Hurray for Bank Holidays! I ♥ them.
We started ours off with a rather relaxed pace. A nice porridge breakfast, a brief walk with the pugs and finally getting showered and dressed. We were off for lunch in the New Forest with 2 of our friends and their daughter. It was such a perfect day for it, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. We made it down to the New Forest in about 45 minutes, we got stuck behind a herd of cows in the road which slowed us down a fair bit.
At the pub we had a constant battle against wasps, they were everywhere. We had a drink outside before heading into eat our food. I ordered a wholemeal baguette with chicken dijionnaise, a side salad and some chips. All washed down with a pint of diet coke. It was nice, but nothing special. I fancied a pud, but our friends little girl was getting a bit restless so we decided to go for a walk in a big field opposite the pub. After that we said our goodbyes and headed home. We made it back home in record time, only 25 minutes. It's therefore become a perfect meeting place for us to get together as its exactly half way between us.
When we got home we took the dogs for a longer dog walk up to the park, and guess what? We saved yet another pooch! This time it was some sort of terrier tearing through the park (which backs onto MOD land) chasing the most heckled up cat I've ever seen. I rugby tackled our own dogs to the ground (as they love to join a good old fashioned chase) and Ben intercepted the dog chasing the cat just before it disappeared through the hedge into MOD land after the cat. A few minutes later the man who owned the dog appeared and thanked us for stopping his dog - apparently he didn't know she could still run that fast!! I think we really do need some sort of award for the amount of dogs we save, I just hope that if our dogs ever went missing someone would be as thoughtful as we are.
Aside from breakfast and lunch, Sunday dinner was a tuna steak stir fry. I didn't fancy it one bit, but the tuna steaks had to be eaten. It was nice enough though. Afterwards I made up a plate of strawberries and sliced banana and had 40g of melted 85% cocoa chocolate and a mini fondue! Yum.
This week my goals and aims are as follows:
* Food Diary everyday
* Exercise 5 times
* Beat 36 lengths in 30 minutes at the swimming pool
* Run 9 miles (thinking probably a 3 miler and 6 miler)
* 2 litres of water a day
Food for today is as follows:
Breakfast: usual porridge combo & protein shake (left my berocca at home!)
Mid Morning: Banana
Lunch: Protein Shake, Amaranth and Quinoa Rye Bread, Fiery Chilli Houmous, Cheese cubes, spinach, cucumber, tomato, ham (kind of a build your own sandwich)
Mid Afternoon: Strawberry, Raspberry, Blueberry & Greengage Medley.
Dinner: Quesadilla with Salad.
Tuesday, 31 August 2010
Weekend Recap
Friday finished up pretty good. We had a nice homemade turkey curry for dinner with some rice and a small naan and of course some mango chutney - yum!
Saturday morning changed my weekend plans. My face was swollen AGAIN! The last time it happened was 22nd July. Looking back at my food diary for 21st July and also Friday, there is nothing significant in what I ate to suggest that its a reaction to something food related. I visited the gym both days, but I clearly visit the gym rather regularly. It is still quite a mystery. As a result of looking like Popeye's sister, I bailed out of the photoshoot :( - how gutted was I! I'd even spent the Friday evening after my Tesco shop making a bouquet.
Instead we spent Saturday just pottering around... well all apart from a major impulse purchase. We'd gone out to get some Petrol for Mr H's car and on our way back through town I ask if it was worth popping into the Furniture store as they had a stock clearance sale on. Last year we were after a new sofa and saw one we loved, but they wouldn't take our offer of £1000 on it (they wanted £1200), we thought about it too long and by the time we decided to up our offer to match what they wanted someone else had bought it. Because we have dogs, we prefer leather sofas and we also prefer to buy ex-showroom stock because with dogs theres no point having anything expensive and new. Anyhoo, we went in and they had a new ex-showroom sofa on display. It didn't have a price on so we thought it had probably been sold. We asked the showroom assistant who said it was not only still for sale, but it was only £925! BARGAIN!
We went home and thought about it for a while, then went into action plan mode. Called a van hire place - no vans, called another - shut, then got a call back from the first place saying they had just had one returned! Score! We went and checked the sofa out one last time to make sure it was what we wanted, then paid for it. We then drove across town, hired the van, took it back to the furniture shop and re-arranged most of the store to get our sofa out. Drove home, took old sofas out of the living room, cleaned & tidied, then loaded in new sofa. Finally taking the old sofa to the recycling centre where it immediately went on sale and took the van back.
It's amazing, a vintage-y brown aniline leather, so soft, pocket sprung, high backed corner unit. This is the catalogue picture, in real life the brown is probably a little paler than this. Though that said, it does seem to change colour depending on the time of the day and the type of light you view it in.
Saturday morning changed my weekend plans. My face was swollen AGAIN! The last time it happened was 22nd July. Looking back at my food diary for 21st July and also Friday, there is nothing significant in what I ate to suggest that its a reaction to something food related. I visited the gym both days, but I clearly visit the gym rather regularly. It is still quite a mystery. As a result of looking like Popeye's sister, I bailed out of the photoshoot :( - how gutted was I! I'd even spent the Friday evening after my Tesco shop making a bouquet.
Instead we spent Saturday just pottering around... well all apart from a major impulse purchase. We'd gone out to get some Petrol for Mr H's car and on our way back through town I ask if it was worth popping into the Furniture store as they had a stock clearance sale on. Last year we were after a new sofa and saw one we loved, but they wouldn't take our offer of £1000 on it (they wanted £1200), we thought about it too long and by the time we decided to up our offer to match what they wanted someone else had bought it. Because we have dogs, we prefer leather sofas and we also prefer to buy ex-showroom stock because with dogs theres no point having anything expensive and new. Anyhoo, we went in and they had a new ex-showroom sofa on display. It didn't have a price on so we thought it had probably been sold. We asked the showroom assistant who said it was not only still for sale, but it was only £925! BARGAIN!
We went home and thought about it for a while, then went into action plan mode. Called a van hire place - no vans, called another - shut, then got a call back from the first place saying they had just had one returned! Score! We went and checked the sofa out one last time to make sure it was what we wanted, then paid for it. We then drove across town, hired the van, took it back to the furniture shop and re-arranged most of the store to get our sofa out. Drove home, took old sofas out of the living room, cleaned & tidied, then loaded in new sofa. Finally taking the old sofa to the recycling centre where it immediately went on sale and took the van back.
It's amazing, a vintage-y brown aniline leather, so soft, pocket sprung, high backed corner unit. This is the catalogue picture, in real life the brown is probably a little paler than this. Though that said, it does seem to change colour depending on the time of the day and the type of light you view it in.
It is mega comfy. It's also really nice to be able to sit together in an evening too. With our old sofas we used to have one each, with these we can both slouch around and be within touching distance. Perfect for winter snuggling I reckon. We now just need to buy a blanket for humans to snuggle under and a blanket to leave out during the day/night time for the pugs to snuggle on.
Food for Saturday was Protein Shake, Curry Wrap for Lunch, Steak for dinner. On Sunday we were up early and in town to get a last minute belated birthday present. Whilst we were out we ended up getting two other things...
* A book called "Bear in Underwear". Whilst we don't have kids yet, over the last year we have been buying the occasional childrens book when we see an awesome one in preparation. It started in NYC in 2009 when we found a pop up book with pugs in! This new book is seriously awesome, I'll post a bit more about it tomorrow.
* Mr H also treated me to this fabulous Paul & Joe lipstick. Yes it's shaped like a cat. Awesome!
After town, we headed over to Basingstoke and into Primark for a look around. I didn't really find that much that I liked. I ended up with a new waist cinching belt with a vintage inspired buckle at the front, a grey & red striped long sleeve top and a pair of 120 denier footless tights.
Probably the biggest break through for Sunday was what I wore out. I wore leggings. I'm still not sure about the leggings and long t-shirts trend, but I tried it out and despite that when I bent over my ass was fully on show (hate leggings with seams, so I wear tight footless tights), it worked ok. Not sure I'd do it again, but it was good to put myself outside of my comfort zone for once.
We had lunch at pub and we all ordered the roast of the day. It wasn't actually that great, but the chocolate brownie pudding made up for it. Unfortunately our lunch date was rudely interupted by a terrible Robbie Williams tribute act. His act started with a voiceover stating that a limo had just arrived and that if any women had ice in their glass, they'd better put it down their knickers - SERIOUSLY! I'm trying to eat my lunch here. Thankfully we were just about done, so left shortly after it began. I felt quite sorry for other diners who were right next to his set up and had to endure not only his crazy singing and dancing, but also his repeated leaps onto tables! I think perhaps the staff should have mentioned something when they were taking sunday lunch bookings!
Other food for Sunday included a 2 Protein Shakes and a steak pizza wrap.
Later on the Sunday we had an awesome dog walk around the park, on the way we rescued yet another dog - this time it spotted us from it's driveway and ran straight down and into the road. Mr H was waving at a car coming down the road which wasn't slowing down, eventually he handed over Dolly to me and stepped into the road as this little 1 eyed Pom named Barney came trotting across the road. I gave the car some suitable abuse, mother fuckers! I really despise people driving through our village fast and I cannot understand why a man standing on the pavement pointing at a dog standing on the edge of the road wasn't enough of a reason to slow down. Mr H thankfully managed to get to the other side of the road and scoop up the dog and the car just drove around him. Barney was super cute and his owners were really suprised that he'd ventured down the driveway at all, apparently he doesn't have many dog friends. I'm totally going to arrange a doggy play date!
After our dog walk, we headed down to the local swimming pool. It was superb! I'd forgotton how much I love swimming. It was £3.10 for a session and I did 36 lengths in the 30 minutes we were in the pool. I mainly did breast stroke, but mixed it up a little with some doggy paddle and swimming on my back. I was really tired when I was finished and the next day (and even today) I'm a little achey. Result! Will definitely be going back.
Looking at my goals for the week overall, I didn't complete everything, but still did ok.
* Vitamins everyday - check!
* Food Diary everyday - check!
* Run at least 3 x 3 miles - 1/3 FAIL
* Exercise at least 5 times (including the running) - 5/5 check!
* Drink 2 litres of water a day - check!
* Do my physio workout everyday - check!
* Get to the pool! - check! 36 lengths in 30 minutes
Friday, 27 August 2010
Busy busy busy
My calendar has gone nuts! I was emailing a friend yesterday to try and figure out when I would see her next and I'm genuinely struggling to fit anything in. This is how my next month and bit is looking so far:
28th - Photoshoot & shopping
29th - Lunch with Friends
30th - Lunch with more Friends
4th - Local Fete (we're running the Hoopla stall)
5th - Bristol Half Marathon Support
11th - Trip to Thorpe Park for a 30th Birthday
12th - Free!!!
17th - 19th - Step Sisters Hen Do Weekend
25th - 11 year School Reunion
26th - Free!!!
1st October - Wedding
2nd October - Mr H goes on tour & its my Bro's birthday Party
It's actually making my head hurt how busy I am! Days during the week are pretty much a complete wash out unless it's meeting people after work in London (which I'll probably be doing on the 8th and 23rd when I'm up there). We live too far away from everyone else to make evening plans a feasible option unless it's a Friday night.
Does anyone else struggle with fitting in time to see everyone/anyone?!
Yesterday went ok, I had my second rest day of the week as I got DOMS bad. They appeared after sitting down at my desk all day, it feels like someone injected lead into thighs. I also didn't do my Physio exercises last night. After taking the dogs to the vets, nipping into Waitrose for supplies, making dinner, walking dogs, etc, etc - I just ran out of time!!
On the point of dinner, it was pretty awesome. I'd got some mince out of the freezer with the idea of making burgers. Unfortunately during the day it hadn't defrosted properly and it just wasn't breaking down enough to be able to schmush into burger shapes. Plan B was to make sloppy joes - but when I discovered I had no tomato puree or chopped tomatoes or even ketchup that went to pot too. I ended up cooking the mince up in a pan with a little Fiery Chilli Pesto, adding a little Plain Flour at the end of cooking to bind it all together. I then cut 3 discs of bread out of a loaf and created Stacking Slop Free Joes.
The 'burger' went, bread, lettuce, mince, cheese, bread, lettuce, mince, tomato, bread. Triple stacker!
I served it with a medley of onion, mushrooms and peppers and had a little extra tomato and gherkins on the side. It was really tasty!
Today will be my last gym day of the week, I need to complete 2 runs over the weekend in order to meet my goals. I think it's totally do-able so I'm not too worried. I also still need to get to a pool! I will call them today and find out what times the pool is free and how much it costs (as Mr H hasn't had chance to ask when he's been in during the week).
Food for today looks like this...
Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, 30g Jumbo Oats, 1 tsp G&B Cocoa Powder, 2 tsp Sweetener, 1 tsp Flax, 1 tsp Coconut, 150ml Skimmed Milk & Berocca.
Mid Morning: Banana
Lunch: Wrap with leftover dinner inside & a huge heap of Spinach.
Mid Afternoon: Berry Medley (Strawberries, Raspberries & Blueberries) with a homemade mini-muffin.
Dinner: I'm thinking soup of some sorts. We're off to Tesco tonight for our food shop, so will decide what to make when I'm there!
Reviewing daily goals:
* Vitamins everyday - check!
* Food Diary everyday - check!
* Run at least 3 x 3 miles - 1/3 TBC
* Exercise at least 5 times (including the running) - 3/5 check!
* Drink 2 litres of water a day - check!
* Do my physio workout everyday - check!
* Get to the pool! - TBC
28th - Photoshoot & shopping
29th - Lunch with Friends
30th - Lunch with more Friends
4th - Local Fete (we're running the Hoopla stall)
5th - Bristol Half Marathon Support
11th - Trip to Thorpe Park for a 30th Birthday
12th - Free!!!
