Rain, rain go away

A positive start to the week and another day of healthy eating

I think I'm already getting into a routine for work and I even slept well which is impressive considering I tend to wake earlier than my alarm as I'm always worried about 'not waking up in time' (God knows why.. my alarm is rather loud!). Routine in getting up... getting ready and now, routine in breakfast as once again it was a banana and a slice of malt loaf.

Looking out the window at the torrential rain made me feel quite lucky to be working in a rather swish office again. The happy feeling continued at lunch time when I got another salad - sadly there weren't any 'superfood' salads today, so I just went for a basic one which was still nice, just not as varied.. butterbeans.. chickpeas... a little bit of coleslaw.. It filled me up and I felt rather virtuous that once again I was choosing something healthy as opposed to a large sandwich, packet of crisps etc... 

The day got even better when, at 4pm, I heard that the tube strikes have been called off this week - Hurrah! :-) Bonus :-) Getting home was a bit wet, however thankfully I had my umbrella so managed to arrive home relatively unscathed.

For dinner I met one of my ex-work colleagues who I hadn't seen for a little while. She is lovely and is sadly one of the 5 people I had to get rid of about 7 months ago.... My ex company sucked in more ways than one. Thankfully she realised that it wasn't my call and we remained friends with no hard feelings. We met at Wagamamas and spent a good hour catching up whilst I munched on a chicken ramen and drank green tea. I can't say that a Chicken ramen is my favourite dish in the world, I actually prefer the Wagamama ramen, however the difference in both calories and fat is quite significant so I tend to try and stick to the healthiest option as much as possible - Plus.. it still tastes quite nice.

We then decided to go to Giraffe and have a quick 'mocktail'.. I had one with pineapple and coconut juice which was lovely - in some ways, actually nicer than some of the alcoholic cocktails I've tried recently.

By the time I got back home it was dark - The nights certainly seem to be drawing in and soon we'll no doubt all be wearing coats, hats and scarves but until then, I'll be happy to just sit on the sofa in my PJ's and watch TV :-)

Lots of love for the salads

This week is going great!

Day 3 of my new job and so far, so good. I worked from home yesterday, so today I was up early, wearing a suit.. and headed into London. I managed to actually get to my desk at 8:00 which is pretty impressive..  I didn't sleep that great, as was still a bit worried about driving to the station and parking there (Never done it before) but like everything this week, I just got on with it.. and it wasn't too bad at all.

Meeting more people of the 'team', they're all lovely - I had a couple of really nice conversations with them today and they even invited me to meetings already. I think the thing I like the most is the fact that most of them seem to be happily married and there doesn't seem to be any hostility, nor any politics.... why? As I'm the only woman in the UK and as I'm not planning on sleeping with anyone, I'm hoping this job will be better than the last one.

I actually think I would be able to eat porridge at work as I've discovered that not only is there a small kitchen on the floor I'm working on... the canteen is also open, so I could buy something healthy there. As I only discovered this, this morning, I actually brought breakfast in with me which was a banana and a small lunch box loaf. 

As I managed to convince one of my team to come to lunch with me, I manage to properly explore the work canteen and it can only be described as AWESOME! They've got the most amazing superfood salad range I've ever seen.. it's quite literally, amazing - fresh, fresh salads... where you can pick and choose different meats to put with it, such as chicken, BBQ pork, salmon, different types of cheeses.. loads of different salad dressings. I loved it, I would have taken a photo, however I didn't bring my camera with me and I thought my work colleague might have thought I was a bit, well... weird, taking a photo of the work canteen. I actually feel excited about going to work on Friday, just to see what other interesting combination of salad I can make up :-)

Commuting is still quite tiring at the moment - I managed to get back home at 6:40pm... How do you relax on a train full of people? Do you usually read? play on your phone? stare out the window or sleep? 

Dinner was a really nice BBQ salad - I roasted some BBQ chicken cutlets and had it with salad leaves, tomatoes, cucumbers and lentils. It was really, really nice and I'm still feeling really motivated to continue to eat healthy after eating crap for so long... it's just really nice being back in a routine again!

Productive and positive Tuesday

Today has been bliss so far.

Not having to get up and go to work has vastly improved my mental state, positivity and motivation. After a lie in, listening to the birds,  reading my book with a cup of (green) tea, I changed the sheets, cut the grass, fed the birds, put the washing on, had a shower and had my breakfast which was strawberries and blueberries and was really nice - I would have had raspberries as well, however they seemed to be mouldy, so I threw them away. One of the dangers of fresh fruit, I guess!

