Off the rails...

Oh dear.
   Well I'm not going to make any excuses I've been pretty weak this weekend and ruined my hard work because I hadn't trained myself properly.  It isn't because it's difficult because it's not. I proved that to myself when I resisted the chocolate cake my O-H brought home after work, and moving the lads dinner of pizza and chips out of sight while I cooked my no carb lamb breast and didn't even nick a chip. I was just weak and pathetic but I'm only human.

I need to steer well clear of this...

    Saturday night I had some personal stuff to deal with and it all got very emotional and stressful and before I knew it one glass of wine had turned into a whole bottle and then a bottle of wine at midnight turned into a packet of hula hoops. Magic I know but not very impressive. I felt horrible Sunday morning, so disappointed in myself which made me feel worse.

Ska Band - Reel Big Fish

   But I had to cheer up, We had a Reel Big Fish gig to go to last night and I've been waiting since I was like 14 to see these guys live. It was an awesome night, the atmosphere was electric, the people were amazing, and the band were well...they were Reel Big Fish baby! So anyway I have yet another confession, I ended up drinking a few bottles of lager before the gig then had one whilst I was there. I figured it wouldn't be out of my system today so I plan to restart my diet Tuesday morning; when I'm more prepared to get up and start Phase 1 Day one again.

   I have been drinking lot of water today to try and help flush out all the crap again. I've got my salad pots I've been making for lunch all made up and in the fridge ready to go.

Cheesy Celery Coleslaw & Pesto Chicken Salad

I grabbed the pots from our Tesco in town off the antipasto part of the deli. filled them up with olives and now I use them to make salads and coleslaw in!

These two took me 15 mins to make this morning and most of that was making sure the chicken was cooked properly! Here's what they contain:



The Cheesy Celery Coleslaw .
-Grated Gouda   -2 Celery sticks   -1 small carrot   -2 radish   -1/2 tomato   -Tablespoon of Hellmans Mayonnaise
Finely slice all the salad ingredients, mix in the mayo and cheese and voila! A low carb, totally delicious, fresh zingy coleslaw. Try adding some smoked salmon on the side if you need to!





The Pesto Chicken Salad.
-1 chicken breast   -1 Tablespoon Pesto   -1 Tablespoon Olive oil   -Rocket salad   -1 Garlic clove
Slice the chicken and fry in a non-stick pan untill opaque, then add the diced garlic clove & cook until golden.
Mix the tablespoon of pesto with the olive oil to create a dressing like consistency and pour over the salad leaves and add the chicken. You could add bits of crispy bacon or a few olives if you need something salty!

And there you have 2 quick scrumptious salads, Perfect for light lunches!



    Well I have to go get things sorted for Zumba tonight, like something comfortable & fitting, Can't be dancing around with my trousers falling down! Need to get rid of some junk out the room to get me in the right mind set & write out a new shopping list. New me commencing 8am tomorrow morning, Take Two! Let's hope I stick to it this time.

Catch ya later x

                                                                         

Bloody rain....

   Whey! Day 4 of the diet and I'm feeling pretty okay, my sugar intake before I started this wasn't that bad, I don't drink tea or coffee on a regular basis, I tend to stay away from fizzy drinks and I'm more of a savory than a sweet kind of person. So I think that may work in my favor as I'm not missing sugar much. (I do have the odd craving for Haribo though :(!) I'm trying to stick to this 2 liters of water a day but I am struggling, I've never drank so much liquid in my life. Let's hope it's as good for me as they say!
   Worked out my carb count from yesterday and it was at 14.something grams, which is better than I expected. I made a lovely Moroccan style lamb dish for dinner last night, as the men tucked into pizza, chips and spaghetti! Unfortunately tablespoons of  some of my spices seem to be quite high in carbs (according to the net anyway) so it was only lightly spiced but I made up for it with chili flakes! I've read they can sometimes help speed up weight loss. Is it true horseradish can help speed up your metabolism or is it an old fish wives tale?
   I still have half of my lamb breast so I'm thinking of slow roasting it and cooking off some mushrooms in cream and black pepper. Never made anything like that before so I hope it turns out okay.
   I wanted to go for a walk today along the canal path but it's bloody freezing and was raining this morning so I know the paths going to be all slushy under foot. (I'm not stable on my feet at the best of times so I'm not risking it!)
   Anyway just a short blog for today I think, I'll let you know how the lamb got on if I cook it! Have a good day folks! x

It's getting harder now...

