Still no laptop...

My laptop was actually delivered to my Mum's work yesterday and I popped round my parent's to give my Dad his birthday present last night hoping to collect my laptop at the same time but my Mum had left it at work!! :( She is going to drop it over tonight, so blogging should be back to normal, so long as my laptop IS fixed like HP have promised...

I need to do another food shop tonight, trying to keep it cheap so might do more value food shopping and I also want to try that garlic "bread" recipe as it can be frozen :) I think I'd add a sprinkling of parsley to it too! :D I do miss my bread, so I have high hopes that this recipe will be bread-like! I might have a rummage through that site I posted yesterday to see if there are any new cheap Low Carb recipes I can try out!

This one sounds LUSH!! 12g carbs though!

http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/onion_cheese_bread.html

All my value food lol #cheapskate

I did just 15 minutes of exercising on my Wii today as I was expecting my parents to drop my laptop off and I had got home to find water dripping through my ceiling so I had that to deal with. My upstairs neighbour was very apologetic though.

Dinner - Chicken breast stuffed with stilton cheese and wrapped in bacon with leeks, roasted courgette & leek with grated emmental cheese.

Total carbs: 20g, net calories: 662, calories burnt from exercise: 287

Monday after a curry

I didn't blog yesterday as I was feeling hung over from the bottle of wine and tried to sleep a headache off until just before lunchtime and then I did a quick 30 minute Wii Your Shape before eating cheese for lunch again :) Not onion or celery this time, just cheese!

In the evening yesterday I went bowling and then went for a curry for my Dad's birthday so am feeling bloated today!! I have put on MFP that I had Chicken Tikka and 4 onion bhajis, but I also had courgette bhaji and that wasn't on mfp so I just added more bhajis instead!

Feeling pretty bloated today after the curry! Hopefully a nice big poo will sort that out ;) lol!! I have added my Carbs vs Cals down the side for yesterday even though I hadn't blogged.

I forgot to mention that at the party on Saturday one of my friends mentioned that I was looking slim in the face again!! :) So at least someone has noticed the 9lbs I have lost so far this year! lol I can't remember if I have mentioned my current target weight, but I only have 7lbs to go until I reach that weight at the moment :D Thats if this weekend hasn't done too much damage to the diet of course!!

My Laptop is currently out for delivery! It left the Luton Depot this morning and I think that it is being delivered to my Mum's work address. If it is then I can collect it tonight when I pop round to see my Dad for his birthday. :)

I have just found a recipe for garlic "bread" which I may try out at some point! - Sounds yum with butter! (link on the right hand panel) There are LOADS more Low Carb Recipes here: http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/recipes.html

Tandoori chicken and fried grated cauliflower (this was a yum dinner!)

Total carbs: 24g, net calories 827 with no exercise.

Saturday Decisions

I've done 45 minutes of exercise on the Wii (hard work). Tried to read some more of my OU book but it kept saying to refer to the website and I didn't want to read too far ahead without doing the exercises along the way.

I have been invited to a friends house for dinner and drinks tonight and have been trying to decide whether to drink or drive. I am also hoping that dinner isn't a pasta dish as I will have to pick the meat and veg out! Lol

Bacon and tomato omelette with salad for lunch:

I ended up drinking a bottle of wine with diet lemonade and the dinner was make your own pizza, so I just ate the toppings! Cheese, meat and veg :)

Total carbs: 30g, net calories: 725, calories burnt from exercise: 917

Third Weigh Day

Today is WEIGH DAY again! It comes round so quickly! lol

As I said yesterday, my trousers felt looser so hopefully I will have more than a 1lb loss this week, even though I haven't had time to exercise as much! I am also still having 'ladies time of the month' so that MAY effect what the scales say...

I know I am not an obese male like the picture below, but I do tend to put weight on in the same areas as he has in the picture. I get a pot belly and have the "muffin top" effect!

