Heck Chicken Sausages & Patatas Bravas - 8pp

This is one of those meals that I can hardly believe is "diet food". As with all of my meals it's very easy to make, ugly, yet tasty :D

Roasted broccoli is AMAZING. It kicks the ar*e of boiling or steaming. I've only started doing this recently. Where have you been all my life?

(The sausages look a bit anaemic in this photo because I oven cooked them :/)

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 cal spray oil 

400g potatoes, chopped quite small - 4pp per 200g

10 Heck chicken Italia sausages - 4pp for 5

400g tin chopped tomatoes

Garlic

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp mild chilli powder

Broccoli 

Salt

Method

1. I just throw the potatoes in my Breville Halo with salt and spray oil but if you don't have one, par boil in salted water for 5-10 minutes and cook in the oven with spray oil for around 30-40 mins.

2. Cut up broccoli heads and cook on a baking tray with spray oil, salt and garlic for 30 mins, turning occasionally.

3. Grill or pan fry the sausages for 15-20 mins or until cooked through.

4. For the sauce, heat some spray oil in a pan, fry the spices and garlic for a minute, add the chopped tomatoes and heat through. 

Fajita Bowls - 8pp

My favourite meal at the moment! I love fajitas but when you have them with (many) wraps, guacamole, soured cream and cheese like I do then they're not very diet friendly so instead I opted for a fajita bowl. All the fajita goodness but with less calories (and healthier too :))

Serves 1
Ingredients
1 cal spray oil (I use coconut)
8g (1/4 sachet) Old El Paso Smoky BBQ spice mix - 1pp
165g chicken breast - 4pp
120g salsa (I use Tesco mild) - 1pp
45g half fat soured cream - 1pp
17g Tesco lighter mature cheese - 1pp
Peppers
Onion
Mushrooms
Salad

Method
1. Cut the chicken in to strips, fry for a couple of minutes then add the peppers, onion and mushrooms. Fry until veg softened and chicken cooked through.
2. Add spice mix, cook for another minute.
3. Put everything together in a bowl, grate cheese over the top and enjoy!

Veggie Thai Peanut Curry - 4pp

Another recipe found on the internet (I think it may have been Deliciously Ella actually) and adapted to fit Weight Watchers. This is honestly so tasty, a million times better than any of the ready-made Thai sauces or meals and easy peasy to make.

Serves 4
Ingredients
1 cal spray oil (I use coconut)

Bunch chopped spring onions

Small bunch coriander, stalks finely chopped, leaves picked

4 tbsp Thai red curry paste - 0pp per 1tbsp

4 tbsp reduced fat peanut butter - 2pp per tbsp

1 tbsp soy sauce

400ml can light coconut milk - 2pp per 100ml

Baby corn

Mange tout

Sugar snap peas

Peppers

Any other veg you like

Juice 1 lime

Method

1. Heat the oil in a pan. Add the spring onions and coriander stalks and cook for 1 min.

2. Stir in the curry paste, peanut butter, soy sauce and coconut milk, plus ½ can of water. Mix well.

3. Simmer until the sauce has thickened a little then add the veg and simmer for an extra 5-10 minutes until cooked. Stir in the lime juice and check the seasoning. 

I serve mine with cauliflower rice. My husband has his with noodles and added pork. I also make all 4 servings and freeze 2 for lunches.

Can be frozen for up to 2 months. To cook from frozen: thoroughly defrost, then heat in a pan on the hob until curry is hot all the way through. 

Weight Loss Update

Sorry I haven't updated the blog in a while but I'm back and I'm going to post loads more recipes soon. First I thought I would do a quick weight loss update. Last week I weighed 11 3.75lbs (my lowest on my journey so far) but then I went to London for 5 days and was completely off plan so I went back up to 11 5.5 but that's no problem, it will come back off again! I have to admit though, since Christmas I have been absolutely rubbish with my weight loss. I am struggling to stick to plan 100% for more than a couple of days in a row. That means that my losses have been sooooooooooooooo slow... but I am living life and enjoying it! To be honest, I have spent so many years missing out on parties, barbecues and nights out because I was always on one diet or another, it's nice to allow myself a night off or some cake or a beer out in the sunshine. All I do is get back on it straight away (I never let a bad day turn into a bad week) and the weight always comes off again. Ok it means I have lost a pathetic 9lbs since January... So what? I have another stone to lose and if it takes me all year but I've not ever felt deprived or missed out, then that's good with me. For the first time in my life I feel like I have found a healthy balance and mindset with food. I've started exercising more, I eat sh*t tons of fruit and veg (today I will have eaten 22 different fruits and veggies. F*ck your 5 a day :p) and, even though I am not where I want to be, I am a lot closer than I was and a lot happier than I was. I've achieved more than I ever believed possible. I'm still completely obsessed with food and always will be but I make better choices now and love what I eat. Any of you who think you won't ever meet your goals, the main reason I feel like I have continued to lose weight for almost 18 months (albeit slowly) is always jumping back on the wagon. Never give up.

Here's a couple of photos of me at 14st 9 (205lbs) which wasn't my highest of 15st 2 (212lbs) and now at 11st 5 (159lbs).

I follow Weight Watchers ProPoints plan using the Ultimate Value Diary app. I have only started exercising the last 2 months (I'm lazy).

Crustless Quiche - 4pp

Perfect for packed lunches, low in ProPoints and easy peasy to make. Cooked this on Sunday night and it'll do me now until Subway Friday :D

Make 4 servings at 4pp each
Ingredients
6 medium eggs - 11pp
5 x bacon medallions - 3pp
50g feta cheese - 3pp
50ml skimmed milk - 0pp
Mushrooms
Cherry tomatoes
1 brown onion
Salt and pepper
Fry Light

Method
In a frying pan sprayed with fry light cook the onion, tomatoes, mushrooms and bacon. Break up the feta cheese into a pie dish, add cooked ingredients. Break the eggs into the dish, add the milk, salt and pepper and mix all ingredients together with a fork/ whisk. Cook at 200°c for 25-30 mins.

