Thursday 25 October 2012

Thursday Food Diary #2

Well I have completed another Thursday food diary and successfully photographed everything I ate. Today I stuck to 26 points DESPITE A NANDO'S which is pretty amazing if you ask me. Normally I would have gone a bit harder in Nando's and used a few weekly points, but as I have got my holiday Sunday->Sunday I thought I had better stick to dailies whilst in England for the next two weeks.

Breakfast: 6am
Chocolate Oat So Simple Sachet: 3 points
1/4 pint of skimmed milk: 1 point
Rest of milk for day: 1 point
Raspberries: 0 points
Blueberries: 0 points
Total : 5 points
You can't even tell that's chocolate flavour really but it is and it's amazing. I am such a child when it comes to breakfast. I haven't had a single bowl of cereal since I started Weight Watchers and you know what? I DO MISS COCO SHREDDIES, TIME TO ADMIT IT. But chocolate flavour porridge is still great for a dark and chilly morning.

Snack: 9.45am
Satsuma: 0 points
I've only got into satsumas recently (I always used to chuck them out when I was given them in my packed lunches at school, fact fans) but I think they're great! By the way, satsuma fans, these are from Tesco and are an absolute dream to peel.


Snack: 11am
Weight Watchers Caramel Mallow: 1 point

Didn't have enough points for cookies today (I wanted at least a FAIRLY comprehensive Nando's) but I think a caramel mallow is quite a good substitute. These taste like pure sugar which is all you really want in a snack really isn't it. I think they are quite an impressive size for 1 point! 


Lunch: 1pm

Vegetable curry: 0 points
Mini Wrap: 3 points
Pineapple: 0 points
Weight Watchers Raspberry Tart Dessert Yoghurt: 1 point
Sugar Free Jelly: 0 points

Calling that a vegetable curry is probably an insult to India, but this is basically what it is: loads of vegetables in passata with curry powder. However, it is YUM. The wrap is tiny for 3 points which is annoying but that's life. A bit bizarre to have a plain wrap with a curry but I can't eat a meal without carbs. 
The Weight Watchers yoghurts are nowhere near as nice as the M&S yoghurts that I had last week (the KINGS of yoghurts) but they are a point less I guess. I had it mixed in with the pineapple but it didn't look very appetising like that for the photo.
Sugar free jelly was earmarked for a snack later in the afternoon but I was hungry then so just had it. Mango & Passion Fruit is a pretty rank flavour by the way. Raspberry & Cranberry all the way.




Snack: 4pm
Apple and grape snack pack: 0 points

'Any 3 for £1.50' is a total con. They're 50p each!!! 


Dinner (NANDO'S): 6pm

Quarter chicken: 3 points
Chips with Peri Peri salt: 9 points
Halloumi: 2 points
Garlic Peri Sauce (not pictured): 1 point
Total = 15 points
This is my face being happy because I am at Nando's surrounded by AMAZING yet LOW POINT food. I bloody love Nando's. As said before, if I had my weeklies I'd have gone for a comprehensive Nando's. This is a picture of my friend Luke and his comprehensive Nando's:
A picture to demonstrate just how much I wanted every bit of chicken I could get:

YUM.

After dinner Luke and I walked around quite a bit and ended up in Knightsbridge. We even went to Harrods and wandered round the food hall (amazing). We walked past so much amazing food all round yummy mummy land, and I even watched Luke eat an amazing cookie, and I managed to resist ALL of it! Gold star for me. I feel better for it as I still feel super full and satisfied but NOT GUILTY. Also the walking must have done some good too!
And I still had room for something sweet and yummy...

9pm: Snack
Galaxy Bubbles Orange Hot Chocolate: 1 point

Galaxy Bubbles Orange Hot Chocolate is my new fave. However my attention span when it comes to hot chocolate is vaguely worrying  - I currently have no fewer than FIVE different varieties open in the cupboard, but whatever.


Total for day: 26 points

So I did it! A lovely satisfying meal and it's not as if I really suffered the rest of the day for it, and stuck to points completely. Just shows it's possible, eh. I think I probably will still take pictures of everything I eat next Thursday when I'm on holiday, for the lols, but obviously won't post them until the following week and they won't be pointed! 

Thursday Weigh In #2

Well today I have..

lost 0.2lb!

