This is what boredom has done

Friday 29 November 2013

Daily Food Fess #9

Well the filling and healthy week was a success - I lost 2lbs! I'm a happy girl.

TODAYS FOOD
I'm currently eating wholemeal pasta with tomato & veg sauce and ham. It is tasty. Breakfast was porridge oats, greek yoghurt, pineapple and cinnamon, dinner will be roasted fish, roast potatoes and vegetables. Snacks are fruit, boiled egg and a crumpet.

Boring part over!

I treated myself to some new make-up at lunchtime. I bought some eyeliner, mascara and eyeshadow from 17 and Bourjois. The 17 eyeshadow is a nice midnight blue shimmery one and the Bourjois is black and sparkly. I will wear them on my girls night out tomorrow I think.

Bee & Liz want me to do their make-up too - maybe I should take my business cards with me and they can be real life adverts for me haha.

New discovery: triple chocolate fingers dipped in peanut butter. YUM.

Thursday 28 November 2013

Daily Food Fess #8

Woohoo, I lasted a week!!

I've really enjoyed this filling and healthy plan. On Tuesday I was a bit worried as I felt soooo bloated, but had hardly eaten a thing. In the back of my mind I knew it was all down to that time of the month (yes ladies, you know what I'm talking about). I just didn't want to feel like that today, and I don't, so yay!

I remember last month I was having the worst cravings in a long time, but I haven't struggled at all this time. It's such a great feeling.

I made such a tasty stir fry last night. I just whacked 2 crushed gloves of garlic, 4x teaspoons soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of chinese 5 spice and 1 red chilli (optional) in a jug, and mixed some prawns in. Fried some veg in sesame oil and then mixed in the prawns and spinach, stir fried for a few minues and it was done. Unexpectedly moreish. Mmm mmm mmm.

Today, the business park have arranged for people to do wreath making. I booked in for the 1.30pm slot, and I'm aiming to make a better wreath than last year! My previous effort ended up in the wreath being a bit droopy.

Food
Porridge, skimmed milk, apple, cinnamon and sweetener.
Coffee
Omelette and stir fry veg with soy sauce
Clementines x2
Pineapple, greek yoghurt and sweetener
Emergency snacks: boiled egg, 1x shredded wheat

Oh and I woke Jim and Bee up laughing so hard I sounded like I was crying this morning. Watched a video called "What the f*** have I just watched", it's some arty farty performance and is the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Laughing first thing in the morning is definitely something to get your good mood going!

Wednesday 27 November 2013

Daily Food Fess #7

General
Ah, gotta love a good walk. I'm aiming to get around the lake while I'm on my lunchbreak - having my iPod with me helps. Even if I do look a bit stupid with my massive headphones! They make the music sound 100x better than earphones do.

What's everyone listening to at the moment? My current choice on Spotify is Kings of Leon- Mechanical Bull. Brilliant album! I tried seeing them play at Shepherds Bush a few months ago, but tickets were £70 each! Gave that a miss. In my car I'm listening to a bunch of old HIM albums (nostalgia) and on my iPod is a Trance Sanctuary podcast. So a bit of a mix there really!

Food
2 slices of calorie controlled bread, toasted with marmite.
Porridge with skimmed milk, apple and sweetener.
Coffee x2
Red lentil, carrot and swede soup
Crumpet with marmite
Prawn and vegetable stir fry
Boiled egg, carrot sticks, 2x clementines, greek yoghurt and sweetener.

Exercise
I had planned to up my weights on the squat and back track, but I didn't feel up to it in the end. I'm glad I didn't! I did up my weights on the shoulder track though, so my upper body strength is definitely getting better.

I'm helping my friend move out tonight, so will try and do a little bit of a workout at home but if I run out of time, I'm not that bothered!

Tuesday 26 November 2013

Daily Food Fess #6

Oh my god work is so frustrating at the moment! There was an email switchover at the weekend and now a system I use to do most of my work won't let me connect from my laptop. It's happened to about 10 people. I've got a big list and can only do half of everything I need to do. So I'm making a start on arranging the work Christmas lunch instead. Fun! Also looking at Hotel Chocolat for gift ideas (I'm not pointing out what I would like at all, no.....). I'd love to go to their new restaurant - there's one in Leeds and one in London. The food looks quite interesting. Anyway, let's not talk about chocolate, it's too tempting. This morning my breakfast was scrambled eggs, tomatoes and ham. Lunch is soup again. Dinner is bulgar wheat, veg and chicken. Yum yum! Aerobics last night was covered by a newer instructor. I didn't like it that much. She just didn't get me sweaty and breathless....hmm that sounds a bit wrong!! But anyway, I even made sure I jumped around as much as I could and it just didn't work. Body Pump is tongiht though and I am planning to up my weights, so maybe it's a good thing I didn't go too mad..

