These things......

..... are sent to try us!!

What a rubbish way to start the day - hit a pothole on the school run, winced as it happened and sure enough full on puncture. Luckily a friend leaves for school later than me, so could scoop the kids off the roadside and take them to school. I meanwhile waited for a very nice man from Phillip's Tyres in Shepton to rescue me, change the tyre then followed me back to Shepton. So the result - not just a new tyre but a whole new wheel and the tracking needs to be checked. An expensive and stressful morning all round.

This was the calm scene as I left this morning, wishing everyone on Instagram a 'super day'!

Not so super for me in the end but no one was hurt, just one 15 yr old suitably embarrassed at having to stand by the side of the road, worried she'd be late and one non-plussed 12 yr old, hoping he would be late and miss some lessons!

Hope you're having a better day x

Farwell February.....Hello March!

So it's farewell February (you were a good month) ......

.......and hello March!

I love a new month, a new chunk of time to make positive changes to your life. 

March is a great month as it heralds the arrival of Spring, warmer days and sunshine firmly on the horizon. 

Every month I write a few achievable SW goals to focus on for the weeks ahead. Some are new, some carry over but each one is there as a mini focus for the month ahead.

 My 3 & 1/2 stone award is in touching distance so I expect to achieve that soon and be well on my way towards my 4 stone award. 

I've been pleased with my water consumption this past week, so I certainly want to keep that up. 

Exercise - that is the questionable one - I walk everywhere, every day. I want to swim again when the local Lido opens but that's not until late May, so it's finding something to do in that gap that will tone, tone, tone!!

 My size 8 GAP jeans are sat in the wardrobe waiting for me - I can get them on but can't breathe lol. So I figure if I tone up a little that will help, plus Summer is getting closer - I won't torture the world with a bikini but do want to feel amazing in my cossie this year.

February saw me 6 & 1/2 pounds lighter, so let's see what I can achieve in March.

Have a great, sunshiney month x

Weekend Recipe - Gammon, rosti and egg stack

So last night we had the above - gammon, rosti and egg stack and it was really nice and completely 'free' on the Slimming World plan.

So to start you need to coarsely grate 600g of Maris Piper potatoes 

and lay them out on a clean tea towel.

Coarsely grate 1 onion and put into a bowl and season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile roll the tea towel up and squeeze out any moisture from the potato. Once done add to the bowl and mix in the onion and seasoning.

Place the mixture in greased 12cm wide chef's rings on a baking tray. Press down and cook in the oven on 200c for 20 + minutes or until cooked through or golden.

Lightly spray some vine cherry tomatoes with olive oil Frylight (one calorie spray) and pop in the oven for 5-10 minutes towards the end of the cooking time.

Meanwhile cook the gammon steaks - I did mine under the grill.

When everything is just about done wilt off some spinach in a pan and fry your eggs.

Then stack away - rosti, spinach, gammon steak and finally topped with the egg, serve the cherry tomatoes on the side and I added some extra 'free' veg on the side too. 

One portion was enough for me - Jeff had 2!!

Friday Weigh-in!

So week 24 and I lost 3 1/2 pounds - YAY!

And I got 'Slimmer of the Week' - YAY! (again!)

I am so chuffed with that as I was REALLY disappointed about the last 2 week's losses of just half a pound each week, as I felt I had done nothing different. I decided to see if there were any changes creeping in that I hadn't noticed, so looked back through my weekly pics and there were! Baked oats and hifi bars were a noticeable addition to the last two weeks. On closer inspection, it wasn't the baked oats as such but the amount of fruit, sugar, honey, maple syrup etc I was having with them. I was also having additional fruit for breakfast with yogurt and fruit still as an afternoon snack. Now you can have fruit with Slimming World - it's a 'free' food and you can eat as much of it as you want but I have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and one of the factors of this is weight gain due to your bodies capability to process sugar and insulin. So having identified an increase in sugar over the last two weeks, I decided to add a few 'tweaks' to my weekly plan.

I read back through my PCOS Diet book and came up with a few things to try and which could well of  made a difference this week.

1. Drink 6 cups of water a day - 1 1/2 litres.

I'm terrible at drinking water and this has been a monthly goal for ages.

2. Eat no more than 6 eggs (last week I'd had 11)

Eggs are 'free' on SW but maybe keeping an eye on how many is good.

