My 13 Week Challenge - Week 1: The Easter Bank Holiday

Last night was weigh in night and the first one of my 13 week, 13lbs challenge and I was up 2lbs!
Ok, so it didn't go to plan, I didn't lose the 1lbs I was aiming for but i'm not disappointed with myself either...sounds a bit strange I know but I feel fantastic!

Let me explain.
My plan for the long weekend was not to drink any alcohol, just eat one Easter egg worth 25 Pro Points from my weeklies and do plenty of activity and loose 1lbs.

Beautiful beach

Here is how it went.
My week started of with a great start, I woke up last Thursday morning and I headed out for a walk, I hadn't gone for a walk in weeks but I managed to do a 5Km walk and I felt great. I came home and I ate well for the day. Thursday night we headed down to west cork for an extra long Easter weekend. Friday got off to a great start, the weather was gorgeous, we went for a walk on the beach and later that evening we climbed up to The Beacan at Baltimore to see the sun set.

The Beacon

Ok...so I did eat some chips and shared a slice of cake with William before hand, but still not so bad. Saturday came and we went for a wonder around the local market, and I decided to make some dessert for Sunday lunch the next day. I made a raw food, chocolate & avocado tart, it was amazing! we went for dinner Saturday night, I really wanted pizza but I ordered fish instead and just had one very small glass of wine. I opted to be the designated driver so that I couldn't drink more alcohol and I resisted more wine when we got home but I did eat a couple of triangles of Toblerone...oops!
Doesn't sound too bad now does it, my weeklies would have covered the treats I did have.

My Chocolate & Avocado Tart

Then came Sunday and that's where things started to slip. The sun was scorching, we were having 12 people over for Sunday lunch and I got carried away in the buzz of the bank holiday weekend. we climbed the small mountain behind the house before dinner, it was tough but I made it!

I drank more than I should have on Sunday. Cold beer just tastes so good sitting in the blazing sun in a beautiful garden chatting with friends and I ate far more chocolate than I had planned, we had an Easter egg hunt in the garden that morning and I couldn't resist, Monday was similar to Sunday, more chocolate and an ice cream cone on the drive back home. 

Sunday morning egg hunt

So as you can see gaining 2lbs is not that surprising really. I was kinda hoping that the activity would make up for all the chocolate I ate but I knew that was just wishful thinking. I don't regret my weekend because I had an amazing time with friends and family, it was almost like a mini holiday and those kind of weekends don't happen very often.

At the top of the little mountain

I feel fantastic because I did more activity that I ever did when I was losing my weight originally and I have kept it up too. I went for an 8km walk on Tuesday and a 6km walk on Wednesday. I am setting up a great habit for myself and I am learning to make activity a part of my lifestyle and enjoying it too!

I didn't reach my goal that I had set for the week, but I conquered one thing, activity and I am proud of that. This week I will conquer tracking and I know I will have a loss next Wednesday night.

one challenge at a time, one day at a time, one meal at a time and I will get there because Slow & steady wins the race.

Chocolate & Marshmallow Cupcakes

Happy Valentines Day!

I love you all very much and that's why I am willing to share these yummy, Weight Watchers Friendly, Chocolate & Marshmallow Cupcakes with you...well the recipe anyway, you will have to bake them yourself. Trust me, they are worth the very small effort involved.

These cupcakes are super easy, so don't shy away if your not a baker or a confident cook. They are so fool proof you could even ask your special someone or children to make them for you as your Valentines gift! 

Chocolate & Marshmallow Cupcakes

Serves 12

2 Pro Points Each 

Ingredients

1 box of Betty Crocker Devils Food Cake Mix.

1 can of Coke Zero/Diet Coke

12 x Dr Oetker Heart Shaped Marshmallows

4 Tbsp Marshmallow Fluff 

6 Squares of dark or Milk Chocolate (I used Tesco Finest 75%) 

Method

Preheat oven to 160oC Fan Oven

Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners

In a mixing bowl whisk together the cake mix and can of Coke Zero. Mix well.

using an ice cream scoop, fill each liner with one level scoop of batter

bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean

leave to cool on a wire rack

When the cupcakes are cool spread the top of each cupcake with 1tsp of Marshmallow fluff

Melt the chocolate and dip the top of each cupcake in the chocolate, covering the marshmallow fluff, place a heat shaped marshmallow on top and let the chocolate set (I put my cupcakes in the fridge for 5 minutes to help set the chocolate)

Serve & enjoy because your worth it!

