Just Checking In.

Nearly a year has passed, and what a year it's been.



Yup, I'm at the 20lb mark, and also my halfway point. So. Chuffed.

It's taken me a while to get here, and I often wish I'd been more strict with myself - maybe I could have looked like this a year ago. Then I think about me, personally. This really hasn't been a struggle. I've never starved myself, or hugely deprived myself of anything. Sure, 9 times out of 10 I've wanted a takeaway or that bar of chocolate and I've told myself I didn't need it, but generally I've kept most little luxuries in my life, just on a smaller scale. I've rarely let myself crave anything, I haven't killed myself at the gym every night and I haven't put a halt on my social life. Just plodded along - it's been a slow journey but it's worth it to still get to where you wanted to be and not have sacrificed my happiness in the process.

I started my weight-loss journey a year and a half ago, and because the weight loss has been so gradual I haven't really noticed it. Until I found an old picture from New Years Eve going into 2012.

Nothing like a good old-fashioned 'then and now' pic to make you feel gid, ae?

About 3 months ago I took a whole heap of clothes up to my dad's house because they were too small for me, but only by a size so I wanted to keep them. Today I sifted through the clothes I have in my flat and collected a pile which are too big. That pile is getting swapped with the pile currently at my dad's. That's a damn good feeling.

20lbs down and 20lbs to go. It's been a long journey but it's been worth it. Holiday in 7 weeks... I'll be looking like a supermodel in no time ;)

x

We're all going on our summer holidays.

Afternoon all. Firstly, Happy Independence Day just in case this finds its way to America (I've no idea how but it has before). We will forever remember this historic day as the day when Will Smith saved the world from an alien invasion.

Moving on.

Within the last 3 weeks alone I have managed to shift 7lbs (half a stone). This has been due to attending Slimming World classes again, and sticking rigidly to a somewhat demanding fitness routine. "I'm chuffed" doesn't quite cut it right now.

I go on holiday to Costa Brava in Spain on Sunday with my friend Erin so I'm hoping to maintain my weight through making good food choices and I'd imagine we'll do quite a bit of walking - I'm not expecting to lose any more weight that week because I'm expecting to spend half the holiday drinking. Standard.

This half stone though is a good boost in the right direction. I set myself a target 3 weeks ago to lose a stone before I go to Magaluf in August, and I'm pleased that I'm half way there already. I know my little break next week will set me back a bit but it's still very achievable if I keep doing what I've been doing.

What I'd like to share with you on this occasion is the fitness regime I've been doing my best to stick to. Eating healthily is only half of the battle. Yes, you can still lose weight just by doing that, but an exercise routine will really affect your progress, in a positive way, if you're doing it properly.

So on a typical week, this is what I aim to do, exercise-wise:

MONDAY : 1hr kettlecise class.
TUESDAY: 1hr swim (64 lengths = 1 mile)
WEDNESDAY: 1hr bums&tums class, 1hr boxercise class, 45min aqua zumba class, 30min swim.
THURSDAY: 30min spin class, 1hr kettlecise class, 1hr zumba class, 45min swim.
FRIDAY: 30min spin class.
SATURDAY AND/OR SUNDAY: 1hr30min gym session, 45 min swim.

And I try to fit in the odd swim or gym session in between if I feel I'm up to it and have the time.
I know what you're thinking... some of those nights look brutal. This is only what I aim for. Today, for example, I can barely walk from Monday and Tuesday nights' sessions. Because of that, I'm only going to the aqua zumba and swim afterwards. I don't want to do myself any damage but at the same time I'm not going to do nothing. This ties in with one of my previous posts - don't expect to get anywhere until you can get past your own excuses. If I don't feel up to a class that I know is going to be too much for me that night (kettlecise and bums&tums are pretty brutal) I'll go a swim instead, or try to hit the gym in the afternoon. At the very least, I make sure that I am doing AT LEAST 30-45mins of exercise every day. That, combined with my healthy eating plan, has been the reason for my success thus far.

I am currently at the lightest I have been in a year. I can't quite see it yet, but the scales don't lie, and I'm hoping that it will start to reflect in my clothing pretty damn soon.

