Salad Days

I've recently developed an allergy to tomatoes, which, in my world, is devastating! I love and adore tomatoes, in all shapes and sizes and various forms. I was practically weaned on tomatoes and usually grow my own in the summer (although this year's monsoon weather put paid to that). Now, if I eat them, it makes my mouth really sore and my chest tight  which is very very scary!

To me, a salad isn't a salad without a tomato. Or it used to be. This recent allergy has made me look at the way I see salads. A salad is a dieter's friend, but it can soon get rather boring if you're eating lettuce, tomato and cucumber at every meal... So I've been coming up with some ways to spice up your salad.

Chose your leaves

Are you an iceberg fan, or do you favour a little gem? The leaf is usually the basis for a good salad, and there are so many available now there's no reason not to vary them. I like to buy bags of pre-washed salad leaves, for convenience mostly, but also because of the variety. Our favourite is a babyleaf salad, but you can try rocket, spinach, beetroot leaves, watercress. Whatever takes your fancy. A good old round lettuce can be a nice change from the more "exotic" too!

Once you've got your leaves, what goes on top. I often find myself piling everything salad-like on top, but you really don't have to. Chose three or four "toppings", such as:

• cucumber
• tomato *sob*
• peppers
• carrot (grated, cubed, thinly sliced with a speed peeler...)
• olives
• herbs (I like basil or mint)
• beetroot
• beansprouts
• mushrooms
• radish
• celery
• onions

Know your onions

A good onion can add a sharp kick to your salad, but again you can vary them. Spring or salad onions are quick and convenient (snip them with scissors) but try red onion, spanish onion or even a couple of pickled onions for variety.

Pickle it

Talking of pickled onions, pickled beetroot, gherkins or cauliflower can also be a great addition to a salad. Add a blob of sweet pickle to turn your salad into a ploughmans.

Fruity twist

Still missing that tomato? I've been experimenting with adding fruit to my salad. Grapes, strawberries (great with balsamic dressing), melon, mango, apple or raisins will make a great addition to a good salad.

Protein power

Now you've got your basics, add the protein you need to make this a meal. Chicken salad will get boring really quick if you have it regularly, but combine it with bacon and a mustard dressing, or with mango and a curried mayonaise and it's a completely different meal. Other great protein sources for salad are:

• lean ham
• prawns
• tuna
• boiled eggs
• cottage cheese
• chorizo (quite fatty but a little goes a long way!)
• lean bacon or turkey bacon
• crab sticks
• omlette
• reduced fat cheese (try feta or mozzarella)
• quiche (crustless quiche recipe coming soon!)

Dress it up

Now here's a stumbling block - the dressing. You don't want to add a load of calories at the last minute, so chose wisely. I like to use balsamic vinegar, but raspberry vinegar is nice too. If you're buying a shop bought dressing, do for one that contains less than 40 calories per 100mls or is marketed as a lighter choice (my current favourite is honey and mustard). You can also buy 1 calorie salad sprays that are intensively flavoured so that just a few sprays (at 1 calorie each) are needed. If you're a fan of mayonnaise or salad cream, chose on that's "extra light" or "lighter than light" and try mixing it with fat free fromage frais to make it go further. Or water down some fat free natural yoghurt and add some finely chopped mint, for a dressing that feels really creamy and indulgent, without all the fat.

Things to avoid

This may sound obvious, but if you're trying to keep your salad healthy there are some things to avoid:

• croutons
• full fat cheese
• crispy onions
• crispy bacon
• creamy or oily dressings
• chips on the side!

I enjoy salads, and I always have, but it can get boring, very quickly. I hope I've given you some ideas and inspiration to spice up your salad! Let me know your suggestions too :)

Hx

Menu plans

I'm slowly getting into the habit of menu planning although this week's one is incomplete so far. I'm going out on Friday night and I don't know what food choices there will be at the place I'm going to. So because I undoubtably wont be able to restrain myself, and will be drinking alcohol (which I rarely do now) I'm trimming my points for the rest of the week. Weight Watchers say this isn't the way to follow the plan, and give you a weekly points allowance for times like these, but it has worked for me in the past and seems like "damage limitation" to me. I will be having a good old dance to burn some of the calories off though!