URGH.....
   I'm not liking this one bit today. I woke up wanting ham & cheese toasties. Not a good start. I'm missing carbs like hell right now. All I want to do is eat the things I can't.
   One big problem of mine was comfort eating but I got that sorted months ago. (Well as soon as I found out what was making me unhappy and got rid of it.) But life never fails to throw you against a brick wall when the path looks clear. So today I'm struggling a little. I'll do my best and not give into temptation but this is only the 3rd day and I have to keep this up for months...no idea how.
    Another thing I'm struggling with is the water intake...anybody would think it was a camel using the toilet first thing of a morning (Sorry for too much info but there you go!) but seriously I've never been a big fan of water and can honestly say my feelings on it have not changed. But again I know I need it so I'll keep it up. I've only managed about 600ml so far today.     
   Although one good drink I have found is some tasty sparkling water drinks in ALDI. (I know its looked down upon but who cares when you can get your liters of flavored water for 33p!?) They do cranbery & apple, lemon & elderflower, peach, lemon & lime. And they all have no carbs in them! So thats breaking up the blandness of plain old water.
   I've been living on spinach, smoked salmon and Polish & German pork sausages all week and I can live with that although I do feel like something is missing. If anyone who reads this knows of any delicious recipes I can try out leave me a comment! I'm piecing together a recipe folder, but this diet can hurt your pocket when you're on a budget.
  Anyways I'm off to fill up on supplements and have a walk round to the shop with the other half. (Yes I'm actually  making him walk to the shop!) So hope you all have a great day!
   Catch ya in a few days x
   

Full of goodness!!

Well hello again, Hope you all had a great weekend!
     It's 4:00pm on what can only be described as my real Day One. I actually woke up and weighed myself, (which would have been a good start yesterday!) was pleasantly surprised as I thought I'd put more weight on that I have, kinda made me more determined to shift this load as I now feel as if I have less of a way to go. (Still not happy with the scales straining under me though! It's a good job it can't report abuse!)
    I also got paid today so I headed into town and brought all my supplements and a few bits an pieces to make meals out of over the next few days. Managed to spend £30, (Although £2 of that was on a gorgeous red candle and a photo frame!) this diet better work or I'll be a broken pig instead of a poor twig!
    So anyway, my other half had an interview for college at 9am this morning (Shock horror, he actually made it on time!!) so I went shopping and got my vitamins, fish oil, Co-enzyme Q10 capsules etc. The only thing I didn't pick up was the Psyllium capsules. I also picked up a new water bottle that holds 700ml of liquid and I'm aiming on drinking at least 3 of those a day! so far I've drank one & a half.
    Well I'd finished grabbing all my bits and pieces by about 10am (This girl don't mess around ya' know!) and ended up sitting in the car waiting for the other half to be finished. I then realized I hadn't eaten anything for breakfast and didn't think I had picked anything up that I could eat "on-the-go" as such. Until I remembered I had olives and cashew nuts, so I nibbled a handful of each and finished off my bottle of water and I was all good! 
   My food shopping list for today consisted of; spinach, rocket salad, celery, smoked salmon, smoked mackerel, a mayo that's low in carbs, brie, double cream, broccoli, olives, plain cashew nuts & German sausages.

This is my smoked salmon & Gouda salad!

    Out of the food I'd brought I decided to be a little experimental and had a go at making a slightly different coleslaw I guess. I thinly sliced some celery and julienned a carrot about as long as middle finger, then I added some shredded ice burg lettuce and a desert spoon of mayonnaise and a sprinkling of pepper. (taste's good, give it a go!) So when I was satisfied with the result of my creative low carb coleslaw I added on a few slices of smoked mackerel and Voila! Lunch was served.
     This was looking pretty good at this point but it lacked colour...so off I ran upstairs to Google low carbs in veg and was delighted when radishes came up 0.2!! so I thinly sliced a single radish and added to garnish. It looked delicious and didn't taste half bad either!
     Oh yeah last night was our first night back at Zumba after 2 weeks off. (Damn illness & Valentines day for getting in the way of our party time!) So Toni headed over to Jay's early so we could both do the video blog of us trying out the chocolate whey protein drink, for her running account of our diet. I must admit it wasn't too bad, initial reactions of it were not good, as you shall probably see (If I ever get the link off her!!) But in all honesty I could drink one of those as a meal in the morning. Maybe not just before doing a high impact dance workout tho eh Toni!?!? I shall also never do it in Ugg boots ever again, (man I looked like a pleb!) Especially next week when we shall be filmed doing said high impact dance workout. The things I do for my diet buddy! I'm an awesome friend!

    Right well I'm gonna sign off and grab a shower! Thanks for reading, hope you're not keeping this blog all to yourselves and you're sharing it with all your friends and relatives! x

Carb party!!

    Just a quick one before I head to bed to get my much needed 8 hours sleep. ( I look more beast than beauty without it first thing!) 

   So its 20mins past midnight which means it is officially the start date of our new diet!

Last night we all headed over to Webbos' (Toni's fiance, who is also joining in on the diet) to have our recommended "Carb Party!" 

   This basically included eating a lot of things that we will now no longer be able to pig out on, my biggest sacrifice sushi was amongst the yummy treats! 

   We ended up playing Mario Bros on the Nintendo Wii whilst drinking apple vodka and lemonade as well as filling our bodies with twiglets and garlic bread! (My other half is going to love giving me a kiss tomorrow ;]!!)

   So I must remember 20g of carbs a day, lots of good fresh food and 8 glasses of water at least! I'm so unprepared as I don't get paid until the tomorrow so need to stock up on my vitamins and whey protein drinks (because if you know me you'll know I never have time for breakfast...I always forget!)

