Blown Away Weekend!

Monday 21st October 2024

What a different weekend to last weekend, same place but the weather WOW!  Almost 50mph winds and dreadful rain thanks to Storm Ashley but we still had a lovely weekend, thankfully I arrived before it started.

I drove down after our huddle Saturday morning, took me 45 minutes to get from J10 M6 to J8, thankfully after that it was clear, we put the MH on a different pitch so we could have a meal and drink without having to have a taxi or walk far to get back.  Sadly the pub we chose didn't live up to our expectations!  Chewy steak which I left, this was dealt with badly by the chef who told the waitress to inform me that this cut of beef is chewy!  SERIOUSLY lol, I'm like forget it, he went to pay bill and they knocked 10% off the steak - £1.80, ridiculous, then they offered us a free dessert because they could see I wasn't pleased, we declined, I wanted a dinner not a pudding!  The owner then bought me a free drink over which just made things worse tbh, we drank up and left, I gave the waitress a tip because it wasn't her fault and I could tell she was mortified with the situation.  As we're almost back out the van, a lady came running towards us asking if I was the one who returned the steak, I'm assuming she was also the owner, I said yes and she went on to apologise and informed me she'd had words with the chef and went to hand me the money for my meal.  I said 'it was never about the money, it was the fact the steak wasn't good and she could give the money to the waitress because she'd had to handle the situation' so my dinner Saturday was chips and a few mushrooms and tomatoes lol.  

Thankfully we had a dvd to watch in the van because there was no phone/wifi signal either - early night for us!

The wind was dreadful all night and the rain was lashing down, those poor people in the field in tents!  Sunday morning we moved the MH early in case the tree by us decided to blow over in the winds.  We went back to his regular pitch and spend the rest of the day watching tv and chilling.

We did indulge in crisps so I wasn't on track this weekend at all.  Hey Ho, line drawn, back to it, I'm home now and I'm going to chill out for the rest of the day, the jobs can all wait till tomorrow!

I listened to a great audiobook driving down and back, Honeymoon for One by Portia Macintosh, easy read, funny (I even laughed out loud at it) and romance, no depth at all but I'd just done a deep read, I wanted light. 

Here's to improving my eating this week, although I'd love a slice of victoria sponge for some reason which is random as I don't really do cake!  It'll wear off I'm sure. 

Have a great week, 

Mwah, luv ya

Love me

How can it be midweek already!

 Wednesday 16th October 2024

Sometimes you don't get what you want!  I expected a maintain or a small loss yesterday and I gained 1.5lb!  I was surprisingly okay with the result because our bodies aren't machines.  This past few weeks I've had covid, so my body has dealt with that, I haven't eaten or drunk as much, and then last week I was better.  I'd lost 3.5lb last week which I didn't expect, so even with the gain, I've still lost 2lb over 2 weeks and that's good.  

Yesterday I was hungrier than I have been for a few weeks, not sure if that was genuine hunger or my sub conscious saying 'well we didn't lose, so....' but I went for good healthy food.  I ate the other half of the beetroot bomb I bought with mushrooms in a wrap, I had a cup a soup, the edamame salad I'd bought from the farm shop.  I nipped in Tesco on my way home and they had a spinach and pine nut pesto pasta reduced to £1 and I love that, so I took that for my tea and it was lush.  I also went in Farm Foods for some pop for Aryn and bought some Bernard Matthews wafer thin turkey ham - WOW it was way saltier than I remember it being when I used to eat it years ago, true processed meat at it's finest, won't buy that again.

Plant points list for the week ended at about 25, can do better and that's the plan for the week ahead, Are you getting your 30 plants a week? Plant points explained - BBC Food in case you don't know what they are.  List for yesterday includes

Spinach

Pine nuts

edamame beans

sun dried tomatoes 

beetroot 

carrot 

cumin seeds

chestnut mushrooms

olives

I'm impressed there as I didn't think I'd managed that many yesterday as I ate a lot of bready products, I'm going shopping today and buying some fruit and veggies.

I've got an olive soda bread that I bought on my way back Monday, it was a bit tough so I'm thinking of making a savoury bread bake with it to use it up and not waste it. 

Yeah, I don't like wasting food but I'm not gonna eat it just for the sake of it!

Right let's start the day, Tracktober is half way through, we got this!

Mwah, luv ya

Love me cc

Great Weekend!

Monday 14th October 2024

I've not just had the best weekend but I've also tracked everything and not felt like I've missed out on anything. 

I drove down to Dorset Friday, after settling everything at the MH we drove into Swanage to enjoy some fish and chips, 

Absolutely delicious and I left some, I didn't have anything else that evening either.  

