I reached 5% goal.

I am in a state of complete and utter shock and disbelief, I weighed in today - 2lbs. I really thought I was going to be up a lb this week. I was doing really good until friday last week, my period hormones set in pretty bad then and I was craving chocolate like a mad woman. I had dinner at my friends house friday night, the dinner was very weight watchers friendly but I had one cupcake, two choc chip cookies and some popcorn. I had decided not to drink any wine as I knew that myself and william were going to Nandos and the cinema with wills dad on saturday.
Will came to pick me up from my friends house on saturday and he had aranged for us to meet his friend for a coffee, I had a medium skinny caramel late from costa, it was 4pps. After coffee I was very hungry having skipped out of breakfast so we headed to eddie rockets where I used up 18pps (probably not the best choice). That night we met Williams dad for  Nandos, I had decided what I was going to order before I got there so that made it easy to avoid the temptation to order something non weight watchers friendly. I got the mango and lime marinated chicken breast pitta that had lettuce and a ring of pineapple in it, it was so good and with a side of corn on the cob it cost me 15pps. Then the cinema happened, ben and jerrys ice cream? yes please! add a free scoop to your order? yes please! uh oh. I have no idea what the pps were in 2 scoops of ben and jerrys, oh and I also split a large popcorn with will.
I completely stopped tracking on friday and didn't start again until monday, which was a very bad idea and also reminds me of the Mcdonalds I had for lunch on monday, yes I know, what the hell was I thinking? but at least I tracked that one and used my daily's for it, not my weeklies, I'm pretty sure they were all gone by sunday. I think I didn't track all weekend because I knew I wanted to be naughty and I didn't want to face up to it. So, you can imagine how I was feeling stepping up onto those scales this evening, I even told my leader Sue that I was sure I was going to be up. But I wasn't, I was actually down 2lbs, which means a total loss of 10lbs and I have reached my 5% goal. It felt way too good to be true. But it is true! yay, I am so happy that I have reached my 5% goal.
I feel like it is too good to be true though, so if I want to maintain it and not gain before my holiday in 2 weeks time I am going to have to be on my best behavior and track everything. which is what we discussed in the meeting today, we all agreed that we had to track and our leader suggested that we set a little summer goal to loose 1lb each every week for 8 weeks. I might not be able to achieve that the week I weigh in after my holidays but so long as im not up more that 1/2lbs I would be very happy.
eating half a packet of chocolate hob nobs after dinner tonight probably hasn't helped in my quest to not gain next week. I put it down to an after weigh in treat that doesn't need to be pointed, but am i just kidding myself?

Home made lasagna 13pro points per portion

Tonight dinner will be homemade lasagna, I haven't had lasagne in the 6 weeks that I have been doing weight watchers, i'm not avoiding it I just never thought to cook it. I decided to make it without really considering weight watchers to be honest, most of the homemade dinners that I was making before weight watchers are weight watchers friendly. This morning i sat down to work out the points so that i knew home many to leave for dinner. First I point the whole dish then I divide those points by how many portions it makes. During this process I got a bit concerned, I thought it was going to be really high in points, but if I only use 100g low fat cheddar instead of 200g and divide it into six portions then thats 13pro points a portion which I think is good. I am using store bought white lasagna sauce for the top layer but I am making the tomato one myself. I will have to figure out how to make the white one before I make my next one, it would probably bring the pro points down a bit. im going to share the recipe here for anyone who would like to try it themselves. (note that pp stands for pro points)


I use a large pyrex dish (9.5'' x 13'') to make my lasagna in, its big and feeds 6 people. Myself and Will eat it for two days and freeze the rest.

500g lean round steak mince - 24pp
2/3 tins of chopped tomatoes - 0pp  (decide how many tins to use based on how saucy you like yours)
2 chopped onions  - 0pp
2 cloves chopped garlic - 0pp
2 peppers chopped - 0pp
mushrooms chopped  - 0pp
1 tbsp tomato puree - 0pp
less than a tablespoon dried basil - 0pp
1 box dry lasagna sheets (250g) - 25pp
White lasagna sauce from jar 455g - 20pp  (mine was the Supervalu own brand one)
100g low low cheddar cheese block grated - 8pp

preheat oven to 200oc (fan assisted)

Chop all the beg into small pieces. spray a heavy bottom sauce pan with low calorie cooking spray and heat. Add the chopped onion and garlic and fry for one minute then add the minced beef and cook until brown. Add the rest of the chopped vegetables and fry for one minute, then add the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree and dried herbs and let simmer. (not sure exactly how long I let it simmer, 20 - 30 mins, my oven takes ages to preheat so usually leave it simmer until the oven is ready). If the sauce is too bitter to tase you could add a tsp of sugar or a tbsp of tomato ketchup (dont forget to include the points)

Soak the lasagna sheets in some boiling water for a minute ( you dont have to do this but I think it helps them to be nice and soft when the lasagna is done.)

put a layer of the tomato sauce into the lasagna dish and cover with half of the lasagna sheets, add another layer of tomato sauce and cover with the other half of the lasagna sheets, top it off with a layer of white sauce and cook in the oven for 20 minutes, remove and add the grated cheese and cook for a further 10 minutes.

