Lose Weight and Gain Health

A Busy Week

Posted on April 20, 2013 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I can’t believe I haven’t posted a blog for nearly a week! It has been a mixture of some excellent eating and some truly diabolical. I need a strategy or substitute for something to do rather than eating garbage when I feel stressed or upset. Any suggestions? How do you slim people out there deal with stress or things that make you sad?

There were plenty of really healthy meals this week as well so in addition to the garbage I did manage to nourish myself with a wide variety of wonderful foods.

I tend to always start my days well and make very healthy breakfasts such as:

This sunny tropical breakfast of coconut yogurt, mashed banana, chia seeds and fresh mango.

A warming bowl of porridge made with almond milk and chia seeds and served with a large dollop of almond butter.

An eggy stir fry with brown basmati rice and kale.

When my lovely nephew Harry stayed, both boys were very enthusiastic smoothie makers!

Lunches and suppers are more hit and miss but some of the healthy ones I made and will definitely have again are:

A really light and delicious str fry of button mushrooms, a large Portobello mushroom, corn scrapped from the cob, pak choi, onion and spinach.

I stir fried the vegetables with 1/2 a tablespoon sesame oil and then added a little bit of water to stop the vegetables sticking and allow them to steam a little. Served with some brown basmati rice and soy sauce. Such a quick meal to prepare after a busy day in the office.

This was a lovely meal Lara made. The salmon fillets were marinated in honey and soy sauce and then baked in the oven in a covered dish so they didn’t dry out at all. Then she stir fried some carrots and pak choi and mixed the vegetables and salmon in with some wholemeal Udon noodles. Yummy and quick and easy to make.

Some of you are revolted by my green smoothies and some I suspect are secretly impressed 🙂 . Well I set out to make the greenest of all green smoothies. This almost deserves a post to itself ! I started with a huge handful of raw kale. Plus half a small avocado and the juice and pulp of a lime. Some walnuts for protein. The only non green ingredient (and the hemp milk I used). Then for the ultra greenness half a teaspoon full of matcha powder and half a teaspoon of Spirulina, the superfood of the week. Ta daa. The Spirulina makes it a greeny blue colour so it looked lovely and was the perfect consistency. But how did it taste? Well, this one was not for the faint hearted but I drank it and convinced myself I felt increasingly healthy as I swallowed each mouthful. This was much easier eating. I know there are tales about how you shouldn’t cook batches of rice and keep them in the fridge because of food poisoning but I do it. I am blessed with a cast iron constitution I inherited from my Father and whenever I make rice, I make enough for at least 3 meals. So when I come home, all I have to do is heat it up. This meal was a stir fry of a left over salmon fillet with rice, onions and green leafy vegetables. Really good.

I had one very long day this week. I left the house at

and flew up to Glasgow for the day. Unfortunately my flight back was delayed as the plane had a flat tyre 🙂 So I missed the beginning of the play we were all watching at the theatre.

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time was superb.

It is on at The Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue which is a delightful traditional old theatre. Yet the set they used was very modern and really clever. We all loved it. I wasn’t sure if a ten year old would enjoy it but he was completely engrossed all the way through and at the end declared he will be an actor when he grows up. This was taken in the interval hence the empty seats. The house was full and if you are lucky enough to live near London, I really recommend you book tickets for this one.

I tend to not take photos of the bad food but I did last night. To celebrate hubby’s birthday we had a curry. James chose to have a takeaway rather than eat in the restaurant so I collected another delicious curry from The Raja. I had the King Prawn Makhni which was too sweet and rich for me but I did enjoy it anyway. Served with sag paneer (spinach and paneer cheese), pilau rice, mushroom rice and an onion bhaji.

I also had some of the lovely coffee and walnut cake Lara made for her Daddy which she decorated with his favourite sweets, Minstrels.I do hope I can behave better this coming week.