Diet ''Cheat'' Cake!

I want cake...I want cake now!

Sometimes in life you just need a piece of cake. The great Thing about weight watchers is that you can indeed have your cake and eat it. Thats the topic I was discussing with my members in my classes this week. A slice of cake in a coffee shop (or even home made) can cost you up to 19 Pro Points! But there are lower alternatives available. 

Last weekend while away for a weekend with my friend Mandi we simultaneously got cake craving, Funny how that happens! Both of us ae following weight watchers so we started thinking about what we could make that wouldn't cost us too much from our Weekly Pro Point allowance. Mandi got to google searching and came across a very strange concept for a Weight Watchers friendly cake.

The concept is taking a box cake mix and mixing it with a can of diet soda in replace of the oil and eggs.

I am not normally a fan of using box cake as I love to bake from scratch but the idea of a low Pro Point cake was too good so we decided to try it out using Betty Crocker Devils Food Cake Mix and a can of Coke Zero. We ended up with a lovely moist chocolate cake! We made some extra light cream cheese frosting  and the cake worked out at 6 Pro Points Per slice! Apologies there is no photo of that cake, it got gobbled up before I thought to take one.

This weekend I decided to try out another cake using the same concept as the chocolate cake. 

I found the Betty Crocker Orange & Chocolate Swirl mix on sale in Tesco for 1.59 and decided to try it out using a can of Tesco Orange Zero, a 4 pack cost 1.69 so not only is this a really tasty Weight Watchers friendly cake, its very affordable too and works out at 4 Pro Points a slice.

Diet Orange & Chocolate Swirl Cake

4 Pro Points per serving

Serves 12

1 Box Bettry Crocker Orange & Chocolate Swirl Cake Mix

1 330ml Can of Orange Zero 

Preheat fan oven to 160

Spray a cake tin with fry light

Follow the instructions from the box adding the can of soda in replace of the oil & eggs.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack and serve.

Really, it's as easy as that and nobody would know it was from a box or Weight Watchers friendly!

You can try out any variety of box cake & diet soda combination and let me know how it turns out if you try your own.

Sarah x

Porridge Bread Scones & Home Made ''Nutella''

Firstly I would like to apologies for my disappearance lately, I have been very busy. I have been doing my Weight Watchers leader Training. I passed my assessment last week and I am now officially a Weight watchers Leader! I am very excited and also eager to get going with classes. I will have more news soon about where my classes will be, for those of you interested in that.

Now I would like to make a splash back into blogging with my new recipe.

Porridge bread is by no means a new creation to us Weight watchers people, since the beginning of Simple Start in January we have all been raving about its wonderfulness. It truly is genius! However I did begin to get a little bored with the bread and mine was ever turning out quiet right, it was always a bit soggy in the middle. I would leave it in the oven for double the stated time but no such luck would come about.

So I decided to try turning the bread dough into scones instead and it worked a treat, they cooked perfectly and I am now in love with them. The scones, like the bread is free on Simple Start or Filling & healthy. I have worked out the Pro Points for those of you who prefer to count. I am now a complete convert to Filling & Healthy myself, so I do recommend you give it a try if you haven't already.

porridge Bread Scones

Serves 12

Free on Filling & Healthy
or 4 Pro Points each.

500g  tub Low Fat Natural Yogurt
Twice the empty Yogurt tub filled with Porridge Oats
1 Tsp Salt
2 Tsp bread Soda

Preheat oven to 180c

Empty the Low Fat Natural Yogurt into a mixing bowl,
Fill up the Yogurt tub twice with Porridge Oats and mix into the Yogurt along with the Salt and Bread Soda. Mix well to form a wet dough.
Grease a 12 spaced Bun Tin with Fry Lite. Using an Ice-Cream/Potato Scoop, Scoop the dough between the 12 spaced Bun Tin. Sprinkle over Wheat Germ if desired and bake in the oven for 40 Minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
Place on a wire rack to cool.

*update - I got a new oven and now my Porridge Bread Scones cook in 20 - 25 minutes, so make sure you keep an eye on them.

Now the scones are just to get you started, the real delight is the home made ''Nutella'' I have come up with. It is what I would describe as a healthy grown-ups Nutella, a dark Chocolate and Hazelnut spread. It works out much the same in Pro Points as Nutalla does but it has less Sugar and no Palm Oil, so is much better for us. I am really in love with this one! It is the perfect accompaniment for the scones and will curb any Chocolate craving!

