A bit of mixing and matching

I have recently successfully applied for a new role at work which means for the first time in my illustrious career, I will actually be line managing staff.  I have successfully avoided this for nearly fourteen years, so this is quite a big deal for me.  It seems to me to be a disgustingly grown-up type thing to do (NB: I may be turning forty next year but I am still waiting to feel like an adult and suspect that it may never happen).

Anyway, I’ve had a very busy few weeks: first there was the preparing for the interview and then doing the intervew and then afterwards the worrying about the outcome of the interview which obviously all took up quite a lot of time.  And then when said outcome was revealed there was the slight panic that I have a lot of work to try and wrap up in a relatively short period.  So the little time in the day that I used to carve out for blogging seemed to disappear. 

Anyway, it always seem slightly self important to explain one’s absence from the Blogosphere, as if people out there were genuinely wondering why I hadn’t posted a meal plan or a vaguely food / diet relate ramble, so I will drop the subject without further ado.

The fact that I am moving to this now role on the 3 June (it is more a symbolic than an actual move since my new desk will be located about two rows away from my current desk) has got me all excited for a Fresh Start.  All perennial dieters love a Fresh Start.  Mondays, of course, are Fresh Starts on a miniature scale.  The first of a month is also a Fresh Start and I get especially excited when the first of a month falls on a Monday because it is a Fresh Start Squared.  A new job sits outside of these and yet it is still a lovely opportunity to Draw A Line. 

I’m just trying to work out at the moment what this Fresh Start will look like so that I can take full advantage of the opportunity and the explanation of my new plan is rather convoluted, so bear with.

I realised the other day that if I had lost a mere half a pound most weeks since I started blogging, then, even allowing for, say, a couple of pounds the other way at Christmas and over the summer I would be over ten stone lighter.  I never needed to be over ten stone lighter so, in fact, I would be at goal and maintaining.  And yet, along the way, half a pound would have felt so puny and insignificant.

To lose half a pound, you have to create a rough calorie deficit of 1,750.  If you spread that over weekdays alone, that’s just 350 calories a day!  350 calories is nothing!  With this in mind, I started thinking – what about if I just tried to shave a small amount off my calorie intake from Monday – Friday with an aim of just drifting down by half a pound a week, but doing it in such a way that was genuinely sustainable, would genuinely have a minimal impact on my life.  And this is the combination of techniques that I came up with:

Intermittent fasting: a common manifestation of this is 16/8 which means you limit the window during which you eat to just 8 hours a day.  So, my plan is to stop eating after dinner (usually around 8pm for us) and then not eat for 16 hours (which takes me to noon the following day).  Some days it might be later, some days it might be earlier, but it doesn’t matter; the key is just to get that 16 hour fast in. 

Weight Watchers: from the breaking of the fast until, say, six in the evening, my plan is to count points, with the broad aim of having around a third of my total allowance during this time.  This shouldn’t have a major impact since I’m usually at work and taking a pack-up so by sticking with plenty of zero point fruit and veg and lean protein, I should be able to eat something fairly decent.

Then, for just two hours a day, no rules apply other than trying to eat mindfully – i.e. not for the sake of it, not too much (very akin to the principles of HDE).  I might even keep a paper food diary just to help encourage this mindfulness (nothing like putting you off eating an entire tube of Pringles if you then have to write it down).  This means that we can cook and enjoy an evening meal – and many of the meals we have are fairly healthy and low point anyway because the years of WWing mean that I tend to keep portion sizes down and veg content high anyway – without having to measure every swig of oil, without having to avoid certain foodstuffs because they are just not diet friendly. 

There is additional flexibility in that there is no reason why the two hour HDE window has to be in the evening – so if I want to go out for lunch with my team, for example, I can do that and then count points for the afternoon / evening.  Which, again, is easy enough.

I reckon doing this should be enough to get me the 350 calorie saving that I need.  Of course, this also means that weekends are free too, but again, the eating needs to be mindful because I would need to be aiming for roughly maintenance calories in order to preserve the deficit.

If I could achieve this, it would be a stone by Christmas.  It sounds pitifully slow but I refer you back to my earlier point – time passes and it’s all very well to lose weight more quickly but if you can’t sustain it over a long period then it’s all for nothing.  It might go back on, it might not but you’re never going to reach the end point because there are too many barriers.  Sustaining something, anything, has always been the issue for me and I think that is because deep down I want the freedom to cook and enjoy good food more than I want to be thinner.  I need to use the tools that I have to make minor tweaks to almost fool myself into changing.

I’m going to give it a whirl anyway, and will report back when I’ve got a month or so under my (managerial) belt.

New year, new you?

What is it about January 1st that makes us all think we will suddenly ditch our every bad habit and arise from the ashes of our previous failures like a glorious, slender, beautiful, healthy, mindful, balanced pheonix?  I've lived through enough Januaries now to know that it NEVER happens and, also, that the darkest, wettest, coldest more miserable time of you is probably the period in which you are least likely to succeed in instituting lasting changes.

With regards to weight loss, I long ago tried to ditch the "I want to weigh xxx by yyy" because, well, that way certain madness lies.  And it most definitely has improved my general relationship with food such that I have managed to end the last two years lighter than when I began them, which is progress in the right direction. 