Saturday morning we had a cooked breakfast in a pub where we went to check out their campsite for the future, we also opted for the small both of us, I gave him my hash brown though as I'm not a huge fan. 

After enjoying this we drove to look at the Cerne Giant, now I hadn't done my research here so we parked in the car park and followed the arrows saying 'giant hill', little did I realised until we got to the NT sign that to get the view of the giant you were better pulling into the layby at the side of the road and looking up lol, we'd walked up the hill and underneath the giant before realising this '-) that red line - oops, he had his best boots on too, they're all muddy now! 

We then drove to Abbotsbury Swannery, which has been there for over 600 years and in breeding season there can be up to 1,000 swans, after walking round, we did the Swan Maze, I'm a big wuss, shouting 'don't leave me, I'm scared I'll get stuck in here' when he started walking fast. 

We drove back to Swansea through glorious countryside, finding a parking space to leave the car for the night so we could have a few drinks and food.  I ordered seabass and samphire, was good, my photos not great. 

We had to walk 1 hour 15 minutes for a taxi, I wished I'd known as I'd have booked it earlier, was so ready for bed when we got back. 

Sunday he'd treated me to a nature trail with the National Trust we had our own ATV and driver who took us along the beach and through the dunes telling us all about the area, explaining how the dunes formed, all very interesting.

our ATV!

From there we drove to Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove and had our lunch there, I didn't eat again after eating this plateful of yummyness, I couldn't finish it either.  I did indulge in a bottle of wine when we got back to the MH though.

Perfect end to a perfect weekend.  Left early this morning and stopped at a couple of farm shops, one I've wanted to visit for a while because they make the best pies and I normally get them from Ocado so it was great to go buy them from source. Pies & Pastries | Thorner's (thornersofsomerset.co.uk)  I then stopped at the farm shop services on the M5 just after Junction 12, it's a bit expensive but I bought things that were reduced to try :) breakfast was a piece of black pudding - weird maybe but I fancied it, then for lunch I had a smoked trout cob, all reduced from the farm shop.

 

I'll be having an early night tonight as last night was unsettled, heavy rain in a MH makes for disturbed sleep!  Lots of dreaming too, I don't like dreaming at all. 

On a positive, huddle chat is prepared, house isn't too messy, I'm thinking I might have a toasted teacake for dinner and look forward to being weighed tomorrow - fingers crossed I lose anything, I'm not expecting lots, 1/2lb will do, I want to live and lose, enjoy life and be able to chip away at the numbers.

Here's to making it through another week.

Mwah, luv ya 

Love me xx 

Another day in the bag...

Thursday 10th October 2024

Short blog today, got to leave the house at half seven to get to the huddle at Bloxwich Mem, I'm still on track and tracking it all honestly, easy - no, worth it - yes!

Yesterday I had omelette for breakfast, adding to my plant points, so I'd already had 5, 

carrots

broccoli

potatoes

cauliflower

banana

I added 

yellow pepper

red pepper

mushrooms

wholemeal bread

Then with dinner, which was leftover lamb from Sunday served in pitta breads with salads and dips, blooming tasty it was, the lads loved it. 

  

Adding 

onion

cucumber

lettuce

white cabbage

tomatoes

I'm on  14 so far, now to see if I can add other stuff over the rest of the week! 

I finally got the remote back last night which meant I was able to catch up on MAFS and BB, you can't beat a bit of crap tv and a glass of wine, I love it, I nearly got the bed to myself too but the damn cats got under the bed before I had chance to close the door and then I couldn't shut the door because I couldn't get them out the room so I've not had the best sleep because Coco purrs so loudly!  

It's all good though, it's Thursday, a day full of huddles, the most difficult thing I have to do today is decide what we're having for dinner - mmm what shall we have for dinner?!

Here's to making it through 100% on track, we got this :)

Mwah, luv ya 

Love me xx 

Yay I lost 3.5lb!

Wednesday 9th October 2024

I lost 3.5lb in the first week of tracktober, I was really chuffed with that, writing it all down really, really, helps!  It helps you to see whether you're eating healthy, having those 5 a day etc, not just if you're within your calorie allowance! 

As he was home, he took me for lunch, we went to the Lancaster and I have to say it was good grub, plus on a Tuesday 12-4pm it's buy 1 main get one free so we both had belly pork for £15.99, bargain.  Now this is where you need to be impressed, I cut it in half and gave him half my pork, then I removed most of the fat, I was still full by the end of it and I enjoyed my lunch out.  As the calories weren't on the menu, I used the app to guestimate the calories. 

