Getting to Goal Part 2

Maintaining is tougher than i ever imagined it would be. As weight watchers we spend weeks/months and sometimes years going to weigh ins every week hoping for a loss, we never see ourselves actually reaching goal but always concentrating on the next weigh in. You think loosing the weight is the tough part, and of course its really hard, we all know that. we think everything will be just perfect and simple when we do reach goal and we wont have a care in the world. Goal is the when we become perfect, like we always wanted.

Except that is isn't! I'm not trying to disappoint you or put you on a downer, but goal is tough, maintaining is hard. The sense of freedom and the feeling that you want to eat everything just escalates and I can see why a lot of people end up slipping back to old habits and gaining weight again and it terrifies me! I do not want to end up back where I started or worse. Maybe the fear is a good thing, maybe the fear will help to keep me focused and on track.

This is what looking in the mirror is like, my mind has not caught up with my body yet!

I don't have the perfect body that I dreamed off. Yes I am the size 12 that I have always dreamed off and I love it but I still have areas that I am not too pleased with and I have come to realise that I will never be 100% satisfied with my body and I need to be ok with that. we are human and we are not perfect! I still feel like an over weight person so my frame of mind is not quiet matching the way I look yet. I suppose it takes time to adjust to a new thinner body when your so used to the old fat one. Seeing people that I haven't seen in a while is helping with that a bit. Peoples reactions are a fantastic confidence boost and clearly there is a noticeable difference in my size. 

Some of the new clothes that I have ordered arrived and they are a perfect fit and changing from wearing clothes that are too big to wearing ones that are just right is really helping me to adjust and feel good about myself :)

One of my new goal wardrobe outfits.

My parents came to visit me this weekend, I haven't seen them in a few weeks and although they had seen recent photos of me they were really taken aback by seeing me in person and they were very complimentary. I was chatting to my mam about wanting a deep fryer so I could make chips as a treat every now and again but that I was also concerned about the dangers of having one in the house. My mam said that I have done so well and I shouldn't let anything ruin it and if I really wanted chips as a treat I should just go out and buy some instead so I thought that was a much better idea.

My first week of maintaining went as it should and I had a STS at weigh in last tuesday. This week i have been feeling quiet relaxed and within reason i have been eating what i want so I hope that I can manage a STS this week too. If I don't then I guess it will kick me back into tip top weight watchers form again so it wont be a bad thing, though I do need to stay within 2 lbs so I can get my gold card but I am confident that I will :)

So as promised here are my top recipes for helping you to get to your goal.

1.French toast with syrup and bacon medallions - a good weekend breakfast/brunch

Serves 1.

2 slices of calorie controlled bread 3pp

1 egg - 2pp

a dash of skim milk - 1pp (take out of daily milk allowance)

2 tsp of syrup - 1pp

2 Supervalu healthy choice bacon medallions - 2pp

9pp per serving. 

whisk together the egg and milk and add salt and pepper.

cook the bacon medallions on the grill until done and getting crispy on the edges.

spray a frying pan with spray oil and heat to a medium high heat.

pout half of the egg mic onto a plate and dip both sides of one slice of bread in the egg and add to the pan, repeat with the other slice. Cook both sides of the bread for a couple of minutes.

top each slice with a bacon medallion and a tsp of syrup and enjoy :)

2.Beetroot and low fat feta salad.

serves 4.

1 bag of rocket or rocket and mixed leaves - 0pp

2/3 vacuum-packed (or fresh cooked) beetroots - 0pp

100g low fat feta - 4pp

1 tbls low fat salad dressing - 0pp (I use Kraft low fat honey and mustard)

diced peppers and red onion  - 0pp (optional)

1pp per serving.

Add the rocket leaves to a big salad bowl.

Roughly chop the beetroot and add to the rocket,

Add in the pepper and onion if using,

crumble over the feta cheese and toss.