If, like me, you're ridiculously unfit and/ or you find it hard to feel motivated to exercise, your options depend on how much money you are willing to spend. Your obvious cheaper option is to find a friend who you know can motivate you and do things with them. Go swimming, running, walking, do a fitness dvd together. Having someone there to motivate you can make the world of difference.
The next step up is the path I've chosen - classes at the local gym. Attending a class run by a gym instructor means that for that hour or half-hour you are exercising safely, at a good pace and for a continuous amount of time. It is easy to spend an hour in the gym and only work out at 50% for 20 minutes of that. Attending a class means that you have a model to follow and pressure to keep going. Try to find a gym that offers something along the lines of a class pass, where you can attend as many as you like, otherwise this option can be pricey.
Another option, if you feel it's worth the money and can afford it, are personal trainers. They can provide dramatic results by using individual plans best suited to your fitness level and needs and providing motivation to work harder than you would by yourself.

Ultimately the decision should be based on what you feel you can do and what you are aiming to achieve. Not being able to afford the gym is no excuse. If you're still using excuses like that then you are not truly dedicated to the idea of losing weight, and if you're not dedicated to the idea then you will not be successful regardless of whether or not you have a gym membership. Let's be serious, how many of us have joined the gym as a new years resolution, gone twice and then the card is forgotten about? I rest my case.

Try a powerwalk with a friend a few nights a week, a few classes or a trial gym membership and see what works for you. I've met some lovely ladies in the last 6 weeks by attending classes and would never have thought that I'd look forward to my evenings in a sweaty dance studio, but I do. I can swim further and faster than I've ever been able to, I can survive a spin class (unless it's Andy's class, brutal!!) and I can do sit-ups with a 4kg weight when I couldn't do one on its own before.
And if I can do it, anyone can do it.

x

Jennifer MacDonald BEd (Hons) ;)

So, I graduated this week. It was a fab day and I only looked big in half of the photos. Trust me, this is a huge achievement!

The week before I had my graduation ball, which I was also worried about. Thankfully, a lovely personal shopper named Rachel was on hand to find me the perfect dress and stop me having a stroke in the process.

For anyone reading who doesn't know me personally, that's me in the middle. :)

Essentially, food is not my issue at the moment. For that last two three months I've been watching what I've been eating slimming-world style. As far as possible. My downfall has been the booze. Since I became single I've had the urge to be out all the time. I don't know why, all I know is it has been really good for me. But not good for my plans to lose weight.

Gradually though, I've worked out ways to make my alcohol intake not count for so much on the scales. Switching wine by the bottle for vodka with diet mixers was the first step. Nights where I would usually go out for a drink which turned into a bottle of wine on a weeknight with no plan to do much afterwards have stopped - I've realised I get just as much satisfaction going out and just sticking to diet coke, because ultimately it was the company that mattered.

Working this stuff out has helped me hugely on my struggle to losing weight. Without exaggeration, I would say I'm out of the house around 6 days a week. If I was constantly fretting over counting calories, would that be happening? In all honesty, probably not.

We all have so many excuses. "I'll start on Monday", that's my favourite. If you're not willing to start that day, then you'll never be willing to give it your all. "I've got too much of a social life", there's nothing wrong with enjoying a weekend, or the occasional weeknight. If you stop yourself from enjoying yourself you'll never stick it out in the long run. It shouldn't feel like a chore. "I'm never home to eat/ I don't have time to cook", bollocks. I spend a couple of hours a week cooking and packing up into tubs, where they go swiftly into the freezer. That way on the nights where I'm running around needing just to grab something (which happens to be nearly every night...) it's a matter of picking something and sticking it into that wonderful contraption called the microwave. Hey presto, fine dining and good food choices in a single portion tub.

My point is that the longer you make excuses, the longer you're kidding yourself. The social life was my excuse, and now I'm working round it. I even went out one Friday night to a local nightclub, sober, and it was the best night I'd had in a while. This week alone I've had a dvd night with a friend which included an alcoholic beverage or two and a share of a munchie box (luckily it was not appetising so it was easy to turn down more than a piece of pakora and a few chips!), a graduation 'meal' (2 glasses of champers and a bacon buttie, cheers mum) which finished in the bowling with, yup you guessed it, another bottle of champagne, and an evening out at the pub and a nightclub last night. Tonight I'm looking forward to a night out with my soon-to-be teacher colleagues and most likely more than a few drinks on Saturday night. I've accepted that I have a busy social life and I enjoy eating out and having a drink (or ten) - it's how you work around that that counts. The good food choices every other meal, not drinking when I don't need to and attending classes at the gym whenever I can fit them in.