 

I wasn't really hungry again later but when he had cheese and biscuits I had a couple of those, perfect and meant I ended on track and under budget.  Here's to getting through the rest of the week.

Our huddle challenge this week is to get Plant Points, this is going to be a challenge for me too as I need to mix up what I'm eating, so yesterday I managed 5 points, I need to up my game because they recommend 30 a week but you can't repeat a plant point, it has to be different ones, so I had a banana yesterday, if I had one again that won't count as each plant only counts once.

I need to use up the leftover lamb today, I've bought pitta breads and wraps so they can have either, I suppose I could freeze it if it doesn't get used.  The meeting chat has made me fancy an omelette so that's gone on my to eat list, I can't eat everything in one day!

Anyway, I need to shower and get ready for work this morning, here's to another great day,

Mwah, luv ya 

Love me xx

Looking forward to the scales!

 Tuesday 8th October 2024 

Can you believe it's only 77 sleeps till Christmas and that's a massive motivation for me to lose some weight, I want to end the year lighter than I started it and I know I'll gain a bit over Christmas because that's what it's all about, spending time with loved ones and indulging!  Today's my first weigh-in for Tracktober and I've had a great week, everything tracked, temptation resisted at times and enjoyed my meals. 

Yesterday I made pasta bake with the other Peri Peri chicken, I added peppers, sun dried tomatoes, sweetcorn, tomato paste and Philadelphia light and the lads inhaled it.  

As you can see, I had a girl portion, realising I don't need as much food as either of the males in my life!

Not the best nights sleep last night, lots of dreaming, mom was in it and I'd come home and she'd rescued a tiger - yeah a real life tiger, I hate dreams, then I was woken by an alarm on his phone 45 minutes before I needed to be getting up, the phone was in the living room so I had to get up because he didn't hear it!

I've got leftover lamb to use today, I'm thinking either lamb in pittas with mint mayo or I could make a shepherds pie, mmm decisions, decisions.

We went to Aryn's open evening for 6th form last night, he has no idea what he wants to do as a job, but it's looking like 6th form maths, ICT, as much as he wasn't keen on doing English because of the literature side of it, his results are really good so after a conversation he's agreed English and possibly Chemistry.  Now to get the results! 

Nothing worth having comes easy whether it's an exam result or weight loss!  Last week we asked our members what are you willing to do to lose weight and what aren't you willing to do because they are all very different people.  You can't mark them all the same and expect them to behave and eat the same way.  Some will be willing to weigh and measure everything others won't, some will be willing to exercise others won't and that's why Be Happy Owls works because we help members design their own 'diet' that works for them!

On that note, I need another drink, this one's gone cold, I'm not willing to give up my morning cuppa - are you?  I was willing to change it to decaf though.  

Let's have a great day, 

Mwah, luv ya 

Love me xx

I made it through the weekend!

 Monday 7th October 2024

I did it, I made it through the weekend 100% tracking but also starting day 7 within my allowance, it helped that we didn't go out this weekend, had a lazy weekend in the house.  

I made healthier choices too though, the peri peri chicken I bought from Sainsbury's in the meal deal was absolutely delicious, they had theirs with waffle chips, I had salad with mine and one slice of garlic bread to say I'd tasted it.  That was Saturday. 

Sunday when I made him a full English, I had a sausage sandwich with mushrooms and tomatoes.

Sunday lunch was a lamb dinner, check me out weighing my lamb and almost measuring the gravy, I didn't have as much as I normally would anyway. 

I only had a couple of small glasses of wine all weekend, I opened a bottle on Thursday and there's still a glass of it - GO ME!  

Feeling good starting the week, I shall get weighed tomorrow and see if it's helped and if I'm on course to get some weight loss this month!  Wish me luck.

Keeping it short this morning as I had a lie in and I've got loads to do, it's Aryn's open evening tonight for 6 form, interested to go to that. 

Here's to a great day, 

Mwah, luv ya

Love me xx

Saturday has landed!

Saturday 5th October 2024

I need to remember this statement every day this month to keep me on track!  

Yesterday I got so stuck into doing the housework, I forgot to eat and I wasn't hungry, it was afternoon before I realised.  I ate a packet of sliced beef because it was use by yesterday and I was only eating to have something in my stomach.  I cooked the lads shredded chicken with black beans in a spicy tomato sauce in taco boats but I didn't like it at all, so I just had the Doritos and I had a good few so that was my dinner - not the healthiest of days but it's all tracked and I only consumed 772 calories all day.  Weird as I wasn't hungry so listening to my body.  This morning my belly was growling so I've had weetabix (well the home branded ones).

