I reached my 10% goal!

I spent all last weekend on the beach with Will and my family and I was concerned about sticking to weight watchers for the two days. My mom packs the best picnics (in my eyes) when we go to the beach. It reminds me of my childhood. Banana sandwiches, ham sandwiches,egg salad sandwiches (she is famous for those ones), home made buns, yogurts, apples, grapes, chocolate, biscuits, crisps, jellies, you name it and my mam has got it packed.
Now my family take our beaching quiet seriously, we pack the car with cool boxes full of food and drinks,a flask of boiling water,teabags,coffee,towels,blankets,suncream,hats,balls,hurleys,windbreakers and even toilet paper. we are prepared for everything. number one rule is...get there early! The Murphy's are not happy if we don't get a good 8 hours on the beach.

So you can imagine all the tempting treats that were waiting for me in the cool box. oh gosh they were tempting. Yes I did give in, but just a little and not nearly as much as I would have before joining weight watchers. In the evenings when we got home at 7pm covered in salt and sand and feeling very relaxed my dad would throw on his beloved BBQ. It was still so lovely and warm that we ate outside for the fIrst time in a long time. we had burgers, sausages,baked potato and coleslaw, yummy. The sweetest thing happened. my dad had bought me a pack of slimsters to have my burgers on. I hadn't asked him to and neither had my mam. It was very thoughtful of him.

I didn't track anything until I got home on monday and I was delighted to discover that I still had one weekly point left...but then I remembered the giant ice cream I had! oops.

My Brother, Sister and Myself  enjoying an ice-cream from the van like the good old days!

I wasn't feeling nervous stepping onto the scales on tuesday, I had a great relaxing weekend and I didn't care what the damage was, to be honest, it was gonna be worth a lb or 2. So I was delighted when I discovered that I was actually down 2lbs! and got my 10% sticker. Thats a total of 19.5lbs (1st 5.5lb)

My 21st dress is a perfect fit again!

 I have been bit behind on my blog lately and I've lost of news to share. So here is goes...

I Just did an impromptu photo shoot because I discovered that my 21st dress is a perfect fit again and I was so excited. It hasn't fitted me in 4years! I love that dress and now I need a good excuse to wear it again.

I have been going skate mad over the last couple of weeks with 2hr derby training every sunday and 1.5 hr skate fit class on tuesday nights. I have also thrown in a couple of outdoor skates. All of this skating adds up a whole pile of activity points 35-40 each week.
So you can imagine my disappointment when I got up on the scales last week and discovered I was up 1lb! I was devastated. "but I earned 40 activity points!'' i kept saying to anyone who would listen to me moan. Now I did eat a lot last week, using up my weeklies and over half my activity points too. So i guess I probably did deserve to be up, plus i'm building muscle in my legs and muscle weighs heavier than fat.
Being up made me so determined to have a good week this week and boy did it pay off. I didnt go to skate fit and I didn't have derby training. I used about half my weeklies and what happens when i go for weigh in on tuesday? I am down 3lbs! I couldn't have been happier with that result. Thats a total of 1st 3.5lbs.

This week is a busy week but i'm still determined to stay on track. I am hosting a weight watchers style pot luck party tonight (friday) with the ladies from my meeting. I am very excited about it and all my food was prepped and cooked last night and sitting in the fridge. I am serving red onion and feta filo baskets for 1pp per basket and Nutella Filo parcels for 1pp per parcel. I am also serving a yummy chocolate philadelphia and marshmallow dip for 1pp a tbsp with some strawberries for dipping, yum!
On saturday I am heading to kilkenny to see my parents and my sister. we will be spending all day saturday and sunday on the beach in wexford, my favorite childhood place. fingers crossed I can resist all the biscuits that are sure to be packed in the picnic basket and make smart food choices, oh and a couple of walks on the beach might help too.

I got my first stone.

It finally happened, after 14 weeks I have gotten my first stone!

On tuesday as I stepped up on the scales I really wasn't holding out for much success. I had gone to the cinema twice during the week, both times having popcorn and sweets, oh and ice cream on one visit! I had gone out for pizza and also had chips last week too. I was expecting a loss, but just a small one. I lost 2.5lbs totaling 14lbs in total and my first stone. I wasn't expecting that, but I was delighted.

