Looking ahead to the celebrations

During the festive season, we have made the decision to eat a normal calorie allowance each day, we know we have gone over this allowance at times!  But we have eaten whatever we want to eat, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Wherever we can, we have included some extra walking.  Getting a pedometer to chart your progress is a fantastic idea.  You have to believe us, walking ANY distance really does add up, and you can eat more if that's what you want to do with the additional calories! 

Today, in anticipation of the buffet later in the evening, together with the odd drink or two.... we have decided to stretch our legs and go for a long walk (weather permitting) to ADD some additional calories to our allowance.  It's always nicer to do this before eating, as we feel we can justify a sausage roll or two or three.  If we walk 3 miles, we get to eat 300 more calories.  I'm allowed 2000 calories today, being a woman of average height. 

We think we'll be eating salmon with watercress and crushed new potatoes (with butter) for dinner tonight.  Have to see what the fishmonger has on offer first though.  If not, we might make our own fish and chips. 

The pork belly recipe will be posted later, and we're having that tomorrow with crispy crackling, mash and minted peas - can't wait!! Believe me, this recipe is great for removing most of the fat from the pork, leaving just the succulent tasty meat.  It also fits nicely into our daily calorie allowance!

New Year preparation in hand!

We have half prepared our New Year dish.  We fancy eating belly of pork with all the crackling - slow cooked to perfection.  Mash and minted pea puree will complete the meal.  I'll put the recipe up tomorrow.  It's straightforward, but takes a little preparation. The way it's cooked draws out the fat yet leaves the wonderful flavours.  It's cheap, delicious and so tasty.  All the top restaurants are serving this - yet we can make a dozen portions for the price of one! 

Recipe - turkey curry of course!

We’ve got some turkey leftovers to eat, and using our wonderful curry sauce results in a refreshing, light, and virtually fat free curry!  After all the high fat foods, we think our bodies  need a rest, and this curry has all the flavours minus the fat.  You can use the dry spice mix as a ‘rub’ for fish too, so experiment!!

DRY SPICE MIX

1 x 5ml (tsp) of each of the following:

Coriander seeds
Fenugreek seeds
Cumin seeds
Fennel seeds

Dry the above spices in an oil free pan until you begin to smell the aroma and hear the seeds popping. This won't take too long. All the flavours will be released and the seeds can be either bashed or ground until you have a powder (this will keep for some time in an air tight container).

Next – dice about 3 medium onions and sweat in a little olive oil on a low heat – cook until translucent.  Then add a couple of cloves of crushed garlic.  Chop up one chilli (or more/less if you prefer) and add to the pan. 

In a separate saucepan, empty a 400g tin of chopped tomatoes, a pint of vegetable stock, 5 ml of turmeric PLUS all the dry spices (above).  Then add 1” chopped ginger.  Add the fried onion mixture and simmer the whole dish for around 20 minutes or so.  

Now blend the whole mix.

Finally, add a small amount of honey to sweeten to your taste (we used about 20g).  Season with a good pinch of salt and black pepper.  Depending on what stock you use, will depend on how much seasoning you use. 

That’s the curry sauce – add whatever meat you want – in our case LEFTOVER TURKEY (we added about 400g cold turkey).  We will also fry off some more chunky onions and add this to the dish to give a bit of texture.

The above ingredients will make 4 good portions of turkey curry.  Allowing for a little cooking oil, the whole dish comes to around 900 calories; assuming this is divided into 4 very large portions, this curry works out at just 225 calories per portion!  Yet you wouldn't know it - as the flavours are just so fresh and intense.  We think this freshly prepared dish is so much tastier than anything processed!

Wednesday weigh in!

It's that time of the week again.  Considering the time of year, we are both pleased with our results.  My partner and I are both about 1 lb heavier.  Amazing.  The additional weight is from pure excess.  We still have those post Christmas chocs and nibbles hanging around, which is something to be mindful of.  In fact it was watching my partner mindlessly eating the mince pies at 225 calories each that brought this home to me.

Yesterday we had some wonderful soup, which we thoroughly enjoyed after all the rich foods.  After a walk round the sales (2.5 miles/250 calories) yesterday, we hope to go for a nice walk somewhere today and get some more fresh air. 

