The processed food dilemma

I’ve long been a supporter of fresh food, cooking from scratch and knowing what goes into the meals I eat and serve others.  I’ve a basic rule, I shop from the ‘outside’ of the supermarket….let me explain – if you imagine your local supermarket (pretty much any of them) you enter to lovely fresh flowers, fruit and veg.  There’s the bakery, deli, butchers all around the edge of the store.  Simply, everything that needs to be delivered often is at the edges and everything that can live longer than Cher is in the middle, that’s a gross generalization but you get the point.   So I mainly shop around the edges.

At class people seem surprised that I make my own meals but it’s simple:

•  I want to know what I’m eating
•  I want to control the salt, fat and other undesirable aspects of my food
•  I know how much of everything has gone into a meal
•  I equate food with love, and I cook to the palates of my guests which means I cook from scratch

One of the most common arguments I get is that people don’t have time.  I don’t always have time either but there’s nothing lengthy about reheating a previously made meal or putting together a stir fry which is just a protein of your choice and whatever veggies you have in the fridge chopped up, 10 minutes later you’re done, which I think is faster and better than a frozen box of salty rubbish.  

As for ideas, I have stir fry a couple of times a week fall back on prawns, chicken and sometimes beef.  I bake salmon with soy, lime and chilli flakes and serve it flaked on stir fry veg.  I add baby leeks, onion, mushrooms, courgettes, anything that’s in the fridge and needs eating, it all get chopped up and thrown in.

When I have time, mainly on a weekend, I batch cook and rely on my slow cooker.  I make chilli, bolognaise, cottage pie filling, meatballs, curry, casseroles – you name it, I make it in my slow cooker using fresh ingredients then simply divide up and freeze.  

I tend to cook one thing a week and have built up a stock of foods that I defrost and have during the week.  Again, I know what’s in my meal, the portions are appropriate and they’re all pretty much syn free for my Slimming World friends.  My non Slimming World friends don’t know, but that’s ok, they’re happy with what I make and so far haven’t spotted the difference!  I love to make sure my lean mince is in the slow cooker a good 6 hours to infuse flavor and make sure it’s tender.  A problem I found in the beginning was removing fat removes a chunk of the flavor.  Slow cooking infuses flavor into my meals without the need for fat, perfect!

All I can suggest is you try it, try not eating from the middle of the shop for a week…cut out the processed food and see how you feel, it’s not always easy because we’re conditioned to rely on pre-packaged stuff but give it a whirl and you’ll be glad you did – good luck!

Kathy xx

A Faux Taste of the Caribbean

I’ve been making Faux-Ribos (fake Haribis) for a while now and try new flavor combinations when I can but a recent trip to Asda inspired me when I found a Muller Light I’ve never seen before – coconut with a hint of lime.  I used lime sugar free jelly and made tropical faux-ribos which were lime and coconut flavor.

Ok, I’m not a huge coconut fan but have to say they’re really good!  I also tried them on another non-coconut lover who liked them too.  Yes, I admit this does beg the question ‘why make them if no one likes coconut’ but they’re worth a try and yup – thumbs up.  I’ve been asked to take them to group tonight where a selection of probably more non-coconut fans will give them a yes!

For us Slimming World people, an entire batch is 3 syns, the photo below is about 1 syn worth.

Not sure what to try next, maybe a holiday to Jamaica to see if I really don’t like coconut!

Kathy xx

Lime & coconut Faux-Ribos (fake Haribos)

When your get up and go has got up and gone

As I get close to six months on my diet journey a lot of people are asking me how I’ve done it and I get a lot of requests to share my willpower!  

What I wanted to touch on is that I, and a fellow dieter who consistently loses weight, have been accused of ‘finding it easy’ or ‘not having to try’ which frustrates us both no end.  It is not easy, not at all and I do have to try.  Every day I try.

I’ve had many, many times where I’ve wanted a glass of wine, Haribos or toast with butter…sometimes all of them together - but I don’t.  There’s no secret, no magic wand – I just don’t.  Of course I want to cheat, but every time I get close I stop and take a breath.  I think about all the reasons I started this journey and what it means to me.  

We talked about this in class the other day, what the everyday changes are and for me there’s loads.  I love that I can now buy clothes anywhere, the seat in my car seems bigger, I don’t have to look around restaurants and think ‘where can I sit’…it’s so many little things and some big ones.  The look I get when friends see me for the first time in months and don’t know what to say.  Being told for the first time in my life at 42 that I’m petite, dainty or small.  All these little things add up and contribute towards motivating me, but when they’re not enough and I still want to fall off the wagon I rely on plain old habit.  