Why Am I Fat?

One of my younger brothers, Coby, is nearly 16 years old and is really slim verging on "skinny". He rarely finishes a meal and is the only person in my immediate family that's like this (so no idea where he gets it from). We have worried about his eating in the past but, you know, he's alive, he's not starved to death so he's obviously eating enough, isn't he? When we have asked him why he eats so little, he says "I don't like the feeling of being full". WHAT??? I LOVE feeling full and I HATE feeling hungry! I love food, all food, but my favourite is cake and chocolate. I always get to a point when dieting where I will have some kind of breakdown, it's literally like something snaps inside me, and I will gorge myself on chocolate and biscuits and cake and whatever is in my cupboards until I can't possibly eat any more. I'm unsure as to whether you can be addicted to food but it ruddy well feels like it! It takes over my life. If I'm not eating I'm thinking about what I'm going to eat next or tomorrow or what treat I can have at the weekend. 

As a fatty I have spent the last 10 or so years obsessing about my weight, struggling to lose it and always putting it back on again. I have read so much about the subject and used to spend a lot of time on a reddit sub called FatPeopleHate (it's been banned now, unsurprisingly) which was, as the title suggests, all about people hating on fat people. The reason I went on it mainly was because I was scared I'd end up on there (they used to target those who used hashtags such as #effyourbeautystandards #curvy etc and no, you didn't have to be obese to be slated, anything from a few lbs over weight and they would have something horrible to say.) But what I gained from reading their comments was how they felt about food and how different it is from my relationship with food. I'm talking mainly about people who have never been fat or had any kind of issues with their weight. Those who we call "naturally slim" and it's not always just because they have a fast metabolism, they literally just eat less. Whether that be because they have been brought up with smaller portion sizes or seeing chocolate as a weekly and not daily treat or, what mystifies me most, those that are just not fussed about food! There is a girl at my work who says that eating bores her and it is something she does because she has to. If she could get away with not eating she would. I just... can't get my head round it! 

I know there are people out there who genuinely have medical reasons why they are over weight which is really sh*t because it's harder to do anything about it but that's definitely not me (I've checked) so it's only me that can do anything about it. Ok I can lose weight, I know I can, but can I change my thought process? Will I ever get to a point where I don't feel compelled to over eat or will I always be a fat person trying to fit into a skinny person's body? It scares me that this is going to be a struggle for the rest of my life. I know people have lost weight and kept it off for years and years but do they always have to make conscious decisions not to eat bad things or does it eventually come naturally to them? 

A doctor once told me that I am an emotional eater and I think he's right. I always just say that I'm fat because I'm a greedy cow, which is only partly true. Emotional eating is where you associate food with good feelings. It makes you feel happy to eat so you eat. That is exactly how I feel! 

My favourite quote from this emotional eating article is:
"If you don’t know how to manage your emotions in a way that doesn’t involve food, you won’t be able to control your eating habits for very long. Diets so often fail because they offer logical nutritional advice, as if the only thing keeping you from eating right is knowledge. But that kind of advice only works if you have conscious control over your eating habits. It doesn’t work when emotions hijack the process, demanding an immediate payoff with food." So does this mean that I am over weight because of something psychological? If so, it can only be a good thing! It is possible to learn to control your emotions and overcome fear, anxiety, anger... so why not over eating?

I know boredom is my biggest trigger. If I am busy I can go all day without eating and hardly notice. I think this is why celebrities are so slim. If I could afford to spend all my free time shopping, I'd be sorted!

I'd love to know your experiences. How do you feel about food? Do you think you could be an emotional eater? Have you managed to lose weight and keep it off? 

Weight Watchers Low ProPoint Snack Ideas

One thing that has kept me going through my weight loss journey is that I never go to bed hungry. There are all these myths around "don't eat after 6pm" or whatever but since Weight Watchers is pretty much just calorie counting, it doesn't matter when you eat, as long as you stay within your ProPoints, you are going to lose weight. 

Every day I save a good 5PPs for evening snacks. I have my tea at around 5:30-6pm every day but by 8-9pm when I'm sat on the couch watching TV or I'm a bit bored I start to get peckish. Some days I am genuinely hungry and other days I just want something, I just crave sweet things. And why shouldn't I be able to have them? There's no way I'm going to spend the rest of my life only eating salads. I love food. I love cake and chocolate. I love eating. I would be miserable if I didn't eat the foods I love. "Nothing tastes as good as being skinny feels" I call bullsh*t on that one!

So I thought I'd share with you some of my favourite snacks. Most are pretty low in ProPoints as I do tend to favour a small pile of food over a single chocolate bar (though I will have them sometimes). 

Salsa and carrot sticks - 1pp for half a jar (3pps for the full jar!)

Time Out single bars - 2pp each.

Popcorn - love these ones from Tesco. Cocolate Orange, Strawberry Toffee and Salted Carmel flavours. 2pp a bag.

Fruit shortcake biscuits - 1pp each.

WW Caramel Mallow - 1pp each.

Mikado - 1pp for 4.

Cinnamon and raisin bagel thins - 3pp. I have mine topped with flora or PB2 and banana for an additional 1pp. Plain ones are also good with laughing cow light and 18g wafer thin ham, also 1pp. 

Alpen Light bars - 2pp each or 2 for 3pp.

Options Hot Choc or Cadbury's Highlights - 1pp.

Velvet Crunch, Wotsits or Quavers (watch your bag size. Multipacks tend to be ok) - 2pp.

Club Biscuits - 3pp