Curry, coffee & quotes!

4th March 2015

As you get older, you will start to understand more and more that in life, it’s not about what you look like or what you own. It’s all about the person you’ve become. — Unknown

I love that quote this morning, it's so true and I have to admit, when I look in the mirror as long as I'm presentable to walk out the door that'll do me, the vanity and stress I had over my appearance in my 20's has long since disappeared, I'm much more interested in where we're going to eat and who I'm going to be eating with than what I'm going to look like!  I realised I don't really take that much notice of what others look like, I'm more interested in what they have to say and how they feel, and that works for me too.

Now we had a great day yesterday, 162lb lost at the scales, but I also know that some of my members are struggling still to get on track and jump on that weight loss wagon, it's ok, let's restart again this morning, don't let yesterday take up too much of today.  Focus on the days ahead not the ones that have passed, stop looking back, you're not going that way.

Bloomin heck I'm writing in quotes this morning!  But they're so relevant, it's why I start each day with one on my blog, a single sentence can really give you something to think about. 

Oh why I think about it, I nipped into the Tesco garage again yesterday, I resisted the Vanilla Latte but I did ask what milk was used in the machines and apparently they are told by Costa to use Semi Skimmed, so that's a positive, makes my 6pp drink lower, I'd guess 4 or 5pp!

I cooked a curry in the slow cooker yesterday afternoon, it was perfect 5 hours later when I got home at work, a little watery because I'd added a bit of water to the sauce as I didn't think it was enough, but I'll know not to do that again.  I think I'll go back to doing more stuff in my slow cooker again as it is nice to work into a meal after work and chicken legs are much cheaper than breasts, so as long as I skin them before cooking they're F&H, 5 legs were less than £3 in Asda last week!

Oh yeah, one last thing before I forget, Red Nose Day is only 9 days away & I'm looking for your silly success selfies, the sillier the better. For every one you send me and I post, I'll donate 10p to Comic Relief, it'll soon mount up! I've received my first and I love it, and of course Lynne was more than happy for a belly selfie after her weight loss!

Let's have some fun, springs on its way and the sun is starting to shine, it may still be cold but at least it's bright. 

Here's to a healthy & happy BeYOUtiful day.

The nicest coffee shop yet!

3rd March 2015

Anytime you start a sentence with "I am" you are creating what you are and what you want to be.

So yesterday we went for coffee & cake a Vintage Teas at No 3 in Great Wyrley (01922 418659) https://www.facebook.com/Baked3 and it was delicious!  What was wonderful was that half of the coffee shop was full of Weight Watcher members and there were two ladies who were going to join after their Afternoon Tea ;).  The beauty of Weight Watchers is you can have your cake and eat it, and stay on track.  Obviously you can't work your way through their menu every day and have one of each, but you can enjoy lunch or coffee and cake for sure.  Mom opted to miss the toasted sandwich and go straight for the dessert.  I had a toasted cheese and caramelised onion toastie with salad and coleslaw, I'd guess it at 15pp maximum for my plate.  Mom had a slice of lemon drizzle cake which was delicious, looking on line at various options it could have been anything between 5-10, I'd guess 10 with the bit of cream she poured on it.  The scones there were 3 smaller ones so having made them myself I'd say they were 3pp each plus double cream 2pp per tablespoon and jam is 1pp per teaspoon, so you can have your cake and ProPoint it!  I'd love for them to give me their ingredients list and I could ProPoint the menu for them, that way you'd be able to 100% stay on track if you wanted to, I will ask but if I don't get it, then use those numbers I've given you and for a slice of their Victoria Sponge 15pp at most would cover it.   I'm not sure if they have skimmed milk for their coffee but I'm sure if enough as they'd get some, I didn't have coffee so forgot to ask.

It was a lovely place, booking essential I would say, we managed to get a table but only just, very busy because of its wonderfulness!  We've booked to go back at the end of the month for afternoon tea!  I will take photos and do my best to ProPoint it all so that if you want to do the same, you can enjoy it and use your weeklies.

It was a lovely day even though it started with a dentist visit, I took mom to Poundland for a mooch round, she filled my trolley full and £44 later she was a happy lady, after that we met up with my mates at the coffee shop and enjoyed an hour there, we'd have stopped longer but mom was "right are we off?" the moment she'd finished eating!  So they came back to mine for another cuppa. 

