Too little too late

I think I was very clear about wanting snow so I could work from home...  So of course it waited till Saturday when I actually had no work and my own plans to be out and about...  Also it's wet and sleety not soft and fluffy. So not much happening today. Except getting my hair cut the now. Wish me luck!

Crap day apart from the walking

The snow - such as it was - was gone by the time I clawed my way out of bed this morning so I had no excuse to work from home. And morale at the office was so low this morning I really really wished I had. I wasn't directly affected myself, but you wouldn't believe (unless you work in an office) how much time was spent this morning on rehashing certain events that took place yesterday. Because nothing fixes a struggling project like pi$$ing off all the staff and uniting them in resentment...
Ah well, today was not a brilliant day.  The morning was, as above, full of hostility and anger. In the afternoon I was told my contract was probably not going to be extended. Which is not a calamity given I have a possible lead already on another job, but still isn't lots of fun. And I was starving. So I had a Bounty.
After work I blew off some steam with a second (dry)walk and I admit it, a bit of booze. Now, one beer later, I'm feeling more relaxed. And at least it's the weekend... Here's some more photos from my lunchtime walk as the evening one wasn't very picturesque...

Food today:
Breakfast: eggs scrambled with veg and some homemade gf bread
Lunch: soup
Dinner: bolognese sauce on cabbagetti
Snacks: Chicken liver pate with chopped veg; yogurt.

Healthy Body || Inspired by Carmen of MyNaturalSistas

I'm a former athlete who's officially out of shape.  For years, I weighed 123 lbs then went up to a steady 135 lbs, which wasn't too bad.  Now?  I'm a whopping 150 lbs.  Mind you, I'm only 5'4".  It feels like I gained the weight overnight.  One morning I woke up and just couldn't fit my jeans anymore.

Anyway, my goal to lose weight actually started a couple months ago.  I was able to get down to 143 lbs with consistent calorie counting and exercise, but I gained it all back and some, hitting 152 lbs at my highest.  Since then, I've seen a nutritionist and gotten a few tips concerning my eating.  Also, I came across Carmen's weight loss photo (above) and was inspired to sign up for a membership at my local gym.  I want my toned body back!  I WILL get my toned body back.  Lol.

Carmen details her weight loss journey in the video below: 

Took a lunchtime walk...

The weather turned on me! Lovely sunshine when I left, and in under an hour icy rain, clouds and a bitter wind.
But still no snow.

The canal towpath was sloppy and slippery underfoot - with plenty of massive puddles to dodge - and my back decided to ache all the way. Still glad I went through - fresh air (and it was really fresh!), a bit of exercise and a break from my desk that I badly needed.

Protective Style Lookbook || Twisted Updo on Natural Hair

By popular demand, this is a series showcasing various protective hair styles.  Protective styling does not have to be boring. :o)

Model: Chiaka

Difficulty level: 2/5

Description: Side flat twists and front twists rolled and pinned into an updo.

as I said... Today was a better day

My little diet meltdown yesterday has me considering my options regarding the antidepressants I'm taking. I was already considering weaning myself off them following our house move (I thought it would be a bad idea to do it before then given my well established stressed /depressed reaction to moving house) as I don't want to spend years on them again. But if I can feel so low while taking them - and be driven to binge as self-medication while taking them - maybe I should bring that forward so I'm not taking ineffective chemicals with side effects any longer than necessary. I can buy a lot of chocolate and cake for the price of a prescription after all. I'm not going to leap into a knee jerk reaction, I don't know if I would have been suicidal rather than bingeicidal without the pills, and obviously I will have to come off them gradually rather than cold turkey if that's my decision, but I'm kind of in favour at the moment.
I was right about today being better! I didn't even eat all the food I'd taken to work, and only snacked on fruit. I didn't get a proper walk because I had to go to the post office, which didn't bother me that much given how cold it was.
And on the subject of cold, I requested enough snow to provide an excuse to work from home...  I got a piddling little sleet shower as I drove home, and arrived to approximately 2 mm of snow on the back lawn. Pathetic...