Posted in Diet Struggles | 2 Comments

Not Counting

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I am not counting today. Not counting points or calories or all the other ways one can track what one eats such as using My Fitness Pal. However, that is not because I am eating with reckless abandon. I will only eat healthy food but I want to have a day off calculating and recording what I eat, besides photographing it.

I started with a banana mashed in to half a tub of pineapple Co Yo with 1 tbsp chia seeds.

Love these blood oranges. So I chopped one up and put it on top. It was so sweet and juicy which went perfectly with the creamy tropical tasting Co Yo. So good.I made an amazing humous today. Amazing because it was so smooth. I got the recipe on one of my favourite food blogs called Smitten Kitchen. Her recipe for humous is here. I faithfully copied the recipe and even deskinned all the chickpeas! It wasn’t as bad I thought it would be and it really did make the smoothest humous I have ever had.

You do end up with a pile of skins in your compost that look as if they have been swept up from a chiropodists floor!

The other ingredients were tahini, lemon juice, garlic and salt plus some reserved liquid from the can of chickpeas. This recipe adds no oil except as an optional garnish so it must be lower calorie than the shop bought versions.
I garnished with a light sprinkling of paprika and a drizzle of olive oil. It was exceptionally good. Possibly the best I have ever had. To go with it I roasted some vegetables and they came out perfectly. I roasted red onion and quartered carrots for 10 minutes, then added peppers and courgette for another 10 minutes, then I added cherry tomatoes which I had pricked to prevent them busting. I roasted them all together for 15 minutes. The vegetables were stirred in to some couscous. To save calories I did not add anything else and the dish was lovely as it was. There was a very high ratio of vegetables to couscous. I also made some tzatziki I found on a blog called Easy Peasy Organic. Literally Lara made it as she had wondered in to the kitchen at the perfect time. Easy Peasy Organic says to blend the ingredients but Lara finely chopped the spring onion (from the garden 🙂 ) and coriander and then stirred them in to the yogurt with some lemon juice and salt. The recipe for the tzatziki is here. The boys were rather diasppointed there was no meat or “at least some crisps for the dip” said Harvey. So we added celery to the table and everyone agreed there was plenty of food and it was delicious. I really enjoyed it – this is my kind of a spread. It was sunny today 🙂 One day of sunshine and warmth and so much happens in the garden. These little grape hyacinths are trying to come out.

All the daffodils actually did come out. Good to see you ladies ! I think dafs are female as they look like ladies in large bonnets.Strange creatures decide it is time to play with water in the garden too. I did say “no” to the water slide – it wasn’t that warm!

We spent a pleasant part of this afternoon in the Bell & Jorrocks with Fiona. There was live music playing and a beer festival. I abstained from the beer although did have a few crisps and peanuts with my Diet Coke.

The sun brought loads of people to the village and it was a lovely atmosphere. I could very easily have sat in the sun drinking beer all afternoon but am rather glad I didn’t. Supper time. I used a Delia recipe for macaroni cheese with bacon and leek. I added an onion too. You fry up the chopped onion, leek and bacon in some butter. Cook the macaroni which I didn’t have so I used 3 types of wholemeal pasta as I only seemed to have dregs left in the packets.I made a cheese sauce, mixed the sauce with the cooked pasta, leeks and bacon, grated some more cheese on top and put it in the oven at 180 °C for half an hour until it was bubbling. It smelled so amazing we could hardly wait to eat it.

This is comfort food which was perhaps not ideal on a warm spring day but it was so delicious no one objected. I am not kidding myself that this was diet food but at least the ingredients improved the healthiness of it i.e. wholemeal pasta rather than white and the 3 leeks added a vegetable to a dish traditionally eaten without any.

I enjoyed a day of no counting but I am also looking forward to the discipline of counting and tracking again tomorrow.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Blood Orange, Cheese, Coconut, Couscous, Humous, Leeks, Vegetables | 6 Comments

April Showers

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Why is it that when I have to get up to go in to London for work, I am usually fast asleep when the alarm goes at 6am? But when I am working from home and I don’t have to get up until 7am, I am wide awake at 6am? Very frustrating.