My house is so clean and tidy, I love it when it's like this, it's just keeping on top of it.  I burned 2,877 calories yesterday according to my Fitbit, did 11,776 steps and 104 zone minutes just from doing housework and a walk round Sainsbury's.  How good is that!  My back/knee/leg all reminded me for the rest of the day and all night that I'd done that much moving too, gotta love being in pain - NOT!

I picked this Chicken meal deal up in Sainsburys for today, £12, that's two whole chickens and 3 sides how good is that.  I'm not sure I'm a piri piri fan, if I have Nando's I would have the lemon and herb but I'll give it a go, the lads will inhale them I'm sure!  I might cook them both together in the oven to save on electricity and then I might turn the one into a pasta bake which I can freeze for a mid week meal or it would keep till Monday in fridge.  But seriously 2 chickens and 3 sides for £12, that's ridiculous! 

I've took a leg of lamb my sister gave me out the freezer, we're gonna have a Sunday roast tomorrow, looking forward to that, roasters, yorkies and gravy, nothing better than that!

I'm feeling positive as the weekend begins, I survived Friday easily, I can do this - we all can!

Mwah, luv ya 

Love me xx

Friday's arrived, the weekends aren't as easy!

Friday 4th October 2024

Another day in the bag, just been chatting about what to have for tea and he suggested chippy but I said no as I'm trying to eat healthier and he said yeah I thought that, he was trying to save me hassle but I don't mind cooking.  I've took chicken breasts out of the freezer and I've sat here toying with defrosting them in microwave, cooking from frozen in slow cooker or I've found out I can cook from frozen in my Ninja combi, I've still not decided what I'm going to do with them, I'm thinking some kind of shredded chicken and rice served in taco boats.  I want something that can be reheated in microwave because we will probably all eat at different times which is typical on a Friday. 

Yesterday went well, I finished just over my daily allowance but it was all tracked, I had this for lunch and it was delicious, I'd like to experiment and maybe make my own version.  I had it as part of an M&S gastropub meal deal, so £15 for main, side and dessert or starter.  Aryn had the dessert, I had this side as a main meal, 428 calories in the whole thing and it really was lush.  

    

Because I knew I wouldn't do it when I got home I diced some salad before going back to work, there's enough there for today too. 

   

For dinner we had the Moussaka, I had a little garlic bread with it, less than 40p in Lidls they are and I put some cheese in them to make them scrumptious, Aryn ate the rest. 872 calories in total for this but it was really tasty, without the bit of garlic bread it would've been 261 calories less. 

  

I've found my taste for wine again, so had a couple of glasses, first in a fortnight though!

Today I shall mostly be a domestic goddess, the bathrooms, kitchen and living rooms all need a good clean, beds need changing, I've not done a lot for the last couple of weeks as I was poorly last week, rested Monday, did all the ironing Wednesday and worked the other days so today is catch up day then I'll be back to normal next week and can get back to the gym too.  

Energy levels seem back to full capacity, Aryn's a couple of days behind me so he's skipping MMA tonight, but he has managed 2 classes this week so fair play.  He has so much school work too, it's a tough year for him with his exams next spring. 

I'm delaying starting ain't I :) right let's do this!  Have a great day x

Mwah, luv ya 

Love me xx

Tracktober, day 3

Thursday 3rd October 2024

Tracktober is going well, I'm not gonna pretend I don't want to eat more food than I have, this weather makes me want to eat plus my eating patterns have been out of tune with having the lurgy last week, the only thing I've found easy is not drinking wine which feels very strange! 

Foodwise yesterday, my plan had been to have banana on toast, but Aryn ate the last one so I had egg and mushrooms on toast instead, I put brown sauce on the one slice of toast instead of butter and the egg was enough on the other, 356 calories including my mug of tea. 

For dinner we had couscous with veg, Aryn had spicy kfc style chicken on his I had a tempura chicken, I've got to say I really like them, not something I'd normally buy but it was in a Coop meal deal I think.  I didn't realise the box of couscous was feed 4, and I'd split it between the two of us, I couldn't eat it all, so what I did eat cost me 624 calories, but I really enjoyed it. 

Lunch was a tin of chicken soup, but I was still hungry so I had some of these ryvita crackerbreads wih pate, I really like these for 20 calories each, they're the ones that are full of air, not the crispbreads, I'd forgot these even existed!

