Small Crisis!

Ok, so I'm doing relatively okay so far this week.. If I hadn't gone out on Friday that is! I've stayed off the drink since the beginning of January, so how much of a heart attack did I have when calculating away on Saturday! Weeklies - gone. So I have been struggling a bit to stay within my 27 points per day, but sure we'll see.
Also, my regular meeting is on a Thursday evening and now I have to switch my horsie stuff to Thursday! It'sust the way it's worked out. So I've to find a new meeting uh huhh :( My regular one only does mornings beside my Thursday evening one. There's one right beside my work, convenient as hell! But I don't really tend to do well in that one, my regular leader is so great, motivating and supportive whatever the circumstances. So wish me luck! I've a feeling I could go through a few before finding one I feel I'm a good fit to :(

WI Results Week 7

Well it seems I need not have worried – 1lb down this week whoop! I wasn’t great this week in that I only kinda half tracked, which I know must have meant I was over my points. But I did exercise a few times, and I reckon I’m probably making better choices now out of habit as opposed to eating whatever I feel like having regardless of calories or fat like I did pre WW. So I must make a conscious effort to work hard at trying new recipes this week to ensure I don’t get repetitive and board and also keep on walking, doing the Davina dvd and horse riding in case this week was a fluke! ;-)

Hope everyone’s having a good week!

Pancake Tuesday

Throwing caution to the wind for pancake Tuesday! Apple, cinnamon & golden syrup pancakes and Banana & Nutella pancakes. I did not point, please do not follow my bad example! But very yummy pancakes ;-)
After quite the debacle with my OH as to whether we have dinner and pancakes or just pancakes on pancake Tuesday, we (or more so I, to make lighter the amount of work in the kitchen!) decided to fore go dinner & go for the pancakes!

Basic Pancake Recipe

100g Plain Flour
300ml Skimmed Milk
Pinch of Salt
1 Lg Egg

Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients. Mix well so there are no lumps. Leave standing for 30 mins. Pour enough for a thin pancake, flip when you see a number of air bubbles.

For the Apple filling chop apples & put in a pot with some cinnamon and golden syrup. Heat through & serve with your pancakes with some cream or ice cream.

Yummo! :-)

WI Results Week 6

Hey all! So I was down another half a pound at my WI. No great shakes, but still going in the right direction! So that's down 9lbs in 6 weeks. Must get off my butt a bit more now this week ;-)

Valentines Day :-)

Hi all! Well did everyone have a nice Valentine's day?! And get spoiled rotten by the OH (other half!)?! :-) Well myself and my OH decided we were going to splash out and get a take out and watch a movie for Valentines Day. So that's what we did! I had a personal pizza from pizza hut and some nachos. Now I think I'm over my weeklies by about 10 pp, but couldn't be 100% sure. But you know - I'm owning the fact that I'm only human, and you do have to live your life! So I'm up on the scales or STS (stay the same) this week I won't mind. I'm never going to be perfect every week, and why would you want to be?! You have to splash out and celebrate sometimes, but once you get back on track afterwards you'll be fine in the long run. And as I keep saying I'm in this for the long haul, so as long as I stick to my WW plan 90% of the time, I will certainly be celebrating life with those I love on certain occasions. Within reason of course, I'm not going to suddenly pig out on an extra large pizza with everything! But have something of what I like, enjoy it and not over fill myself. As this is a life change and not a diet, there will of course be weeks where we are up and sts, sure if we just kept losing for the rest of our lives there'd be nothing left of us! ;-) There'll even be weeks where we should definitely have lost, but our bodies are not having it, and that's just the way it is, but those weeks will be few and far between hopefully. I've been walking at lunchtime every day for 40 mins and was good for the rest of the week. So watch this space!! :-)

Now the evening before Valentines Day the OH had said he hadn't gotten me anything, which is fine, and we usually just exchange cards and make a nice dinner. But I knew that he was looking into getting some new earphones. So I did some research and found some that had good reviews and were not too expensive. Now as it turns out, the 'over the head' earphones are very square and my OH's head is quite round, and we both nearly passed out laughing when he tried them on! So as it turns out, I now have a new set of earphones haha! :-) So this is still the evening before Vals day and he said he felt bad that he hadn't gotten me anything and decided that he was going to head off and make me a card. I know, so funny! So he pops his head into this sitting room a few minutes later 'do we have any blue tack?!' So I mentioned where we might have some blue tack. Then another few minutes later 'do we have any of those long white bendy things?!' No, we do not have any pipe cleaners! What are you planning to make with blue tack and pipe cleaners haha?! So he comes back in and is finished apparently, but I cannot have it until the morning. Right so, no problem, I can wait till the morning :-) So we're going to bed and he says 'I couldn't find stuff to make you anything, so I haven't made a card!' Ha ha ha, and after throwing me off the scent with all the questions! So funny! So I said again that it was grand, coz sure I wasn't expecting anything anyway! So that was that. Now I decided that I would get up and make a hot breakfast on Valentines Day morning (amazing wife that I am!). So while he was out walking the dog at 6am, I got up and went down to start breakfast, and when I opened the fridge, what was hiding in there only a card and a bottle of my favorite perfume!!! Amazing! It has to be said, he is the master of deception!! And absolutely hilarious! Thank you darling! xx

I hope you all had a great Val's Day and are doing well on your weight loss journeys!