Hopefully I will get a nice flat belly like the image on the right, so long as I don't get a flat chest too! hehe

I get paid today and I need to pop into town after work to buy birthday presents etc so my weigh-in might be a tad later than last week (hopefully I won't be too long in town!).

Soooo pleased with today's weigh in results :) :)

Here's my 2012 graph:

That orange line at the bottom is my new target I set this year. I am 7lbs away from it as today I have reached my bridesmaid dress target weight for last year :) I might go further and try and get my bmi to 22, if that is more than 7lbs away :)

Here is my lunch. I didn't eat all that cheese by the way lol

As promised my measurements lost so far this year:
Thigh - 3/4 inch
Hips - 1 & 7/8 inch (think that's how it's written?)
Waist - 2 & 3/4 inch
Chest - 1/2 inch
Arm - 1/2 inch
Neck - 3/4 inch

The thigh, chest and arm losses are just since the 13th Jan as I forgot to do them at the start. Oh yeah, my beer belly loss is 2 inches!!!!! :D


I went for a mixed kebab as a treat. My only Friday takeaway of the month.

Total carbs: 36g, net calories: 618, calories burnt 302

Trousers feeling looser...

I have noticed recently that my trousers are feeling looser around my thighs, so hopefully I will have more than just 1lb weightloss when I weigh tomorrow :)

I'll let you know what I have lost around my beer belly too tomorrow :) Its pay day tomorrow so I will head into town when I finish at lunch time to get my Dad a card and present as we are off out for bowling and a curry on Sunday to celebrate his birthday :) Its my sister-in-law's birthday next month too, but she just wants money so I will get her a card tomorrow :)





I had about 300g worth of rump steak there and it still didn't take my close to my calorie intake, so I will try eating more cheese instead :)

Total carbs: 12g, net calories: 269, calories burnt from exercise: 643

Portsmouth today!

Sooo hungry by the time I got home from Portsmouth, no time to exercise as my stomach had been rumbling for hours!!

Mushroom, garlic sausage, red pepper and cheese omelette

It doesn't look a lot but it filled me up! :) MFP still keeps saying that I am not eating enough calories every day and that I will put my body into starvation mode if I don't eat enough calories :( I guess instead of having one piece of meat, I could change it to two pieces? It just gets more expensive :/

Total carbs: 20g, net calories: 909 - no exercise

Day Twenty!!

It feels like I have been back on the Low Carb a lot longer than just twenty days! lol

Well, my laptop gets collected today! All my files are backed up onto my Mum's dinosaur laptop's hard drive and I got home last night to find that my external hard drive had arrived so I could have backed it all up to that! D'oh!

I'm off to Portsmouth tomorrow, so tomorrow's post will be very minimal I imagine :)

My OU website has opened today! Exciting times! :D In the preparation section it says to read the TU100 Guide, well I am 2 3rds of the way through that guide already ;) #geek

Pork chop and green beans

Total carbs: 21g, net calories: 644 - no exercise

Monday, we meet again

I am feeling less bloated today! (phew!)

HP are going to collect my laptop from my Mum's work instead of from my home as I work during their collection hours!

My right shoulder is aching from 45 minutes of Wii Your Shape yesterday but I think that has helped me feel a bit better, and my trousers are a bit looser again too :D

A nice guy from our IT department has tried to help me back up my hard drive today but someone hasn't given back all the connectors so he couldn't do it. He has, however found the adaptor kit at Maplin for £20 so I will get one after work and back my hard drive up from my Mum's laptop onto an external drive that I have.

I didn't leave my parents until about 7pm so I stuck some gammon steaks under the grill and had them with fried egg and mushrooms and cherry tomatoes.




Mondays are my day off of exercising (thank god as I had no time to do any!!).

Total carbs: 17g, net calories: 834. No exercise s no extra calories burnt!

Sunday. Onesie Day? :)

Decided on a bit of a lighter breakfast today as I am considering doing my Wii exercises earlier in the day.

