Week 7 – Monday through to Sunday (i.e. ALL of it)

Argh – what a week this has been.

Monday – Shreddies, with soya milk and my cup of tea.  Plus more tea and licorice.  For lunch I made up more egg mayo, so had a few sandwiches, plus a yoghurt.  I was tutoring so had a can of coke. Dinner was a couple of Quorn burger in rolls with sweetcorn relish and another yoghurt.  Before bed we grabbed a hot chocolate…

Tuesday – Shreddies and Tea again for breakfast. More Licorice for a snack. Lunch was a ham deli sandwich with cheese, salad, sweetcorn relish and coleslaw. Yoghurt again.  Dinner was Tuna and cheese melt and with chips and curry sauce (we went to bingo and I won £15 – shared full house).  So to celebrate it was a Costa tea and carrot cake.

Wednesday – Up late so almost skipped breakfast, cereal bar and tea. Lunch was another sandwich with ham and salad etc. Plus a Lemonade (sugar free and additive free drink).  Later on I had a pint of Orange and Cranberry Juice.  Dinner was Hash Browns, Veggie Burger and Baked Beans.  I grabbed a chocolate mousse and a muesli yoghurt…

Thursday – Toast with Jam (for a change) with toast.  I had an apple and a pack of quavers (aldi 12g pack) to sustain me as lunch/dinner was going to be later.  Mashed Potatoes, Sausage and peas with gravy – I had plenty of tea and had a piece of millionaires shortbread.

Friday – Toast again with tea for breakfast.  I had a hair cut (I’m toying with posting a pick) as I dyed my hair too.  We grabbed a fry-up (big mistake) of Hash-Browns, Bacon, Sausages, Potato Scones and Baked beans….  Later on I had a few meetings so I sanpellegrino aranciata (Posh fizzy orange).  Dinner was a roll and sausage with cheese and ketchup.  We’d nipped to the international market – so bought tomatoes and jams and jellies….So I had Banana Curd on Toast and a chocolate mousse again.  I had a few glasses of Sholer (grape juice).

Saturday – Toast with Banana Curd and a Pear and Tea.  I grabbed some fruit juice.  Lunch was a giant baked potatoe with baked beans and cheese (a hard cheese) – it was so big I couldn’t finish it! More fruit juice. Bingo again with friends – hot dog and chips for dinner plus J2O!  Later on it was a cuppa and a kitkat as I didn’t win but one of my friends won for the first time.

I had a liitle wake up call with my portion control.  I have been battling the same half a kilo with loss and gain and am getting a bit fed up of it all really.  So I’m paying attention the amount that goes on the plate!

Sunday – Shreddies for breakfast (weighed out 30g) and milk with tea. Went out to the big Sunday Market and had lunch (small fry up) – Bacon, sausages and potato wedges and baked beans, with a cup of tea.  We also had a 99 Ice cream – we did a fair amount of walking so felt justified.  Dinner was home made spicy tomato soup and ryvita crisp breads plus a yoghurt and a big glass of diluting juice…

Friday to Sunday of Week 6

Friday was a fairly normal day with Shreddies and Tea with Soya Milk, out tutoring so had tea and digestives for my snack to keep me going.  I grabbed a pack of Velvet Crunch and a small bottle of Iru Bru.  Dinner was home made Ham and Pineapple pizza and we actually didn’t have a full pizza each, with a glass of low alcohol wine.

Saturday was a bit of an indulgence as breakfast was croissant with strawberry jam, a bowl of strawberries and a cup of tea with soya milk.  I also grabbed licorice log, plus fruit juice. Because of the heat I had another Iru Bru.  Lunch was the last of the pizza and salad, plus a muller (style) corner. Dinner was fish finger sandwiches and chips, plus another glass of low alcohol wine.

Sunday was cinnamon and raisin bagels with flora spread, with my tea and soya milk.  I made up my own egg mayo (low fat mayo) and had egg mayo and salad sandwich.  Followed by dinner which was a low calorie home-made Sweet and Sour (A la Hairy Bikers) with quick egg fried rice.  followed corner Yoghurt, Tea and a glass of wine (low alcohol).  There was plenty of Sweet and Sour left so there are portions in the freezer.