Now I also had a cup of Options hot chocolate the other day, I decided to weigh the powder to make sure it did only set me back 40 calories, because I know we all do the heaped spoonfuls and don't really use the 11g we're supposed too, just so you know, it's 3 level teaspoons and in the right size cup it's plenty and a tasty sweet kick. 

I was wanting to pick yesterday, wanting more food, but other than 4 seafood sticks, I managed to keep it under control.  My app says I had 7.9 portions of 5 a day, but again, it was only 4 different things, that's an improvement though!

I was under my total allowance, just looked at the totals and my salt was high, looking at it, it's the pate, I never thought about that being a salty food, fatty yeah.  It's the processed food, the soup, the chicken, I tend to make a lot of food from scratch so salt is rarely an issue.  Having said that, if they get to write, 'salt took her' on my gravestone, I'll be amazed!

Bananas have been bought, so I can have them on toast for breakfast if I fancy, it's a bit early today though, I leave at half 7, not sure I want to eat anything, I can wait till later for food. Not home till one though so need to think about if I want to take something with me.  It's actually the first morning I haven't woken up hungry so maybe eating healthy the last few days is balancing my appetite back out.

I got all my ironing done yesterday, up and down the stairs, managed to get over 9k steps which is great for me!  Managed 16 minutes active, they were from emptying the car at the venue on the morning, then putting the chairs out.  See activity doesn't have to be in the gym, housework and general day to day stuff helps.  

Here's to making day 3 a success, it's a busy day so I won't have time to think about food as much.  I'm feeling positive, starting to break the bad habits again.

We got this!

Mwah, luv ya

Love me x

Tracktober!

Wednesday 2nd October 2024

Temptation is hard!  But we can resist and get the results we want.  I haven't blogged for over a week because I was busy, Elle was on holiday, I didn't feel great, so blogging was just another thing on a long list of things 'to do'.  

I gained 1/2lb when I weighed yesterday, I hadn't weighed on Thursday as I was on my own and completely forgot, then got too busy with our members, I'm happy with that half but as Elle pointed out, 1/2lb every week soon adds up!  She's right (I hate that sometimes 😁 the truth hurts!) I'd rather be losing 1/2lb a week, we've got 12 weeks till Christmas and they'll soon go by.

This is why we're all doing Tracktober this month, tracking is a great way to see what you need to work on.  Looking at mine for yesterday, I managed 4.1 of my 5 a day according to nutracheck which was better than I've been doing lately, but I only had butternut squash and a banana so really I only had 2!

I've started my list of meals I enjoy because I know that will help me going forward when it comes to deciding what I want to eat.  Yesterday when I was looking at a members tracker I noticed banana on toast and I thought, mmm I've not had that for a while so I had it for my tea when I got home and I really enjoyed it.  That could be a regular breakfast, I also enjoyed the weetabix I had the other week so that could be another, I had scrambled egg on toast yesterday for breakfast which was delicious but because of the butter I put on the toast with my cuppa it was 484 calories, the banana on a slice of toast is only 183 calories and the Weetabix with 125ml milk is 195 calories so I could have both of those for less than the eggs and it wouldn't have so much saturated fat, plus it's one of my 5 a day.  Worth thinking about isn't it and if it was in a little notebook in the kitchen, I can flick through the ideas and decide, I can also use it for shopping purposes. 

I'm off my wine too which is gonna help isn't it, feeling poorly last week meant I didn't want any, when I opened a bottle Monday, it didn't taste that great, so I didn't bother, poured a little bit last night from the open bottle and nope still not tasting great so I didn't bother again.  I drink red wine because I like the taste, if it's not tasting great there's no point!  I'm sure it's not a forever thing - but imagine if it is! 

I ended my day on track, I'd got 198 calories spare but they'll be my safety belt at the weekend, I've decided Saturday is my day where I can go a little over if I need too, if we go out.

Here's to making it through October and seeing results, it's only 83 days to Christmas, that'll soon pass, we talked last night about booking ferries for Ireland, that's when I know it's getting closer!  

Have a great day, I'm going to eat better today, I've got food I bought to eat that isn't as low in calories as I'd like, we had stuffed pasta yesterday, it's just not worth the calories I've decided, it's alright like but I can think of foods I'd rather eat - another reason for writing that meal list.  

Not sure what we're having, but I could do egg fried rice with crispy chicken or there's fish in batter which would be nice with chips, I don't want to be eating 'diet food' because those 'diets' don't last, this is what happens when you go on a typical 'diet'.

We don't promote those kinds of diets, it's okay to eat what you enjoy and you can still lose weight, so that's the plan!

Mwah, luv ya 

Love me x