May Day/M'aider!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friends, I need a good kick up the arse. Help me! I have been doing soooooo good on this healthy eating/diet and weight loss malarkey lately. I feel like I’d really got into my stride and was starting to see noticeable changes. And then the weekend happened. Argh! Why can’t I stick to it on weekends?! SO ANNOYING!

It all began on Friday – I went shopping with my mum and we had lunch at Café Rouge. I had a salad. A salad that was 16.5 points when I looked it up in the Guide later on! And it didn’t stop there. At 3pm we stopped for coffee. I had carrot cake. 10 bloody points!

Stayed the same at weigh in on Saturday morning, which I am annoyed about after all the hard work last week. Saturday night our friend John came over and the 3 of us had Glastonbury-at-home and watched The Boss! Amazing! The wine was flowing and although we had a healthy dinner, the crisps and dips came out later on. Then Sunday was my niece’s 6th Birthday Party – I managed not to eat any party food but did have a bacon sandwich for breakfast and we went out for dinner and I gave in to the veggie burger temptation. With chips. And bloody onion rings. I didn’t track any of it. And I haven’t been the gym. At all. All weekend. I have spectacularly fallen off the wagon and I need help. It’s like I’ve achieved a small goal – lightest weight since 2006, people starting to notice, 5% body fat gone – and I’ve relaxed. In my head I’m like ‘I’ve done it’ when in reality I know there’s a loooooooonnnnnnnnnng way to go. Why am I like this? It’s so damn difficult! I’m so annoyed at myself.

It's now Monday and I feel fat, heavy, bloated, full of bad food and like I've regressed entirely in my attitude towards this health caper.

Any advice dudes? I’m in a right old pickle!

love, me xoxo

Office Eating and New Revelations

Usually I work all alone in my own office but this week, due to a shortage of managers I have been ‘subbed’ to manage a different team, so I am in a different building with 2 lovely office mates to natter with . It makes SUCH a difference having other people to work with in your office.

And how does all this relate to food Liz you giant doofus, I hear you asking. Well……allow me to explain…..

I have got myself into a nice little routine with my healthy eating of breakfast at 7am, snack at 10am, lunch at 12noon, snack at 3pm and then off to the gym. It works for me. It keeps me from feeling hungry and gives me enough energy to sustain a good workout at the end of a working day during which I am usually really mentally challenged!

My office pals with whom I am working this week marched into the office on Monday morning declaring that this week marks the start of their healthy eating week. ‘Brilliant!’ thought I, ‘THIS I can get on board with.’

Err....maybe not.

For breakfast at 9am they ate some pitta breads – plain. By 10am they were eating crisps, 2 bags. Each. At 11am the sweets came out, plus cereal bars, so called ‘healthy bars’ that are full of sugar and saturated fat and contain chocolate! All they did all morning was talk about how hungry they were and fantasise about going to the local takeaway café for a bacon butty!

They went for a power walk together at lunchtime, and came back with ice creams! And then made me calculate the points in yet more bags of crisps for their afternoon snack!

Now, don’t get me wrong, everything they were eating was low calorie stuff, but all processed, none of it filling foods and for lunch they each had a can of watery, utterly minging weight watchers carrot and coriander soup which doesn’t even go anywhere NEAR filling you up, with more pitta, and that was it! (Sorry if anyone from ww is reading this, but seriously – that soup is foul!)

So points/calories wise they were probably not far off the mark but eating so much un filling stuff and complaining about feeling hungry while I was pleasantly full really made me reflect on just how much my relationship with food and eating has changed! I used to do that ‘grab anything that’s low in points and usually processed and get it down yer gob as quick as humanly possible..’ thing and now I have totally changed that. It’s really nice to recognise it! So I guess what I’m saying is now matter how my weight loss is going, I know that I have made a really good lifestyle change with my eating and attitude to food that will last me for the rest of my life.

Now that’s a reason to smile!

As for the girls, well, I don’t want to force my way of doing things on them! But they are starting to ask me things so hopefully I can impart some of the wisdom (a lot of which I’ve learnt from your blogs by the way!) to them to assist them in their quest to stave off the office worker mentality of eating because you’re sooooooo unspeakably bored! I’ll keep you posted !

Hope you’re all having a jolly good week dudes!

BigFatLove

BigFatPie xoxo

WOO HOOOO!!!!! (Weigh In!)

THREE POUNDS OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That makes 6lbs in two weeks!