Right I still weigh 101 kg. I have had a few days under calories and other days over….Need to do more exercise…argh!

On the plus side I can quite happily swap Soya milk for normal milk.  My other half hasn’t quite got the hang of it – having curdled his coffee on more than one occasion!  It looked like Miso Soup….. Only issue I can see is having two cartons open as I bought both sweetened and unsweetened.  Sweetened for cereal and unsweetened for teas etc.  If I made the change on a more permanent basis I probably would just end up buying the sweetened all the time.

Week 6 so Far (Until Thursday) & Sunday of Week 5

It’s been a long few days to get to Thursday.

Sunday was a fairly normal day – snack breakfast yoghurt, dried fruit, cereal bars. Lunch was veggie falafel’s with spicy tomato sauce (homemade) with noodles followed by a yoghurt and a cider. Dinner later was wholemeal toast with flora spread and strawberry jam with a Hot Chocolate.

Monday was a work day – Shreddies and Tea (skimmed milk).  I took the dog a very long walk (about 5 miles). Lunch was cheese on toast with sweetcorn relish, Crisps and a yoghurt plus a cereal bar.  Fish and Chips with tomato sauce for dinner.

Tuesday – Shreddies and tea with skimmed milk again. We had lunch out – Baked Potato with Chilli Con Carne and salad, plus a bit of carrot cake and cheesecake (me and my other halved shared our desserts).  I made quorn spaghetti for dinner that evening and had a cider and half a pack of mikado.

Wednesday was a busy day but I swapped my skimmed milk for Soya to see if that helped with the weight loss.  Still had shreddies and tea.  Took a bit of time to get used to the soya milk but going by the other.  Lunch was the last of the pasta with a Caldron Kiev.  Plus a yoghurt.  Dinner at the pub – steak with a baked potato but this time a load-up (i.e. Corn on the Cob, Onion Rings and Garlic Mushrooms. Plus a J2O.

Thursday (Yesterday) was a standard breakfast (shreddies and tea) with soya milk.  lunch was Miso soup plus Velvet Crunches, dried fruit, cereal bar and a yoghurt.  We grabbed a drink (a snapple) when we where at the garden centre.  Dinner was quorn burgers in rolls with sweetcorn relish and a glass of low alcohol wine.

I have lost weight this week, and noom has cut my calories, plus I’ve done a lot of walking.  Next week I hope to have some time to do my Wii Fit Stuff too.  I still have cleaning and tidying to do too.

Week 5 – Wednesday through to Saturday

I’m working from my tablet so don’t be surprised if there are spelling mistakes.  I’ve been fairly busy. Or at least have the appearance of being busy.

Wednesday was overall okay. Shreddies and tea with skimmed milk. Plenty of fruit juice and diluting juice to keep me hydrated. Had a veggie lunch with cauldron kievs with chips and tomato ketchup. Dinner was the last of the soup turned into a sauce. I had some gammon steaks in need of using so along with some couscous they became dinner. After that I grabbed a muller corner type yoghurt. Was a little naughty later on and had a snack pack of  haribo.

Thursday morning started off the same as Wednesday. Followed by a tuna mayo roll or two for lunch with lots of salad. I also grabbed a licorice log and a pack of my aldi quavers. Dinner was the last of the hummus with pitta breads, cheese, coleslaw, and salad all washed down with diluting juice. My tea at the sister in laws was swapped for my other half coffee as the brother in law decided to put sugar in my tea – I can’t stand it.

Friday was toast with flora spread with tea. Diluting juice as well due to the heat. My other half took me for lunch so I had a breaded plaice fillet with baked potato and corn on the cob. Plus I had a meeting in the afternoon so grabbed favoured fizzy juice sanpellegrino sparkling orange. And dinner was a home made pizza with quorn pepperoni style pieces.