Over the past few months I’ve created a little routine for myself and whilst it’s not exciting it’s what I need to stay focused: 

I always have breakfast, and it’s always a decent size to set me up for the day.

I have a salad with something meat –ish and a yogurt for lunch. 

I have a very low fat, usually carb free dinner.  Often I have fish and stir fried veg or chilli

I love coffee and I have flavoured coffee all day but I have skimmed milk.

When I go out I usually go for chicken or fish, no dressing and salad or a plain jacket potato.  I’ve been known to steal a couple of chips though….

As far as booze goes, I’ve swapped my daily wine for maybe a couple of glasses a week.  Oddly enough I found I missed the glass more than anything, drinking from it as I watched TV was a habit and for a while I had my wine glass with sparkling water in.  On an evening I’d add slices of lemon or lime just so it felt ‘different’ to a daytime drink.  The delivery man from Tesco used to curse me as he carried them all into the house!!

If I need to snack I always have fruit on hand, it’s chopped and ready to eat plus I have a selection of slimming world bars in the fridge.  I don’t want to be poking through the cupboards as I’ll only find things I should avoid - so when the munchies hit I go straight to the fridge and know it won’t knock me off track.

So that’s my advice for what it’s worth, create a routine and it’ll carry you through; motivation is what got you started, habit is what will keep you going.

I hope it works for you, it does for me.

Kathy xx

Diet breakfasts

I’m still working on a selection of good diet breakfasts as I think it’s really important to start the day off with something tasty and filling to eat.  

If I’m at home I have more time which equals more choices.  Often I’ll cook something like scrambled egg with bacon medallions, Heck chicken sausages (1/2 a syn each), Linda McCartney rosemary and caramelized onion sausages (free), turkey bacon sandwiches, omelets….there are loads of options but when I’m in the office I eat at my desk so I generally have cereal.  

To me, life’s too short to weigh and measure cornflakes so I used to have a couple of Weetabix with milk but found that as I’m working and eating it can take a while to get through breakfast and my Weetabix got soggy and set into this concrete like mass in the bowl.  Not a great start to my day.

I’ve posted a few times about the Weetabix muffins, but I think they’re great.  I bake them fresh every couple of days and am trying adding fruit and other flavours to see what works best.  One of the guys at work brought me apples from his garden and it’d be rude not to use them so I just made apple and blueberry muffins.  I’ve only ever used a single fruit and was interested to see how they’d work and they were great!  As I’ve said before, cooked blueberries go a bit squidgy but it’s a really nice change and a hit with slimming world and non-slimming world tasters alike…which means I feel a little bit less like I’m on a diet – perfect!!!

Blueberry & apple Weetabix muffins (at my desk!)

For us SW people you are supposed to syn cooked fruit (I refuse to, it’s silly!) but if you are, unlike me, very good there are no syns in cooked blueberries and 100g of cooked apples = 1.5 syns.  I used 1 apple in 4 portions of muffins so it’s negligible anyway!!

Kathy xx

25 weeks later - 70 pounds down

Yesterday I got my 5 stone certificate.  It’s taken just over five months and I’ve been following the Slimming World plan.  I’ve also been strict with what I eat, probably more so than one needs to be but once I’d made the decision to commit to losing the weight it was a bit of a case of all or nothing!

I’ve used a general rule of thumb not to eat anything with a fat content higher than 5% which isn’t exactly the Slimming World way but it isn’t not – if you get what I mean.  I religiously keep a food diary, record everything and try not to go over my syns (some nights out mean I have to invoke my flexible syn option!) plus every week when I’ve been weighed I record it on the diary so I know how I did in a week, it means I can pick out weeks that I lost the most and do them again if I need to jump start the weight loss.  I’ve cut down on carbs and come up with some really tasty options including courgettispaghetti when I need a pasta fix!

70 pounds lost in 25 weeks

On this weight loss journey I’ve been adjusting my target by ½ a stone a time and my plan is to keep doing that until I’m happy - but I think I’m almost there, no I’m not the thinnest woman in the world but for me I think it’s a good place to be, and that’s the key…find where you want to be, where you’re happy and stay there…only you know the right weight and shape for you. Good luck!

Kathy xx

When your weight loss is a person

Right from the first stone, I’ve been interested in what my weight loss equates to in real terms.  I charted the first four stone in books, including some pretty dodgy choices by the time I’d finished but the other day I went to see my brother and as we were chatting I asked him how much my eight year old nephew weighed.  For an up to date figure my nephew obligingly weighed himself and he weighs 4 stone 12 which was at that time about 1 pound more than I’d lost.