My experience trying WW Flex last year was a really positive one.  I lost weight and felt like I was eating really well.  But after a couple of months, the old itchiness started creeping back in.  I started resenting the constant measuring and tracking and starting yearning for all those things that just didn't fit naturally into the programme.

Previous to that, I managed to lose weight successfully, and keep it off, using intermittent fasting and here, too, I see many benefits.  You get all the unpleasantness out of the way across two days and the rest of the time you learn to practice moderation.  And you really do - no longer are you stuffing in a full size pizza because "diet starts tomorrow".  But the fast days were really, really hard - I'm horrible to be around when my blood sugar gets too low - and increasingly I was making excuses to skip one or both fasts a week.  Which means you're then just eating normally all the time - which is fine if you're maintaining but not if you have weight to lose.

It strikes me that by combining the two I might be on to a winner.  One fast day a week - not fun, sure, but doable.  To counter: one "day off" built into the week: a day to cook that roast pork belly recipe that won't fit in to your daily points, or get that takeaway or eat that doughnut.  Five days a week of counting.  Maybe four - if I can get away with a day and a half "off" (generally Friday evening and Saturday) and still lose a pound a week, I'd be perfectly happy.

So that's the long term plan.  But, for now, I'm using January to lay the groundwork.  I'm not back to pointing yet but I have instituted the one day a week fasting.  For the rest, I'm concentrating on getting back to eating in a regular, moderate way after the madness that is the latter half of December.  Snacks are out, midweek drinkies are definitely out (alcohol reserved for weekends only).  Plenty of vegetable based meals.  A proper routine at bedtime and in the morning to get my sleep sorted out.  More steps daily, even if it just means getting of the bus a stop early.  Little, healthy habits.  It's not dramatic or exciting but I think, from now, on I'm treating January as less of a fresh start and more of a gentle transition.

Slow cooker recipe corner: Vivek Singh’s Suriani home-style chicken curry

A slow cooker curry recipe is perfect for this time of year and this one, adapted from the BBC Food site, is lovely. Please, please do not be put off by the amount of vinegar. When you first combine the ingredients it will taste and smell slightly overwhelming. By the end of cooking it will have mellowed to the most delicious subtle sourness.

From the BBC website

From me. A career in food photography clearly beckons...

The original recipe can be found here and comes with a sweet and sour coconut rice accompaniment but if you are looking to keep points down, you could just serve with plain rice. Or cauliflower rice. Or whatever you like really...I can imagine it with a chilli and coriander spiked mash.

This is a wet curry / stew, even if you reduce it as per the below suggestion. It’s got no thickening agent so it’s never going to be a thick sauce but I don’t think that is the idea. Just thought I’d mention it in case thinner curries aren’t your bag. You could quite easily bung a handful of lentils in it if you like - this wouldn’t affect the points. Oh, incidentally, you could also use reduced fat coconut milk which would take the points down to 5 per portion.

Ingredients

Tbsp rapeseed oil
2-3 large chicken breasts, cut into chunks

Half a punnet of chestnut mushrooms, sliced
2 red onions sliced

Can of coconut milk
Cinnamon stick
6 cloves
4 green cardamom pods
4 garlic cloves, sliced
5cm piece of ginger, grated
8 green chillies, slit lengthways
15 curry leaves
2 tsp salt
Tbsp black peppercorns, crushed
5 tbsp sherry vinegar

Tsp garam masala

Serves 4, 10 Smart Points (WW Flex) per portion

As ever, these slow cooker recipes are more of an assembly job.

Heat the oil and add the chicken pieces, in batches if necessary, to brown on all sides.

Meanwhile, put the coconut milk, the spices and the vinegar into the slow cooker. Stir well, then add the sliced veg and the browned chicken.

Lid on, cook on low for 8 - 10 hours.

We then used a slotted spoon to remove the meat and veg, poured the sauce into a pan and reduced over a low heat for 15 mins, but this is not essential if you’re looking for ease and speed.

Stir through the garam masala just before serving.

Recipe corner: Tomato butter sauce and a creamy Parmesan dressing

Before we get to pizza, I just wanted to post this pasta sauce recipe. It apparently was all the rage among food bloggers in oooh, 2010 or so so I’m either late to the party (likely) or bringing sexy back (less likely). It’s very lovely though. It reminds me of tomato sauces that I’ve eaten in Italy - light and sweet and clinging. Very different from the almost jam like quality you get when starting a tomato sauce from a standard soffrito. It also has the very great advantage of requiring very few ingredients and very little effort. One need never reach for a jar of sauce again.

To go with it a salad dressing which harks back to the Caesar dressing that I first posted years ago, which utilises a molten egg yolk to create something that tastes far richer than the points would suggest. The Parmesan adds a ton of umami flavour, the mustard a good kick. And this basic dressing recipe would be a good base for any other flavourings you might want to throw in, depending on what your salad is accompanying. This recipe makes enough to properly drench two decent portions of salad which is great when there’s not too much else going on. Alternatively, you could settle for an elegant drizzle and probably get away with counting it at zero points.

