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

Weekly Weigh in and SCC Update

Morning lovelies

This week, by some kind of miracle, I lost 1 1/2lbs meaning I am only 1/2lb more than I was before Christmas. I say by some kind of miracle because it really hasn't been a good week. It's been quite stressful, I have made poor choices food wise, done no exercise and had no motivation what so ever. All this has lead me to eat very little over the last two days in an effort to undo the damage. Not the right way to do things and lesson learned.

Previous weigh in: 13st 11 (193lbs)
Current weight: 13st 9 1/2 (191 1/2lbs)
+/-?: -1 1/2

This weeks Spring Chick Challenge mini goal was to eat no sweets. And I failed. In a usual week it wouldn't bother me, and to be honest I managed on most days to avoid them. My downfall has been cookies this week, I need to find a recipe for some diet-friendly cookies.

I've done ok with my water though, and am finding it easier and easier to get 2l in a day. I've barely had any diet coke and restricted coffee to one a day (or less) and I'm not missing it any more.

This weeks mini challenge is to find a new exercise, and this is something I need to do anyway. I'm bored with Zumba and it doesn't "fit" at the moment because of home circumstances. I am going to try and get a swim in this week - perhaps with a run to the leisure centre. The weather hasn't been very conductive for running at the moment either, so my exercise routine needs a shake up. Any (cost free) suggestions gratefully received!

My own goals for this week:

Lose at least 1lb so that I enter my 30s at my lowest weight ever (it is my 30th birthday next Wednesday eeek).
3 workouts at least, including a swim and something new.
Cheer the eff up!

How did you do? What exercise will you be trying?

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

Weekly Weigh In and SCC Update!

Evening all

Well, after a week of actually doing it properly (sticking to 29 ProPoints a day, tracking every morsel, exercising most days, weighing and measuring portion sizes, drinking 2-3l of water a day, generally feeling miserable...you get the picture) I lost a grand total of....half a pound. To say I am disappointed is an understatement, although I kind of knew I hadn't achieved a big loss. I could feel it. I have followed my WW plan to the letter this week, no cheating. Exercised every single day. Resisted the cravings. No bueno. But I am confident that if I keep going it will show on the scale eventually...it has to.

Spring Chick Challenge update-

Last weeks goals:

• TRACK. Yep.
• Menu plan. Yep.
• Exercise. Yep.
• Support. Haven't done as much as I could - need to find a way to categorise the blogs I follow - anyone know if there is a way to do this?
• Blog. Yep.

The mini challenge was to eat with your non-dominant hand and I failed! I just kept forgetting, and the one meal I did remember for I made such a huge mess LOL. Definitely food for thought though.

This weeks goals:

• TRACK. Everything. Again.
• Menu plan. Already done, just need to finalise. And stick to it!
• Exercise .As much as possible. Twice a day if I can.
• DON'T eat the kids leftovers! Put it all IN THE BIN.
• Support. Read all the challengers blogs as much as I can.
• Blog.

This week's mini challenge is NO SWEETS! I am a sweetie addict but don't eat too many at the moment (apart from the odd few I nick from the kids...shhh....). I am allowing myself one Weight Watchers chocolate bar (2PP value) per day if I want it, but other than that no sweets for the week.

I hope every one is well and that you had better results than I did! I'll try and catch up on all your blogs soon.


Hx

Now and then...

I took a picture last night and when I looked at it I was actually quite shocked. Not shocked at how fat I looked for once, but how slim my face looks now. Lots of people have commented about how they can see my weight loss around my face much more now, but I never truly believed it. have a look for yourself:

This is me last Christmas, with a 5 month old baby Jake

And this is me yesterday with an 18 month old not-so baby Jake and 4 year old definitely not-so baby Ollie

Wow!

Now, who can recommend a good botox clinic...

Hx

Lunch Of The Day - Spinach and Red Pepper Fritatta

I thought I'd show you a recipe from my menu planner. I made two servings on Wednesday, had one for lunch and will have the other tomorrow. It tastes great hot or cold, so it's great picnic or packed lunch food too.

Spinach and Red Pepper Fritatta

Makes 2 servings, 4 ProPoints per serving

Ingredients
3 mediums eggs, beaten
1/2 red pepper, deseeded and chopped
1 onion, sliced
1/2 courgette, chopped
100g potatoes
Handful washed spinach

Chop the potato into chunks - I cut it in half then sliced about 1/2cm thick. Heat a frying pan with a heatproof handle, add a few table spoons of cold water and the potatoes, onion, courgette and pepper. Cover and cook for around 10-15 minutes until the potatoes are cooked but still firm. You will need to stir occasionally and add more water if it starts to stick. Add the spinach and stir until it's wilted. Season well. Add the beaten eggs and make sure the filling is evenly distributed. Cook for a few minutes and the finish under a hot grill to set the top.

I served mine with a side salad and it was really nice. I like to make it with roasted veg too, and if you have left over boiled potatoes (waxy ones work best) you can just warm them with the veg in the pan before adding the eggs. Or throw it all in an oven proof dish and bake it like a crustless quiche/flan. If you've got some points/calories spare add some cottage cheese to make it even yummier!

What are you having for lunch today?

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