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Mmmmmm tasty slimming world quiche! This is an impromptu recipe post, the recipe is probably well known to slimming world members already.
Ingredients
Packet of Batchelors pasta and sauce ( I used the broccoli flavour) made up using water.
Any veg you fancy, I used sweetcorn and broccoli (I just cooked it in the pan with the pasta)
4 eggs
A tub of low fat cottage cheese
Method
Cook pasta and any veg.
Mix eggs and cottage cheese.
Use pasta as a base in a flan dish, and pour egg and cheese mix over. Bake in the oven until set. I baked at 200 degrees for about 30 mins.
When you remove the dish from the oven, make sure the hob is switched off so that your greaseproof paper doesn’t catch fire….
Week 2.
Loss this week 3.5lb
Total Loss 7lb
I’m delighted to have got my half stone award in 2 weeks, and even more delighted to have been Slimmer Of The Week. 3.5lbs isn’t going to set the world on fire (the Aussie Biggest Loser contestants looks gutted when they only lose 3.5kgs, never mind 3.5lbs!) but it’s slow and steady that wins the race, so if I can keep solid numbers like these going, then my 60lbs in 180 days target will be achievable. My handy iPhone app kindly informs me that I have 168 days to lose 53lbs now, which means I am doing what I need to do.
Crucially, right now I am not treating Monday night as a twilight zone, where all foods are magically calorie – free. In the past I have always given in the the temptation to eat whatever I fancy after my weigh in. A little bit of what you fancy doesn’t do any harm and all that. But with great age comes great wisdom, and I now realise just how much food can be consumed on a cold wet evening with no restraint. So instead I am sticking to the plan even when I’ve just been weighed and got a whole week to make up for it. Yeah, I know I’m not the only one who’s allowed themselves to believe that.
So tonight I am polishing my halo, safe in the knowledge that I haven’t sabotaged myself for once. One day I might be able to say I would never do that! Well, you’ve got to have something to aim for…!
Just a quickie to share a bizarrely delicious recipe with you!
I got this recipe from an online forum called MinMins so take no credit for it, but tried it last night with trepidation and it is really easy and tasty.
Ingredients:
Chicken, can of diet coke and a heaped teaspoon of Chinese 5 spice.
Method
Chop the chicken into bitesize pieces and brown in Frylight or similar low calorie cooking oil spray. Add the diet coke and spice and stir frequently, keeping the heat on high. Once the sauce reduces, it will leave sweet sticky coated chicken which we ate with savoury rice and corn on the cob. It would work well potato wedges or noodles too. It takes a while for the sauce to reduce to stickiness, and in fact I didn’t let it go all the way because I didn’t want my chicken overcooked, but it was still good.
Reading the forum, people have tried adding all manner of addition ingredients such as tomato ketchup, garlic, vegetables, Soy sauce and so on, with great success, so this is one to have fun with.
Let me know what you think!
Edited on 13th September to add I have just eaten a version made with 4 tablespoons of passata and a dash Worcestershire sauce instead of the Chinese Five Spice and it was even more perfect. This time I had it with wedges, mixed veg and picked red cabbage. I suspect this is a dish with many possible variations, and definitely one we will use again and again!
Week 1
Loss this week 3.5lb
Total Loss 3.5lb
So, end of the first week. That’s always quite an exciting weigh in. Eating habits have changed beyond all recognition. Hunger has been overcome by judicious use of carrots, kiwi fruit and homemade tomato soup. The food shopping never looks so startlingly healthy as on that first week. So you know in your heart that you are going to see a massive loss on week one.
I lost 3.5lbs. Not my best first week ever, by a fairly long way. But not a bad loss either, certainly not one I should be unhappy with. I was hoping for 4 if I’m honest, but I’m not going to weep about a half pound deficit!
I so need to work on my fitness! I may be stuck on week one of Couch to 5K for quite some time, it’s so hard to run any distance at all when I’ve not been used doing any exercise for a while. And I’ve just walked the 1 mile home from the railway station and I wanted to die! To be fair, it is uphill every step of the way, and it is a hot day, and I am wearing jeans and a long sleeved shirt and sturdy shoes (because when I got dressed at 6am it wasn’t hot!). Luckily I had bought a drink when I got off the train so I was able to keep stopping to take a sip (swig, if I’m honest!). So I didn’t actually collapse and die at the top of the hill, but I was seriously considering moving house to somewhere flatter!