17th - 19th - Step Sisters Hen Do Weekend
25th - 11 year School Reunion
26th - Free!!!
1st October - Wedding
2nd October - Mr H goes on tour & its my Bro's birthday Party
It's actually making my head hurt how busy I am! Days during the week are pretty much a complete wash out unless it's meeting people after work in London (which I'll probably be doing on the 8th and 23rd when I'm up there). We live too far away from everyone else to make evening plans a feasible option unless it's a Friday night.
Does anyone else struggle with fitting in time to see everyone/anyone?!
Yesterday went ok, I had my second rest day of the week as I got DOMS bad. They appeared after sitting down at my desk all day, it feels like someone injected lead into thighs. I also didn't do my Physio exercises last night. After taking the dogs to the vets, nipping into Waitrose for supplies, making dinner, walking dogs, etc, etc - I just ran out of time!!
On the point of dinner, it was pretty awesome. I'd got some mince out of the freezer with the idea of making burgers. Unfortunately during the day it hadn't defrosted properly and it just wasn't breaking down enough to be able to schmush into burger shapes. Plan B was to make sloppy joes - but when I discovered I had no tomato puree or chopped tomatoes or even ketchup that went to pot too. I ended up cooking the mince up in a pan with a little Fiery Chilli Pesto, adding a little Plain Flour at the end of cooking to bind it all together. I then cut 3 discs of bread out of a loaf and created Stacking Slop Free Joes.
The 'burger' went, bread, lettuce, mince, cheese, bread, lettuce, mince, tomato, bread. Triple stacker!
I served it with a medley of onion, mushrooms and peppers and had a little extra tomato and gherkins on the side. It was really tasty!
Today will be my last gym day of the week, I need to complete 2 runs over the weekend in order to meet my goals. I think it's totally do-able so I'm not too worried. I also still need to get to a pool! I will call them today and find out what times the pool is free and how much it costs (as Mr H hasn't had chance to ask when he's been in during the week).
Food for today looks like this...
Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, 30g Jumbo Oats, 1 tsp G&B Cocoa Powder, 2 tsp Sweetener, 1 tsp Flax, 1 tsp Coconut, 150ml Skimmed Milk & Berocca.
Mid Morning: Banana
Lunch: Wrap with leftover dinner inside & a huge heap of Spinach.
Mid Afternoon: Berry Medley (Strawberries, Raspberries & Blueberries) with a homemade mini-muffin.
Dinner: I'm thinking soup of some sorts. We're off to Tesco tonight for our food shop, so will decide what to make when I'm there!
Reviewing daily goals:
* Vitamins everyday - check!
* Food Diary everyday - check!
* Run at least 3 x 3 miles - 1/3 TBC
* Exercise at least 5 times (including the running) - 3/5 check!
* Drink 2 litres of water a day - check!
* Do my physio workout everyday - check!
* Get to the pool! - TBC
Thursday, 26 August 2010
No Added Sugar
Yesterday was the first day in ages I managed to break the destructive cycle of eating sugary delights. I stuck to my meal/snack plan 100%.
I won't lie, it was tough. After dinner I was craving something, it took ALOT of willpower to not hop in the car and go and buy something to eat. But now I'm the other side of it all, I think it's going to be ok.
I guess I was probably temporarily addicted to dessert. Little sugary pick me ups to get me through the day, a sweet treat after dinner to enjoy my evening a little more. It's nice to be able to do these things once in a while, but I know I cannot maintain my body on this sort of food. I think it's also had a lot to do with how I feel in myself lately, I've been relying on the sugar to pick up my mood, but when the sugar runs out I feel even worse than when I started. This cycle has been ongoing for what feels like ages, however, it has been broken and I will not let it slip again!
I won't lie, it was tough. After dinner I was craving something, it took ALOT of willpower to not hop in the car and go and buy something to eat. But now I'm the other side of it all, I think it's going to be ok.
I guess I was probably temporarily addicted to dessert. Little sugary pick me ups to get me through the day, a sweet treat after dinner to enjoy my evening a little more. It's nice to be able to do these things once in a while, but I know I cannot maintain my body on this sort of food. I think it's also had a lot to do with how I feel in myself lately, I've been relying on the sugar to pick up my mood, but when the sugar runs out I feel even worse than when I started. This cycle has been ongoing for what feels like ages, however, it has been broken and I will not let it slip again!
I'm ready stand up against sugar!
Looking at my food plan for today...
Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, 30g Jumbo Oats, 1 tsp G&B Cocoa Powder, 2 tsp Sweetener, 1 tsp Flaxseed, 150ml Skimmed Milk, Berocca.
Mid Morning: Strawberry, Blueberry & Raspberry filled tub.
Lunch: Ham, Cheese & Egg Salad
Mid Afternoon: Banana
Dinner: Homemade burgers with grilled mushrooms, onions, tomatoes and peppers.
I've also got at my disposal another Protein Shake (to be consumed after my run this evening) and a homemade mini choco/oat/banana muffin.
I think my weekly goals are going ok, I'm quite pleased with how they are progressing.
* Vitamins everyday - check!
* Food Diary everyday - check!
* Run at least 3 x 3 miles - 1/3 TBC
* Exercise at least 5 times (including the running) - 2/5 TBC
* Drink 2 litres of water a day - check!
* Do my physio workout everyday - FAIL!
* Get to the pool! - TBC
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
A Shoulder Breakthrough?
Not really sure if I'd call it a breakthrough as such, but it definately puts me on the right road.
Today at the gym I did 15 shoulder presses on a weights machine. I managed 10 @ 1kg, then 5 @ 2kg before my shoulder felt bad.
Each rep I could feel the point at which it gave back in March, but I was concentrating on holding my shoulder into my armpit (probably not the best description) and it was ok.
My Physiotherapist said that half the battle when recovering from an injury is just having the courage to try things, today I had the courage to try a shoulder press and I've survived with shoulder intact to tell the tale.
Today at the gym I did 15 shoulder presses on a weights machine. I managed 10 @ 1kg, then 5 @ 2kg before my shoulder felt bad.
Each rep I could feel the point at which it gave back in March, but I was concentrating on holding my shoulder into my armpit (probably not the best description) and it was ok.
My Physiotherapist said that half the battle when recovering from an injury is just having the courage to try things, today I had the courage to try a shoulder press and I've survived with shoulder intact to tell the tale.
Hurray for Pay Day!
Don't you just ♥ pay day?
I got paid today and already 3/4 of my salary is gone*! I've decided to pull my finger out with regards to my money and start being a little bit more savvy.
* 2/4 on bills and 1/4 into savings
With this in mind...
* I've got a target of £1500 to have in personal savings by the end of the year (31st December)
* I've got a target of £3000 to have in joint savings by the end of the year (which Mr H will match)
* To have paid off my credit card by 31st October
* To make overpayments on my Graduate loan after my credit card is paid off. On my current payments I'll have paid it off by June 2012, I want to shave at least a year off this (well so long as my bank don't sting me for paying it off early, if they do, they can wait until 2012 to get it all back!)
* Set myself a monthly budget for food/clothes/fuel etc of £240, this gives me £60 a week, which I'll withdraw as cash to avoid using my cards like there is no tomorrow. Anything leftover at the end of the week can be carried over to the next week, anything left in the £240 can be carried over to the next month, anything over the £240 left in my account each month will be saved into an instant access account for a rainy day.
We made an emergency trip to Tesco last night to get a few bits and pieces. I got 2 punnets of strawberries, a punnet of raspberries and a punnet of blueberries in their 2 for £3 offer (so £6 overall), along with a lettuce, cucumber, some tomatoes, bananas, yoghurts for Mr H and a packet of Ham. This should see us able to get through to at least Friday evening or Saturday morning without doing a proper food shop.
Meals I've got planned before then are:
* Pizza Wraps and Salad for dinner tonight
* Salads/wraps for lunches
* Homemade beef burgers & salad for dinner Thursday night
* Meatballs and Ratatouille Friday night.
Last night's dinner was awesome. I was going to do oven baked lemon salmon, but when I discovered that Mr H had thrown the tin foil out in rage the plan had to evolve. I ended up putting the salmon in an oven proof bowl with a little skimmed milk and topped it with Green Thai Curry Paste. After about 20 minutes in the oven I had super spicy salmon, with sweet potato discs and a mixture of peas and soya beans. Yum! Dolly is once again on hand for any food that might slip off my plate whilst I'm holding it for a photo. I'm sure one day her persistence will pay off!
I didn't make it to the gym yesterday lunchtime. The sun was shining first thing, so I came to work in a summery outfit that just could not stand up to the torrential downpour that happened at lunchtime. However, I will make it there today - I've come prepared with a brolly and a coat!
* Vitamins everyday - check! Food Diary everyday - check!
* Run at least 3 x 3 miles - 1/3 TBC
* Exercise at least 5 times (including the running) - 2/5 check! went to the gym at lunchtime
* Drink 2 litres of water a day - check!
* Do my physio workout everyday - check!
* Get to the pool! - TBC
Finally, here's a pic of Edie, who we are now affectionately calling Cone head. I think she's been bitten in between her toes and as a result she's been chewing her back foot. But chewing it so much it had become quite red. The cone was a preventative measure whilst the cream I put on took effect to stop the itching. If its still bothering her by tomorrow, we'll get the vets to look at it as we're taking them both in for their annual boosters.
I got paid today and already 3/4 of my salary is gone*! I've decided to pull my finger out with regards to my money and start being a little bit more savvy.
* 2/4 on bills and 1/4 into savings
With this in mind...
* I've got a target of £1500 to have in personal savings by the end of the year (31st December)
* I've got a target of £3000 to have in joint savings by the end of the year (which Mr H will match)
* To have paid off my credit card by 31st October
* To make overpayments on my Graduate loan after my credit card is paid off. On my current payments I'll have paid it off by June 2012, I want to shave at least a year off this (well so long as my bank don't sting me for paying it off early, if they do, they can wait until 2012 to get it all back!)
* Set myself a monthly budget for food/clothes/fuel etc of £240, this gives me £60 a week, which I'll withdraw as cash to avoid using my cards like there is no tomorrow. Anything leftover at the end of the week can be carried over to the next week, anything left in the £240 can be carried over to the next month, anything over the £240 left in my account each month will be saved into an instant access account for a rainy day.
We made an emergency trip to Tesco last night to get a few bits and pieces. I got 2 punnets of strawberries, a punnet of raspberries and a punnet of blueberries in their 2 for £3 offer (so £6 overall), along with a lettuce, cucumber, some tomatoes, bananas, yoghurts for Mr H and a packet of Ham. This should see us able to get through to at least Friday evening or Saturday morning without doing a proper food shop.
Meals I've got planned before then are:
* Pizza Wraps and Salad for dinner tonight
* Salads/wraps for lunches
* Homemade beef burgers & salad for dinner Thursday night
* Meatballs and Ratatouille Friday night.
Last night's dinner was awesome. I was going to do oven baked lemon salmon, but when I discovered that Mr H had thrown the tin foil out in rage the plan had to evolve. I ended up putting the salmon in an oven proof bowl with a little skimmed milk and topped it with Green Thai Curry Paste. After about 20 minutes in the oven I had super spicy salmon, with sweet potato discs and a mixture of peas and soya beans. Yum! Dolly is once again on hand for any food that might slip off my plate whilst I'm holding it for a photo. I'm sure one day her persistence will pay off!
I didn't make it to the gym yesterday lunchtime. The sun was shining first thing, so I came to work in a summery outfit that just could not stand up to the torrential downpour that happened at lunchtime. However, I will make it there today - I've come prepared with a brolly and a coat!Food for today is as follows...
Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, Tub of Strawberries, Raspberries and Blueberries & Berocca
Mid Morning: Homemade mini muffin
Lunch: Lettuce, Tomato, Cucumber, Egg, Ham, Cheese Salad with Salad Cream + 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake post gym.
Mid Afternoon: Banana
Dinner: Ham & Jalepeno Pizza Wrap with Salad.
Reviewing todays goals:* Vitamins everyday - check! Food Diary everyday - check!
* Run at least 3 x 3 miles - 1/3 TBC
* Exercise at least 5 times (including the running) - 2/5 check! went to the gym at lunchtime
* Drink 2 litres of water a day - check!
* Do my physio workout everyday - check!
* Get to the pool! - TBC
Finally, here's a pic of Edie, who we are now affectionately calling Cone head. I think she's been bitten in between her toes and as a result she's been chewing her back foot. But chewing it so much it had become quite red. The cone was a preventative measure whilst the cream I put on took effect to stop the itching. If its still bothering her by tomorrow, we'll get the vets to look at it as we're taking them both in for their annual boosters.
Tuesday, 24 August 2010
Is it really only Tuesday?
Yesterday was ok, I ate too much crap (I didn't post about the kinder bars I ate, but I ate them and they are gone). I just can't be trusted. Stupid Poundland, stupid me.
We went for a run whilst dinner was in the oven, managed around 9:18 minute miles which isn't too bad given it was our first run of the week. Mr H said the pace I set off at was insane, I think he was right as at my first marker my time was fab. It was the second lap round that finished me off, we had to take 2 walking breaks as I couldn't regulate my heart rate it was going crazy. I guess it may have been something to do with all the sugar in my body too!
Food diary for today:
Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, Yellow Watermelon, Millionaires Shortbread (another moment of weakness, must stop this!!)
Mid Morning: Banana
Lunch: Ham, Cheese & Pickle wrap with Spinach
Mid Afternoon: Homemade mini muffin
Dinner: Oven Baked Salmon with Sweet Potato Discs, with Soya Beans and Peas.
Reviewing todays goals:
* Vitamins everyday - check!
* Food Diary everyday - check!
* Run at least 3 x 3 miles - TBC
* Exercise at least 5 times (including the running) - TBC
* Drink 2 litres of water a day - check!
