Sunday 31 May 2015

New eating habits and new lifestyle

 8 1/2 lbs have now dissappeared from my body, I have gone down a dress size and jeans size and had to move my belt buckle in by 3 holes. Eating is still a pleasure ans am having new food discoveries and adventures. It's all good and I want it to stay that way.
I take photographs of my plated foods to remind me of this journey.
Mostly I am counting WW propoints but sometimes I have a day off from counting every little thing but try to stay sensible.
Above is my botched attempt at an omelette, it;s more scrambles eggs really and the pepper and tomatoes were delicious.
 JJ made us an amazing Sunday lunch recently and I just ate it and enjoyed it fully then cut back a bit the next day. No skin in that chicken, though see? I ate the pearl barley and what looks like rice there is cauliflower rice!!!! Is  THAT  not FABULOUS OF HIM?
 Then he treated us all to some amazing confectionery for dessert....
I just had a quarter slice .... yum yum
 A day later I had half the white round one but it was not nice and not worth it.
 But these baked apples with honey and many raisins and cranberries were DELICIOUS!
Almost just like my mum used to make. She never used cranberries.
 This is a fishcake from Sainsbury and I had just a little taste of it as it was for Miss Y.
 See?  Am LOVING this cauliflower rice option.
 Having it with coronation tuna and some tomato puree...
 This was my lunch at Brooke's for the 150th birthday celebrations.
I loved the thick chips, tried the cheese but one bite only. Ate the chargrilled HALOUMI cheese and left the white bread for the bin, had pickles and peppers instead. ( not shown already eaten)
Was offered a beefburger but asked for the veggie option and got given the haloumi burger.
 This is a really nice ready made salad from the Coop. I mark everything with the PP value.
 And these are the feta cheese comparisons, we have it melted into ratatouille.
 This was a bit more whicked but really deliciously smelling when in oven. Small portion though and at 10 PP it would be very difficult not to just eat all of it.
 This houmous was a GREAT find in Tesco near work, it's smooth delicious and very low in PP.
and PINK!
 Bananas have to be purchased on a daily basis, the girls and JJ eat them too and I have one whenever I feel hungry or also with a cup of tea to avoid thinking about having a biscuit or a piece of bread.
We buy dozens at a time...
 And lots of broccoli and courgettes as Miss E likes to have her ''courgetti''.
 This is a fabulous treat reminding me of Holland, only available from Holland and Barret these days, Waitrose no longer stock it alas.
 When at H&B I also stocked up on the slim pasta range, but did not having any in the past 10 days.
It's there for this week though, will come in handy I hope.
 In 2012 I relied too much on various WW products and when I got to goal and stopped going I found it harder to live without them. Also some got discontinued- those cranberry breakfast bars, remember?! Anyhow these sweets are brilliant for snacking but am trying to limit myself to 4 packets a week. I have this many as they were on special offer and I was finishing a chapter this week so many many hours at a desk tapping away at the keyboard.

 Here we have another fine find: Tesco carrot batons and asparagus houmous are a yummy combo.
 Healthy snacking while writing my research results.
 Or another good meal option and quick too: cod in parsley sauce ( 4 PP) with Coop ready-made roasted veg cous cous.
 Or indeed sometimes just a big plate of all that cous cous,
 Then JJ went on some ALDI healthy snack adventures of his own:
 These carbanzo roast chickpeas were TRULY different and wonderful. Very hard and crunchy.

 Could I try this at home? Roast chickpeas from a can in a paste of tomato and garlic in a hot oven maybe?!
 Big juicy raisins and cranberries.
 JJ found this really innovative and interesting book in Waterstones last weekend when we popped into Oxford for my black plimsolls for the Beating the Retreat costume.
 And he was such a star, we bought samphire and fresh fish at the fish stand in the covered market:
 I last had samphire at the restaurant we went for this years' birthday dinner, I had fresh white plaice on a bed of samphire and it was superb then too.
 Very Parisian chic this: toasted bread with  watercress, baby plum tomatoes and melted goat's cheese! I will always remember the toasted melted goat's cheese on baguette I had at a Parisian cafe many years ago, it was out of this world .
 So hey this recipe was in a WW leaflet they give you every week. Although for the last 3 weeks we did not get one as the leader was on holiday but hey let's not go there.
This one is a beetroot and fruits smoothie.
 So I made it! But instead of beetroot juice- HOW does one juice a beetroot????
I just blended an entire beetroot and added the fruits, banana and ground almonds and milk.
 Pretty tasteless actually ,though it looked nice. I found it needed a dash of Ribena to make it palatable.
 That's the magic goat's cheese, I ate the whole thing melted on toast. Not yet PP-ed it.
So here's the variety of Tesco houmous.
SAMPHIRE from Oxford market and also seen in Tesco.
 More discoveries: a healthy snack aisle?! These broad bean fried snacks are even better than those roasted chick peas!

 Healthy lunches at work last week.
C'est toutes. And I submitted my first chapter of 4710 words last night or at 2 am this morning actually so feeling good and need to get on with the next one. ( 5 to go and then references, Abstract, Appendices, Acknowledgements and editing...)
I started this new journey on 11 April so am now on week 7 and it takes at least 8 weeks or more for new habits to ''stick''.

I'd love a FITBIT too to measure activity and encourage more walking and exercise but with the impending computer time and writing/reading to do it may prove too frustrating as yet so am holding off on that idea.
Had a nice walk with Lucy this evening: almost a full moon and still really light at 21:30! Such lovely evenings and I just have not been noticing those. JJ way in Cardiff and the girls revising for their exams too. Did make it to choir today though. Blissful singing in church from 10 to 12 noon, Sister has chosen well and I loved the singing today. Trinity Sunday and Father Mark shared a recipe for a Trinity cocktail: so very funny.

Sunday 17 May 2015

Writing times ahead

 Plan to be the last post for a while as I really MUST get writing and researching for my dissertation.
THIS was Cuttlebrook last week - how high the Queen Anne's lace has grown! My shoulder height.
Have not been there this week, missing it.




 Guess what this is?!
 Lucy constantly patiently waiting to go for a walk or up to bed.

 Last week I was in London at Paddington and went to register at the British Library to have access to more articles for my research...



 Amazing modern building - I was not expecting this- and a sunny quad to sit and meditate or have your lunch in.


 Off to Winchester by train and the first outing of my new satchel briefcase...


 Lovely cup of tea and breakfast croissant as I left home at 7:30 am.

 Took Lucy to vet to be vaccinated and this poster warned of dangers to dogs...
 Back home the pansies planted in April are flourishing!





 This weekend I bought and planted Bizzie Lizzies, Sweet Peas and a trailing Lobelia.


 The sweet williams are growing very large leaves but no sign of flowers or buds yet
 This morning we had a dance rehearsal at Windsor Barracks:

 Dancing on grass, we had lovely weather!
 After a picnic lunch everyone rushing off home...
This is a tiny preview of the lovely bag-pipe music!
I am now going to be writing and researching until the end of September.
If I blog at all it will be a procrastinatory exercise. So I really must not. Not.