Saturday was a weird day for me. I had a hefty breakfast cereal bar, fruit flakes, and toast with jam. I picked on that throughout the morning. My mum called so I nattered away for a good half hour. I then went to see strictly confidential as a treat and as it was an early afternoon performance we skipped lunch. I did get to meet lisa, natalie, iain and artem afterwards too. We went for our late lunch/dinner at an old haunt and both went for chicken burgers with their build your own option. Followed by chocolate brownie with ice cream – whoops!

Bread Recipe

My bread recipe

Please see this Link for Bread Photos (Hosted on DropBox).

Ingredients

Yeast Mixture

• 1 dessert spoon of Allinson’s Dried Active Yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 dessert spoon of Fruit Sugar (low GI for the health conscious)
• 250ml water. (50ml hot, 200ml cold)

Bread Dough

• 450g – 500g bread flour (individual choice which one to go for)
• 1-2 dessert spoons of olive oil
• Extra flour for moulding and to give it that artisan feeling

 

Method

Yeast mixture

Into a bowl put the yeast and salt.  Into a measuring jug put the sugar and a teaspoon of salt.  Take 50ml of hot water straight from the kettle and add 100ml water from the fridge; we use a water filter, and stir this until the sugar has dissolved.  Then pour this into the bowl with the yeast.  Whisk this until the yeast has almost dissolved and then add another 100 ml of cold water straight from the fridge (water filter).  Whisk this again for a further minute of two and then leave covered for 15 minutes to allow the yeast mixture to ferment.After 15 minutes, a further whisking and then it’s time for the bread flour.

Bread Dough

Measure out your bread flour to either 450g or 500g.  For this recipe, I chose roughly 60% white seeded Allinsons bread flour and roughly 40% strong white bread flour.  This was poured into the yeast mixture once the final whisking has been done.  Then the olive oil was added to this. The oil is used to bind the bread together and to stop it becoming crumbly.  And with a mixer and dough hooks attached, I mixed the dough until it resembled play dough with the same texture.  Then it’s time to get the hands dirty.  I discarded the mixer and started kneading the dough for approximately 5 minutes, adding some more white bread flour to avoid the bread dough sticking to my fingers.  Once the kneading has been done, leave the dough covered for approximately 30 minutes.  This stage is called proving.  But the longer you prove the bread dough, the tastier the loaf at the end will be.  The dough should double its size in the proving.  The dough should feel more like builders putty as the gluten strands would then be ready for the next stage.Moulding the Bread

Once your 30 minutes has elapsed, or however long you decide to prove your dough for, it is time to mould the bread into the final shape.  This stage is called knocking back as you knock back the air from the loaf.  I use silicone moulds for the bread.  Pour a teaspoon of flour into the mould and make sure to cover the entire inside of the mould.  Then, using a spatula or bread scraper (which I was given as a present) empty the bowl of dough onto a floured surface and start the kneading process which should tighten the gluten in the dough and make the loaf more pliable.  Once you’ve kneaded this for a further five minutes, it is now time to shape it into the shape of the mould.  I usually give it a sausage shape and fold the ends underneath.  Once this has been done, pick it up using both ends so that the folds shouldn’t unfold.  Lower it gently into the Loaf mould and cover it using a clean tea towel.  I use the top of a bread barrel that we use for the completed bread.  Leave this for a further 30 minutes to prove again.  But as I said earlier, the longer you leave it to prove, the tastier the completed bread loaf.Baking the Bread

Once the final proving has taken place, it is now time to bake your bread.  Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees centigrade.  Then once this is done, put your loaf in the top of the oven.  After ten minutes, lower the heat to 190 degrees and leave it for 30 minutes.  You can lengthen the proving times, but the baking cannot be changed, or you will burn your loaf.  After the baking, enjoy the spoils of your efforts.

 

Including bread ends we got about 12-14 slices per loaf.  I used calorie count to analyses the recipe and got the following results (500g of bread flour used)

Week 5 – Monday and Tuesday

Monday was a good day in the fact I was busy again.  I grabbed my breakfast (Weetabix and Tea with Skimmed milk).  Lunch was ‘Italian’ baked beans (threw some herbs and tomato Puree/Garlic Puree etc) on home made bread, with a little grated cheese and a cereal bar, again with a cup of tea.  I was working in the evening and was offer a drink – an managed a sparkling water with ice – it’s far too hot for me right now.  Dinner was another bowl of my veggie soup and slices of the home made loaf, with a glass of cider and licorice and haribo’s plus a herbal tea before bed.  Under calories!