You may notice I’m not writing my weight on my stats. I’m not particularly trying to hide it, but having taken the decision to publicise my posts on Facebook, which means the first few lines of my posts appearing on my wall, it feels too exposed to put my weight. Suffice to say it’s a lot, for now!
In 2008 I “ran” the Race For Life wearing Ted Drummond’s name on my back. Ted was a baby diagnosed with leukameia and was going through harrowing treatment. The following post has been written by his mum Sarah, to update us on how Ted is doing, 3 years on.
Over to Sarah.
Ted turned 4 years old on the 17th of August, and on that day it also marked the 18 months in remission milestone. 3.5yrs for his “All clear”. His blood levels are still good, and he is growing as he should. He still has problems with his bowels, which started when he was on his intensive chemo, and it has caused him quite a bit of misery. He can feel ill, have tummy pains, and it is a socially crippling problem because he is incontinent. He had a biopsy at Great Ormond Street and was given the diagnosis of Eosinophillic Colitis. He now has to follow a strict diet of no Dairy, Soya, Eggs or Wheat! This may not seem too bad, but go to your cupboard, and pick up some every day foods and check for one of those ingredients. They are in nearly everything!
Amazingly, in the spirit of Ted, he has embraced it fully and he accepts that is the way it has to be, cheekily adding he might be allergic to broccoli when he doesn’t want to eat it, then chuckling with a big grin! We are hoping it will improve his situation enough to have him toilet trained, so he can start reception class in December. He can’t wait; he longs to be one of “The bigger boys”.
Also on his birthday he received his Beads of Courage. Ted is the first child in the UK to receive his Beads of Courage, which is being brought in to the UK exclusively by Be Child Cancer Aware (BCCA). BCCA is a charity set up by me (mum), his dad and our very close friend Diane, and we all realised what a fantastic concept the beads of courage is! When Ted finished his 2 years of chemotherapy, he received a little plastic medal which on one side said “Winner” on the other side it said “Made in China”. This in no way represented what Ted had been through and although we will always treasure it, anyone could pick up a packet of 4 of them for £2 from a supermarket.
The Beads of Courage is a program that allows a child to “Record, Tell and Own their story”. You can only start to imagine how much Ted went through with his treatment, but when you see him with his beads of courage (all 1800 of them) you can start to appreciate it that bit more! It becomes a universal language for the children as each bead has its own global meaning, and it is also a source of counselling, helping them work their way through treatment!
When you look at Ted’s photo with his beads, each white bead represents a dose of chemotherapy, black bead is an injection or needle, Yellow bead is a night spent in hospital, white square with a heart is a night spent in intensive care….the list goes on! All the beads are made of a high quality glass, and not something that can be picked up at the shops! Ted really does own his cancer journey when he proudly shows people his beads! To learn more about Ted and our beads of courage programme www.bechildcanceraware.org
Ted is our very special boy, he has inspired us to do so much for other people, he has made us appreciate that life is for living now. By all means, have goals and work towards things to improve your life, but don’t let anything stop you grabbing the moment. Life won’t pause, sadly, so go out there and get it now! He is immensely happy; despite everything he has been through and continues to go through because of having had Cancer. He often tells people “You’re my best friend” and to him it doesn’t matter what you look like, how old you are, how much money you have and what clothes you wear; it matters to him how you act and how much you embrace your life. Obviously, liking Ben10 and Buzz lightyear are always going to give you a bit if a head start too!
I sometimes look at him and feel a pain of sorrow for what he has had to go through, and he will look at me back as if he has read my mind and say “Never mind!” and be off to do the next crazy thing! He doesn’t fear life, because he stared fear head on and won!
As I get closer to the end of week one, I think it’s a good idea to look at what I’ve been eating.
Starting out this week has been as hard as it was the first time I ever went to a Slimming World class. As much as I know the rules in principle, it’s hard to remember exactly what I ate. I have read most of my previous entries, and have found some much-loved recipes. I have looked at my food diaries and found lists of ingredients. But what I don’t have is anything that says how I put those ingredients together to make a meal.
So here’s how I’ve done things this week.
Breakfasts have mostly been Magic Porridge. To save new readers hunting through the archives, magic porridge is a very tasty breakfast made with porridge oats and low-fat yoghurt. Mix the 2 ingredients together, leave in the fridge overnight and by morning your breakfast is ready to eat, either cold or gently warmed. I like it cold with added blueberries and banana, and it’s a wonderfully convenient thing for me to take to work (I’m a night shift worker) and eat when the cravings start hitting. I still call that meal breakfast, since it tends to be around 5am.