Food today:
Breakfast: hard boiled egg salad made with homemade garlic mayo; fruit
Lunch: prawn mayo salad with salad veg
Dinner: chicken stuffed with philadelphia and sun dried tomatoes and sweet potato fries. Oh, and sauerkraut.
Snacks: fruit

Coco-nutty Granola

Ingredients

•       3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted.
•       3 cupscoconut flakes.
•       2 cupsunsalted mixed nuts, roughly chopped.
•       2 tablespoons chia seeds.
•       1 teaspoonground cinnamon, optional.
•       1/2 cupfull-fat natural yoghurt or milk to serve.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 120�C / 250�F / Gas Mark � and line a baking tray with baking/parchment paper.
2. Combine all ingredients thoroughly in a bowl, then spread evenly on the tray
3. Bake for about 20-25 minutes until golden, turning halfway through the cooking time. The darker is, the crunchier it will be.
4. 
   
   
5. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
6. Store it in an airtight container in the pantry for up to 2 weeks (or in the freezer for even longer!).

Note: 2 Tablespoons = 1 serve

Linseed Grain Free Gluten Free Bread

Ingredients

• 100 g Linseed ( Ground )
• 100g Ground almonds
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• dash of almond milk

Method

1. 1. Mix the dry ingredients, linseed, almonds and baking powder into a bowl.
2. 2. Add the eggs and almond milk.
3. 3. Mix until combined.
4. 4. Place in a lined/greased baking loaf tin.
5. 5. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 200degC.

Serve warm :-)

Strawberry Mousse Sorbet

Ingredients

• 8-10 Frozen strawberries
• handful chopped walnuts
• teaspoon agave (optional)
• 1/2 Avocado
• 1 Tbsp coconut cream
• 1/4 cup coconut milk

Method

1. Place all ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth.
2. Remove and place mixture in a bowl/cup
3. Serve with chopped walnuts :-)

This can also be frozen and consumed at a later date if its not all eaten up :-)

Walnut Blitz Bites

Ingredients

• 20 dates
• 1 cup walnuts
• 1/2 desiccated coconut
• 1 Tbsp cacao
• 1 Tbsp melted coconut oil
• 1 Tbsp agave/honey

Method

1. In a blender mix all the ingredients together until a pulp / ball is formed.
2. Spread out the mixture into a lined sheet
3. Place in the fridge/freezer to set.
4. Once set ; cut into bars/bite sizes.
5. Freeze the remainder.

Enjoy :-)

Today WILL be better...

I have to admit something, in a little whisper so that any roaming diet police can't hear me...
Yesterday having a binge DID help. I felt happier while eating all that crap and calmer afterwards and today I don't feel as miserable as I did. I know the usual statement after a binge is one of regret, shame, guilt and so forth, all of which I have often posted about, but this time...  It made me feel better, and now I feel like it's out of my system, which is why today will be better.

Sugar. (literally)

I crumpled like a paper bag.
The mind and body were both weak.
Damn
Damn
Damn damn damn DAMN
Please excuse my language - but I'm upset. Frustrated. Annoyed. And all round not happy.
Dreadful weather prevented any real walk at lunchtime. (although didn't stop me popping to the nearest shop to buy binge fodder) A request to let someone view the current rental house tomorrow means housework will prevent an after work walk. And housework... Well, there's no better reason I can think of for a bad mood. Especially following a rubbish day at work and a binge.
Aaaaaaarrggggghhhhhh.

Oh well. Thanks Deniz & Roxie for your support!

I want to binge

Really really a lot

Bring on the snow

Dreary weather did not stop me walking today, and yes, of course, I feel better for it. I didn't want to shop so I just explored somewhere I hadn't been before. It was fairly pleasant although also quite bleak, as you can see.

But just going somewhere a bit different was nice for a change. (you'd never guess the M4 is just the other side of those trees, would you?)
I'm feeling a bit less blah today so I think it was mostly TTOM yesterday. Not that that's over - I'm still retaining water and feeling gross, but the more general weeping for the world's woes is returning to a slightly more normal level - sympathy rather than despair sums it up I think.
I'm still sick of the rubbish weather though, and torn between not wanting snow because it's a pain and wanting snow so I can plead working from home on safety grounds... Yes, OK, mostly I want it to snow :-)
I'm still continuing with the desultory packing of stuff we won't need before the move.  Some boxes, but mostly black bin bags so far. And speaking of, does anyone know a foolproof way to open black bin bags, because the first few on the roll came open quite easily but I swear the last two weren't bags, just single sheets of plastic even though that can't be true. I ended up chucking them at the wall, which surprisingly also failed to open them.

Food today:
Breakfast: scrambled eggs with vegetables
Lunch: curried Cauliflower soup
Dinner: big salad with Paleo Carnitas
Snacks: yogurt, homemade pork rinds, fruit

Stomach cramps and gummy bears

Well, my weekend was a bit mixed. I did a reasonable amount of walking on Saturday, less yesterday, I ate OK on Saturday, not so well yesterday, drank a bit - more than I intended - Saturday, less yesterday...  I hardly slept Saturday night and had stomach cramps all morning yesterday, which is responsible for quite a bit of the above. And the gummy bears.  However I also had a productive day yesterday in particular with a trip to the recycling centre to get rid of quite a bit of rubbish, some household chores including scouring the door seal of a washing machine (woo hoo - partay!!!) , and a bit of light packing for the move - getting started at a gentle pace to reduce the panic when we get to doing it for real. Plus I started to watch The Expendables 3 and (according to M) gave up on it just as it got good. I don't seem to have the attention span to watch movies at the moment, unless they catch me really early.
This morning I passionately wanted to pull the covers over my head and refuse to get out of bed when my alarm went off. It must be because of the dark mornings, but I'm seriously struggling with the whole getting out of bed thing these days as never before. I made it only after wrestling with myself for 2 minutes but still kind of wish I hadn't bothered, despite the morning actually passing quite quickly - every time I looked at the clock an hour or more had passed whereas usually it seems as though the clock is going backwards.
I tried going out for a lunchtime walk today (staying on paths because we've had rain) but cut it short due to a nasty cold wind. It felt quite unsatisfying but when I got back and checked my pedometer it was better than I had thought - about a mile and a half instead of the usual 2 miles. If I'd managed to get myself out again after work I could have made up the difference...  But nah.
I have to say I've been feeling quite down lately - probably just due to stressing out a bit over the upcoming house move, but as a result things like sad or horrible news stories, sad blogs, even sad fiction and unpleasant weather are upsetting me at the moment. Could be a bit of TTOM as well I guess. TTOM and SAD or maybe I'm just a self-centred depressive.

Oh well.  Food today good. Work not terrible. Exercise lacking. No nytol because I'm worried about Alzheimers. Let's see how I sleep tonight...

Food today:
Breakfast: boiled eggs with gf soldiers
Lunch: hot and sour soup
Dinner: big salad with roast gammon

Snacks: homemade pork rinds, toasted coconut

What a lovely day...

Hopefully I finally figured out how to add photos when posting on my phone and you can see what a lovely walk I had at lunchtime. (please someone tell me if it didn't work) I didn't have any shopping to do and didn't feel like walking the canal bank twice in a week so instead I went to a little nature reserve less than a mile from the office, where I walked once around the lake before returning to work. About 3 miles in 53 minutes - I was slowed down quite a lot by the slippery conditions underfoot, as there were patches of icy frozen mud in the more exposed areas and areas of slippery wet mud under the trees. There were moments when I thought I might end up taking a mud bath :-)  Probably not the best choice for a walk at this time of year but it was so peaceful and sunny it was well worth the risk. Apart from when a Chinook flew overhead (low) and made a hideous racket for a couple of minutes, completely drowning out the coots, ducks and other birds. I'm pretty sure it was warmer out by that lake than it was in the office this morning - but it seemed to get warm in the afternoon so hopefully that signals they fixed the heating, rather than the equally likely explanation that the office was being heated by lots of PCs - and a really lot of hot air... 
I walked again after work, doing a little shopping (man, Tesco is annoying on a Friday evening) and in total clocked up over 5 miles today - which makes me feel less guilty about not getting on the climber yet. I was a bit naughty this evening - I had a couple of beers - but Friday night kind of screams out for beer,  or booze anyway, don't you think? (and if you don't think, you don't work...) 