WI Results - Week 5!

Hey all! Am just back from my WI! Now I said I was going to get off my butt did I not?! Well get off my butt I did this week! I did an hours horse riding, my Davina workout DVD twice (fantastic workout by the way, 40 mins all in) and I did a 50 min walk twice during lunch. Now I don't add up points earned from activities to eat later. I just think that the exercise helps your weight loss along and that's that. So I exercised, stayed within my propoints aaannndddd..... 1.5 lbs down! I'll take that thank you very much! That's 8.5 lbs down in 5 weeks now, that's fairly good going as far as I'm concerned! I was unsure of how my WI would go to be honest, because the totm arrived and that can play havoc with water retention among other things, so you may not have a loss when it comes to the scales no matter how hard you worked. I might not have had a loss at all had I not gotten a little active! So totally worth it, and I plan to keep it up.

See less of you all same time next week! :-)

PS. I ended up throwing together scrambled eggs on brown toast before my horse course yest, phew! ;-)

Horse Course Starts Tonight (and brings with it a foodie dilemma!)

So I've mainly been 'fooding' on here to date, but as you can see in my description I have mentioned that I'll be starting horse exams also. These are my two resolutions for the year 2012! To lose weight and to get some BHS qualifications under my belt. (The BHS is the British Horse Society for those that might not know).
So while I cannot wait for my first class tonight (woo hoo!), it does pose my first foodie encounter also - I get home at 6pm, change and head out the door at 6.20pm to get there for 7pm. What am I going to feed myself?! That's not enough time to get changed into my gear and make something to eat! I'll be starving & probably get trodden on because of my slow reflexes due to food deprivation ha! And not only is it only a few minutes to grab something, it'll have to be propoint friendly. This thought should've honestly crossed my mind last night, I'm obviously not as dedicated as I though haha :-)

Okay, so wish me luck this evening & here's hoping that I get devine inspiration on what I can have to eat before then!! :-)

Oat Cookies - 2pp Each

Hey all! I made some delish-iohso oat cookies the other day for 2pp per cookie! Can't beat that with a stick for pp value :-)
The recipe is from the March issue of Easy Food.

Oatmeal Cookies - 36 Cookies at 2pp per Cookie

(This recipe also had added raisins, which I have omitted.)

200g Brown Sugar
180g unsweetened apple sauce*
1 lg Egg White, lightly beaten
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp Vanilla extract
120g Rolled Oats
140g Plain Flour, sifted
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

Pre-heat your oven to 180C conventional oven or 160C fan assisted ovens.

Whisk together sugar, apple sauce, egg white, oil and vanilla until smooth.

* I did not have any apple sauce, so made my own no less! 1st time! Just chop up 1 cup of apples, add half a cup of water and simmer for approx 15 mins, until apples are soft. Then blend. Ya Daa! :-)

Then in another bowl, yes a separate one to the wet ingredients, add the oats, plain flour, wholewheat flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Mix well.

Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Mix with a wooden spoon until just blended. Then I placed walnut size balls of the mixture onto a baking tray approx 1-1 1/2 inches apart and baked for 15 minutes! :-)

Let cool (if you can wait!) on a wire rack & enjoy!

Veggie Stir Fry & Noodles

Hi all! For dinner this evening I made a vegetable stir fry. It's been years, literally since I made a stir fry so wasn't so sure how it would turn out, especially as I didn't have a recipe and was winging it :-) Well it was divine! Even the OH said so, and that is saying something believe me haha :-)

4 Portions at 5 Propoints per Portion

2 Carrots
1 Red Onion
Some Sugar Snap Peas
Some Baby Corn
A Medium Sweet Potato 4pp
(All chopped)
3 Cloves Garlic grated into the veggies in the pot (as I love it!)

For the sauce -

2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
2 tbsp Toasted Sesame Oil 4pp
1/4 tsp Chili Flakes
Juice 1 Lime

2 Packs Straight to Wok Noodles 12pp

So veg into a large pot or wok with some spray oil. Keep turning so they cook evenly for approx 8 mins. Grate in the garlic & add your sauce. Stir for a minute. Add the noodles and stir every now and then for another 5/6 mins or when everything is tender and hot. Very tasty, so easy & great value for propoints! A definite staple in my weekly meals going forward :-)

WI - Week 4 Results!

Well at least it's a loss haha! Down the half pound it took to get my first siver seven whoop! So that's been 4 weeks, not bad at all, over all. But the half a pound is not the best in fairness!
Right need to get my act together, eat more veggies I think and get off my butt!! ;-) Have horse riding on Sunday and swimming on Wednesday and going to walk in between. WW say all you need starting off is a half hour 5 times a week - totally achievable. So no excuse this week! Up and atom and bring on the next half stone! :-)