Lunch – I have been making pasta salad with whatever veg, particularly loving sweetcorn and red peppers. Mixed with a little “lighter than light” mayo, it makes a tasty filling meal, again ideal for taking to work if you need a packed lunch. Add a nice green salad and you’re sorted. Or some raw veg and low-fat houmous. Or homemade soup. today I have made coriander and sweetcorn soup, and it’s as tasty as I remember it being. Eaten with a little wholemeal bread, my appetite is totally sated.
Evening meals are always a challenge for me. First of all, several days a week I am actually only recently awake at tea time, and don’t want chillies and curries and so on. And then I will be trying to make at least 2 different meals at the same time, one of them for taking to work. So simplicity is often key. Jacket potatoes and salads often form the basis of the meal. Add some soft creamy cheese (moderation in all things!) a quorn fillet and I’ve got a quick and simple meal. Taking slightly longer to create, but wonderful comfort food, is slimming world style wedges, eggs and beans. Oh and mushrooms and red peppers.
Snacks of course are made up of fruit or a yoghurt, and sometimes a couple of babybel cheeses. I often use cheese as my Healthy Extra A choices, and my B choices are usually some wholemeal bread or low-fat houmous, or a little bit of meat or fish from time to time.
So if I’ve ever been stupid enough to have to be starting again, with no memory of what I should eat, all I have to do now is look back at this post. Note to self – if you are from the future and having to read this, give yourself a slap from me!
I spent quite some time earlier this week reading my own blog, and I realised that writing my blog throughout all the highs and especially the lows has put me in the really quite unusual position of being able to reflect on what I did with great clarity. Gone is the need for a good memory, gone is the chance of recall through rose tinted glasses. It’s all written down, all the joy, all the pain, all the despair, there’s nowhere to hide.
Reading back, it’s not hard to see where things went downhill, and my frustration leaps off the page at times. Yet for a long time I kept going, kept trying to bring things back under control. I wonder of one more week of trying would have been the charm? I’ll never know and I’m not going to waste energy caring. I couldn’t keep it up for another week, I needed to stop. But now I’m looking forward to revisiting some of those amazing high points as I shed the pounds again.
One thing in particular has led me to setting a target for this new campaign. I could never get below 17st 1.5lbs. I kept getting there, and then gaining a bit. No matter what I tried, I seemed eternally stuck. A quick calculation, and I have a new slogan: 60lbs in 180 days”. What fabulously neat numbers. Losing 60lbs will see me slip under the 17 stone mark and I AM going to do that this time. And 180 days is achievable. It’s only 1lb every 3 days, so a tiny bit more than 2lbs a week. Achievable and healthy weight loss. 180 days takes us to Monday 13th February 2012 (give or take a day!) That’s a weigh in I am looking forward too!
Can you keep as secret? Promise to keep it under your hat?
Well, here it is, but I don’t want the whole world knowing it – I’m back at Slimming World as of today, and as fat as ever. When you look up the phrase Yo-yo Dieter in the dictionary, you’ll find my picture there. It’s not a pretty sight.
So I have sat through several series and 3 continents worth of The Biggest Loser and allowed myself to slowly but surely absorb the message – exercise and healthy eating will change my life and win me £250,000. Only one of those is true. But genuinely, seeing what most of those contestants achieve in a matter of months is very very inspiring. I dearly wanted to apply for the UK version this year, mainly for the benefit of working with the trainers, but sadly 3 months away from home, family and work is just not a realistic option so I have to find my own way to reclaim control.
So in addition to Food Optimising which starts now, I am looking for a way to heave my bulk into an exercise regime. I am still a member of a gym, and must dust my card off soon. I still own a lovely bike. But since neither of those things has got me off the couch for several months, I found myself searching for something that might. Some of you might remember my most triumphant moment in 2008, when I did the Race For Life. That’s the feeling I want to get back! Now if you google the terms “couch” and “5k” a remarkable thing happens. That’s right, there’s an actual training programme called Couch to 5K! It’s goal is in it’s name, and it is made to sound oh so simple. 30 minutes, 3 times a week. Start off by walking some, jogging a little bit, walking some more, and week by week improve the ratio of jogging:walking, and at the end of week 9 you too can be running 5K. I’ve done day 1, I actually made it and didn’t die. I posted my small triumph on Facebook, as you do, and my brother commented “The first step is the hardest!”. Well I’m telling you, I’ve read the rest of the plan and I think he’s mistaken 