Tomato butter sauce - ingredients

200g tin chopped tomatoes

18g butter

One small onion, peeled and sliced in half

Serves 2, 3 Smart Points (WW Flex) a portion

The instructions for this are blessedly easy. Simply stick all the ingredients together in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Set over a low heat and bring to the gentlest of simmers and then turn the heat down as low as possible - a diffuser works well here if you have one - for around 45 minutes. As it cooks, give it the occasional stir, ensuring the tomatoes are lightly crushed into the buttery juices. It is ready when little droplets of fat appear on the surface of the sauce - see picture below.  NOT the most prepossessing looking thing, but getting there. Discard the onion, season with salt if required and then serve over pasta.

A note: I tried making this with a shallot but I don't think it worked quite as well so I would urge you to go for an onion.  It won't give an overtly onion flavour but it is an important constituent part and I think that the shallot was just a little too mild to deliver.

Creamy Parmesan dressing - ingredients

1 egg

2 tbsp 0% fat Greek yoghurt

2 tsp rapeseed oil

Tsp dijon mustard

15g Parmesan cheese finely grated

Scant squeeze of lemon juice

Serves 2 generously, 2 Smart Points (WW Flex) a portion

You'll need a little processor for this.

Bring a pan of water to the boil and then lower in the egg and set a timer for three minutes.  Remove as soon as it is done and immediately stick it under the cold tap to stop the cooking.

Meanwhile, put the yoghurt, oil and mustard into the processor and give them a quick whizz to introduce them to each other.  Grate the Parmesan - you could skip this step and let the processor do the work, but your result won't be as smooth and creamy.

CAREFULLY peel your egg.  Have the processor close at hand so if you accidentally pierce the yolk while you are doing so you can ensure it all gets into the mix.  The white should be just about set but depending on the size of your egg may be a little bit snotty which works beautifully in the dressing but be warned if you're slightly squeamish (as I know some people are when it comes to eggs).

Blend again until the egg is completely incorporated and you have a smooth, pale yellow dressing.  Add the Parmesan, a squeeze of lemon juice, a pinch of salt and a good whack of pepper and whizz for a final time. Check the seasoning - it may require an extra hit of lemon just at the end.

Weight loss diary: September 2018

It’s been a while since we had an update so let’s get straight to it:

Weeks 1-4: -8.5lbs
Week 5: -2lbs
Week 6: -1lb
Week 7: -1.5lbs
Weeks 8-10: +2.5lbs
Week 11: -3.5lbs

Total: -15lbs

Not bad at all. Even with a three week blip I’m still averaging at just under 1.5lbs a week. Excellent. It’s not the fastest, sexiest tale of weight loss ever but it is a very sensible, sustainable one.

There will be many more blips but I need to make sure that I arrest them before they turn into three weekers. That’s too long to be off plan and (I always say this but it always bears repeating) I feel SO much better when I’m in the zone. It is hard work to plan and track but the benefits are myriad: better digestion, better sleep, better mental health...it makes you wonder what kind of moron wouldn’t make the effort...

The wages of sin

Well, the scores are in and after shamefully missing not one but two weigh ins, and consuming more points over this last weekend than a good Weight Watcher does in a year I have gained...

2.5 lbs.

So that’s not bad at all. And every glorious mouthful was worth it. I will NEVER be the kind of person who attempts to point while on holiday.

Back to it now and I’m hoping that a good week can get that back off again. There are another thirteen weigh ins before Christmas - I could easily be a stone down by then with a bit of focus. Onwards and downwards!

The on / off switch - am I fooling myself?

Somebody posted a message on WW Connect the other day and I wrote a response which I suspect sounded horribly preachy. The scenario was this: someone said that she kept joining WW, losing a couple of stone and then going “off-plan”, gaining the weight back and then having to start again. What could she do to break the cycle? To which my response was: you have to stop thinking of it as being on and off plan. The way you eat when you’re following Weight Watchers is the way you eat, full stop. The longer you think of WW as something that you will do for a while, to get to goal, and then stop, the longer you will be stuck in a cycle of losing and regaining the same weight over and over again.

Wouldn’t you want to punch me? I did try and add lots of smiley faces and said several times that this was only taken from my experience. But still.

The thing about Weight Watchers that breaks you in the end is the fact that you have to be so switched on all the time. Everything needs to be weighed and measured (well, nearly everything). If you want it to work you have to assiduously monitor every drop of oil or sprinkle of cheese. It’s a lot more difficult to eat on the hoof, especially from non-chains. It is, sometimes, pretty exhausting. I can see why people burn out. I can see why I burned out. But I don’t object to the food and I think that is probably why I am much better nowadays at maintaining my weight then I was when I was younger. Something, somewhere is sticking.

I was thinking about this particularly because I had a day “off” on Saturday – planned and deliberate. We went for a nice walk, stopping off at a few pubs along the way. In the last one, we ate chips with lots of salt and a good slather of mayonnaise. We made chicken wings for tea that had been slowly confited in fat and then dunked them in a rich blue cheese dip. Happy days. It made my comments to the woman on the message board seem rather hypocritical. But then, on Sunday morning I knew that I was back to it and despite the fact that I was hungry yesterday, and my treacherous body wanted to eat toast all day, I stuck to pointing and weighing and measuring and tracking. Monday morning, I was showing a small (0.6 lbs) gain for the week. But there’s a big difference between half a pound gain’s worth of planned indulgence and a two stone slide back down the scale. I think.