Serve with a salad, garlic bread or oven fries (depending on how many pps you want to use)

Not a jeans girl.

I'm not much of a jeans girl, or a trousers of any sort girl. I live in skirts and dresses, I love them. Not the super tight body con dresses but skater dresses, peplum dresses, mini skirts, pencil skirts, circle skirts, they are all figure flattering and comfortable for me. Not loving jeans has a lot to do with me being 6ft tall. Shopping for jeans is a nightmare for me, they just dont make them long enough and the ones that are long enough are usually ridiculously expensive and low rise, don't get me started on the evils of low rise! I have issues with skirts and dresses not being long enough too, a dress that should be knee length will be mid length on me, but short dresses are fine paired with opaque tights or leggings. The other reason i'm not a fan of jeans is muffin top. Yuck, I hate my muffin top. However, About a year ago I discovered high waisted ''jeans'' in Villa (they are not really denim but made from a softer stretchier fabric) I love them. I have three pairs, a blue denim pair, a fox colour pair and a black pair. Despite the fact that I love them I dont even wear a pair once a month, I love that they are high waisted, its very flattering and no muffin top, but having bought the largest size xl, they were still quiet tight on my tummy, so I only would wear them when I wasn't feeling so bloated, which was hardly ever. I have been on a big high since getting my first silver 7 at weigh in yesterday and I decided to wear my fox colour ones today. Despite the fact that I have major pms they are a nice comfortable fit and I can sit down without feeling like im being cut in half by the waistband. It's great to see a difference after losing 8lbs, I wasn't expecting to notice anything until I lost a stone. its a great confidence boost. Maybe I will become a jeans girl after all. :)

My first silver seven!

I had my weekly weigh in today and I was delighted to see that I had lost 2lbs, making it a toltal of 8lbs in 6 weeks. I also received my first silver seven (half a stone) which I was really hoping I would get today. And for this to come on a week where I had used up all of my weeklies by eating out, going to the cinema and out for drinks I couldn't be happier, it just proves that you can go out and enjoy yourself and loose weight so long as you plan and point! With my holiday to Lanzarote in 3 weeks time I know I am not going to reach the target I set myself of loosing one stone before my holiday, but im still happy because I know that loosing the weight slowly, even if it does get frustrating, means that its easier to keep off. So I will be happy if I lose 3 more lbs before my holiday and hopefully not gain it all back on while im away! I guess some holiday strategy planning will be in order.

I am very happy with my achievement and I look forward to my next silver seven, if that comes in another 6 weeks I would be thrilled. I am 2.5lbs away from my 5% goal so fingers crossed I reach that before my holiday.

Hooked on Roller derby

Yesterday, April 20th, I went to watch my first roller derby bout with my friend Mandi, it was a double header with the Limerick Roller Girls playing Newcastle at 4pm followed by the Cork City Firebirds playing Newcastle at 6.30pm. I have been becoming increasingly interested in roller derby over the few months. Starting after my friend told me she had tried out for the Galway City She Devils, I began searching roller derby on google and you tube to find out more. I decided that I would like to give it a try, but put off doing anything about it for a while because I was nervous. After discovering that I had just missed out on an open day in February I was disappointed and after a chat with my sister about facing the fear and going to try out I was delighted when I recently saw an advertisement for another open day with the Cork City Firebirds coming up next weekend, sunday 28th. I new i really wanted to go and when i got a text from Mandi saying she wanted to go, that was that. with each other for support we had no excuses to put it off anymore. We decided to go and see roller derby in action this weekend so we could get a better understanding of it and see if we thought it really was for us. After 10 minutes of watching the first bout I was enthralled and by the end of the second bout I was hooked on derby, I can not wait to go and try out next weekend. I really hope I enjoy playing as much as I enjoyed watching, but hey if it turns out its not for me, the Cork City Firebirds have definitely gained another huge fan.

So you may be wondering how this fits into a blog about loosing weight through weight watchers, well derby is a fast paced full contact sport and a great way to get fit. which is all very positive if your trying to loose weight.

Tuesday, weighed in -1.5lbs

I was not anticipating the weigh in success that I had, but I am very, very pleased about it. I struggled last week with food but also with my motivation, so seeing that I was down 1.5lbs really helped me to be motivated to keep on going. After a girlie friday night of pizza, chips, garlic bread and cookie bars  followed by a lazy eddie rockets lunch on saturday followed by an unexpected dinner out with my parents on sunday was not really leaving me hopeful for weigh in success. however, I must have done something right. I anticipated my girlie night and made sure I hade the points, mostly weekly points. on Saturday I got up so late that I just had a slice of toast. Then when will came to collect me, he was very hungover so we decided to get eddie rockets for lunch, I had the hotdog and shared fries with william. I was so satisfied after that that I didn't become hungry again until about 7pm and I had a yogurt and fruit salad. On Sunday I had my usual Weetabix and skimmed milk  and after venturing out to buy a mattress topper we stopped at the restaurant at Blackrock castle for some lunch I had a brie salad and a chocolate cup, which I cannot resist when we go there its a small cup of creamy dark chocolate goodness, I shared it with will, so it really doesn't do much damage. Sunday evening dinner with my parents was at the bar in the Clarion hotel in cork, it was an asian menue and it had the calories listed beside each option, we got the share platter for starters, that worked out at about 200 calories each and I ordered the chili chow mein that was under 400 calories and everyone agreed it was the best main course that any of us had ordered. I will be going back for it again. Considering I was down 1.5lbs after all that is really a huge surprise and feels a bit too good to be true. Maybe it will come back and get me at next weeks weigh in. I hope not!