Dark Chocolate & Hazelnut Spread

2pp for 1Tbsp or 3pp for 2 Tbsp

150g Whole Hazelnuts
60g Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
50g Sweet Freedom Syrup (Light or Dark)
120ml Skimmed Milk
1tsp Vanilla Extract

Preheat the oven to 180c

Place the Hazelnuts on a lined baking sheet and roast in the oven for 10 minutes.
when the hazelnuts are done place them between 2 pieces of Kitchen paper and rub to remove the skins (this is tiresome work but do prevail!)
Place the skinless Hazelnuts in a food processor and blend on a medium/high setting for 10 minutes or until a peanut butter consistency is achieved, scraping down the sides as necessary.
Add in the rest of the ingredients and blend until well combined.

Spoon into a sterilised jar, I used 2 small ones and refrigerate and use within one week.

Enjoy! :)

Filling & Healthy Porridge Oat Pancakes

I have had a longing for pancakes for days now. It's seeing all the pancake mixes and toppings filling the shelves of the supermarkets. Pancake Tuesday is on it's way and gosh do I love pancakes!

I am filled with lovely thoughts of stuffing myself with pancakes all day on Pancake Tuesday. The reality is I will probably have 3 or 4 and be stuffed! While I am saving myself for ''Real'' Pancakes on Pancake Tuesday I don't want to waste any of my weekly pro points on them right now. I have been making alternative filling & healthy pancakes to keep me satisfied for now.

Most of us know of and love the banana & egg pancakes that have been circling around for a while now. I had them yesterday. While they are quick, easy and a good substitute for pancake cravings, sometimes I am a little bothered about the banana taste that comes with them.

Today I decided to try out a different method and the results were very, very surprising! These pancakes tasted very much like the real deal and were very satisfying and filling. I will be opting for these pancakes instead of the banana ones so long as I am following the filling & healthy program.

Porridge Oat Pancakes.

Free on Filling & healthy
Makes 4 Pancakes.

4 scoops of Porridge Oats (I used the red scoop that comes with microwave porridge oats, this works out at 60g)
2 eggs.
A large dash of Skimmed Milk (I did not measure the milk, I added in a little at a time until i got the desired batter consistency for pancakes)
1tsp Vanilla Extract
1tsp Baking Powder
Fry Light

Pour all ingredients into a baking bowl and blend using a hand blender. Alternatively mix together with a spoon or whizz in the food processor.
Spray your frying pan with some Fry Light and heat the pan to a medium/high heat.
Using a serving spoon or ladle pour some of the batter onto the frying pan.
These pancakes cook very fast so keep an eye on them.
After a minute flip over to the other side and cook for a further minute.
Repeat with the remaining batter and serve with your favourite topping.


You can make these pancakes gluten free by using gluten free oats and baking powder.

Happy Valentines with Mini Maltesers cheesecakes!

Happy Valentines

Whether you have splurged and forgotten completely about weight watchers for today or you have planned valentines into your week. I hope you have enjoyed a wonderful valentines.

I myself planned it into my weeklies, I knew I wanted to splurge a bit so I made sure I had the weeklies left to do it. I lost 3lbs on Tuesdays weigh in, so I am most definitely back on track and 0.5lbs under my goal. I am doing a filling and healthy week. Being at goal and on maintenance I get 90 weekly pro points if doing filling & healthy.

My plan was to stick to filling & healthy foods for the whole day and then tonight I enjoyed my favourite chinese takeaway dish - Shredded Crispy chicken in Sweet Chili Sauce, which I have guessed to be 12 points for the half portion that I had. I made my own egg fried rice, which was free on filling and healthy, using boiled brown rice and one egg.

I had one small vegetable spring roll - 4pp, and a very small hand full of prawn crackers - 4pp

In total my valentines dinner cost me 20 pro points, not bad!

Then came dessert!..The most important part in my eyes.

I have been day dreaming and searching google for days for the perfect cheesecake inspiration. I wanted a cheesecake that could be at least a little part Filling & healthy.

This was the result of my endless research & daydreaming.

Mini Malteser Cheesecakes

5 Pro Points each on Filling & healthy

serves 4.

250g Quark
8 Weight Watchers Chocolate Digestives.
3 Tsp of Low Fat Spread, melted.
30g Icing Sugar.
2 Tsp Vanilla Extract.
8 Tbsp Hot Water
1, 12g Sachet of Powdered Gelatin.
1, 37g Bag of Maltesers.