Drizzle with the dressing and serve. (this dish goes really well with chicken wings or drumsticks)

3. Curried Carrot Soup.

serves 4

900g of carrots (peeled and chopped) - 0pp

1lrg onion (diced) - 0pp

2 tsp curry powder - 0pp

1 veg stock cube - 0pp

0pp per serving

fry the onion in the bottom of a saucepan with spray oil and the curry powder for 2 minutes.

Add the carrots and stock, bring to the boil and simmer until the carrots are tender.

Blitz the soup in a blender and serve. 

4. Spanish Chicken Involtini 

serves 2

8pp per serving

For this recipe click here 

5. Cream cheese pasta.

Serves 2

80g Dried Pasta

100g Garlic and Herb Philadelphia

2 Bacon Medallions Chopped - 2pp

1 onion diced - 0pp

Half a Punnet of Mushrooms Chopped.

1 Vegetable Stock Cube

Boil the pasta in water with the stock cube.

Fry the bacon, onion & mushroom in a pan with fry oil.

when the pasta is cooked drain the water leaving about 2 tblsp of the water, stir in the cream cheese and the bacon mix.

Serve and enjoy.

6. Orange and Ginger Cheesecake.

Serves 6.

6pp per serving

You can find the recipe by clicking here 

I hope you enjoy trying out some of these recipes along your journey, I know that I have :)

Getting To Goal Part 1

I weighed in last night Tuesday 15th October 2013, I will always remember that date now, because that is the date that I got to goal weight and became a weight watchers gold member!

Goal! 33lbs lighter.

I rushed to weigh in after work, I was desperately trying to get there before the talk started, I knew I was getting close to goal and I wanted to get weighed in straight away, but I didn't make it, so I sat through the class, a very good one at that, waiting to find out if I was any closer. I stepped onto the scales and when my leader, Sue, said you have done it, I didn't quiet take it in. you have got to goal! Sue said again. I have!? wow, I was elated. I cannot explain what those words felt like to hear, I was grinning and I actually felt much lighter! Now I just needed to know what to do to stay at goal and get that lovely gold card in three weeks time. Sue advised me to up my daily points by about 6 and see how I got on with that and she gave me the leaflet all about getting to goal. 6 more points a day, woo!

Me at the end of my first year of college, I had piled on the lbs!

On the way to the car I asked my friend, fellow weight watcher and blogger Amy if I treated myself to a Chinese takeaway would that be silly after getting to goal. She encouraged me to treat myself, after all I had 6 more points now and I had only eaten 12 that day. I drove to the Chinese and ordered my favourite dish with fried rice (which I haven't had since I joined weight watchers 31 weeks ago!)
On the way home in the car I was still on a high and I got to thinking about how I got to this point. How I used to think that I would never even be a thin person. I was destined to be over weight. Shopping for clothes would always end in stress and tears. I couldn't do it. I was the person that would fantasize about how amazing being thin would be but never did anything because it was too difficult. I wasn't much of a follow through person. I started to cry, I was so happy because now I was that person that followed through on something. I was a thin person. I actually did it. I got home I ate my Chinese, I could only manage half, which I thought was very funny!

Me at goal in my very first size 12 dress!

I couldn't wait to share the news, I was home alone because my boyfriend was working late. That was a bit sad, I needed someone to jump up and down with me. I called me mom, she was in the car with her friends and they all cheered and tried to beep the horn but they couldn't find it in their excitement. Then I called my sister, my fabulously thin and muscular, not one once of jiggle sister! She was delighted for me and very proud that I had done it. Caroline has been a great support to me, my whole life. No matter what it is I am trying to achieve, Caroline is spurring me on from the sidelines. During my weight loss journey the times when we were both home for a weekend or at the beach with my family and I was tempted to eat something that was too high in points Caroline would say you don't need to eat that, fruit is so much nicer than sweets, they are natures sweets! and I would then have the fruit :) we talked about maintenance and making sure I didn't let the weight creep back on and I told her that nothing was going to ruin this. Nothing I could eat is better than feeling like this, I feel amazing, I feel beautiful and sexy, I am proud of my body now.

