Chips 'n' gravy.

The phone rings.... my daughter......"going to the chippy, want anything?"

"No thanks"

WHAT??? Seriously....WHAT? Who said that? Can't have been me.

It was, and what resulted was me watching them eat chips with gravy (It's a Northern thing) while my broccoli was steaming.

It should be law that whenever someone is on a diet, the whole family has to diet, NOT eat chips & gravy. What would have been worse if it had have been chips, cheese & gravy (that's a Northern thing too - but don't knock it ill you've tried it). I love that, melty cheese dripping with rich gravy (veggie gravy of course)

Photo stolen from the internet

Do you know whats even worse than worse? THEY LEFT SOME!!

Forgive the capital letters, it's my belly talking, my mind is being very angelic and healthy, my belly doesn't agree, it's shouting at me - chips, cheese, gravy, scabby donkey..... Oh, hang on, I'm a vegetarian, just the scabs then, sprinkled on top of the cheese.

I've felt it today, those shakes just make me hungry, my stomach has been touching my spine all day. My Mallory Belt got so loose it just fell right off when I was walking (you know that's a lie, right?)

I've just devoured my Moroccan chickpea tagine & broccoli in about 4 mouthfuls.

This is a side plate, a largish side plate mind, so although it looks like a decent portion, it's not. At least not for me, but I have to say it tasted delicious. I've certainly no complaints about the flavours of these foods, I just think I need to pad them out with some more veggies.

I have a shake left today, I will be taking care not to mix it with coffee.

Those buggers are eating chocolate now. Horrid little trolls.

ps: The Amazon links are affiliated  if you click and buy I might get a few pennies.  Just so you know :)

Weight To Go

Along with the Malory Band I bought this week, I thought I would kick start my diet/healthy eating with

a box of prepared diet food from Weight To Go.

Normally I wouldn't use something like this, but because Hubster is away and I have only myself to cook for, I thought it would be an ideal time to see if this kind of thing works or not.

It came highly recommended by someone I know who lost a lot of weight on this system, and it was half price for the first week - £30 - so I thought it was too good an opportunity to miss.

It's based on shakes, soups and an evening meal - all supplied in one box delivery, along with snack bars. 

You get to choose the food and you get 21 shakes, 7 bars, 7 soups and 7 meals.

I started it today,  goodbye cheese, it's been nice knowing you.

I started the day with a shake, vanilla.

I think I whipped it up a little too much, I had to eat it with a spoon! But it tasted nice.  But was that it?  Half a wine glass full of sweet froth?  Breakfast?  Hang on though, it's more breakfast than I usually eat, so it should do the trick.

The idea is to have SHAKE - SOUP - SHAKE - MEAL - SHAKE with the bar somewhere in-between in case of hunger.

Well, it certainly got my tummy rumbling.  So at 12.15pm before going out to work I had another shake, strawberry.  This one was more like a smoothie, very yummy indeed.

As I was leaving the house 10 mins later, I grabbed one of the snack bars, just in case I got a bit shaky later on.  I ate that 3 minutes later at the first traffic light I got stuck at.  Now this is me who doesn't really snack, or eat chocolate, but I really enjoyed that peanut puffy bar thing.

Back at home at 4.30pm I was really starting to feel the hunger, so I had a soup.

A much thinner consistency than I would normally make my home-made soups, but it was very tasty.  And I would normally have a couple of thick slices of wholemeal seeded bread to dunk in it so it didn't really fill me up. By now my hunger had kicked in and I couldn't wait for dinner!

Dinner came at 6.30pm, carrot and coriander curry, which I added a baked tomato and some mange tout to.  I put it on a small plate as it would have looked lost on my normal dinner plates, and ate it a little too quickly.  I could have happily eaten it all again, twice over.  But there lies my problem, and I know it!

I was still hungry when I put my fork down, but the taste of the food was very satisfying, just needed a bigger portion.  However, after about half an hour I stopped feeling hungry and could happily get on with my evening feeling quite satiated.

At 11.30pm I realised I still had a shake left to have, so I had it mixed with warm coffee as a latte style bedtime drink  as suggested in the accompanying booklet.

IT WAS RANK!

It stayed lumpy, it had the texture of vomit & the powdery bits were nasty on the tongue, three mouthfuls I managed before tipping it down the sink.  Shan't be trying that again in a hurry!

I brushed my teeth instead and went to bed.

Will let you know the result at the end of the week  :)

You can find all the details, plus the half price offer, HERE on the Weight To Go website.  Tell them I sent you by using this code (RF09A (Sue Simmons)) and I will get £5.00 worth of M&S Vouchers, and you will get £5.00 off your first order  :)

The Malory Band

Hi, I am Sooz, a serial dieter - and diet hater.

I've done 'em all over the years, Weight Watchers, Slimming World, Cabbage Soup, Peanut Butter & Green Beans (yeah, really!!), Atkins, Slim Fast to name but a few.