* Do my physio workout everyday - TBC
* Get to the pool! - TBC
We went for a run whilst dinner was in the oven, managed around 9:18 minute miles which isn't too bad given it was our first run of the week. Mr H said the pace I set off at was insane, I think he was right as at my first marker my time was fab. It was the second lap round that finished me off, we had to take 2 walking breaks as I couldn't regulate my heart rate it was going crazy. I guess it may have been something to do with all the sugar in my body too!
Food diary for today:
Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, Yellow Watermelon, Millionaires Shortbread (another moment of weakness, must stop this!!)
Mid Morning: Banana
Lunch: Ham, Cheese & Pickle wrap with Spinach
Mid Afternoon: Homemade mini muffin
Dinner: Oven Baked Salmon with Sweet Potato Discs, with Soya Beans and Peas.
Reviewing todays goals:
* Vitamins everyday - check!
* Food Diary everyday - check!
* Run at least 3 x 3 miles - TBC
* Exercise at least 5 times (including the running) - TBC
* Drink 2 litres of water a day - check!
* Do my physio workout everyday - TBC
* Get to the pool! - TBC
Monday, 23 August 2010
New week, new goals
I had an appointment with my shoulder consultant this morning. He is pleased on the progress I am making, but is still not ruling out the need to have surgery. He asked what I was still having problems with (weight above my head, arm moving behind head and the clunking). He said that the movement could get better with more physio and more time. The clunking could be scar tissue on the muscles/tendons, he said that if the clunking didn't stop, they'd probably do an MRI scan to check out how bad it is or if it is something else. So I'm to give things another 6 months or so and if I'm still having problems early next year, we'll get the MRI scan done. As he rightly pointed out, if I end up having surgery, I'll be back to square one with all the physio, so it's good to be giving it my best shot without surgery in the first instance. He recommended I go swimming once a week as that will give me a good resistance workout.
With that in mind, here are my goals for the week (and whether or not they were completed today):
* Vitamins everyday - check!
* Food Diary everyday - check!
* Run at least 3 x 3 miles - 1/3 check! Time - 27:54, Max HR - 189, Avg HR - 169, Calories Burnt - 400
* Exercise at least 5 times (including the running) - 1/5 check!
* Drink 2 litres of water a day - check!
* Do my physio workout everyday - check!
* Get to the pool! - TBC (Mr H is going to check out the cost for me tomorrow)
I'm not entirely sure what this week is going to look like from an extra-curricular activities perspective, especially because of the Bank Holiday weekend. At present I don't think we've got all that much planned, but seeing friends/family is on the agenda.
Food for today is looking like this:
Breakfast: 30g Jumbo Oats, 150ml Skimmed Milk, 1 tsp G&B Cocoa Powder, 1 tsp Coconut, 2 tsp Sweetener, 1 heaped tsp Cacao Nibs, berocca
Mid-Morning: 2 triangles of Toblerone (its all gone now).
Lunch: Mashed Banana on Toast with a glass of squash.
Mid Afternoon: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake
Dinner: Tuna Napolitana Pasta Bake with a Spinach, Tomato and Onion side salad.
+ another 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake after my evening run.
In other news, we've got some friends getting married in Vegas next month. Everyone is getting a page together to go into a book to be given to them whilst they are out there. Today I've done a little doodle ready for us to add our message to. It's a little cheesy, but I love it!
With that in mind, here are my goals for the week (and whether or not they were completed today):
* Vitamins everyday - check!
* Food Diary everyday - check!
* Run at least 3 x 3 miles - 1/3 check! Time - 27:54, Max HR - 189, Avg HR - 169, Calories Burnt - 400
* Exercise at least 5 times (including the running) - 1/5 check!
* Drink 2 litres of water a day - check!
* Do my physio workout everyday - check!
* Get to the pool! - TBC (Mr H is going to check out the cost for me tomorrow)
I'm not entirely sure what this week is going to look like from an extra-curricular activities perspective, especially because of the Bank Holiday weekend. At present I don't think we've got all that much planned, but seeing friends/family is on the agenda.
Food for today is looking like this:
Breakfast: 30g Jumbo Oats, 150ml Skimmed Milk, 1 tsp G&B Cocoa Powder, 1 tsp Coconut, 2 tsp Sweetener, 1 heaped tsp Cacao Nibs, berocca
Mid-Morning: 2 triangles of Toblerone (its all gone now).
Lunch: Mashed Banana on Toast with a glass of squash.
Mid Afternoon: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake
Dinner: Tuna Napolitana Pasta Bake with a Spinach, Tomato and Onion side salad.
+ another 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake after my evening run.
In other news, we've got some friends getting married in Vegas next month. Everyone is getting a page together to go into a book to be given to them whilst they are out there. Today I've done a little doodle ready for us to add our message to. It's a little cheesy, but I love it!
Weekend Recap
Friday was a great night. Mr H and I haven't been out on our own for ages. We don't really have an awful lot of excuses for why we haven't been out, but we've vowed to try and make it a more regular event.
Dinner plans changed a little from planned. We were running the risk of being early to the cinema, so we had all our eats at Dim-t rather than have any snacks at the cinema. We ended up with Prawn Crackers & Chilli dip and some Edamame to start. Then I had Duck Chow Mein with lots of extra Soy Sauce and Mr H had Shanghai Lemon Chicken and rice. For pud I had the Bento Box Chocolate Brownie (divine!) and Mr H had the sorbet (he ALWAYS has the sorbet if its on offer). I also had a diet coke.
We walked over to the cinema and got our seats (with another diet coke). We were right on the back row in the corner. At our cinema the back row is the place to be as its the only place with a flat surface on the floor to put your drink down on, you have stacks of leg room and you don't have to ask anyone to move if you need to get out! Perfect! It was pretty quiet, only about 30 people in there. Inception was good, a bit of a mind fuck for a Friday evening when my brain had been turned to mush after the working the week, but still enjoyable. Poor Mr H didn't cope so well, he must have fallen asleep about 5 times through it, bless.
Saturday I was up early and off to Kent to meet up with Caz for a retro photoshoot. It was soooooo much fun. We started off at Bluewater walking around the landscape surroundings (lakes, bridges, ponds, tunnels, etc). Then I had a change of outfit in the carpark (yes, in the carpark) and we headed into Rochester. I'd never been to Rochester before but it was really cute. They had lots of bunting up and there were lots of unusual independent type shops. I think I'd definately take another look in next time I'm at Bluewater. When we were at the castle an old man asked me if I was model, bless his cotton socks :)
Finally, we headed over to Caz's parents house so I could get changed into my wedding dress for our last set of photos. I think I've posted before that my wedding dress now fits (minus my old ample boobage filling the top) without the corset that I had made to wear with it on. I'm still quite chuffed about this! Anyhoo, Caz's Mum made me the most awesome ham, cheese & dorset pickle sandwich with a few crisps. Why is that Mum's make everything taste so much better?
We did some photos in their garden, then we headed over to Cooling Castle which is where Mr Jools Holland lives for some more pics. Here she had me posing in cut fields and outside a church.
Finally, we called it a wrap and I went and got changed into regular clothes and she dropped me back at Bluewater.
I had a whole new appreciation for the work models do afterwards, I had to stop at Fleet Services on the way home because I was just SO tired. I could bearly keep my eyes open and all I'd done all day is pose/work it!
It was lovely to meet Caz, she is an absolute sweetheart. We've probably been chatting to one another in a forum for over 3 years, so was great to finally meet in person. She's already posted some of the pics up on Facebook, and I'm seriously blown away they are amazing. She's got one heck of a talent. Here's just one for you to enjoy.
Dinner plans changed a little from planned. We were running the risk of being early to the cinema, so we had all our eats at Dim-t rather than have any snacks at the cinema. We ended up with Prawn Crackers & Chilli dip and some Edamame to start. Then I had Duck Chow Mein with lots of extra Soy Sauce and Mr H had Shanghai Lemon Chicken and rice. For pud I had the Bento Box Chocolate Brownie (divine!) and Mr H had the sorbet (he ALWAYS has the sorbet if its on offer). I also had a diet coke.
We walked over to the cinema and got our seats (with another diet coke). We were right on the back row in the corner. At our cinema the back row is the place to be as its the only place with a flat surface on the floor to put your drink down on, you have stacks of leg room and you don't have to ask anyone to move if you need to get out! Perfect! It was pretty quiet, only about 30 people in there. Inception was good, a bit of a mind fuck for a Friday evening when my brain had been turned to mush after the working the week, but still enjoyable. Poor Mr H didn't cope so well, he must have fallen asleep about 5 times through it, bless.
Saturday I was up early and off to Kent to meet up with Caz for a retro photoshoot. It was soooooo much fun. We started off at Bluewater walking around the landscape surroundings (lakes, bridges, ponds, tunnels, etc). Then I had a change of outfit in the carpark (yes, in the carpark) and we headed into Rochester. I'd never been to Rochester before but it was really cute. They had lots of bunting up and there were lots of unusual independent type shops. I think I'd definately take another look in next time I'm at Bluewater. When we were at the castle an old man asked me if I was model, bless his cotton socks :)
Finally, we headed over to Caz's parents house so I could get changed into my wedding dress for our last set of photos. I think I've posted before that my wedding dress now fits (minus my old ample boobage filling the top) without the corset that I had made to wear with it on. I'm still quite chuffed about this! Anyhoo, Caz's Mum made me the most awesome ham, cheese & dorset pickle sandwich with a few crisps. Why is that Mum's make everything taste so much better?
We did some photos in their garden, then we headed over to Cooling Castle which is where Mr Jools Holland lives for some more pics. Here she had me posing in cut fields and outside a church.
Finally, we called it a wrap and I went and got changed into regular clothes and she dropped me back at Bluewater.
I had a whole new appreciation for the work models do afterwards, I had to stop at Fleet Services on the way home because I was just SO tired. I could bearly keep my eyes open and all I'd done all day is pose/work it!
It was lovely to meet Caz, she is an absolute sweetheart. We've probably been chatting to one another in a forum for over 3 years, so was great to finally meet in person. She's already posted some of the pics up on Facebook, and I'm seriously blown away they are amazing. She's got one heck of a talent. Here's just one for you to enjoy.
If you want to know more about her photography, take a look on her website http://www.clnphotography.co.uk/.
When I got home from Kent, my Cacao nibs had arrived. I ordered them from Auravita.com 
and they arrived super speedily. I really like the natty little tube they came in, I get so fed up of everything being in bags in my cupboard, it takes forever to find the bag of whatever I'm looking for and inevitably one bag isn't shut and I'll get showered with something like red lentils!
They tasted much more bitter than I had expected after tasting them in things like granola nibbles and cereal bars before, but when they are added to other things, oh my!
I tried them on top of porridge and they added a little bit of extra crunch and depth in flavour. I'm really looking forward to trying these out in some different dishes.
They smell kind of weird though, a bit like vinegar. Not sure I like that one bit!
On Sunday we went to Salisbury with my Bro and SIL instead of Chessington through fear of rain. As it turned out I'm sure we'd have been fine, but nevermind. Hopefully we'll have a case of third time lucky!
Salisbury was cool, we had lunch (I had Gammon, Eggs, Chips & Pineapple) then fed the ducks, then got some icecream (I had chocolate with a Fudge Stick) and went to look around the Cathedral and saw the Magna Carta. Afterwards we mooched around the shops before heading home. We drove through a place called Stockbridge which is only about 15 minutes away from our house, it's super pretty and has been noted as a place to go back to visit in its own right.
After our big lunch, we didn't need a huge dinner. So I made pizza wraps with salad and slices of an apple we picked up down the road where someone had put all their spares out on a table on their front driveway. It was delicious!
Looking at my weekly goals overall:
* Vitamins everyday - 7/7
* Food Diary everyday - 7/7 (bit flakey at the weekend, but nevermind)
* Run 3 miles everyday - 3/7, not horrendous, I think I was aiming a little high especially with going to the gym as well.
* Drink 2 litres of water a day - 7/7
* Do my physio workout everyday - 7/7
Friday, 20 August 2010
Fabulous Friday
Morning! I'm in a rather chipper mood this morning which is great considering I didn't sleep well at all. I had a really disturbed night of dreams and woke up at goodness knows what time with really bad hayfever. I think my dreams were somewhat fuelled by excessive consumption of orange squash before bed (I drank 750ml, why why why!!), the first big spider of the year (seriously, it was the size of my hand!) and research into kitsch Bento boxes (odd, but true!).
* 1.5 mini bread slices ham/gouda/chutney sandwiches cut into 1"x1" squares
* handful of spinach
* Red pepper sticks
* Half a Tomato (in a silicone cupcake case)
* Slices of Cucumber and harissa houmous (in a silicone cupcake case)
* A heart shaped piece of Mexicana cheese.
Oh.my.goodness. I'm so in love with the idea of making bento lunches that I spent most of last night not only googling bento blogs, but also scoping out bento suppliers. I want to have cute lunch everyday (and even more so I want to have something that has a smiley happy face drawn on!).
Anyway, moving onto my food diary for today...
Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, Berry Mix of Blueberries, Raspberries & Strawberries.
Mid Morning: Banana
Lunch: The Bento style lunch box detailed above!
Mid Afternoon: Homemade Chocolate Banana Oat Muffin
Dinner: We are going out to Dim t for dinner tonight. We're not having starters or desserts as a cost saving measure, so I'm just going to have a diet coke and the duck chow mein. Afterwards we're going to the local cinema to see Inception and I'll have another diet coke and either a slice of cake or some locally produced chocolate buttons or icecream. I ♥ independent cinemas.
Because we're off out tonight, I'm not sure if I'll get in a run this evening. But I'll be at the gym this lunchtime definately which is better than not doing anything!
Looking at my daily goals:
* Vitamins everyday - check!
