You can have muffin without the muffin top!

31^st October 2014

Strength – a river cuts through a rock, not because of its power but its persistence.

Good morning, I’m up early and off to a training day today with my Weight Watcher colleagues, I also get to sit next to my bestie all day which is a bonus! 

So not only is it Friday, it’s Halloween, candy and sweets will be in houses everywhere, not mine thankfully, we celebrate by closing the curtains, turning the lights off and pretending we’re out – sorry true killjoys here as far as the tradition of trick or treating goes.  I can’t handle having bowls of treats in my house at the moment, I’m struggling not to eat anything and everything so temptation cannot be around me!

Another successful day yesterday, I’m still eating more than I probably need but it’s all Filling & Healthy foods so that’s progress!  I also gave the tube of Pringles and bag of Haribos away that I’d used in my meetings all week, I knew if I took them home we’d have eaten them!

I made muffins for breakfast yesterday though, they were delicious and only 4pp each,

Raspberry and Banana Muffins

4pp each

Prep time: 15 min Cook time: 25 min

Serves: 8

Ingredients

200 g Plain White Flour   

2 teaspoons (level) Baking Powder   

8 tablespoons Artificial Sweetener, Granulated (such as Splenda)   

100 g Raspberries, frozen, briefly thawed   

1 medium (raw) Egg, whole   

1 teaspoons (level) Vanilla Extract   

50 g Butter, melted   

100 ml Semi Skimmed Milk   

1 medium Banana, ripe, mashed   

Instructions

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 6/200°C/400°F. Place 8 paper muffin cases into a muffin tray, or use squares of greaseproof paper.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the sweetener and raspberries.

Beat together the egg, vanilla extract, melted butter and milk. Stir into the dry ingredients with the mashed banana until just combined. Avoid overmixing and do not beat. The mixture will be quite lumpy, but there should not be any traces of dry flour. Spoon into the paper cases.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and golden. Cool on a wire rack.

I didn’t have 8 tablespoons of sweetener but I did have about 2tbsp and some sachets of vanilla flavoured sweeteners so I added about 8 of them as well.  They worked, I like warm muffins for breakfast occasionally, especially when it’s miserable and grey outside - it’s like sunshine in a cake case!  Muffins are also really easy to make it has to be said, these Nigella ones are mmm too;

Chocolate banana muffins

The recipe says makes 12 (6pp each) I made 13 and brought it down to 5pp each.

In Nigella’s words;

“most muffins are at their best pretty well straight out of the oven, the bananas in the mixture make sure these beauties keep their moist, eat-me texture long after those less favoured have staled and lost their allure.”

3 very ripe or overripe bananas

125 ml vegetable oil

2 large eggs

100 grams soft light brown sugar

225 grams plain flour

3 tablespoons best-quality cocoa powder (sifted)

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1.    Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6 and line a 12-bun muffin tin with papers. Don’t worry about getting special papers: regular muffin cases will do the job.

2.    Mash the bananas by hand or with a freestanding mixer. Still beating and mashing, add the oil followed by the eggs and sugar.

3.    Mix the flour, cocoa powder and bicarb together and add this mixture, beating gently, to the banana mixture, then spoon it into the prepared papers.

4.    Bake in the preheated oven for 15–20 minutes, by which time the muffins should be dark, rounded and peeking proudly out of their cases. Allow to cool slightly in their tin before removing to a wire rack.

What am I doing sharing cake recipes with people who are trying to lose weight!  Well as we’ve discussed this week, you can eat anything you want as long as you track it and it’s within your allowance.  Ignorance isn’t bliss, don’t pretend you’re not going to have the foods, don’t try to resist the good stuff forever, that won’t work long time.

If like me you’re a foodie, then you have to find a way to have your cake and eat it, not just look longingly at photos of them on Facebook or in shop windows!

Yep you can eat niceness, my yesterday looked like this;

Breakfast – 2 muffins (8pp)

Lunch – salmon, brown rice & peas – (12pp)

Tea - Liver and mash (8pp)

Yep cake for breakfast, why not, a little of what you fancy does you good, there were banana and raspberries in them, I rarely eat fruit so at least I did yesterday!

Right I’m off to get ready for a day with a bunch of witches, I mean leaders ‘-) tee hee!

Have a fabulous Friday BeYOUtiful and remember YOU CAN!

let the miserables be banished ;)

30^th October 2014

The two things in life you are in total control over are your attitude and your effort. Billy Cox

Well Monday may have been a slap in the face by the scales but they won’t say that number next Monday, I will guarantee that, I won’t like it’s take me until now to believe that statement but I genuinely do feel like I can finish this week with a loss and on track.

Yesterday was delicious, egg, bacon, tomatoes & bread for breakfast, liver and onions with mash and veg for dinner and the last of the left over stew for tea.  Today’s already planned salmon and brown rice for lunch and the spare liver & onion dinner I made up yesterday for when I get home after my long day, that’ll stop me being tempted to stop and get takeaway (which would be doubly tempting this week as we’re touching on that subject in my meeting) and I won’t be snacking when I do get home because there’s nothing there to snack on.