There also isn't a planned meal for Monday evening either. I weigh in on a Tuesday morning, so I usually have something very light such as fish and salad or chicken and steamed veg on a Monday night, and Mr FGS has something different - so I don't have a "meal" to plan as such. I have some quorn fillets in the freezer and there is always fresh veg in the fridge, so I know that's there and I don't have to "plan" it as such.

Snacks are the same. I have plenty of fresh fruit and veg - celery, carrots, apples, bananas, grapes, mango - and things like plain fat free yoghurt and cottage cheese, as well as low-fat crisps and Weight Watchers snack bars.

Getting my mojo back this week! For my new exercise I ordered a skipping rope! Once it comes I plan to do 5-10 minutes of skipping a day and I think this is manageable. I'm restricted to doing exercise in the evenings once the children are in bed which means my time with Mr FGS is cut into, but 5 minutes of skipping I can fit in while DS1 is at pre-school and DS2 is safely strapped into his highchair eating lunch or whatever. I can't wait for Spring when I can rely a bit more on the weather being better.

How is your menu shaping up for the week? Link me to it if you've posted one!

Hx

This week's menu plan...

Morning!

I've managed a menu plan again, but am doing it a little different this week. I decided that planning my snacks wasn't working - I rarely ate what I had planned and swapped the planned things for other days when I wanted them, so instead I have left the snack area blank and just written how many points I have left for the day after my main meals have been taken into consideration. On some of the days I've left more points for snacks than I have included for meals! But, in reality, it probably wont work out like that, and I'm not intending to use all my points every day. Once again, if there are any specific recipes you'd like to see please ask!

I have had to repeat meals and lunches more this week, for reasons I'll go into in a later post, but I don't mind and it means less cooking!

For snacks, as well as fresh fruit and veg and a huge batch of 0pp veg soup and fruit smoothies I will have the following options available:

WW rich toffee bar 2         Ryvita 1

WW crisps 2                     60g cottage cheese 1

150g lf plain yogurt 2         Tbsp lf hummus 2

Rich tea biscuit 1               Boiled egg 2

6 mini breadsticks 1           Cooked veggie sausage 2

I struggle for snack ideas, so if you have any suggestions please share! I am a big snacker and while I know I shouldn't be reaching for the crisps I can't help it! But as long as my choices are measured and accounted for, I'm not too worried. I'm trying to include more protein in my choices too.

Have you planned this week? I found it really helpful last week, knowing what to have and when, and it helped me spend less too.

Hx

Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance...

Hi loves, hope you're having a good week!

After last week's disaster I took some time on Tuesday afternoon after my weigh in working out to what I was going to eat for the week, down to the last snack. I've planned my menu to around 20-25 ProPoints per day as I'm allowed 29 and this will give me some leeway! Already yesterday I found it so much easier to stick to, and didn't even eat 2 of the planned snacks. I've included more variety in there too, which I think now it's getting harder I'm going to need. Having mostly the same thing for breakfast and lunch every day is repetitive and makes me not look forward to eating it. Today I was really excited about my bagel and enjoyed it, and as a result I feel satisfied. What has my life come to, that I enjoy looking forward to a bagel?! There are still some repeats of meals, but it is a lot more varied than what I was eating before.

Anyway, if you're interested here is my menu plan for the week. If the pic comes out really tiny, click it to look a bit closer. I plan on posting about some of the recipes but if there's any you specifically want to know, leave a message in the comments. I'm also planning to make this a regular thing, so have added a Menu Plan tab to the top. At the moment it just contains a link to this post, but I'll hopefully build it up with recipe links and menu plans as the weeks pass. It is time consuming planning this way, so I might not do it every week, but will definitely try and plan more!