I know, 0.2lb. LOL. Specifically according to my scales, 100grams. I know this is barely worth recording and is basically a stay the same, but when you're in the dark unmotivatey place I currently reside, EVERY GRAM COUNTS. This is totally going up on the sidebar.

Obviously as a whole I'm disappointed as I really wanted to shift my gain from last week and I haven't, but taking into account my week and blog on Monday I think this was really the best I could have possibly hoped for, so thank you Weight Watching Gods.

As said, I am going to do a special 'pre-holiday' weigh in on Sunday morning so I can accurately measure how much I end up gaining on holiday. Today I will take pictures of everything I eat again for Thursday Food Diary. This includes a Nando's (!) so wish me luck!

Monday 22 October 2012

Get my head in the game

I have a confession to make...

I have two days left of this week, and it has NOT been a bang on plan week.

My weeks that are completely un-bang on plan follow a certain pattern. I am all fine, then Saturday night hits, I go over points, and then I spend the whole rest of the week not bothering to track properly.

This is basically what has happened, and I can feel in my heart and like a lead weight in my stomach that I will probably gain again on Thursday. This is not good. 2 gains in 2 weeks becomes 3 gains in 3 weeks becomes 6 gains in 6 weeks becomes being back up to original weight just in time for 2013.

I'm so cross with myself. I'm a big believer in the fact that plenty of things taste better than skinny feels, however - nothing tastes as good as this self-hatred feels bad. (Does this make sense?) There is no food in this world that is worth the feeling of impending fear that I am going to get fat again, or even fatter.

I think I know why this has happened. Basically, by now I have obviously lost 17lb (18lb before the horrific gain) which is quite a noticeable amount of weight to have lost. In early September I was getting inundated with compliments about my weight loss (not trying to big myself up, honest, just saying the facts!) and it felt great. It was motivating and brilliant.

But then people don't keep commenting on it and you start to get the feeling: well, I'm not fat now. I'm a healthy weight. I can fit into the clothes I was wearing when I met my boyfriend, I can walk down the street feeling reasonably confident that people aren't thinking in their heads that I am fat. Why can't I just eat what I want? Do I really need to keep going? Don't get me wrong, despite wavering from the plan itself I have NEVER wavered from Weight Watchers as a whole and buying into the concept, but selfconsciously I started to think: I don't really have to weigh EVERYTHING, do I. I can snack a bit when I get home from work. Why do I have to live like some kind of fascist?

And it's a slippery slope. In some ways I think I'm more likely to overeat post-Weight Watchers than before Weight Watchers. My whole relationship with food has become distorted. I can't even imagine not thinking very much about food and just eating when I'm hungry any more. MY WHOLE LIFE is spent considering what my next meal is going to be. I already know what I am going to eat every meal for the next week. On Wednesday I am going to someone else's for dinner and the fact I don't know what I'm going to eat there is making me unnaturally stressed out.

Anyway, I am thinking maybe if I write a pledge online I am more likely to stick to it. SO HERE WE GO. I am going on holiday on Sunday and this is my pledge.

1.  Every day until my holiday (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday) I will stick to 26 PP a day and point EVERYTHING that I eat (or at least guesstimate for the case of when I'm eating at someone else's house, but that's only once.) I will track everything before I eat it and will not allow myself to eat something if it is not on my tracker.
2. I will exercise at least a little bit every day I have time on every day until my holiday. I will not kid myself regarding ' having time' - if I am home an hour before I have to go to bed, I have enough time to do some exercise.
3. I'll stop buying trigger foods - literally asking for trouble.
4. I will weigh EVERYTHING and point it properly.
5. Obviously I'll do my proper weigh in on Thursday but I will also do a special 'pre-holiday' weigh in on Sunday morning, and another 'post-holiday' one on the Monday I get back, so I can accurately assess how much weight I gained on holiday. I will not weigh myself at any other times (again this is asking for trouble.)
6. On holiday I will chill regarding food and eat what I fancy but I will make one rule and one rule alone: I will only eat if I am hungry and will not continue to stuff my face if I am full.


WISH ME LUCK.