My before picture. Me at my college graduate exhibition.

People have been asking me a lot over the last couple of weeks to share my secrets, my tips, my recipe for weight loss and my answer simply is weight watchers! I have not drank any shakes or starved myself or only eaten cabbage for a month. I have had a very enjoyable 31 weeks, I have eaten out on several occasions, I have had outings to the cinema countless times, I have had a few night out on the town, I have had trips to the beach and I even had a weeks sun holiday. I enjoyed all of it and I never felt deprived. There is no secret or miracle fix for weight loss! there is however a very well researched plan that works if you have the right attitude and a bit of dedication. That plan is called weight watchers. As you might be able to tell, I love weight watchers. I have had my leaders application ready for weeks now and I cannot wait to send it off!

The same dress now!

For those of you on weight watchers or thinking about weight watchers,  I am going to try and dish out some tips and advise. The first and most important thing I can say is that the frame of mind you are in is so important, the attitude you have to your weight loss is the thing that brings you to goal or drags you down. I joined weight watchers twice before and never got near goal because I gave up. so what changed this time around? My attitude, I wanted it so much this time that nothing was going to stop me. I knew there would be gains along the way but I wouldn't give up over a silly little gain!
Some of my tips may be a bit obvious but I'm going to give them anyway, they made such a difference to me.

My Top Tips

1. If you haven't already then switch over to low fat dairy. skimmed milk all the way! For the first couple of days it's not so great but if I was to have full fat milk now I would gag, its too creamy and coats my tongue, yuck!
2. spray oil is your new kitchen friend. When you are on a limited amount of points a day, who wants to spend them on oil for cooking? not me, I love the fry light olive oil and its 0pp for a few sprays.
3. Water water water, drink as much as you can, diet coke is no substitute, it's made with chemicals and is very addictive, not good for you, even if it doesn't make you fat. I save it for trips to the cinema or meals out.
4. Do some sort of activity, I was never an active person, I hated sports and I would have rather watched T.V than go for a walk. you can loose weight without exercise but it has so many health benefits you should do it and it tones! I'm still not an exercise freak but I do a bit. I like to go for walks, usually with a friend, on the weekends a bigger walk/hike in the woods and I also took up roller derby, the first sport that I have ever fallen in love with.
5. Invest in a measuring tape. Sometimes our victories do not happen on the scales, especially when we increase out exercise and build muscle, we might get a gain because muscle weighs more than fat but we will be loosing inches, Measure yourself and take note so you know how many inches you are loosing.
6. Eat chocolate! If your like me and your a self confessed chocoholic then going without will end in a disastrous binge. I have some chocolate everyday, usually a curly wurly (3pp) from the fridge because it lasts longer!
7. Do not, I repeat do not weigh yourself in between weigh ins at home. Your scales will probably differ slightly to the weight watchers ones and you weigh differently at different times which is why you weigh in the same time, same day every week at weight watchers. weighing in at home will give you unnecessary grief.
8. Try new food. as you loose weight your taste buds will change, food that you used to eat may become to greasy or sweet for you and you will find that you like things you thought you didn't. Invest in a weight watchers recipe book, I love the members favourite one and get experimenting! If your on a tight budget then get on google, lost of recipes to be found online.
9. Track! if it passes your lips it goes on the tracker, do not kid yourself with this one, eating a biscuit and thinking it doesn't matter enough to write down is fooling yourself. If by chance you do go over your points in a week, if you have written it down you will know what you have eaten for the gain you got. If you don't write it down you may think you have blown it and make it worse by saying ''oh it doesn't matter now I will eat what a want!''
10. Last but certainly not least, do not be embarrassed to be on weight watchers, be damn proud that you are working your but off for a fitter healthier body. Do not let other people bring you down with negative comments, your good friends and family will be supportive, if not they are jealous because your doing something they wish they would do.

I wanted to share my top recipes too but this post is a bit long now so I will make that a part 2 to this post.  lastly look forward to your goal, I promise that its worth all the hard work, its all you have dreamt of and more!

Whatever it is, its working and my new favourite recipe.

I tried very hard to be good the last week I got my large 3kg jar so that i could put a euro in it every time I came home from work and not grazed on sweets all day, day one and two went great, not a single sweet passed my lips and then day three came and oops, I was stuffing my face again, it continued like the next 3 days at work. then weigh in day came (Tuesday) and I was a bit annoyed with myself again and I just knew I was gonna be up, plus it was that time of the month and I am always a STS or up on those weeks.

Amy O'Riordan, my good friend, fellow weight watchers and blogger came up with this wonderful idea of having a group diary, each week one of us takes it and uses it as a tracker, a diary of our feelings or just to put recipes in. Then the following week the next person has it and can look back over the other entries for inspiration. I had the diary last week. It started off well but in the end it got a bit neglected and I didn't finish my weeks entry. this is what went down last week, a meal and a movie with friends - tracked fine. A surprise dinner out with Will - tracked but went over my weeklies by 7. Take away - way way over and sweets, crazy. so now you see why I was expecting to be up.

I barely made it to weigh in to pass the diary on, I was stock taking in work from 8:30 am and I didn't get out of work until nearly 7, I drove like a mad woman and made it just as the class was over and passed the diary on to a very enthusiastic girl ( who's name I cannot remember, sorry)
I weighed in and I was down...yes DOWN 1.5lbs! I am starting to sound a bit like the girl who cried wolf at this stage, this seems to be happening to me a lot. I was thrilled but the first thing i said to my leader Sue was ''now i'm not gonna be good because I know I can get away with it!' then I got home and I thought about it and I decided that even if I can get away with it, it's not a healthy habit and I need to break it. It's better for my health to eat well and not be eating so much sugar all the time. So thats my vow for this week, to stop eating so much sugar.

This week I want to share with you my new favourite recipe, Spanish Chicken Involtini from the weight watchers members favourite book. Its really tasty, it does not taste like a diet dinner, it tastes like something you might get out at a restaurant.

Spanish Chicken Involtini

Serves 2

16 pp per recipe                    8pp per serving

100g butternut squah, peeled, deseeded and cut into small cubes. (I like to use a whole squash and really bulk up the meal)
200g red pepper deseeded and diced ( i use 2 peppers of any colour)
1 tsp paprika
calorie controlled cooking spray
60g ready to eat chorizo
2 x 165g chicken breast
2 tblsp low fat cream cheese with sweet chili (I used the philadelphia with sweet chili, but you could use any cream cheese and mix in your own chili sauce)

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.
Place the squash and peppers in a large ovenproof dish, sprinkle with half the paprika, season and spray with cooking spray.
Bake for 20-30 minutes, until tender. remove from oven and mix in the chorizo. leave to cool.
meanwhile cut the chicken in half lengthways. Place each piece between two sheets of cling film and use a rolling pin to flatten the chicken into four long strips.
divide the cream cheese between the chicken strips, spreading in neatly over the top of each one. Top with the squash mixture. Roll each strip up tightly and secure with two cocktail sticks each.
spray an oven proof s=dish with the cooking spray and place the chicken and the remaining filling in the dish. Sprinkle over the remaining paprika.
Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through.

It should look a bit like this.

I had mine on its own, with the extra squash its loads. But my boyfriend likes his with sweet potato wedges, so if you have the extra points you could do that.

Williams plate with the wedges.

I am now 1.5lbs to goal and if i get there by halloween (which I should) then i will be delighted.
I think its safe to buy some new clothes now so i am going to town tomorrow to have a look around.
Will has made several comments about my underwear being too saggy on my bottom now so I think its time I bought some smaller ones for sure!

Also I will be setting up my own Please Pass The Skinny YouTube channel to go along with my blog soon, so keep an eye out for more information on that :)