Time has come to jump back on the diet train and have another go.  Age is creeping up on me and I find my knees aching, my back aching, my lungs struggling and my blood pressure is high. What's next I ask myself, and that is exactly what I DON'T want to find out.

Actually, let me explain my diet habits, I am sure they can be picked apart and reasons given to why I am overweight. (coz I don't already know!!)  Breakfast only happens if someone makes me it, if it is left to me I forget.  Mornings bring a need for caffeine and a two bagger brew, they do not bring a craving for food.  Lunch time I am usually trotting off to work and still not feeling the need for food very much.  Work days will find me eating around 4.30pm when I get home, ravenous at that point - usually Marmite (or something) on toast.  Then a big evening meal, on a large plate, full to the brim.  No snacks, no puds, no sugary drinks.  I don't eat packets of jaffa cakes in one sitting, I don't snack on crisps or biscuits during the day, in fact they don't even get into my house.  I don't crave chocolate and I don't secret eat.  I just eat BIG meals and the wrong stuff.

My tastebuds demand flavour, the only flavour that fat, sugar and salt will produce within a meal.  Think curries, think tagines, think cheese.  Uh oh, cheese, my downfall.  Especially halloumi (half a block at a time), fried in olive oil with herbs.  Nom nom.  Being vegetarian often has me reaching for cheese.

We eat out a lot too, it's our naughty habit.  It's become a standing joke between family and friends how often we eat out.  Indian is our favourite, followed by Italian..... you're getting the picture?  Side-by-side with eating out comes the alcohol....Red Wine.  I LOVE this stuff, but I am fussy, I am no alchie you know.  It has to be black red, like blood, New World and a bottle.  No messing about with small, medium or large for me - bottle.

So, I might not snack, I might not eat until late afternoon, but when I do I eat badly and drink badly.

Hubster has been working away and I have been socialising quite a lot, then there was the 10 day holiday - not just eating out every evening, but lunchtimes and breakfasts too!  Now, I am feeling it.

Ahh, there is some medication I take too that doesn't help, but let's not get bogged down with excuses  ;)

A fortnight ago, after a lovely meal out with friends and copious amounts of wine, I earned myself a four day hangover.  Now, my hangovers, when I have been silly enough to get one, have been stretching to two-dayers of later, but a four-dayer was completely unnecessary, what on earth was that about?  Still, it put me off drinking for a while, 17 days in fact so far.  Even the holiday in Cornwall didn't tempt me to drink, and it was at that point that I thought I need to do something. I need to ........ d... d... d... d... dddd... ddddd.. dddd... DIET !

Being the believer in miracle cures that I am (I know, I know) I read about this band in a magazine - The Mallory Band.  Basically it is a bit of string with a button on it, you tie it around your waist and wear it all the time so you can feel when you are getting fatter, or thinner as hopefully the case will be.

Sounds simple doesn't it?  I likened it to the elastic band therapy in my head.  You wear an elastic band around your wrist and snap it when you want to eat (or drink, or gamble, or look at naughty pictures on the internet).  In theory, very good, in reality, it would hurt, I would cry, then get a biscuit to cheer myself up!

I thought about making one, crochet a chain?  But the material needed to be waterproof, chaff-proof, comfy, non-stretch...... I just bought one, it was only the price of a meal out  ;) - £25 ish.

Well, here is it, I wanted to be excited, but I just feel like it's going to be like a ball and chain - good, that's good right?

Nice packaging, wonder if they have the same packing supplier as iPhone.  That could be where some of the £25 goes.

Posh little bag to keep it in when it's not being worn - hang on..... you're supposed to wear it all the time.  Useless little bag then.  Actually, they should ditch the box and just sent the belt in the bag, saves money on packaging which can be passed onto the purchaser (I was going to say 'consumer' but thought it might throw up jokes about me eating it!!) and on postage.  Would knock at least a fiver off the price I would have thought.

The dude itself, see?  String.

Actually, I like it, it feels nice, it feels expensive and I do like it.

I followed the instructions and fitted it.  There is NO WAY ON EARTH that I am showing you a photo of my belly, so here is a nice image of a nice flat tummy and the band.

My band was a slightly longer one than that, when I say longer, I mean double the length.

It felt nice and smooth, I fitted it to feel like a slightly tight waistband, which is a bugger when I sit down as I have to breath in - but that's another selling point, it is supposed to help your posture.  I am not sure about how it looks when I sit like that though, I am sure it just looks like I am holding in a fart.

So, it's on, it's in place, it feels ok, I know it's there, it hasn't stopped me overeating yet as I am not overeating this week - that's a whole new blog post (coming soon), and I am currently sitting down without it feeling tight as I have pushed it up over my fat belly and it's sitting just under my boobies. - THAT'S how you cheat  ;)

Obviously it has to be used with a healthy eating plan so I am trying another diet along side, blog post following soon.

Will keep you up to date on the results.

ps: The Amazon links are affiliated  if you click and buy I might get a few pennies.  Just so you know :)

edited to add:  Slept in it last night, didn't feel it at all.