Full!

Now here is something you don't often hear me say. I am so full from my dinner, I can barely move. And it was completly syn free. I made Chicken and bacon melt. Basically a chicken fillet wrapped in bacon (all fat removed) and cooked in the oven for half an hour. Then I smothered it in very low fat cottage cheese and popped it back in the oven for another 10 minutes. I put normal grated chedder cheese on Mark and Russ's chicken. I had cauliflower, carrots and cabbage with it and it was so filling. If I'm honest, it was a bit much, but it was so tasty I couldn't leave it LOL.

In an attempt to increase my exercise levels from practically zero to at least some.. I went for a walk in the park this morning. I felt a bit mean because Isabelle would have loved running through the leaves, but I really wanted to have that time alone. Of course I took my camera LOL. I walked as briskly as I could for the first half an hour and then hobbled very slowly back to the car. I took my walking stick with me, which I never do, but I knew there were a couple of steep hills back to the car. I am so glad I took it. I relied on it quite heavily towards the end. I did get a couple of nice autumnal photographs though.



I also decided to try and get a few kitty shots. I set the light tent up and some lights and Isabelle decided she was going to sit in the light tent! grrrr. I managed to get Hobbes in there and got a few shots. I've not finished processing them yet, but here are two that I've done. He's sooo cute LOL.

Published again!

wooohooooo!!!

I've just received an email from the features editor from PhotoPlus Magazine (the canon specific mag) saying that she wants to print one of my photographs in the next issue of PhotoPlus!

I now have to send a mugshot (arrrghhhhh) and a write up about the shot, what I was trying to achieve, how I achieved it, settings used, lenses used, post processing etc.

Mark is chuffed to bits too as it's a photograph of him wheeliing his bike LOL. He now thinks he's going to be famous ROFL.

This is the shot that's going to print. I can't believe it.. this was just me playing with the photograph and pushing the boundaries!

Weigh in - week three

I've been to class and got weighed in this morning. Another three pounds loss!! woohoo. That's 10 pounds in three weeks. Only four pounds away from losing a stone. Highly unlikely that I'll lose 4 pounds in a week, but even so, I'll be so close to a stone next week.

It's going to be a long haul, but I'm still as motivated as I was when I started. I've bought the slimming world magazine today so I'm going to see what recipies are in there for me to try this week.

I can't really tell much difference in myself by looking although I don't have four boobs anymore LOL... you know when your bra is a bit tight and you sort of pop out the middle. Oh, and my shoes are too big!!! The slop off my feet when I walk, which is extremely annoying as I've only had them about six weeks. But it's annoying in a nice way LOL

Smack my husband?

Do you think I can smack my husband about a bit and get away with it? hmmm, I didn't think so. He's driving me potty today!!! Well not just today, the last few days in fact.

He keeps eating stuff I've bought in for me to eat while trying to lose weight, and he keeps eating it without saying anything. I go to get something and it's gone!

Today, he has eaten almost continuously all day. Gone from one thing to another. Crisps, chocolate penguins, sweets, cerial bars.. and then back to the start again! It's not that I WANT them, it's just that seeing them paraded in front of my nose every 5 minutes makes me think about them. And once they get ingrained in your brain you start to think about them. And before you know it, the chocolate penguins start shouting my name from the fridge... and the go on and on and on! Like I said, I don't want them. I'm not hungry, but I can hear the penguins shouting my name. I'm not answering them! LOL

On the kitty side of things, we've decided he is officially ours now. We went and bought him a bed today to show him that he's now home. Mark said, typically, the kitten will never go in the bed, but Hobbes proved him wrong. He walked right over to it, climbed in and lay down and slept. He got up, ate, used his litter tray (good kitty) and went back to his new bed and is still fast asleep in there. The only problem I have, is keeping Isabelle out of it. She seems to think that her and Hobbes can share his new bed. LOL

Here are a few pics of Hobbes in his new bed.

Tired

Oh dear. Today I am so tired. I don't know why. I'm a bit snuffly and my nose itches, I hope I don't come down with a cold!!!

Mark has spent the day in the garage swearing repeatedly at his motorbike. This is the one he got and had to strip down to almost nothing and then re-build, spending a fortune in the process! I'm finding it so hard to be supportive about it now, especially when it's eating money we don't have. It's not even as if he needs it on the road, he just WANTS it on the road. He has a running bike, but just won't let this one be until after winter! grrrr!

Well, kitty is still here. I've decided he's here to stay now. I'm not parting with him if anyone turns up to collect him LOL. He's my baby. If I sit at the computer he comes and sits on my shoulder. If I sprawl on the sofa to read my book or watch the TV he comes and lays as close under my chin as he can. He's my baby.. awwwwwwww.

Today I made two different soups. God I can't believe how domesticated I'm getting LOL. But if it's a free food and I can eat it when I'm hungry.. I'll take it.