* Food Diary everyday - check!
* Run 3 miles everyday - nope! after getting home from work, I just didn't have time to do anything else before we went out for dinner.
* Drink 2 litres of water a day - check!
* Do my physio workout everyday - check!
Tomorrow I'm off to Sunny Kent to meet up with the lovely Cazza to have a photoshoot! I can't wait to meet her and I'm very lucky to have an opportunity to have my pics taken by such a talented photographer. It's so exciting!
On Sunday we are supposed to be going to Chessington World of Adventures with my brother and his wife, but the weather is looking rather wet. It's the second time this year we've attempted a theme park, we must be doomed! Fingers crossed the weather will pick up.
Yesterday I had a pretty awesome run, my official stats:
Time - 27:07, Mac HR - 186, Avg HR - 168, Calories Burnt - 378.
This gives me approx 9 minute 2 second miles. I'm a bit pissed off because about half a mile from home I had a fly in the eye incident and I was on the only section of road that doesn't have a pavement and cars drive aat 60 down. Initially I tried to run with one eye shut, but as I was running at the tail end of rush hour, there were too many cars and I was all over the shop. I had to stop and blink and force tears and blink and use tissues, nails all sorts to try and get this sucker out. I didn't manage it, but I did get it to a point where at least I could open my eye and keep going. So I still think I can do this 3 mile circuit quicker. In any case, it's still over a minute a mile quicker than the pace we ran on Monday. I should probably mention that I ran alone last night.
This morning when I arrived at work I saw a guy who I used to work with in a different department. He complimented me on how I was looking and said I looked like I was still really hitting the gym and that I looked so different these days. Amazing start to the day with a compliment, yippee!
I think my day can only get better as I've made a Bento inspired lunch for myself (I made a duplicate for Mr H too).
It's not the best photo in the world, but basically the box contains:* 1.5 mini bread slices ham/gouda/chutney sandwiches cut into 1"x1" squares
* handful of spinach
* Red pepper sticks
* Half a Tomato (in a silicone cupcake case)
* Slices of Cucumber and harissa houmous (in a silicone cupcake case)
* A heart shaped piece of Mexicana cheese.
Oh.my.goodness. I'm so in love with the idea of making bento lunches that I spent most of last night not only googling bento blogs, but also scoping out bento suppliers. I want to have cute lunch everyday (and even more so I want to have something that has a smiley happy face drawn on!).
Anyway, moving onto my food diary for today...
Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, Berry Mix of Blueberries, Raspberries & Strawberries.
Mid Morning: Banana
Lunch: The Bento style lunch box detailed above!
Mid Afternoon: Homemade Chocolate Banana Oat Muffin
Dinner: We are going out to Dim t for dinner tonight. We're not having starters or desserts as a cost saving measure, so I'm just going to have a diet coke and the duck chow mein. Afterwards we're going to the local cinema to see Inception and I'll have another diet coke and either a slice of cake or some locally produced chocolate buttons or icecream. I ♥ independent cinemas.
Because we're off out tonight, I'm not sure if I'll get in a run this evening. But I'll be at the gym this lunchtime definately which is better than not doing anything!
Looking at my daily goals:
* Vitamins everyday - check!
* Food Diary everyday - check!
* Run 3 miles everyday - nope! after getting home from work, I just didn't have time to do anything else before we went out for dinner.
* Drink 2 litres of water a day - check!
* Do my physio workout everyday - check!
Tomorrow I'm off to Sunny Kent to meet up with the lovely Cazza to have a photoshoot! I can't wait to meet her and I'm very lucky to have an opportunity to have my pics taken by such a talented photographer. It's so exciting!
On Sunday we are supposed to be going to Chessington World of Adventures with my brother and his wife, but the weather is looking rather wet. It's the second time this year we've attempted a theme park, we must be doomed! Fingers crossed the weather will pick up.
Thursday, 19 August 2010
Sunrise, Sunset, Recipes and Review
We are losing daylight FAST! I set my alarm for 5.20am this morning with the best intentions of getting up for a run to make up for not going last night. I really did not expect it to be dark outside! I've been thinking about making some investments in my safety for winter running, but it hadn't really crossed my mind that I need to be doing it now. I decided to investigate the sunrise/sunset times on TimeandDate.com
Stage 1 - buy a new blow heater so we don't have to put the central heating on for a while longer. It's getting seriously nippy in the mornings, especially as we get up so early and we sleep with our windows wide open. I'm off into town this lunchtime to get a fan heater so we don't freeze in the dark mornings after getting out of the shower. I've seen a funky retro looking De'Longhi number
Stage 2 - buy a head torch for running. There are next to no pavements where I live, if I'm running at dawn, dusk or in the dark I need to be able to see where I am going and need others to see me. This is the bad boy I'm thinking
about getting. The Petzel Tikka XP 2. It seems to have some pretty good reviews on line for people who run, and it also comes in two attractive colour combinations. I just need to search around for a good price now as I've seen the price vary quite widely. I also need to wait for payday which luckily is only 6 days away. Stage 3 - High Vis and clip on lights. Finding a new high vis running jacket will be a piece of cake, but I'm having trouble finding mini clip on lights. Ideally I want something red that I can clip to the waistband of the back of my running tights. Something a bit like this maybe. I'll need to do some more Googling I think.
Moving away from winter planning into what I got up to last night. I made muffins. This was the second time I've made Chocolate, Banana & Oat muffins and was a makeshift recipe as I lost the original one.
Ingredients:
75g Butter/Marg
125g Sugar
150g Wholemeal SR Flour (I used Light Wholemeal from Waitrose)
40g Porridge Oats
3 Bananas
1 Egg
50g 70%+ Dark chocolate chopped into chunks
Makes approximately 15 mini muffins.
Method
Cream the butter/marg with the sugar until pale and add the egg. Mix in 3 mashed bananas, the oats and flour. Stir in the chocolate chunks.
Pour into mini muffin tray and bake at 180C for approximately 10-15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Place on a wire tray to cool (although they are super yummy oven warm too). Store in an airtight container & eat within 3 days or freeze and defrost when you need them.
Yum-er-oo!
This little beauty is not only pink (it is available in other colours too), it comes with a protective casing to avoid sliced fingers from diving into the kitchen drawer and it's sharp as heck. In fact, it is a true joy to use. I'm quite particular when it comes to kitchen knives. I've been using the same black handled thing for about 10 years, it's the knife I know best and I trust myself to use it. I think it has just been replaced by this £3.99 wonder. I've read some reviews which suggest that the blade does dull after a while, but to be fair, it is only £3.99! So far I've used it to slice through fruit, cheese, meat, bread, infact, it's all I've used for my cutting needs for the last week and a half. ***** 5 Stars from me!
Can you believe that we are losing nearly 4 minutes of daylight a day!! Up north your losing nearly a minute more a day. It is crazy!
I think it is time to be thinking about my action plan for winter.Stage 1 - buy a new blow heater so we don't have to put the central heating on for a while longer. It's getting seriously nippy in the mornings, especially as we get up so early and we sleep with our windows wide open. I'm off into town this lunchtime to get a fan heater so we don't freeze in the dark mornings after getting out of the shower. I've seen a funky retro looking De'Longhi number
Stage 2 - buy a head torch for running. There are next to no pavements where I live, if I'm running at dawn, dusk or in the dark I need to be able to see where I am going and need others to see me. This is the bad boy I'm thinking
about getting. The Petzel Tikka XP 2. It seems to have some pretty good reviews on line for people who run, and it also comes in two attractive colour combinations. I just need to search around for a good price now as I've seen the price vary quite widely. I also need to wait for payday which luckily is only 6 days away. Stage 3 - High Vis and clip on lights. Finding a new high vis running jacket will be a piece of cake, but I'm having trouble finding mini clip on lights. Ideally I want something red that I can clip to the waistband of the back of my running tights. Something a bit like this maybe. I'll need to do some more Googling I think.Moving away from winter planning into what I got up to last night. I made muffins. This was the second time I've made Chocolate, Banana & Oat muffins and was a makeshift recipe as I lost the original one.
Ingredients:
75g Butter/Marg
125g Sugar
150g Wholemeal SR Flour (I used Light Wholemeal from Waitrose)
40g Porridge Oats
3 Bananas
1 Egg
50g 70%+ Dark chocolate chopped into chunks
Makes approximately 15 mini muffins.
Method
Cream the butter/marg with the sugar until pale and add the egg. Mix in 3 mashed bananas, the oats and flour. Stir in the chocolate chunks.
Pour into mini muffin tray and bake at 180C for approximately 10-15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Place on a wire tray to cool (although they are super yummy oven warm too). Store in an airtight container & eat within 3 days or freeze and defrost when you need them.
Yum-er-oo!
Me and Mr H must have eaten about 3 between us (they are tiny - honest!) when they came out of the oven last night. So gooey.
Whilst I was making dinner last night, I also thought I'd do a quick review of a product I'm quite pleased with. When we saw my MIL a few weeks back, she gave me a little pressie. A pink knife from Lakeland.
This little beauty is not only pink (it is available in other colours too), it comes with a protective casing to avoid sliced fingers from diving into the kitchen drawer and it's sharp as heck. In fact, it is a true joy to use. I'm quite particular when it comes to kitchen knives. I've been using the same black handled thing for about 10 years, it's the knife I know best and I trust myself to use it. I think it has just been replaced by this £3.99 wonder. I've read some reviews which suggest that the blade does dull after a while, but to be fair, it is only £3.99! So far I've used it to slice through fruit, cheese, meat, bread, infact, it's all I've used for my cutting needs for the last week and a half. ***** 5 Stars from me! Now moving onto my daily stuff, starting with a food diary:
Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, 1 Scoop Porridge Mix, 150ml Skimmed Milk, Berocca.
Mid Morning: Yellow Watermelon, Blueberries, Raspberries & Strawberries all mixed together.
Lunch: 3 Slices of Ham, a chunk of Mexican Cheese & the other M&S Santini Salad.
Mid Afternoon: Chocolate and Banana Muffin
Dinner: Leftover Bolognese turned into Chilli with a Wholemeal Pitta, served with a little grated Mexicana cheese and some iceberg lettuce.
Looking at my daily goals:
* Vitamins everyday - check!
* Food Diary everyday - check!
* Run 3 miles everyday - check! report in next post
* Drink 2 litres of water a day - check!
* Do my physio workout everyday - check!
....and breathe.
A goal without a plan is just a wish
The quote in the title today is provided by Larry Elder, I can't remember where I found this lurking on the internet, but it stuck and was quite apt considering how I've been feeling lately.
As I posted yesterday, I feel a bit lost without having any goals to aim for. In an attempt to sort it out, I thought I’d refer to my pledges which I last revised on Thursday 6th May 2010.
Generally, I’ve done ok with these goals, even if I haven’t been thinking about them in the last few months.
1.I will exercise 5 times a week, every week unless I am ill/injured.
Most weeks I exercise 5 times unless illness or injury has got in the way.
2. I will maintain my weight below 9st 8lbs
My weight has been steady around 9st 2lbs for a long time now. So below 9st 8lbs is no problem at all.
3. I want to lose another 1-2" off my hips/thighs
I did make some progress on hips/thighs then it all went to pot again, this is still a good goal to have.
4. I want to define my abs, butt, thighs and arms.
I’m actually generally quite happy with how my upper body looks now, sure more definition is welcomed but my main problem areas are butt/thighs.
5. I want to up my arm weights to the next set up of 7.5kg.
Arm weights went to pot when my sublux got worse. I’m currently lifting a 5kg total barbell for chest press and am doing some above head work with a 1.25kg weight. Until my shoulder is mended, this has to go on hold.
6. I want to increase my leg press weights to over 200lbs.
Leg press is up and over 200lbs, I’m pressing over 240lbs at the moment.
7. I will be able to do 10+ proper Man Push ups.
8. I will conquer the Monkey Bars at the recreation park.
Push ups are on hold because of my shoulder, as are the monkey bars
9. I want to run at least 15 miles a week.
Some weeks I run 15 miles, other weeks I don’t. I’m still enjoying my not so regular approach to running. I’ve found that by setting myself a target like this, I tend not to do it. Oddly when it comes to running, I prefer to do it on the spur of the moment more than following a plan. Probably why I doubt I’ll ever run a structured race, couldn’t guarantee I’d do the training!
10. I will drink 2 litres of water a day, especially at weekends when I know I struggle.
2 litres of water a day is still a struggle at weekends, but I’m making a conscious effort right now. This is a good goal to have all the time.
11. I will eat 5 fruit/veg a day.
5 fruit/veg a day is a doddle now. I can do it without even thinking about it.
It’s definitely time I thought of some more goals and updated some others....
1. I will exercise 5 times a week, every week unless I am ill/injured.
2. I will maintain my weight below 9st 4lbs
3. I want to lose 1-2" off my hips/thighs
4. I want to lose 1” off my waist
5. I will do my physio everyday to ensure the best possible results so I can get back to regular training as soon as possible.
6. I want to increase my leg press weights to over 300lbs.
7. I want to make Sunday Run-day a regular feature in the week and supplement with at least one other road run each week (and keep this going as the days get shorter and colder)
8. I will drink 2 litres of water a day, especially at weekends when I know I struggle.
9. Achieve 75% lean body mass according to the crazy spreadsheet I have.
10. Add something new into the mix each week, whether a class at the gym/locally, a bike ride, a swim, etc.
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
Food Diary for Wednesday
In all my rambling this morning, I totally forgot to put in a food diary. Instead of editing my last post, I thought I'd cover everything off for today in this one.
Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, 1 Scoop Porridge Mix with 150ml Skimmed Milk, Berocca.
Mid Morning: Banana & Bear Granola Nibbles
Lunch: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, 1 M&S Santini Salad & 1 whole packet of M&S Ham (minus the shake thats only a measly 225 calories). Pot containing Blueberries, Strawberries and Yellow Watermelon.