With all the lovely food around, we felt we ate what we wanted.  We're going to continue with our 4 days being good followed by 3 days normal eating, until we reach our healthy BMI - and that's not far away now. 

BBC radio

Having successfully lost over 5 stone between us, we were pleasantly surprised when a BBC radio programme called us in to talk about it.  A very surreal day followed, and I think we even lost weight in the process!  Joking aside, we really are surprised at just how much weight we have lost, considering the food we eat.  We know our method of eating - together with a little exercise through walking, really does work.  We haven't followed a specific diet, and we have eaten everything we love to eat. 

Here is the link to our interview:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/p00m6qdk/

On reflection, to the question "What were you eating before"...  we were snacking a lot.  This snacking was partly due to our meals not being big enough!  Now, as this year has progressed we have increased the size of our meals, to eliminate the 'need' for snacking.  We realise you can snack for other reasons, but we now know we can stop the snacks eaten due to being hungry.  We've also migrated away from processed food to more freshly prepared food.  Our method of eating is similar to interval training, with spurts of being 'good' and watching the calories for 4 days, followed by 3 days of normal intake.  We believe this really helps our metabolism fire on all fours.  And finally, we walk more - and take opportunities to add in a bit of walking wherever we can.  Take the stairs (that's 10 calories), walk to the pub (100 calories) - they all add up!  Earn that pint (280 calories).

The festivities have begun and this includes lots of wonderful food treats.  I'm putting together our menu list and 'things to do' - and can't stress enough, just how delicious real home made tastes.  Keeping things simple helps, but we enjoy messing around and relaxing in the kitchen.  So we will be taking some pictures later.

Be realistic

These last few days and the week ahead means we are spending more time often with family and friends and indulging  Let's be honest, at this time there are some of the best foods out there on offer whereever you go.  We are not going to deny ourselves and become miserable, and it's good to relax.  In order to gain one REAL pound of fat, we need to eat an additional 3600 calories.  That's quite a bit of chocolate and mince pies.  A mince pie will set us back approx 220 calories, but it is also filling and satisfying.  I say 'real pound of fat', because we have found we can go away, eat lots of heavier foods (such as pastry) and the scales show we've gained weight.  Yet, within a few days these mysterious pounds disappear.  We've put this down to water retention - that's all we think it can be, because we know we haven't eaten 3600 additional calories.  So now we don't panic and just let our body settle down first. 

We will be delighted to emerge from the festivities with a small weight gain, because we know this weight will soon disappear again.  During a successful year of weight loss, we found that the additional walking really did help.  So for my mince pie I could walk to the shops and back if that was a round trip of 2 miles or 20 minutes there ane back.  I did that yesterday!  OK I was a little strapped for time, but made the effort, blew away the cobwebs, saved petrol and added 200 calories to my 'calorie bank'.  Later in the day, mince pie and coffee in hand.......... I felt entitled.  If I don't get to add a bit of walking beforehand, I can always increase that activity in January, knowing that it really does work towards the weight loss.

New look

I've rearranged my blog - hope you like it. 

Busy morning -Tuesday lunch

After a rather unexpectedly pleasant but busy morning, we were ravenous.  A swift takeaway could have cured the problem, but we didn't.  We know later on this week we will be eating for England. So what was there that we could possibly eat within 10 minutes of getting through the door?

We went for one of our favourite quick meals that cost us around just 400 calories.  Ciabatta and mozzarella salad.

This salad on toasted ciabatta was the perfect meal.  A dash of balsamic syrup and we were tucking in before we knew it.  We shared a ball of mozzeralla (half a ball = 160 calories).  It hit the spot - especially with the salad dressed nicely in olive oil and seasoned well. 

Shopping

I take comfort in the fact that my trawl around the shops means I'm burning calories.  I've usually got my pedometer with me to see what exactly all this means. Well, today I've walked 1.9 miles while I was at the shops.  What I like to do is park up, go to a couple of shops, then return to the car with the shopping and then continue.  Food shopping is great, because we get to lug heavier bags - and sometimes we remind ourselves that once upon a time, earlier this year, we actually carried that additional weight!  All these trips to and from the car adds up.  We all have lots to do this time of year, and this limits time available to go on a leisurely walk, so by incorporating the walk into the shopping, it kills 2 birds with one stone.  Even taking the stairs rather than the escalator adds to the weight loss.  My 1.9 miles = 190 calories.  It works out that 1 mile (around 20 mins) = 100 calories.