Tuesday was a bit of a blow out – partially due to the heat.  I had a tea in the morning and grabbed a cereal bar and some fruit flakes (the yoghurt ones).  Later on I had more fruit flakes, raisins and dried apricots and a cup of tea with my biscuit cereal bars.  Lunch was another bowl of soup and bread.  Dinner however was the trouble – Veggie Pakora, Onion Bhajis and Veggie Samosa (all oven cooked) with Mango Chutney and Onion Relish!  Plus I found my bottle of Jack Daniels – one shot each left so had to grab some cola for a JD & Coke (full sugar stuff as I have a bad reaction to a couple of the sweeteners).

Other News – I have the bread recipe and photo’s but I’ll put them up in the next post as I’ll check the calories out first.

Saturday and Sunday of Week 4

 

 

 

 

 

So Saturday Morning I dutifully stood on the scales to discover – I weighed exactly the same.  Maybe I need to keep cleaning the house at the pace I was doing at the beginning of the week again (either that or fire up the Wii again).  Actually I haven’t been sleeping to well in the hot weather so that may also be something I can resolve using the Wii.  Noom has also been updated so it makes it easier for me to log exercise (apparently I can log driving as an exercise!) and check my previous days too.  I went slightly over on Saturday as we went to bingo in the evening where I won a cupcake/muffin maker! (will need to build up healthy recipes)

I got up really early so had a herbal tea and an apple cereal bar, and grabbed cereal and tea when my other half surfaced a few hours later.  It was a picking at things day – Special K Crackers, half a pack of mikado and more fig rolls! I stuck to J2O when we where at the bingo and swapped my usual burger for a chicken jalfrezi – so much more filling – and ended up with the garden peas off his plate (I forgot to swap them for baked beans when I ordered – oops).  Later on I had cheesecake, but found it a bit sickly!  And I grabbed a hot chocolate before the end of the night.

 

On Saturday I’d raided the freezer for frozen veg as our fresh carrots needed used up.  So out of the freezer cam home-made veg stock, sweet potatoes, butternut squash and red onions.  I thawed out the onions and then fried them off in some cooking spray (with a few choice spices), then added the thawed frozen veg and stock.  I then added in the cooked carrots and used the water to bulk out the veg stock.  I allowed a while to simmer and then used a hand blender to turn all the veg into a more soup consistency.  I added a few more herbs and spices plus a bit of ginger. And that was lunch and dinner for Sunday (and probably Monday too!)

 

So Breakfast was weetabix and tea (both with skimmed milk).  I met a friend for coffee and discovered Starbucks Refreshers (which apparently are only about 60 Calories) which are perfect for this hot weather.  I went home to soup with two rolls (one cheese topped and the other cheese and onion) which was fab and filling.  With my usual cup of tea in the afternoon to try and beat the need for a nap in the afternoon.  I grabbed a Ginger Beer with my second bowl of soup with rolls.  Followed with Licorice and half a pack of Mikado.  And was under my calories!

Week 4 – Thursday and Friday

 

 

So Thursday wasn’t to bad a day – in fact I nearly didn’t eat enough!

Breakfast was weetabix and a cup of tea both with skimmed milk.  Lunch (pictured below) was the rest of my Egg Mayo in wholemeal bread with tonnes of salad.  I disappeared off the the garage to pick up my car (which involved two buses and a lot of waiting around) plus a 15 miniute walk uphill in the sun.  Fortunately my other half had made up a bottle of diltuing juice for me and I had a cup of tea (whole milk) and after washing my car grabbed a cup of coffee (no milk two sugars).  It was a gorgeous day so all in all I was glad to be out and about.  Dinner was more of my Chilli Con Carne with Soy Mince so it was pretty low in calories but big on taste plus I finished off the Pitta breads with it too.

All in all I hadn’t had much in the way of calories and was getting a bit of a headache so promptly had the half sandwich my other half hadn’t eaten at lunch.  Later on I had half a pack of Mikado and some Fig Rolls.  Plus more diluting juice!