That makes me 11 stone 9 which is 163lbs!

Which is the lightest I have been since November 2006!

WOOO HOOOOOOOO!!!!!

All of which proves, my friends, that Weight Watchers works....when you follow it. And exercise works....when you do it.....the common theme??

JUST BLOODY DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Have a fabulous weekend!


BFP xoxo

Stressful Salad

So, this morning I didn't feel like a salad again - I feel a little bit like I do nothing but eat salad and consequently am craving all sorts of bizarre things like:

-Digestive biscuits smothered in peanut butter
- Fish and chips from the chippy
- Domino's Pizza
- Giant Cadbury's chocolate buttons
- Sea salt and Balsamic Vinegar Kettle chips. A big bag. All to myself.

In order, therefore, to stop me eating myself into oblivion I decided to pack a different lunch today. It had to be light and minimal on points because we are going out for dinner to The Millars' - dear friends of ours from Vancouver BC who now live here and were our Young Life leaders many moons ago. Anyhoop, Trish is a ww-er too so she kindly sent me the menu for this evening so I could work out pointage. So I know I'll be having salmon, new potatoes and green beans with no more than half a bottle of wine. So I counted those points and worked out I had 6.5 left for the day. Soooooooooooo, for lunch I packed

4 Ryvitas (2)
2 Laughing Cow Lights (1)
1 WW raspberry yoghurt (.5)
1 WW Lemon meringue and white chocolate bar (omg seriously to die for - SERIOUSLY!) (1.5)
A bag of sugar snap peas

I had 1 weetabix for breakfast with literally a dribble of milk on (eeeeeee I HATE the word 'dribble' can't believe I just wrote it - twice! hahaha) so I counted 2 points for that - so that makes 7 which is a whole half point over my limit YIKES - however I have so far stuck to my points all week (well since Sunday after my largin' it in London) AND gymmed it each day so I figure I can spare half a point - surely I will have gained a few activity points ??

So I packed my lunch and placed it on the window sill in our bedroom while I got ready for work. I had also lovingly prepared a mahoosive salad for the beautiful man that is my husband, including red and green peppers, sugar snap peas, spinach, mushrooms, red onion, cherry tomatoes, chilli flakes and coriander, plus a tbsp of low fat coleslaw. Well, the man in question was on a Friday vibe and so happy that it was the weekend he was running around like a total loon getting ready and singing the 'Bonkers' song VERY loudly (and out of tune....I love him, but he is completely tone deaf ) So, as he was leaving I yelled, 'Don't forget your lunch' and he yelled back, 'Got it!' and off he went.......

So, time's ticking on, I need to be leaving quite soon, I am feeling quite trendy and smug wearing an Urban Outfitters utility dress that hasn't fit in about 2 years (woo HOO!), ready for 3 visits to young people I have to make today (I like to look cool and not 'suity' when I meet with young people - they see enough suity people in their lives!) and feeling all excited about having a lunch that's not a salad (oh dear God I CANNOT believe I am excited at the prospect of eating frickin' RYVITA - what's WRONG with me!??!). I finish ghd-ing the old barnet, grab my coat (yet again it's November weather, summer? what's that?!) and go to grab my lunch.


On the window sill.



Where I left it.


It's not there.....



NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

RICHARD, THE GIANT DOOFUS, HAS TAKEN THE WRONG LUNCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So he has a 'girlie' lunch of Ryvita and laughing cow (something he mercilessly teases his female colleagues in the staff room at work about rather than encouraging them in their weight loss ventures...the git!) and will no doubt be highly ridiculed by his colleagues all day and I have to eat another bloody salad. GAWD!

And annoyingly I didn't weigh the colesaw so I'm counting it as 3 and all the other veggies are zero points filling foods (gold star me please!) so I can stay on plan for the day.

HOW IRRITATING!!!!!

I have just finished eating (another bloody) salad and, actually, it was rather nice - and very filling. As I finish typing this I am laughing my head off, thinking of poor Rich trying to spread Laughing Cow on his Ryvita hahahahahahaHAHAHAHA!!! Serves him right!!!

And with that little insight into my life, it is here that I shall leave you bloggerlogger pals! Have a wonderful weekend - will let you know the weigh in result on Saturday *gulp*

Happy Friday dudes!!!!

BFP xoxo

Well lookee here!!!

