5and2 the perils of online shopping

Posted on June 8, 2013 by lindaharley

I decided to treat myself to a colour in my hair this time. At husband’s suggestion, I was keen to go blonde, but my hairdresser felt that it would be too harsh for my colouring, so I’m a fiery redhead instead.

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I’m finding more and more of my clothes are just too baggy on me, so I thought I’d replace the sackfuls I’d given away with some key pieces for a stylish new wardrobe.  I consulted the wise style counsellors of Mumsnet, and ordered a lightweight jumper from Warehouse.  I placed the order from the comfort of my sofa last Saturday night.  They tried to deliver on Tuesday, but no-one was in, so they left a card.  I rang the number and asked them to redeliver on Wednesday.  This meant asking my husband to stay near the house, despite the glorious weather that he was dying to get out on a motorbike in. On Wednesday at 10 to 6, I got a call on my mobile to say that they couldn’t find my house.  (I don’t believe this).  I asked them to redeliver the next day.  On Thursday I rang to see what time they’d be delivering, but a guy in the depot said no, it would be Friday afternoon.  Friday came and went with neither communication nor delivery.  I rang on Saturday morning, only to be told that the package hadn’t left there since it was returned on Tuesday – none of the 3 people I’d spoken to during the week had written the message down!  I find all of this very hard to believe.  But seriously, how does a courier company like this (DPD) keep going?  That is customer service at its very worst.  Still no parcel, by the way.

Tuesday’s fast food was unremarkable – miso soup for lunch, homemade vegetable soup for dinner, and a ginger beer after dog-training.

Thursday’s fast lunch was broccoli and chilli soup.  I’d made this a while ago, but husband wasn’t too keen on it, so I froze what was leftover.  I had it with half a bag of alfresco salad from Tesco (25 cals for the half bag – very good crunchy snack food!).  The weather was so warm I just ate it cold.  It wasn’t too bad, tasted just a little oily, but later in the afternoon my stomach started to really complain.  I was due to go out for a run, but didn’t think it wise to be too far away from a loo, so I came home from work and just dozed on the sofa.  Not ideal, but at least it stopped me snacking.

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Friday weigh-in, still at 133 pounds.  I’m Ok with that, I know those last 3 pounds will come off slowly, and I have a half-marathon coming up so I want to make sure I’m properly fuelled for that, and then Disneyland Paris at the end of June!  If I can ever get my holiday wardrobe delivered….

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5 and 2 and 2 to 2

Posted on June 2, 2013 by lindaharley

A slightly different approach this week, during which I have been awash with sandwiches!

Monday was a Bank Holiday, and also a Scottish Dancing party, so I didn’t fast (and had sandwiches for supper. Very odd they were too – tuna with grapes? And the dreaded raw onion in egg ones, bleurgh)
Tuesday was my day off – not normally a day I’d pick for fasting, but needs must. I had to take my car to the garage in the morning, and ran the 3 miles home afterwards. Around lunchtime I was hungry, so had a late brunch of tinned grapefruit segments with blueberries (70 calories)

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Mid afternoon I realised I was missing protein, so I had a pickled egg accompanied by some salad leaves and tomatoes (90 calories).

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Dinner was home made bolognese sauce with some zero noodle spaghetti (350 calories), before dog-training kept me busy during the evening.

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Enjoyed The Apprentice with a diet ginger-beer.
On Wednesday, I had a working lunch. This meant even more sandwiches, and my stomach was complaining all evening about this carb-fest.
Thursday arrived, with yet another working lunch and yet more sandwiches. I decided to try doing a 2pm-2pm fast which would allow me to eat the business lunch, but still be done fasting by the time Friday evening came around. And I have to say, it does have its attractions. Really, it’s a light meal one evening, skip breakfast the following morning and have a late lunch. I did find some issues – counting on MFP for starters! Usually I can track my non-fast days to my maintenance TDEE level, and also see that my fast days are coming in under 500. Using the 2pm-2pm approach, both Thursday AND Friday were knocked off whack, and I was having to make additional calculations in my head about how much I’d eaten and when. And emotionally – on Thursday evening, normally I’d be able to get through the evening going “nearly there, I can eat what I like tomorrow!” and planning my breakfast. But this time I was going to bed knowing that I would STILL be fasting in the morning.

Overall verdict – I’d do it again if I had to, but I prefer doing straightforward fast days. However, this might be a way that my mother could adapt to quite easily – she doesn’t really count calories, but if I gave her some suggested light dinner ideas, and just told her to skip breakfast and have a late lunch, then that’s really simple to follow.