But instead of being frustrated I got up and started my day early. I was logged on to my work laptop by 6:45 and got a good hours work in while all was still peaceful.

I decided to make a very purple smoothie for breakfast, featuring beetroot. Is it weird to fancy beetroot for breakfast? Probably! But I had some left in the garden so I added it to a smoothie.

I fancied making a very purple smoothie so I also added blueberries, Acai powder,
Sprouted broccoli seeds,
Rasperries and of course the beetroot. I washed it and cut off the top and tail and chucked it in the blender with the skin on. I assume that adds to the vitamin and mineral level. So how was it? The most amazing colour. But it tasted like horseradish! It really did and the more I drank the more horseradishy it tasted. I think the beetroot was woody and the broccoli sprouts are quite peppery so that was not a good combination. Shame as the other ingredients would have made a delicious smoothie. As well as the ingredients pictured, I added 100ml coconut water and 100 g natural yogurt. This was 341 calories. Mid morning I snacked on a pear. For lunch I cooked up loads of kale with red and yellow peppers, red onion, mushrooms and chicken. I stirred in a Waitrose Hoisin and Plum stir fry sauce which was delicious and served it with rice. This is brown basmati rice but I add vegetable stock to the cooking water which makes it yellow. This lovely lunch was quick and easy to make. It took 40 minutes from start to finish and cost me 703 calories. Most of those calories came from the chicken and the rice. This was absolutely delicious and every morsel was devoured. These 2 boys also ate a huge stack of veggies and declared it a really yummy meal. What bizarre weather we have had today. Sunny one minute and then raining so hard we could have had a shower in it. Harry and Harvey decided extraordinarily heavy rain was the perfect time to go on the trampoline. Boys will be boys! When they came in, dried off and warmed up they had a toasted raisin and cinnamon bagel. Too hard for me to resist so I had one too. I had one with butter and Philadelphia. It was so good I had another one with Cheddar cheese in it. That afternoon snack cost me a whopping 990 calories !!!!I well and truly burst the calorie bank today but it is ok as it was my first day over the line all week. Tracking the calories is such a good way to see how much you have eaten. I heroically went out this evening and bought and then served everyone fish and chips and managed to not even sneak one chip. Supper for me is a cup of herbal tea. So although I ate some inferior food and went over my calories, I have not abandoned my tracking and healthy eating weight loss plan. Phew!

Totals	2,074	222	89	102	77	1,541
Your Daily Goal	1,630	224	54	61	33	2,500
Remaining	-444	2	-35	-41	-44	959
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sugar	Sodium

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Beetroot, Chicken, Smoothie | 1 Comment

The Tea Warehouse

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I spent today in a tea warehouse! Yes, I really did. This was not how I planned my day. The plan was to have the breakfast of banana, Co Yo and berries I had prepared the night before and as a treat for all my good behaviour, a toasted cheese sandwich for lunch from the Raclette man in Borough Market. But sometimes life does not go as planned.

I forgot my breakfast. As soon as I got on the train I realised I had left it behind but there was no going back for it so Lara enjoyed it. That was not the only thing I forgot – I also forgot to put on any make up!!! I don’t wear much but I always wear mascara at least or I look as if I have mixamatosis. Tragically (or luckily, depending on how you look at it) I didn’t even notice until lunch time when I didn’t have an opportunity to pop out and buy any mascara so there I was, in my bare faced glory all day.

Instead of my home made breakfast I bought a cup of tea and a pot of Bircher Muesli from Pret. The muesli was good and had apple in it. It was slightly too sweet for me but it tasted good and was only 304 calories :-). It actually contained the daily recommended amount of sugar – according to MFP.

I thought I was working in the office near Borough Market, hence I planned to have a browse through the market at lunch time. However, by 10:30 I was off to a tea warehouse which is located in Bermondsey, an area of London I have never been to before even though it is only a short walk from London Bridge.

