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Wednesday 22 May 2013

Spiiiiiiining

OH MY WORD!!!

Well although today is Tuesday, I am still suffering....

Jeremy decided to join up with the gym whilst I was away at the weekend and I have to be very proud of him as so far he has been up every morning at 5:45 and has gone to the gym to go swimming.

He decided to take me along with him on Monday night so I could see what the gym was like. We decided to do a spinning class - I do regret saying yes now! It didn't hurt at all, although I sweated lots, but the pain I did get wasn't to do with the exercise, but from the seat! OH MY WORD DOES MY BUM HURT STILL 2 DAYS AFTER!!! We also didn't realise that we had actually walked into an hours class. The instructor was brilliant, she came up to me as she didn't recognise me and helped me set the bike up and everything and also checked on me several times throughout the session.

I was very impressed with the gym. I am currently a member of my local swimming pool but due to all the gynae stuff that I am having done, I haven't been able to go along and if I was able to go the pool wouldn't be free or open. They do alot of classes and lessons at that pool. However, if I was to join the gym and I couldn't go swimming, I could always go to the gym instead. The pool seems to be open earlier than the local pool and doesn't seem to be as busy either.

Jeremy and I promised eachother that if I did join the gym then we would go together and work out together at least 3 times a week.

However, thanks to sweating myself out of all the water in my body I think that has helped me come out in this lovely cold / flu thing which is now making me sweat more and have under-age hot flushes!!!!

I'm looking forward to my lovely chicken tikha salad for lunch again - I had it yesterday but forgot to take a photo and it hit the spot to help fill me up!!

... Another catch up! ...

Sorry for the delay in writing this post. Just so you know, I'm currently sat here at the computer with a box of tissues within a hands reach - I've caught the lurgy from a fellow colleague! Thank hun! I thought I had prevented it all week with the amount of alcohol wipes and alcohol gel that I used!! Oh well... my eyes will just bulge out any minute and my head will explode!! I feel more sorry for my patients as I look a state!!! SOOO not professional.

Anyway, I have had an up and down week with my cooking ... all will be explained

On Thursday I made the lovely mince and bean pie ( http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/534023/mince-bean-and-mash-pie ) It was easy to make, just took a lot of time. However, it was scrummy and only 352 calories per portion. This recipe makes 6 and so it lasted us for both Thursday and Friday. On the Thursday I gave Jeremy 2 portions and on the Friday we both had slightly bigger portions - in effect we had 1 1/2 portions each. I had plenty of calories left over for the day luckily so I was able to.


 

All this week I have had for my dessert these AMAZING little finds......




Milky bar icelollys!! They are only 98 Calories per bar and they are sweet enough to keep me going and give me some sugar!!! They were expensive but so worth it!



Sadly, Saturday is where it all went down hill.....

As you know, I am part of the Salvation Army and within that I am part of their Elite choir called 'The International Staff Songsters'. We go around to different churches across the United Kingdom one weekend every month and unfortunately this is where being on a healthy diet is hard to do! You are given gorgeous unhealthy food constantly!!

For our 'welcome meal' we were given a three course dinner. I started off healthy and went for the fruit rather than the pate and mini toast and then I went for the pulled pork and rice for the main. However, the desserts ....... my weakest point EVER in the world.... And look what they gave us.....


SOOOO not healthy and I shouldn't have eaten it but the Devil persuaded me to have it!

I did however, go for the more healthier option and instead of having pizza I went for the packed tea option as I also needed to do some cutting out of little bookmarks that I had made for my prayer meeting and in my packed tea was this yummy little cup cake - it didn't taste like a normal cup cake either, it was more like a cream cheese topping.



Thursday 16 May 2013

A quick catch up

Hi all

Sorry I have not been able to catch up on these week's food diary, so this is going to have short but sweet food diary days.

Monday

Tonight I experimented with a recipe that I found online while sorting out my food plan last week. It was an easy recipe to follow but, again, it was an American website. Luckily my Mum bought me for christmas some little measuring cups which are all in American measurements of 1/2 cup etc.