So when Friday came around, I was happy to agree to my husband’s suggestion that we go out for dinner.  That IS one of the big attractions of this way of eating, that you can easily filt in working lunches and eating out.  We walked to the restaurant, but as we hadn’t booked, we had to wait at the bar for half an hour.  I ordered a fancy cocktail, husband posted a picture of me drinking it on Facebook, and minutes later my best friend was texting me, having seen it, to ask if that was the new Gok for Tu top, and wow didn’t I look fabulous!

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New low weight this week – 133 pounds, which is only 3 pounds away from goal.  I am enjoying buying clothes that say “size 8” on the label – and i’ve decided that at the hairdressers next week……I’m going blonde!

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5and2: False lows and false economies

Posted on May 25, 2013 by lindaharley

Why are people so hard on themselves? I think it was the Mumsnet lot (they are particularly self-critical) where someone wouldn’t record a new low weight seen on the scales after a fast because “it was a false low”.

What?

Weight varies up and down during the day. It will increase depending on what food you’ve eaten and how recently, what kind of food it was, what exercise you’ve done, what clothes you’re wearing. But the lowest weight will be your empty and naked weight. To me, that’s the sensible one to measure and record – so that’s first thing in the morning, no clothes, after a pee. If that’s lower than the last time I measured, I’ll record it. If it’s not, I’ll ignore it.

And another thing – debates about where your waist is? It’s the smallest distance around your middle. Again, why all the angst about measuring such and such a distance from your belly button etc – go with the smallest. That’s not cheating. Sometimes it’s as if people are deliberately trying to find ways to fail.

New lows for me this week – 134 pounds, and a waist size of 28 inches.

And after last week’s enthusing about M&S, this week they’ve disappointed me:

Following recommendations from other forums  for the Delicious and Nutritious range, I’d enjoyed the tuna mooli wraps for lunch last week. But I felt they were expensive at £3.50. On Saturday, shopping for something else in the Lisburn store, I got a voucher for £1 off the D&N range. Great, I thought, I’ll have something nice for dinner on Thursday! I couldn’t find any calorie info about the range online, but during the day I’d left  200-250 calories for my meal. So here’s what happened next.

  1.  I went out of my way to go to the Forestside store where I thought there’d be the largest range.
  2.  It wasn’t easy to find the D&N range, seemed to be in several places.
  3. None of the main meals came in at under 350 calories, and most were 400-500 and above.
  4.  I went back to the mooli wraps, and chose a beef one. At the till, it transpired that the £1 off did not apply to salads and wraps. Just how petty a decision was that!
  5. The barcode when scanned into MyFitnessPal came up as the pork ones, not beef.

This was a thoroughly disheartening experience, and I will not be rushing back, even to utilise that £1 off voucher. To be fair, I emailed the above complaints, and they replied within 24 hours, but the whole frustrating business has left a bad taste.  I reckon I’m better making my own meals, rather than relying on ready made ones.

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The chicken souvlaki I mentioned last week were rather tasty, at 70 cals apiece.  I’d planned to eat all 4, but husband thought they looked tasty too, so I ended up sharing with him.  With a large salad, probably 150 cals for the whole meal. These can’t be too hard to make myself, surely!

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I cannot pass by a bargain, and these little smoked salmon appetisers were reduced to 99p – 25 calories for 3 miniature bites of deliciousness.

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Next week I think I might dig out those miracle pasta sachets, and try them with some home made bolognese I have in the freezer.

 

 

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5and2: M&S ready meals

Posted on May 18, 2013 by lindaharley

I had Monday and Wednesday as my fast days this week, as it was full on busy every day!

On Monday I was struggling to go completely without food, so I had Ryvita with low-low cheese during the day, and some Bovril and miso soup. For dinner I had some leftover boiled ham, along with a salad of cherry tomatoes, mozzarella pearls and a pesto dressing.  I’d bought some of the new Nakd bars with added soya chunks for protein (they’re much tastier than that sounds!) and had one of those as a very satisfying 100 calories sweet tooth calmer.

I was taking Thursday off to go to the Balmoral Show with my sister, so I didn’t really want to have that as a fast day.  Which left Wednesday.  But I was going straight to a governors meeting after work, and didn’t want to be too rumbly in the tumbly.  So I decided to try out the highly recommended Marks and Spencers delicious and nutritious mooli ribbon meal.

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This comes in duck, beef, or tuna varieties – I chose the latter as it had the lowest sugar content.  It also came with  edamame beans, which I love.  It was pretty tasty, filled its purpose for a mere 150 calories, but at £3.50 I balked at the price.  Luckily I’ve since picked up a £1 off voucher, so I may try another selection from the  range next week.