Mid Afternoon: Tub of Yellow Watermelon
Dinner: Mystery! I forgot to get our planned dinner of salmon out of the freezer, so my 3 mile run will be to a supermarket and back to get something that I can cook. (I ended up making Bolognese with Tagliatelle and had a little grated mexican cheese on top)
Chances are I will also be having a chocolate/banana muffin straight outta the oven later as it's Bake Night! or in other words Mr H is off to the gym and theres nothing in particular on TV I like to watch on a Wednesday.
Looking at my daily goals:
* Vitamins everyday - check!
* Food Diary everyday - check! (though nearly forgot)
* Run 3 miles everyday - FAIL - I just did not have time last night. I ended up running errands when I got home and by the time I got home and cooked dinner it was dark. It was also raining and raining + dark = not amazing running conditions.
* Drink 2 litres of water a day - check!
* Do my physio workout everyday - check!
I hit the gym this lunchtime and did 10 minutes cardio on the cybex cross trainer followed by:
* 3 x 10 @ 111kg Leg Press
* 3 x 10 @ 7kg Leg Extension
* 3 x 10 @ 4kg Leg Curl
* 30 Squats
* 30 Wide Legged Squats
* 30 Ballet Squats
* 30 Single Leg Lunges (60 all together)
* 60 Calf Raises
* 30 Weighted Side Bends @ 6kg on Roman Chair (60 all together)
* 3 x 15 @ 5kg One arm parallel Row (90 all together)
* 3 x 15 @ 5kg Barbell Upright Row
* 3 x 15 @ 5kg Barbell Chest Press
* Various Floor Work (legs & abs)
Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, 1 Scoop Porridge Mix with 150ml Skimmed Milk, Berocca.
Mid Morning: Banana & Bear Granola Nibbles
Lunch: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, 1 M&S Santini Salad & 1 whole packet of M&S Ham (minus the shake thats only a measly 225 calories). Pot containing Blueberries, Strawberries and Yellow Watermelon.
Mid Afternoon: Tub of Yellow Watermelon
Dinner: Mystery! I forgot to get our planned dinner of salmon out of the freezer, so my 3 mile run will be to a supermarket and back to get something that I can cook. (I ended up making Bolognese with Tagliatelle and had a little grated mexican cheese on top)
Chances are I will also be having a chocolate/banana muffin straight outta the oven later as it's Bake Night! or in other words Mr H is off to the gym and theres nothing in particular on TV I like to watch on a Wednesday.
Looking at my daily goals:
* Vitamins everyday - check!
* Food Diary everyday - check! (though nearly forgot)
* Run 3 miles everyday - FAIL - I just did not have time last night. I ended up running errands when I got home and by the time I got home and cooked dinner it was dark. It was also raining and raining + dark = not amazing running conditions.
* Drink 2 litres of water a day - check!
* Do my physio workout everyday - check!
I hit the gym this lunchtime and did 10 minutes cardio on the cybex cross trainer followed by:
* 3 x 10 @ 111kg Leg Press
* 3 x 10 @ 7kg Leg Extension
* 3 x 10 @ 4kg Leg Curl
* 30 Squats
* 30 Wide Legged Squats
* 30 Ballet Squats
* 30 Single Leg Lunges (60 all together)
* 60 Calf Raises
* 30 Weighted Side Bends @ 6kg on Roman Chair (60 all together)
* 3 x 15 @ 5kg One arm parallel Row (90 all together)
* 3 x 15 @ 5kg Barbell Upright Row
* 3 x 15 @ 5kg Barbell Chest Press
* Various Floor Work (legs & abs)
Early Start
Somehow I was in work for 7.30am this morning. Ergh, just how much does that SUCK! I even had time to stop off at M&S and stock up on lunches for the next 2 days (2 tubs of Santini Salad for £3 and a packet of ham).
Yesterday was a pretty good day. I heated up my wrap in the microwave at lunchtime and it was awesome, why I've never thought of microwaving wraps before is beyond me. It's a great for when the weather is a little colder and something warm at lunchtime is required. The wrap went a little soggy, but I strangely enjoyed it!
I also acheived all my daily goals which is great. My run was quicker than yesterday, but I know I wasn't really running as fast as I could. To quote Mr H 'have you just started running quicker or what?'. My answer was yes! I don't think he liked it one bit, but then again I've been running my hilly 3 mile route for months, he's only done it twice.
I took two photos yesterday, first was of my Bear Granola nibbles. I think Bear must have a sideline business in the Dentist industry. Seriously?! What are they trying to do? Grind away all my teeth? This beast was huge, I had to break it down into regular more manageable bits so I didn't a) get jaw ache, b) loose all my teeth. Whilst consuming this large piece of granola, I got to thinking about trying to make own granola. So I've ordered a tub of cocoa nibs with that in mind.
The second photo I took was of my dinner. Nothing that groundbreaking to be honest, just a homemade lamb burger in a bun with some chutney and a salad. But after my run it was nice to have a dinner that was ready in about 10 minutes, even if I did completely smoke out our open plan kitchen/living room. Mr H and the pugs were not impressed. Oopsie!
I suppose I should also report two not so good things:
1) I did not make it to the gym at lunchtime - theres nothing fun about walking 10 minutes in the rain to and from the gym... specially when your work shoes leak.
2) I had a portion of chips from the canteen. I didn't eat them all, but I had a craving, it needed satisfying. I'm done on the chip front for now.
I've been feeling a bit 'meh' lately when it comes to how I look. Not sure what it is, I just felt so good back before I subluxed my shoulder and since then it's been a downhill spiral. I think I've written before about how I see myself and how it doesn't match up with other what other people see. I'm still waiting for the two to match up, but for now, seeing what I look like in photographs is helping. I got tagged in a photo from Sonisphere on facebook yesterday....
Ignoring the fact that I've got my eyes shut (or am I just looking down?), this isn't what I expected to see in a photo of me kneeling down. I actually look pretty good. There is no obvious muffin top (though I may have cheated slightly by cutting off a pair of old size 12 shorts which were too big!), my arms look slim, my legs look incredible considering the other half of legs is folded underneath and I remember when I was sitting there I was thinking 'I bet my thighs look huge sitting like this'. I've still got some collarbone definition, not as good as when I was doing more weights, but it's still there which is the most important thing. So all in all not bad for someone who isn't feeling in great shape at the moment.
It has made me think about my training though. At the moment I feel like I'm not particularly enjoying my gym routine or that I have anything in particular to aim for. Both these feelings are something to worry about. I need to shake things up a bit and find myself some goals.
What goals do you have at the moment?
Yesterday was a pretty good day. I heated up my wrap in the microwave at lunchtime and it was awesome, why I've never thought of microwaving wraps before is beyond me. It's a great for when the weather is a little colder and something warm at lunchtime is required. The wrap went a little soggy, but I strangely enjoyed it!
I also acheived all my daily goals which is great. My run was quicker than yesterday, but I know I wasn't really running as fast as I could. To quote Mr H 'have you just started running quicker or what?'. My answer was yes! I don't think he liked it one bit, but then again I've been running my hilly 3 mile route for months, he's only done it twice.
I took two photos yesterday, first was of my Bear Granola nibbles. I think Bear must have a sideline business in the Dentist industry. Seriously?! What are they trying to do? Grind away all my teeth? This beast was huge, I had to break it down into regular more manageable bits so I didn't a) get jaw ache, b) loose all my teeth. Whilst consuming this large piece of granola, I got to thinking about trying to make own granola. So I've ordered a tub of cocoa nibs with that in mind.
The second photo I took was of my dinner. Nothing that groundbreaking to be honest, just a homemade lamb burger in a bun with some chutney and a salad. But after my run it was nice to have a dinner that was ready in about 10 minutes, even if I did completely smoke out our open plan kitchen/living room. Mr H and the pugs were not impressed. Oopsie!I suppose I should also report two not so good things:
1) I did not make it to the gym at lunchtime - theres nothing fun about walking 10 minutes in the rain to and from the gym... specially when your work shoes leak.
2) I had a portion of chips from the canteen. I didn't eat them all, but I had a craving, it needed satisfying. I'm done on the chip front for now.
I've been feeling a bit 'meh' lately when it comes to how I look. Not sure what it is, I just felt so good back before I subluxed my shoulder and since then it's been a downhill spiral. I think I've written before about how I see myself and how it doesn't match up with other what other people see. I'm still waiting for the two to match up, but for now, seeing what I look like in photographs is helping. I got tagged in a photo from Sonisphere on facebook yesterday....
Ignoring the fact that I've got my eyes shut (or am I just looking down?), this isn't what I expected to see in a photo of me kneeling down. I actually look pretty good. There is no obvious muffin top (though I may have cheated slightly by cutting off a pair of old size 12 shorts which were too big!), my arms look slim, my legs look incredible considering the other half of legs is folded underneath and I remember when I was sitting there I was thinking 'I bet my thighs look huge sitting like this'. I've still got some collarbone definition, not as good as when I was doing more weights, but it's still there which is the most important thing. So all in all not bad for someone who isn't feeling in great shape at the moment.
It has made me think about my training though. At the moment I feel like I'm not particularly enjoying my gym routine or that I have anything in particular to aim for. Both these feelings are something to worry about. I need to shake things up a bit and find myself some goals.
What goals do you have at the moment?
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
Nomination :)
Here are the rules:
1. I have a full sleeve of tattoos and one on my back. I'm also planning more!
2. My dream job would be running my own cake shop.
3. I'm married to the lead singer (well only singer actually!) of a band.
4. I'm so scared of spiders that when I see one I cry.
5. I broke my nose when I was 17 running into a glass door.
6. I used to teach tap dancing.
7. I studied for a degree in Computing and IT, and it completely put me off a career in that industry!
I'm not sure I have anyone to nominate that hasn't already been captured in someone elses nominations as I do have quite a closed blogger world (note to self, must broaden horizons!) However, blogs that I really enjoy reading that I know have already been nominated are: Super Veggie, Cazza Just as I am, Running Slim, Fat Kat to Pretty Kitty: The Sequel: Maintenance! and Keeping Slim and Getting Stylish.
- Thank the person(s) who gave you the award. – Thank you Laura @ Box, Run, Eat and Neen @ Broad Bean to Runner Bean.
- Share seven things about yourself.
- Nominate fifteen newly discovered blogs.
- Let your nominees know about the award.
1. I have a full sleeve of tattoos and one on my back. I'm also planning more!
2. My dream job would be running my own cake shop.
3. I'm married to the lead singer (well only singer actually!) of a band.
4. I'm so scared of spiders that when I see one I cry.
5. I broke my nose when I was 17 running into a glass door.
6. I used to teach tap dancing.
7. I studied for a degree in Computing and IT, and it completely put me off a career in that industry!
I'm not sure I have anyone to nominate that hasn't already been captured in someone elses nominations as I do have quite a closed blogger world (note to self, must broaden horizons!) However, blogs that I really enjoy reading that I know have already been nominated are: Super Veggie, Cazza Just as I am, Running Slim, Fat Kat to Pretty Kitty: The Sequel: Maintenance! and Keeping Slim and Getting Stylish.
I spoke too soon...
It is clear by looking out the window this morning, that Summer has disappeared again. The sky is a familiar shade of grey and it's drizzling.
I had another Physio appointment yesterday lunchtime, progress is still being made, but the point at which the initial 'pop' occured is still giving me some problems. I've got some more exercises to do with light weights above my head and I've got lots more exercises involving a gym ball to work on the stability of the joint. I have an appointment with my consultant next Monday to review my progress, fingers crossed he's pleased with how its going (I know I am!).
We had a lovely evening last night, when Mr H got home we went straight out for a run. The run was good, not a great time but we had to stop for traffic twice and we also moved a tree that had fallen into the road. Our time was still only just over 30 minutes though, so I reckon if we hadn't had to stop several times our overal time would have been ok. When we got home I made ratatouille with courgette, aubergine, red pepper, mushrooms, onion and tinned tomatoes with a spoonful of Fiery Chilli Pesto, and made some lamb meatballs to go with it. We had a little bit of grated Grana Padano cheese on top. I'll admit, this photo does not look good! It 100% looks like roadkill, but it did taste nice... honest.
I also decided to experiment with my porridge mix last night. It's getting a bit tedious mixing it all up everyday, so I've made a batch of 3 days worth. I mixed 90g Oats, 6 tsp Sweetener, 3 tsp G&B Cocoa Powder, 2 tsp Flax, 3 tsp Dessicated Coconut and stirred it all together. I then put a scoopful in a tub ready for the morning. I can report back that it tasted good, so I'll continue with my other 2 days worth before deciding whether making up a large batch is a good idea or not!
Food for today is:
Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, Scoop of Porridge Mix with 150ml Skimmed Milk, Berocca
Mid Morning: Banana & Yellow Watermelon
Lunch: Wrap filled with leftover Ratatouille, 1 slice of Ham, half a slice of Gouda, 1 sliced tomato, 2" chunk of cucumber sliced. 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake
Mid Afternoon: Strawberries, Blueberries & a bit more Watermelon
Dinner: Homemade Lamb Burger in a Wholemeal roll with Chilli & Tomato Chutney served with a salad.
I'll be hitting the gym at lunchtime to do weights and a minimal amount of cardio as I'll be running my 3 miler this evening.
Looking at my daily goals:
* Vitamins everyday - check!
* Food Diary everyday - check!
* Run 3 miles everyday - check! Time - 29:24, Calories Burnt - 358, Max HR - 184, Avg HR - 161
* Drink 2 litres of water a day - check!
* Do my physio workout everyday - check!