This was kind of a fake pizza, but when it was hot it tasted like an omelette / hot quiche.  It was full of cheese so I was suprised that it was only 321 Calories! I didn't feel the need to use all the ingredients they used and I didn't use all the cheese that they suggested.

You can find the recipe here: http://www.fatsecret.com/recipes/ham-and-pepperoni-pizza/Default.aspx

This is what it looked like just when I put the tomato puree on:


Before and after I put the final stage in the oven.  As you can see it easily did 6 portions




It looked a bit 'sloshy' when I served it up, so it doesn't look appealing, but it was lovely! Jeremy whooooooshed it down AND complimented me on it - that takes a lot to do!


It was soo yummy and as it served 6 I managed to split it up and have it for lunch over Tuesday and Wednesday. I even gave some to a collegue who said it was yummy!!  Each time I just served it with salad as that was all it needed.




I do have to admit though that I did slip and have a few ferro rochers!! :( But I have SUCH a sweet tooth!! Need to find something to replace that bad habit!!


Tuesday

As today I had last night's left overs for lunch and as I had come in from work late, I just wanted something light and easy on my tummy to have for tea. So Jeremy grilled some chicken breast stripps and made a simple creamy sauce and I served it with some salad leaves and salad-y bits. Scrummy! And I worked it out to be about 270 calories.


Again, I had some naughty ferro rochers at home after dinner!


Wednesday

Well, with all the madness of this week so far at work (which I wont go into, but it has been worse than it normally is) and not being able to see Jeremy much this week today went to pots!! I didn't even get to see him at all - apart from a quick hello when I walked in the door, went to the kitchen to make my lunch and then a night see you in the morning as I'm going to bed as i've got to be up early - which I think didn't allow me to grab decent food. Instead I grabbed a bar of chocolate! I know now for next wednesday that I need to make something on the Tuesday for me to take and eat on the way to my choir practice.

Any one got any ideas on any easy to grab and eat sweet snack that wont kill the calories?!.....

Thursday - TODAY!!

Tonight I have plans to make a yummy Mince pie, which apparently is only 352 Calories ... I shall let you know how I get on! But I thought I would just leave you with a picture of my yummy lunch!


Monday 13 May 2013

My Fitness Pal

Hi All

Just a few things for you to keep in mind:

  • You can add me on My Fitness Pal! My username is Mrsowen2012
  • If you want me to try out any recipes feel free to comment and I will try them out as best as I can and I can write up a little blogg about it too if you wish?
  • If you are on MFP, I have just started a new topic up, comment and follow it!
    It's called: UK Girl starting out... Blogg in symmetry
Have a good evening and I shall write back tomorrow....

Mrs Owen x

Sunday - A day of rest?!

Sundays for us are usually pretty busy days as both Jeremy and I belong to The Salvation Army. So our Sunday mornings are always pretty packed up. So I do my usual trick of having my cereal (which I enjoyed a nice bowl of Curiously Cinnamon) whilst I get myself ready.

This Sunday we had our adult choir practise (known in The Salvation Army 'world' as Songsters) after our morning worship meeting so we didn't get home until about 2:45pm. On our way home I need to stop to get some petrol so I grabbed a bag of Special K Crisp things. For the amount of calories that were in the bag I was surprised by the little amount of food in the bag. I don't think I will be getting them again - although they were yummy - as I know that a bag of Skips has 76 Calories and these had 95 Calories in them! However, thanks to having MFP (My Fitness Pal) on my phone I was able to scan in the barcode and it came up automatically with what it was and all it's details etc.

I did forget to mention that whilst I was at the choir practise, my husband along with some other men, decided to go to Krispy Creme...... You can obviously see how annoyed I was with that as he decided that instead of buying a few doughnuts for them it would just be cheaper to buy a whole box. So I decided to help my waist line (to save me from eating them) that I would give them away to people at our church!! Jeremy didn't seem too fussed! Although I wasn't saved too much as you will read....