If I'm really good today - as I hope to be - I can add this shopping workout to my 'calorie bank' (saving the extra calories up towards Christmas day).

I had porridge with syrup, for breakfast (around 225 calories), a quick sandwich for lunch (say 500 calories) and there's a huge jacket potato ready to go for later.  According to how we feel, we'll either have this with beans and coleslaw, or a salad.  The dinner should be around 500-600 calories.  I'm aiming for 1500 calories today and my partner 2000, that's 500 calories less than our average daily allowance.  So, despite eating really filling meals, we have quite a few cals left to play with.    

Planning ahead

We eventually clocked up 3 miles today.  That's about 300 calories, but it may be more as it was pretty cold, no, it was bitter, and I think that burns more calories?  We are amazed at our fitness now though, and the hill we had once found challenging (and had to stop a couple of times) is now unbelievably easy.  The only difficulty was breathing in the cold air. Our evening meal was a cheese sandwich and some crisps!

We've missed walking due to the bad weather, and wonder if this will affect our weight loss?  So far, it doesn't seem to be making any difference.  What we try to do is get out for a short walk, even 20 minutes will do.

With Christmas upon us, we have decided to be strict on our next 4 'good days'.  We're pretty relaxed usually, but realise we might need a few extra calories for next weekend.  We can work towards this by planning ahead.  We'll have a couple of 'jacket potato' meals, partly because it will be nice to ditch the meat, but mainly because I bought a 12.5kg of potatoes, believing it was a good deal at the time.  We also plan to have a beef stir-fry because that's a virtuous yet filling meal which we haven't had for a while. Then there will be a fish meal - not sure what, but fish is also very light and filling.

Faggots

This is a strong tasting dish which we love.  We picked up three huge faggots from the butcher and made some onion gravy to go with it.  The onions were cooked with some garlic and beef stock - and half of it was whizzed up, to help thicken it.  We added a touch of cornflour to thicken it a little bit more.  It was delicious and we ate it with mash, carrots and peas. I'm not sure about the calorie content, but as all the veg was boiled, I doubt the dish was more than 600 calories.  Faggots are made of pork and offal, and they are not heavily laden with calories.  They are so filling, and it was a bit of a struggle eating just one of these...

The last time I cooked these, I had to censor the picture as faggots are not very photogenic!! This time it doesn' look quite as bad, so here's what they looked like:

Tempura battered onion rings & steak to follow

We've just enjoyed some brilliant onion rings.  The batter was so light and tasty, and the crunch superb.  The onion was soft and delicious.  Using a spanish onion, these were huge!  Sorry about the pink dish - but hopefully this will give you some idea of size of these magnificent beasts.  Basically take 100g plain flour and add fizzy water - that's it.  Have a look online for the recipe.

I've no idea about calories - as we don't usually eat deep fried food.  What I tend to do in this case is have a wild guess, and hope (by next weigh in) I'm right!  We were going to have just one or two with our steak, in place of chips, but after a 'test' we decided it would be better to cook a few and eat them as a starter, before pausing for half an hour or so and eating the steak. 

Our steak meal will now consist of a good 6oz steak which will come to about 300 calories.  We're going to have a red wine sauce, which shouldn't add too many more calories.  There will be a side salad and a pile of delicious new potatoes (in a little butter).  The potatoes and salad will come to no more than 200 calories.  I'm going to dress the salad with a little olive oil, and some balsamic vinegar. 

For the red wine sauce - dice up two shallots, a clove of garlic and place in saucepan.  Throw in a big glass of red wine and a shot of port.  Boil it up until it turns into a syrup.  Do not use ANY oil at this stage, or fry the shallots/garlic.  When it has reduced, drain out the onion/garlic.  Let it cool and before you want to use it, just WARM (do not boil) up and add a knob of butter. 

