Internets not working!

28th January 2016

Look up at the stars and not down at your feet.

So it appears I have no internet connection this morning so I don't even know if I'll be able to post this blog, although I may be able to use my iphone for 3G connection who knows!

"Shall we run away?"  That's a sentence my bestie and me use when we're having a rubbish day, but the truth is we both know, we can't or don't really want to run away!  The real question would be what do you do when you feel like you want to run away from it all and can't?   Personally I give myself permission to be grumpy and have a "I've got one on me and my life sucks today" day then I move on.  If I'm hormonal or if something in my life is genuinely sucky I don't pretend like it isn't happening but at the same time I don't unpack and live in my misery, if the 'problem' or 'issue' can't be changed I learn to live with it and move on.  If it can be changed - I start working on changing it.  I do not carry on moaning about the same thing day in, day out.  It's like my internet connection right now, I can't fix it 'just like that' so I'm accepting it, I'll hope it rectifies itself and if it doesn't I'll get in touch with an expert.  I think it also means my printer won't work - that'll be fun for work.

I was doing No Count yesterday but by tea time it turned out it didn't matter if I was doing No Count or Smart Points the results were about the same.  Today I'm thinking cod for lunch, need to go take it out of the freezer, then I've got a piece of steak I might enjoy for my tea.

Keeping my blog short this morning as moms just woke up, I've got to shower and my mind is buzzing with ideas for next week's meetings and I want to get them down on paper before I forget!   Below is your Smart Point recipe, enjoy.  Have a great day and stay BeYOUtiful.

Honey and Mustard Pork

Serves 4, 10sp each

450g peeled & diced swede
450g peeled & diced carrot
salt & pepper
low fat cooking spray 4 x 150g lean pork steaks (24sp)
2 tbsp honey (16sp)
2 tbsp wholegrain mustard (1sp)
juice ½ lemon
Green cabbage

Boil swede & carrots for 15-20 mins until cooked, then mash and season to taste. When swede & carrots have been cooking for 10 minutes, put cabbage on to cook. Heat a large non-stick frying pan & spray with cooking spray. Season pork steaks & brown for 3-4 mins on each side or until cooked through. Mix honey, mustard & lemon juice together and pour over steaks. Cook for 1 minute more, turning the pork steaks to glaze them in the sauce. Serve with mashed carrot & swede and cabbage.

Ravenous - that is all!

27th January 2016

Patience is not the ability to wait but how you act while you're waiting - Joyce Meyer

Well some wonderful person has shared a bit of their lurgy with me and I appear to have a head cold - thanks for that.  It appears the side effect is, I'm hungry!  Really hungry, not just my normal greedy bitch wanna eat kind of hungry, but seriously  I can't fill myself up kind of hungry!  So today I shall mostly be following No Count, I've already checked out the fridge, yes I know it's only 5.30am! I'm getting prepared, I'm planning ain't I!  I'll be having crumpets for breakfast, I'd only eat these on No Count days to be honest as I'd rather spend the points on bread as it looks more.  Lunch I'm thinking chicken of some sort and stuffed peppers then for tea, I might defrost some beef stew out of the freezer, that'll really fill me up.  Yeah sorted, just need to decide what to do with the chicken now, speaking of chicken, I caught a bit of 'Tricks of the Restaurant Trade" on Channel 4 last night and they were comparing Nandos with KFC, the compared the wrap and fries, turns out the Nando's wrap has more calories, 1,140 compared to 790 calories, and the Nando's wrap had almost 4 times the sugar or the KFC one!  But what was really interesting was that they said the chicken burger was lower than the wraps which you just wouldn't expect. 

Sticking with the food topic, I'm hungry, one of my members had the 'instant noodle jar' in the Eat book from the Smart Points pack in her handbag yesterday ready to take to work, it looked awesome, I have to say, really great no fuss lunch which can be prepared the night before, much better for you than a shop bought pot noodle!