I had another Physio appointment yesterday lunchtime, progress is still being made, but the point at which the initial 'pop' occured is still giving me some problems. I've got some more exercises to do with light weights above my head and I've got lots more exercises involving a gym ball to work on the stability of the joint. I have an appointment with my consultant next Monday to review my progress, fingers crossed he's pleased with how its going (I know I am!).
We had a lovely evening last night, when Mr H got home we went straight out for a run. The run was good, not a great time but we had to stop for traffic twice and we also moved a tree that had fallen into the road. Our time was still only just over 30 minutes though, so I reckon if we hadn't had to stop several times our overal time would have been ok. When we got home I made ratatouille with courgette, aubergine, red pepper, mushrooms, onion and tinned tomatoes with a spoonful of Fiery Chilli Pesto, and made some lamb meatballs to go with it. We had a little bit of grated Grana Padano cheese on top. I'll admit, this photo does not look good! It 100% looks like roadkill, but it did taste nice... honest.
I also decided to experiment with my porridge mix last night. It's getting a bit tedious mixing it all up everyday, so I've made a batch of 3 days worth. I mixed 90g Oats, 6 tsp Sweetener, 3 tsp G&B Cocoa Powder, 2 tsp Flax, 3 tsp Dessicated Coconut and stirred it all together. I then put a scoopful in a tub ready for the morning. I can report back that it tasted good, so I'll continue with my other 2 days worth before deciding whether making up a large batch is a good idea or not!
Food for today is:
Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, Scoop of Porridge Mix with 150ml Skimmed Milk, Berocca
Mid Morning: Banana & Yellow Watermelon
Lunch: Wrap filled with leftover Ratatouille, 1 slice of Ham, half a slice of Gouda, 1 sliced tomato, 2" chunk of cucumber sliced. 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake
Mid Afternoon: Strawberries, Blueberries & a bit more Watermelon
Dinner: Homemade Lamb Burger in a Wholemeal roll with Chilli & Tomato Chutney served with a salad.
I'll be hitting the gym at lunchtime to do weights and a minimal amount of cardio as I'll be running my 3 miler this evening.
Looking at my daily goals:
* Vitamins everyday - check!
* Food Diary everyday - check!
* Run 3 miles everyday - check! Time - 29:24, Calories Burnt - 358, Max HR - 184, Avg HR - 161
* Drink 2 litres of water a day - check!
* Do my physio workout everyday - check!
Monday, 16 August 2010
I think I found Summer again...
The sun is shining, the skies are blue and people are out cutting their lawns and my dogs are going mental, I think that means that Summer has returned....well at least for now.
As per my weekly goals, below is my food diary for today...
Breakfast: 40g Jumbo Oats, 1 tsp G&B Cocoa Powder, 2 tsp Sweetener, 1 tsp Coconut, 1 tsp Flax, 150ml Skimmed Milk.
Mid Morning: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake
Lunch: Mushroom, Ham & Spinach Omelette finished in the grill with Gouda cheese.
Dinner: Homemade Chilli Lamb Meatballs with Ratatouille
Post Run: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake
Looking at my daily goals:
* Vitamins everyday - check!
* Food Diary everyday - check!
* Run 3 miles everyday - check! Time - 30:19 (had to stop twice for cars and also tried to move a tree that had fallen into the road to the edge, we are local heroes :P ), Calories Burnt - 391, Max HR - 184, Avg HR- 168
* Drink 2 litres of water a day - check!
* Do my physio workout everyday - check!
* Limit chocolate to two Frango chocolates each day - FAIL. I ate 11 ch
ocolates and the last 3 went in the bin. If anyone ever gives me a box of chocolates again, I'm totally giving them back.
Thinking about my weakness when it comes to large available quantities of things, I think I'll make up a batch of banana/chocolate/oat muffins to keep in the freezer, that way I can have my sweet fix if I need it, but know that it's only made out of good stuff rather than crap!
Just one more thing to write about today, Mr H took down his birthday cards this morning and the one I gave him he wanted framed. So today I went to work and cut out some backing paper (which I changed to black in the end so the text was easier to read) and put it in a frame for when he comes home.
As per my weekly goals, below is my food diary for today...
Breakfast: 40g Jumbo Oats, 1 tsp G&B Cocoa Powder, 2 tsp Sweetener, 1 tsp Coconut, 1 tsp Flax, 150ml Skimmed Milk.
Mid Morning: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake
Lunch: Mushroom, Ham & Spinach Omelette finished in the grill with Gouda cheese.
Dinner: Homemade Chilli Lamb Meatballs with Ratatouille
Post Run: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake
Looking at my daily goals:
* Vitamins everyday - check!
* Food Diary everyday - check!
* Run 3 miles everyday - check! Time - 30:19 (had to stop twice for cars and also tried to move a tree that had fallen into the road to the edge, we are local heroes :P ), Calories Burnt - 391, Max HR - 184, Avg HR- 168
* Drink 2 litres of water a day - check!
* Do my physio workout everyday - check!
* Limit chocolate to two Frango chocolates each day - FAIL. I ate 11 ch
ocolates and the last 3 went in the bin. If anyone ever gives me a box of chocolates again, I'm totally giving them back.Thinking about my weakness when it comes to large available quantities of things, I think I'll make up a batch of banana/chocolate/oat muffins to keep in the freezer, that way I can have my sweet fix if I need it, but know that it's only made out of good stuff rather than crap!
Just one more thing to write about today, Mr H took down his birthday cards this morning and the one I gave him he wanted framed. So today I went to work and cut out some backing paper (which I changed to black in the end so the text was easier to read) and put it in a frame for when he comes home.
You can't quite read the text in the photo, but it reads:
"Can we, shall we? One day, very soon, Let us go away together just you and me, call in sick and go to the sea and hold hands all day. Eat our sandwiches on the train, get drunk on fresh air and come home tired and never tell anyone.... ever."
Just need to find it a home on one of our walls now.
Where did Summer go?
It appears that Summer has well and truely left us. I've thought about putting the heating on several times this week, only to end up putting on a jumper and snuggling up with Mr H instead (which of course is never a bad thing).
Last week didn't go entirely to my plan, I still ate a fair amount of crap but you know what? The line has been drawn and I'm going to step over it. Destructive behaviour is hereby declared closed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Friday when we got home from work, I actually couldn't even function enough to make dinner, not only was I suffering from all sorts of aches and pains but I'd had a really shit day at work. I'm fast losing the trust I used to have in the business I work for to do the right thing. I'm not entirely sure long term if I'd want to continue working for a business who's prepared to put at risk all the work I do to keep commercial relationships sweet and contracts tight when we appear to be doing anything for cash. It worries me as well that perhaps things aren't looking too hot in financial terms for the business. Anyhoo, we ended up with Pizza, which I did enjoy, the stodge factor on a rainy dull day certainly brightened my outlook. I think when we next go to Tesco I'll have to get some stew based type items as this colder weather has made salads look rather unappealing!
I had a lie in on Saturday morning which I really enjoyed, we got up in time to take Dolly to the vets, and good news is that they think the lump has got smaller. We've got to take her back in 2 months time for another check up just to ensure it's not getting any bigger (which of course if it is a MCT they do keep changing in size, which makes things complicated). When we got home from the vets I went for a run in the rain which I really enjoyed. The best bit was the lap I do, I ran past people waiting for a bus twice! I felt quite smug at this.
In the afternoon Mr H went to get his hair cut. Whilst he was off doing this I was cold and feeling achey, so I had a snooze for an hour. How lush. I ♥ afternoon naps. I woke up about 3pm fully charged to keep going with the day. It was still raining, but we had promised the pooches a walk in the forest. We loaded them in the car and went for an hours walk around the woods. After we loaded them back into the car, rain started to crash down. We'd been rather fortunate to avoid such heavy rain, especially as I'd only worn a t-shirt & jeans. I'd have got soaked! When we got home both dogs went straight in to be showered, blow-dried, shedded, nails clipped and treated with flea stuff. As a result we had two extremely smart looking (& sleepy) pugs.
Sunday started relatively early with showers, dog walks and hoovering my car! By 9am we were all set to head off to Brighton. We all piled in the car and I drove us down. We arrived shortly after 11am and literally spent 90% of the day walking around! The weather held for us and I managed to not spend much money at all. I got a white/grey 3/4 length sleeve raglan from Amercian Apparel and that was it! Go me, I did try spending a small fortune in Infinity Foods, but I could tell my companions were far from interested in watching me shop for food. We had lunch at Scoop & Crumb with the best intentions of having ice cream afterwards, but I felt terrible! We decided we'd try and get cake somewhere and when we realised it was 4pm, our cake dreams were dashed and we ended up with doughnuts and crepes on the Pier.
We spent quite a while on the pier, people watching, talking about 'when we grow up', Mr H and Iain also had a go at winning us girls prizes. I was rather proud of Mr H when he won the Dolphin race and got me a prize of an orange dolphin. After that we went on the ghost train, which was awful. The scariest bit was going around in the dark and when you travelled through some material which brushed your face, as soon as the 'scares' lit up, you couldn't help but laugh.
On our way back to the car, there was a man feeding the seagulls chips. It was a perfect opportunity to try out our new camera with some birds in flight shots. I had a great time snapping away. Two of the better shots are below, I picked the first one because I had no idea until I was going back through them that there were two planes also in the shot.
This week I've got a new set of goals:
* Vitamins everyday - I got out of habit in the time when I ran out, now that I have a 3 month supply (thanks to 3 for 2 in Tesco) I have no excuses.
* Food Diary everyday - everything that goes in my mouth gets blogged.
* Run 3 miles everyday - I've decided that it takes less than 30 minutes a day and I always have a spare 30 minutes right?
* Drink 2 litres of water a day - still need to keep on at this, specially on days when I'm out and about.
* Do my physio workout everyday - or even twice a day if I'm feeling adventurous.
* Limit chocolate to two Frango chocolates each day (apart from Porridge) - I have exactly 14 left in the box, this gives me 2 a day and will mean the box is gone at the end of the week and temptations in the house are back to zero, if I eat more in one day, clearly I have less to eat the rest of the week.
Last week didn't go entirely to my plan, I still ate a fair amount of crap but you know what? The line has been drawn and I'm going to step over it. Destructive behaviour is hereby declared closed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Friday when we got home from work, I actually couldn't even function enough to make dinner, not only was I suffering from all sorts of aches and pains but I'd had a really shit day at work. I'm fast losing the trust I used to have in the business I work for to do the right thing. I'm not entirely sure long term if I'd want to continue working for a business who's prepared to put at risk all the work I do to keep commercial relationships sweet and contracts tight when we appear to be doing anything for cash. It worries me as well that perhaps things aren't looking too hot in financial terms for the business. Anyhoo, we ended up with Pizza, which I did enjoy, the stodge factor on a rainy dull day certainly brightened my outlook. I think when we next go to Tesco I'll have to get some stew based type items as this colder weather has made salads look rather unappealing!
I had a lie in on Saturday morning which I really enjoyed, we got up in time to take Dolly to the vets, and good news is that they think the lump has got smaller. We've got to take her back in 2 months time for another check up just to ensure it's not getting any bigger (which of course if it is a MCT they do keep changing in size, which makes things complicated). When we got home from the vets I went for a run in the rain which I really enjoyed. The best bit was the lap I do, I ran past people waiting for a bus twice! I felt quite smug at this.
In the afternoon Mr H went to get his hair cut. Whilst he was off doing this I was cold and feeling achey, so I had a snooze for an hour. How lush. I ♥ afternoon naps. I woke up about 3pm fully charged to keep going with the day. It was still raining, but we had promised the pooches a walk in the forest. We loaded them in the car and went for an hours walk around the woods. After we loaded them back into the car, rain started to crash down. We'd been rather fortunate to avoid such heavy rain, especially as I'd only worn a t-shirt & jeans. I'd have got soaked! When we got home both dogs went straight in to be showered, blow-dried, shedded, nails clipped and treated with flea stuff. As a result we had two extremely smart looking (& sleepy) pugs.
Sunday started relatively early with showers, dog walks and hoovering my car! By 9am we were all set to head off to Brighton. We all piled in the car and I drove us down. We arrived shortly after 11am and literally spent 90% of the day walking around! The weather held for us and I managed to not spend much money at all. I got a white/grey 3/4 length sleeve raglan from Amercian Apparel and that was it! Go me, I did try spending a small fortune in Infinity Foods, but I could tell my companions were far from interested in watching me shop for food. We had lunch at Scoop & Crumb with the best intentions of having ice cream afterwards, but I felt terrible! We decided we'd try and get cake somewhere and when we realised it was 4pm, our cake dreams were dashed and we ended up with doughnuts and crepes on the Pier.
We spent quite a while on the pier, people watching, talking about 'when we grow up', Mr H and Iain also had a go at winning us girls prizes. I was rather proud of Mr H when he won the Dolphin race and got me a prize of an orange dolphin. After that we went on the ghost train, which was awful. The scariest bit was going around in the dark and when you travelled through some material which brushed your face, as soon as the 'scares' lit up, you couldn't help but laugh.
On our way back to the car, there was a man feeding the seagulls chips. It was a perfect opportunity to try out our new camera with some birds in flight shots. I had a great time snapping away. Two of the better shots are below, I picked the first one because I had no idea until I was going back through them that there were two planes also in the shot.
The second one I like because it has a baby seagull in and the old burnt out pier (and totally has the 'Mine' face from Finding Nemo going on).
This week I've got a new set of goals:* Vitamins everyday - I got out of habit in the time when I ran out, now that I have a 3 month supply (thanks to 3 for 2 in Tesco) I have no excuses.
* Food Diary everyday - everything that goes in my mouth gets blogged.
* Run 3 miles everyday - I've decided that it takes less than 30 minutes a day and I always have a spare 30 minutes right?
* Drink 2 litres of water a day - still need to keep on at this, specially on days when I'm out and about.