So as soon as we got in we decided to put our roast straight in the oven. We had lamb which we knew would take at least 3 hours to cook. Jeremy then put it all in the oven and put the potatoes in too and then headed out to watch the football - there was some big thing going on about Man U? (!!)

However, in the mean time, I was getting rather peckish.... so I decided that I could treat myself to half of one of the plain doughnuts which came to 80 Calories.

He came back just in time and I quickly put some veg on and before we knew it, it was all ready. We were sooo full afterwards we definitely just had to sit and watch TV! We ended up watching a programme about Guinea Pigs (A film called G-Force) so I decided to get one of our Guinea Pigs out and watch it with them - and clip his nails! However, I wasn't able to do his front paws as he seems to have been digging around in his own poo! So if any of you know how to sort or help me with that, please give me some hints or tips!!

Sorry, but I don't have any photos of food today, but I did have a mini drama last night with Jeremy and his toe! It's very swollen and has been put on two courses of antibiotics now from the GP. And then last night I looked at it and the nail is now coming off. I didn't know what to do so thanks to the great world of Facebook I managed to put the question out there. I took the advice and wrapped it up. I can deal with things like this at work but why couldn't I last night? Probably because I suddenly gained a fear of finding his nail in the bed sheets somewhere! Ughhh!!

But here's a picture of his lovely bandaged up toe!

I am sooo looking forward to Monday night's food - homemade pizza with that Salami that I have been hiding from Jeremy!!

Yummy Saturday night food!

Normally on a Saturday night we wold get a take away or have a big naughty meal & dessert so I decided that I would make the Hairy Dieters Chilli Salad bowls and we could then just have some of the apple pie.

I then went to Lidl (after being really impressed with their prices last weekend when popping in with my mother in law for a few bits) so I decided to do my weekly shop there. I couldn't believe how cheap I got everything and I even got some unusual items that I wouldn't normally get. 

When I returned home I found Jeremy on the sofa shouting at the tv - the football game (Man City vs Wigan) was on. He then said he was hungry as he hadn't eaten all day due to work. As he was helping me unpack he was eyeing up all the yummy food I had bought. Normally he would have opened the packets and try to start eating stuff or he would eat rubbish until tea. Luckily there was no rubbish in and he didn't open the food! Very proud wife mo. and the prepared self that I was I had some left over tuna salad and some rocket leaves in the fridge so he nibbled on that while watching the game and while I put the food away and made tea. 

The recipe serves 4 so I just halved all the ingredients and it's only 397!

 It's a really interesting and fun recipe and way to serve it. We first found out how to make it after watching their series (the hairy dieters) which is another thing that inspired us to loose weight - especially Jeremy as he is a big foodie just like them! So after their series aired we bought their book and we haven't really used it and stuck to it, so we have decided to use it to help us in aid of our new healthy lifestyle. You can find it online herehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chilli_salad_bowls_22404


 
 
For dessert we had the rest of the apple crumble from saturday night. Unfortunately there wasnt enough to save for the next night as the'night fairy' aka Jeremy had eaten alot during the middle of the night on friday! 

Later on that night I was still full until I had a sudden craving for ice cream! But i fought the craving and I managed to fight through which helped me stay just below my daily calorie intake. 

Saturday 11 May 2013

Day 2 of blogging: Day 4 of healthy eating

Just while I am eating my yummy Hairy Dieters Tuna salad for lunch I thought I would do a quick update on how everything is going.

Yesterday was a yummy day full of food - AND I only went over my calories allowance (of 1200) by 100 calories! That was all my fault of course, which I fully take the blame for, but not because I was binging but because I forgot to log my breakfast!!