I will of course change out of my onesie to exercise, I might get a bit hot exercising in a onesie. I'll have a shower after I exercise (might try 45 minutes today) then put my onesie back on. I have received my first The Art of Quilting issue and I am keen to creating my first square of the quilt :)

I did 45 minutes of my Wii Your Shape today and I really struggled! I might have to try and do 45 mins at the weekend and stick to 15 minutes or 30 minutes during the week so I get an extra burn at the weekends.

My lunch, bacon and cheese with rocket salad:

I did my first patch of my The Art of Quilting quilt today :D

Dinner, Pork chop with broccoli and green beans and a bit of chicken oxo :)




Total carbs: 13g, net calories: 242, calories burnt from exercise: 841.

Waiting in for my laptop to be collected

So I get up early on a Saturday as my laptop will be collected between 9am and 5pm and it is now 12pm and it hasn't been collected yet.

I don't want to do my exercises yet in case the UPS driver arrives in the middle of it!

Here is my breakfast for today (just 4g carbs here):

I didn't fancy a salad for lunch, so instead I had celery, meted babybel and grilled garlic sausage and cheese.




I phoned UPS and apparently they don't do collections on a Saturday!! Why the hell did the email clearly say "tomorrow" then?!!

Dinner (same as yesterday, except red pepper instead of courgette)




Total carbs: 20g, net calories: 943, calories burnt from exercise: 190.

2nd Weigh Day

Its weigh day again today, and I haven't cheated this week with a mid-week weigh, I am feeling pretty bloated today though thanks to 'time of the month' even though I am not meant to get them on the Depo! :( - Fingers crossed than even though I feel bloated, it hasn't effected my weight?!

Wish I was this slim, but this is a 'bloated' image lol

I will be rushing about when I finish at 12pm trying to clean the flat before getting the cat to the vets at 2pm for her annual jab! And the boss asked me to do overtime but its a nightmare getting the cat into her carrier as it is! lol I need to lull her into a false sense of security then pick her up for a cuddle and slowly edge towards her carrier! haha



Waaaahhh!!! HP replied and my warranty expired on the 13th Jan, and the laptop died on the 15th Jan!! :'( Someone is going to look at it for me, if they can't fix it, I will have to buy a new one on a payment plan!


UPDATE!

HP are going to fix it as a one off repair after all :)

So the results of my weigh in are... I lost just 1lb this week!

Getting my weight back down :)

Here is my dinner. Chicken drumsticks with a beansprouts and mushroom stir fry




After I completed my food diary I got this message;





I'd love it if I did!! :D

Total carbs: 27g, net calories: 161, calories burnt from exercise: 747

Weigh Day tomorrow!

I haven't really done a lot of exercise this week, except for the brisk walks to and from the stations so I shall do 30 minutes of my Wii Your Shape tonight to make up for it as it is WEIGH DAY tomorrow!!!

Oh god, I get so worried about standing on the blooming scales! Even though I actually haven't been naughty and have stuck to my normal Low Carb foods that I had last year. I will also measure myself too, I can now tell you how much I lose from the biggest part of my belly too (biggest area! lol) as I took a measurement from there last Friday.

The week has gone pretty quickly with the training, I got back to work today and had loads of work to crack on with, I have also received my student identity card and a package from the OU containing all my module material!! Check this out!! I didn't think 'My Digital Life' would involve the hardware as part of the course!! :) I used to like the electronics lessons at school, so this could be quite fun! Maybe I can have a go at fixing my laptop myself?? ;)

Maybe I could do this for my exercising instead? ;) (joking)

I used my £12 of luncheon vouchers for a food shop (got loads of meat) :) :

BARGAIN! :D

I had mince beef for my dinner today, I used the last of the bag up, so there was 200g (when frozen) of mince beef there. I have put all the ingredients on MFP.

Total carbs: 26g, net calories: 640, calories burnt from exercise: 605 :D

Last Day of Training

I have managed to bring my salad packed lunch into London every day for training as I found out that the food vouchers can be used at my local supermarket :)

Still no news on my laptop as the lady from HP said my care pack ran from November 2008 to December 2011 even though I brought it in January 2009. I have been given a phone number and email address to try which I will try tomorrow from work as my old Mac at home decides it needs rebooting half way through using it! Grr!!