It is no longer used as a tea warehouse, it has been converted in to some very pleasant offices which made a pleasant change from the hermetically sealed purpose built offices I usually work in.

We had back to back meetings scheduled all day from 11am – 6pm and at lunch time I literally only had time to walk to the nearest sandwich bar and grab something. Look at this clever name of the sandwich bar we went to.

This was a little treasure trove of goodies. Along with my colleagues I ordered a panini. I ordered the Ravello to avoid fatty meats of unknown origin. It was supposed to contain fatty goat’s cheese of unknown origin but they seemed to have forgotten to put the goats cheese in. I didn’t mind as it saved some calories and there were so many grilled vegetables inside it was delicious: aubergine, courgette, peppers, mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes with lots of raw spinach. Fantastic. I used MFP to look up a grilled vegetable panini and they seem to be about 500 calories. I guess that is correct as most calories will come from the bread and the oil on the vegetables.

While my panini was toasting I nipped outside to take some pictures. The street we were on was so pretty. These are the warehouses opposite Ea Talia and they are very similar to the one I was in. They are so gorgeous and the big windows let in loads of light.We finished earlier than expected so I enjoyed the warmest day of the year so far by walking a longer than necessary route back to Borough Market. These colourful flower pots are huge.
There are lots of lovely Victorian buildings in this part of London. Plus brand new ones too! I have been to the front entrance of The Shard, next to London Bridge station, but never walked past it and stood underneath. When you do that, you really appreciate how very tall it is. The tallest building in Europe, according to my knowledgeable nephew who came home with me tonight. As I walked over to Cannon Street station I made time for a quick detour to Borough Market. I am loving citrus fruits at the moment. A quick and easy Greek Salad for supper. Unfortunately I didn’t have any olives but we did have red onion, tomatoes, cucumber and Feta cheese. I also had 1/4 of an avocado and 1 tbsp of the broccoli seeds I have sprouted this week. I didn’t add any oil or dressing to this. It was so fresh and delicious, I ate it as it was and it was just over 500 calories. Followed by a blood orange I bought in the market today which was delicious.

It is hard to be certain as I estimated lunch but I think I am under today’s calorie target and have 225 calories remaining. They can be tucked away until another day. I didn’t account for any of the walking I did so I am definitely under calories as all exercise on MFP earns you extra calories. I am over the fat, sugar and protein amounts. The protein is only slightly over so I am not worried about that. The fat came from the grilled panini and the Feta and the sugar mainly from the breakfast. So healthyish sources of fats and sugar at least.

Totals	1,405	114	84	63	78	2,330
Your Daily Goal	1,630	224	54	61	33	2,500
Remaining	225	110	-30	-2	-45	170
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sugar	Sodium

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Bircher Muesli, Broccoli, Spinach, sprouts, Vegetables | 3 Comments

Free Lunch

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Apparently there is no such thing as a free lunch. All I can say is that my lunch was provided for me today in a hotel!

Knowing I was spending the day in a hotel with colleagues brainstorming stuff, I took in a slightly more substantial breakfast than yesterday to help me feel sated for longer. 125 g mixed berry Co Yo, 20 g oats, mashed banana and 1 tbsp chia seeds. It was a bit gloopy but tasted ok. 444 calories, including a large cup of tea.

After a couple of hours in the usual office I stepped outside and enjoyed a walk in the Spring sunshine round to the hotel where I was to spend the rest of the day working with a large number of colleagues.

On arrival there was coffee and Danish pastries. I had a filter coffee and resisted all these pastries. Yes indeed, I truly did. Not one morsel passed my lips.

I had these instead 🙂

After working all morning I was prepared for the usual tragic round of wilting sandwiches to come out . I was wrong! We had a delicious hot buffet instead. I picked a small portion of all the healthiest things on the menu: a slice of roast lamb with mint sauce (which was actually so chewy I left it), half a chicken breast ( I didn’t eat the skin), a small piece of cod, a rollmop herring, 4 anchovies, carrots, red cabbage, green beans, rocket, cucumber and a tomato and onion salad.