Over 100lb lost by my members yesterday, that always helps to motivate me I have to admit, I also find talking to my helpers and listening to everyone’s stories help me put everything into perspective and that’s what makes group support so special.  Being able to talk to other people who just ‘get it’ makes all the difference, it really does, because this thing called weight loss for most of us isn’t easy and if you’re not careful it becomes a vicious cycle.

You’re miserable so you eat and gain weight, or are you eating and gaining weight and that’s making you miserable?  See it a vicious nasty cycle that’s so easy to get consumed by!

Of course overeating and gaining weight might not be making you miserable, that sometimes is worse because if you’re not unhappy or uncomfortable you may not bother to do anything about it, but what about your health?  Carrying a bit of extra weight isn’t the end of the world but we all know carrying a lot of extra weight can have massive health implications.

So yes I’ve reminded myself of all the benefits of losing a few pounds, not least the chance to remove that extra tyre of fat that’s appeared under my bust line when I sit down, at the moment it’s merely like a racer bike innertube but if I carry on gaining it has the possibility of being promoted to an off-road mountain bike tyre, then oh well I don’t want to even think about the possibilities after that!  Nope this week we’re focusing on the healthy for sure and I believe by doing that the happy is following.

I am by nature a positive person who is most of the time happy, I do however get grumpy and moody and this week I’ve been downright low and miserable at times and I’m not sure if that’s my weight, my hormones, the time of year – I just don’t know!  I just know when it happens, I think to myself well I was happy as a pig in muck with my life last week and nothings changed there so this mood isn’t really justifiable from a what’s going on in my world point of view, so I’m going to just ride it out and do everything in my power to lift me out of that mood as quickly as possible.  I don’t wanna be low, because it’s a horrible place to be.  That’s why I’ve tided and cleaned my house, why my radio is on giving me something to sing along to and why I’ve made a conscious effort to cook good healthy foods that have benefits to my health.  And I was relieved to notice that my mood was lifting yesterday afternoon and this morning I feel fine again. 

What is it they say; you’ve got experience the low to appreciate the highs! Mmm, well universe it’s ok, I always appreciate the highs so you can shove the lows, I don’t need them. 

And for some reason, at 5.30 am on a Thursday morning I have the desire to bake!  What’s that all about, I haven’t really got time to be baking this morning, although…. No really I haven’t, but maybe…. ‘-) I shall get done what needs to be done, then see. 

I’m out all day tomorrow for training so it’s important not to be shattered by overdoing everything today.  Early nights that’s the key, me and my fitbit were asleep by 9pm last night, although Alfie decided he wanted to sleep in the bed not on it last night and has spent most of the night kicking me!  Little dog has powerful legs, that’s all I’m saying ;)

Right coffee time, have a great week and even if those scales didn’t say what you wanted to read this week, you stay positive, stay focused and BeYOUtiful because we can do this. xx

  

Reality check!

29^th October 2014

The greatest gift you can give someone is your time, because when you give your time you are giving a portion of your life that you will never get back.

I’ve been awake since 4am, you’ve gotta love the hour change to the clock – NOT! Even mom’s out of sync, she’s just surfaced and it’s not even 5am, I’m hoping she can go back to bed and sleep a little longer, we all need our sleep don’t we.  On a positive it’s meant I’m not having to rush this morning, I’ve just had me nearly an hour of thinking about blogging and messing about on the pc, plus a nice mug of tea.  Might go and make me another before continuing.

That’s better, can’t beat a good mug of tea in the morning. I need to remember how nice it feels having a tidy office/house too then I might attempt to stay on top of it all!

So yesterday was a beef stew day for me, yep I ate it for dinner and tea, good stuff though, today we’re having liver and onions, mash and peas, I’m looking forward to that, haven’t had liver for ages.

I’m making an effort this week just to eat my meals, not to snack and to help with that plan we haven’t got any of the snacking stuff in the house as mom really can do without it in her life too. 

One members card caught my eye yesterday when I realised it was her 7^th weigh-in and she’d lost 15.5lb in that time, I thought to myself we have one more weigh in than that between now and Christmas, it’s feasible to lose a stone between now and Christmas day, how fantastic would that be! Plus she’d done it following F&H so she hadn’t needed to weigh or measure anything!  Sometimes I like what’s under my nose reaffirming by a real life example. 

Thinking about it, F&H will fit in great with those Christmas pub meals out with friends, a turkey roast is a great F&H meal, your 49 would help to cover the gravy and roasters.  Yes losing up to a stone between now and Christmas is extremely doable, if you want to.  No actually not only if you want to, cos we all want to, it’s the follow through that counts, it’s easy to sit here and say “ooo I’d love to lose a stone” but you actually have to DO something for that to happen don’t you!

So I’m starting with good F&H foods, yesterday was a good day, and today will be too.  I shall be taking it one day at a time, one meal at a time and focusing on positives.

Why am I suddenly thinking I would like to lose, well I have a confession to make, on Monday when I weighed I saw a number I haven’t seen in over 10 years and it hit me like a smack in the face!  I didn’t want to put it in writing and tell the world, I won’t lie.  As I walked round the shops Monday buying a few Christmas things, I had my Weight Watcher hoody on and I felt a bit of a fraud, I thought to myself “you hardly look like a good example right now do you!  Heavier than you’ve been in ten years, how about you get a grip and practice what you preach!”