I have really started to step up my activity and i think its definitely contributing to my weight loss success  I have roller derby training every sunday for 2 hours that earns me 15-18 activity points. I do a skate fit class every tuesday for 1.5 hours and that amounts to another 15 points, I also went for an outdoor skate with my friend while she cycled, we did 2 miles and are planning on doing it a couple of times a week and that got me another 3 activity points. so thats a lot of points! But i try and not use my activity points. I will only use them if i am really really stuck, like if something unexpected came up and I was all out of points.

I had an idea a couple of weeks ago to host a weight watchers style pot luck, where everyone coming would bring a long a weight watchers friendly dish - a snack, salad, dessert, side or main. Something that the person liked to eat while following weight watchers. I also thought it would be good to put a limit on the food, points wise. So I decided that each serving should be between 0 & 5 pro points.
I proposed the idea to my leader and she gave me the go ahead to annonce it in tuesdays meeting. so the event is all set for friday the 5th of july and I am very excited about it.

I had planned to take some pictures of me wearing some dresses that I now fit back into but I fell while out skating yesterday and I am suffering from some whiplash. I will take the photos for my next post.

A big catch up - The last 2 weeks.

A lot has been going on in my life lately. I moved house 2 weeks ago and only now has the internet been sorted out, oh how I missed it. I am Glad to have it back now so I can get back to blogging.
I have had 2 weigh in's since moving, a ''college reunion'' of sorts (really just a night out in dublin with my college friends) and my masters interview. I think all of these things impacted on my weight loss for the past two weeks, mostly the college reunion...oops, that one was a major slip up.

Moving house was definitely a positive both for my life in general and for my weight loss, needing a bigger place to live has resulted in a 3 storey house with 2 flights of stairs resulting in 32 steps to get to the top where my bedroom is. I go up and down those stairs countless times through out the day and I am already finding it a little bit easier to do. On purpose, I leave things in my bedroom that I know I am going to need later, so that I will have to use the stairs again. I know it seems a bit crazy but its working, my first weigh in after moving was Tuesday 4th June and I lost 1.5lb.

The stairs - there is a turn at the top and they keep going.

Now for the ''college reunion'', I hang my head in shame when I think of all that I ate and drank for the 2 nights in Dublin. How I managed a stay the same on Tuesdays weigh in I do not know, maybe its because I made some really good choices while also making some bad ones, maybe its the stairs in my house or the 2 hours of skating I did on Sunday. I don't know, but I was delighted when I came off the scales. I really was expecting the worst.
OK, so here is confession time, I started my trip off on Thursday really well with a good breakfast, weetabix and skimmed milk. I packed a lunch for the bus that was 11points. I met my friend for a late lunch and ordered a salad for 5pps. That turned out to be my dinner because I never managed to have one until later in the night when I grabbed some chips after drinking, uh oh. This is when it starts to get bad. 2 large glasses of rose. 1.5 cans of beer and 2 vodkas and soda water. I was feeling a little hungover Friday morning and myself and my friends went out for breakfast and I ordered a medium full Irish breakfast. I pointed it when I came home on Sunday, I left my tracker in cork so I tracked everything when I got back. The breakfast was 30pps! later that day I went to visit a friend and there was a plate of donuts and biscuits on the table. I had a donut, 5pp and 3 digestive biscuits 5pp, that's a lot for 3 biscuits! on leaving my friend gave me a present of a mini bag of cadburys caramel eggs as she knew they were my favourite. I ate 4 of them that day for 8pps. That evening I met my sister for dinner and a walk on Dun Laoghaire pier. We shared a Cajun chicken burger, fries and onion rings and we had a scoop of ice cream after we walked the pier, all totalling 26pps.

Myself, in the centre, at the ''college reunion''

So now, you think I might have tried to rectify myself on Saturday when I was going back to Cork, but I didn't, I don't know why but I couldn't stop. I bought myself a muffin for the bus home and got a McDonald's when I arrived back in cork at lunch time and then attended a spontaneous BBQ that evening and drank Malibu.  So not only did I use my 49 weekly points, I somehow managed to use another 49 points! wow. Now you see why I was so happy with a stay the same.