Another find was the little souvlaki chicken kebabs, at only 70 calories per skewer – very tasty indeed!

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It feels good to be fasting 2 days a week – I can tell that my body likes this approach.  My weight is still creeping down slowly – the afternoon girly shopping trip with my sister netted a lovely size 8 jacket (also from M&S, I really should buy shares in the place), and I’m currently wearing a pair of size 12 jeans which are decidedly baggy and which will be going in the charity shop bag after they’re washed.

Oh, and lovely surprise of the week – I received a phone call from my old University that I’d won an iPad in a draw, so I had to go over there and get my photograph taken being presented with it.  So I took the opportunity to wear an outfit I’d bought recently on the half-price rail at – yes, you’ve guessed it – from their Per Una range: indigo linen trousers, and ice-blue Tshirt with draped neckline, and a blue grey Chanel style edge to edge jacket.  I was pretty pleased with the published photo, the shininess of the jacket looks great.  And my son is delighted that he’s inheriting my old iPad.

iPad win

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5and2: fishy stuff

Posted on May 12, 2013 by lindaharley

Really pleased with how my shape is developing – loved picking up some size 8 clothes last weekend. The Bank Holiday Monday was spent with DH downtown, including a rather lovely lunch, so Tuesday became fast day instead. I’d defrosted some of my chicky-leeky soup for dinner, but then husband requested the mussels that we had in the fridge, and they turned out to be very 5:2 friendly.

On Wednesday, I experimented with a recipe that had appeared in the Guardian, shared on the Facebook forum.  It was a roast broccoli and garlic soup.  DH doesn’t really like tomato based soups and sauces, so I’m always keen to try out alternatives.

The ingredients weren’t complicated – broccoli, veg stock, garlic, chilli, lemon.

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Roast the broccoli in the oven for about 20 mins until starting to char. If using garlic cloves, put them in beside the broccoli – I just used ready squeezed garlic in a tube. Blitz in a blender with stock  and chilli (this was the trickiest bit for me, had to try several vessels till I found one that didn’t spurt everything all over the kitchen).  Before serving, add lemon zest and juice.

I thought it was rather nice – DH wasn’t impressed.

On Thursday, I tried going without food as long as possible, but was seduced by a little Graze box.  Only 95 calories! it promised.  So I succumed.  And set off a massive sugar craving, which was hard to control for the rest of the day (lesson learned there!)  I had that chicky-leeky soup for dinner, but the nibbly biscuits I had took me to about 600 calories for the day.

Friday weigh-in – 135, same as last week.  No surprise, no big deal.

Went shopping on Saturday and found a lovely freezer standby – 24 calories per skewer – so 4 skewers is still under 100 cals!  Perfect for keeping in the freezer, ready to serve with a salad on fats days.

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Posted on May 5, 2013 by lindaharley

Monday and Thursday again this week, which worked really well.

I’ve been playing with some of the yoghurt-like products, and so my breakfast was fromage frais with berries.  FF is ok, but it tastes a little grainy for me.

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The nutritional content for Fromage Frais, quark, and 0% greek yoghurt is very similar  100g of each gives about 60 calories, 10g protein and 4g carbs, with very little fat.  Differences come into play with the higher fat  or flavoured varieties, but it’s good to experiment nd see which texture and sharpness you like best.

I remembered I had a meeting mid-morning, so I allowed myself some Ryvita and low-low cheese. I’ve switched from rice cakes to Ryvita – although the rice cakes have slightly less calories, (less or fewer?) they are a higher GI food. I skipped lunch – went downtown to return the iPod Shuffle which I’d bought on Sunday but which wasn’t what I needed at all, and also had my now long and strong nails done properly at the Nails Inc stand in Victoria Square.

I’m not a coffee drinker – I only consume it on fast days. Ordered a regular black coffee to go at a cafe, and was astonished at the volume of it! Kept me going till mid-afternoon.

Dinner was with husband – we have GOT to stop buying so much food. We had to eat a couple of breaded cod loin steaks or they’d be thrown out. I scraped most of the coating off mine, and had it with microwaved courgette cubes. Husband had his with a Rice fusions pyramid. Scottish dancing – had one digestive.

Thursday fast – liquids only all day. Lemon water, tea, bouillon, Bovril (I’d forgotten how much I love Bovril!), coffee, ginseng tea, more Bovril….. I ate a satsuma about 4 pm, as I was heading out to the gym later on. When I got home, husband was cooking some fresh pasta parcels stuffed with pine nuts and basil, with a spinach and ricotta sauce. Again, needed to be used before its sell-by. Thank goodness I had plenty of calories to spare – I enjoyed 2 of the delicious pillows with a little sauce, before my treadmill session. Actually, I got a stitch about half way through the run, which may have been from eating too soon beforehand.