In a food processor mix the biscuits until they resemble breadcrumbs, mix in the melted butter.
Spoon the crumb mixture between 4 mini pie dishes, use the back of a spoon the press the mixture down.
Pour the hot water into a jug and mix in the powdered gelatin until dissolved, set aside to cool.
In a food processor mix the quark, sugar and vanilla extract together until smooth & creamy, scarping down the sides as you go.
Mix in the gelatin a bit at a time.
Gently crush the Maltesers, setting aside 4 whole ones.
Fold in the crushed Maltesers to the quark mixture.
Spoon the Quark mixture between the 4 mini pie dishes.
Gently crush each remaining Malteser, one at a time, and sprinkle on each Mini Cheesecake.
Chill the Cheesecakes for 2 hrs, until set.

Serve & enjoy!

If you do not have mini pie dishes you could make this in glasses, cupcake cases, or make one large cheesecake in a cake tin.

Flourless Chocolate Mug Cake

Last night, I wanted chocolate and I wanted cake and nothing was going to stop me. Every single thought about weight watchers and points went out the window and I searched Google for a quick easy recipe.

What I found was genius...Mug Cake!

A Mug Cake is exactly that a cake that is made in a mug, it is cooked in the microwave for a minute or so depending on the recipe. Afterwards, feeling a little guilty I calculated up the points. It worked out at a whopping 27, lucky it was rich and filling so I was only able to eat half!

The 27 Pro Point Mug Cake!

It got me thinking, could I make a weight watchers version? I began researching and came up with a recipe. and a flourless one at that. I had my good friend Amy in mind as she is gluten & wheat intolerant.

Batter in Liners

These cakes are rich & chocolately so instead of making one mug cake I decided to divide the cake batter and make 3 little cakes instead. I used silicone cupcake molds that i got in ikea but it will work out just fine in mugs too, just be sure to grease the mugs first so you can easily remove the cakes.

Flourless Chocolate Mug Cake

1 Medium Egg
2 Tblsp unsweetend Cocoa Powder
1 Tblsp Brown Sugar or Sweetener
1/4 Tsp Baking Powder

Baked Cupcakes

The whole recipe is 11 Pro Points.
If you decide to make 3 smaller cakes like i did they work out at 4 Pro Points each.
If you use sweetener one big mug cake is 8 Pro Points or 3 Pro Points each if divided into 3 cakes.

Dusted with icing sugar

Instructions

In a bowl mix together to egg, cocoa powder and sweetener. 

Add the baking powder and mix.

Divide the batter between three silicone cupcake liners or mugs. (If you want to make one cake pour all the batter into one mug) if you use mugs, grease the mugs with oil first.

Microwave all three cupcakes at once for one minute or until baked. 

The batter will rise at first and then deflate as it finishes baking.

Test the cupcakes are done by inserting a cocktail stick into the middle, if it comes out clean the cupcakes are done, if not bake for a few more seconds.

Delicious!

The cupcakes would go great with some cream or ice cream if you have the Pro Points to spare, I dusted mine using 1/2 a tsp of icing sugar over all three. I took a bite and it was divine, Though I felt that I was missing something,  so I poured one tsp of toffee sauce over the top for no extra Pro Points!

Drizzled with toffee sauce

Weight watchers (unofficial) Christmas Party

At the weekend I attended the unofficial weight watchers party in Tullamore along with 9 other fabulous ladies. The night was organised by a fantastic lady called Maura from the weight watchers group on Facebook that I live on. Unfortunately though Maura couldn't make it in the end :(
We had a gorgeous three course meal at the Tullamore Court Hotel. I had A Chicken & Mushroom Vol Au Vent for my starter followed by Stuffed Chicken Breast with Croquets (the most amazing ones i've ever tasted) and vegetables. Dessert was Forerro Rocher Cheesecake and it had clotted cream on the top! I also had a large glass of red with dinner and four Gin & Slim Tonics throughout the night. so you have probably guessed it by now but I was no point counting the night at all.

After out hair & Make - up was done

I went to the party with my good friend Amy O'Riordan,fellow weight watchers and fellow blogger - http://growingintherightdirection.blogspot.ie
We started out morning off in cork with some gorgeous vintage style hair and make up by the wonderfully talented Rosa - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rosa-Through-The-Looking-Glass/151043948262325
We then began out journey to Tullamore, both with gurgling hungry tummies, which we knew was the completely wrong way to show up to a dinner so we stopped and got a sandwich on the way. It took us longer to get the the hotel than we had anticipated so we checked in and had a rush to top up our lipstick and get out dresses on to make it down in time for the dinner.