Once I'd planned out everything, yesterday morning I walked to a farm shop to buy veg for the week. I spent £11.20 on this little lot:

Grapes, peppers, butternut squash, red onions, kiwis, courgettes, cucumber, tomatoes, lemon, spring onions, broccoli 

When I went to the supermarket after for a few more bits I had a quick wander round the veg aisles and looked at the prices to compare the farm shop prices, and found out that some things cost a few pence more, while some things cost a few pence less, so all in all I think I probably broke even. I will definitely walk to the farm shop more often (it's a 2 mile round trip) as most of the produce is British if not local (obviously not all of it!), and it means I get a nice walk in too. I was nice and warm by the time I got back yesterday, so plenty of calories burned.

Continuing with the planning theme, 3 of the meals I have planned for the week involve roasted veg, so this morning I baked a huge tray of it of which I had some for lunch today and the rest will go in the fridge for tomorrow's dinner and another lunch later in the week. Lessening the load! I just chopped 3 courgettes, 2 peppers, and two red onions, slung them in a tray sprayed with low-cal cooking spray with seasoning, balsamic vinegar and some dried orgeano and roasted it for about 45 minutes. So yum!

Now I just have to stop myself from eating it all and running out when I need it...

How do you plan? I would love to see links to menu plans if you have them!

Hx

January Blues...

I haz them. I can't get going with this at all. The amount of food I ate yesterday was ridiculous and I have exercised a total of once this week. Can you say fail?

Lots of things are making me feel this way, and there's not a lot I can do about them. Financially, we are struggling to say the least. Mr F-G-S spent a few months in 2011 unemployed, and just over a year ago the company he was working for then went bankrupt, owing him about £4k. So although he now has a steady job, it's bringing in less money than we're used to and we're still catching up from the time he wasn't working. He's actually working two jobs at the moment - his regular one during the day and as a delivery driver a couple of evenings a week. He's asked for more shifts at his second job which means that while he's earning more money he's also not around in the evenings to help with the kids and so that I can go running. I am not going to make my goal of completing Couch to 5k by my birthday, which makes me want to give up altogether. It also means I don't get to see him in the evenings. Which actually isn't a bad thing because we are getting on each others nerves.... But having no money means I can't get the kids to their activities and see my friends too - so a lack of adult company is driving me mad! The only time I get out of the house is to take Ollie to school, and when he's not at school he and his brother are constantly fighting. Seriously yesterday I felt like just looking myself in the bathroom and just letting them fight to the death.

Food wise, I'm generally making good choices. Porridge made with water for breakfast, soup for lunch and a dinner of under 10pp, plus my 2l of water means I have leeway to have a few sensible snacks during the day. But sensible doesn't mean two pork pies and a packet of crisps... I don't even know why I'm stuffing my face like this. I got a pack of crisps from the cupboard the other day, then said to myself that I didn't need them and that I was better than that and put them back. Only to grab them an hour later and have them anyway. Urgh.

Also, for some reason my birthday is a source of impending gloom. I'm turning 30 on Feb 1st and for some reason I am dreading it. I really don't know why, I've never been one to worry about birthdays or getting old but I'm really not looking forward to it. I'm sure part of it is the fact that we wont be doing anything to celebrate it, again due to the money issue. A night out plus babysitter is just too expensive, and we don't have any family close enough to help out.

I need to shake up my workout, I'm bored of Zumba, much as I love it, and I feel like Wii fit isn't doing as much as it could do. It just isn't inspiring me to get on with it. Ideally I would love to get to the gym or a class, but again childcare and cost is an issue. I have a couple of DVDs that I would like to get into again, but we don't have a remote for our DVD player and I can't get past the first menu LOL. I've tried following some videos online but my screen is too small and my eyesight is not up to squinting while I jump around!

Solutions:

• Stalk Freecycle for a DVD player/exercise DVDs
• Walk with the buggy while Ollie is at school
• Stop eating like a greedy dog and being a whiny little bitch!
• Use the time I have in the evenings to do something for myself.
• Get out of the house more, although to what I don't know...