Weight loss diary: July / August 2018

I haven’t been doing weekly weigh in updates as I was worried they would be rather tedious for…well, everyone but me. Instead, have a monthly update!

The scores on the doors for my first month on WW Flex:

Week 1: +1lb
Week 2: -4lbs
Week 3: - 2lbs
Week 4: -3.5lbs

Total: -8.5lbs

Additional notes:

During this month, I tracked all but one single day, which dedication is borne out by these results (first week aberration aside). I ate out at non-chain (and therefore difficult-to-track-with-any-degree-of-accuracy) restaurants on three occasions and guesstimated each time, obviously with some degree of success. I’ve eschewed alcohol for the most part, which I think has made a big difference in making the points go further.

I believe that is a slightly slower rate of loss than when I started back on Pro Points in 2013. But I am five years older and my start weight was a good few stone lighter, so it is not very surprising. I also think that I am probably eating better, although it is obviously very hard to know for sure given that I have killed so many brain cells off with gin between then and now that my recall is probably shot to pieces.

One thing is for sure. I went back to WW because I felt, very acutely, that I needed to do something positive for my physical and mental health and, for me, it was most definitely the right decision at the right time. Over the course of just four weeks I have seen a demonstrable improvement in…well, pretty much everything, and the fact that I have lost over half a stone on top of that is just wonderful. I don’t expect that either the current rate of loss or the current level of enthusiasm will continue unchecked but for now, things are looking good.

MPM: 6th August 2018

There are only so many times that one can write “Monday again” or, “Where did the weekend go?” or, “Can’t believe we’re eight months into the year!” without it becoming ineffably tedious. Suffice to say, please take all the above as read.

If nothing else, my returning to Weight Watchers has refocused our attention on meal planning which is excellent news. We’ve more or less completely stuck to the plan these last few weeks and have been eating extremely well. We’re also getting more of a sense of what works well with the current WW ideal – NB: if you like fish, chicken and pulses and can make them the main constituents of your dish, you’re going to be laughing all the way to the (Smart Points) bank. I also continue in my efforts to stick an egg on top of pretty much everything I eat.

This week, we again have no particular plans, other than Tuesday night, when we’re off to the cinema and I am angling to fit in a cheeky Nando’s, having discovered that a double chicken pitta is a mere 8 Smart Points. I have to admit I secretly quite adore Nando’s and yes, I know that I could cook something just as nice at home and not pay ridiculously over the odds for it, but I maintain that it is worth the occasional splurge, especially since there is a branch located very handily for our local multiplex. D is out for lunch on Thursday (probably Nando’s again, the lucky sausage. Fortunately, he is very partial to chicken) so keeping things light on Thursday evening.

Monday: Crab scrambled eggs with pan roasted asparagus.

Wednesday: Prawns with sweet potato mash and chilli vinaigrette

Thursday: Tuna sandwiches

Friday: Twice baked cheese soufflés, roast courgette and spinach salad with balsamic dressing, garlic bread

Saturday: Momofuku chicken wings

Sunday: Butternut squash, sage and amaretti ravioli

MPM: 30th July 2018

Another weekend gone – honestly, the year is slipping away. We had a nice trip out with family on Saturday, although after my slip up on Friday night, I was absolutely determined to be on plan which proved incredibly difficult with all the gin flying around (not literally you understand). Our hosts had chosen a Turkish “bistro” for dinner, which would not have been my first choice, but I ordered a grilled chicken shish kebab and it turned out to be absolutely gorgeous. I do think that looking at the menu in advance and having a plan is a good practice if you want to remain focused (although rather dull and worthy if you don’t). I barely looked at the menu when we arrived so I couldn’t be distracted by all the other goodies and thus managed to end the evening on track.

And, having hopped on the scales this morning, I am cautiously optimistic that, unless things have yet to catch up with me, I should be posting another loss at WI. I now need to make sure that my inner rebel doesn’t take this as a sign that I can quaff wine with abandon every Friday night and then pull it back by being sensible. Because it doesn’t take much for one night “off” to turn into a whole weekend “off” and that is a far more difficult position to reverse.

Other than tonight, when I am out seeing a friend, we have a full week at home which will be nice from a WW point of view, as it means I don’t have to have one eye on saving points for the weekend. Thus, I think that the meals for this week are an interesting and decidedly non “diety” mix of dishes:

Tuesday: Korean spiced beef and vegetable stew (a freezer dive) with rice and kimchi (apparently, a zero point food! Hurrah!)

Wednesday: A D choice – he is planning to make a punjabi kadhi, which is a spiced yoghurt soup. It was one of his favourite lunchtime dishes at Bundobust, but they removed it from the menu during a recent rejig. This should be interesting, as I have to say that it was never a particular preference of mine, but I’m sure that he can make it work.

