100 Pounds Lighter

I've fallen off the wagon again. I was ill from mid-November to New Year and put on loads of weight over Christmas. I lost a stone in January, then managed to put it on again in February. Careless. March was a yo-yo month, and again I haven't been well. I have been feeling stressed and have turned to food. I thought I had conquered my emotional eating, sadly this is not the case. Yet.

I will not be beaten. I made this before and after image to remind me how far I had come. I'm no longer 100lbs lighter, but I am still a lot lighter than I was. I am still running, albeit slower than last year. I'm still on my journey, hanging in there by my fingernails, determined not to slide back to poor health.

I'm starting (again) today. In a year from now, I'll be glad I did. Will you join me?

If I have inspired you to lose weight or take up running, please consider nominating me for a Brilliance In Blogging award. There is an Inspire category.

Thank you.

100 Pounds Lighter

Recipe: Slimming World Rice Pudding

Sometimes you just need a big bowl of the warm creamy comfort food that is rice pudding.

When you're trying to eat healthily and lose weight, you would think that rice pudding would be off the menu. Think again. If you make it yourself, from scratch, you can make it without sugar or even milk.

There is one rice pudding recipe doing the rounds at Slimming World where you cook pudding rice in diet cream soda to make a rice pudding. This used to be free on Slimming World, but it is now considered a "tweak".

There are lots of tweaks in Slimming World. People tweak the plan by combining free foods to make other foods. Eventually Slimming World catch on and allocate syn values to these foods (you can have between 5 and 15 Syns per day). Fair enough. You're only kidding yourself if you think you can lose weight if you eat your own body weight in - for instance - cooked lasagne sheets (free), coated in spray oil (also free) and baked in the oven. They're kind of like Doritos, but they're not a filling healthy meal. Tweaks are essentially free foods, but you're not eating them as intended, so they are given a Syn value. Pudding rice is a free food, but rice pudding (made with milk or diet drinks) is not.

I've made the cream soda rice pudding and it's okay. One day I realised I didn't have enough cream soda to make it, so I improvised and came up with a new method that is just as delicious and - most importantly - SYN FREE*.

*The small print. My recipe could be considered a tweak (although after a Google search I can't find an official statement by Slimming World about it), UNLESS you make it part of a food-optimised meal, i.e. one third of the meal is Super-Free. I'm yawning just typing this. In a nutshell - I think - if you have a plenty of veg on your plate for your dinner you can have this as a pudding if you serve it with fruit. Whatever. You don't really care about all that, you just want me to tell you how to make my rice pudding.


Sandy's Recipe for Slimming World Rice Pudding

Serves 4
Takes 20-30 minutes

Ingredients

• 6oz Pudding Rice (usually found in the baking aisle of the supermarket)
• 1 litre cold water
• Artificial Sweetener (to taste)
• Flavourings (we'll come to that later)

Method

1. Put the rice, water and sweetener in a large saucepan and stir
2. Bring to the boil
3. Cook for 20-25 minutes
4. Stir occasionally, gradually reducing the heat down to a gentle simmer 
5. The rice pudding is ready when almost all of the liquid is absorbed by the rice
6. You can serve it warm or cold

Flavourings

This is where you can be a little creative.

I sometimes add a few drops of custard, banana or buttery caramel flavouring to my rice pudding. I love Lakeland Natural Flavours (usually £3.99, but currently on offer - buy one, get one half price). I was just getting the link for you when I saw two new flavours: mulled wine and Christmas pudding. Oh my.

Lakeland Natural Flavours also work well mixed into that other Slimming World favourite, Quark.

If you like cinnamon in your rice pudding, add cinnamon. I can't think of anything more revolting, but it's your rice pudding.

I also like to stir through a teaspoon  - who am I kidding? -  a tablespoon of jam (2 Syns). Just like school dinners in the 1970's.

My other favourite is to add a heaped teaspoon of Options Belgian Chocolate powder to the cooked rice pudding while it's still in the pan (2 Syns-ish, that makes it approximately 1/2 a Syn per bowl).

Syn Free (probably) Slimming World Rice Pudding.

You're welcome.




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Recipe: Slimming World Rice Pudding

The Small Things About a Big Weight Loss

I've lost a lot of weight, seven stone is a lot of weight by anyone's standards.

It has come off gradually, over eighteen or so months.