Thursday 18 October 2012

Thursday Food Diary - Week #1

I've decided that every Thursday (otherwise known as Weigh In day) I will take photos of everything I eat to blog how I stick within my points within a day. This will be:


  • Motivation
  • Demonstrative to you all, to show that you can only eat 26 points in a day and NOT end up a raging cannibal
  • Inspiration to actually make my Thursdays a bit different, so I am not always so terminally boring with my food choices and blogging
  • And also it has kind of helped today to think that I have to take a photo of everything I eat, due to the whole shame thing. Shame is everything in a diet.

When I started Weight Watchers I was on 28 points, but that was for only a couple of weeks. Then I was on 27 points for ages and went down to 26 last week (i.e. the awful week when I went about 200000 points over but whatever). I don't know if it's some sort of bizarre psychological barrier or something as it is only one point less, but 26 points seems so much harder than 27! It is totally doable though, as you can see.

6am: Breakfast
1 sachet of Oat So Simple Honey & Vanilla - 3 points
1/4 pint of skimmed milk - 1 point
Rest of milk for day - 1 point
30 ml water
Blueberries
Cinnamon
Total = 5 points
I have some sort of variation of Oat So Simple and fruit for breakfast every day. Since I started Weight Watchers I have had 3 breakfasts that have been different and two of them were on days I wasn't tracking (the other day I had boiled egg and toast but that was so much effort that was not worth it). Most Oat So Simple flavours are 4 points so I usually stick to Original for 3, but there are a few flavours you can get for 3 points if you shop well - Honey & Vanilla amongst them, and also amazingly Chocolate (!). 
I also count my milk for the day with breakfast. I have 3 or 4 coffees during the day and I like them strong with no sugar (insert joke about 'same way I like my men' here.) I measured out once roughly how much milk I typically have in a coffee and it's about 20ml so I can get away with up to 5 on 1PP. 

9.30am: Snack 

Tangerine = 0 points

FACT : The time between breakfast and my first morning snack is the longest I ever go in waking hours without eating. Invigorating. 


11am: Snack

Weight Watchers Double Chocolate Cookie: 1 point


I am a person who likes simple pleasures - a blue sky, the crunch of autumn leaves, a cosy pair of pyjamas... and there is no simpler or greater pleasure than a coffee and a biscuit. I bring in the packs of 2 to work and have one in the morning and one in the afternoon. 2 snacks is better than one, eh? 

12.15pm: Lunch

Half a Warburtons Sandwich Pitta: 2 points
Can of Weight Watchers tuna in tomato and herb dressing (Barely visible!!): 2 points
Peppers, celery and courgettes: 0 points
Melon and Pineapple: 0 points
M&S Count on Us Vanilla Yoghurt: 2 points
Total = 6 points

This was a nice lunch despite the fact you can't even see there's tuna in that pitta as I put such a ridiculous amount of salad in it (sorry). The Count on Us yoghurts are divine. I dipped my fruit in it at first and then finished it with a spoon. Sad fact about the vanilla yoghurt: if there was 0.1g less fat in it it would only be 1 point. Sadly, it was not meant to be.

2.15pm: Snack

Weight Watchers Double Chocolate Chip Cookie = 1 point

Can you believe that I can have TWO rounds of coffee and biscuits in a day and STILL be on a diet?? (And that's not the end of the story for biscuits today, either!)

3.15pm: Snack


Pink Lady Apple = 0 points

5.30pm: Dinner

Chorizo Pasta Bake (Here is it looking SLIGHTLY appetising, when it serves 4)...

And my portion. = 10 points
Total = 10 points
I adapted this from a recipe in my Weight Watchers cookbook to use up the leftover chorizo from my jambalaya. I liked the fact cheese was involved, but it didn't knock my socks off and I won't be having it again in the near future probably (apart from the fact I'm planning leftovers for lunch tomorrow but WHATEVS).
I usually don't eat dinner anywhere near as early as this but today we went to the cinema so had to eat early. I saw the portion and was convinced it wouldn't be enough but lo and behold, it actually was when I ate it (severe eyes bigger than my belly syndrome). At the cinema we saw On the Road. I would give it 3 stars. I enjoyed it whilst it was on but it was too long and I wouldn't watch it again (Unless it was playing idly on TV whilst I was doing something else).