I'm thinking my lunch might be the Pan fried chicken, bacon & peas & mash, which was in my blog on January 7th or can be found on my website http://happyowls.co.uk/Recipes/RecipesDinner/ChickenBaconMash.html

I think I might try and make Rose's stew chicken again soon because it is so delicious when she's made it for me, so I'm going to give it another go, I think I have the ingredients, just need to get chicken legs to make it.  I know it won't taste like hers though, she's got that recipe nailed!

RoseMaries Stew Chicken

Chicken portions (this depend on which you choice to use chicken breast is 2sp, chicken drumstick skinless 1sp, with skin 2sp, chicken leg skinless 7sp, leg quarter with skin 12sp, chicken thigh skinless 4sp.) The choice as they say is yours

1/4 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp all purpose seasoning
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp rosemary
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp coriander
1 veg oxo
1 thin sliced tomato
1 thin sliced onion
1 thin sliced red and green peppers

Mix all ingredients together and pour over chicken mix properly in a bowl and leave over night to marinate. Pour into a dish cover with foil and cook into oven.

You only need Smart Point the chicken portions.  The one Rosemarie cooked for me was made with chicken drumsticks which are No Count if you remove the skin, it really was a deliciously flavoursome meal and the juice flavoured the grains perfectly.

Right I'm off to battle against my appetite today, lots of hot mugs of tea to help keep my head cold at bay, I suppose paracetamol wouldn't be a bad idea either.  And at the same time I will also remind myself of the fact the key to success with No Count is to listen to your body's hunger signals and to eat until you're satisfied - NOT STUFFED!  It'll also help that there's no 400g wholemeal calorie controlled bread in the house so I can't overeat on that.

Can't beat knowing yourself to help with weight loss success.  I'm hoping for a loss on Friday so I need to stay with it, it won't be a great loss, but 1/2lb will do me, especially as we did Nando's last Saturday.

Right I'm off, hopefully I haven't shared my ravenous hunger with you this morning!  Enjoy your day, we're halfway through the week already - doesn't it go quickly, or is that just because I enjoy my work? 

Stay BeYOUtiful. xx

What's for breakfast?

26th January 2016

Start somewhere...

Bad habits are like comfortable beds, easy to get into but so hard to get out of!  Yes the mind has a memory, a really smart one that subconsciously recognises patterns and once those patterns become habits they really are difficult to stop.  If you've had those habits for years and years, then they are going to take longer to  stop.  I also believe we don't change habits, one for another, we need to create new habits, in the hope that they become more powerful than the existing ones.

For example if I repeatedly drink a pint of water every morning, as I do now, my intake of mugs of tea becomes less automatically because I can't drink the both at the same time and I don't have my first mug till after I've drunk the water.

So my latest habit I'm trying to acquire is fitting in a day time walk, the more I do it, the more likely it is to become a habit, I know it will be a good while before it becomes automatic which is why I have to put in that extra effort to make myself do it.

Fake it till you make it, that's another great way to create new habits, if you get up and feel miserable, SMILE, you don't have to mean it, but a fake smile is better than no smile at all, say BUBBLES, you just can't say bubbles without smiling, you still might feel miserable underneath but by not focusing on it, it's more likely to go away.

One habit work getting into is eating Breakfast, it's National Breakfast Week this week, I do love my breakfast, yesterday I had avocado and egg on toast with tomatoes.  Egg's have to be up there on my fav list of foods and they just complete breakfast off perfectly for me.    

Why is breakfast important?  Well as the word states it breakfast the fast - it provides the body and brain with fuel after an overnight fast.  Without breakfast you are effectively running on empty, you wouldn't drive a car with no petrol!

The experts say breakfast should be eaten within two hours of waking and a healthy breakfast should provide calories in the range of 20-35% of your guideline daily allowance.  So for me that would be 6-11 Smart Points, I do tend to spend at least 6 as I love to eat at breakfast time. 

The National Health Service says "Eating breakfast has long term health benefits. It can reduce obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes."  Worth doing really then isn't it.

Right I'm actually hungry now I've been thinking about brekkie, so I'm off to get creative, will post my breakfast on my Facebook page in a little while using the hashtag #MyWWJourney, I hope you do the same and tag me too :)

Have a great day BeYOUtiful, remember to stop and enjoy the little things in your day like the sunrise, it was incredible yesterday and the full moon last night was glorious.  When I walked with mom yesterday we took please in seeing the odd crocus popping up, there are snowdrops and a few other things flowering at the moment, spring isn't that far away.