All set for the night

Our fears and concernes about meeting up with people we had chatted to on Facebook but not actually met in person would be awkward were quickly washed away, we all sat down and imidiatley started chatting and the conversation flowed for the rest of the night. I think its safe to say that all of us had a great night :) I am looking forward tp the next meet up which will hopefully be in the near future!

All the Gals!

Today is weigh in day for me and I cannot predict at all how its going to go for me. Npt having tracked the night away leaves me in the dark a bit. I really want a STS which would set me up perfectly for my own Christmas Party at my house this coming weekend. But I fear that I might have a gain after the indulgent dinner at the weekend. If I do gain though I wont be annoyed with myself for indulging and not tracking, I went there planning to eat what I wanted and thats what I did. I am at goal, actually 1lb under so I know that any little gains will be swiftly dealt with because I plan on staying at goal for a very very long time!

This was a short and sweet entry and I will be back later to let you know how weigh in went.

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 :)

At the end of a hard day there is always cheesecake!

I weighed in on tuesday with a gain of 1lb. I was really disgusted with that yesterday, I had been good all week, I didn't go over my points. I just felt that a a gain was a bad omen for my first week in my new job, If I couldn't loose weight on a regular week how was I going to loose weight while working in a sweet shop! The only thing that I could put it down to was my period. But I hadn't had a gain any other time when I got my period! or had I? Turns out i did, I went back and checked my weigh in tracker. In fact, I have had a small gain or a STS like clockwork once every four weeks since I began weight watchers, I just never put 2 and 2 together before. So I felt much happier after I realised the pattern and that if I stay on track I will have a gain next week.

Orange & Ginger Nut Biscuit Cheesecake

So after accepting my gain for what it was all that was left to do was sort out my craving for something really naughty to cure those horrible cramps....mmm cheesecake! I went on the hunt for a weight watchers friendly cheesecake and i found this amazing recipe on the weight watchers ireland website. Not just your average lemon or strawberry cheesecake but a delicious orange and ginger nut biscuit cheesecake and I thought at 6pp a slice that was a bargain for cheesecake. This really hit the spot, I have not had any other treats through out the day so that I can have a slice in the evening without going into my weekly allowance. If you would like to make one for yourself you will find the recipe by clicking here 

Recipe from www.weightwatchers.ie

My first week in my new job is going well, I am coming home with ver sore feet so I am sure I must be taking a lot more steps than I had been. I am going to buy a pedometer next week and see just how many. If it is going to contribute to my weight loss I don't mind sore feet at the end of the day. besides its nothing a bit of cheesecake wont fix! My will power is still intact and very strong. Yes I am having some sweets but its only a couple and I am pointing them, I am not pretending I didn't eat them so thats all good :) I am not really having a lunch at work, just grabbing some fruit when I get the chance, I know thats not the best thing to do and I am going to try and get myself into a better routine. In class this week we talked about one thing we could do to help spur us on, so finding the time for a decent lunch while working could be mine although i also want to clear out my wardrobe and get rid of everything that doesn't fit, which is a lot. I will probably have to keep some things other wise I won't have much to wear. when I get to goal I will throw them all out and buy new stuff.

Yummy!

I left weigh in in a bad mood and that could have been detrimental for my next weigh in, but now I feel much more positive and i know I will have a loss next week. A good attitude really goes a long way when it comes to weight loss, so stay positive!

Life is good & feeling great

I weighed in on tuesday down 3 lbs! I was ecstatic, it pushed me into another stone bracket and brought me close to goal, I can see it now, that lovely gold card, it's waiting for me and I am coming to get it!
I am also considering changing my goal by half a stone to 11st 7lbs instead of 11st, i'm not sure yet but if I do then I am only 6lbs away from goal. That thought has made me realise how far I have come and how wonderful it feels and I had a thought...
How often do we stop to appreciate the good things we have going on in our lives? Not that often I bet! well not me anyway, I'm always pushing for the next thing, my next weigh in, next lb, next, next, next. Today I am stoping and taking a little moment to appreciate my life right now, because I have realised that its pretty great right now!

