Tasty Zero lunch/dinner or breakfast if you're a little odd like me!

Wednesday 19th June 2019
It is better to do something than to do nothing. 

Great day yesterday, over 7 stone lost on my scales at my workshops and a wonderful vibe going on, even the rain that arrived on the night didn't bother us!  We shared our success, inspired each other to keep going or to get back on track if we'd been struggling.   Talking about this all or nothing thinking is helping too as I know I'm guilty of that, what I've realised is If you’re a perfectionist like I'm guilty of being (I'm better than I was but yeah, I'm still a perfectionist at heart), you probably have a tendency to slip into all-or-nothing thinking, you know that it’s either perfect or I’m not doing it at all attitude, I ate a cake, I may as well eat the packet attitude, this is to protect yourself from the judgement and criticism that you think will come from others if you fail.  Now that last bit was a wake up call for me, I don't like to admit it but I know that's true, I don't want to be judged so if I'm not doing it perfect, hell I'll not do it and no one can say, I'm not doing it well.  How silly is that, but I bet it's not just me, do you do that?  

I'm better than I was, so May I wasn't perfect but I was losing weight, the last few weeks definitely not been anywhere near perfect but managed to maintain my weight, be interesting to see what those scales say this morning, I know I've gone a long way from perfect so I need to be careful that, I'm not going completely opposite and being PERFECTLY CRAP, gotta get that balance, I'll be happy with a pound a month as long as it's going down and not up.

How do we stop that all or nothing thinking, well find out more in your workshop but also start lowering your expectations, stop setting those unrealistic goals, it's unlikely that you can lose weight every week or stick to plan constantly, there will be times when you're ill, on holiday, just not feeling it, that's when we need to give ourselves a break and do what we can or get back to it when we can.  Instead of saying "I'm going to lose ....', start to create effort based goals, if you're a perfectionist you probably only want to do things you're good at, that all or nothing mindset kicks in and we're scared we won't achieve our weight loss goals, with effort based goals, you're less likely to feel disheartened because you're not aiming for numbers.  You're more likely to continue, so what's an effort-based goal?  

Oh and start small, so my effort based goal at the moment, is 3 workouts a week, but only 15/20 minutes, now I didn't do one Monday as I usually would because I was doing the cooking demo with Lorraine, all we did was about 7 minutes in her kitchen whilst waiting for something to cook, but that's okay, I was in pain Monday so I wasn't going to give myself a hard time, instead I did some stretches. 

You could make an effort based goal to eat 3 healthy meals a day, to eat your five a day, to drink 2 pints of water.  Focus on EFFORT!  WW call them behavioural goals but I like the word effort because we all know we can put some effort into something, it doesn't sound as much pressure as changing our behaviour.  You up for putting a bit of effort into yourself - notice I said a BIT not a LOT! 

Anyway FOOD! I was messing around in the kitchen yesterday and made a zero pointed lentil bake - nom nom nom 

 

Trust me it tasted as good as it looked, well that's what those that tasted it told me.  Yesterday I blogged a lentil bake which was 12SP and that was good, but I wanted to see if I could replace the sweet potato with butternut squash and use spray light instead of oil and yep you can.  This is how I did it;

Zero Curried Lentil Bake –  YES 0SP!

Spray light

1 large onion (finely chopped)

1 tsp finely chopped garlic

1 celery stalk (finely chopped)

 2 medium carrots (finely chopped)

1 tbsp curry powder

175g red split lentils

 580ml vegetable stock (I used 2 cubes

240g butternut squash (cut into approx. 1 cm cubes)  

100g frozen peas

3 eggs (lightly beaten)

1. Pre heat oven to 180C/350F/Gas4
2. Spray light a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, celery and carrots then reduce the heat to low and cook for approx. 10 mins (until softened) add a splash of water if needed to stop it sticking and don't be afraid to add a few more sprays of spray light. 
3. Meanwhile, put the butternut squash cubes on a baking tray and spray light them, then pop in oven for about 15 minutes, keep your eye on them, you want them cooked but firm. 
4. Add the curry powder to the frying pan and cook for a further minute
5. Add the lentils & stock, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low and allow to simmer until cooked, soft and stock absorbed (approx. 20 mins)
6. Once lentils are cooked, allow to cool slightly and then add the butternut squash, egg and peas. Stir until combined.
7. Place the mixture in a greased, ovenproof dish (roughly 10" x 7.5")
8. Bake in the oven for 30-40 mins or until set and golden, timings will vary with ovens.
9. Slice and serve.

It's delicious warm or cold, great to take in your sandwich box for work, a filling, healthy meal for lunch, dinner or breakfast if you're a bit weird like me.  Trust me, it's really good for your digestive system too!  Oh and it's a cheap meal too, helping toward your 5 a day.  Red lentils are £1.80 a KG in Sainsbury's and if you find a butternut squash a bit of a bitch to chop they even sell a Sainsbury's Soup Mix, Butternut Squash for 90p, there's 600g and it does have red onion in it but that's ok just roast that with the squash, it'll all taste good once its finished.  

The rest of my day was healthy, although I will admit to 2 chocolate biscuits last night, I had this for my dinner, it's Penn Road Butchers chicken sausages made into meatballs with a sun-dried tomato sauce and spaghetti, only 8SP.  

Lunch was a delicious bacon, lettuce and red pepper sandwich (I didn't have any tomatoes!) I love this crisp bacon, it's 7SP a packet but I only used 20g (2SP worth on the sandwich) 

I still wanted to eat at the end of my day, no I wasn't hungry, I just wanted to eat, so I had 4 Broghies for 2SP, with 2 Extra Light Laughing Cow cheese triangles for 1SP and cucumber, it occupied my mind and mouth for a few minutes!  

Right that's me, I'm off to fulfil another of my effort based goals this morning, well actually 2 of them, the first to do some form of workout, I'm thinking a bit of yoga in the kitchen maybe, then my other one is to go to my WW workshop as a member because I'm worth making the time for, everything else will wait! 

Have a very, great day BeYOUtiful.

Mwah xx