Thursday: Aubergine Parmigiana. I’ve been having a fancy for this for a while. I haven’t decided on side dishes yet – I think that I fancy just garlic bread (if I have the points available) and a rocket and Parmesan salad, but was considering the possibility of wild rice.

Friday: Cod with Parma ham and lentils. An old blog recipe, this should work beautifully with Smart Points.

Saturday: Hot dogs! I’m going to get proper franks and proper hot dog buns and then load them with ketchup and American mustard and caramelised onions and sauerkraut. And I might even make a potato salad. Or just serve them with chips.

Sunday: Lamb loin with Parmesan mash and mushrooms. Proper Sunday fare, and an homage to a dish we ate in Paris may moons ago.

Here’s to another great week all round.

Full Disclosure

Friday night, for the first time, the wagon teetered. And the culprit was my old Nemesis, wine.

I’m a little disappointed in myself, of course - after two and a half weeks of exemplary behaviour and smug attendant blog posts, I shouldn’t have succumbed to the thrall of crisp, chilled Sauvignon Blanc. Aside from anything else, the Smart Points value of a glass would make your eyes water.

But I’m going to look at the positive side of things. I got up on Saturday, with a slight headache, and got on the treadmill before breakfast to do a Couch to 5k session and earn back some of those points. And, I did not use it as an excuse to write off the entire weekend; last night, while out with my in laws, I stuck to Diet Coke and slimline tonic and my preplanned menu choices, tracking everything. So that is good, that is progress. It remains to be seen how the Mean Girl Scales will react.

This week’s weigh in...that’s more like it!

Tonight the Mean Girl scales were kind and informed me that I had lost 4lbs. Hurrah! With my gain last week (boo!) that gives a net result of 3lbs across 2 weeks which will do very nicely. It’s not the rapidest loss in the world, but I’d be more than happy to accept a slow, steady dwindle. A pound a week between now and the end of the year would be nearly a stone and a half which would be amazing.

Two weeks in and I have to say I am really enjoying the Flex plan and the food that I’m eating. I haven’t felt this positive and, well, healthy in ever such a long time. Long may it continue.

Normal, whingeing service will no doubt be resumed soon but in the meantime, vive Le Flex!

Recipe corner: Red lentil, courgette and cheese loaf

I have never been the greatest advocate of yawningly “worthy” food so this recipe is something of a departure for me. Years ago, for reasons lost in the mists of time, D and I decided to detox the Carol Vorderman way and spent a very miserable week eating really bad food. I think that we managed about five days before falling face first into pizza. Ever since, anything like “lentil loaf” which sounds suspiciously like it has been plucked from the pages of a “clean eating” (bleurgh) book has made my toes curl a little bit. Nevertheless, I would commend this particular recipe to your attention because it is, quite simply, delicious. It makes me wonder if I should be a bit more open minded – after all, I’m quite a fan of spiralising vegetables as well – but then I remember back to Carol’s recipe for hummus, which resembled nothing so much as wallpaper paste, and I quickly change my mind.

Anyway, this loaf is utterly brilliant for anyone following the WW Flex programme because lentils and other pulses are now pointed at zero, which means that a slice of this makes a really low point, satisfying meal especially with a bit of salad and perhaps a cheeky hard-boiled egg (also zero point. Everything I eat at the moment, I serve with an egg on the side.) Last time I made it, D fried slices in butter and had them in a sandwich which, he reports, was most excellent. But frying things in butter and eating them with bread is (sadly) not the WW way unless one has run a half marathon and has oodles of points to spare. Behold the loaf in all its glory:



And here, in cross section, with the afore mentioned salad and egg (plus a drizzle of salad cream and another of sriracha). This entire lunch box was 3 Smart Points:



A note on reduced fat cheese. I love cheese. The notion of reduced fat cheese makes me slightly sad. Reduced fat products in general can be awful – and I utterly reject such aberrations as plasticky low fat spreads and “lite” mayonnaise. But I genuinely think for cooking, especially midweek, bog-standard cooking, a decent reduced fat Cheddar will do the job perfectly well in most cases. Pilgrims Choice is fine, as is Cathedral City – I need to try some supermarket own brands and if I come across anything particularly good, I will report back. If you are not counting points then feel free to use whatever cheese you like. A nutty Gruyere might work well with lentils. If you are counting, what I would suggest here (if you are so inclined) is to sub a proportion of the reduced fat Cheddar for a good smoked cheese as it will give the most wonderful flavour to the loaf. I used 50g of a very, very smoky (full fat) cheese and 75g of reduced fat Pilgrims Choice and it still worked out at 2 Smart Points per portion.

Ingredients

175g red lentils
Tsp vegetable Bouillon powder
350ml water
Courgette, grated
120g reduced fat Cheddar, grated
3-4 spring onions, chopped
Tbsp sriaracha (or other hot sauce)
Tsp dried chilli flakes
Squeeze of lemon juice
Egg, lightly beaten

Cuts into 8 decent slices, 2 Smart Points per slice (WW Flex)

Put the lentils in a large pan (big enough, eventually, for all the ingredients), stir through the stock powder and then pour over the water and set over a low heat. Bring the pan to a gentle simmer and then cover and cook for 10-15 mins until the lentils have absorbed the water and formed a thick paste. Mine cooked incredibly quickly and needed a splash more water after just 5 minutes, so it is worth checking regularly.

