was a bit yuck if i’m honest but melted on a burger, delicious! The veggie burgers were Morrison’s own make, they had a lovely taste and consistency, just as nice as the Quorn brand.

I also made some veggie… well vegan actually sausage rolls for Ollie’s lunch this week, of course i had to try one and they are soooooo good! I mixed up a box of this;

Rolled it into 2 large sausages and wrapped it in this;

I sliced the pastry in half long ways and made 16 sausage rolls. If you like tasty savoury snacks in your lunch box but don’t want all the fat, these would be ideal. Ollie was very impressed with my culinary skills! LOL!

It’s 12:15am, i need to get some shut eye… 30 day shred starts tomorrow!!! arghhhh!

Day One.

Today i made only good decisions when it came to food, today is day one of healthy, kind eating. What scared me the most was how much recently i have been eating things for the sake of eating, not thinking about what is in the food i am eating or the impact it may have on my body. Many times today i almost snacked on anything in front of me with out a second thought, i had to keep reminding myself that i have planned my meals and any snacks that are not on the plan or are non-vegan are not permitted for the next 7 days!

For breakfast i made porridge (2/3 cup oats, 1/3 cup oat bran) with almond milk (1 cup), water (1 cup), one small apple chopped up and cinnamon. It was all washed down with a hot water and lemon – so filling!

After breakfast Ollie, Rowan and I went to the local coffee shop the Boston Tea Party. I went for the medium roast Boston decaf latte made with soya milk… it was so nice and frothy, hardly much difference than normal milk!

After Boston Tea Party we walked home, quickly changed Rowan’s t-shirt as he managed to smudge his biscuit into it and then headed to our friends for dinner. When i was planning my meals for this week, i planned in this meal. Our friend Will is vegetarian so he was making nut roast, there was a chicken on the go but i opted just for the nut roast. Will has been vegetarian all his life so he can make some amazing vegetarian meals. This nut roast was amazing and i will be having a try of it asap!

In the nut roast mix was;

• courgette
• butternut squash
• cashew nuts
• sage
• mushrooms
• peppers
• onions
• Tarragon (i think)

I also had a roast carrots, potatoes (roasted in olive oil) and peas. Very nice indeed.

After dinner, the other dived into the cookies and cakes that Ollie and I bought off the market this morning, it was hard to resist! Instead i had a decaf espresso (i never really understood the point of decaf espressos, but i do now!) Our toddlers entertained us for the rest of the afternoon!

Chloe decided to take Rowan for a walk in his buggy round the kitchen to get him off to sleep!

We had a lovely day with our friends Will and Lucy, we always do and our little ones love to play (& sometimes fight) with each other.

We headed home, put Rowan to bed and i made my self a snack tea meal as was still pretty full from the meal. I went for carrots & celery with hummus and a rice cake with wholenut peanut butter on top.

I’m having some blog reading/writing time whilst Ollie watches The Godfather Part II (not my cup of tea)… talking of cup of teas though i have just had my first decaf cup made with Alpro almond milk…

And my verdict… surprisingly nice! The tea tastes a little stronger but i like strong tea so not an issue. I’m also snacking on almonds as i type (craving chocolate a little bit but blogging is distracting me!)

Another one of my purchases at the supermarket yesterday was this Vegan cheese;

   

I can’t wait to make a pizza later in the week with it. I hope it tastes nice, has anyone tried it before?

I’m off to read some blogs now, nighty night x

The Last Supper

I have eaten tons and tons over Christmas, my mom’s scales told me i am basically obese! WTF? So i am ready to make a start on my new years resolution to eat healthy and lose weight. I won’t go into numbers because basically i am utterly disgusted with how much i way, i may share my starting weight when i reach my goal weight. I would ideally like to lose 1.5-2 stone in weight – this is a realistic and sensible amount of weight for me to lose and i plan to do this by starting a bit of a detox to kickstart my weight loss. So last night i meal planned like i have never meal planned before!! I spent hours looking for recipes that would fit in with my detox week, so basically i am going vegan for one week as this will omit dairy, meat and a lot of other junk!