We have only managed about 2.5 miles walking today - but that's 250 calories! The weather is not being very nice to us lately, but as we have to do a bit of shopping - I've taken my pedometer with me all day - and been surprised at just how many steps we have clocked up (and how much we have spent shopping...).  So my calorie allowance today is 2000 + 250.  That'll take care of the large glass of wine I'm about to have............

Saturday's feast

Today we are having a good old bacon sandwich for lunch.  I bought some lovely white bread that has been made locally and apparently it helps those with a yeast intolerance.  Not that we think we have a problem, but we have found that when we eat bread, we feel a little bloated afterwards.  It's also noticeable that we weigh more too.  This local bread is proved overnight - and this is the key.  So a couple of good slices of bread and some fresh bacon is all that we need!

The bacon was from the butcher - so much tastier than the pre-packed stuff.  I've mentioned this before.  We trim off the excess fat, and cut this up into chunks and set aside.  Put the bacon in the frying pan for about a minute on both sides - so the liquid gets drawn out.  Then remove the bacon and place the fat/rind in the pan.  Cook this slowly until it releases the fat.  The fat is what makes the bacon taste nice - but we feel it's better not to be eating all of that.  We then remove the fat pieces and cook our bacon in all the tasty bacon fat.  It tastes wonderful.  So much flavour, and you get to leave all the naughty fat bits behind!

Tonight we are going to have steak with salad ... I might make a mushroom sauce too. 

Friday at last

Now we get to eat our full calorie allowance!  That chilli con carne I prepared earlier this week is going to be our dinner later.  We're off to the pub, walking of course, and on return we will be tucking into a jacket potato with the chilli.  Walking a mile each way will give us 200 extra calories to play with, or add to our weightloss.

We'll be working on our weekend recipes tomorrow morning, and I know we will be having home made onion rings at some point, because I bought the biggest spanish onion I could find.  My partner made some great tempura batter the other week, and used this to give perfect onion rings! 

Wednesday's lunch

Here it is.  I know we love to eat salads for lunch, but at 400 calories or there about, it is one of our favourite meals.  In fact, this dish is so filling, we don't think to eat again until dinnertime.  I looked into why this meal really keeps the hunger pangs away.  Firstly, we have new potatoes with it - we don't scrimp either!  Around 130g of these waxy potatoes covered in butter and salt, really hit the taste buds.  Because we use new potatoes, they take time to break down in the body, so that's why they fill us up so much.  Also, we add just a tiny bit of butter - enough to coat the potato, but also enough to get the taste of it.  This added fat will also help slow down the absorption in the body.  People tend to shy away from using or adding fats, and I agree, if you add too much it's not a good thing, but we only add a little.  Then on to our salad leaves - we coat these in olive oil, salt and pepper.  Again, the olive oil will slow down the digestion, keeping hunger pangs at bay.  We add a little more fat in the form of grated cheddar cheese - just about 8 - 10g each, using a fine grater so it looks more. 

Apart from all the nutrients in the tuna, egg, cheese, potatoes and salad, the whole meal is deceivingly low in calories too.  So here it is - one of our favourites:

Wednesday's food

I made a chilli con carne yesterday, using some minced beef.  We planted a pot of chillies and there are millions of them waiting to be used!  So this might be our dinner tonight, or we may have the other half of the chicken?  Whatever it is, it will be spicy.

I'm having porridge and syrup for breakfast.  I've got a taste for this, probably because it is warm and filling.  In the summer we generally ate full fat greek plain yoghurt with our own added fruit.  As we are not eating that at the moment, I think our bodies are missing the fruit?  I've bought apples, and really enjoyed them - considering I never ate apples before, I find this strange.

If I get time, lunch will be a tuna salad.  I've been having sandwiches recently, and again, I think our bodies miss the crunch of the salads.  So a simple, cheap salad is tuna and egg. 

We think the salad lunches spur on the weight loss.  They also fill us up so much, we really feel we've eaten more than we need.  At around 400 calories for a tuna/egg salad - and that's with buttered new potatoes, I can't promote this easy salad enough.  It is so nutritious too.  If tuna is not your thing, then have whatever is - just weigh it all out and calculate the calories (you only need to do this once) to get a rough idea of what you are actually eating.

That Wednesday feeling

Well, it's here again.  Wednesday weigh in.