Sunday 24 November 2013

Daily Food Fess #5

My calves are really tight and aching, like when you've got a cramp in the middle of the night and then pulled a muscle. It's weird! I made it to Body Pump this morning and upped my weight for the chest track. I think it's time to up my weight on the back track too! Possibly even the squats - that will be my heaviest weight the whole time I've been going. Didn't think that would happen! Today I've eaten porridge with skimmed milk, apple, cinnamon and sweetener. Yum yum. I love not having to weigh it out. It was about the same amount as usual and I'm not stuffed, actually still a little hungry. I'll see if it's thirst before I eat anything else though. We'd planned chinese stir fry for lunch, but plans have changed and my parents invited us to Wetherspoons for some food and then we'll watch the Christmas lights get turned on. I'll go for a jacket potato, but with baked beans or five-bean chilli I'm not sure. May be cheeky and have a little cheddar too, out of my weeklies. I've still got over 40 weekly points left and not planning to use them in the week at all, so it should be fine. I'll try and resist pudding and remember my skinny cow ice-cream sitting in the freezer! A few points will come out for alcohol as well, but I'm okay with that. If I'm hungry later, dinner will be salmon and sweetcorn salad with potatoes. I love this plan!

Saturday 23 November 2013

Daily Food Fess #4

Oooh I'm tired. Spent 5 hours today doing housework, including rearranging and hoovering/polishing the bedroom. A job well done! Needless to say I've changed my mind on the planned exercise routine- lugging around chests of drawers, bedside tables and a double bed is tiring enough! Today I've eaten well. Had a bowl of shredded wheat and skimmed milk for breakfast, baked beans and mushrooms on calorie controlled toast for lunch and dinner I've planned to have chicken and wholemeal pasta with tomato sauce. Also have jelly and clementines if I fancy something sweet. I was slightly tempted to eat the flapjack which was on the kitchen table, but at 14PP that's definitely a no go! So instead I heated up an apple, mixed it with a handful of porridge oats, some greek yoghurt, cinnamon and sweetener. Yum!! Very satisfying. I think tonight I'll continue watching South Park - there was one episode yesterday that made me laugh so much, I was crying! Oh and catch up with Celebrity, of course ;)

Friday 22 November 2013

Daily Food Fess #3: Filling and Healthy Friday

In my last post I admitted that this week I'll accept a gain, and gain I did. 2lbs on, in fact. Bit disappointed in myself, but I can only look forwards and try and undo this for next time. I've started eating at set times just for the sake of it, so I wanted to try a filling and healthy week so I'll only eat when hungry, like I used to. Luckily the meeting was about portion control, so we talked a lot about filling and healthy. My leader gave me a quick recipe at the end for a F&H 'flapjack' that I'm going to try. If I remember correctly, it was one mashed banana mixed with porridge oats and peaches, bake it in the oven for 20 mins at 160 degrees (maybe!) and you're done. Hopefully that + sugar free jelly = 1 satisfied Toni. One of the women at the meeting pointed out a few home truths. We were talking about what triggers us to want to eat, and people started listing their reasons. Then she said that dieters don't eat because of these reasons, they just look for a reason. It is so true - we eat when we're stressed/sad/happy/it's someone's birthday/it was there/it's a Friday...the list could go on and on. This person also said that for her, it's all or nothing i.e. she either has to be extremely good and cut out everything, or when she has 1 bad thing, that's it. I think it's the same for me as well, for example the other day I couldn.t just stop at 1 cake, I had 10! I'm glad I wasn't on my own here. Me and Liz had our usual treat night when we got back. This morning I looked at how much (or should I say little) of the cake we had brought was left and decided that last night was my own personal goodbye to the binge nights. I don't want to do it anymore. What's the point? I only have to work harder the next day to undo all the rubbish I put in my body. Don't get me wrong, I'll treat myself, but I just want the ONE thing. Last night I should have stopped after I'd eating the mars bar I had been craving all week. I got up as soon as my alarm went off to do a half hour exercise routine in my living room and I felt quite pleased with myself. I started with a quick warm up, did 2 sets of rocket jumps, star jumps, burpees and something else that I can't remember! I know I was sweaty and out of breath though. Then I did some crunches, oblique twists, planks and side planks. Got to work and ate some porridge with skimmed milk, apple, cinnamon and sweetener. For lunch I'm going to the pub for a jacket potato and baked beans, dinner is homemade turkey burgers, potato wedges and peas. I've got a boiled egg for a snack if I need it, as well as banana and greek yoghurt. Ooh, getting hungry now!

Thursday 21 November 2013

Daily Food Fess #2

It's been a lot better today!! This morning I had 1 slice of calorie controlled bread, a tiny bit of dairy free butter and 1 slice of ham. When I got to work I ate a bowl of Shredded Wheat. I was full until about 11.30 when I got sooo hungry all of a sudden. You know when you get so weak and light headed? I felt like that and couldn't wait until lunchtime, so I had 2 ryvita with light cream cheese. Then waited another half hour and ate my soup and another ryvita, which was delicious. Chorizo & red lentil, mmm mmm mmm. Oh I have to confess I had 1 custard cream, but am having no more! This afternoon I have a banana with some greek yoghurt and honey to eat and for dinner I am planning on buying an oven pizza to share with a couple of people after my weigh in. Will probably get rid of my chocolate craving too in time for my F&H week. I do not feel bad about this as I know I'm in the right frame of mind to have a good week next week. Hope everyone is having a good day!