Clearly the next thing was to pick him up and carry him about for a while to see how it would feel to instantly put my weight back on and I have to say picking him up was hard enough but I couldn’t carry him about for long without it being too much.  My knees and back started to ache and I just felt heavy.  I know that sounds silly but five stone down I’m clearly not as heavy but I don’t ‘feel’ it.  I feel smaller, lighter, I move easier and am infinitely more flexible.

My weight loss is more than an eight year old Superman

Sometimes on the weight loss journey we lose sight of how well we’ve done, no matter what the achievement every pound lost adds up.  For me it’s added up to more than my wonderful, very patient nephew weighs and I know I won’t ever put it back on.

The journey to lose weight isn’t easy, but it’s worth it.  Be kind to yourself and proud of what you achieve.

Kathy xx

Slimming World Fruity Weetabix Muffins

Weetabix muffins are my go to breakfast of choice but I decided to try something new and made blueberry and raspberry ones as a change.

Used the same recipe, split the mixture in two and added a couple of handfuls of raspberries to one and blueberries to another to see how they were.  On Slimming World I believe that when I cook fruit it changes the sugar composition and I’m supposed to count them as syns but I don’t, I can’t get my head round the concept.  I understand that if I juice fruit I can (and would) eat a lot more and also the fibres we break down in chewing are already broken down but no, I don’t think adding a handful of blueberries to my breakfast is a bad thing so I'm sticking to these being my Healthy B....

Now that’s cleared up (!) I’ll admit that they were good but the fruit did make them a little squidgy.  Raspberry more so than the blueberry versions but they were good for a change and I’m told that dipped in yogurt they’re even better!

Thinking I might try a different flavor in the week.  Maybe apple and cinnamon?  Will let you know…..

Blueberry & Raspberry Weetabix Muffins

Kathy xx

Face to Face Friday

I’ve never heard of this before, my Twitter activities have always been work orientated, so I was interested to see this trending today and look at some of the amazing transformations people have achieved.  There are some absolutely incredible stories out there of overcoming illness, relationship troubles, self-esteem issues and a whole host of other problems by simply losing weight.

Now I say simply but we know it isn’t simple.  Nor is it easy.  Chatting to a friend I started a debate that losing weight was more difficult than giving up smoking.  Now really I have no idea as I’ve never smoked in my life (I am opinionated though!) but my fundamental argument is that I need to eat to survive.  No one needs to smoke to survive, it may be addictive but it does not sustain life.  OK, the argument was abandoned but I still think I’m right.

Food is fuel, but it’s so much more.  It’s something we all have in common and it brings us together.  Whether it’s a family meal, a romantic dinner, a celebration – no matter what, we can share the event with those we care about and food.  

I believe that losing weight is the hardest thing ever, apart from maybe keeping it off.  It takes willpower, discipline, focus and an unwavering belief that your life will be better if you are not overweight.  The thing is – it is.  

Whether you can now move better, move more, achieve a previously unachievable goal or even just cross your legs or tie your shoelaces there are a million little things you can do when you’re not very overweight that make your life easier and more fun.  

So share your ‘Face to Face Friday’ photos, your personal journey and if you can inspire just one person to do the same, you know you’ve given them the tools to improve their life, achieve their very own little things and be confident that it’s the little things in life that matter.

Kathy xx

 

This is my face to face Friday...

Diet breakfast on the go

I think it’s really important to eat breakfast every day; sets me up for the day ahead and gets my metabolism going, but when that’s all said and done sometimes actually finding something convenient to have can be a problem.

I eat my breakfast at my desk so it needs to be something that I don’t have to weigh, faff with or heat up, it can’t smell and it has to be robust enough to survive constant interruptions without turning into a sloppy mess plus it sometimes needs to be portable if I have to go into a meeting and still not make me look like an idiot when I’m eating it.  Quite the list.

Usually I have Weetabix muffins, they’re absolutely delicious and do actually meet that onerous list of requirement but girl cannot live on Weetabix muffins alone so last night I made Lemon Oaty muffins to try.  I had high hopes for them as I like lemon, oats and flapjacks are one of my all-time favourite things which clearly made these a no-brainer, but sadly I have to report they are nasty unless you like cold, slightly fruit flavoured quiche.  I shared them (how very kind of me) and the feedback was that the consistency is good but they’re bland….weetabix muffins are far better.

I will share my lemony oaty muffin recipe here for anyone that wants to give it a go, but in the overall breakfast rating they score a 1 and I won’t be making them again!  The search continues…..