Food today :
Breakfast: bacon and eggs 
Lunch: chopped veg with homemade prawn dip followed by a small natural yogurt 
Dinner: Liver and Onions, mash & green beans 
Snacks: braeburn apple, Cashew butter 

Motivated. Ish

My first day of weighing food today got things off to a good start, although I had to keep reminding myself. I'm pretty sure I'll be back to taking it for granted soon enough. But it's not very interesting so I won't go on about it.  I also weighed myself, which was horrible and depressing and almost made me swallow my own tongue. It also had some motivational quality though; we'd talked about eating out today (which would have included booze of course) but we decided to stay in and I cooked healthy stuff, for a meal that was cheaper, more diet friendly and didn't involve any alcohol. A victory for both of us!
I worked  from home today and as usual spent the whole day reaching new levels of sedentaryness - working mostly in bed. I wanted to do more and actually changed into training gear at lunchtime but as I went to get on the machine I felt a stabbing pain that convinced me not to. Instead I made some gf bread rolls with Tapioca flour and did some laundry before returning to work. After work however I actually managed to leave the house, unlike my usual total apathy. I didn't walk a vast distance but I did enjoy stretching my legs.
When I work from home I generally put something undemanding on the TV for company, and today was a complete blast from the past - I watched Grease!!  Talk about guilty pleasures... There's a possibility that somebody tone deaf with a voice like a dying crow even sang along with a few songs... I can neither confirm nor deny :-) But Summer Lovin' might burn off some calories even without dancing.  Maybe. I also tried to reclaim some credibility with Game of Thrones, which did not inspire singing of any kind.

Food today :
Breakfast: homemade butternut squash soup with an egg cooked in it
Lunch: homemade cream of (dried) mushroom soup; homemade gf roll with a tiny bit of cheese
Dinner: chicken salad - a couple of very small chicken thighs with Kale, romaine, and all the normal stuff. And homemade dressing.
Snacks: Greek yogurt, toasted coconut flakes, a little cashew butter.

Yes, a walk does always make things better

Well, it's been a grey and humid day today but a good 5 or 6 degrees warmer than yesterday and that,  combined with the silly portable heaters, meant that no coats or wooly hats were required in the office today - phew!  Also they've given in and decided to fix the heating so an engineer will be coming tomorrow. I was thisclose to working from home today (and still may tomorrow since the forecast overnight and early tomorrow is pretty cold and of course the heating will be completely off while it's fixed) but I was quite glad I didn't as I got in a lunch walk with conversation and that's worth driving in for! You know I love walking anyway but when it's a fairly tired route I've done a million times and there are time constraints preventing exploration having company makes the whole thing more enjoyable, apparently less effort (even though we walk just as fast) and therefore more refreshing.
OK, that's enough positivity for now, on to more sobering thoughts.
I've decided that although I fully intend to remain lower carb (ignore the slip up below) and follow the Perfect Health Diet I need to reintroduce an old diet habit that most proponents of both say is not necessary, but I think I need it -  namely the food scale. I used to be obsessive about weighing all my meals but got out of the habit months and months ago and I'm definitely feeling that portion creep has resulted. The other side of weighing food, of course, is recording it - so I'll also be dusting off my subscription to myfitnesspal.com. I know I do record what I eat on here, but if I say chicken salad you couldn't tell from this blog if it was 100g of lean chicken breast or a whole deep fried chicken in that salad - so I need to be a bit more specific somewhere. Starting tomorrow :-).  I keep making recipes up, especially for soups, without weighing any of the ingredients, which makes it hard to work out the calories of course.  Must. Stop. Doing. That. Bad Chrissie!  Bad! Hopefully getting back into that habit will help since I appear to be the only person who ever lived that is perfectly capable of eating vast quantities of fat & protein without genuinely feeling satiated (though possibly bored) - and don't even get me started on my appetite for carbs once I get going. Bloat no object. But I am soooooo sick of being the size I am (and feeling worse at present because every time I trawl through the cupboards looking for things to sell / dump / donate I find more clothes I loved wearing at my lowest weight but can't wear now...)
Oh yes.  I should probably take the terrifying step of reinstating the weigh ins as well.  Crap. Don't wanna!!!