* Do my physio workout everyday - or even twice a day if I'm feeling adventurous.
* Limit chocolate to two Frango chocolates each day (apart from Porridge) - I have exactly 14 left in the box, this gives me 2 a day and will mean the box is gone at the end of the week and temptations in the house are back to zero, if I eat more in one day, clearly I have less to eat the rest of the week.
Friday, 13 August 2010
Missing: 1 pair of Shoes
Oh blogland, today I am in mourning....
Housekeeping blitzed our hotel room last week and moved my shoes and as a result I forgot them. Literally half way home I realised my error and text two of my friends to ask them to bring them home. I've been going between them all week, J said V had them, V said J had them, J now says H has them, H says J has them. Where the f*** are my shoes?
The photo above was from a happy time, we'd spent the day at Ascot together and my shoes were taking a well deserved break from walking around and were enjoying a spot of Pimms whilst listening to the band.
Who knows where they might be now? In a bag, in the dark, not knowing when they will be reunited their faithful owner. I will find you shoes, fear not, I will not rest until you are back on my feet.
In other news, last nights dinner was awesome! I made turkey fajitas with Sweet Potato crisps and served with a handful of spinach. I was super
pleased with the fajita sauce. I'd usually use an Old El Paso spice mix, but I didn't have any in. I cooked up an onion, 1 sliced red pepper and 4 turkey steaks seasoned with Paprika and Cayenne, then to make it sticky I added a splash of pineapple juice, a spoonful of mango chutney and for a suprise a beef oxo cube. What it created was perfect, just BBQ enough to work, sticky enough so the flavour stuck and spicy enough to keep me happy. Inside the wrap aside from the turkey/red pepper mix, I put a layer of Philly Light, a dollop of salsa and a sprinkling of leftover parmesan. Delish! For pudding I had a few sneaking leftover Christmas Chocolates (who would have ever thought that me, the ultimate sweet toothed girl could have ever resisted a box of chocolates that we've had since December). They were super yummy, got them in Marshall Fields (aka Macy's) in Chicago last Christmas. They have these little balls of candy cane mixed into the chocolate, super tasty morsels and were just perfect for what I fancied.
My weekly goals have pretty much gone to pot now, but the good news is that I feel better, so I guess they may have something to do with that. Will still try and be as good as possible, but I'm not going to beat myself up over it. So what my exercise/diet could have been better, the rain has prevented runs and also trips over to the gym, I'm just looking outside now and it could be the middle of the night, the rain is so loud I can hear it over the air conditioning!! And well, I've been suffering with TOTM, so frankly the chocolate has prevented me from whinging and moaning to my lovely hubby.
I do have some things to look forward to this weekend though!
1) Cinema or Video night tonight
2) Lie in Saturday Morning
3) Shopping with my hubby Saturday afternoon
4) Day trip to Brighton with Mr H and 2 friends on Sunday....
I can't wait!! Hope everyone reading has a great weekend.
Housekeeping blitzed our hotel room last week and moved my shoes and as a result I forgot them. Literally half way home I realised my error and text two of my friends to ask them to bring them home. I've been going between them all week, J said V had them, V said J had them, J now says H has them, H says J has them. Where the f*** are my shoes?The photo above was from a happy time, we'd spent the day at Ascot together and my shoes were taking a well deserved break from walking around and were enjoying a spot of Pimms whilst listening to the band.
Who knows where they might be now? In a bag, in the dark, not knowing when they will be reunited their faithful owner. I will find you shoes, fear not, I will not rest until you are back on my feet.
In other news, last nights dinner was awesome! I made turkey fajitas with Sweet Potato crisps and served with a handful of spinach. I was super
pleased with the fajita sauce. I'd usually use an Old El Paso spice mix, but I didn't have any in. I cooked up an onion, 1 sliced red pepper and 4 turkey steaks seasoned with Paprika and Cayenne, then to make it sticky I added a splash of pineapple juice, a spoonful of mango chutney and for a suprise a beef oxo cube. What it created was perfect, just BBQ enough to work, sticky enough so the flavour stuck and spicy enough to keep me happy. Inside the wrap aside from the turkey/red pepper mix, I put a layer of Philly Light, a dollop of salsa and a sprinkling of leftover parmesan. Delish! For pudding I had a few sneaking leftover Christmas Chocolates (who would have ever thought that me, the ultimate sweet toothed girl could have ever resisted a box of chocolates that we've had since December). They were super yummy, got them in Marshall Fields (aka Macy's) in Chicago last Christmas. They have these little balls of candy cane mixed into the chocolate, super tasty morsels and were just perfect for what I fancied.My weekly goals have pretty much gone to pot now, but the good news is that I feel better, so I guess they may have something to do with that. Will still try and be as good as possible, but I'm not going to beat myself up over it. So what my exercise/diet could have been better, the rain has prevented runs and also trips over to the gym, I'm just looking outside now and it could be the middle of the night, the rain is so loud I can hear it over the air conditioning!! And well, I've been suffering with TOTM, so frankly the chocolate has prevented me from whinging and moaning to my lovely hubby.
I do have some things to look forward to this weekend though!
1) Cinema or Video night tonight
2) Lie in Saturday Morning
3) Shopping with my hubby Saturday afternoon
4) Day trip to Brighton with Mr H and 2 friends on Sunday....
I can't wait!! Hope everyone reading has a great weekend.
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
Mini Baked Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies
Ingredients
150g Unsalted Butter
200g 70%+ Dark Chocolate
225g Caster Sugar
3 eggs
75g Plain Flour
300g Soft Cheese (I used Philly Light)
50g Caster Sugar
2 eggs
Raspberries (or other summer berry – cherries, blackcurrants, blackberries, etc)
Method
Melt the butter/chocolate together in a saucepan and leave to one side to cool. Add 225g Caster Sugar and stir in. Add 3 eggs one by one and beaten into the mixture. Finally add 75g Plain Flour and stir in.
In another bowl, whisk 300g Soft Cheese with 50g Caster Sugar and 2 eggs until creamy.
Place spoonfuls of the mixture into mini muffin trays or a larger 20x20 pan and use a chopstick to swirl the two together making a marble effect.
Sprinkle raspberries over the top of the mixture and push down slightly.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for 30-35 minutes.
-------------------------------------------------------------
This recipe makes one 20x20cm pan of brownies or 24 individual servings in a mini muffin pan.
I made up half the mixture using 75g Unsalted Butter, 100g 73% Dark Chocolate, 110g Caster Sugar, 1 egg, 30g Plain Flour, 150g Philly Light, 25g Caster Sugar, 1 egg, 2 raspberries in each mini muffin slot ending up with 12 mini-puds @ about 185 calories each.
-------------------------------------------------------------
I don't yet have a photo that does them justice, I ate it before I photographed it at work so will take a pic tonight!
Give Peas a Chance
This is a photo I took on the way home from Sonisphere, cool huh. I finally got around to taking some of the photos off the camera that I've taken so far this year.
Not sure that my weekly goals are going entirely to plan. But I think I can at least put some perspective into how I'm feeling. For the 2nd month in a row, AF has arrived. Not a big deal you might think, but thats still more regular than I've been since October. So going through the 'eating for England' and bloated stages are something that I've not had to get over in recent times. It totally explains why I feel so crap in myself at the moment.
Recapping on yesterday:
* drink 2 litres of water every day - check!
* eat 5 portions of fruit veg a day - check! banana, peas, mushrooms, pineapple, stirfry veg (lots of it!)
* eat only good wholesome meals - semi-check! I may have had an incident involving homemade mini-baked raspberry cheesecake brownies and we ate out for lunch yesterday (had gammon steak and eggs)
* exercise 5 times - 1/5 still on track!
* go up to bed at 10pm every night - FAIL I was uploading photos to facebook at 10.40pm last night. Oops!
* do up to 1 hour of housework each evening so the weekend will be housework free - check!
Focusing in on the mini-baked raspberry cheesecake brownies.... oh my they are tasty. I brought 4 into work (out of the 12 I made), so will try and get a photo of them later to post up here with the recipe. Not waistline friendly, but as a mini sweet treat totally amazing. I made them in two mini muffin trays so they are individual little portions.
Today should be a better day...well apart from 1/4 of the mini cheesecake brownies is for me! I've brought lunch in from home and I'll be at the gym at lunchtime. My Dad and Nan are coming over this evening for dinner, not sure yet what I plan to cook. Might do another lasagne as thats nice and easy and will feed us all. I'll just need to nip out and get some mince.
In other news, yesterday I was browsing rightmove and I found a really nice house. I know I shouldn't be looking for a house because we aren't actually thinking about moving, but it's really nice. It's in the next village across from us and its a lovely looking little house. Got lots of space for parking, a garage, 3 bedrooms, space for a kitchen table and a super mature garden which I know the dogs would love. I showed it to Mr H and he was like 'lets get our house valued'. Not sure now is really the right time to move and I have no idea what our house would be valued at. I think it would be higher than what we paid for it, purely because I think our house was undervalued at the time. Most 2 bedroom properties in our area are around the £299,950-£325,000 mark, we paid £214,000 for ours. Think I'll talk to my Dad tonight and see what he thinks, he's always full of good advice.
Recapping on yesterday:
* drink 2 litres of water every day - check!
* eat 5 portions of fruit veg a day - check! banana, peas, mushrooms, pineapple, stirfry veg (lots of it!)
* eat only good wholesome meals - semi-check! I may have had an incident involving homemade mini-baked raspberry cheesecake brownies and we ate out for lunch yesterday (had gammon steak and eggs)
* exercise 5 times - 1/5 still on track!
* go up to bed at 10pm every night - FAIL I was uploading photos to facebook at 10.40pm last night. Oops!
* do up to 1 hour of housework each evening so the weekend will be housework free - check!
Focusing in on the mini-baked raspberry cheesecake brownies.... oh my they are tasty. I brought 4 into work (out of the 12 I made), so will try and get a photo of them later to post up here with the recipe. Not waistline friendly, but as a mini sweet treat totally amazing. I made them in two mini muffin trays so they are individual little portions.
Today should be a better day...well apart from 1/4 of the mini cheesecake brownies is for me! I've brought lunch in from home and I'll be at the gym at lunchtime. My Dad and Nan are coming over this evening for dinner, not sure yet what I plan to cook. Might do another lasagne as thats nice and easy and will feed us all. I'll just need to nip out and get some mince.
In other news, yesterday I was browsing rightmove and I found a really nice house. I know I shouldn't be looking for a house because we aren't actually thinking about moving, but it's really nice. It's in the next village across from us and its a lovely looking little house. Got lots of space for parking, a garage, 3 bedrooms, space for a kitchen table and a super mature garden which I know the dogs would love. I showed it to Mr H and he was like 'lets get our house valued'. Not sure now is really the right time to move and I have no idea what our house would be valued at. I think it would be higher than what we paid for it, purely because I think our house was undervalued at the time. Most 2 bedroom properties in our area are around the £299,950-£325,000 mark, we paid £214,000 for ours. Think I'll talk to my Dad tonight and see what he thinks, he's always full of good advice.
Tuesday, 10 August 2010
Tuesday
Recapping on yesterday, I did ok. But I failed a little on not eating crap. I had a slice of homemade ginger cake at work from my boss and I tucked into the leftover weekend Pringles and a slice of Smartie cake before we went to Tesco. Still, I guess it did stop me trying to put the whole world in my trolley.
* drink 2 litres of water every day - check!
* eat 5 portions of fruit veg a day - check (yellow watermelon, raspberries, red grapes, spinach, rocket, 3 tomatoes, cucumber, sprouted beans)
* eat only good wholesome meals - semi-check! meals were wholesome, snacks not so much.
* exercise 5 times - 1/5 check!
* go up to bed at 10pm every night - semi-check, I fell asleep on the sofa by 10pm
* do up to 1 hour of housework each evening so the weekend will be housework free - check!
* get a food shop done to restock the cupboards/fridge - completed!
Today looks set to be ok... apart from the slice of smartie cake I have brought into work with me. Its the last bit I can have though as Mr H has taken the rest into work, so I'm not too concerned over eating it.
I didn't really have anything I fancied for lunch today, so I'm going to have a baked potato and beans from the canteen. I think its the wet weather that has prompted needing a warm lunch. I might have to make up a batch of soup for the freezer for this latter part of summer when the weather can be quite changeable. I'll be braving the rain at lunchtime for a trip over to the gym. I had a really good session yesterday, so hoping for a repeat! I think its all down to taking an ipod with me so I don't have to listen to the generic samey crap on MTV each day!
* drink 2 litres of water every day - check!
* eat 5 portions of fruit veg a day - check (yellow watermelon, raspberries, red grapes, spinach, rocket, 3 tomatoes, cucumber, sprouted beans)
* eat only good wholesome meals - semi-check! meals were wholesome, snacks not so much.
* exercise 5 times - 1/5 check!
* go up to bed at 10pm every night - semi-check, I fell asleep on the sofa by 10pm
* do up to 1 hour of housework each evening so the weekend will be housework free - check!
* get a food shop done to restock the cupboards/fridge - completed!
Today looks set to be ok... apart from the slice of smartie cake I have brought into work with me. Its the last bit I can have though as Mr H has taken the rest into work, so I'm not too concerned over eating it.
I didn't really have anything I fancied for lunch today, so I'm going to have a baked potato and beans from the canteen. I think its the wet weather that has prompted needing a warm lunch. I might have to make up a batch of soup for the freezer for this latter part of summer when the weather can be quite changeable. I'll be braving the rain at lunchtime for a trip over to the gym. I had a really good session yesterday, so hoping for a repeat! I think its all down to taking an ipod with me so I don't have to listen to the generic samey crap on MTV each day!
Monday, 9 August 2010
Detox
Oh my, I feel like shit. Seriously, two weekends in a row of excess have left me feeling terrible.