9.30pm - Snack
Galaxy Bubbles Hot Chocolate - 1 point
Pack of 2 Weight Watchers Ginger Cookies - 2 points

I love hot chocolate before bed and have one basically every day. I'm cycling between 3 different varieties at the moment but must say that I think Galaxy Bubbles is the best I've found! I'd also recommend Options White Chocolate & Highlights Fudge, but I have neither of them at the moment.
Also can you believe I've literally had 4 biscuits today. And stuck to dailies!



Grand total for day: 26 points.

For those that are not familiar with the Weight Watchers plan, 26 is the minimum points you can ever have so luckily I'll never have to cut down on this! This was quite a good day for food, I can't say at any point I was really starving hungry and I enjoyed most things at least a little. If I keep posting food diaries every Thursday, I'm sure on some of them I will be using a few weekly points here and there so it won't always be strictly 26!

Thursday Weigh In #1

Well..... drum roll....

I promised myself I'd blog every weigh in and be honest, and this Thursday I have... gained 1lb. 

How utterly horrifying, but given the fact saying I have had 'a bit of a bad week' is tantamount to saying that Rihanna has 'is on the radio a bit', I'm actually quite relieved - I was expecting worse. I've been completely off plan since Sunday and even before Sunday I had eaten all my weekly points (and yes, I started this blog on Monday - MUST PRACTICE WHAT I PREACH, eh?) so it could have been a lot worse.

It's time to have a bang on plan week especially as I am going on holiday the week after (!). Determined to shift this gain before then! Wish me luck! I will be taking pictures of everything I eat today to blog tomorrow, in an attempt to demonstrate you can live on 26PP a day without chewing off your own arm.

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Chicken & Chorizo Jambalaya

This recipe is amazing. It is such a great autumn/winter recipe to warm you up on a cold evening but would also be great in the summer too. This recipe convinced my boyfriend, sister and parents (in that order) that I was able to cook (I don't have a great track record). My parents even want me to make it for their friends when they come down! IMAGINE THE PRESTIGE! So yes, I honestly can't recommend it enough.

I discovered this when Luke who is one of my best friends cooked it for me at his house. Luke is really good with the whole Weight Watchers thing (by the way - dieting - it will show you a lot about who your best friends are, maybe not so much as checking into rehab or something but honestly it will) but didn't purposefully choose this recipe because it is low in points, it's just naturally great! It originates from the Sorted site, and go over there and watch the video for a good overview if reading this is too much effort, but Luke changed it a bit, and I've adapted it quite a lot to make it lower in points. 

Chicken & Chorizo Jambalaya

Laziness rating: This involves quite a lot of chopping and about 6 or 7 minutes of constantly being on the go, but then you can just walk off for ages so pretty lazy I guess.
Time: About 35 minutes including chopping, but for a good 15-20 of those you can be doing something else so all's good.

Ingredients (to make 4 servings. I wouldn't recommend making this recipe any smaller if you're cooking for less than 4 - just make 4 portions and freeze the others. This can be timesed by 1.5, 2, etc to make more easily enough but you might need more than 1 pan.)
1. 300g rice. 
2. 130g of chicken breast. I actually used 132g below because I did a properly Lazy Girl thing and bought ready diced chicken breast... but I used my recipe builder app and it was still 10 points. 
3. 120g of chorizo.
4. 2 sticks of celery.
5. 1 pepper.
6. 3 cloves of garlic.
7. A chilli.
8. Some mushrooms. I used 8 but it depends on how big they are I guess. I never weigh zero point foods, maybe I should if I am going to be writing this blog...hmm.
9. A carton of passata.
10. An OXO chicken cube mixed up with 500ml of boiling water. You could use proper chicken stock, but why duplicate work OXO have done for you?
11. A teaspoon of turmeric.
12. A teaspoon of mild curry powder.

Method
1. Chop everything up. It will look like this
You want the veg fairly chunky, except for the chilli and garlic. Chop the chorizo quite small so each of the 4 portions get a lot (look I know how small you chop it doesn't actually make a difference but so much of weight loss is PSYCHOLOGICAL okay?)
2. Fry the vegetables in some fry light for about 3-4 minutes over a medium high heat. If I were you I'd use this time to weigh out your rice and make your stock, as in a minute it will be GO GO GO honestly. 