Today's Smart Point recipe;

Oven baked chicken fajitas, serves 4, 9 sp

Pre-heat oven to 220c/200c fan/gas 7.  Put 1tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp ground cumin, 1/4 tsp ground coriander, 2 chopped garlic cloves and 1 tbsp olive oil in a large bowl and add 450g sliced chicken breast, 1 sliced red onion and 2 sliced peppers.  Turn well to coat and tip into a large roasting dish.  Cook in the oven until the chicken is cooked through.  Heat 4 wholewheat tortillas according to the packet instructions.  Divide 4tbsp fresh tomato salsa, salad, the chicken and peppers, 4 tbsp low-fat natural yogurt between each tortilla.  Scatter over some coriander and a squeeze of lime juice.  Fold up and serve.

Ultimate tomato salsa

• 4-6 medium tomatoes, peeled and finely chopped
• 1/4 - 1/2 medium red onion, very finely chopped
• 1 small garlic clove, crushed
• Small splash of white wine vinegar
• Squeeze of lime juice
• Handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste

It is as simple as this combine all ingredients in a medium bowl, stirr it in. Then refrigerate until needed to serve.

If you don't know how to peel tomatoes, look here; Make slits all over the skin of the tomatoes and place in a bowl of boiled water.  Leave them in there for 2-3 minutes. Then when you take them out they are extremely easy to peel!

Stop and enjoy the sunrises

25th January 2016

Never let the things you want make you forget the things you have.

My bestie just posted this on Facebook "I've not been the best Weight Watcher so far this January, due to working longer hours. Today I got up an hour early to fit a walk in before I start. Feeling positive"  Now that's what I like to read and seeing it has motivated me to want to go for a walk today too!  See this weight loss lark is so much easier with support, we all need some and that's why it's so important to make time for your meetings.  An hour a week for you, if you're really busy it only needs to be half hour, but seriously busy and tired is not the way to successful weight loss!

So I've had me a nice lie in, so I'm refreshed, I've started saying no more too which is helping me find the time for me that I desperately need, trust me saying NO is seriously good for your health!  Don't get me wrong, it's not easy and I don't like doing it if I'm honest, if I physically had the time I'd do all these things I'm asked to do but the truth is I don't, there are only 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week and I want to save some of them for me to do the things I like to do!  So yesterday we watched our movies and I knitted my jumper, this morning I'm pausing to watch the amazing sunrise and the paperwork can wait a little longer!

The roast dinner didn't get made yesterday, I'll do it today, we had stewing steak, mash and peas instead as it was easier to cook, and there's enough left for another meal.  I didn't even get dressed yesterday!  I will today as I need to go for a walk with mom, that didn't happen last week, just shows how hard it is to put new habits in place but I will continue with it this week, I'll do the two walks with her today, make up for one I missed. 

And can I say that sunrise is incredible!

Here's to making the last week in January matter - you in?  I am, I've lost 5lb in January, that'll be a fab five, if I can do the same in February I'll be chuffed!  I'd be okay with 5 x 1/2lb's too, any loss will work for me.  Here's your smart point recipe for today;

Exotic Chicken

Serves 4, 11sp per serving

1tsp olive oil (1sp)
1 small onion, finely chopped
4 chicken breasts, sliced (approx 165g each) (6sp)
½tsp turmeric
½tsp cinnamon
100g Extra light soft cheese (4sp)
275ml skimmed milk (4sp)
150g ready-to-eat apricots, halved (14sp)
50g sultanas (8sp)
25g flaked almonds (5sp)

Heat oil in large pan and brown chicken over a medium heat for approx 5m. Add the onion, turmeric and cinnamon. Continue cooking for 3-4m until the chicken is cooked through. Stir the low fat soft cheese, milk, apricots, sultanas and almonds into the pan. Cook over a low heat for 8-10m, stirring occasionally until the soft cheese has melted and the sauce has thickened.