To re-cap briefly on this weekend:
Friday - Hen do in Cardiff, long drive, Severn Bridge, Bath full of booze, carb crash dinner, into bed at 4am.
Saturday - Fry up, massage, steam room, drive home, lame starbucks hot chocolate, shower, SIL's sham birthday, fuming, 1 bottle of prosecco and 1 large glass of wine later = hangover.
Sunday - Mr H's birthday, pressies, Hayling Island, soggy tasteless cod, Smarties cake, tomato & chutney relish, bed.
I'm shattered. Yesterday I spent most of the day feeling absolutely rough, even this morning I'm still feeling off colour. I might be getting Mr H's cold, but it doesn't feel coldy. I think its just exhaustion.
Plan for this week - DETOX!
I will:
* drink 2 litres of water every day
* eat 5 portions of fruit veg a day
* eat only good wholesome meals
* exercise 5 times
* go up to bed at 10pm every night
* do up to 1 hour of housework each evening so the weekend will be housework free
* get a food shop done to restock the cupboards/fridge
I want to feel human again!
To re-cap briefly on this weekend:
Friday - Hen do in Cardiff, long drive, Severn Bridge, Bath full of booze, carb crash dinner, into bed at 4am.
Saturday - Fry up, massage, steam room, drive home, lame starbucks hot chocolate, shower, SIL's sham birthday, fuming, 1 bottle of prosecco and 1 large glass of wine later = hangover.
Sunday - Mr H's birthday, pressies, Hayling Island, soggy tasteless cod, Smarties cake, tomato & chutney relish, bed.
I'm shattered. Yesterday I spent most of the day feeling absolutely rough, even this morning I'm still feeling off colour. I might be getting Mr H's cold, but it doesn't feel coldy. I think its just exhaustion.
Plan for this week - DETOX!
I will:
* drink 2 litres of water every day
* eat 5 portions of fruit veg a day
* eat only good wholesome meals
* exercise 5 times
* go up to bed at 10pm every night
* do up to 1 hour of housework each evening so the weekend will be housework free
* get a food shop done to restock the cupboards/fridge
I want to feel human again!
Thursday, 5 August 2010
Lasagne Love ♥
Yesterday was an awesome food day. Breakfast was choconut porridge, lunch was a ham salad with a bit of Port Salut cheese, snacks included a banana, a cocoa orange Nakd bar and the photographed stash of blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and yellow watermelon. Then for dinner, I got a bit creative.Mr H has been on a 2 day course and he's been a bit miserable because of that, work isn't great at the moment, it's his birthday at the weekend (and our SIL stole his birthday Saturday by moving her 30th birthday party 3 weeks forward) and I think he's still suffering major post-festival blues. So I figured that because he was going to be home late again, I'd make a really yummy dinner to try and cheer him up. In our 5.5 years together, I've never made him one of my legendary lasagnes - but that was all about to change.
I decided to mix it up a little and I didn't make a traditional lasagne. I nipped to Tesco on my way home to pick up a few supplies and got cracking in the kitchen as soon as I got home.
The only problem I had with the lasagne was that I forgot to buy onions, so I just used a giant bit of garlic instead and hoped for the best.
To make my lasagne different, instead of doing a traditional white sauce, I added in a layer of wilted spinach with a bit of Philidelphia Light.
Nicola's Multi Layer Lasagne
Serves 4
Ingredients
500g Mince
Rashers of Bacon with fat removed (I used 2 thick rashers, otherwise I'd use 4 regular ones)
2 handfuls of chopped Mushrooms
1 x chopped Onion
1 Clove of Garlic
Mixed Herbs
White Wine
Black Pepper
Tomato Puree
Spinach
Drop of Milk
Philidelphia Light
Lasagne Sheets
2 tbsp flour
Method
Now like all my cooking, I'm not really an 'exacts' sort of girl. But I started by frying off the mushrooms and the garlic (if your using an onion, do this at the same time!) with the bacon. I then removed the bacon and chopped it up into small bits (I can never be bothered to try and chop raw bacon).
In the meantime I boiled a pan of water and soaked the lasagne sheets (enough to make 2 layers in your chosen lasagne dish).
I then added the mince to the mushroom/onion/garlic pan and browned that off. Once it was cooked, I added 1 tbsp plain flour to the mix.
In a measuring jug, I mixed a shit load of mixed herbs, black pepper, about 1/2 a tube of tomato puree with just shy of 400ml White Wine. You could use any wine to be honest, I was using festival leftover box wine. Stir it up and add to the mince and reduce the heat to simmer until the sauce thickens.
In another pan, I wilted most of a bag of spinach with a tiny splash of milk and added about 1-2 tbsp of Philidelphia light and mixed together. If it is too runny at this point, add a little plain flour to thicken it so the sauce doesn't seperate too much from the spinach.
Then your ready to layer, I did mince, then pre-soaked lasagne sheets, spinach, lasagne sheets, mince & topped with grated cheese.
I then placed in a pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes (at 160 for most of it, then cranked it up at the end to brown/burn the cheese - am I the only one who digs burnt cheese on lasagne?)
I served with a mahoosive helping of iceberg lettuce drenched in malt vinegar (I ♥ lasagne with a bit of vinegar on).
This is a pic, doesn't really quite do it justice, but you can just see the spinach layer creeping in.
Clearly if you wanted a lower calorie dish, you could use chopped tomatoes/passatta in place of the wine, but it's seriously tasty with the wine!
I'm pretty excited as I have it for lunch today, I've brought a whole tupperware pot dedicated to another half iceberg lettuce and malt vinegar... *drools*
In case you were wondering, the lasagne slightly cheered Mr H up. He was still a bit mopey, so we've now arranged for two of our good friends to come along to our SIL's birthday party to help us celebrate Mr H's birthday. We will get him out of his funk! I just hope that pressies on Sunday will go some of the way to making him cheery again too, after all despite not getting him an iphone 4 (which he did put on his list) I have got him some pretty awesome other things.
On to today, it's my last day in the office as I'm off to Cardiff tomorrow for the night on a hen do. Never been to Cardiff before, but I'm going to leave around 11am I reckon so I have time to mooch around in the afternoon. Might even manage to get in a session at the hotel gym!
Food for today, choconut porridge, lasagne & iceberg lettuce, pizza wraps and salad, snacks = yellow watermelon, red grapes, raspberries, banana, Bear Granola Nibbles, 2 x protein shakes. Hitting the gym at lunchtime and hope that it's not as hard as it was yesterday (which was plagued by the crap food and alcohol I ate at the weekend!).
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
Enough food to sink a battle ship
I really need to do a proper post to capture the weekend as it was pretty Rock and Roll, but until I figure out how to get the photos off our new camera, you'll have to wait!
What I will mention though is the amount of crap I consumed at the weekend.
Wispa Duo
M&S Ham and Mustard Sandwich
Half a giant bag of fake Frazzles
Giant bag of Cheesy Puff type crisps
3/4 bag of Cadburys Caramel Nibbles
1 x small tin Macaroni Cheese
1 x Festival Burger
4 x Festival 'not so dinky' donuts with about a bag of sugar on each
1 x Pint of Wine (I'm so classy)
2 x Jager Shots
At least 6 beers (though may have been more)
Service Station Fry up (1 rasher bacon, 2 sausages, 2 hash browns, mushrooms, egg, beans)
BBQ'd homemade Lamb Burger (this probably wasn't so bad as it was homemade, but it was in a white bun)
Beef Burger in White bun
Sausage in White bun
1 Slice of Key Lime Pie
1 Chocolate Cupcake
2 Slices of Chocolate Brownie Cheesecake
....And a partridge in a pear tree
What I think is most shocking when looking back at all the awful food I ate, is how empty it made me feel. Even after eating the donuts, filling myself with beer and eating a burger and stacks of crisps I still fancied chips. Luckily for me, I'd got so hungry I was pissed off so when we went to find a chip van and couldn't find one without walking all the way back to the arena I stropped off to bed!
Now you want to know the even crazier thing? Well since my official monthly weigh in, I've been feeling pretty skinny. I don't often feel skinny, but for the last few days I have. So I stepped on the scales this morning. 9 stone on the nose. Now I know that weight does fluctuate day by day, but seriously?! How can I get away with eating ALL THAT FOOD and not gain any weight - in fact actually lose some? Thats just not right. The scary thing is that if I was to run 10k today, I'd tip under 9st.
In order that I don't finish August massively underweight, I'm going to monitor my weight a bit more frequently, probably only with an extra weigh in mid-month, but I don't want to finish August having lost lots of weight.
I have a few more things to mention...
1) Physio is going great! I can now lift my arm above my head - this probably seems quite pathetic, but it's a major step for my subluxed shoulder! Got another appointment with my consultant later this month and I'm hopeful that I'll be making enough progress to not have surgery, squeee!
2) My regular porridge mix of 30g Jumbo Oats, 1 tsp G&B Cocoa Powder, 1 tsp Flax, 2 tsp Sweetener with 150ml Skimmed Milk has been further improved by the addition of 1 tsp Dessicated Coconut. It's seriously yum.
3) After 2 days suffering from the most random knee/hip pain, I'm back on form this morning and looking forward to hitting the gym at lunchtime.
What I will mention though is the amount of crap I consumed at the weekend.
Wispa Duo
M&S Ham and Mustard Sandwich
Half a giant bag of fake Frazzles
Giant bag of Cheesy Puff type crisps
3/4 bag of Cadburys Caramel Nibbles
1 x small tin Macaroni Cheese
1 x Festival Burger
4 x Festival 'not so dinky' donuts with about a bag of sugar on each
1 x Pint of Wine (I'm so classy)
2 x Jager Shots
At least 6 beers (though may have been more)
Service Station Fry up (1 rasher bacon, 2 sausages, 2 hash browns, mushrooms, egg, beans)
BBQ'd homemade Lamb Burger (this probably wasn't so bad as it was homemade, but it was in a white bun)
Beef Burger in White bun
Sausage in White bun
1 Slice of Key Lime Pie
1 Chocolate Cupcake
2 Slices of Chocolate Brownie Cheesecake
....And a partridge in a pear tree
What I think is most shocking when looking back at all the awful food I ate, is how empty it made me feel. Even after eating the donuts, filling myself with beer and eating a burger and stacks of crisps I still fancied chips. Luckily for me, I'd got so hungry I was pissed off so when we went to find a chip van and couldn't find one without walking all the way back to the arena I stropped off to bed!
Now you want to know the even crazier thing? Well since my official monthly weigh in, I've been feeling pretty skinny. I don't often feel skinny, but for the last few days I have. So I stepped on the scales this morning. 9 stone on the nose. Now I know that weight does fluctuate day by day, but seriously?! How can I get away with eating ALL THAT FOOD and not gain any weight - in fact actually lose some? Thats just not right. The scary thing is that if I was to run 10k today, I'd tip under 9st.
In order that I don't finish August massively underweight, I'm going to monitor my weight a bit more frequently, probably only with an extra weigh in mid-month, but I don't want to finish August having lost lots of weight.
I have a few more things to mention...
1) Physio is going great! I can now lift my arm above my head - this probably seems quite pathetic, but it's a major step for my subluxed shoulder! Got another appointment with my consultant later this month and I'm hopeful that I'll be making enough progress to not have surgery, squeee!
2) My regular porridge mix of 30g Jumbo Oats, 1 tsp G&B Cocoa Powder, 1 tsp Flax, 2 tsp Sweetener with 150ml Skimmed Milk has been further improved by the addition of 1 tsp Dessicated Coconut. It's seriously yum.
3) After 2 days suffering from the most random knee/hip pain, I'm back on form this morning and looking forward to hitting the gym at lunchtime.
Monday, 2 August 2010
What a difference a month makes
After my disastrous increase in measurements in July, I'm at a point now where I can share the actual figures to show how much they increased in just one month and how much they decreased the following month...
June is in Purple
July is in Blue
August is in Green
Underbust - 27 - 27.5 - 26
Waist (narrowest) - 24.5 - 26 - 25
Waist (navel) - 25 - 29 - 26
Thigh (narrowest) - 20.5 - 21 - 20.5
Now whether July's result was skewed by bloating, I'm really not sure. During all three of these months I have perfectly maintained my weight at 128.5lbs. I gained 7.8" overall in July, I lost 5" this month, so I'm not far off my all time best of June measurements.
That said, I've definately had some breakthroughs in both underbust and hips at their widest point. Losing 1" off my previous lowest underbust measurement and 0.5" off my previous lowest hips (widest) measurement. Can't complain at that!
I only exercised 55% of last month. I like to aim for >70%, so considering the results I've seen, I'm very pleased. Hopefully August won't be such a bitch of a month and I can continue training hard without life getting in the way too much. I'll get Mr H to take some photos later and depending on how scary they look, I'll possibly post them up later on :)
June is in Purple
July is in Blue
August is in Green
Underbust - 27 - 27.5 - 26
Waist (narrowest) - 24.5 - 26 - 25
Waist (navel) - 25 - 29 - 26
Thigh (narrowest) - 20.5 - 21 - 20.5
Now whether July's result was skewed by bloating, I'm really not sure. During all three of these months I have perfectly maintained my weight at 128.5lbs. I gained 7.8" overall in July, I lost 5" this month, so I'm not far off my all time best of June measurements.
That said, I've definately had some breakthroughs in both underbust and hips at their widest point. Losing 1" off my previous lowest underbust measurement and 0.5" off my previous lowest hips (widest) measurement. Can't complain at that!
I only exercised 55% of last month. I like to aim for >70%, so considering the results I've seen, I'm very pleased. Hopefully August won't be such a bitch of a month and I can continue training hard without life getting in the way too much. I'll get Mr H to take some photos later and depending on how scary they look, I'll possibly post them up later on :)
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