While the lentils cook, preheat the oven to 180, line a loaf tin (I always tend to use loaf tin liners such as these, but greaseproof paper would do as well) and prep the other ingredients.

Allow the lentils to cool very slightly and then stir all the other ingredients through and pour into the prepared tin. Bake for 45-50 mins until set firm and browning on top.

Oxymoronic

I did actually give the Smart Points programme a whirl when it first came out a few years ago.  Back then it was slightly different in that daily and weekly point allowances were a bit higher but fewer foods were zero points (just fruit and veg as opposed to the fruit, veg, chicken, fish, eggs, pulses etc. of the current iteration).

 

I was against it from the start.  I lost weight very well on the Pro Points programme (this was the version of WW prior to Smart Points). In fact, when I was going to meetings in 2014, I lost a stone in my first four weeks of Pro Points, which is pretty impressive.  So I already had a natural resistance to the change. 

 

And I do stand by what I thought then which is – Smart Points is more restrictive than Pro Points and it does feel more like a “diet” if you try to eat in exactly the same way.  I remember that when I was doing Pro Points, I found it pretty easy to eat sensibly and still have a piece of chocolate after dinner or a mid-afternoon biscuit.  A daily treat.

 

But I think my mentality is slightly different now because my focus, my absolute priority at the moment is my health rather than weight loss (although no, I'm still not quite over my disappointing result - I'm only human!)  My poor old body has been rather through the wringer and I want to treat it well, to nourish it.  Coming at Smart Points from that angle has made me realise that the very phrase “daily treat” is a total oxymoron.  The dictionary definition of a treat is: an event or item that is out of the ordinary and gives great pleasure.  Out of the ordinary!  Which probably doesn’t – or shouldn’t – mean daily.

 

Realising this has made me far more receptive to Smart Points.  When I look back over my first week, I can see that the quality of my meals improved markedly, particularly with regards to vegetable and protein content, and snacks mainly consisted of fresh fruit.  There was a bag of salted popcorn on Friday evening (deliberately chosen and enjoyed) and that was it.  Other than the chocolate truffle I had to end my meal on Saturday evening, I don’t think that I had any sweet stuff (again, apart from fruit).

 

First week fervour obviously helps make this easier but I think that bearing this in mind will really help me get along better with the Smart Points programme.  It will be interesting to see whether or not the scales come round. 

A post weigh-in post

Well, I am surely glad that I did write my pre weigh-in post before I went to the meeting. Because the scales were not kind. In fact, they were positively bitchy, informing me that I had managed to gain a pound over the course of the last week.

I’m no stranger to gains – they’re a fact of life, and I try to be sanguine about them but, oh! This stung quite a lot. Such that I could actually feel my eyes get hot and prickly when I stepped off, even while I was cheerfully telling the leader that I wouldn’t let this put me off and would give it another good go this week. Then I went to the meeting shop and spent £7 on over-processed WW own products that are full of the type of sugar replacements that people with delicate tummies should probably avoid.

But while waiting for the meeting to start, I actually sat and read my own post and it did make me feel a lot better. So what if the scales are taking a while to catch up? I know, in my heart of hearts, that I did my very best this week, that I made good decisions, and that I took proper care of myself. Hopefully, good results will follow (said with gritted teeth).

In other news, someone emailed me a few weeks ago to say that this blog had been listed as one of the Top 5 UK Weight Watchers Blogs and Websites in 2018. I’m not sure how many UK Weight Watchers Blogs there are (probably 5), and I’m not quite sure that this has actually been a Weight Watchers blog for a while but hey! We take our victories where we can. And the thumbnail of Minx they have used is one of my favourites so it’s worth a click just to admire her.

A pre weigh-in post

So, first week nearly over and in a few hours it will be time to hop up on the scales.  Whether they are the Scales of Doom or the Scales of Joy remains to be seen. 

I wanted to make sure that this post was written and up before the weigh in, so that I can look back on it regardless of the result.  Because, whatever the scores on the doors, this has been a successful week.

As I hoped, operating within a structure has been really good for me.  I have been eating properly for the first time in a while and my fruit and veg consumption has rocketed as I embrace zero point snacks.  This has had a knock on effect on my mental health – I feel much calmer and more in control.  And physically, my stomach has been OK.  Not perfect, but OK. 

I have had a lovely weekend with friends and managed to enjoy myself without going ridiculously overboard, without adopting a “Screw it, I can’t point so I’m going to eat and drink everything in sight,” attitude and, hugely, without having a drink.  I am a girl who loves her alcoholic beverages: to get through an entire sociable weekend watching other people tuck into large glasses of Pimms while sticking to water is a pretty big deal.  But I made the decision that it wasn’t worth the points and it wasn’t worth the potentially catastrophic effects on my beleaguered digestive system and I stuck to it.

So whatever the scales have to throw at me today (and I’m genuinely in the dark) I’m going to try and remember that, by any other measure, this has been a GOOD WEEK.

