Jenny Craig Competition

I think at one point or another most of you reading this blog will have considered using something other than your own will power and nutrition knowledge as a route to losing weight. Wouldn't it be so much easier if things were done for you - if you were told what to eat and when, and even had it prepared for you. There are many plans like this available, including Jenny Craig.
If I'm completely honest, if I had the money, I would totally go down the route of using a weight loss plan where food is delivered to me and all I would have to do it heat it up and eat it. Of course, it's not going to stop me buying a slab of chocolate or snacking unhealthily in between meals, but it would take a huge load of the stress of dieting off. I love cooking, but sometimes I want to be cooked for! But, like I said, £50 a week is way out of my budget - in fact, I usually feed a family of four for around this amount.
But to celebrate their newly launched website Jenny Craig Uk are giving bloggers have the chance to win some fantastic prizes (including £400 to spend at Evans Cycles!) just by asking a question.

The prizes on offer include:
1st Prize – A £400 contribution towards a brand new bike from Evans Cycles (http://www.evanscycles.com) and a 28-day Jenny Craig weight loss package including food hampers and personal weekly phone weight loss consultations.
2nd Prize – A £50 voucher for Sheactive (http://www.sheactive.co.uk) and a 28-day Jenny Craig weight loss programme including food hampers and personal weekly phone weight loss consultations.
3rd Prize – Three 3rd prize winners will each get one 28-day Jenny Craig weight loss package including food hampers and personal weekly phone weight loss consultations.
For your chance to win all you need to do is:
A) Cook up a tasty nutritional question to spice up Jenny Craig's new blog;
B) Describe the question you would like Jenny Craig UK's weight management experts to answer on your own blog and link to the contest in your post;
C) Tell us about your entry by leaving a comment with the URL of your entry in the comments on this post on their blog, or tweet @JennyCraigUK using the hashtag #AskJennyCraig before 11.59pm (UK time) on 13th September 2012.
I think my question would be:
I am a big snacker and often eat out of boredom. What would you recommend for some healthy snacks (that aren't boring!) and to keep my mind off food between meals?
Let me know if you enter, I would love to know your questions too!
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

Cheese, cheese is good for your heart...oh, wait...

Cheese. Much like biscuits and bread, cheese is one of the things I miss the most on the Weight Watchers plan. I quite often sit with a bunch of grapes, an apple, or a glass of water and think, you know what would go good with this? Cheese.

The problem is, cheese is high in Pro Points and isn't very filling. Tasty, yes but filling, no. Fatty too. And the low fat stuff, despite being only 1PP per 20g for half fat cheddar, just isn't the same. It doesn't melt as well, is a bit plasticky and grows penicillin quicker than normal cheese, meaning that if you eat tiny portions and don't use it quickly your fridge will soon be rivalling that of Alexander Fleming.


So how do you get your cheese fix? Here are a few suggestions:

• use strong cheese, in smaller amounts. You'll get more flavour than from mild cheese so you wont need as much.
• use the small side of the grater when grating cheese - you'll be amazed at how much further it goes!
• grate your cheese and store it in a ziplock bag in the fridge, as often if you cut a chunk off then weigh it and it's more than you should have you'll be tempted to eat the extra (I know I am!). If it's ready grated you can just pop it back in the bag. You can freeze it once it's grated too, and use it straight from the freezer for most things. This solves the problem of it going off before you can use it all.
• cottage cheese makes a good dip for vegetable crudities and apple or grapes. 60g of low fat cottage cheese equals 1PP
• extra light cream cheese (such as Philadelphia) makes a good pasta sauce (like my Cheats Carbonara), base for risotto, and makes soup lovely and creamy if you stir a spoonful through. 50g of extra light is 1PP, or light is 30g per PP. You can get different flavours such as garlic and herb and roasted pepper. Stuff a medium chicken breast with some before baking for a diet friendly kiev for 5 PP.
• adding a bit of mustard to a cheese sauce really enhances the cheese flavour, meaning you don't need as much cheese. 1tsp of mustard is free (any more than that and it has a points value) and can also be stirred into mash to make it taste creamier.
• Have some cheese and biccies instead of a desert. Weight Watchers do crackers which are 1PP for a pack of three. They taste like cardboard but it's the cheese that counts!

I'll hold my hands up and admit it, cheese is a weakness of mine. But I can still enjoy it on this plan. 

What are your weaknesses?

Hx