I feel like I need a good slap to get me out of this mood. Someone needs to take me by the shoulders and shake me! I went on Pinterest last night and found some workouts I can do at home, and am going to try this one in addition to whatever else I can manage.

I also have pinned the next 3 levels, join me on Pinterest here. If you want to join just ask and I'll send you an invite.

 This weekend I am going to stick to a very simple diet - fruit, veggies, low fat dairy and fish - avoid carbs as much as possible and generally eat cleaner in the hopes that a detox of sorts will make me feel better. And knock off the pounds... Now I just need some motivation....

Hx

Weekly Weigh In - illness = a bad week

Hi loves, a short and sweet post since I have an ear infection and can't see straight! I've had a cold for what seems like weeks and this weekend it came to a head. I felt rough on Saturday but pushed on, did my second C25k run fine and got ready to go and visit my Dad on Sunday. Sunday morning I woke up with raging earache, took some paracetamol, had no breakfast and then went to my Dads, where I had a huge dinner of toad in the hole and roast potatoes, then cheese on toast and lots of nibbles all day. Yesterday, I tried to be good, just having fruit for breakfast and soup for lunch, but I couldn't face a trip to the shops to stock up on fruit so I ended up eating the wrong things and the result of all that was that I gained a pound and a half this week :( This morning I feel 100 times worse than I did yesterday but I forced myself to go to weigh in and face up to it! I'm glad I did as in the past one bad week has deterred me from going back, and I don't want that to happen.

So, hopefully tomorrow I'll be feeling better as I have some medicine to help the dizzyness. I'm going to find some new recipes to try and write a full meal plan for the week this evening, and finish my first C25k week tomorrow morning (running in daylight, eek!). I haven't managed to do any of my ab exercises last week, so in between C25k runs I'm going to do a wii fit tummy routine and the post natal abdominal separation pilates, and really get back on track. I will lose this 1 1/2 lb this week and get back on track. Earache will not beat me!

How have you done this week? Have you had this awful cold that wont go away? I can see some vitamin c tablets in my future...

Hx

It's been a bad week...

I don't know what has gotten into me this week, but I just haven't been able to stop stuffing my face! Bread, sweets, biscuits, cheese - anything and everything. I've still been eating my healthy main meals, but having a slice of bread with it, or a sandwich mid afternoon, or a packet of crisps in the evening. THen once I've had one bad thing it's like I can't stop. Shocking behavior Helen! And not even any exercise to counteract it. I know I am going to have a gain tomorrow on the scales, let's just hope it's not a big one...

I seem to have righted myself again today, having had fruit and yoghurt for breakfast, then ran to the park and chased the kids around for a while before running back, and then having a nice big bowl of veg soup for lunch. Tuna salad planned for dinner and then maybe some Wii fit aswell to hopefully minimise the damage. Better late than never I suppose.

I'm attributing this funk to cutting down on the amount of diet coke I'm drinking. All I've had in the last 4 or 5 days in half a glass, whereas I could sometimes get through a litre or more in a day before. It's seriously addictive stuff! It's terrible but I get awful headaches sometimes, and the only thing that will sort it out is to drink a diet coke. I wont give it up completely, but I've pledged myself that I'll only drink it with meals, or in the evening, and only after I've drunk at least half of my 2l of water for the day. We'll see how that goes... I'm going cold turkey on the cheese too - one little blob of cottage cheese is like a gateway drug and a few hours later I'm onto the extra mature cheddar .

What do you do on days (or weeks!) like this? Any tips gratefully accepted!

Hx

Weekly Weigh in No. 14 and Operation Fit and Fab update

14 weeks in and I have lost another 1 1/2lbs - equalling 25 pounds in total :) Go me! I'm chuffed that despite being ill over the weekend and totally fluffing up on Sunday by not eating all day then having 2 slices of dominoes pizza and garlic bread the effort I put in the rest of the week has paid off.