Yesterday I went to my local health food shop - Holland and Barrett - in search of their falafel. It's quite the nicest I have found so far (apart from in Barcelona, but that's quite a long way to travel!) and you get 20 patties for about £2, each pattie is half a point so there's a lot of "BANG FOR YOUR BUCK" (haha!) And it tastes GORGEOUS. (I forgot to take a picture because I put them in the work fridge when I got back to the office and by the time I remembered, I was on my way home)

So, while I was there I had a little look round at their other food stuffs.....and what did I find?!

ALMOND BUTTER!!!!!!! Oooh get me with my nut butters!! I have LONG been wondering about this little beauty, Jenna over at Eat,Live,Run uses it, as does lovely Laura at On the Threshold.....so I figured I'd give it a whirl! I am going to add it to porridge I think, given that it has currently turned into freaking November weather in the UK - didn't have it this morning because I want to work out the points first.

Organic Rye Sourdough Bread.....how nice does THAT sound! I don't eat a lot of bread because it doesn't agree with me generally speaking but I am really excited to try this!

And some Whole Earth organic pb! Again, I am wanting to work out points before trying but omg this spread on a Rich Tea biscuit is absolutely bloody DIVINE!

Found these little babies for 1.5 points - a massive bag RAMMED with crisps rather than the usual trick of calling them 'healthy' and then putting about 4 crisps in the bag! Made from soy beans don'tcha know! Didn't bloat me either (after I chowed down on them!) and I didn't get that 'I want moooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre' vibe I usually get after I've scoffed a pack of 'diet' crisps!

I also found (again not pictured) an 'AMY's' veggie lasagne and Cauldron veggie sausages! HOW COOL IS THAT! AMY'S!!! (again Jenna raves about Amy's)

So last night I made a ratatouille for zero points and had 2 of the veggie sausages chopped up into it, ended up being kind of like a sausage casserole and boy was it YUMSVILLE!

So that was my trip to H & B!

In other news, does anyone else have trouble fitting everything into their day? Yesterday I ended up eating dinner at 8:30pm/ 9 and promptly falling asleep on the couch still in my sweaty and frankly minging gym gear!

I was utter rubbish at the gym, I was tired, my knees ached, I was next to a girl on the treadmill who'd just finished a 5k and I completely psyched myself out of either a run or intervals! WHAT A WUSS!? In the end I ran for about 15 minutes, then cycled for maybe 7 minutes and then rowed 2000m and then did a pathetic attempt at sit ups. I did do my weights when I got home while Iw aited for dinner to cook, but I still made a crappy effort to exercise :(

What's wrong with me?!

I wondered if partly it was to do with the fact that I am new to the gym (again) and need to be shown how to work the machines and what not again to help focus me and get the most out of my workouts. To that end I've booked an induction for tomorrow - job's a good'un :)

I'm also booked onto fitness pilates for later on this evening so expect a full report tomorrow!! I can't wait to s-trrrrrrrr-etchhhh!

Laters, skaters xoxo

Hit Me Baby....

Well hello!

OH-MY-WORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD! WHAT a weekend!

Saturday morning dawned, beautifully sunny and warm and I woke up with that full-on-knotted-stomach-omg-it’s-Christmas-feeling! Got ready, ate a Weetabix and had some tea and off we went!

On the train to London (bang on 2 hours, very fast!) I had the latest Elle magazine and a medio single shot skinny latte from Costa, plus a bag of apple slices. All very restrained and weight watchery. Richard, on the other hand, had a caramel macchiato FULL FAT, plus a croissant and butter and jam. He was poorly sick though so he deserved a treat!

On arrival at Euston we headed to Embankment on the tube and strolled along the river Thames, across the bridge toward London Festival Hall on the South Bank. It was really sunny and gorgeous and as we walked there was a fly past! No, London wasn’t welcoming us, it was for the Queen’s Birthday!

Then we met up with Trev, a friend of mine from University, who is an utter legend! He took us to a cute little bar where we caught up a bit - and had 3 Peronis – oops.

After that we were beginning to feel a tad squiffy so we headed to Ev which is a Turkish restaurant near to Waterloo. It’s set back from the road and has a massive open air eating space and the building it’s in is beautiful and OMG the FOOD!!!!!

We had tzatziki and houmous with pitta and greek salad to start and then the boys had a lamb dish and a chicken dish respectively but I stuck to this spinachy, tomatoey, bulgar wheaty type affair which ROCKED.