It's been 11 months since we started our way of eating.  4 days of being good. 3 days of normal calorie allowance.  It's worked.  We have lost well over 5 stone between us and the weight is still disappearing slowly but surely,

Considering I spent the whole day picking at food yesterday, I am pleasantly surprised to find myself down another half pound since last week.  My partner is also down half a pound.   We are really pleased with this result, particularly as we have not been able to walk due to the awful UK weather this week.  My partner was away the last couple of days, so he was at the mercy of hotel food.  I had lots to do, and because he was away, I ended up picking - a half sandwich here, a plate of chips there.  Believe me, eating like that is NOT good.  My brain was telling me I hadn't eaten much, yet I knew I had, as I was keeping a rough running total of all the foods I picked on, and I do know I sneaked in a bit more than I should have!!

My partner went to a large meeting, and some of his colleagues hadn't seen him since last year's convention.  As he walked into the room, he was greeting with disbelief.  Mind you, men are just so unexpressive so they weren't exploding with excitement, just cooly saying how he looked so good.  A few of the French guys actually guessed the correct weight loss - almost to the kilo.  A couple wanted to know how he did it - what the secret was.  And one patted his own stomach and said he really must get down to a bit of weight loss as it was creeping on and he was in a 'steady growth phase'.  Well that's alright if you're in sales! 

So, all those little half pounds here and there are working.  We are slimming down and I can't wait to see the scales report back a healthy BMI - nearly there!!  The strangest feeling at the moment (for me) is that I can see my shoulder bones appearing.  I haven't seen them since I was a skinny teenager.

Well, whatever happens, with or without walking, we are finding that if we stick to our golden rules, our weight steadily ticks down.  I really miss not having the long walks at the moment, but I am trying to make up for that by racing up and down the stairs, walking round the supermarket twice and generally trying to keep on my feet as much as possible.

Amuse bouche!

Here it is................

Just a touch of whipped cream on top............ lovely.  The sage toast was fab.

Saturday at last...

I've been busy prepping some of my own ready meals for later this week.  I made a lovely beef stew with dumplings.  This is one of our cold weather favourites.  It's warming, tasty and so low in calories (about 280 cals per portion).  We're having some of this tomorrow, with mashed potatoes and other veg.

Today we've been Christmas shopping and started the day with our porridge and syrup.  This filled us up until lunch time, which was a sandwich.  We think we have walked off these calories anyway, because I have clocked up how many miles we ended up walking round the shops!  It all adds up!

Tonight we are having half a whole chicken (to share) and this has been smothered in peri-peri seasoning.  The meat equates to around just £2 - and is enough to feed two.  We love it - and will roast this with skin on.  We also eat the crispy skin too - why not!!  We're having new potatoes with butter, corn cob and a side salad of rocket and parmesan (don't forget to dress those leaves with olive oil and salt/pepper).  You can eat this sort of meal in one of those food chains, and it'll set you back around £20.  The whole meal will be no more than 700 calories and it's very filling.

Before our main meal, we're going to have an asparagus "amuse bouche". Going posh now!!  This is simply a bunch of asparagus, a shallot, some garlic.  Chop asparagus into pieces, add a little veg stock.  Sweat the shallot and garlic then add to the asparagus.  Boil until tender, then whizz up!  Then pass it through a sieve to get rid of all the particles and you are left with a wonderful little slurp of powerful asparagus. We might have it with sage toast - roll some sliced bread - yes roll out until thin, place a few sage leave on one slice, leaving some gaps, then top with the other slice.  No butter required as the gaps end up sealing together.  Cut off crusts to make perfect squares.  Lightly oil an oven tray, place sage sandwiches on and put another tin on top.  Bake for around 20 mins.  It's wonderful with the amuse bouche or any soup in fact. I'll take a picture of this so you can see how impressive it looks, then you can wow your friends - as it's pretty tasty, yet so easy!

Here's our simple tuna salad from earlier this week - just to illustrate what we mean by filling your plate.  Make it look fabulous - make it look filling - make it look as if you are eating lots, then you won't feel deprived. 

Thursday.... damp and miserable

Lunch today was some home made pumpkin soup, which was absolutely delicious.  It's simple to make, like most soups.  We had this with some cheese sandwiches. 