One of the main things that has got me through this week is Operation Fit and Fabulous and the support of Jayne and the ladies on Twitter. We're spurring each other on, throwing advice and ideas back and forth and assuring each other that, yes, Jaffa Cakes do count as one of your five a day!

Last weeks missions were to drink 2 litres of water a day, body brush before each shower/bath, exercise for an hour 3 times a week, be kinder to yourself and get enough sleep. I managed the water, although I did feel like I was sloshing when I walked for the first few days and still get a bit nervous when I'm too far from the loo. I don't have a body brush yet, but as soon as it arrives it will be meeting my wobbly thighs. Exercise I surprisingly managed too, thanks in part of my other half being off work last week we managed a walk and my patented walk/run hybrid (ralk or wun?), and last night I did a half hour of Wii Fit and 45 mins of Zumba. Wont be so easy this week as he started two new jobs yesterday so he wont be around even in the evenings and will be much less inclined to want to go walking when he is here. Also I have DS1 off sick from school so am pretty housebound. I will manage it though, even if it's in smaller chunks. As for being kinder to myself, I'm not sure. making the time to exercise and things kinda covers that, but maybe it's one I need to work on more. And the last thing I definitely need to try harder at is the sleep thing. I haven't managed that one little bit. Last night I was down to 5 hours and it was disturbed due to snotty kids, and then the baby woke me up at just gone 5am. The key for me in this one is to go to bed earlier I think. Last night it was gone 11.30 when I went upstairs, so probably nearer midnight by the time I got to sleep. I need to put things off to the next day - not getting a blog post up before I go to bed isn't the be all and end all.

So, a bit of a mixed bag. Overall I'm pleased with myself this week. Next weeks mission looks quite achievable too. Get your 5 a day - something I generally do anyway. At the moment I have porridge with berries for breakfast, some kind of home-made vegetable soup for lunch and something with a mound of veg on the side for dinner. And snacks in between are generally apples, carrot, pepper and cucumber sticks, apples, grapes and did I say apples? Something also suggested is to keep a food diary, something which Weight Watchers also recommends in the way of tracking. They have tools on their website which allow you to track each food you eat and their pro-points value. This is something I used to do religiously but have slacked a bit lately. So, as of tomorrow I am going to log absolutely everything I eat, even foods with 0 PP value. It will be interesting to see how much I really eat.

How have you done this week?

Hx

Weigh in day!

...and I wake up dreaming of croissants and scones...

Yesterday I only had 9 points (or thereabouts) all day. For breakfast I had fruit and yogurt (1PP) lunch was soup and Weight Watchers crackers (1PP) dinner was chicken and mango salad (4PP) and I also had 2 custard cream biscuits (3PP). I kept myself busy moving furniture around and actually didn't feel that hungry. In the evening after settling the kids in their new room I did a 20 minute Wii Zumba routine, had a nice bath and painted my nails, then had some pineapple as a snack, so I wasn't tempted to pick at unhealthy things. Usually evenings are my danger time and I can quite happily eat and eat, so finding something else to do instead of sit on the laptop with a pack of crisps at my side is the key I think.

Image source

So hopefully the scales will be in my favor this morning. I had a bad week for picking last week but hopefully counter balanced that yesterday and over the weekend. It would be nice to at least maintain my weight and any loss will be a bonus.

Wish me luck!

Hx

Fruit and yogurt

My current breakfast of choice! This morning I had a kiwi, some black berries and a nectarine chopped and topped with a weight watchers layered fromage frais (1PP). You can also blend it all together and have it as a smoothie instead. It's a good breakfast, if I was doing anything terribly strenuous today I'd be hungry again pretty soon but I've got my sons bedroom to sort out so that'll keep my mind off food! And as I've been so bad this week today I'm eating as little "pointed" food as I can and instead filling up on free fruit and veg. I've made a huge pot of veg soup (with no points) and everytime I feel a bit peckish I'm going to have a mug of that, plus a chicken breast and salad for dinner. No carbs! Hopefully I wont just bloat up and weigh a ton on the scales tomorrow...

I'll post my soup recipe later!

Hx