Oh, and a glass of wine and a LOT of water! J

After this Trev took us to the rather swanky Oxo Tower where I, of course, HAD to have something off their spectacular cocktail menu! I had a shady lady which involved strawberries, rum and coconut. YUMMY!!!

Then we took the Thames Clipper to our friend Laura’s flat in the Isle of Dogs – at least that was the plan. But we decided we were too pushed for time so ended up going straight to the O2 Arena. We sat and had a drink (diet coke for me thanks!) and got changed in the toilets of a Bar & Grill – haha! We stashed our stuff and then sat and relaxed with some food watched the world go by. The whole exterior of the arena was themed as a Circus – sooooooo amazing! Crazy rides, merchandise stalls, popcorn, candy floss, you name it. I got a t shirt (because I couldn’t eat that!) which my wonderful husband bought for me. How sweet is he going to the concert with me – not exactly very manly! HAHA! (He loved it though!)

And then we took our seats, Ciara was alright, the support act and then there was an hour of Circus performers who were amazing and breathtaking – including one crazy woman being thrown into the air by a couple of chaps and landing on a wobbly balance beam thing – nutjob. It made for a great atmosphere and THEN……….

BRITNEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Introduced by Perez, and lowered from the ceiling to the stage, clad in red and black Ringmaster’s outfit for ‘Circus’ the first number.


I WAS MESMERISED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did a LOT of yelling, a LOT of singing and a LOT of clapping! She was truly awesome. SUCH a show girl – her dancing is amazing, her body is FABULOUS – oh my word she is teeny tiny and super toned. Honestly, I think I fancied her a little bit! Haha!

Check out that bod!

She did 19 songs and Womanizer was the encore. I almost bawled my eyes out in Everytime (the one she actually sang!). The choreography was fabulous and the backing dancers were FAB!

Thinking about now, after the event, it’s all a bit bonkers really. I am amazed that fans (me included) seem only to love her more now that she’s been through so much and so publicly. Who goes through a nervous breakdown and then embarks upon a world tour!? Who else commands such huge audiences to jam packed arenas night after night to a show she doesn’t sing in?! (allegedly) Regardless of whether you’re a fan or not, this girl is an enigma!!!!!!

Anyhoop, enough gushing about Britney!

After the concert we headed to the boat and met Laura at her pier along with Claire another school pal who now lives in London. We headed back to laura’s flat and chatted until 3am and ate ‘picky food’ olives, pitta, houmous, parma ham, crisps, cava…….by this time I had stopped counting points OOPS. But I think I made wise choices, apart from all the freaking beer!

So Sunday we went for a stroll along the Thames to Greenwich which is just gorgeous. Everyone aleways saya ‘west is best’ about living in London but I must admit I really like Docklands – I think there’s something embedded in my psyche about feeling ‘free’ living near water – I’ve gronwn up on a peninsula so being near water makes me calm!

We had bacon butties for breakfast. I had one small white roll, one slice of lean back bacon and tommy k, no butter. Plus a small OJ and coffee.

And all too soon it was 2pm and we were back at Euston to catch our train back to Liverpool. I love London weekends! More pics to follow btw - Rich used his fancy camera all weekend so I need to wait for him to upload all the pics!

I was starving by this time so had a tuna/sweetcorn sarnie from WHSmith (random!) and dutifully recorded the calories and saturated fat on my phone to calculate when I got home) 5 POINTS! For a piddly sandwich that wasn’t even that good! It’s been a while since I’ve had pre-packed butties – yeesh, now I remember why! FAR too high in points! I like a sandwich with, what phrase have you all been using lately? ‘More bang for your buck?’ Is that right?!

I also caved and had a small bag of salt and vinegar Hula Hoops to go with it, only 3 points though – they must have changed their recipe as my records show they used to be 4.5 points a bag! (nerd alert!)

By the time we got home it was 5pm and our thoughts naturally turned to dinner…..the dreaded chippy was mentioned but I knew I had haul back my weekend or I would end up hating myself tomorrow!

Sooooo we ended up getting kebabs! Now before you all gasp in horror let me tell you, this is the BEST kebab place on the Wirral. It’s all cooked fresh in front of you, they don't add anything to the meat and you can choose your own stuff to go in it.

Allow me to illustrate:

Rich had a large chicken kebab off the skewer in a naan with garlic sauce, salad, chilli sauce and mayo. Plus a large chips slathered in mayo. And a beer. The pig.