Losing a lot of weight has made a massive difference to my life. I can buy clothes anywhere on the high street (goodbye forever, Evans) and I have boundless energy, but I've also noticed other changes, smaller changes.

I'm no longer the biggest person in the room.

I can sit on swings at the park without fear they will collapse beneath me.

I can accompany my boys on the dodgems, and join them in the soft play (I didn't say that all changes were for the better...).

I've had to tighten my watch strap by five notches.

I can sit on the rickety chair without worrying that it will break.

I had to buy a cheap ring from Claire's Accessories to keep my wedding and engagement rings on. The ring I bought is size S. It's not tight either.

I'm not embarrassed going into McDonalds. Well, I am, I'm embarrassed that I let my children have Happy Meals as a treat. I'm not embarrassed about going in there as a fat person.

I can park anywhere, confident that I can get in or out of my car.

I no longer have to turn sideways to get through gaps.

My laptop now fits on my lap.

I run up the stairs to my hairdresser and don't have to pause near the top to get my breath back before I open the door and go in.

My skin is clear.

My entire wardrobe is a rainbow of colour, it used to be 95% black.

I hardly ever have a headache.

People who haven't seen me for a while walk straight past me.

I can get into child's pose for the first since I started doing yoga thirteen years ago.

I no longer get indigestion or heartburn.

My children can get their arms round me for a hug.



Actually, on reflection, these are big things.






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The Small Things About a Big Weight Loss

Ten Things I Thought I'd Never Say

1. I just ran 10k
2. I love running
3. I can't wait to run again
4. I can't sit still for long
5. I feel fit and strong
6. I love going to the gym
7. I enjoy getting hot and sweaty
8. I love the buzz I get from being active
9. I am full of energy
10. I tried on those size 12 trousers, and they did up

I hardly recognise myself these days...

Ten Things I Thought I'd Never Say

Weight Loss Coaching - Six Weeks In

Six weeks ago I started a twelve week Weight Loss Coaching programme with Dawn Walton from Think It Change It Cognitive Hypnotherapy and Think Change Become Life Coaching. This is a review. I am not paying for the course, but I am taking as seriously as if I had parted with some cash.

So, how is it going?

My answer will depend on which day you ask me. Some days I would say it's going really well and I feel completely in control. Other days, not so well. Even on a bad day, where my eating seems out of control, I'm still able to write down three positive changes that I've noticed that day.

I have lost eleven pounds since I've been listening daily to my ten minute MP3.

I'm still not cured. I'm still worried I'll always go back to my fall-back position of emotional binge eating.

BUT

The changes I have noticed in my eating habits, in my relationship with food and in my feelings towards exercise are enormous.

I eat loads of fruit and vegetables. I enjoy eating. I no longer feel guilty if I eat a 'bad' food. I am putting less on my plate. When I eat I listen to my body and stop eating as soon as I feel full. Most of the time I save my dinner leftovers for my lunch the next day (I was bought up as a member of the Clean Plate Club and I hate to waste food).

I now walk everywhere. I run up stairs. I don't leave things at the bottom of the stairs to take up later, I run up with them there and then. I can run after my children. I've even shown them how to skip.

I feel great in my clothes. I'm buying smaller sizes, confident that I'll get in them. I'm feeling good about myself, taking care of my skin, painting my nails. I go out and don't worry that people are looking at me, feeling disgusted by my size. I've had my hair cut short because I no longer have a double chin to try to disguise.

I am still struggling with eating mindfully. Some days I can do it, other days I can't. I'm not beating myself up over it. I accept that it is hard and I'm pleased that I manage it some of the time. Eating mindfully is all about connecting your mind and body. You listen to your body, to what it needs. You can eat what you want when you want it, so long as you stop when you have had enough.

When I started eating mindfully I got terribly upset. After years of being told what not to eat, what to eat, when to eat it, you are free to eat anything and I found it unbelievably stressful. I wasn't sure I could do it. I didn't know which way was up for a while. My conscious mind could not cope with this freedom. When Dawn asked me to eat what I wanted for a week, I freaked out, but I tried it and managed it for two days.

I'm still not fully eating mindfully. I'm still going to Slimming World and pretty much following their eating plan. This is causing a conflict, but I don't yet feel confident enough to walk away from regular weigh-ins. I'm worried if I stop going I'll put back on all the weight I have lost, even though I know there is another way.