On Wednesday I had my interview for the masters I have applied for, I don't think it went well and I was quiet upset when I came out. That resulted in me comfort eating for the evening. Will took me for dinner and a movie to cheer me up. I ordered pizza for 18pps, which was the the smartest option available and stayed within my daily allowance. I had planned on sharing popcorn with will and taking it out of my weekly allowance. I wanted sweets though and I decided to have them because I felt terrible, I had 100g of pick 'n' mix. We were meeting wills dad at the cinema and he wanted to get ice cream from the Ben and Jerry's bar and William said he would get some too. So what did I do? I had some too! It was the start of a new week though so I had all my 49 weeklies so I took it all out of that. I still have a few left to get me through the weekend. We are going to wills moms for a BBQ on saturday, but is should be a really healthy one becuase will's mom is very health conscious. This evening I made a batch of butternut squash and marshmallow brownies from the Weight Watchers members favorites book. I am going to take them to the BBQ. I made them on monday too and froze most of the batch and I can defrost in the microwave whenever I want one.. They are so good and a great chocolate hit for only 4pps a piece.

Fresh batch of brownies straight from the oven.

I weghed in today -3lbs.

I weighed in today -3lbs.wow. I was so happy, I just couldn't keep the smile off my face, I was hoping for one but was worried that my holiday would have caught up with me. Thankfully it didn't.
I really wanted to get a sticker for the 8lbs in 8weeks challenge and not only did I get one but I got three, which means I have caught up in the challenge. I missed week one because I was on holiday and didn't get a sticker and in week two because I was up a half lb from my holiday. Now that I have caught up I just have to try and keep it going.

In the meeting today we talked about moving more through out the day and ditching the couch. I now feel inspired to purchase a pedometer and count my steps to see how many I am taking on an average day. I will be moving house soon, going from a ground floor apartment to a two storey house so the stairs alone will help me increase my steps. My weight watchers buddie also suggested that we sign ourselves up for the cork mini marathon in september which I thought was a great idea, its 5k and we would be planning to walk it. I think it would be great to have a goal to work towards because other than being exited about roller derby I find it hard to motivate myself to get out walking.

Im sure that two hours of roller skating helped me to loose 3lbs and i'll be doing two hours of skating every sunday for the next 6 weeks, so bring it on. yay :)

So after 10 weeks of following weight watchers I now have lost a total of 11.5lbs. I have gotten one silver 7 and reached my 5% goal. I now am looking forward to my first stone which hopefully I will reach in 2-3 weeks. This weekend is a bank holiday though, and I have had three bank holidays since I started weight watchers and my track record is not good, so here is hoping this will be the first bank holiday where I will go to weigh in after and be down.

Honey roasted spicy chickpeas.

I felt like experimenting in the kitchen and trying something new today. I have been in a very snacking kind of mood this weekend so I decided to make a savory snack of honey roasted spicy chickpeas.

1 230g can drained and rinsed chickpeas - 7pp
1 tsp of honey - 1pp
sprinkle of sea salt, paprika, turmeric, chili flakes and chili powder. all together less than 1 tbsp - 0pp

recipe - 8pp
serves 2

Instructions:

preheat oven to 200 degree c.
Drain and rinse the can of chickpeas and pat dry ( make sure they are quiet dry or they will turn out soggy)
line a baking tin with tinfoil and sprinkle on the chickpeas.
drizzle 1 tsp of honey over the chickpeas and spray with some frylite.
sprinkle over the paprika, turmeric, chili flakes and chili powder and toss.

Bake in the oven for 25 - 30 minutes until crunchy, shaking the pan every 10 mintes to prevent burning. I left mine in too long and some of them burnt, you really need to keep an eye on them.

allow to cool and enjoy. (they are also good warm but will be too hot straight from the oven)

Dessert craving satisfied only using 2 pro points.

Today has been one of those days where all I can think about is eating something sweet, but my dinner today was 17pps, I have been craving corn on the cob and chicken wings and drumsticks for a few days so I decided to have them today, it was worth it. But I only had 2 daily points left and I am feeling a bit reluctant to dig into my weeklies this week, I want to be very careful, I really want to loose 1lb at weigh in next tuesday. so I was thinking about what I had in my fridge and cupbards that I could turn into a satisfying low point dessert, when I remembered a tub of low fat frozen yogurt sitting in the freezer that I had bought a while ago and had never tried. I came up with a meringue nest topped with low fat frozen yogurt and stewed berries. it was very satisfying.

It took less than 5 minutes to make, so easy and so tasty.

Meringue with frozen yogurt and warm stewed berries:

4pp per recipe

2pp per portion

stew half a punnet of strawberries and half a punnet of raspberries in a tblsp of water and a tsp of sugar over a medium heat for 3-4 minutes

scoop 30g of low fat frozen yogurt onto each meringue nest and spoon half the stewed fruit over the frozen yogurt, serve and enjoy :)