I had a small chicken kebab off the skewer, grilled, equivalent to one chicken breast, not coated in anything just grilled. I had them put it in a pitta (normal sized one) and just added salad – lettuce tomato cucumber. When I got it home I added one tbsp low fat coleslaw, one tbsp low fat mayo and a little bit of tommy K plus some chilli flakes. See?! Actually a really nice meal for 7 points. I did NOT have chips or beer!

So I was proud of myself! And in bed for 9:30pm and slept till 6am the following morning like a baby!

All in all a TOP weekend!

Now back to the plan!

Yesterday’s eats:

B: 1 Weetabix, skimmed milk, tea.
L: spinach salad, cottage cheese, grapes and yogurt
D: 3.5 points of couscous with lemon juice, chilli flakes, courgette, mushrooms, red pepper and onion which I stir fried in a little soy sauce and no oil first and then added to the couscous. It was so yummy I ate it straight out of the mixing bowl!

See?

Snack: one banana, one ww bar

I went straight to the new beautiful swanky posh gym after work and had the whole cardio zone to myself for a good 30 minute run and then did a 2000m row and then was very brave and did all my weights and abs and whatnot AT THE GYM instead of in front of the telly like usual! How brave am I!!!?? It was funny, little old me standing next to the guys trying to lift the equivalent of a small car, having to raise up onto their toes to lift a weight and all neck veins popping out all over the show MINGING!

Then I popped up to the Chronicle (pub) and met lovely Alison for a drink, came home, had a cuppa with my hubby and went to bed! A very successful Monday indeed! HURRAH!

I’m feeing really upbeat this morning (can you tell!?) and excited about my diet and weight loss and changes I can see in my body – no matter how slowly it seems to be taking me. I WILL get there!



Hope you’re all having a wonderful Tuesday morning!


Besitos

BFP xoxo

My trainer may be trying to kill me and other stories

3lbs off people, 3 lbs! A woo hooo! FINALLY underneath that stone zone and 166lbs. Right that's it, no more messin'. I have been here before and been so ecstatic and then rewarded myself with an all-weekend-eat-a-thon which has resulted in a gain the following weekend.







So this weekend and coming week will be the true test. I am determined. I'm determined not to go bonkers in London and to get right back to gymming it 5/6 days out of 7. IN fact I will set myself the challenge of going to the gym Monday - Friday next week. Hold me to it, ok?! I've faffed around gaining and losing the same 14lbs for a year now. NO MORE.







Today I am off work (Friday!), so I had a training session this morning - oh dear LORD I really do think he's trying to kill me - death by circuit training!







I did:





10 mins run @ 11kph


10 squats with a heavy netball type thing


10 squats raising ball with left hand


10 squats raising ball with right hand


20 ab curls on (in)stability ball


10 of these weird leg lifts whilst in full plank on the (in)stability ball


15 full press ups


10 bell ringers left


10 bell ringers right


15 upright row

1 minute running on the evil trampoline thing


10 step ups with 5kg weights left and then right


20 tricep dips on bench


20 lateral arm raises


60 seconds fast jabs on punch bag


dead weight lifts (10)


10 of this weird thing with a pole where you use the weight of the pole like a shot put type of action


60 seconds fast rowing


15 bicep curls





I did this whole thing 3 freakin' times! And each time he kept upping the reps and each time I complained upping them again! (Memo to me: Keep gob shut in future sessions!) My face has never been so red, I feared an aneurism was imminent..... ;)





I am seriously cream crackered now, but did manage to ride my bike over to Rachel's to get weighed because I can't go tomorrow (Did I mention I'm going to see Britney?! :)





Then I had coffee with my mum and then made lunch: I used 2 pieces of wholewheat ww bread (pretty disgusting but all we had) and made an 'open sandwich' - check me out learning from all you bloggers! On the bread I put tuna mixed with Hellman's Extra Light mayo and chilli flakes and coriander. On top of the tuna I sliced a pickled onion, added a dollop of red cabbage to the plate, 1.5 points of plain cottage cheese, yellow pepper, spinach, cherry tomatoes and no points salad dressing. I AM STUFFED! But look how pretty!!!! And all for 5 points!

Now I am having a nice cuppa while I catch up on blogs (loving your work people, loving your work) and gchat with amazing Anna.

God I love being a lady of leisure! The only thing I have left to do today is decide on an outfit for the concert tomorrow.....oh decisions, decisions!

Heaps of love - have a fab weekend!!

BFP xoxo