So I’ve digested this information and I’m ok for everyone to know because as I tell my members they’re human and life gets in the way.  I need to realise my life has changed a lot over the last few years, my fitbit has most definitely confirmed I’m nowhere near as active as I once was, I was under the illusion I averaged 10,000 steps a day, not any more I don’t, it’s more like just over 6,000 a day on average.  So the good thing is I’m hitting a healthy total, but I’m not earning as much on the activity ProPoints front!  I’ve had my fitbit exactly a month and in that time, I’ve only hit 10,000 steps three times, see with my old pedometer, once a week was over, that information was forgotten, this keeps a record that doesn’t go away!  Weight Watchers Esource does the same with my weight journey, that makes for interesting reading I have to say! 

So today is a fresh day, another chance to make a difference to me, I will start my day with cherry tomatoes on toast, topped with an egg, dinner is the liver and I might have a bowl of stew for tea or I may freeze that and have something else, although stew is seeming the easy option.  Tomorrow is sorted as I have that chicken and rice casserole in the freezer ready, yay it really helps to be organised.  Just need to stay focused for the whole week now, not just Monday – Thursday!

The incredible weight loss in my meetings yesterday proves it works, the gold members that return week after week to maintain their incredible losses proves it works.  Yes there’s still time to make a difference in 2014!  Exactly 10 weeks left of 2014, let’s make them count I say, what do you think BeYOUtiful.

Here’s to a great day. Make it count.

Be your own kind of crazy BeYOUtiful.

28^th October 2014

You have more to do than be weighed down by pretty or beautiful.  You are a fiery heart and a wicked brain.  Do not let your soul be defined by its shell.

Well yesterday was one of those funny days that have entered my life since I hit my 40’s, I woke up feeling ok, then over the space of hours I went from ‘everything’s wonderful’ to ‘I hate my house and want it to be a tidy show home’ to ‘why do I bother because that’s never gonna happen’ to ‘nope it won’t ever happen because that’s not who we are and that’s all good’.

Some people think middle age hormones are the devils work but I’m starting to appreciate them because they are making me realise I love my life once I’ve had my hormonal meltdown.

See the thing about housework is it’s neverending, not to mention a bit dull, who am I kidding, it’s a lot dull.  We’re a pair of untidy bitches who’s natural disposition will never be the tidy!  So I had a couple of hours in my office sorting out stuff I don’t need/want anymore, throwing out paperwork (after shredding of course – another dull pastime!) and cleaning it all out.  I won’t lie I loved walking into a nice clear desk this morning and I do wish it was automatic to me but unlike hormonal Bev yesterday I’m not going to sit and get myself worked up about something that I’ve lived without for the last 44 years.

The scales weren’t kind to me yesterday either, I could blame being middle-aged for this too, but that wouldn’t be because of my hormones it’d be because of my “oh who cares” attitude.   After my “I need to get a grip” conversation with myself, I moved on from that, afterall I couldn’t cope with both “Oh my god I’m fat and my house is a dump” meltdowns in one day, they’d have been carrying me off in a white van!

Instead I made banana bread!  Logical solution to a weight gain isn’t it – mmm, the hormones they are making me confused ;)  I only had one slice – honest.  We ate well yesterday, 2 crumpets for brekkie, leftover chicken on a sandwich for lunch and the spare chicken dinner from yesterday for tea.  I’m having a break from wine this week, the last thing you need when you’re a hormonal nightmare is to add wine to the situation – oo it’s Halloween too, that could be on scary costume, what you come as, a middle-aged intoxicated hormonal bitch, CAN YOU SEE IT!  Yeah there’s an easy option if you’re off partying this week ;)

Again with the whole cleaning thing, it was also lovely to get into a nice clean bet with fresh bedding, see I can see the appeal in the results, it’s just no fun doing it, but I guess everything we do isn’t supposed to be fun.  Music helps the situation I guess at least I got to since along at the same time. 

I had a visit from one of my lovely mates I haven’t seen in a good while too so that was a nice break to the day, it was lovely to catch up and see her.

I even caught up on my paperwork, wow I did have a very productive day in amongst the raging hormonal meltdown, it was only a 3 on the 10 scale, it didn’t last long so it was okay and I came out feeling much better, nothing a new pair of curtains and a couple of scatter cushions in the living can’t solve, they’ll take my mind off the clutter because I’ll just look at them ;) I bought what’s going to be our Christmas Tree on Sunday and that’s been put out already, I’m getting my money’s worth so last night instead of looking at the clutter I focused my attention on the pretty, 12 in high festive spice fragranced Christmas Tree, a metal thing full of pot pourri, and that made me smile.

Yep focus on the positives, ignore the negatives and find a way to be thankful for every day.  Honest it won’t keep you sane but it’s a much better kind of crazy to be!

Here’s to a BeYOUtiful day full of the crazy that is life, embrace it because it’s always better than the alternative. xx