   Really looking forward to it tomorrow though, I just hope my personal circumstances don't affect me following it too much right now, but with the support of at least 3 awesome friends ( Yes, yes including my wonderful other half!) I'm pretty sure I'll be fine!

    Finger crossed eh!?

Night x

(P.S Man I'm going to miss sausage rolls!!! )

The planning!

     Right so as you've guessed this is my diet blog! It's going to be your inside scoop on my personal despair regarding my physique! 

   New years eve 2011, boy what a night, from what I remember of it anyway! It started off as us having no plans to celebrate the night to us having a houseful of close friends and family, with a large buffet (Which was solely comprised by myself!) and ALOT of alcohol! My best friend & I as you can guess with the alcohol flowing, pigging out on junk food and the boys distracted by playing Just Dance on the Wii, started a conversation on how over Christmas we'd put on the weight we'd managed to shift leading up to Christmas!

   Deciding we'd had enough of feeling like miss piggy we we're going to do something about it in the new year. Sound familiar!?....Well sure enough we did, we'd both seen adverts for Zumba dance fitness on the TV & decided it looked like something we could both get into, luckily for us there was a new Zumba class starting in our local area the middle of January and we couldn't wait! We attend classes every Monday night, and let me tell you it's hilarious! Our 2 instructors, Ali & Carrie are a barrel of laughs & always put us ladies in a good mood on a Monday night, who'd have thought it!? Plus it gives us girls time away from the men having a giggle whilst getting fit!

 

 

Oh dear god, It's more fun than it looks!

    As much as we love Zumba fitness it's just not enough we're afraid. So we decided something else had to be done to help the weight loss along and here is where we are....

   It's 12th Feb 2011 & I'm sitting at my PC busy as a bee planning on how to transform myself from pig to twig! My best friend & confidant, Toni, called me up one day excited about this brand new, bright pink book she'd got free in the Cosmopolitan magazine that was called "Neris & India's idiot proof diet!" and was busy squawking at how funny and truthful this book was about dieting, how it's not written by some Stone faced dietitian who fears she may implode if she even sniffs so much as greasy bacon sandwich, or some B list celeb who was a bit on the chunk side and brought out a DVD, that didn't include the cash to hire you're own personal trainer!

   Being no diet virgin herself she was completely set on us doing this idiot proof diet together and picked me up a copy of the book. I can honestly say I was a little dubious about this book at first. I've done the fad diets, such as Atkins, Low GI, Celery & cabbage soup and exercised obsessively and my weight has always been a bit of a merry go round with me. My weight was never an issue until I hit secondary school. I started to realise I wasn't as slim as the other girls in my year, I've always been quite short, I'm a dwarf compared to my other half who at 6'2" is a little under 1 foot taller than me! So I guess I just accepted that it was down to me being shorter that i looked a bit chubbier. 

   

   Then there was the day that the boys had made a list rating girls from 1-10 on their looks, physique and personality. Childish as it seems now I was horrified to find that my backside was quite far down this list! 

   So horrified that at 14years old I decided enough was enough and I was going to prove to everyone, the boys & the girls that I could have a great arse too! I joined a local kickboxing class along with my sisters and a friend and really enjoyed it. The first few sessions were painful but I felt a sense of achievement once the class was over and I'd been able to do everything the healthier grown men had been able to do! 

   

   At 15 I met my now ex boyfriend and I stopped kickboxing and started going out drinking with him and friends as they were older. 

   Now things at home had got pretty bad & looking back now I did comfort eat when things got tough, yet i never realised it at the time. So 6 months in I moved in with him and his family 1/2 a mile down the road, & things were great at first, but his family ate chips & potato wedges with most meals (which never bothered me) and they were always cooked in the deep fat fryer. Then things started to go tits up and the relationship started breaking down, so I ate more and more. 

   3 years later and a lot of heart break I weighed over double my original weight & boy did I feel it, I never noticed just how big I was getting until I was already there. (Wow I just realised how big this blog post has gotten!)  By this point our relationship was at the point of no return, I felt and looked like a beached whale, I realised he no longer found me attractive and this made me determined to yet again lose weight.

   I got a job behind a bar and lost 2st withing 6 months of working there then it slowed down and so did the weight loss, by this point I think we realised there was no point fighting for our relationship any longer and a few months later I moved out and ended up living with a friend.

   Whilst living with this friend I lost a further 2.5st which put me at 15st 8lb. Still horrendous but i felt a lot better than I did. 

      Then Christmas came, & being my first Christmas with the man I'd wanted for almost 12 months, I over indulged (as cooking is my thing) and made large, carb heavy feasts to show off my culinary skills, and ended up putting on just under a stone back on since August!  

   And so armed with the book, a diet diary (basically a note pad & pen with diet diary written on the front page), our best friend and a whole heap of determination we set the date for our diet to start. 

   21st  February 2011 is where Toni & Bex start their journey from Pig to Twig & change our lives!