Now that I've got past my excuses, I'm well on the road to doing this properly. I'm finally below the 12stone mark for the first time in over a year, and I intend to keep going the way I've started.
Back at Slimming World properly, attending classes on a Monday night, and I'm hoping this will simply speed up the process. I've been managing on my own fairly well but there's nothing like a good kick up the backside to spur you on a bit.

Ciao x

Back to Business.

Hola.

 So it's been a few months since I posted. I haven't really been trying very hard to lose weight - I've had a lot of things going on. Essentially, this isn't a valid excuse, but it's the one I'm going to use anyway.

4th year has been horrifically tough. I've had some fecking awful assignments to do, a dissertation and a very challenging 6-week placement. The dissertation really did take control of my life for 4 months or so... it turned me into a person I never thought I could be. I was grumpy, tired, stressed out and not appreciative enough to the people that were around me at the time. And when you feel like that, the last thing you want to worry about is your weight. I stopped doing all the good exercising I had been doing in the months leading up to Christmas, and I started sitting in all day every day in front of the laptop. Convenience food started to become a habit as well because, in all honesty, I just couldn't be bothered cooking or looking after myself. When you're doing something like a dissertation the last thing you want is a good healthy meal - you crave all sorts of junk ten times worse than you normally do. That probably didn't help my mood any more either come to think of it.

Just as I thought it was all coming to an end, the teaching placement started. I'm talking half 6 rises, in school for 8 and there until 6 at night. It's really hard going. So of course, when I come home with yet more things to do (piles of marking, evaluations, general folder work, no fun) the last thing on my mind was standing in the kitchen cooking a diet-friendly meal. No. I practically had the local indian takeaway's number off by heart.

Top that off with my relationship of nearly 2 years ending and it has been a really, really tough 8 months. With it being so out of the blue I just had no idea what to do with myself. I'd go through complete mood swings where one minute I was fine and think of the freedom I was going to have, I'm going to do all these classes and projects that I would have otherwise said no to, I'm going to lose weight and look great and never look back; the next I'd be sitting staring into space for days on end not wanting to move from bed and just wanting to gorge on anything with a calorie count in the thousands.

A healthy mindset is half the battle when trying for a healthy body. It's taken time but I'm ready to go again. My head is down and I'm focused. So I'm starting this up again. I'll need to look back at the recipes that I posted previously, but I'll have plenty more coming your way. Including diet coke chicken, which a lot of people ask me about. I haven't done myself too much damage, but I haven't exactly kept up the good work I had done previously.

When I started at Slimming World back in September 2011, I was 12st 7.5lbs. I then got down to 12st 1lb. Now, I'm sitting at roughly 12st 4lbs. I have graduation in 7 weeks and a holiday in 14 weeks. And I'll be damned if I'm looking like this for either.

 Check back soon!
Jen x

Girl look at that body....

Yeah, I have that song stuck in my head. But just think, we'll be able to sing that happily after we lose all this weight ;)

So, I've been too busy with uni stuff the last few weeks to even think about procrastinating on here. I guess I have some catching up to do.

As much as I'm on here every week blabbering on about how easy it is to change your ways with food habits etc, I have been finding it particularly difficult the last fortnight... and I've only been doing this for 4 or 5 weeks.
Everybody goes through ruts, some more than others, and some will have greater effects. It all depends on how you handle it. There have been so many occasions in the last 2 weeks where I have been ready to just give up on the whole shebang and start getting used to overweight me.

One night I actually got quite drunk and ended up stopping in ASDA for my own body weight in munchies. And you know what? I didn't feel any better after it. I didn't get the satisfaction of eating chocolate and crisps and other things that I thought I would. I actually, to be honest, felt quite sick. And not entirely because I had just munched my way through about 800 calories (I'm guessing, while trying not to think about it..). I thought about all the hard work I had done until then, and the food just didn't make me feel any better because I genuinly felt like I had scuppered anything I had achieved in the last couple of weeks.