Here is my dinner:

Total carbs: 15g, net calories: 904, calories burned: 246

Managed to fit in a bit of Wii

Mackerel for dinner after I had done my Wii Your Shape for 15 minutes (I also had to do a 15 minute Physical challenge to see if my fitness had improved in 9 workouts). I must have burnt loads of calories from all the walking I am doing at the moment! 20 minutes to and from the train station and all the walking to the different tube stations!

I have gone from a B to a B+ on my physical fitness, I think it would have been better than that but it didn't register all of my moves! The cat kept running into view and I think I need to wear bright colours as I blend into the furnitures colours too much!

Total carbs: 16g, net calories: 674 and calories burned: 483

Training in London begins

I have 3 days training in London this week so I made my usual prawn salad packed lunch as wasn't sure if they had a canteen etc and was given £4 lunch vouchers, we will be given £4 every day so might save them up and get something on the 3rd day - low carb of course :)

Here is my dinner:

And the lunch vouchers :)

Total carbs: 19g, net calories: 436, calories burned from exercising: 248.

Keeping the carb count low

Another fried breakfast for me today to help keep my carb count low. Bacon with scrambled eggs today and it was really filling!!!

I'm not sure what to have for lunch today? I might have a salad with the peppery lettuce, maybe a cheese salad, but I will do my Your Shape exercises first before I eat!

My laptop has died and I won't be at work for 3 days as I have training in London so I will update and tidy up my blog posts on Thursday. Remember you can follow my food diary on MFP :) I hope the laptop problem can be fixed!!! :'(

Here is my dinner. Pork chops and roasted veg.

Total carbs: 22g, net calories: 735, calories burned by exercise: 591

Start the day as I mean to go on!

Check out this low carb breakfast! Bacon and mushroom omelette with a dash of ketchup for a total of 3g (2 of them were in the ketchup) carbs... now thats what I'm talking about!! ;)

The ingredients for this omelette can be found in the MFP food diary -->

I plan to do 30 minutes of my Wii Your Shape today, I am just waiting for my omelette to go down and have just had a shower! I should have had my shower after exercising really but hey ho.

I burnt 594 calories doing Your Shape, so I have burnt off my breakfast, lunch needed to be low in carb but filling to try and get rid of my bad carbs occurring lately! So, I went for a chicken breast wrapped in garlic sausage (I cut up the breast a bit) and had that with a melted mini babybel and the rest of my Philadelphia cream cheese.

It was actually really nice and pretty filling at only 4g carbs which were mostly in the Philadelphia!

My beef and veg kebabs :) Another Low Carb winner ;) excuse the steam, they were straight off the grill :)

I have just added a Facebook 'Like' button to my blog so if you read this post can you 'Like' my blog please so I can see if it works? :) THANKS!

Total carbs: 13g, net calories: 580, exercise burnt: 594 calories.

First Weigh Day of 2012

Ok, so its not my first time I have weighed since I started a week ago as I cheated half weigh through and checked my weight, but I will be good from now on and stick to my weighing days being on a Friday lunch time. You are meant to weigh at the same time each day anyway.

I'm not sure if I will have lost any more since Tuesday as I had that huge curry and then the massive carbilicious (but delicious) meal last night. Only time will tell I guess!

I need to do another food shop today as I am off to London for some training Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week and walking to the train station every morning so I won't be able to go to Tesco on my way home from work like I normally do. I am planning to do meat and veg kebabs with salad this weekend I think :) YUM

Well, I haven't lost anymore since Tuesday, so its still a 5lb loss for the week :) I guess its a good loss for a first week, I was just hoping for a lb or more extra. Measurement-wise I have lost 1.5 inches from my hips, 1.75 inches from my waist, and 1/2 inch off my neck. I have now taken extra measurements today from my thigh, arm, chest and BELLY lol to see where else I am losing weight from. :)

I had my stroganoff meal for lunch today. I was going to freeze it but my freezer is full so I had it for lunch hoping I would burn more of it off by cleaning the flat. I cleaned the flat and did 5 minutes on the Wii Fit Stepper (lame time I know but was feeling poo for not losing extra weight). Not sure what to have for dinner tonight? Something light in carbs so meat or something I guess.