The reason for such an eclectic mixture on my plate was I selected foods from the starter selection and main meals to eat at once. We only had half an hour for lunch so there was not enough time to have 3 courses. Everything tasted very good, even though the flavours did not go well together. Hard to be accurate but I estimate 662 calories for this lunch, which includes my dessert.

I managed to resist the Creme Brûlée, chocolate tart and profiteroles and instead had a small serving of fruit salad. I was impressed by how good I was.

We finished slightly early and I had half an hour to wait for my train so I used the time walking. London does have some unusual buildings. I love seeing the variety.

Not sure I’d fancy living in this goldfish bowl.

From the other side of the street I thought this was made from wood but up close I could see it was made from stone. I rather liked it.

This livened up the dull side to a building.

I love the detail on this building. Really beautiful.

A different angle of the boat.

Not sure about this.

This is a peaceful spot to sit and relax.

At home the rest of the family had designated it curry night but I was on a healthy eating roll. When I am in the healthy eating zone, as I am at the moment, I don’t want to leave it. I genuinely do not want to add bad foods to my body.

I have been germinating these broccoli seeds since Sunday and they were ready today so I put 1 tbsp in the blender.

With a frozen banana (helps make the smoothie thick), half an avocado, a handful of spinach, the juice and pulp of one lime and a passionfruit.

I wanted to add some additional nutrients and since I had passed up the chance to have chocolate for lunch I had some for supper. 1 tbsp cacao nibs and 1 tbsp carob powder.

Plus 1 tbsp Acai powder to add some extra antioxidants. The consistency was perfect – thick and smooth, just how I like it. The flavour was ok but not amazing. It was surprisingly filling though and I felt very virtuous, eating/drinking this while the others enjoyed a curry.

I ate so many really healthy foods today and I feel really good about it, particularly because I could have eaten so many bad ones. They even had bowls of sweets on the tables and packets of yogurt coated raisins and dried fruit in the room we were in. I am so pleased I resisted it all.

I ended up slightly over on nearly everything i.e calories, carbs, fat, protein and sugar. But they were healthy sources of those food groups so I feel no shame or regret. The amount of sugar in fruits is so high and the recommended daily amount is so low that if you have 2 pieces of fruit, you are over your limit! So I don’t worry too much about the sugar total if I have eaten fresh fruits. The small calorie excess won’t cause me to lose any sleep either as I have been under for the last 2 days so my average so far this week is below the maximum. I am chalking this one up as another successful day of healthy eating.

Totals	1,676	234	62	86	91	1,478
Your Daily Goal	1,630	224	54	61	33	2,500
Remaining	-46	-10	-8	-25	-58	1,022
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sugar	Sodium

Posted in Healthy Lifestyle | Tagged Fruit, Smoothie, Vegetables | Leave a comment

The Market And The Yard

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Last night I made my breakfast and lunch. This was so I knew how many calories I was taking with me and to save a few pennies.

Breakfast was so delicious. I mixed 125 g Pineapple Co Yo (yogurt made with coconut milk) with a mashed banana, 1 tbsp chia seeds and 75 g blueberries. I stirred it all together and left it in the fridge. When I sat at my desk in London and ate it I had a few moments of sheer delight. It was a tropical treat and one I shall be having again. 412 calories.

This was only intended to be a snack but it ended up being my entire lunch: 120 g brown basmati rice, 3 raw button mushrooms, cucumber sticks, a celery stalk and some raw broccoli florets. I can not pretend it was particularly enjoyable but I did not dislike it and I just slowly munched it while I worked. 165 calories. Yes, just 165 calories and it kept me full until supper time.

I did pop down to the market at about 2pm, to stretch my legs and think about getting something else to eat. No idea what they were filming this time – quite a lot of filming goes on around Borough Market.