Wednesday 20 November 2013

Daily Food Fess: #1

I've decided to write on here daily to help myself keep on track. Even the bad days. The bad days can be a sort of confession time I suppose. Shall I start now? The day started well. I had such a tasty breakfast of 2 scrambled eggs, 1 slice of Hovis Wheatgerm toasted, a tiny amount of dairy free butter, 1 slice of ham and 1 slice of Emmental cheese. This kept me full until 12pm, when I had a clementine. I got annoyed while eating this as it had 12 seeds in total. 12! The whole time I was just trying to spit seeds out of my mouth as daintily as possible (which if you know me, was definitely not dainty at all). Then lunchtime came and it all went downhill from there. A lunch for the meeting hadn't turned up. Jo phoned the supplier and was told an order for us wasn't on the system, so Jo decided to go to Sainsbury's and pick up a load of sandwiches and quiches and cakes and fruit. While she was out, the buffet lunch arrived after all. In their error, they decided to give us the lunch for free. Jo returned with the goodies and I decided to go and eat my soup while they shared it out. There are only 3 tables in the kitchen and guess where the only space left was? The table with the buffet lunch. So I had my soup along with a quarter of smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich. Then a quarter of an egg sandwich. Then the cakes came out. They were mini cakes. I decided to have 1 of each. Then another round. Then about 2 more. So all in all, 10 mini cakes! Oops. I've also already had a couple of biscuits today and have got friends coming over for dinner. I might just cook them dinner and not eat anything (I'm really not hungry). It was a last minute invite anyway. Anyway, the reason I'm telling you all this is because I want you all to learn from my mistakes and lack of self-control. I've felt bloated, sluggish, guilty and tired all afternoon and if I could go back in time, I definitely would have only eaten my soup. So if any of you feel like you're tempted and about to reach for the sweet treats, stop and think first. Can it come out of your weeklies? Will you only have the one, or will the one turn into ten? If so, step away, step away now! Don't undo all of your hard work for one stupid minute of pleasure, even if it does taste good.

Thursday 14 November 2013

Wednesday 13 November 2013

Xmas

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Why has everyone got such skinny legs lately?



Seriously, these are people's role models? They just look a bit ill to me.

Don't go thinking this is just the green eyed monster coming - I've got great legs (or so I'm told a lot). They're not skinny either, they're toned. Be HEALTHY, people.

Tuesday 12 November 2013

My Relationship with Food

I've just read a good blog post over at 59 Pounds To Go, talking about her plans on changing how she eats for the future.
my ultimate plan is to try and wean myself back onto the full fat, less processed versions. I have started by working real butter instead of low fat spread and using full fat feta and goats cheese in my salads. I also have not touched my fry lite in a few weeks. I have been using butter, olive oil and more recently coconut oil for my cooking and dressings. I have been afraid of fat for years, when really I think I need to put what I have learned about portion control and moderation from weight watchers, into practice with this!

This is definitely something I need to try. I'm now in the right mindset - I want good quality food in my body, rather than trying to cram in as much as I can eat on one go. I'm trying to have more satisfying meals in order to cut down on my snacking. My meal plan for next week is quite good for this - I'll give it a go and let you know the results!

Although, I'm not trying to lose any more as, wait for it, I brought my wedding dress at the weekend!! Such a good feeling.

Saturday 9 November 2013

Planning a Wedding: The Dress

Ooh exciting stuff (if not the most exciting part of planning), time to try on some dresses! I’m looking forward to having some girly time with my mum and best friend, even if that means I won’t get to drink the complimentary glass of champagne due to being the only driver out of the three of us.

My dream dress is Claire Pettibone ‘Larissa’. Unfortunately, my dress budget is small, so I’ve already accepted the fact that I’ll never wear this dress (even with pre-owned prices). Sigh. My attitude is that I may as well be laid back when searching for my dress, no point in being picky if I can’t have my dream one.

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Larissa by Claire Pettibone

You’d think this means I would see loads of dresses that I like, right? WRONG. I’ve seen a few fashion shows recently at local wedding fairs, and most of the dresses were horrible. This is going to be hard.

I’m going to two shops this weekend knowing that I won’t be able to buy anything. My aim instead is to find out what style actually suits me the most. So in shop #1, I am going to try on as many styles and shapes as possible, even the hideously meringue-ey ones (you never know!).

According to the Perfect Wedding website, the shape I am most like is petite (short waist), so styles that will elongate my body will look good.

Shop #2: Ideally I would have figured out what suits me by now, so I’ll try and narrow the choices down and try on a select few. It’s risky business knowing I can’t buy any yet, but if I do find one I love, I’ll just write it down and look for it on eBay or at sample sales. Wish me luck!