So I made a broccoli and cauliflower soup....


and a carrot and swede soup.


The white dollop in the middle is very low fat yogurt but I think it would have been better with very low fat fromage frais, but I don't have any at the moment. They're both actually very nice, although very different. The broccoli and cauliflower is lacking in texture a bit, it's a bit watery. I wonder if I put some very low fat fromage frais into it it might thicken a bit. Anyway, it's definately edible as it is. mmmmmmm

I also made my favourite free food. I can eat this till the cows come home.. mooooo LOL

Some people call it a slimming world quiche, I tend to prefer to call it a bacon savoury slice. It's so quick and easy to make and again.... freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

4 0r 5 rashers of bacon, chopped into squares and dry fried.
8oz very low fat cottage cheese
3 eggs

beat the eggs, add the cottage cheese, give it a good mix then add the dry fried bacon. put it into an oven proof dish and cook for half an hour a 190 degrees. That's it. Eat it hot or cold.

Cottage pie for dinner, with leek and swede mash on the top for me. Cauliflower, mange tout peas and cabbage to go with it. Yum.

A slimming World Forum

Wow! I found a Slimmers Forum today and joined. It's one of these all diets and plans covered type of forum and they have a slimming world section. Obviously that's the bit I was interested in.

The amazing thing about this forum, which is so different to my class, is that the majority of the members are large... and I mean as large or larger than I am. I don't mean that in a bad way, what I mean is that I feel comfortable there. It's not like I have 8 stone to lose and everyone else has 1 stone to lose. There are some people who are or have been slimming from 25 stone. So I've slotted into the forum nicely. Some of the weight losses are phenomenal! And seeing the before and after pictures is totally inspiring! I've decided that I'm going to have my photograph taken on the 1st of each month just to keep as a record. A full shot photograph... OMG.. I can't remember the last time i had a full shot photo taken.

One area of this new forum made my mouth just hang open in shock. These people are on a diet called Liptrim (I think that's what it's called). It's a complete food replacement diet where you just drink shakes all day, similar to Slimfast but a bit more drastic. The majority of these people lose between 11 and 15 pounds in their first week..yes.. FIRST WEEK!! OMG!! then after that they lose on average anywhere between 3 and 8 pounds A WEEK. They are losing 3 or 4 stone in 8 to 10 weeks!! I am in shock. Apparently it's only available through a pharmacy an it is issued a week at a time and they also weigh you in before you buy your next week's supply. It's about £36 a week. The thing that bothers me most about this.. apart from people saying how hungry they are the first week, and how tired and strange they feel for the first couple of weeks... is what happens to their skin? Surely to god the fat is going far quicker than the skin can shrink back? I have visions of skinny people walking around dragging yards of floppy skin behind them or plonking it in a wheelbarrow in front of them to carry it around LOL. I don't have the courage yet to go and ask them if their skin shrinks back quickly enough LOL.

I must admit the thought of losing 3 stone in 8 weeks is soooo tempting, but I know I wouldn't survive it. I need food too much. I hate feeling hungry and really don't want to feel tired and strange. I have enough of that already LOL. Slow and steady wins the day.. and I won't need a wheelbarrow to haul my skin around at the end of the day LOL

.... and more

I'm not going to apologise for more kitty pics. I can't help myself. He is just soooo cute.

Before that I'll ramble on a bit. I made a Chicken and Leek soup for lunch today. It didn't look very appetising, but it tasted lovely. More than that.. it was FREE on my diet. wooohooo, we like free foods! For anyone that is interested, the recipie is:

Chicken and Leek Soup

1 cooked chicken breast
3 or 4 large leeks
1 onion
2 teaspoons chicken bovril
1 - 1 1/2 pints of water
salt and pepper to taste

Time to make: 20 minutes

Method

Chop the onions and leeks and either dry fry or use a little bit of fry light to soften the onions and leeks. Add the chicken and chicken bovril. Add approximately a pint to a pint and a half of water (I used a pint and a half). Bring to the boil and then simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Put everything into a blender (be careful as it's very hot) and whizz it up. Eat straight away or save and re-heat as and when required, or if you're me, just keep grabbing a bowlful every now and then when you're hungry LOL.

And on to the kitty pics...

Awww he's so cute

Oh dear, I feel there may be a kitten pic overload heading this way. He is so funny and so cute, I have to share a few pics of him.

Making himself at home in Isabelle's 'princess dress' while she was at school this morning.

I think he was eating some breakfast here LOL. look at that tiny tongue!

I think he was trying to kill his toy LOL

Week two weight in.. and....

Weigh in on week two. 3 and a 1/2 pounds loss. Along with the 3 and a 1/2 pounds loss last week, that makes 7 pounds loss in two weeks. yay!! I'm really pleased. I always think that first half a stone is a milestone. It seems a long haul to half a stone, but once you've reached it, the next milestone is a stone. A whole 14 pounds! When you reach that, it means, yeah, you've lost quite a lot of weight already. So now the countdown is on to the 1 stone mark.