It's worth having a think before you cave. It's easier said than done, but you'll know that feeling after the first time you do it. Chances are you'll only feel worse, even though you think you'll feel better getting what you want.
It's definitely good to treat yourself every few days, but in small quantities - a bar of chocolate here, packet of crisps there. This way you won't feel like you're on a diet, and wont get the urge to eat your body weight in sugar in one sitting. This is definitely a major key to success in losing weight.

But if you do find yourself pigging out one night, it is SO important that you don't think "aw well, that's me blown it, might as well carry on". Have your fun, and get back on track. We can't be sticking to it all the time, as there will always be opportunities to drink more than we plan to, eat more than we should do. The idea is to have your fun, don't feel guilty about it, and then get back on track. If you think you've blown it and continue to overeat, THAT'S where the damage is done. It's ok to have a night off. It's definitely ok to have fun. But it's not ok to overdo it for days, weeks or even months afterwards.

Ideally, if you know you have a meal or night out planned that week, the best thing you can do is work around it. Be the best you can be every day except that one. Eat good food - plenty of fruit, veg, rice, pasta, dried noodles, lean meat, eggs and very low fat dairy products. Snack on these foods too. Do around 20 minutes of exercise a day, even if it just a walk round to the shop. Just cut down your intake of sugary fatty goods, and you'll find that that one night that could have scuppered your whole losing weight streak has had little or no effect to your system.

So far I'm still on only 6lbs lost. I'm a little disappointed, but like I said, I haven't done myself justice the last few weeks. This week I have been back on track, eating well, trying out new recipes, and not snacking so much. I haven't done as much exercising as I would have liked, and maybe that will reflect in the scales on Monday. But I personally feel that, even if it turns out I have yet again gained or stayed the same this week, I have resisted so many temptations that I would otherwise have gone for. If, for example, it turns out I am still the same weight having lost nothing even after trying hard, it's easy to pick me up by thinking what I could have gained.

The jist of tonight's blog is that everybody has off days. Everybody has days where they think 'what's the point?'. Everybody will have days where they just wan't to give up. But to keep trying will get you the results you want to see. If you didn't want to see them you would never have tried in the first place. Don't be hard on yourself - it's difficult to change habits that might have been natural to you for years.

To sum up:

Treat yourself from time to time. This will make you almost forget that you're on a 'diet'.

Never feel like you've blown it. Just get back on track when you can.

If you know you have something planned, be extra-good that week and even with a calorie-filled day and/or night out you will either still see a loss, even if it's just a small one, or at least the damage will be considerably less than what it would have been.

Thanks for reading folks. This has been quite a long blog so I'll put up recipes and things either tomorrow or Tuesday. I have lots of nice things to show you.

Leave me a comment and let me know how you're doing.
If you like this, share me on facebook, or retweet me on twitter please :)

Ciao x

Created by MyFitnessPal - Nutrition Facts For Foods

Writing my Tuesday blog at 1am Wednesday morning.... rebel ;)

So I've made a decision that Tuesdays are going to be weigh-in and tips days, and Fridays are going to be recipes. So you'll know when to check back, if you're reading regularly :)

So last night at Slimming World I got weighed and turns out I gained half a pound. Half a pound isn't too bad, but I was really hoping to lose y'know.
The girls said it was probably my birthday week catching up on me but I know myself that I wasn't particularly good this week so if anything it's just boosted me to try harder this week.

SO that means that I have lost 6lbs over 3 weeks, which is obviously an average of 2lbs a week, which is still more than I had hoped for. If I lose 1lb this week, I will get my half stone award :) Yay for me.


So... tips for the week. Here's a reminder of last week's:

Fill up on rice, pasta and noodles (dried varieties) to your hearts content. Don't measure them at all.

Try making your own pasta sauces instead of buying jarred varieties. It's cheaper and healthier, since most jars contain lots of salt :, sugar and oil. It's so easy to make your own, just by using ingredients such as passatta, tins of chopped tomatoes, various veggies, garlic, chillies... that's basically all jars of sauces are, without all the unneeded unhealthy extras!