3. Add the meat and fry for about another 3-4 minutes. Your kitchen will begin to smell AMAZING and chorizo-ey,
4. This is the go go go bit! Add the turmeric and curry powder, and then add the rice and stir it all in to make sure everything's nice and coated. You will be baffled as the rice will remain dry. GO GO GO, make sure it doesn't stick to the pan! STIR!!!!!!!
This looks really unappetising. I can only apologise.
5. Pour in the chicken stock and passata. At this point you will probably be convinced that is ruined as it just looks like soup, but it will sort itself out, honest. 
6. Turn the heat right down, put the lid on and leave to simmer for about 15-20 minutes. Stir a couple of times to stop the rice sticking to the pan, but you can do something else, or just sit and watch TV, like a true Lazy Dieter. I imagine you know what a pan with a lid on looks like but I will show you anyway.
7. It's done when the rice is cooked, which will be roughly 15-20 minutes later. The liquidity would have reduced but it will still be fairly liquidy, but in a good way. You would be able to eat it off a plate if you were sat at the table, but if you eat on the sofa like me you will need a bowl. (You don't get info like this from watching Gordon Ramsey).
8. Ready to serve! Here's what a portion looks like if you weigh it out properly (Which you always should do, by the way) for future reference.

I realise that these photos aren't the world's most appetising, but this is honestly BEYOND delicious.

TOTAL WEIGHT WATCHERS PRO POINTS: 10PP. 

This is so tasty and filling. I really recommend you give it a go! 


This dinner would be great for: Entertaining - it's something a bit different and it's difficult to get wrong, if you've got a cold, if you're cooking for someone not on a diet (it doesn't taste like diet food AT ALL), if you're cooking for someone who is gluten and dairy free (I plan to cook this for a GFDF friend this weekend), or if you're just generally properly hungry.
This dinner wouldn't be so great for: If you need to cook it quickly - it does take a while, if you don't like spicy food.
To make the dinner better for points: I'm struggling here, but you could probably cut a point if you had less rice - I think it's the perfect amount though. However this dinner is well worth 10 points, honestly.
To make the dinner more interesting: When cooking for others before I've added more meat to make it 12PP but I don't think this is really necessary if you don't have the points. This is also good reheated for lunch the next day, if a bit pointy for a lunch.

Monday 15 October 2012

Bacon Pasta

On Tuesdays I eat dinner at work. This is for various reasons which I am sure I will come to in another post one day (Big Tuesday = a real day of the week to be proud of.) I struggle to find things to eat and most of the time I just end up having leftovers, but today I didn't make enough food to have leftovers tomorrow so I cooked something especially.

'Bacon pasta' is an old family recipe except not really. Basically when I was a child my favourite dinner was bacon pasta, but it's not quite the same as I mainly loved it as it had about 1kg of cheese per portion (I stress again, I honestly wasn't even a fat child). Basically what I am trying to say is that there is no source for this recipe as it's so simple that a monkey could invent it if set free in the aisles of any given Costcutter. I hope you didn't come to this blog expecting brilliance.

Bacon Pasta

Laziness rating: Well you have to chop a few bits up and put the stove on, but it is really dead easy if you've ever prepared food in your life, or probably even if you've ever eaten it. So you'll be fine.
Time: About 15 minutes inc. chopping.

Ingredients (To make 1 serving - just double/triple/quadruple as necessary)
1. However much pasta you want. I had 70g and it looked like this before I cooked it:

In hindsight 60g would probably have been enough, but I was trying to take into account the fact I will be hungry when I eat it.  As a general rule pasta portion-wise I will have 70g for a veg sauce, 60g for a meat sauce and 50g for a pasta salad. I had 20g of pasta once as part of a salad and found it so depressing I almost cried into it. Well not literally, but it was a bloody depressing salad. I LOVE PASTA.
2. 3 bacon medallions.
3. Half of a pepper.
4. About 6 or 7 cherry tomatoes.
5. A clove of garlic. 
6. About 4 or 5 chestnut mushrooms (or mushroom of your choice, whatever. God writing ingredient lists are boring, how does Nigella cope?)
7. Halfish a carton of passata, roughly 250ml. I don't measure things out that are zero points, but it was roughly half a carton.
8. Dried basil.