Weighed in today -1lb

I had my weigh in this evening and I am down 1lb and to be honest I was disappointed when I saw that. I though it would be more. I stayed for my meeting and learned all about portion control and plate sizes which was very interesting and I am now planning to invest in some smaller sized bowls and plates. I arrived home to rant to will about only loosing 1lb but by the time I was finished I realised I was being a bit irrational and silly. I ONLY lost 1lb? how silly of me, I should have been shouting YAY! I lost 1 lb, because after all I was 1lb lighter and 1lb closer to goal! Considering the week I've had I did wonderfully.
I know it's not healthy or sustainable to loose lots of weight very quickly and that 1 to 2lbs a week is what is recommended, so why did I feel disappointed when I stepped on the scales? were my expectations too high? yes I think they probably were. I had tracked absolutely everything that passed my lips and I didn't go over budget. I didn't feel deprived or unsatisfied, I followed the plan and guess what the plan worked. Now I feel good about my weigh in and I am treating myself to a handfull of my favorite old school sweets that I found in my local shop after years of being out of production...and no I have no idea how many pps they are and I don't care, i'll be right back on tack in the morning.

52 Pro points for a pizza...what?!

I have been tracking absolutely everything this week. I am very determined to do well at weigh in on Tuesday. Myself and William went out for breakfast on saturday morning and I treated myself to a full irish, using 30 of my weeklies for that. I took a trip to the yarn shop Knit in Midleton co.cork with my friend Mandi who is very kindly knitting me a gorgeous cape like in this picture, only mine will be a gorgeous light pink colour.

The beautiful weather inspired us to get an ice cream for the drive home. I didn't know the pps for any ice creams so I made a guess that a twister wouldn't be so bad. I was delighted to discover when I got home that it was only 2pps, oh and we also had some marshmallows that my friend wanted to try out as they claimed to be American (Mandi is american). The marshmallows were 6pps. Mandi and her husband came over for dinner and a toy story marathon (big kinds that we are!) I made the delicious marinated chicken from my previous post and served it with some Supervalu light garlic bread and oven chips, totaling 17pps, not bad I say! we had some macerated strawberries with meringue and cream for dessert - 5pps.  All in all I did well on saturday and used up a few weeklies. 

I woke up this morning and wanted to have my usual sunday breakfast of french toast, however this morning I decided to make it with egg whites only and it was delicious served with baked beans for only 6pp. Breakfast was late so we had no lunch and today I was in no mood to cook so I just threw some frozen pizzas into the oven. The weight watchers eating out guide points a pizza at about 18pp but for some reason I decided to calculate according to the box and thank heavens I did, the pizza worked out at 52pps! I thought I had miscalculated but I double checked. 52pps! It's the chicago town stuffed crust one and I expected it to be a bit high but thats just crazy! I couldn't bring myself to waste all my hard work this week so I resolved to eat half for 26pps and honestly that was loads, I was very full and satisfied. Needless to say I wont be buying those pizzas again. I still have some weeklies left for a slice of the weight watchers banana loaf that I baked this week and its 4pps a slice and delicious.

Up 1lb after easter.

I had my weigh in this evening after the easter bank holiday (which I spent at my parents house in kilkenny) and I was up a lb. It's not too bad considering the weekend I had. A dinner party on friday night with fillet steak baked potatoes, pasta and salad followed by some affogato (which if you dont know what it is, its vanilla ice cream with warm coffee poured over it) Oh My God Delicious! I also had two bites of my sister in laws slice of victoria sponge and one chocolate truffle. I drank no wine just some sparkling water. Saturday was not so bad I had bacon and cabbage for lunch and caesar salad for tea with a handful of chips and a couple of cocktail sausages. I also had 3 glasses of wine which I diluted with sparkling water to make them stretch further. I really recommend doing this, you wont drink as much and its like having prosecco. Sunday was really not good! I had sunday lunch of roast beef, mash potatoes, roast potatoes, gravy, carrots and peas followed by Supervalu supreme dessert shots, also to die for (chocolate ones 8pp each and fruit ones 5pp each not that I was counting). Myself and Will then drove home to cork and discovered all the local supermarkets were closed and we had no food in the house so we ordered chips from the local chipper and ate easter eggs while watching a movie. However, I am not beating myself up, I enjoyed my weekend and now I am ready to get back on track starting with this yummy marinated chicken breast and greek salad (9pp) that I had for dinner after my weigh in.

Now I am motivated and determined to loose 10lbs before my holiday to Lanzarote in 6 weeks.