Fill a third of your plate with fruit or veggies. You won't believe how full they make you, and you'll get all the health benefits.

Cut out as much rubbish as you can, but dont forget to give yourself a little treat every couple of days - this will stop you craving, and you won't feel like you're on a diet.

Switch to diet drinks - you won't notice the difference, but your scales will!


And here are this week's:

Try and stick to a small amount of wheat-based product (e.g. 2 slices of bread OR cereal OR ryvita etc) and dairy (milk OR cheese) if you can. I have to be strict with how much of this I eat, and if you want to see effects try and eat a little amount of each each day, and not half a loaf of bread for lunch or half a block of cheese in your pasta. Try and make your bread wholemeal. Not white, not granary, not brown. As for dairy, if it's VERY low fat or fat-free, go for it. Tesco do a nice very low fat fromage frais, and fat free yoghurt is a great snack if you're feeling peckish. As for cheese, there are some nice reduced-fat cheddars out there that mean you can have slightly more per day, and the taste isn't all that different. Again, it depends how strict you want to be. I have to measure my milk/ cheese out to the ml/g but as long as you're not having too much you'll be fine.

Switch sugar for sweetner. There's only 10% of the calories in sweetner compared to sugar - so for every teaspoon of sugar you use (20calories) you can have a teaspoon of sweetner for only 2calories. Have sweetners in tablet form to add to your tea/ cofee, and granulated form to add to your food.

Have as much lean meat as you want. Have chicken without the skin, and trim any visible fat off any meat. In some supermarkets you will be able to get lean bacon which is a godsend because it is purely the meat and saves the bother of fiddling about trimming the fat off. If you're using mince, try your best to get extra-lean. I use lean because it's a bit cheaper, but there is still around a 12% fat content which is quite high if you're trying to keep to a low-fat diet like myself.

If you're feeling hungry, try having a glass of water or two. Or a low-calorie squash. A lot of the time we eat because of boredom, not because of hunger. And if we start getting pangs for food, it's amazing how filled-up you can feel after drinking a couple of pints of juice.

Switch oils for FryLight (I should definitely get paid for all this advertising I'm doing! :P). Each spray replaces 30 calories from oil - if you use the recommended 4 sprays (although i tend to use a couple more than that, maybe 6 or 7) then you are cutting out around 120 calories from your meal - that's around 40-odd minutes exercising on an exercise bike. I know what I'd rather do..

Aye, so, easy right?
On Friday I'll have recipes for a fat-free cooked breakfast, meatballs with pasta and tomato sauce, an awesome roast chicken dinner and pork chops with homemade apple sauce.

See ye then. :)
Ciao x

Alright folks!

I've been mega busy in the kitchen this week (insert considerably unoriginal sexist joke here) and I've got some bits and pieces to show you.

Anyone tried any of the first 5 tips yet? I'll post another 5 next week - probably Tuesday. So keep popping back :)

This post is all about looking at healthier alternatives to the meals we all cook on a regular basis. And by alternative, I don't mean the whole meal itself - not like switching a curry for a salad. Even I'm not into that.

What I mean is cooking meals from scratch so that you know exactly what's in them.

If you can cook, great. You'll find this easy.
If not... give it a bash and hope that it's edible. ;)

Nah, in all seriousness, all the meals and recipes I'm about to show you I have made this week. The photos were all taken by me, meals made by me, and polished off by me. Mmm.
I'm an ok cook but I'm not brilliant. I have days where I make masterpieces and other days where I could burn cornflakes.

So have a bash at these and see which ones you fancy - leave us a comment if you do, ae?

There's so many positives to being able to cook this way:

It's cheaper - I used to pay £££ for hundreds of jars of pasta sauces. Now I look back and think, what a tool. Same with junk food. If you don't buy it, you can't eat it. I can't believe the money I've saved this month just from not buying crisps, chocolate, cakes, ready meals etc. More pennies for the pub. :)

It's healthier - you'll be cutting out things like sugar, salt and oil, which tend to base a lot of premade foods and ready meals.