I expect to talk about this with Dawn the next time we Skype. In between these sessions Dawn is always available via email and she has been incredibly supportive.

Sorry I couldn't be clearer about how it's going. In summary I would say that the Weight Loss Coaching is going brilliantly well, but I don't feel cured yet.


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Weight Loss Coaching - Six Weeks In

How to Gain Eleven Pounds in Seven Days

Want to know how to gain eleven pounds in seven days? The answer is to go on a diet.

There are not many things I really and truly hate, but I detest diets. I've either been on a diet or thinking I should be on a diet since I was nine years old. That's thirty four years of misery and guilt. Thirty four years of yo-yo dieting. Thirty four years of disappointment and self-loathing.

I was hoping to be able to write a ta daaaa! post, with before and after photographs, showing how much weight I had lost. But my latest attempt to become fitter, healthier - and smaller - has crashed and burned.

I'd spent a good few years saying that diets didn't work (if they did work, I'd be a size 10) and I was never going to diet again, but I was getting fatter and fatter. I had to do something. I'd tried Thinking Slimmer. Some of my behaviours surrounding food and exercise had changed, but I didn't lose any weight. I'd been seeing a Cognitive Hypnotherapist and she did help me to break through some of the mental barriers that I'd put up, the ones that I'd built up over the years, the ones that prevented me from losing weight. So then I was ready to lose weight. I joined Slimming World last October .

The first four months at Slimming World were great. I found that the eating plan suited me, as did the group support. As well as losing three stones, I lost the headaches and the heartburn of the binge eater.

Then I got ill with pneumonia, pleurisy and sepsis. After a few days of illness, a week in hospital, and a scary first few days at home, I'd lost another stone.

It was important to me to get back to Slimming World as quickly as I could, but more important to eat well after my health scare. I followed the plan, but my weight loss had stopped. I had reached the dreaded dieter's plateau. Despite eating healthily I stayed at the same weight for two months. I haven't been able to exercise at all, my recovery from serious illness is slow and I have to rest most of the time. Even so, I would have expected some small weight losses.

A few weeks ago I went for my weekly weigh-in to find that I had gained a pound and a half. I had followed the diet plan to the letter that week. The disappointment I felt prompted a week off the plan. Six months is a long time to stick to an eating plan, even one as simple as Slimming World. I didn't go crazy - we eat healthy, balanced meals as a family - although I did eat white toast with butter, chocolate and biscuits. I ate all the things I fancied, but hadn't really had for a while. Mmm, pizza.

I gained a whopping eleven pounds in that week off the plan.

I didn't think it was possible to gain that amount of weight in a week. I went straight back on the plan for five days but only lost a measly two pounds. Since then, for a week or so, I've been binge eating. Out of control. Eating everything in sight. I can't stop. I have continuous headaches and heartburn. I'm bloated. I haven't weighed myself. I daren't weigh myself. I hate myself.

Where do I go from here?

If I go back to Slimming World, I'll feel a big fat failure every week as I can't seem to control my eating right now.

If I stop dieting I'll end up bigger than I was before. I hate being the biggest mum at the school gates. I hate being an unhealthy, out of breath, lumbering, unfanciable lump. Fat cow. Lazy fat cow. Stupid fat cow.



As this was a rant of epic proportions, I've linked up with Mummy Barrow's Ranty Friday:




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How to Gain Eleven Pounds in Seven Days

The Banana Test

How do you feel when you see a fruit bowl?

Does it make you want to reach for an apple or would you rather have an apple pie?

I'd like to share with you my top tip for healthy eating.

In our house we use The Banana Test to determine how hungry we are. The basic theory behind the test is that if you are genuinely hungry, you'll happily eat a banana. If you're just peckish or you fancy a biscuit, you won't. If it's the latter, you don't need that unhealthy snack.

We use The Banana Test with the children all the time. They're pretty good at eating their 5-a-day at mealtimes, but they are young boys and they love biscuit based snacks. If it's close to a meal, or nearly bedtime and they ask for something to eat we offer them a banana. If they're really hungry, they'll eat the banana.

Andy and I use The Banana Test too. Rather than reaching for crisps or biscuits we head for the fruit bowl, and we're feeling much better for it.

In our house, as you can imagine, we get through a lot of bananas, apples, clementines, grapes....

I wonder whether we can keep this up over the festive season.

Have you tried The Banana Test?

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The Banana Test