Total carbs: 29g, net calories: 1069, exercise calories burnt: 190 <-- pretty poor today!

One Week Today!! :D

I have been back on the Low Carb for one week today! My trousers are feeling looser still ;D

Proper weigh-in and measurement taking tomorrow, I wonder how much I will have lost over the whole week? I am hoping I have lost at least one extra pound since I weighed on Tuesday even though I did have a big FAT Curry on Tuesday and that huge bag of Pork Scratchings last night left me feeling very full up!! Think I'll just eat half a bag at a time with my next bag!

Exercise-wise my muscles are really achey today! 30 minutes is obviously a good burn time for me :)

I have brought some grapes into work with me. I brought them before I started doing Low Carb and if you are a regular reader, you will know that I HATE to waste food and throw food away! (money doesn't grow on trees!) I think I will have half today and half tomorrow as MFP says there are 15g carbs in 100g Green Seedless Grapes!!

I didn't weigh the grapes so the weight will be a complete guess! ;P

I might measure myself again later to see if I have lost more inches. What I should have done was measure my stomach as well as my hips and waist as that is where most of the weight has gone!! lol

I measured my waist and hips and they are the same as they were on Tuesday! It must have been excess fluid? I might start measuring around my belly from tomorrow :)

I did the Stroganoff tonight (recipe link to the right). I cooked enough for 2 portions so that I could have some another day.

Chicken stroganoff with grated fried cauliflower

It was absolutely DELICIOUS!! I have never heard of fried cauliflower before, I fried mine in butter and it was A-MA-ZING!! It is a great alternative to rice for dishes like this, although after entering the recipe into MFP I found out it had more carbs in it than I initially thought (19g carbs, 766 cals), most of the carbs being in the onion, cauliflower and soured cream. But a lot less than a traditional chicken stroganoff dish. Rice has about 40g carbs for a start!

Total carbs: 39!!!, net calories: 783, exercise: 324 cals burnt

Feeling full after my first Curry Club

God! I asked the question on MFP to see what low carb foods I could eat to increase my calorie intake showing my 5 day calorie and carbs figures:

Day 1 - 17g carbs | 981 Net cals

Day 2 - 18g carbs | 703 Net cals 

Day 3 - 15g carbs | 894 Net cals 

Day 4 - 22g carbs | 795 Net cals 

Day 5 - 19g carbs | 672 Net cals

and received loads of negative feedback from Low Carb diet haters! One said I shouldn't eat so few calories unless I am anorexic! ME?! ANOREXIC????? Thats the funniest thing I have heard in a long time!! If I was anorexic, I wouldn't be asking for advice on how to increase my calorie intake in the first place!

There were others saying that 50% of your diet should be carbs and that cutting out carbs isn't healthy etc etc. Maybe they should try a low carb way of life and then comment on it?! I does ACTUALLY work! I am living proof :P

The non haters advised that I ate more fat and protein. Some had said to have avocado as a snack and some suggested nuts. So, me buying 2 bags of pork scratchings last night was probably a move in the right direction :) I also had someone say that I didn't really need to calorie count on Low Carb and there were a couple of people in the same boat as me and struggling to hit there recommended daily calorie intake.

Pub Original Pork Scratchings

Oh, I forgot to add in yesterdays post, the Chicken Tikka dish did come with a side salad :) I also saw a waiter working in there that I know from the Curry House I normally go to with my family, so I knew it would be a good Curry House ;) and it was!!