Who knew vegan’s eat such wonderful food – i love the idea of going vegan but i’m not sure i could cope with the restrictions, i have been reading some wonderful things though about health and this way of eating so i am happy to dip my toe in for a while.

After many hours, i produced a rather good meal plan for the week.

I went to supermarket and filled my trolley, with lots of fruit, veg and meat, dairy alternatives. I look forward to showing you some of my creations this week. I am not looking forward to my starting weigh in tomorrow and my ‘before’ photos – oh the dread!!!

My mother in law Ann looked after Rowan whilst i went shopping so i had lots of time to wander around the aisles.

Ann and I shared a Covent Garden Soup (Souper Greens), it was really nice and had a pesto taste.

Tonight is the last night i am going to eat crap, so Ollie and I had one final blow out…. a curry! We had popadoms and onion bhaji to start.

And for my main i had a vegetable korma and mushroom fried rice

It was lovely and disgusting at the same time… you will not be seeing any more food on my blog like this for a long time. Tomorrow is the day i am going to make a positive change, i have the power to do it, i know i have it in me.

Today i drove down the route i ran during my half marathons in 2009 and 2010 – i was actually amazed at how far i ran back then, it wasn’t easy at the time, it was a hard challenge but i did it because i wanted to succeed. I’m in a fortunate positioned as my 2 cousins and sister are also trying to lose weight so we are supporting each other, in fact one of my cousins has started her own blog… she is ace so please go check out her blog (Poppies in the Porch) and show her how supportive the blog world can be!  

On that note i am going to finish this post feeling bloated and with a positive quote to help me with this challenge to fight the bulge!

Christmas 2012 in pictures

We spent our Christmas this year at my in-laws in the lovely harbour town of Brixham, unfortunately our early xmas morning walk along the breakwater did not happen as it rained so hard – oh well gave me an excuse to stay in my new onesie! (i know, I know i look like a tellytubby!)

The beautiful Christmas tree;

Ollie’s aunt, uncle and cousins also joined us, they brought with them their tortoise Tonto as they were worried that he may get stuck on his back whilst they were away, he was a very nice addition to our xmas day!

You can’t have xmas day with out xmas jumpers, i made ours this year. It took me several hours sewing huge santa clauses on our jumpers and we forgot to get a photo together wearing them – huge fail! But you can kind of see them in these photos (also notice Rowan dressed as an xmas elf!);

The lovely set xmas table;

We had the most amazing xmas dinner, my husbands mom is an amazing cook, i had a bit of everything! Then it was games and chill out time with the family;

   

  

 

It was a wonderful xmas, especially watching our little Rowan enjoying it all. I must take more and better photos next year!

The New Years Resolutions!

I am so behind with blogging, i had the most wonderful Christmas and New Year though, hence the lack of time to post (plus my in-laws don’t have wifi SHOCK HORROR!) I will write separate posts about that later as i really want to get my New Year Resolutions out there in print! I tweeted my resolutions on the 27th December 1:30am in the morning, i could not sleep so thought i would do something constructive. So here goes my New Year Resolutions (i shall go into more detail of each one throughout January)…