I bought 2 clementines for 40p from the market and that completed lunch!

I have often wandered past Neal’s Yard Remedies but never been in. Today I went in though and it was lovely. A sweet scented oasis of calm, with lovely ladies in there to help you find what you need to soothe away your worries and in my case, intensively moisturise my dry hands.

There are rows of dried plants in jars behind the counter.

I sampled the Night Time tea and bought a box to take home (and some hand cream). I am sipping some while I type and it really is very pleasant.

I arrived home with nearly 1,000 calories available to me 🙂 We had the steak leftover from Saturday,

With steamed broccoli, carrots and brussels sprouts.

Plus I had 100 g mashed potato. That tasty plateful was 595 calories.

So here we are , at the end of the day, and I have 307 calories left over. I am leaving them well alone as I am not hungry so today is a below the line day.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Beef, Brown Basmati Rice, Coconut | Leave a comment

Sticking With It

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Working from home makes sticking to a healthy eating plan much easier. The more healthy food I eat, the more I want to eat! Bizarre but true. So this morning I really wanted to have a super healthy start to the day. I have a new brand of Goji berries and they are particularly good. More flavoured than the ones I bought in Waitrose and more chewy.

1 tbsp Goji berries

plus cayenne pepper, the juice of half a lemon and a tea bag. Makes a delicious cuppa full of antioxidants to start the day healthily.

With the bonus of sweet, plump and juicy Goji berries to enjoy at the end. Sweet, hot and sour, it gets your taste buds going too. The more I drink this tea, the more I love it. It has approximately 40 calories per cup which is similar to the calories in a cup of tea with semi-skimmed milk.

I soaked 15 g almonds, 10 g cashews and 5 g flax seeds in water for a couple of hours. It makes them easier to blend smoothly and digest.

After the nuts were ready they went in to the blender with the soak water and a large slice of water melon.

Plus half a pomegranate. I kept the pomegranate and watermelon seeds in the smoothie too for extra goodness.

This made a pink smoothie, which makes a change from green ones 🙂 This was actually a bit watery and lacking in flavour but it was full of healthy nutrients so I drank it and was kept full until lunch time. On only 251 calories too so even better.

I spent my lunch hour on a walk in the spring sunshine with my children and dogs which was the best lunch time I have had for a while. When we got home Lara cooked us a delicious lunch so I could get back to work.

Using the New Covent Garden Soup green recipe book, she made the recipe for ‘ Lentil and Lemon Soup’ but without the lemon. The recipe was for 6 people but we didn’t have any bread or other accompaniments so the three of us shared the amount made and it was the perfect portion size. 333 calories per bowlful. It was absolutely delicious and very healthy. Lara used a chicken stock but you could easily use vegetable to keep it vegetarian.

Red Lentil Soup

Ingredients (serves 3 – 6)

2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
150g red lentils, washed
570ml stock
1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
2 tsp tomato puree
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Heat the oil and cook the onion and garlic gently for 10 minutes without allowing the onion to brown.
Add the lentils and stir so the lentils are coated in oil.
Add the stock and bring to the boil, skimming off any scum that may form.
Add the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree and 3/4 of the thyme.
Bring back to the boil and simmer, covered for 15-20 minutes , stirring occasionally.
Taste for seasoning and add the rest of the thyme.

This was excellent. Full of flavour, low fat and full of protein and fibre. I really recommend this soup. It also has the added bonus of being very cheap.

Mid afternoon I was peckish so I snacked on an apple with 20 g Goji berries (this brand is so delicious I can not stop eating them!), 15g walnuts and 5 g pumpkin seeds. This snack was approximately 250 calories.