The rest of my day was catching up on my chilling, so I'm not ready to get back to work, I didn't really get a weekend this week but I did manage some down time and none Weight Watcher time.  It's another busy week ahead, especially as my right hand lady Sharon is on her holiday but we'll get through it and it'll be Sunday before you know it!  In case I haven't mentioned it, I plan on staying in my PJs on Sunday, although if the sun shines, I may be tempted into the garden, if it rains I may be tempted into the kitchen, I have a white chocolate brownie recipe I've never got round to making!   The ProPoints for the entire thing are 114pp which is a crazy amount, but at 16 slices, it's 7pp a slice and I'm guessing one slice would do the job, so yes maybe that'll get made at the weekend, here's the recipe in case you were looking for something to knock up for Mothers day the weekend after...

Divine White Chocolate Brownies

Total recipe 114pp,

125g (4oz) Divine White Chocolate (19pp)

100g (3oz) butter (21pp)

3 large eggs (8pp)

150g (5oz) castor sugar (16pp)

100g (3oz) chopped skinned hazelnuts or macadamia nuts (21pp)

100g (3oz) Divine White Chocolate chopped (15pp)

5ml (1tsp) vanilla extract

125oz 4oz) plain flour (12pp)

Icing sugar to dust (1pp)

Preparation & Quantity

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350F/Gas mark 4/Fan 160°C. 

Grease and line a 23cm (9in) shallow square tin with greaseproof paper.

Makes about 40 pieces – 3pp each

1.    Gently heat some water in a saucepan, place a bowl over with the chocolate and butter – make sure the water does not touch the bowl. Melt the butter over a very gentle heat – don’t rush the process, just let it melt slowly and very very gently. 

2.    Place the eggs and sugar in a separate bowl, whisk until well blended. Remove the bowl of chocolate and place the bowl with the egg mixture over the pan of water.

3.    Whisk for several minutes until thick and pale. Remove the bowl from the heat, whisk until cool.

4.    Using a spatula fold the melted butter and chocolate into the egg mixture with the chopped chocolate and nuts until evenly blended.

5.    Sift in the flour and fold in carefully until well blended. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake in centre of the oven for 40minutes until just firm to touch.

6.    Cool in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar and cut into small squares. 

7.    Wrap in cling film and keep for a day to improve the texture.

The reality of maintaining your weight or successfully losing it is accepting that you want to eat certain foods and that you can as long as it's in moderation and not overdone.  If you enjoy a healthy balanced diet, there isn't anything you can't have!

On that note, I'm off to make me some breakfast, tomatoes on toast I think, dinner today is cauliflower and broccoli cheese, not thought as far as my tea, but possibly soup.  All those veggies will balance out all yesterdays scrumptiousness!

Have a BeYOUtiful day. xx

Costa vanilla latte - too good!

2nd March 2015

A wise person knows that there is something to be learned from everyone.

I finally got to sit and do nothing for hours yesterday!  I couldn't read nor concentrate of tv to relax though because my brain was working overtime, it usually take me those hours to chill, then I'd relax the day after, next weekend I will be making time to chill out properly, I may even get in the garden and start tidying it up.

I covered a lovely meeting over Dudley yesterday, I could see the animals from the zoo out the window as I was standing weighing, how wonderful is that!  Whilst I was there, my fellow leaders on my area were at their area meeting and it sounds like that had a ball, I missed out there I think!  Hopefully they'll fill me in on all I missed.

We're off to the dentist today and then meeting up with my mates for coffee and cake, hoping moms going to come too.

I'm still filling in my journal, I'm not really 'on track' but it's being written down, it's making me aware and I'm improving.  My weight is exactly the same as it was on January 1st so I still haven't lost the 4lb I gained over Christmas, but on a positive, I haven't gained anymore!  I have maintenance sussed by the looks of it.

When I left the house yesterday morning to drive to Dudley, I needed petrol so stopped at the garage and decided to have a coffee, I'm not a big coffee fan if I'm honest, it's something I drink a) to keep me awake b) because I've met up in a coffee shop for a chat with my mate c) because when you're out not many places make a decent mug of tea, anyway I noticed "vanilla latte" and thought, mmm I'll try that!  I rarely finish one of those coffees, but this one didn't last long, it was delicious!  Unfortunately it's 6pp for a regular, so will only be for meet ups with friends in coffee shops as a treat.  At £2.10 a cup, I'll be deterred from picking one up every time I drive past the garage.  I'm guessing some people drink that takeaway stuff a lot, that's an awful lot of money being spent on coffee!  I'll stick to bottles of water in my car.