Post gym, I made a snack wrap – discovered these new mini wraps at under 100 cals each, which are a sensible size. Spread with a blob of salsa, a handful of spinach, and 50g cooked turkey, it was the perfect post-workout food. I snuggled on the sofa with husband enjoying a diet shandy and feeling really positive.

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My good mood continued on my Friday weigh-in at under 135 pounds, with a bmi now under 25!  And it was really exciting to go shopping on the Saturday, and find that I now fit into a size 8 in many stores.

I intend to continue with the “liquids only as long as poss” approach next week. Bank Holiday Monday, so I may try Tues-Thurs for a change.

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5and2: Tuna-shrooms

Posted on April 27, 2013 by lindaharley

Another week where I managed to get my fasts in on Monday and Thursday, which is by far my favourite pair. Husband has put on a few pounds, and said he’d like to join me on Monday. I chose a harissa chicken dish from the Hairy Dieters book, but I did it in the oven on roast veg (leek, courgette, mushroom) instead of the buckwheat salad they’d served it with (husband don’t do cold food). The chicken was great and very easy to do – just rub some harissa over chicken breasts and oven cook. They’d have been nicer if they’d had a chance to marinade first. Husband wasn’t really into this calorie counting malarkey, and had a slab of soda bread alongside his, with butter, before pouring himself a vodka. Oh well, at least he’s willing to eat the low-cal meals I make.

Sometimes.

I tried an aubergine and haloumi burger with harissa relish mid-week, which he sullenly pushed around on the plate, much to my annoyance.

For my Thursday fast I turned to my low-cal standbys – mushrooms, tuna, and salsa.

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I mixed a small tin of tuna (65 cals) with a good dollop of salsa (30 cals) which was enough to pile into 2 portobellos (50 cals).  I even shaved a few slivers of cheese over the top, before putting in a 200 degree C oven for 20 mins.  Quick, easy and tasty.

I bought today’s Times as it has a pullout section of 5and2 recipes, so I might try some of those over the coming weeks.

Weight stable at 137 pounds, but I’m delighting in my strong nails, which have never looked better!  Maybe a manicure reward when I get to 135….

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5and2: Choke Ceasar

Posted on April 20, 2013 by lindaharley

Had a good Monday fast this week – a mushroom spinach scramble for breakfast saw me through a morning meeting with the boss, then a miso soup and a satsuma at lunchtime. I’d been saving calories in case I was eating with husband at dinner time, but he wasn’t feeling well, so I made myself a quick tom-yum soup, using leeks, mushrooms, rocket, tomato and spring onion,  before heading out to Scottish dancing, where I allowed myself the smallest biscuit on the plate.

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I’d hoped to have Thursday as my second fast day, but darling daughter is over from her London college this week, and was keen to go out to dinner on Thursday night. That left Wednesday – but that was the day I was taking off work to drive daughter and friends up to the North Coast to visit my parents. Ah well, great excuse to avoid my mother’s cooking!

Breakfast was a scrambled duck egg, with a blob of red caviar from IKEA for added oomph, and a sprinkling of cress for colour.  A glass of cranberry light at only 20 calories is my go-to breakfast juice these days.

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I made sure I had plenty of water for the drive, even though daughter purloined my emergency orange! Lunch was homemade vegetable soup – I passed on the wheaten bread and cheese, as well as the smoked salmon and crisps nibbles, but did allow myself one small traybake. And one fudge Heroes. And a quality street toffee stick on the journey home.

For dinner I rustled up a rather fabulous gourmet salad. I’ve been experimenting with quark ever since reading a discussion about it and fromage frais on MFP. I’ve previously used a Jamie 15 minute recipe for a lighter ceasar salad dressing using yoghurt, so I decided to adapt that for quark.

ARTICHOKE CEASAR

In a bowl, mash 2 anchovies. Stir in 2 good blobs of quark, and season with black pepper.
Arrange quartered artichoke hearts and thick slices of cucumber on the dressing. Sprinkle with cress.

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The contrast of textures is lovely – the solid earthiness of the artichokes against the crisp cool crunch of the cucumber, in the velvety creaminess of the dressing, with a slight tang, and a hum provided by the anchovies. All for under 100 calories.