You can have it exactly the way you like it. More spice? Less spice? I won't buy that because it has mushrooms in it and I don't like them.... so make it without.

Simples. *meerkat noise*

Ok, recipe numbero uno.... homemade chicken curry :)

Not only does it taste amaaaaaazing (trust me, I made loads and it was all gone by the next day) it's almost completely fat free. Which means you can literally eat as much of it as you like. Honestly. Go daft.

The recipe is as follows:

Mix together 4tbsp FAT-FREE natural yoghurt, 4 heaped tbsp tikka spice mix (or whatever spice you like, you can get normal curry powder, or tandoori is good as well), 2tbsp lemon juice and a pinch of paprika.

Cut around 400g of chicken breast (skinless and boneless) into cubes and coat well with the yoghurt-spice mix. Leave it for at least a couple of hours, overnight preferably, in the fridge, covered.

Preheat the grill to a moderate heat and grill the chicken until cooked through. Stir occasionally.

Once the chicken is cooked, transfer it to a pan and stir in 400g of FAT-FREE fromage frais. Heat on a VERY LOW heat (to avoid it curdling).

Once heated through, serve with boiled rice. Nom nom.

Out of the fat-free recipes that I have tried through http://www.slimmingworld.com/ , this has got to be my favourite so far. I can see myself making it once a week because, as I'm about to show you, it's quite adaptable...

Ohhh yeah. I had some leftovers the next day so I gently heated it up on the hob and mixed in some pasta for a filling lunch. And again, because the curry is fat-free and you can have as much pasta as you like, go nuts. It was maybe even better with pasta.. :)

I'll give one more recipe this week, and it's a belter... honest. Nom nom indeed.

Ahem. What a chef. :)
It looks like there's loads to this dish but there's really not. Depending what kind of mince you use, again it's almost completely fat free. So if you wanted an even bigger portion than this, go ahead. Although I can eat for scotland and didn't manage this.

To make the burgers:

Mix extra-lean beef mince (I used lean because it's cheaper, it's obviously a bit more fatty but it's good to save pennies sometimes) with plenty seasoning and whatever other ingredients you fancy. I crushed up garlic and sliced some chillies and added that along to the mixture - yum. You could also try cracked black pepper, basil and lemon juice - I've never tried this personally but have been told it's nice. You can also add up to one onion (depending how many burgers you're planning to make will determine how much to use). If you're like me and don't like onions, i added about 1/2 a tsp of onion granules just for the flavour.

Mould them into patties and grill, turning over halfway through. Make sure they're cooked right through, but don't overcooked them or they'll be really dry.

To make the wedges:

Cut baking potatoes into wedges and spread on a baking tray. The less they overlap the better, as they'll stick together and cook unevenly.

Spray with low-fat cooking spray (I use Fry Light, mega low calories compared to oil) and sprinkle some sort of seasoning on them. I recommend the Season All range, and used the Cajun variety for these particular wedges. To be perfectly honest, I made more of these wedges tonight as a late-night snack. Can't get enough of them.

Bake for around 40 minutes, turning over halfway through. Feel free to give the other sides of the wedges a 'spray and sprinkle' when you've turned them over, just so they're crisp and flavoured on both sides.

The salad was just fresh shredded lettuce and some cucumber (remember from tips last time, try to make 1/3 of your plate fruit or veg), and the red pepper was simply quartered, washed and grilled. I sprinkled a tiny bit of sweetner on each bit before grilling, just to sweeten them up a bit. Gorgeous.

The dip was just a little light mayonnaise (although I've now discovered extra-light so I'm going to switch to that) with some crushed garlic mixed through. To be honest, I didn't even touch the dip because the wedges were so tasty. Success. :)

My next blog will most likely be Tuesday. Here's what to expect:

Find out how I did at my 3rd weigh in at Slimming World - 6 and a half pounds lost so far!

The next 5 tips for weight-loss success - these ones are so easy to do that they'll require no effort. You'll wish you'd always done things that way.

AT LEAST one new recipe.

In the meantime, don't know who's reading, but if you are, cheers :)
Hope you're getting something from it.
Comment, subscribe, even just share on facebook.

Ciao x

Created by MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter