Simple Start Day 4

Hello everyone. I'm getting on really well with the Simple Start plan from weight watchers. I know it's best to only weigh yourself once a week but I couldn't resist a sneaky little peak this morning and I've lost 3.5lb already! I'm aiming for an excellent weight loss of 5lb or so this week to spur me on.

The Simple Start  (SS) plan is similar to Filling & Healthy (F&H) in that you choose foods from the approved list and don't have to weigh or count anything, and you eat until you're comfortably satisfied. SS is different to F&H in that with SS you get a least of treats that you can have and you can have up to 2 per day.

I was supposed to be going out on Friday night so was going to have 2 vodkas with diet coke but I haven't been feeling too well so I stayed in. I'm feeling a bit better today and I'm off to my Zumba class this afternoon.

Thursday, day 1, I had shredded wheat with skimmed milk for breakfast. For lunch I made a tuna and new potato salad with spring onions, sweetcorn, lettuce and tomato. For tea I had some stir-fried vegetables with some kidney beans and sweetcorn served with whole wheat pasta and followed by some slices of melon. In between meals I snacked on 2 bananas, a boiled egg, some seafood sticks, a Starbucks tall, skinny cappuccino and for my treat I had a weight watchers rich toffee bar. They're available to buy in meetings and just 2 ProPoints (PP) each. I love them and I knew I had to buy a pack at my first meeting back! I go to Starbucks quite often and I'm glad I can have a skinny cappuccino or skinny latte on the SS plan.

Friday's breakfast was a sachet of the weight watchers porridge oats. They're also available from the meetings. I'd never tried them before and they were in a SS pack so I decided to give them a go. I had some blueberries with them. It was ok. Fast for when you're in a hurry and they're handy little things to stick in your bag if you end up staying out overnight. You don't even need to add skimmed milk as they've got skimmed milk powder in them so you just add water. I prefer the taste of porridge I cook myself from oats but these are very convenient and no doubt I'll buy some again.

Friday's lunch was a sandwich of boiled egg mashed up with low fast natural yogurt, some fresh chives and slat and pepper on weight watchers brown bread followed with a banana. For tea I had a salmon fillet, fried in Fry Light spray, with whole wheat cous cous and some tinned tomatoes, onion and red pepper. I snacked on a banana, blueberries, grapes, a boiled egg and my treat was a scoop of low fat vanilla ice cream.

Saturday's breakfast was the same as Thursday's, shredded wheat with blueberries and skimmed milk. Saturday morning I tried a cup of Twinings Caramelised Apple Green Tea. I'd seen it on Slice of Slim's blog. It sounded nice and it was!

For dinner (that's what us geordies call lunch) I made Succotash from the recipe in the SS book, which is also available on the weight watcher's website here, although I'm not sure if it can be viewed by non-subscribers. Here is a picture I took of it after I made it.

I didn't know Succotash was a dish. I thought it was just a made up word from Sylvester from Looney Toons saying "sufferin' succotash" but it is a dish made from sweetcorn and beans. I like to stick to a recipe as faithfully as I can the first time I make it then adapt it more after that so I followed the recipe as set out. I'm not a big fan of butter beans; I just don't like their texture, so I think next time I make it I'll use different beans. It was fun to make and really tasty so I'm sure I'll make it again. This version has bacon in but I could easily omit the bacon to make a vegan version and serve it as a side dish if I cook for my parents.

Saturday afternoon my Dad and I went to the balloon shop to sort out the balloons for my birthday party, then we called into Starbucks and I had a tall, skinny latte. My Mam wasn't feeling well still so didn't come with us. We got her a takeout soy latte and brought it home for her.

Saturday night I still wasn't feeling the best so I stayed in and watched Twilight and New Moon with my parents. I made Tzatziki from 0% fat Greek yogurt, grated cucumber and fresh mint and dipped vegetable sticks in it. For tea I had the other salmon fillet served with whole wheat pasta in a sauce I made from yogurt, garlic, onions and mushrooms. For my treats I had a small glass of dry white wine and a weight watcher toffee bar.

Back to Weight Watchers, Day -1

Hello everyone, I'm sorry I've been slacking at updating my blog. I always seem to feel too busy or too tired, I just need to get into the habit of doing it. But Spring is definitely on it's way (in my opinion as I believe Spring starts on 21st March, but if you ask my Dad he'll say it started on 1st March!) and with the sunshine and lighter evenings I've found renewed energy and motivation!

So, I'm re-joining Weight Watchers again tomorrow evening. I'll be starting the plan on Thursday morning, so that will be "Day 1" so tomorrow will be "Day 0" which makes today "Day -1"! There's a new system you can follow in the beginning called Simple Start. It seems to be similar to the filling & healthy plan. I always lost the most when I did filling & healthy most days then had a few days doing pro points.

Zumba is going well. I really love it and have been to 12 classes so far. I hurt my ankle so stopped going for a week then I went back for a week which made my ankle hurt more so I gave myself a 2 week break from it and in my 2nd week of my break my ankle didn't hurt at all. I went back on Wednesday last week and then I did Monday night and my ankle hurt slightly yesterday. I was originally doing it in my fashion trainers from River Island which probably weren't supporting my feet that well but I've got some good, supportive Nike trainers now. I've only worn them the last 2 classes and they did make my toes feel funny but I think I may have had them laced too tight. I hope slackening them off means they will be more comfortable; it's too much money to spend on a pair of shoes I'll never wear, especially considering they're not even very pretty!

I've read 8 books this year so far so I'm making good progress at my 50 book target for the year. I was slightly behind but then I read all 3 books in The Hunger Games Trilogy in the last week. I really loved the series and couldn't put the books down, especially the last book because I had no idea what was coming, whereas I've seen the first two films. However, I did feel a bit disappointed with the final book, Mockingjay. I won't say too much in case you've not read it yet, but I think it felt a bit rushed and left a lot of things unanswered.

As for Project Life, I haven't even started it! I keep forgetting to take pictures! I think I'll start it with my birthday and then if I keep it up I can do one album for each year of my life from each birthday to the next, rather than one album for each calendar year.