1. Exercise Regularly – I think i want to do this every year but it doesn’t seem to happen! I really hope i can do this one now that i am at home more since leaving my job to look after Rowan full time. My plan is to complete Jillian Michaels 30 day shred (starting 7th Jan so it coincides with my sister doing it also) and then move onto P90X… that’s 120 days fitness commitment, not a lot when you think how many days are in a year!
2. Eat healthy & allow one meal where i can eat what i want each week – I have decided that for the first 30 days, i am not going to allow a cheat meal, this will give me the kick start i need and willpower is pretty low after the food indulgent Christmas that i have just had!
3. Tidy the pit of a house that we have & make it into a home – Housework is not one of my favourite things, I’ll be the first to admit that but i do like a tidy house. So i am going to commit to getting the house sorted in January, every item will have a home and if there isn’t a home for it, it will be going to the charity shop.
4. Make a proper go of my craft business, take part in a craft fair – I love painting and have started to make a few gift items for family and friends, but I think i am ready to put more into this and make it a mini business. I have already made a page of facebook (RALA Handmade Crafts) I just need to manage my time to network and get some orders!
5. Turn the TV & internet off… Get my own life before reading about others! – Now i love reading blogs, i really do, but i sometimes find that i read so many blogs that i do not have time to write my own! So i guess this is more about prioritising my own blog before reading others. I am also trying to turn the TV off in the day, it is no good for myself or Rowan to have crappy TV on in the background all the time, instead, we are going to listen to music and get some audio story books out from the library.
6. Savour every second i have with my baby & have a special date night with the husband each week – I am in the fortunate position that i am a full time mom, money is extremely tight but we manage as long as we are carful, this means i get to spend most of my time with Rowan, which i love and plan to savour for as long as i can. Being parents mean being a couple gets put on the back burner, but the husband and I are going to try and have a date night, just a nice meal and watch a DVD together on a Saturday evening – we’re rock n roll i know!!!
7. Write down what i have been grateful for at the end of each day, just a few words in my diary just for me – this sounds a bit gooey but i truly am happy with my life and would like to look back and read about all the nice times when i am an old crinkly lady, my husband’s Gran has been doing this since 1952 and always looks back over the years, i think it is a lovely idea.
8. Get more sleep! – I’m not sure why but i have been struggling getting to sleep at night, i lay awake most nights till 2am. I’m not stressing about anything, i think i just find it hard to switch off of a night, so I am going to need to have wind down time before going to sleep, either listening to music or reading a book. I’m hoping that the healthy eating and exercise will help me get to sleep of a night, i really hope to get up uber early to get my workout out and shower done before the little man wakes up but know that will not happen if i am still awake at 2am in the morning.

Think that is enough for one year, i plan to go into a bit more detail of the above during the month of January, but will do a full review of how it’s going one month from now.

If you have made resolutions, i wish you luck – we can do this if we try x

End of year resolution?!!!

I’ve been thinking a lot about the healthy changes i want to make in the new year… i love a fresh start that a new year brings (even if it doesn’t last long!) But a lot of people can actually put a lot of weight on during the run up to Christmas, i know this is usually the case with me. After watching Earthlings last Sunday evening, my eating habits have changed a little and i actually have been eating really healthy! Lots of vegetables and very little dairy. So my end of year resolution is to not go too mad with food and drink over the festive season!

I said in my last post that i was going to talk a little bit more about the documentary ‘Earthlings’

I will not go into detail as it’s a personal choice whether a person wants to watch a documentary containing animal abuse but i made the choice to watch it. The only way i can describe how it has made me feel is as follows… you know when you have a really awful dream, i mean really bad that you wake up crying? And then you feel kind of strange the next day or two? Well that is how i felt after i watched the documentary, i felt obviously very sad and also very strange, like something inside of me died (sound dramatic i know!). Since watching the documentary, i can not actually even think about eating meat, i went shopping on the Monday after watching it and bought tons of fruit/veggies and meat alternatives – i couldn’t even go near the meat fridges. I’m not sure if this is going to be a long term thing but my husband has been great and said that i should just eat what feels right at the moment, and at the moment, i don’t want to eat meat (not sure what i am going to do xmas day at the in-laws if i still have this aversion to meat!)

So this week we have had a few vegan and vegetarian meals, which have been loved by myself, Ollie and Rowan. Here are a few;

Meal One: Sweet Potato, Spinach & Lentil Dahl & Chappati (both recipes were found on BBC Good Food website)

I made this dish not so long ago and it was just as good second time round, Ollie really enjoyed the chilli kick to the dish as he was coming down with a cold so meant he could taste it.

Meal Two: Roasted Vegetable Homemade Pizza (the base was the Delia Smith one i made for my festive pizza – the husband said that it was better than a shop bought one… but then he was full of cold when he ate it!)

I have to admit, this pizza was pretty awesome! Next time though i am going to add sweetcorn and black olives to add a little more flavour variety.

Meal Three: Roasted Vegetables with Whole wheat Pasta and Passata

I loved the roasted veggies so much i made the same mixture tonight but instead of making a pizza base, i added it to whole wheat pasta bows instead. I warmed a little passata which i mixed in once i took the photo and also added a little bit of grated cheese post photo – this was super duper filling!