And I really enjoyed the suggestion of a fellow 5and2er for a special and refreshing drink – fake Pimms.  Add a splash of angostura bitters and some balsamic vinegar to a glass filled with ice, top up with soda water, and add chunks of whatever’s to hand – in my case cucumber and cantaloupe, which was a surprisingly good combination!  I must pass this on to my vinegar-loving best friend.

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5and2: Hairy Dieters

Posted on April 14, 2013 by lindaharley

I managed to fast on Monday and Thursday this week, which is my ideal spacing of the 2 low days.

On Monday I had Scottish Dancing in the evening – having something to go to which requires me to drive is a great way to take my mind off fasting. I munched my way through half a bag of dulse during the day – that’s a local dried seaweed, which is full of mineral goodness but only about 20 calories per bag.  Must get some more of this for next week.   I defrosted a portion of my chicky-leeky soup as a quick meal before I went out.

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On Tuesday, even though it was a normal day, I tried one of the Hairy Dieters recipes – the parma wrapped cod on roast veg. Husband thought it delicious  and he’s keen to try other recipes from the book. It seems to be a great source of ideas when sharing meals with family. We went to see the guys at their stage show on Sunday, so I’d bought a signed copy of the book there.

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Thursday I took a different approach – I knew I’d be having a sandwich lunch through work, so I made myself a typical under 100 cal breakfast, and was amazed that I had a choice of several meals in mind for under 100 cals for dinner. I could have made a big fruit salad with melon, blueberries, grapefruit and pears. I could have used those zero noodles and done a tomato based sauce to go with. I had an aubergine which I could have turned into a sort of dip to eat with celery sticks. In the end, I went to the gym first, ran for 30 minutes without any problems, and wasn’t that hungry when I got home at 8. I made a small salad with half a tin of mushrooms, spinach leaves, 2 anchovies, 5 black olives and a splash of balsamic. Finished off the evening with 2 strawberries and an options hot chocolate, feeling really upbeat and positive. I might use this approach again in future, though it doesn’t get the “fasting” benefits.

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At the weekend I experimented with a low cal dessert recipe that was in the grauniad – lavender and banana ice-cream in parsnip tuile baskets. I had to hunt for lavender, but I got it in Sawers delicatessen eventually. As my daughter would comment “Mum, you always order the most random thing on the menu!” The ice cream bit was lovely – I always stick my over-ripe banananananas in the freezer, and they’re very easy to squish out of their skins and mix with a flavouring.  I’ll definitely be doing more of that.  But I didn’t get the tuile biscuits right, maybe the oven wasn’t hot enough.

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And since husband couldn’t believe that their were pies in the book, I made the Hairy Dieter’s chicken and ham tangle pie for Saturday dinner.  This was very tasty – full of flavoursome chunks of chicken, and I used a pack of ham hock from Sainsburys as the ham element.  I’m now poring over the mouthwatering photographs wondering which to try next!

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Chicky Leeky Soup

Posted on April 3, 2013 by lindaharley

Over indulged a bit at Easter – I loooooove marzipan, so I treated myself to a pack of mini Simnel cake bites, which I’m spreading out over the days. Thursday was out this week as a fast day, since I’m going to my Scottish Dance Class’s end of term dinner. Wednesday was a good choice as husband would be away all day. I don’t know that I’m strong enough to do either 2 days back-to-back or a weekend day just yet, so Monday became the other fast day.

I started Monday with one of my favourite all time breakfasts – soft boiled egg with steamed asparagus to dip in.

For dinner, I stir-fried a load of veg – mushrooms, onion, red pepper – using some Big Tom spiced tomato juice as the liquid.  It was quite filling, but my digestive system complained about that amount of veg in one go.

One Wednesday, I had breakfast of smoked salmon.  I was at work, and had a meeting in the afternoon, so I didn’t want any tummy rumbles  and so spread my calories throughout the day.  I spread a Laughing Cow Light on 2 Ryvita Black pepper crackers (this flavour is really good with cheese) mid-morning, and had a Tesco Chicken Noodle Cupasoup for lunch, followed by a satsuma.  Had a 10 cal jelly mid afternoon, and a string cheese immediately before my meeting.

For dinner, I made what I’m calling Chicky Leeky Soup.  I cant call it Cock-a-leekie as it uses breast, but it made 3 decent portions, so I’ve got plenty of options now in my freezer.

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One large chicken breast, in bite sized pieces

100g leeks

100g mushrooms

2 stalks celery

200g turnip or swede

a chicken stock cube.

Add all the diced veg and the chicken to about a litre of stock, and simmer until the chicken is cooked and the vegetables tender.  Season with black pepper.  Divided in 3, each portion was about 120 cals.

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