 

Friday was a little bit of a blow out – but not hugely in the grand scheme of things.  Breakfast was the same (Weetabix and a cup of tea with skimmed milk).  We went out to view a house and ended up going for a walk on the beach and lunch at the pub.  I ended up with a panini with brie, bacon and cranberry with chips, coleslaw and salad.  Wish I’d taken a photo of the Panini!  I grabbed a J2O as well.  We also had a frappuccino on the drive back. I had a client to see in the evening so had a can of coke and had a light dinner of Weetabix and licorice and more fig rolls, and a pack of crisp (aldi quavers – 69 calories).

I have a lot to think about with the house, it does need some work and not just from a aesthetic point of view.However it is very tempting from a financial point of view.

Tuesday and Wednesday of Week 4

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday was another day spent cleaning and tidying – still not finished!  We also nipped out to the shops for a good root around for bits and pieces we needed – i.e. healthy food.  I got another significant chunk of the Kitchen done and a few kitchen items I can happily pop up on Gumtree.

So Breakfast was the last of my cinnamon porridge plus dried fruit and a cup of tea.  We grabbed a late lunch at the supermarket cafe – we halved an egg and cress sandwich on wholemeal and I finally got my tuna and cheese toastie (explain to me why they put raw red onion in this now please?).  We grabbed a fresh (but price reduced) 14″ Cheese and Garlic Bread with the best intentions of saving half for today (we ate the whole thing between us) and had a yoghurt for afters.  Plus a glass or two of low alcohol rose fizz (should mean less calories too).

Today was slightly better – I dropped the car off at the garage for a service and had a brisk walk back after dropping of my little car.  I still did some more cleaning and managed some cooking too!

So breakfast was Weetabix with skimmed milk plus a cuppa (I drink a lot of tea but not nearly as much as I used to).  Grabbed a lolly which I ate on the way back from the garage (I had a cuppa there too as the mechanic is a friend of mine – plus I got covered in dog hair as his husky is casting in epic proportions).

Lunch is pictured below – Rocket and mixed salad leaves, one and a half wholemeal pitta breads, grated cheese, coleslaw, home-made Egg Mayo (low fat Mayo), and roasted red pepper hummus.

For dinner I used the last of my soya mince to do a chilli con carne with white rice and have plenty left for tomorrow.  I was naughty and had a ginger beer and dark chocolate for dessert.  But I made a small round loaf (and I have egg Mayo left over).  Looks like tomorrow with be yummy left overs!

Sunday of Week 3 and Monday of Week 4

So on Sunday we decided to venture up to the giant car boot sale again and part with some hard earned cash.  Which now means I’ve added to my vinyl collection – oops.

So breakfast was porridge with dried fruit.  We grabbed a filled roll (bacon and a fried egg) plus a fanta to keep me going.  At night we did a homemade pizza with our own tomato sauce, my other half’s own pizza dough base and some half-fat cheddar cheese grated.    We also only used half the dough – so two smallish pizzas.

Monday was my first official day off work.  So I started cleaning the flat, something that we’ve been needing to do for some time.  I spent somewhere in the region of four hours cleaning out cupboards (and finding way to much stuff that was out of date – I hate that), washing dishes and tidying up – and I’m not even half done.  I did some of the bathroom too as it kinda needed done to allow the other half to go for a soak rather than a shower.  I’m doing a proper and thorough clean this time.  Will continue this cleaning until the whole flat is properly tidy.

Food wise it wasn’t too bad – Porridge and dried fruit, sweeties (lollies pops and snack pack haribo’s).  Plenty of tea, plus an activa yoghurt and fruit flakes.  Dinner was fish and chips but I was simply too tired to cook – thank and the now clean cooker has a pile of clean dishes sitting on it.  From a noom point of view it was a red day – but I simply needed energy to burn.  The plus side – I stood on the scales this morning 0.4 kg lighter and actually got my body readings (over 50% body fat and just under 40% water content – I think).  Tuesday will be more cleaning it I can loose 0.1 kg per hour……