Food today :
Breakfast: scrambled eggs with bacon and leftover veggies from last night's dinner
Lunch: homemade cream of (dried) mushroom soup; bag of crisps
Dinner: Pork tenderloin marinated in mustard - balsamic marinade with veggies
Snacks: Greek yogurt, toasted coconut flakes, cashews

Brrrr

The air con at work is broken AGAIN - and last night was, as far as I know, the coldest so far this year (in Berkshire - I know it's still not in the same ballpark as Scotland). My car told me it was - 2.5 on my drive this morning. I put my coat ON when I got into work. What's wrong with that picture???
As you can probably imagine there was far more talk about the temperature than about the work this morning, at least for the first few hours. The rumour is the company is trying to save money by waiting to repair /replace the system. They should consider how much they could save be letting everyone work from home, if you ask me. Which they don't. Of course I'm biased as I'd love to work from home at least 2 or 3 days a week.
Ah well. Rant over.
About lunchtime it warmed up enough to take off my coat and scarf, thanks to the facilities guys driving to the nearest supermarket and buying half a dozen little table top electric heaters to fit around the office. I didn't have the energy for a walk so I just read a book through lunch. I now kind of wish I had gone out, but just didn't feel it today. After work I was almost as lazy, spending my time in the kitchen instead of the climber /out walking. At least I was standing up rather than spending more time on my ass. And I got a batch of mayonnaise, a dijon mustard marinade and some mushroom soup out of it as well. And in the process used up odds and ends not worth dragging to the other house - a jar of mustard and half a bag of dried mushrooms to be precise. I know it doesn't sound like much, but every little helps and it  me as well. Which I needed after another crap night's sleep last night - nytol tonight I think.

Food today :
Breakfast: scrambled eggs with bacon and green pepper
Lunch: homemade cream of butternut squash soup; chopped veg with homemade prawn dip
Dinner: beef stew with veg
Snacks: homemade pork rinds, fruit and...  I confess..  A Bounty.

I should probably buy some more vitamin D

I was kind of down at the weekend - no special reason, just that generally out of sorts not really happy feeling that I hope I'm not the only person to feel, but it meant I felt even more antisocial than usual and spent a lot of it alone lying on the bed (I even had a nap on Saturday - probably the high point of the weekend) or in the kitchen. Some of the kitchen time was productive - quite a bit of cooking - some of it wasn't - quite a bit of picking, nibbling, grazing....
This morning I really wanted to have a lie in after sleeping quite badly but we had to do a bit of a house tidy because our letting agent was bringing someone around to look at the place while we're at work so I didn't have the time. Possibly not a bad thing, since I usually feel better if I take the plunge and just get up instead of lingering in bed.
It was at least a nice day - bloody cold of course, but bright sunshine all morning making me actually want to go out for a walk. As I am trying to cut out the 75000 extra quick trips to the shops I seem to make every week (in an attempt to cut back on food - and general grocery - spending), I didn't go to the supermarket as usual but instead headed away from town to the canal path to see how it was coping with the rain we had last week or thereabouts. It was really rather lovely, though walking to the supermarket with a colleague a few times has spoilt me and I slightly missed the company. The water was pretty high, and the sky was cloudless blue, with brilliant sunshine, but no real warmth so I was able to walk quite briskly - 3 miles in 50 minutes including pausing to take photos a few times and waiting to cross a few roads - without worrying about being sweaty when I got back to the office. Lovely!  The only downside was that the uneven slick footing made my back ache a little on the way out - but it was fine coming back so maybe it just needed to warm up.
After work I managed to relax and enjoy the evening just watching TV and doing a little cooking. My crap night's sleep last night has left me with not much energy so I think an early night is called for...