Tonight we're going to have the peri-peri chicken which we were supposed to have last night, but left it too late.  We ended up eating beans on toast!! 

We'll marinate the chicken breasts in peri-peri seasoning (any brand will do) and olive oil.  A pamesan salad, new potatoes in butter and corn on the cob will complete the meal.  It's one of our favourites.  The clean tastes are great, and it's very filling.

Wednesday weigh in!

Considering I had a 'bad hair day' yesterday and had to compensate with a curry - which we've not had for ages, the weigh in was good.  Christmas shopping clocked up about 3 miles, so that added 300 calories to my calorie bank.  Needless to say I stood on the scales with a little trepidation, only to find I was 1/2 lb lighter than last week - and have hit another all time low!  My partner stayed the same this week.

The thing we have really noticed about our weight loss, is that it is affected by bread/flour.  When we eat anything with flour in it, our body seems to hold onto water.  The way we eat - which is as unprocessed as possible - makes us feel lighter, if that makes sense.  Only when we go away, and possibly have more bread or processed foods, do we feel heavier and more bloated. 

We had porridge this morning and lunch was a sandwich in town.  Tonight we'll have one of our favourite meals - peri peri chicken breast with salad and new potatoes. This meal always makes us feel lighter! 

As we chip away at the weight, we don't ever feel deprived.  By living with our way of eating, we get to stop and think......do we really want this or that.  We also make better choices - take today, lunchtime could have been deep-fried and calorie laden, but we chose not to.  We recognised we had already had a curry the night before, and wanted to make a lighter choice.  Yes, it can be difficult when you pass the shop and get hit by the aroma, but this is how we are losing weight.  We can have whatever we want, so if we really wanted it, we would have it.  Convenience - that's a great way to convince yourself it's worth having, but if you keep taking the 'convenient' route, then weight loss will be difficult.

Turning the volume up!

We are back to our 4 good days, and on these days we concentrate on our intake, and make a point of watching our snacks.  We have some favourite recipes to help us feel fuller, and these also fill our plates and look good too.

I'm having porridge and syrup for breakfast.  Tuna salad, with egg, new potatoes in butter and a little grated cheese.  Dinner is undecided yet.  We've bought a butternut squash and will be making a pot of soup for some of our lunches later this week. 

We are successfully losing weight on our  3 days off and 4 days on plan, where we eat whatever we want but just change the amount we eat.  We don't know why it works, but it could simply be that when we have our good days, we are 'very good' because we have just had 3 days of relaxation?  More importantly, the volume of food keeps our metabolism burning.  Even on our 'good' days, we eat with 'volume' in mind - such as the large, crunchy salad we are going to eat at lunch time today.

Think of how compact processed food is!  How easy it is too eat too - and can disappear in seconds.  I think satisfaction is more than just a quick chocolate bar, and our high volume dishes do satisfy us. 

Sunday - what NO roast!!

We've decided to give up roasts as we lead up to Christmas.  That way we really savour our Christmas dinner!

Today we are having Toad in the Hole.  Just something we fancied.  Keeping it simple, we are going to have mash, peas, and onion gravy.  A good old Yorkshire pudding batter, with 1 1/2 sausages, with the boiled veg should set us back no more than 600 calories.  Usually, at the weekend, we tend to eat what we want, and are not too bothered about the number of calories.  We only keep a rough count as we like to ensure we eat our full calorie allowance!

Here's the toad in the hole:

Saturday steak

This was our meal.  This is my steak, with a little bit of blue cheese on top.  There's our home made creamy mushroom sauce, and some of our own oven chips (made with King Edwards).  There was more salad on the side, and we also made a quick and easy savoy cabbage side - simply stir fry the cabbage, season and add cream.  There was of course plenty more chips, and we did go back for more. 

The picture is not that good, because of the lighting:

We used sirloin steak - about 7oz.  The oven chips were simply par-boiled potatoes, coated in a small amount of olive oil.  The whole meal no more than around 700 calories.  

Apples

I have no idea why, but I have a craving for apples.  I find this odd, because apples are my least favourite fruit?  Odd.