That did the trick until supper time. Dinner will not win any healthy eating points but it was really good. Lara had some friends over and cooked them spaghetti carbonara with a salad. She made extra so we could have some too. I resisted the extra cheese she had grated to put on top and had a modest portion. The salad had a homemade French Dressing on it. I estimate this meal to be 697 calories.I went to Fat Fighters tonight to be weighed. I knew I had put weight on during my binge around Easter but was hoping I had lost it all with my excellent eating this week. I was relieved to see I have lost a pound since I last went which means I have lost 13 pounds this year which I am pleased with. Very pleased actually and it is good to be reminded that I have done well this year. The naughtiness and weight gain of the latter part of last year is well and truly behind me.

Posted in Dairy Free, Healthy Lifestyle, Lose Weight | Tagged Almonds, Goji Berries, Pomegranate, Red Lentils, Watermelon | 2 Comments

Spring Is Here

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Finally we had a day that feels as if Spring has arrived 🙂 It was so lovely to wake up to sunshine and a hint of warmth. It definitely put a spring in my step and before I had even thought about breakfast I was in sorting mode, again. Having recently done Harvey’s room and the study I tackled the utility room and porch today. In the utility room I found a seed growing kit my sister gave me which had become buried under the family detritus that tends to collect in the less used parts of the house. Having unearthed them I planted the seeds and placed them, as directed, on a sunny windowsill. Literally 🙂

For breakfast I had 100g natural yogurt with 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1 pink grapefruit and a handful of blueberries.

The grapefruit was so juicy it made a delicious breakfast. 285 calories.

I was really happy to spend about an hour and a half in the spring sunshine with Annette, walking in the woods over the road. It was cooler out than the sunshine may have suggested but nevertheless it was a wonderful way to get some exercise.

Finally the crocuses are out 🙂

And the primroses but the daffodils remain wrapped up.

We were having our main meal at lunch time today. I made a large salad with red pepper, button mushrooms and celery. I also added lettuce and served cucumber separately as one of us despises it!

We had sauteed potatoes.

Plus steak. James had been to the local butchers and chosen huge slabs of meat but I was meaner/economical/fat conscious and cut them in half. Each piece of sirloin steak weighed about 125 g which was plenty. Cooked, just how I like it, pink but not bloody.

The salad was dressed in a simple French Dressing and I added nothing else to the meal. This lunch was 651 calories. The steak was 298 and the potatoes (which is one potato cut in to 4) nearly 250. I heroically resisted the chocolate brownies and ice-cream the others enjoyed for dessert and managed to forego the customary Sunday lunch time glass of vino.

I made such a delicious supper I am going to share it as a recipe.

Thai Style Vegetables and Rice

Ingredients (serves 1)

1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 head of broccoli
Small green pepper
Large handful of kale
Handful of brussel sprouts
Handful of button mushrooms
100 g cooked brown basmati rice
Half a sachet of “Sweet and Fragrant Thai Stir Fry Sauce” (from Waitrose)
Soy Sauce

Method

Chop all vegetables in to bite sized pieces
Heat oil in a large frying pan
Add vegetables and fry for about 2 minutes, stirring regularly
If the vegetables begin to stick, add a splash of water
Add a splash of soy sauce (I probably added 1 tbsp)
Add the rice and stir to mix in with the vegetables
Add half a sachet of the sauce
Stir fry for 1 – 2 minutes and serve

This was absolutely delicious. I enjoyed every mouthful and can’t wait to make it again. This bowlful was 457 calories.

I needed nothing else with it because I had eaten sufficient protein at lunch time for the remainder of the day and it certainly was not lacking in flavour. Yum, yum, yum!

So another successful day of counting calories and eating healthily. My daily calorie intake was 1491. That makes my average over the week 1,466 per day so I am on target. I am actually below target because I do not take in to account the extra calories I earn each day by exercising so I am very pleased with this weeks efforts.