I am using www.myfitnesspal.com (MFP) which is brilliant! It is so easy to use and clearly laid out AND it's free!! Even better! Lots of recipes form the Internet and recipe books have already been put on there, plus there is a community part that is really inspirational and also gives great ideas and great ways to speak to other people that who are either starting out on their new journey all the way through to those who have lost weight. If you are looking at joining something like Slimming World or Weight Watchers, then I would definitely recommend this to you.

Anyway, back to where I was..... As I said yesterday, one of the reasons I decided to start this up was because there are so many non-UK bloggers and sites out there on food and weight management. I didn't explain yesterday but I find it tricky in a) finding recipes with ingredients that are easily available in the UK and b) I get a bit blonde in some of my weight conversions (!!) so this is my way for helping out us Brits in finding, making and trying yummy HEALTHY food!!

So, last night I decided to try out two new recipes - Roasted Mediterranean vegetables with baked egg and a low calorie yummy apple crumble.

I found the Roasted Med. veg recipe on www.eggrecipes.co.uk   . They have a whole section there on low calorie baking and you can search accordingly to the amount of people you are cooking for AND it has the amount of calories each serving.

http://www.eggrecipes.co.uk/recipes/low-calorie-baked-eggs-roasted-mediterranean-vegetables

This was so easy to make and I will definitely be making it again as it was also really yummy! I didn't use all the ingredients supposed to be used, so I used a bit more pepper. If you follow the recipe it's ONLY 188 Calories per portion! I added a bit of rocket salad to both mine and Jeremy's plates and then he added some avocado and grilled bacon to his - he's a big meat lover! This was my plate:



I have added it to the MFP food lists if you would like to use it to add to your food diary.

You will get to know that I have a BIG sweet tooth! So I always try to prepare a dessert (or have one in) so I tried this one: http://www.theroadtolesscake.com/2011/09/low-calorie-apple-crumble.html

Again, it was easy to follow, yummy AND low in calories (172). It will do us nicely for the next few dessert times! I have to confess that I did sprinkle on some cinnamon for some extra flavour (I forgot to mix it in with my crumble mixture) but it was scrummy!! This was it:

Before it went in the oven:


When it came out of the oven:


I also got Jeremy to take some horrific 'before' photos for you all.... I don't know if I should share them or not yet!! Maybe leave me a comment and I might do it depending on the feedback!

I have planned all of this next week's food (and I have it all mapped out from last Wednesday) but I didn't figure out what to do for lunch and supper tomorrow - so I will update you all on it tomorrow or Monday.

Friday 10 May 2013

Hello there!

Hello!

I am new to this whole blogging process so excuse me if it all goes wrong!

I have read and seen so many inspirational sites / bloggs which all seem to be American so I thought I would try and help those of us British out there.

I have set myself a new target in life to get myself back to a correct level of fitness to live healthily so it will help me in future days, weeks and years.

My hubby and I have been married for nearly 18 months now and I really feel that I need to get back to normal after getting comfy with life! We live quite an interesting life and like to do new ideas and things.

I am currently a Health Care Assistant for a diagnostic company and I have a massive passion for singing and all things crafty - and my new love is cooking. Before, Jeremy (my husband) did all the cooking - well most of it - which is where I feel that I have put the weight on by not controlling portion sizes and his lovely experimental rich food!

Jeremy says that I do like to have a bit of a moan and I could write myself out of anything .... so be warned!

My aim is to firstly get down to 12 stone - I don't care how long it takes because I know that the slower I do it, the healthier it will be and the longer it will stay off! My health is not in the perfect situation which apparently isn't due to my weight (I'm currently around 14 1/2 stone) but I know that I may have a few ops lined up and if I am healthier then hopefully I will be able to get my health problems under control too. So if I find any nice recipes then I will let you all know and how it went!

We have two guinea pigs, called Ben & Jerry, which I am sure I will post many things about as they are our little babies!

Well, I feel that that is enough for now and I will write soon and tell you all about my travels, experiences and yummy food!

Emma x

Just two photos so you can see my happiest day of my life so far and to see our funny side....