For lunch we had a ready prepared meal from Aldi, it was a potato au gratin, very tasty too, 8pp for half, had it with a bit of chicken and some peas, did the job nicely.  Great to have a convenience meal occasionally https://www.facebook.com/WWBev/photos/pcb.10153127770587351/10153127770247351/?type=1&theater 

I'm hoping to get back to normal now that all my cover and driving to head office is done.  This week I'm back to just my meetings, so hopefully by the time I get to Friday and I'm off out with my mate to see a comedian at the civic (can't remember who) I'll have the energy to stay awake and laugh ;)

I tell so many people to take care of them and I've been reminded it's time to listen to my own advice and I absolutely am going to!  Looking forward to today, going to get a bit of work done now then leave it for the rest of the day and spend time with my mom and my friends, OH and the dentist!

Happy Monday BeYOUtiful and don't forget if you're taking part it's 2 minutes marching today ;)

Who's up for Marching through March?

1st March 2015

Sometimes the things you perceive as holding you back are the things that push you forward! Ricky, The Voice!

What a fantastic week it's been, 609lb lost at the scales, and for the month of February a total of 2,533lb which brings us to 4,469lb for 2015, my members are BeYOUtiful, all of them, those that are losing and those that are struggling, they all deserve an award to for caring about themselves enough to be doing their best to be Healthy and Happy, I respect each and every one of them for that.

Had a great Saturday, a fab meeting on the morning, followed by a drive to Stoke for an area meeting and I got to catch up with my old team which was lovely, lots of faces I hadn't seen for a long time, shame we didn't have more time for chatting, but it was a business meeting so we had to be grownups!  I'm at work again this morning covering a class over Dudley, but then I'm free from lunchtime so a bit of mom time is planned, although she's cracking on with the jigsaw without me I might add!

Can you believe it's the first day of March today!  And I am loving this idea from a leader named Janet, it's a challenge, March your way through March,

How? Start with 1 minutes and increase by a minute each day until you end at 31 minutes. 

Where? Anywhere just get marching (or walking, I don't expect you to show yourself up marching the kids to school ;) )

Why? Because every step counts!  Move more, sit less, earn activity ProPoints and of course remember to wear your fitbit or pedometer so you know how many you're earning. 

I'm thinking it'll get my brain thinking 'activity' and hopefully as the lighter nights arrive, the weather warms up and I stop working 60+ hours a week!  I will be able to find the time to get moving more.  I definitely fancy getting out there and walking more.

My garlic chicken dish turned out perfect being left in the slow cooker and it was just as tender and juicy without the skin, I just added a mug of stock, nom nom, yesterday wasn't a perfect food day, but it's all tracked, I intend to track whether I'm within my ProPoints or not because it's firstly making me more aware of my eating behaviour and giving me reason to question myself and why I behave that way, if you don't know what you're doing and why - you can't really change it!

Yep, self-awareness is a fantastic thing to have, if you can be aware of your traits, feelings and behaviour then you are more likely to understand yourself and what makes you tick, what causes you to overeat or make not so great choices!  It's not always the wrong reasons that cause us to overeat or make those not so great choices, for instance yesterday when I arrived at the hotel where we were having our meeting, I'd looked online and it said they had steak, turned out that was the evening menu and there wasn't anything particular 'healthy' on the menu, there certainly wasn't F&H meals, so I opted for a fish finger sandwich, which I thought at least would be delicious and it was one of the cheaper things on the menu - it wasn't delicious by the way!

Today I will manage an F&H day, I have the garlic chicken, I'm going to do mashed potatoes to go with it, and I'll probably pick at it for tea too, maybe have it on warburton thins with a bit of low fat mayo, that's my day sorted.  I'll go light this morning, if I bother with brekkie at all, might take an apple and banana with me instead.

If you're having a lie in this morning BeYOUtiful, hope you enjoy it, I'm quite jealous, not nice to hear a buzzing alarm at 5am on a Sunday morning!  Here's to the start of a great March though.

If you're joining me in March your way through March, make sure you comment on my post so I know you are!