I was rather chuffed as I tried on some size 16 jeans which were too tight to wear a month ago and whilst they're still snug, they actually fitted! This really motivated me to continue as I really don't like playing Russian roulette with my jeans - every time I wash them, am I still going to be able to fit into them if I've been eating junk food and rubbish?

After breakfast, I went food shopping to get things for the rest of the week - I've never actually gone food shopping at 11:00am before and it was just really nice - far less people, no queues at the tills, people seemed much less harassed and the whole experience was far, far nicer than at a weekend. I drove back in the sunshine, hung up the washing and started on lunch which was a really nice chicken salad. I appreciate I'm not the worlds most amazing food photographer, however it comprised of beetroot, lettuce, pepper, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, roast chicken and a little bit of crumbled feta cheese with balsamic glaze - utterly delicious and I actually felt really virtuous eating it. 

I've already made dinner which is 'Mediterranean vegetables with lamb' and it's in the slow cooker, cooking. I'm seeing my boyfriend tonight so I thought I'd make the most of the slow cooker, considering I don't have to work and throw something together quite quickly. Fingers crossed it will turn out nicely - if so, I'll share the recipe, if not.. I won't inflict it on anyone else! 

The next couple of hours are going to be spent watching 'The curse of the witching tree' which I have to say, after 15 minutes, I'm not overly impressed, but hey ho... there seem to be a lack of good horror films out at the moment!

Another awesome use of Quorn

Salads don't have to be boring

Sometimes I really don't want to cook for hours on end, but don't really want to have a ready meal either. No matter how 'good' the ready meals are, they still don't seem to taster as good as a meal I've prepared myself.

So what's the compromise? Well, tonight I made a salad, but didn't really fancy putting chicken or meat with it, so decided to try one of the new Quorn products. 

This looked a little bit more interesting than the normal Quorn and I'm partial to anything that has the words 'Southern Fried' in it - especially when those words aren't accompanied by massive amounts of fat or calories!

It was a basic salad - beetroot, tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce with some croutons and a small amount of cheddar cheese. I then popped the Quorn in the oven for 18 minutes (it said 12, however I had frozen them beforehand for 6 weeks - they were absolutely fine to freeze and defrost) and chopped it up to put over the salad.

I'm not really keen on most salad dressings, they're either too vinegary or too creamy and if they're creamy, you can guarantee that you've 'undone' all the good you're planning on doing to your body with vitamins if you're going to shove lots of full-fat dressing in your mouth as well. Well, worry not - Hey presto, this stuff is brilliant!

Less than 0.5g of fat per 15ml serving and only 42 calories. It's so much lighter than other dressings and tastes really, really nice.

The entire salad was rather yummy and took less than 20 minutes to prepare, including oven baking the Quorn. My boyfriend didn't even realise it was Quorn until I said something!

Friends and Gastric Bypasses

I guess everyone is different and has to make their own choice about how to lose weight...

It's funny how you make friends - I met one of my really good friends on a womens forum called 'Handbag' about 6 years ago. She messaged me about the fact we both worked in I.T, we started exchanging emails and 6 years later, she is a big part of my life. We've seen each other change an awful lot - She's divorced her Husband, we've both got different jobs, we've been on holiday together and got drunk together... and we take the mick out of each other most days.

She also had a gastric bypass in December - It wasn't a short process, e.g. she didn't go to the Doctors and they said 'Sure, we'll schedule you in next week', she had to meet certain criteria, lose a certain % of body weight through healthy eating and also go to group counselling so she could address the actual issues that were causing her to put on weight - she did all of this and after a year or so, she actually underwent the operation. 

Since the Operation, she's lost over 5 stone and has gone from a size 26 to a size 18 and she looks amazing, she's still not at her goal weight, however she's been really strict about what she eats and I have to say, I admire her. I know a lot of people say 'It's a cop out, it's an easy way of losing weight', however seeing what she's been through, I don't know if that's really the case. 

One of the other things I really like about her is the fact that she isn't a 'bypass bore', she isn't obsessed with it, so doesn't talk constantly about what she can and can't eat, but accepts it's part of her life and is pretty flexible about where we go and what we do. 

Anyway, tonight I met her in Reading and it was great to catch up - she started a new job a few weeks ago and is having a tough time of it. She's also suffering from hair loss, which is apparently a common side affect of the gastric band - something I didn't know until she underwent the operation. We decided on Pizza Express and both had salads - I had the same as I had on Saturday, the Superfood salad with double chicken (more protein and actually fills me up!). We had a nice chat, mooched round the shops and I'm now sat in my 'cow onesie' all snug on the sofa. 

Another day healthy eating and my motivation remains high :-)

Staying focussed when eating out

So much of my life revolves around food

I love seeing my friends.

I love seeing my family.