So, the scales said I am 5lbs down, I do feel slimmer than I did last week but I don't feel anywhere as slim as I did last July and that is only 6lbs lighter, maybe I am just used to be this sort of size now, or maybe its because muscles weigh more than fat?! I'll have to go by my measurements as well as my weight to know when I am slimmer than last July I guess.

Total carbs: 25g, net calories: 824, exercise: 616 calories burnt :)

First Curry Club back on Low Carb!

I have just added my normal Low Carb curry dishes into a 'recipe' I have created on My Fitness Pal to make it easier to track my calories and carbs as I quite often have the same dishes at Curry Club so I can easily use this saved 'recipe' when I visit a curry house each month.

It does contain quite a few carbs still though, but I am not sure if there are really as many carbs in a Mushroom Bhaji as 11?!! :/ The other option from the veggie dishes is a cauliflower bhaji, so I might try that instead?

Cheese salad for lunch today as I fancied something a bit more filling to fill me up until Curry Club!

Check out my carbs chart now :D

I was thinking, to increase my calorie intake I could have a bag of pork scratchings every day? High in fat and calories, yet low in carbs ;)

PUB Original pork scratchings contain 0g carbs, 450 calories, 35g fat and 35g protein too :)

I will do a workout before Curry Club to make space for the extra calories I will be having :D

I did 15 minutes of Your Shape then 10 minutes of Wii Fit exercises burning 289 calories and just couldn't resist checking my weight.... I have lost 5lbs since friday!!! :D FIVE POUNDS!!!!
I won't add it to my weightloss chart though, I will still keep that a weekly Friday thing :)

I didn't go for mushroom bhaji in the end as they had a special on called 'Chilli Ponir' which was cubes of cheese with peppers, onions and greens chillis. It was AMAZING!! But I can't find any record for chilli ponir or any ponir dishes on MFP (My Fitness Pal) so I just left the Curry Club meal as I had set it during the day. I bet the carb count was a lot less though!

I have found an image on the net of a Chilli Paneer dish which looks just like the dish I had last night as a side dish:

Total carbs: 33g, net calories: 721 with exercise burning 375 calories :)

Monday already?

Don't weekends just fly by?!

Well, as I stayed in all weekend, I did pretty well on the carb front:

You can see here when I started my low carb diet :) I have only gone over 20g carbs on one day and that was only by 2g carbs.


Don't forget, you can see my food diary on the side -->

I need to work out what meals to have this week.  Planning ahead is a good way to stick to your diet! I have Curry Club tomorrow, so will stick to the dishes with fewer carbs, no rice or naan breads!! Here is a Low Carb indian meal that I ate at the start of my Low Carb diet last year. Chicken Tikka that is served sizzling with onions, an onion bhaji and mushroom bhaji :) Making me hungry looking at that picture! lol

I might try the chicken stroganoff with fried grated cauliflower tonight. I'll get some veg too so that I can do the roasted vegetables and some cheap meat to have with the roasted veg later in the week :)

...I went to Aldi (super cheap shop) after work to get some more cat litter and got most of the ingredients I needed for the chicken stroganoff, but there were a few things they didn't sell So I will have that Wednesday night instead. I cooked rump steak and salad tonight instead.

Rump steak and salad

Total carbs today 19g, calories 672. I didn't do any exercise today, I am have planned Mondays as my day off of exercising on my Your Shape Calendar, I think exercising 6 days a week should be fine and dandy.


I have just checked a few websites and their calorie calculators and a lot of them said I need about 2000 calories to maintain my current weight! I rarely hit my 1200 calorie mark each day at the moment :/

I am under what this website (http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm) call EXTREME fat loss!! I find it quite easy to consume the amount of calories I do a day though, I haven't had any cravings SO FAR this year. Last year I was always craving yummy stuff like MacDonalds and doughnuts! lol


I still have 528 calories remaining for today, so I might have a low carb snack, cheese or garlic sausage, or cheese AND garlic sausage together grilled??! :)


I've added a new list to my sidebar 'Carbs vs Calories' to show how many carbs and calories I consume a day.