Here's what we've been up to recently: a couple of weeks ago, my boy and I had a week's all inclusive holiday in Tenerife. It was so lovely, we just completely chilled out for the week. Before we went, I had grand plans of not going mad with alcohol, sticking to grilled meats and fish with salad, not having dessert all the time, daily walks... Yeah, well that didn't quite happen! To be fair on myself, I didn't have a lot of alcohol during the day bar a couple of days where I treated myself to a couple of Pina Coladas and beers by the pool. But I hardly moved my legs for the week, apart from going from the pool to the restaurant. I did stick to grilled meats and fish with the fresh salad for most meals, but also developed a dependency on dessert with every meal! Even breakfast would end with a coffee and a pastry, oops! But I was on holiday, it was lovely. I went to my Slimming World group when I got back and over the 2 weeks from when I was last weighed I had gained 5lbs. Not that bad really, but imagine if I had really gone to town with fried foods, burgers, chips, beer, cocktails, etc etc. It's so easy to undo all the good work.
The week after we arrived home I had a really horrible cold that I'm still trying to shake off. As much as I tried to eat healthily, I just wanted toast and butter, and tea and biscuits. So another week of not being great with what I was eating and it was beginning to be the norm again. Yesterday I started to feel a bit better. It was a lovely sunny day so I got my backside in gear, planned our meals for the week, made a shopping list, and went to buy what I needed.
This has to be the best bit of advice I could give to anyone trying to lose weight, whether it's on Slimming World or any other plan. Prepare!!! A good plan gives you the chance to make sure you have a variety of food throughout the week, it can make sure you use up your leftovers so you don't waste food. Budget is a big factor when i am shopping, money is tight so i need to make things go as far as possible. Yesterday I made a batch of bolognese sauce (will make a good 6 portions), a batch of chilli bulked out with black eyed beans, peppers and mushrooms (should do a good 6 portions too), a pot of veg and lentil soup, and a Chilli Papas chicken balti bulked out with a tin of chickpea dahl and peppers (about 4-5 portions). My freezer is packed :)
Here's my bag of food for bringing to work today: (my awesome bag was given to me by my lovey cousin, Nicola, it's by MooMoo Bags!)
Breakfast is a portion of baked oats that I made last night, I'll heat it up in the microwave at work and I have a tub of fat free cherry yogurt and some blueberries to have with it. (recipe here) I only used about 50g of blueberries, rather than raspberries in the baked oats. I also substituted the 3 tbsp of sweetener as that seems an awful lot and I tend to react badly to a lot if artificial sweetener. Instead I used a teeny squirt of a vanilla sweetener that I put in my coffee, worked just fine.
For a snack I segmented a grapefruit, just because I really like grapefruit in the morning.
Lunch was a portion of leftover pasta bolognese from last night's dinner, plus a tub of salad leaves and cherry tomatoes. I almost just heated them up and ate from the tubs but instead I put them on a plate and had my 1/3 plate of 'speed' foods as recommended by Slimming World. Doing this, I didn't eat the whole portion of pasta as I couldn't fit it all on the plate, but I was satisfied with what I had - I ended up nibbling on the rest later in the day but that was better than nicking a Krispy Kreme donut from the office next door! I also had a couple of teaspoons of grated parmesan to put on my pasta, dead tasty and filling lunch!
For a snack in the afternoon, I had a banana and also took an Alpen Light cereal bar for having with my afternoon coffee. Jaffa cake flavour, nice! Although not as nice as the Slimming World chocolate orange Hi-fi bars :)
Dinner tonight will be home made chilli with some boiled rice and salad. Here's how my day looks in a Slimming World sense:
Breakfast:
baked oats recipe - Healthy B choice (oats)
baked blueberries - 1 Syn
yogurt/blueberries - free
Grapefruit - free
Lunch:
pasta bolognese - free
salad/balsamic vinegar - free
1 level tbsp parmesan - 1 syn
Snacks:
Banana - free
Alpen light bar - 3 syns
Dinner:
Chilli - free
rice - free
salad/balsamic - free
2 tbsp salsa - 0.5 syns
2 tbsp half fat creme fraiche - 2 syns
30g mature cheddar - Healthy A choice
Supper is going to be a ham omelette. I find if I have eggs at suppertime it fills me up so I don't pick at rubbish the rest of the night. That's the theory anyway, evenings are my downfall. I have some studying to do tonight though so hopefully that will keep me busy enough that I don't start picking. If I do, I've got grapes and apples in the house, I'll try VERY hard to stick to them!
But I think I'll be ok, I feel very re-motivated this week. I even started my Christmas shopping and I really couldn't be bothered even thinking about it last week.
Hope you all have a great week!
(Oh, here, have a picture of a dolphin that swam by our boat in Tenerife on a day trip. Just because it's beautiful!)
Jill xx