Kathy xx

Courgetti Spaghetti

Sometimes I need to cut the carbs, I find that for me they don’t help my weight loss at all and I’m usually super careful about what I have.  I try to stick to rice and as a treat have boiled new potatoes but wherever I can I avoid bread and heavy pasta dishes although the temptation for a good paella can be too much!

While no carbs is usually fine, sometimes my dinners looked a bit feeble…I love chilli, keema and peas, stir fries and it’s not the same without a base.  One my colleagues said she’s bought courgette spaghetti at Tesco.  It sounded like a good idea but to me maybe a little bland so I tweaked that idea slightly to give more body and taste.  

Now I make courgetti spaghetti with courgettes, baby leeks, garlic and a chicken stock.  It’s not much of a ‘recipe’ really but it’s here for anyone interested.

Kathy xx 

Prawn and veggie stir fry with courgetti spaghetti

Transformation Tuesday

Looking back on #TransformationTuesday to my first 47 pounds gone, it was the first before and after comparison I'd done and everyone was shocked to see the difference (including me). 

I didn't have any full length shots then - there are so few because I was so self-conscious but there's the odd one hanging about I've managed to track down!  

Now I've lost 65 pounds (just over 4 1/2 stone) and still losing.... it's strange to see the difference as starkly as this because to me I haven't really changed. I think it's quite a common reaction although seeing people for the first time in months and watching their reaction tells me all I need to know!

Kathy xx

This was my first before & after - at 47 pounds lost

Orange and Ginger Weetabix Muffins

I swear by starting the day with a portion of Weetabix muffins and huge bowl of mixed fruit, they’re easy to make and transport so no matter what the day holds in store I can start the day off with something healthy and tasty.  I’m not bored of them (yet) however decided to try something a bit different and made orange and ginger flavor.

Basically use the same basic recipe (here) but omit the vanilla essence and instead add a capful of orange essence.  I cut back on the ground mixed spice, using only a regular (not heaped) teaspoon and added a bit more ginger powder.  They are absolutely delicious and a nice flavor difference.  Next I’m going to try lemon and ginger by swapping to lemon essence and using Greek fat free Muller Light – I’ll let you know how they go!       

                 

Kathy xx

Tasty Sunday Roast on a Diet

Yesterday I had my awesome friend over for Sunday lunch, she’s been on Slimming World for about three years and has lost three stone but she’s finding it hard to stay on the diet track at the moment so I offered to make her a Sunday roast to cheer her up.

As you can tell, I love to cook and truly believe that food is love.  Everything I cook for my family and friends I make the way they want it which results in a lot of smiles although they don’t always know about my sneaky recipe tweaking in the background. 

This dinner is syn free apart from the gravy which I counted was about 4 I think but an excellent use of some of the day’s allowance!

I’ve recreated the recipe here although there’s probably more of a dash of this and a big dollop of that in the mix than I want to admit.  Try it though, adjust to suit your taste and I’m positive you’ll enjoy it as much as we did.

Kathy xx

Absolutely delicious and still diet friendly!

It’s a bacon sandwich…but not as we know it!

So the weekend’s here and in my kitchen that means another experiment into the perfect diet bacon butty. It might be my Yorkshire roots, but even 100% focused on losing weight I stubbornly refuse to give them up.  

Any of you on your own diet journey know you have to give up a lot of the food and drinks you love to lose weight, but there’s always that one thing that would take it a step too far - for me it’s the bacon butty.  This means I’ve been looking into different ways to make sure that my ‘treat’ doesn’t undo all the rest of my good work.

Today’s the turn of turkey bacon.  OK, I admit it every time I've seen it at the shop I’ve turned my nose up and filed it firmly under the header ‘Never tried it, don’t like it’ but this week I was given some to try and well, it’d just be plain old rude not to.  So I did and I have to say it’s actually really good!  

Turkey bacon & tomato in a Warburtons thin (with fruit)

 

As you can see, today’s bacon butty is in a Warburtons brown sandwich thin (also new to me).  Now while this isn’t supposed to be a Slimming World healthy B I’m ignoring that and counting is as one.  It’s 100 calories, or 5 syns if you want to count it but, well, the diet police aren’t going to arrest me over it and it’s a Healthy B in my world.  Filled with smoked turkey bacon, fresh tomato and served with a bowl of fruit it’s a great way to start my weekend and makes the Yorkshire girl in me happy.  Even if it’s not ‘proper’ bacon in a bap (or a bun, or a cob or whatever it is!) it absolutely does the trick.  

Unfile it from the things you don’t like that you never tried and give it a try.  I hope you’ll be pleasantly surprised, as I was.

Kathy xx