My other news today is that I found a tiny kitten this morning.

I dropped Isabelle off at Nursery this morning and at the end of our street I saw a tiny kitten sat in the middle of the road all soggy wet.

I brought it home and dried it off, gave it something to eat and put it in the kitchen. I knew it couldn't be more than 8 or 10 weeks old. I then went and knocked every door for two streets to see if anyone had lost a kitten or knew someone who had a new kitten. Nothing.

I came home and phoned Mark and said.. I've found a tiny kitten, can we keep it? Mark's not fond of cats and is much more a dog person. He said. ummmm.. I said but it's really tiny and it's soooo cute and it was wet and abandoned. He sighed and said oooookaaaaaaay, resigned to the fact that he knew I wouldn't put it back out in the street LOL

No one has claimed the kitten yet. I took it to the vet to get it checked over. It's a little boy and is betwen 6 and 8 weeks old. I over-estimated a bit. We've de-flea'd him and if no one claims him within the week, the vet will microchip him and register him to me.

He's so cute and Isabelle loves him. I REALLY hope no one claims him. I'm in love with him already and he hasn't left my side. Every time I sit down he comes and sits on me for a cuddle, apart from one time when Isabelle was watching TV, he snuggled up to her. Awwwwwww

He's also won is way into Mark's heart already. It's so funny. Mark lay on the sofa watching TV, as he does, and the kitten went and parked himself on Mark and went to sleep. and that's where he's stayed.

Here's a few pictures of our little kitty.

Poor baby's nose

awww my poor baby's nose looks awful


LOL, how an you resist that cheeky face? But her nose is so scabby after falling over at school on Monday. It keeps cracking and it doesn't help that she also has a cold so it's not drying up properly. She said it keeps stinging.

To add to her discomfort she, being the nosey kid she is, opened a cupboard in the supermarket and trapped her thumb! She squealed such a blood curdling squeal, the whole supermarket stood still. One of the staff brought a bag of frozen peas and a bag of chocolate snowmen for being brave LOL. She's fine. It did hurt her though because of the way she squealed. I took a look at her thumb tonight and the base of her thumbnail is all purple.

Then a couple of hours later she went outside to play on her new two wheel bike (with stabilisers) turned the wheel too hard and fell off, right onto her hands and knees. She went with a right thump! I have a very accident prone child! She takes after her father.

First weigh in

It's Tuesday! That might be stating the obvious, but Tuesday is Slimming World Class day. I had no idea how much I'd lost this week as my scales aren't working, so off I toddled to the class to weigh in.

I've lost 3 and a 1/2 pounds in my first week. I have to admit, I was disappointed. Usually in your first week of any weight loss plan, you lose quite a substantial amount and I was expecting to lose about 5 or 6 pounds.. but that said, 3 and 1/2 pounds is a good weight loss. I texted my mum to tell her and she told me off LOL. She said this is the new me, not a competition with the old me and to stop comparing my weight loss to previous losses. She's right! Any amount off is a loss, and as a visual aid to see what 3 and a 1/2 pounds looks like, I've made up this image. Each block is 1 pound of fat.


Gross isn't it!!! bleugh. I was carrying that around spread over my body. ewwww. I'm sure it was on my boobs! It's a woman thing, but you know when your bra is a little bit small for you and you sort of pop out in the middle? well, my boobs seem to stay in my bra already LOL. With that in mind, I am now looking forward to when my arse no longer hangs out of my knickers LOL

And so on to a new week. I think I'm going to try and get myself a bit more organised and plan meals for the week. That way I don't have to think about food all the time, I'll already know what to prepare for any given day, and I won't have to walk around the supermarket looking at all the high fat, high calorie foods.

The slimming group is great fun to be honest. It's so full of characters. We had such a good laugh. I feel quite at home there because there are no airs and graces. Everyone is just down to earth but up for a laugh, and we're all struggling with the same problem.

It's nice to be around adults again.

Poor Baby!

Awww my poor baby fell over at school and bashed her nose up. It must have really hurt her. Her teacher said she was very brave though. It doesn't look too bad in these photographs, but when you look at her in person it looks really red and sore and the bit under her nose keeps running as it's trying to heal.

Another weekend!

It's been a bit of a mixed weekend really.

I had to take Isabelle to the Dr's on Friday evening. She has tonsilitis, as I thought, but the Dr said it's not bad enough to give her antibiotics. Ha! you try living with her while she's not feeling well. So I've been dosing her up with Calpol all weekend. I knew something wasn't right because the three nights before, she'd been up and down all night. The only time she's like that is when she's coming down with something. She's very hoarse today bless her, she's really croaky and has a very short fuse.