3. Have a snack mid-morning and afternoon to keep the blood sugar levels up.

I only ever snacked in the afternoon.

4. Eat 3 pieces of fruit a day and eat them with nuts.

 The protein in the nuts helps to process the sugars in the fruit.

5. Eat 5 portions of vegetables a day and include as many green leafy varieties as possible.

I easily do this but have included spinach where I can.

6. Eat at least 2 portions of fish a week.

I eat fish but only had one salmon and tuna portion in the previous 2 weeks.

7. Eat less red meat and more chicken.

Easy to do - have planned more chicken into our meals.

8. Eat low sugar!!!

So it would seem my easy 'tweaks' may well have got the scales moving again for me. I've planned out the new week ahead with all this in mind and am hopeful for another good week.

I know I've done well, I know I've not much more to lose but I am still technically 'overweight' for my height and have always had a healthy BMI as my aim/focus/target. So as I enter the last 'losing' phase I shall be mindful of these few changes and hope they will help speed me along to the finish line.

5 week countdown!

Sending some Monday LOVE x

Back to school this morning, woken by the alarm - sigh! I hate Monday's, even more so the one after a holiday. Half term was lovely and I didn't want it to end, so I'm on a 5 week countdown until the Easter break x

We woke to a flurry of snow - went in the shower and it was raining, got out of the shower and it was white! It didn't last long, thankfully - I'm still willing Spring on it's way x

I have been busy in the latter part of the holiday - giving my house a little attention. Jeff's started to tidy up the garden, washed the windows and had a sort through of some of his books. I've been dusting, hoovering and cleaning like a woman possessed! My poor house gets a little neglected when dots and spots gets busy, so it was in need of a long overdue tidy up. I love it when it's all done but know it'll be a matter of days before it'll need sprucing up.

The garden is showing promise and signs that Spring is on it's way. You always get a good view of it from Sam's bedroom up on the 3rd floor. It should hopefully 'green up' soon and when it's a little warmer and drier, I shall be out there all the time - can't wait x

Weekend Recipe - Scotch Eggs

The scotch egg is one of my favourite picnic foods and something I thought I would no longer be able to eat on a 'diet' but there is a way to make them 'Slimming World' friendly!

Simply hard boil 5 eggs - I always put mine in cold water, bring to the boil, then simmer for 6 minutes. I let mine cool then added the 'meat', which in my case was defrosted Linda McCartney vegetarian red onion and rosemary sausages. These are 'free' on the SW programme - you could of course use any sausage meat. I simply moulded the 'meat' around the egg in my hand until it was completely covered. I then sprayed them with Frylight One Calorie Spray and cooked them for 20 minutes at 200c, turning once halfway. You can add breadcrumbs but these would be unnecessary 'syns' on the SW programme.

I must say they were delicious and tasted just like the real thing, even nicer!

I took mine into group on Friday morning for our Free Food February taster and I came home with an empty box - good job I saved one for me at home. They really are very easy to make - try them x

Friday weigh-in

So this week was just another half a pound loss - yes it's a loss but a little frustrating that I've been 100% 'on-plan' again this week. I was hoping last week's half a pound was a blip! but now again this week, I'm wondering if things are beginning to slow down for me. I really hope not, otherwise it's going to be a pretty long slog to get the last stone off but I guess there's nothing much I can do other than continue to follow the plan.

We had a 'Free Food February' taster in group today and I made some Scotch Eggs. Completely free on the Slimming World plan - just boiled eggs wrapped around with Linda McCartney's red onion and rosemary, vegetarian sausages. They were delicious.

Sophie and I went to London on Tuesday, just the 2 of us - shopping! We had a great day, the sun was shining and we each came home with a few bags each! I actually enjoyed trying things on!

I then went to Bath on Wednesday on the hunt for some new jeans.

I can not thank the staff in GAP enough for their help and patience. I was in there nearly an hour and must of tried on between 12 and 15 pairs of jeans but came out with 2 perfect size10 jeans!!!!! 

I haven't been a size10 for at least 19 years!

So my plan for the coming week is to continue to stick to the plan and see what happens next week. This 'slowing down' is the thing I have been dreading, the time when it all stops and you have no idea why!! I'm not going to do anything silly, just continue what I've done for the past 23 weeks and will wait and see what the scales say next Friday.

Have a lovely weekend.

  Although still cold, Spring certainly feels as if it's on it's way x