I am also very pleased with myself for having absolutely no alcohol all week, despite 3 evenings out 🙂 . I have my diet mojo back and am beginning to feel much healthier and definitely happier for it. Here’s hoping next week is as good as this one was!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Beef, Blueberries, Brown Basmati Rice, Pink Grapefruit | 1 Comment

Staying Below the Line

Posted on April 6, 2013 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

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 🙂

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Broccoli, Butternut Squash, Egg, Kale, Sweet Potato | Leave a comment

Healthy Adaptations

Posted on April 6, 2013 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Another healthy day with a sweet ending.

I was looking forward to some of the lovely local ladies coming for supper so I decided to eat lightly all day. I began with a smoothie, starring some of my favourite ingredients: banana, mixed frozen berries and a large portion of kale. Blitzed with almond milk, chia seeds and some natural yogurt.

This smoothie was nearly 400 calories. Half those calories came from the banana and yogurt. The banana was the most calorific with 105 calories! This was not the tastiest smoothie ever but so full of goodness I drank it and felt sated until lunch time.

I try to eat oily fish twice a week and I really like sardines. They are very good for you and have the bonus of being cheap. For a change I bought sardines in chilli.

Which I served with a very simple salad of lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, carrots and celery. I was working from home which is why I had the opportunity to chop up all these veggies.

The sardines were quite hot! I added some salad cream to the salad, partly because I wanted the flavour but also to counter balance the spice of the sardines. The lunch was 384 calories. 188 calories from the sardines and 100 calories from 2 tbsp salad cream.

This healthy eating does not seem to be agreeing with Harvey!

At 5 pm on the dot I switched off the laptop and began baking. I was making the kale frittata with millet crust I originally blogged about here. I stuck faithfully to the original recipe today which you can find on Ashley’s blog here.

This is a much healthier version of a quiche. Healthier because instead of using pastry, which has a high fat and low nutrient content, you use a grain instead. The recipe calls for millet but I didn’t have enough and Vegetare don’t stock it so I used about 3/4 millet and 1/4 quinoa. I am sure using all quinoa or even brown rice would work too. I used coconut oil which does leave a coconut flavour. If you don’t like coconut, you could substitute it with butter.

The first step is to cook the millet/quinoa in vegetable stock. I even did the first step of lightly frying some garlic first and then adding the grains and stock. Once it is cooked, you press it down in to a buttered pie dish which is much easier then I thought it would be as it clumps together well. The crust needs to be baked before you add the filling.

I fried up some more garlic with home grown shallots and lots of kale then added to the crust.

Poured over the egg, ricotta and milk mixture and popped it in the oven.

Once it is cooked, you grate cheese over the top and grill it. Very simple to make and very tasty. I couldn’t wait to get stuck in!

I served this with a tray of roasted vegetables.

I chopped up the sweet potatoes, white potatoes, onion and some fennel and placed them in a roasting dish with some olive oil, salt and pepper.

After half an hour I added peppers and large cherry tomatoes and cooked for another 20-30 minutes. I did chop them up before adding them.

I also cooked salmon in foil parcels. I made a fruit salad for dessert and Annette brought some flapjacks sweetened with apples and Vicky brought chocolate brownies.

I rarely take photos of my evenings and I didn’t last night either. I like to relax and enjoy myself, which I did with Annette, Mirella, Vicky and Lou. I ate a modest amount of supper and did not have any of the pink fizz Mirella brought or any other alcohol. However, I was unable to resist the brownies but I did choose a little one and I had 2 flapjacks. So a very sweet evening after a very healthy day. Obviously I should not have had the flapjacks or brownie but I had lots of calories saved for the evening and I did resist the ice-cream and wine. So I didn’t go crazy and will be good again today.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Kale, Millet, Sardines | 3 Comments

Lose Weight and Gain Health

A Busy Week

Not Counting

April Showers

The Tea Warehouse

Free Lunch

The Market And The Yard

Sticking With It

Spring Is Here

Staying Below the Line

Healthy Adaptations

Follow Lose Weight And Gain Health via Email

Recent Posts

Archives

Blogroll

Categories

Pages

Email Subscription

Weight Loss So Far