Food today :
Breakfast: scrambled eggs with bacon and green pepper
Lunch: homemade cream of butternut squash soup; cucumber slices with homemade prawn dip
Dinner: spicy turkey burger with a big salad
Snacks: toasted coconut flakes, pork scratchings

#365daysofveggiesforbreakfast

It's been a long time since I have written a blog post, so please excuse me as it's almost hard to begin! But begin I must, because I have something exciting that a really want to share with you.

You may know that for the past, oh, six months (or maybe it's been a year, I can't remember at this point) or more I have been making some serious tweaks to my whole food plant based way of eating. Exchanging starches for nuts was a really big step and a great move (my weight gain finally halted!) and incorporating vegetables into my diet first thing in the morning moved the scale in the right direction, finally!

Read more �

Thai Green Chicken Curry

Thai Green Chicken Curry

Ingredients

Paste

•       2 mild/medium green chili peppers
•       2 shallots or spring onions
•       3 garlic cloves
•       2-3cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled
•       2 lemongrass stalks, trimmed cut and outer leaves discarded and chopped
•       2 tbsp fresh coriander
•       1 tsp ground cumin
•       1 tsp ground coriander seeds
•       1 tsp grated lime zest
•       1 tbsp lime juice
•       2 tbsp oil ( if needed )

OR

• Use Bought Paste May Ploy one is the best.. but make sure the one you buy is sugar free, gluten free and dairy free

Curry

•       2 tbsp coconut oil
•       2 garlic cloves finely chopped
•       1 tbsp green curry paste (from above)
•       225g chicken diced
•       225ml coconut milk
•       225ml chicken stock
•       2 large fresh red chilies sliced diagonally
•       2 tbsp fish sauce (sugar free)
•       head of broccoli
•       1 green pepper
•       20 basil leaves

Method

For the paste

1.    Add all the ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth.
2.    Add a little oil if needed to give managable consistency.
3.    Keep paste in the fridge and use as needed for recipes.

For the curry

1.    In a large saucepan, heat the oil and fry the garlic until golden brown.
2. .  Stir in the curry paste mixing well.
3. .  Add the chicken and stir fry until cooked through
4. 
5. .  Add the coconut milk and stir well bringing to the boil.
6. .  Add the stock and return to the boil, stiring constantly.
7. .  Simmer for 5 minutes stiring in all the remaining ingredients except for the basil.
8. 
9. .  Stir in the basil just before pouring the curry into a serving bowl.

Crispy Coated Cod

A paleo slant on battered fish, a paleo version of the flour egg and breadcrumbed fried fish :-)

Ingredients

• 2 cod fillets ( or any white fish - haddock, whiting and sea bass all work well )
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons coconut flour
• 4 tablespoons ground almonds
• salt and pepper to season
• coconut oil for frying

Method

1. Lay out three plates.
2. On the first plate put the 2 tablespoons of coconut flour.
3. On the second plate crack the egg and beat it up with the fork.
4. On the third plate put the ground almonds. 

1. 
2. Preheat the oven to 200 degC.
3. Take a fresh fish fillet and coat it in the coconut flour. 
4. Then coat it in the egg. 
5. Then coat it in the almond flour.
6. Repeat for the second fillet. 
7. 
   
   
8. Heat the coconut oil in the pan on a high heat. 
9. Place each fillet in the pan and fry for a few minutes on each side on a high heat to seal the fish. 
10. Place the fillets on a baking dish and place in the oven.
11. Cook at 200degC for about 20 minutes, or until cooked through.

Serve with steamed sweet potato and green vegetables