Summer in the city - a weekend round-up

I didn’t want to go down to London last weekend, I’ll be totally honest. I was nervous about being away from home – from D, from the cat, from familiar surroundings - and, bluntly, from my bathroom. I also did not want to have to spend a weekend guestimating points just a few days in to my newest and shiniest WW attempt.

I had more or less made up my mind not to go but D wasn’t having any of it. I don’t envy him much of the time; living with someone who is very anxious must be exhausting. You constantly have to be strong for them, to push them to overcome their entirely irrational fears. So I was effectively frogmarched on to the bus on Saturday morning – but, in the end, all was well and I had a lovely time and have come back with that new sense of confidence which comes from venturing outside the comfort zone. Thank you, D.

Of course, the fact remains that I have two days where my tracker may be way, way off. Well, actually, I think that I am fine for Sunday since we ate in and I was able to find all food items in the catalogue. I winced a bit that the innocent looking honey and seed rolls that we had for lunch turned out to be 9 Smart Points, but heigh-ho, that’s what weeklies are for.

Saturday night required a lot more guesswork, but whether I’m under or over, the meal itself was worth it. We went to a restaurant called Ember Yard in Fitzrovia and it was LOVELY - especially gratifying given that I suggested it. It’s a menu of small plates with a Spanish and Italian slant – some of the dishes are recognisable from the typical tapas repertoire, others not so much. Highlights included (surprisingly) chargrilled flatbread with thyme and smoked butter (so good we immediately ordered another) and a lovely special of sea bass with ajo blanco.

Seabass!

Bread!

I tried a little bit of everything, but stuck to water rather than indulging in wine or cocktails and then, in lieu of a dessert (tough going – the churros looked amazing) I ordered a double espresso and a single dark chocolate and Pedro Ximenez truffle (which item I thought was a really clever addition to the dessert menu). A divine full stop to the meal.

Truffle!

Also – if you’ll forgive me ditching the food talk for a minute – we went to the open air theatre in Regent’s Park, to see a production of “As You Like It” which was brilliant! Such a funny, sweet, silly rendering of the play, which I hitherto hadn’t considered one my favourite of Shakespeare’s comedies. The musical settings were a little bit cheesy but the cast carried them off with aplomb and the whole thing was an absolute joy. I’ve never seen a bad production there – and it’s a lovely venue if the weather holds out. If you’re London based and find yourself at a loose end, get thee hence.

After returning in such a good mood, I am not exactly sure what misguided impulse compelled me to jump on the bathroom scales yesterday morning. I haven’t weighed myself on them for a while, so I have no idea how my weight today relates to my official WI last Wednesday. If I was expecting to see a large drop after a whole four days of counting, I was doomed to disappointment. Not for nothing does lovely Peridot call them the Scales of Doom, because I immediately felt sulky and annoyed and resentful. The answer is clear – official weigh ins ONLY from now on and a focus on progress rather than perfection.

MPM: 16th July 2018

Back from the smoke, and ready to do my first Weight Watchers sponsored* MPM for a while.

*NB – Weight Watchers do not sponsor me. Which is a shame, because I could really do with the extra cash. I would also take payment in low point fizzy cola bottles, which is probably all that I am worth to them.

The current tactic is to plan a week’s worth of dinners first, point these up in advance and then build the rest of the week around the evening meals. That way, they get to stay as “normal” as possible – which, for me, is a priority. I’m hoping, therefore, that there shouldn’t be too much noticeable change to the weekly meal plans, but it will be interesting to see how that pans out over the following weeks and I may find that I need to start modifying things slightly if getting through the day proves tricky. Once the weather cools a little, I’d be quite keen to re-introduce a weekly soup night which would allow us both to have a day a week where we could build in a more decadent lunch or a few evening treats, but there is not a chance that I’m attempting to eat any soup other than gazpacho at the moment.

This week – D is out with friends on Friday which means prick and ping for me. I currently find myself with a raging sweet tooth, so I may get something really low point and then have a nice pudding afterwards. I saw Rachel Allen make a chocolate chip croissant bread and butter pudding on TV last night and almost swooned. Although I suspect that I would have to eat dust for a day in order to fit that particular pudding into a daily points allocation. Then, on Saturday we are seeing my Mum and Dad for dinner which should be lovely. Elsewhere:

Monday: fish tacos, inspired by Felicity Cloake’s recent column. I’ll be shallow frying / baking the fish to keep points down and replacing sour cream with fat free yoghurt. Sigh.

Tuesday: sweet potato cakes with coriander yoghurt dressing and salad. A lovely Ottolenghi recipe made much less virtuous than it sounds by frying said cakes in butter.

Wednesday: spaghetti carbonara. This is post WI. I am not promising that there won’t be some garlic bread on the side as well since, officially, points don’t reset until Thursday morning. Mwah hah hah.

Thursday: chicken Caesar salad. Am going to dust off my old WW version of the dressing and see how it fares. I plan do to little cubes of paprika dusted roast potato in lieu of croutons.

Sunday: we have a pot of delicious Bolognese sauce in the freezer. I can’t decide whether just to have it with a mound of spaghetti and courgette ribbons, or to make a gnocchi bake (we have some gnocchi in the fridge) with a gooey Mozzarella topping. I have yet to point up the sauce from the original recipe so that might tip the scales one way or the other.