We need to stop and smell the roses

I've lost a ton of weight over the last 6 months, 25.5lbs in total. I feel fantastic, I'm less tired, more energetic and much, much happier in myself. I can walk (more like a jog) up my full set of 31 stairs without loosing my breath, most of my clothes are now far to loose. To top it all I got offered a job today! I had the interview yesterday and I felt so confident going into it and not one bit self conscious and the interview went really well. The job, which I am very excited about is in a sweet shop and starts on monday.

I will feel like this kid on my first day of work :)

Now, I won't lie, am a little concerned about how going back into full time employment and a change of routine will effect my weight loss, especially because its in a sweet shop and gosh do I LOVE sweets! But i am only a little bit concerned, i've come so far I cannot see it being ruined by anything, I know i will have to go to work prepared with packed lunch and I desperately need new clothes that are not hanging off me so i'm going to spend money on beautiful clothes and not sweets! Thats going to be my mantra and I will remind myself of how far I have come when I feel like giving in to temptation :)

I had a celebratory chinese take away tonight after I got the call about the job. I ended up only eating half because my stomach is not physically able for massive portions of food anymore. I had half a tub or boiled rice for 6pp and half a tub of shredded crispy chicken in a sweet chili sauce, which I pointed at 13 with the help of some lovely ladies from the Facebook page. I didn't cut the points in half for that even though I only ate half because I wanted to be safe. So i've had my treat and i've pointed it and I still have loads of weeklies left for the rest of the week.

also this week I baked some gorgeous banana muffins for only 2pp each!

2 pro point banana muffins.

I had some browning bananas and I was searching for something to do with them and I came across this recipe here - http://fatgirlslimmer.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/banana-muffins-2-weight-watchers-pro-points-each/

Ingredients

30g butter
60g honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 ripe bananas
150g plain flour
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
12 cup muffin pan lined with muffin cases
Chocolate chips for sprinkling on top
Melt the butter, honey and vanilla in the microwave. 
Mash the bananas in a bowl and pour over the honey butter vanilla mix and combine.
Mix the dry ingredients in another mixing bowl.
Mix the bananas mix into the dry ingredients until just combined(don’t overmix)
Divide the muffin mix equally amongst the muffin cases.
Top with chocolate chips
Bake for 25 minutes at 190 degrees

* I did not have chocolate chips so I made mine without them.

A delicious dinner and a scrumptious dessert to curb those cravings!

I had a stay the same this week. I was so happy with that because I had one of those weeks where I could not stop myself from eating and I was expecting to be up. The problem now though is how do I reign it in and get back on track?

Today has gone well so I think I will be ok now. I followed some advice from the meeting this week and divided my points up so I knew exactly how many I was allowed for breakfast lunch and dinner. Mine is 6 for breakfast 8 for lunch and 10 - 12 for dinner and 5 for snacks.

I stayed well under that today, quiet by accident. I had 6 for breakfast, 6 for lunch and 8 for dinner followed by dessert for 5 and a snack for 2 pp. I still have 4 left for the rest of the evening.

For dinner today I decided to try something new. I looked through my members favourite book and decided on the caribbean chicken. Oh my gosh! it was delicious. I will definitely be adding it to my regular dinner list. For only 8pp you couldn't go wrong.

Caribbean Chicken - members favourite book

I haven't quiet managed to get rid of the sweet craving that had been plaguing me all last week yet, but i didn't want to give into it and gorge myself on a huge bar of chocolate. Instead I came up with a dessert that is simple to make and oh boy was it satisfying!

Its a kind of  a banoffee pie pudding or sunday. I crushed 2 of the weight watchers double chocolate biscuits and put them in the bottom of a wine glass and layered it with banana slices and topped it with 3 tblsp of butterscotch angel delight adding more banana slices on top and grating a small bit of dark chocolate over. It worked out at 5pp and it was well worth it. I would be happy to serve this up at a dinner party, nobody would have any idea that it was weight watchers friendly, it tastes very naughty!

I also discovered a quick fix for a chocolate/sweet craving that only uses 1pp. I have been microwaving my pink 'n' whites for a while now, just for a few seconds. The marshmallow goes warm and gooey, yummy! My friend amy told me to open the pink 'n' white before microwaving it and spreading a tiny but of nutella onto it and then closing it up and microwave it. Oh my gosh, it was a great quick fix after my lunch today when i was tempted to go to the shop for a giant bar of chocolate.

The pink 'n' whites with nutella and the butterscotch pudding may very well keep me on tack this week and and stop me from totally pigging out. hopefully I will see a loss next tuesday.

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.

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 :)