I am using My Fitness Pal (MFP) to track my calories and exercise.  According to MFP, if I eat 1,630 calories a day, I will lose 1 pound a week which is a healthy rate to lose at and so what I am aiming for as a minimum. I have read many sources saying it is better to vary the amount you eat each day to help prevent your metabolic rate dropping.  That is, over eat some days and under eat others.  So if you were to plot this on a graph, with a straight line for your optimum daily calorie intake, your actual consumption should be above and below the line.  As long as your hills are equal and opposite to your valleys, you will be losing weight and maintaining your metabolic rate.  So mine has been this week:

Monday – 1081
Tuesday – 1111
Wednesday – 2601
Thursday – 1415
Friday – 2239
Saturday – 1408

Averaged over 6 days that is 1,642.5 so nearly bang on my daily target of 1,630.  So I should definitely have lost weight this week.

Nothing for breakfast today because I was not hungry when I woke up and when I began to feel hungry it was our window of opportunity for exercise.  We took the dogs to Hemstead Forest and walked for an hour.  When we returned it was lunch time.  I had previously taken some bolognese sauce out of the freezer so we had that with brown penne pasta.

I have not had this pasta before but I will be having it again.  We all liked the texture and the taste.

Apart from the obvious beef and tomato, I have no idea what was in the Bolognese sauce or even how long it had been in the freezer – my freezer labelling leaves a lot to be desired! It looked like a small portion for 4 of us so I stirred in the remaining half of this jar of sauce I found in the fridge.  Good call as it made the sauce seem slightly creamy, even though it was dairy free.  A popular lunch all round.  I should have had a salad with it but we were too hungry to wait.

I was busy all afternoon running errands and needed a snack when I returned home.  One small apple and 50g Manchengo cheese.  According to MFP this little snack cost me 273 calories, 223 of which came from the cheese.

Supper was very easy.  We had left over frittata which was easy to reheat.  I roasted a fresh tray of veggies plus some left over from last night and steamed a pile of broccoli.  The roasted vegetables included butternut squash, one sweet potato, courgette, red peppers, onion and potatoes.

Delicious and easy.  4 empty plates so this was a popular dish and one I will make again.  The frittata held its shape well and I think it would be good to have cold in a picnic – she says, thinking optimistically of the summer ahead 🙂

Quiet night in tonight.  Well, potentially.  The oldest 3 members of the house are watching a thriller so there may be some screaming!!  I may go crazy and have a Diet Coke while I watch it.  I hope you enjoy your evening 🙂