Hard part over...

First meeting – check. D walked me to the doors to prevent me from chickening out. Fortunately, the meeting venue is about a two minute (slow) walk from our front door so there is literally no excuse to go, come rain or shine.

It was fine, as these things always are. My weight was, almost to the pound, identical to my pre-op weight last year (the best point of comparison since both are done fully clothed). So I’ve definitely proved that I can do maintenance. It is a small victory, but one to which I cling.

The revised plan sounds quite interesting. Chicken, fish, eggs, fat free plain yoghurt and pulses and now all zero point, alongside the old fruit and veg zero heroes. Hurrah! However, daily and weekly allowances are down. Boo. I still find the Smart Points formula far more restrictive than the old Pro Points one – foods high in fat and sugar are punitively high and the foods that they have selected as zero point definitely suggest that they are pushing people towards a more protein based diet (and I am a self-avowed carb monster). However, I think that this is going to be doable. Many of my favourite meals will likely take up a good two thirds of my daily points allowance, but I can stick to practically zero for breakfast (fruit and yoghurt) and lunch (salad and protein or soup).

Last hurrah supper – check. Pizza, from our divine local takeaway. Didn’t manage to eat it all, so it languishes in the fridge at the moment. Actually, that wasn’t hard at all (although resisting the leftovers might be).

First fully tracked day – check. I came in with two points to spare, which have been “rolled over” into my weeklies (you can now save up to four a day which is another innovation, and most welcome). Fruit, couscous and chicken salad, salmon with pasta pesto. Full of first day fervour, I found it relatively easy to avoid snacks and swiped away the offer of lunchtime fish and chips with nary a quiver.

So – hurdles yet to overcome. I’m away Saturday and Sunday, popping down to London for a night to see friends. It’s a shame that I can’t get one full week of “proper” tracking under my belt, since obviously I’m going to have to make some guestimates away from home. But I’ve already decided to eschew drinking and will just try and make sure that my food choices are as sensible as possible. Hopefully the Scales Of Doom (TM- Peridot) will look favourably on my efforts next Wednesday.

Sunshine, lollipops and a new blog post

Long-time no blog!  It is probably a little self-indulgent to say that I hope that I haven’t been missed – but I feel it is slightly justified given that lovely Hazel left a comment on my last post saying she missed my Meal Planning Mondays!  I promise to reintroduce them forthwith.  With regards the radio silence:

 

Reason the first – my digestive discomfort issues have been continuing.  I have always prided myself on the robustness of my digestive system and this has been unpleasant and disconcerting.  I finally plucked up the courage to go the GP and it is probably something very simple related to stomach bile (sorry if TMI) post gallbladder surgery.  It is not uncommon and can be controlled with medication.  So once anything more sinister is ruled out (and giving that all of this has only kicked off post surgery it seems highly unlikely) I will be rendered as right as rain by the wonder of our NHS.  Happy days.

 

Reason the second – which is related to reason the first.  Long term readers will know that, from time to time, I have a bit of an issue with anxiety.  Or rather, Anxiety, because anxiety is when you’re a little bit worried about a presentation that you have to do at work the following day and Anxiety is when you are frightened to leave your bedroom for reasons that are obscure even to you.  It’s frightfully common nowadays – the go-to mental health issue de nos jours, so I feel like something of a cliché but there you have it.  Fretting about my health and always trying to ensure the nearest toilet was within easy access in case of emergencies combined with my existing predisposition and made me…well, a bit shaky.  I don’t want to dwell on this too much – if it’s boring and tedious to me then it is undoubtedly boring and tedious to you.  Needless to say, fasting went by the wayside (low blood sugar is the last thing you need when you’re wobbling anyway) as did much cooking or, indeed, taking much pleasure in food.  (Sorry for the melodrama – can you understand why I didn’t post now?)

 

I haven’t weighed myself in a while but from the feel of clothes and suchlike I think it is all relatively stable but I’ve not been eating particularly well and that is stupid, because one of the best things to do for your mental health is to ensure that your diet and fitness are on point.  So that leads me to reason the third why I’ve been a bit reluctant to blog.  I’ve decided to go back to WW for a bit.

 

I know that I swore off it and I truly believe that, in the longer term, intermittent fasting will enable me to maintain my weight without being a slave to the pointing and weighing and measuring.  But I also believe that just for now, a bit of structure, something to focus on, would be a Good Thing.  And if I can ditch a few pounds in the process it will be an Even Better Thing.  I don’t intend to be evangelical about it.  I will eat out and have nights off – life is too short to never eat another takeaway.  And I will continue to monitor the situation.  If the return doesn’t justify the effort well, then, I’ll stop.

 

I’ve already signed up for the app and will be going to my first meeting tonight.  I’m intrigued about the new plan – it seems to be edging ever closer to Slimming World with more zero point foods – including lean poultry, fish, eggs and pulses.  I struggled initially when WW switched from Pro Points to Smart Points so it remains to be seen if the further changes make it more or less doable.  Regardless, a healthy project is just what I need at the moment to take my mind off my own navel.