We can only put it down to having had less salads at lunchtime.  Perhaps my body is missing a nutritent or two? Well, the apples are in the fruitbowl now.

I'm amazed at just how many miles we clock up just shopping.  Yesterday we covered 2.2 miles and today, about 1.6.  As each mile is worth about 100 calories - this walking, can add up to a lot of weight loss in the long run.  We make it a rule now to park as far away from the shops as possible, and I like to get a few things, return to the car and go back to the shops.  It can turn your usual shopping adventure into a workout!!

Today we had our bacon sandwich for lunch, and tonight we've settled on steak - with our own oven chips and onion rings.  There will be a good rocket salad on the side - something green to cheer the plate.  We'll probably nibble on some cheese and biscuits beforehand too.

Sounds a lot doesn't it.  Certainly not diet food.  But we feel this boost to our metabolism helps our body eventually rid itself of the weight.  Well, whatever it is, it's working a treat.  People are really interested to know what we are eating now, as we have lost so much weight, AND it's stayed off.  We showed a friend our starter from last week, the scallops on cauliflower puree.  His reaction was "how can you be eating that on a diet".  We explained we were NOT on a diet.  He just could not understand it.  He could see we have lost lots of weight, but the food we were eating didn't make sense.  He is just one of many who believe that to lose weight you have to follow some alien diet plan, eating food that is not particularly interesting! But, he's trying - we've noticed his wife is now drinking small glasses of wine rather than large, after we explained how many calories were in one glass. 

Weekend thoughts

Today has been a good day.  I've manage to sneak in a walk between the showers.  It was only 2 miles, but that's 200 calories for me.  Today I had porridge for breakfast and smoked salmon/scrambled eggs with toast for lunch.  It sounds a bit decadent, but one pack of salmon between two makes a quick, easily prepared lunch.  Cheaper than picking up a couple of sandwiches from the supermarket too.

Dinner tonight - before we hit the pub - is going to be left over home-made pasta.  We're going to use up the 3 sausages in the fridge, fry and slice thinly, then add to some home-made spicy tomato sauce we found in the freezer.  This will then be stirred into the pasta strips.  Apparently, home made pasta keeps you fuller for longer, as it takes longer to break down compared to the dried version - I'm no expert, but that's what we heard on the TV.  All I can say is it is VERY filling, so I would tend to agree.

For the weekend, we hope to have a bacon sandwich on Saturday before setting off on our bikes for an hour.  In the evening, we will have a sirloin steak, but not sure what with at the moment.  Sunday roast is banned until Christmas now - so we will probably have something like toad in the hole, or even a good shepherds pie.  I've finally worked out how to set the cooker, so we can go out for a drink or some exercise and return to something warm from the oven.

Friday to Sunday we boost our calories up to normal allowances, and EAT.  We love eating food, and I think more importantly, love preparing it too.  All that freshly prepared food means less processed food, so surely that's got to be good!  And, if there is anything we really do fancy (like the 3 jaffa cakes I've just eaten....) we have them, rather than end up craving them and overeating.

Thursday pasta

I've had to submit an assignment for my study course, and as this is all new to me, I sadly neglected a couple of posts here, which I'll try to catch up with.

On Thursday, I hovered on the scales hoping for a new low - as the scales flashed a number it hadn't seen before!!  It didn't happen, but then, my weigh in day is next Wednesday, so perhaps by then it will.  I get very excited at not dieting, yet finding the weight disappearing because of the way we are eating. 

Yesterday we sort of celebrated - my first study assignment was finally completed and sent off.  So we had home made pasta again - just to prove how tasty it actually is.  Believe me, if you can make this, you will never ever eat the dried stuff again (unless you have to of course).

We bought a pot of ricotta - 99p and mixed this with some spinach, added a little egg and salt/pepper and made it into ravioli.   Using some left over sage, we fried this in some butter.  Sprinkled with parmesan and scoffed the lot.  The dish in the picture would be around 500 calories at the most.  BUT....when we were eating, we felt it needed more of a sauce, so poured on around a teaspoon of truffle oil.  What a transformation!!  Ok, not everyone has truffle oil in the cupboard, we have had ours for a long time, but any good flavoured olive oil should do the same.  It lifted the dish perfectly.