Method:
1. Chop everything up. Mine looked like this afterwards:

If I had an onion I'd have added half of it, for future reference, and add whatever other veg you like if you want. But the contents of my fridge will have to do.
2. MEANWHILE.... boil some water and put your pasta in it and cook it for the recommended time. (Instruction included in case you are a monkey)
3. Cook the bacon medallions in some Frylight on a medium high heat for about 5 minutes ish. You can move onto the next step when you feel vaguely confident that if you ate it you wouldn't get food poisoning, although it doesn't have to be strictly 'ready' yet. 
4. Add your veg and cook for about another 3-4 minutes.
5. Add the half a carton of passata and cook through for about 2-3 minutes to warm it up, don't let it boil though. I don't know what would happen if you did let it boil but I've seen on cooking programs that you shouldn't really. 
It might look like a bit much passata but then put in less if you want. I don't control you. Add a little bit of dried basil. If I was cooking this for my boyfriend I'd have added a few chilli flakes but it was just for me and I couldn't be bothered to find them in the cupboard so there you go.
6. The pasta should be done right about now, drain it and then mix it all up in the sauce. 

7. Done! Serve, or in my case put it in a lunchbox ready to heat up in the microwave tomorrow.





Total Weight Watchers Pro Points: 2PP for sauce + however much pasta you want with it.

So, for 9PP I have that whole massive portion of food, and it is really nice and bacony, honest. Looking forward to it already. 

This dinner would be great for: If you don't have much ingredients around and can't be bothered to go shopping, if you don't have much time or are too tired to cook a proper dinner, if you are really hungry, if you love bacon, if you crave carbs, if you are cooking dinner for a date but are playing hard to get. 
This dinner wouldn't be so great for: If you're trying to impress someone with your culinary genius. 
To make the dinner better for points: As I said, I probably didn't need quite as much pasta and could have cut a point and made it 8PP. Alternatively, if you're a vegetarian or are really cutting back, just leave out the bacon and add a few extra veg instead. Without the bacon the sauce is zero points.  I would however never do this as I love bacon. 
To make the dinner more exciting: Add 20g of reduced fat cheddar grated cheese for 1PP, or better yet 40g for 2PP. God I love cheese.

Lame introductory post


I am a 22 year old administrator and I live in London with my boyfriend.

I've not always been fat and went through childhood and adolescence being able to eat whatever I wanted and never put on weight which is MAKING THIS SO MUCH HARDER AS I LOVE FOOD SO MUCH ARGH. I've never been rake thin but was always pretty normal until I was about 20 so being fat was a difficult and harsh adjustment. 

I have lost 1st 4lbs via first calorie counting and then Weight Watchers (whirlwind tour - I lost 10lb via calorie counting - put 7lb back on - went on Weight Watchers - lost the rest, s-l-o-w-l-y). I started calorie counting at the end of May 2012, lost a fair amount of weight pretty quickly, put most of the weight back on pretty quickly, then went on Weight Watchers in mid-July 2012 and am losing weight via 'the scenic route'.

When I started I was closer to being obese than normal, a fact which TERRIFIED ME TO MY VERY CORE and is what forced me into doing this, but I am now a healthy weight. However I still have a pretty long way to go - I'm not even half way to my goal yet, although my goal is a weight I haven't been since I was about 12 so maybe a LITTLE overambitious. But we will see.

I am not writing this blog to impart my wisdom on the world as believe me I am not some kind of weight loss expert, I am in fact indeed a total weight loss NOVICE. However, I really need a kick up the arse and something to be accountable to and maybe if I give this a go it will help. 

Here are some facts you probably need to know about my weight loss and will help you understand why it is properly slow (and hence the 'Lazy' in the title).

  • I really hate exercise and don't do much at all.
  • I have not really changed my social life whatsoever. I eat out once or twice a week and go out fairly often. (Fairly). (Probably not as much as I should seeing as I'm only 22 but WHATEVER.)
  • I've had about 3 weeks out of my 14 on Weight Watchers when I've managed not to have a single point over my dailies and weeklies... and most weeks I am fairly significantly over.

So that's why I think Weight Watchers is amazing, as despite the fact I completely take the piss and treat it like crap half the time I have still lost 1st 4lb. SO IT'S TIME TO GET ON IT PROPERLY, EH?