On Friday night we bought a game called Buzz for the PS3. It's a quiz / general knowledge game and you have a buzzer to press and answer before your opponent. Mark won one game, I won the other. grrrrrr. We need a rematch. Mark also played a game via the online link. We have no idea who he played but it was quite funny. He lost on the last question. I think I might have to try the online game and beat people I don't know for a laugh.

Today we went to Greenfield Market. Due to being on the Slimming World plan, I eat a lot of meat. The thing with Slimming world is, you have Red days and Green days. Red days are protein days and green days are carb days, although you do have to have a certain amount of each, it just depends on what day you are doing. I tend to do Red days as I'm not a huge pasta, potaotes or rice fan. So I prefer to have unlimited lean meat and count the carbs. So, back to Greenfield Market. They always have a meat van there and I've been a bit.. um.. not sure about buying meat from it - a throwback to my mum never wanting to buy meat from one. But I bit the bullet today and bought 3 big topside of beef joints, some steak, a load of chicken fillets, 13 boneless pork chops and 5 packs of bacon for £35. It might seem like a lot, but when you balance it up against the supermarket, a joint of beef is around £10 each, chicken fillets are £6 for 4 small fillets (the ones I got today are a full side of chicken to each fillet), Pork chops, I can't remember how much but you don't get 13 chops for £10, that much I do know. So, I've put a load in the freezer and it will stretch over a couple of weeks at least. Tonight we're having a mixed grill with steak, pork chop, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes and an egg. It's almost cooked! yummm

I spent the rest of today doing a bit of gardening and giving Isabelle 'loves'. While we were in the garden I heard a thump and a huge squark. I turned round and whatever it was had gone. Mark saw it though and said it looked like a faclon catching a bird. He described it and it sounds more like a sparrow hawk catching and making off with a sparrow. awwww poor thing. It made a helluva racket though.

Mark's fixed my 'bird shelf' today. It's not a bird table as it's attached to the side of the garage, but it had warped and was hanging off so badly that I couldn't put bird seed on it as it slipped right off again. Well now it's fixed and it's straight and level. Hopefully Mr Robin won't have to eat off the floor any more and with a bit of luck, once I get some mealworm on there, I can pop my 500mm lens on the camera and get a decent shot of him.

Breakfast!

Well, two days running now, I've eaten breakfast. Shock, horror! I've never really eaten breakfast, but along with the healthy eating plan, I'm trying to change my crappy eating habits.. ie, not eating anything until dinner apart from picking at snacks and fattening things.

Yesterday was day 1 of my 'Food Optimising' as Slimming World call it. I keep being told NOT to call it a diet, it's changing to healthy eating.. [rolling my eyes here]. Anyway, Day 1 went great. Well lets face it, if you have problems on day 1 you're pretty much doomed.

I had breakfast of two weetabix with skimmed milk after I dropped Isabelle off at Nursery. Lunch was malted wholemeal bread (2 slices) with cottage cheese and beetroot (I love beetroot), and a MullerLight Strawberry Yogurt. I enjoyed my lunch. I have never been one for eating wholemeal bread, it just sort of sticks in my throat, but if I eat some form of wholemeal bread I can count it as a 'healthy extra' rather than using points up for white bread. The malted bread was actually really nice. Dinner was chicken with a lemon and mixed herb dressing (made by my own fair hands - lets face it, it's hardly technically challenging to make lol) and then I wrapped the chicken in bacon (all traces of fat cut off [good girl]) and put it in the oven for about half an hour. Served it with leek and swede mash (no butter), carrots and shredded leek and cabbage, and another strawberry yogurt to follow. (The MullerLight Yogurts are free on this plan) Now how healthy is that?? LOL. Mark said that it was delicious, and if this was a taste of things to come with me following the Slimming World plan, then he's going to enjoy eating this kind of food and watching me get slimmer at the same time.

This morning I had to scoot up to Asda right after dropping Isabelle off and I didn't get home again until 10.30. It's a bit too close to lunch to eat a lot for breakfast, but not close enough to not eat. So I've just had another yogurt (I might start looking like a yogurt at this rate! It's a good job they're 5 for a £1 at the moment) and that will keep me going for an hour and a half or so till lunchtime.

I had forgotten how much you pee in the first week of any diet plan! God I can pee for England LOL. I know you lose a lot of fluid in the first week anyway, that's why you get a good weight loss, but flippin' heck, I'll wear my knees out going up and down the stairs. Maybe I should just get a bucket in the kitchen and go on that instead LOLOL. I AM kidding of course.

So tonight's dinner is braising steak with onions and mushrooms cooked along with the meat. More leek and swede mash (cos I love it) new potatoes, carrots and anything else I can find in the fridge.

Sorry for rambling on about food and eating... it's kinda at the top of my mind at the moment until it becomes routine.