The diet plan

Breakfast

Smoothie 

• coconut or almond milk, banana, chia seeds, nut butter

• 1/2 cucumber, 1/2 avocado, big handful spinach, coconut milk
• Almond milk, spinach, berries, banana, chia seeds

OR 

2 eggs

Eggs can be cooked anyway, and add any veggies, small amount of cheese. 

• Boiled and asparagus 
• Courgette/carrot fritters

• Poached eggs and avocado or courgettes 

• Scrambled eggs/tomato/basil/feta (20-30g)
• Smoked salmon, scrambled eggs, spinach. 
• Ham and cheese (20-30g cheddar) omelette 

Lunch

Salad plus protein (meat/fish/eggs)

OR

Soup - homemade or cuppa-soup

Evening meal

Vegetables and protein

Sweet potato/Potatoes/squash

+ chicken/fish/beans/eggs

Other

• Allow 250mls semi-skimmed milk through the day for tea/coffee
• If you need a snack or if hunger strikes - eat a banana or apple
• Drink at least 2 litres of water a day. 

Treat - allowed twice a week

Dark chocolate 30g

Cashew nuts 15g

Almond nuts 15g

Exercise

You must complete 10,000 steps every day. 

Any extra classes/workouts when possible. 

Scales are for fish!

Hi there! Did you ever wake up and think 'wow I feel like I've lost weight'?  Yes I know it's not even been a week yet but today I've woken to feel like my tummy is flatter - now we all know scales are for fish so I won't be ruled by daily weighing and being obsessed with the numbers, because for me, feeling better in my self is also part of the healthy eating/life style change.

I suffer with hypothyroidism and although it took a while to titrate to the right dose of levothyroxine  for me, I still didn't feel 'well', and for me that meant tired, lethargic, brain fog, bloated and indigestion. Being a nurse I was keen to look in to nutrition and the evidence behind the 'fad diets'. So over the past few years I've looked closely at diet and it's effects on the body, and after reading numerous books, watching health type videos about vitamins, juicing, diet myths, and trying diets like paeleo, ketogenics, gluten free, I discovered that although I lost weight on some and felt better on others, they weren't actually practical to a busy working mum with a budget. So I developed my current diet by combinging elements that worked for me, and now on day 3 of being strict with this I'm feeling better already.

So when I get some time later on, I'll blog a little more of what works for me, maybe it will help someone else, I hope so anyway.

All diets start on a Monday... or do they?

No! They can actually start any day, so why put it off until Monday?  Get started today!

This morning I had a delicious courgette omelette, it's filling, proteins packed, gluten free, sugar free and lots of other healthy buzz words I'm sure, but best of all (especially for busy mums) quick and easy to cook!



So here's the recipe:

Grate 1/2 a medium courgette and squeeze out the excess water
Grate a small carrot
Thinly slice 1/4 onion or chop a spring onion
Mix all together with a large egg
Season with salt, pepper and optional chilli sprinkles
Heat some frylight in a pan
Add you mixture and press out in to a large fritter shape or 2 smaller ones
Cook on a medium heat until set and dark golden, then flip and repeat
Eat as it is or top with a poached egg or mayonnaise

And teatime - well! I made beetroot hummus from a recipe by Stephanie haferty (see her book 'no-dig home and garden' for the recipe), and had it with a baked chicken breast which was cooked with garlic and lemon and some baguette, it was delicious. The tartness from the lemon went really well with the slightly sweet beetroot taste of the hummus.

Yes, I know - nearly a year since my last post!

But I'm back, and my mission is to loose weight, so with the help of this blog I plan to record every detail of my diet, exercise, what works and what doesn't. I would also like to start health and weight loss coaching, it's something I've thought about for a while - I've even set up business pages on twitter, instagram and Facebook... but not sure I'm brave enough to take the plunge just yet, but let's see if I can prove that I can do it and maybe it will inspire others around me too.

I plan on healthy eating - I'm not one for following points or gimicky type groups, and I've tried all the fad diets (yes all of them from Atkins to paeleo to keto and beyond!), so I figure that what I need to do is look at my diet - get to know real foods and their nutritional values, but I also still have a very busy family life so it needs to be quick easy and fit in!

Exercise will be tracked with my Fitbit - I like it, yes it's gadget-tech but I like how easy it is to use and it's accompanying apps.

So tomorrow I will weigh, measure and start my journey, wish me luck!

@loveteamone #teamone

School dinners and all related....

So the girls have returned to school, and both are now in juniors, this means that I now have to pay for 2 lots of dinner money - £2.30 a day each...  £92 a month! That's equivalent to one weeks shopping for a family of four, with enough left for a bottle of wine!  But I know they both enjoy school dinners, and they are freshly cooked at the school which is something, and with us parents having to work, it gives me piece of mind that they've had a cooked meal in the day - which takes the pressure off in the evening.  Especially good also is the fact that on days that they have Brownies or swimming, they have a cooked meal at lunch, and I can give them a packed lunch to have at afterschool club, pick them up - off to clubs then home, bath, bed, sleep, repeat.

Packed lunches are another bug bare of mine - and no I'm not on the band wagon and having a go at unhealthy choices for kids lunch boxes, I mean the lack of facilities to store them properly at school.  I mean take the average ham sandwich - it has to survive being in a plastic lunch box, which is quite likely going to be on a trolley with the rest of the classes lunches - for the entire morning and the trolley is quite likely to be parked in the vicinity of a heater or radiator.... not a refrigerator in site!  I think this is something they do need to address - goodness knows what germs will be lurking on the ham sandwich come lunch time!

Innocent grapes??

They look like innocent grapes right? Wrong! I bit in to one and they have seeds! Seeds I tell you! I thought grapes with seeds had been banned or abolished or something, but no they leap out and surprise you when you least expect them to, I could've chipped a tooth! 

However all jokes aside, my two girls were amazed at the grapes with pips and couldn't wait to try them, I explained that all grapes were like this when I was little, but through farmers developing their strains of grapes we now have seedless - they seemed a little shocked :D

Just another manic monday.....

Yep, manic, why are Monday mornings so incredibly hectic? And that before I've even left the house!
I'm hoping it gets easier as the children get older, but oh my goodness I can't believe how many times I have to repeat myself - 'have you brushed your hair?' 'have you brushed your teeth?' 'Put your shoes on' 'have you put your dinner money in your bag' it goes on and on!



Anyway, my Monday +Weight Watchers grub so far -
Breakfast: 2 pieces of toast and an egg - 9sp
Lunch - chicken and salad wrap - 9sp
That leaves me 12sp for tea time so planning on a jacket spud with tuna and sweetcorn.
After a morning in work the +Fitbit is reading 3012 steps - I'd best get walking between my patients this afternoon.