What’s nice is Rowan has been eating the roasted veggies too, tonight he had the pasta above (but cut up into smaller pieces) and the night we had the pizza he had the veggies mixed with cous cous… he loves it!

In my veggie mix for both recipes i included:

• red onion
• yellow pepper
• red pepper
• mushroom
• cherry tomatoes &
• courgette

So like i said, I’m not sure what I’m doing about eating meat just yet but i am sure you will be the first to know if i do start eating meat again (because you will see it on the blog!)

I need to also update on the 25 days of blogging Christmas challenge – i didn’t feel like posting last night after hearing about the sad news in Connecticut, my thoughts went out to all those innocent children and teachers.

14. Real or artificial tree? There is nothing better than the smell of a real tree but we always have an artificial tree. I remember one year having a real tree when i was a kid… i remember my mom cursing after vacuuming up the needles several times a day and also impaling my toes on a pesky needle everyday on the run up to xmas, so the following year mom and dad dusted off the artificial tree and put that back up instead.

15. The best gift you have given? i think the best gift that we gave was a photo portrait of all the grandaughters to my nan and grandad, nan still has it on her wall above grandad’s chair.

It rained all day today in Devon – not festive at all, you know you picture walking through the town market in your finest woolies, with floaty snow and Christmas cheer, well instead it reminded me of this…

Catching up….

Ok, i completely stink at blogging everyday so I’m failing miserably at my 25 days of blogging Christmas Challenge! But I’m going to play a little catch up and hopefully resume the challenge thereafter, so here goes…

9. Easiest person to buy for… This would have to be my mom as she makes a list of all the things she would like at xmas and you just pick one that suits your budget! I love buying gifts that people actually want!

10. Favourite Holiday Scent… i think it would have to be the smell of a real xmas tree, how more xmassy can you get really? I would love to have a real tree this year but as we now have Rowan we can’t risk the needles falling off so we have stuck to a good ole fake tree.

11. Favourite xmas tradition… i think this has to be the way my sister and I would organise all the presents into piles whilst mom got the breakfast ready, we would then take it in turns to open our presents so we could have a nose at what each other got… my dad always insisted on opening his presents last, so he could enjoy watching everyone else first.

12. Wrapping paper of gift bags? It always has to be wrapping paper for me and i always pick a traditional design, nothing modern as it isn’t xmassy enough for me.

13. Favourite Xmas book? It has to be a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, i love love love this story and when Rowan gets older i can not wait to read it to him on the run up to Christmas!

Ok, that’s the challenge catch up – so what’s been happening with me this week, highlights below;

• Went to rhythm and rhyme with Rowan where we sang xmas songs
• Went to baby group with Rowan, we made xmas cards with his footprint on, we chose green card, gold paint and a heck of a lot of glitter.
• On my mission to find tasty vegan recipes for my one week vegan challenge in January, i came across a documentary on Youtube called Earthlings… I’m not sure how i did it but i watched the whole thing and i have to say a little bit of me has died inside. It’s a documentary on how animals are used in human life, including pets, food, entertainment, science and fashion. I think everyone should watch it but it is heartbreaking to watch and contains a lot of awful footage of animal abuse. I am going to write a whole post on this soon as it has effected me so much 😦
• Husband has said he will join me on the vegan challenge in January to help me with it (i love him).
• My closest friend from University had her baby last night – a little girl that they called Evelynn – can’t wait to meet her!
• Been trying some lovely veggie recipes in preparation for my vegan challenge.
• Cut out all caffeine and moved onto decaf, peppermint and fennel tea instead (and had to endure the most disgusting caffeine withdrawal headaches – yuck)
• Bought mine and Ollie’s jumpers from the charity shop ready to transform them into the most distasteful xmas themed jumpers 🙂
• Just watched ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ snuggled up in bed with Ollie with the electric blanket on 0 bliss!

Think that’s about it, i will resume proper blogging tomorrow – I’ll share with you some of my wonderful meals this week and talk a little bit about Earthlings (i promise not to go into detail of what i saw or try and guilt trip people into watching it).

Night all x