Both of these usually involve food. Either a quick catch up in a coffee shop or a meal in the evening after work... even staying round someone else's house and eating dinner / breakfast.

All my friends and family are lovely and if I didn't want to meet them at a restaurant, I'm sure they'd be OK with it, however it's an enjoyable part of my life and it's something I don't want to change - Sure, I could meet them in a pub for a drink... or I could meet them at their house / my house for an evening, but in general, so much of my social life revolves around eating out. 

So rather than write the day off as 'failed' or politely decline to meet anyone in a restaurant, I try and plan ahead - As all the people I know are supportive, they don't mind going to a particular place due to its healthy options or the fact that I don't have a starter / pudding but only a main course.

One of my 'top 3' places to eat is Pizza Express (the other 2 being Wagamamas and any Japanese restaurant). As not only do they do Pizzas, they do salads and one of them is under 350 calories which is pretty good - it's also huge and actually really tasty. They recently changed the recipe and I can't say I like it as much as the old one, but hey... it's still nice and a really good choice if you're looking to stay focussed and continue to eat healthily.

I am not a big fan of avocado, so tend to ask them to cut it out but ask for 'double chicken', so there's a lot of protein which fills me up. 

I had a lovely time with my friend who I hadn't seen in nearly two months - looks like she's well on her way to divorcing her controlling and ever so slightly odd Husband. She knows first hand how stressful work can be as does a similar job to me, therefore was really good at listening to me pour my heart out and very supportive when I spoke of finding a new job. 

I think it's really important to talk to friends about worries and feelings - I spent years bottling things up and turning to food when I was stressed. I can't say I don't do that still, however I'm trying to be more open and share more stuff with people who genuinely mean it when they say 'Talk to me if you've got a problem'.

So all in all, a pretty good day in regards to eating healthy and staying in track, despite going out for dinner.

Organic Veg Boxes and Psychopathic Managers

Thank God it's Friday... It didn't feel like a 4 day week!

Despite the last 3 days of work being pretty good, today wasn't great. I've got a very strong suspicion that my Manager is planning on getting rid of me :-( Thankfully, having been at the company for over 5 years... they can't just dismiss me (ACAS guidelines state that you can be dismissed at any point during your first 2 years but after that, many more processes need to happen to get rid of someone). I'm not a psychiatrist, however having read a number of books on random subjects including psychopathy, I am almost 100% convinced that my Manager is one - Apparently it's quite common in politics and high level positions (such as Managing Directors *cough*).

Either way, it's a horrible feeling when you feel out of control - no matter what you do, you can't change anything and it's usually about now, that I reach for the food: The chocolate / crisps / a nice rack of BBQ ribs or pizza, however once I've eaten it, I feel even more unhappy as I've still got the work worries but also feeling guilty for eating loads of rubbish. Then I feel as if I've 'failed'.. so I think 'sod it, I may as well continue eating crap' and the cycle continues.

Well, let's try not to do that for a change - At the weekend I was reading one of my food magazines and they had an article about organic fruit and vegetable boxes. As I was feeling motivated, I thought I'd sign up - I've been wanting to for ages, so why not? There are a number of local ones, or you can find a more national one. I couldn't find a local one that delivered to my area, so I decided to go for Riverford - http://www.riverford.co.uk . Signing up was pretty easy and my box came as promised today. It was outside my door at 7:30 when I went to work which I thought was pretty awesome :-)

I've not tried any of it yet, but it looks amazing - 2 peppers, asparagus, carrots, lettuce, potatoes.. All really fresh and unlike certain supermarkets... it doesn't look like it will go off any time soon!  

I also got a pretty cool recipe book which is really useful as I'm really looking to try new things and as I'm constantly busy, this means I don't necessarily have to go and trawl through the internet or my recipe books - I also get to try something new, so double win!

Dinner was a lovely BBQ chicken salad and as I had a Sainsburys delivery last night, I had everything in the house already - Just what you want on a Friday night - there's no need to go food shopping and no temptation to go and order a takeaway! I marinated the (free range) chicken in BBQ Sauce and then grilled it so didn't need any oil. I then made the salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and lentils with a small amount of feta cheese - I drizzled it with some balsamic glaze and hey presto! Not bad, huh? :-)

This weekend I'm getting my hair cut and seeing a friend - I haven't seen this friend in 6 weeks and it will be interesting catch up. She's.... interesting! A lovely person, but is currently divorcing her husband for being incredibly controlling and is currently having an affair with a married man. Not something I condone in any way, shape or form, however she doesn't seem to want my opinion (which is that he won't leave his wife and she really shouldn't get involved) so I keep my lips firmly shut on the subject....

TFI Friday!