20/8/2014

Breakfast
Oatcakes with lemon hummus, 3 apricots, 1 apple and 1 pint orange and mango juice

Count 3

Lunch
Banana, frozen mixed berries, coconut milk and nuttella smoothie
Count 2

Tea
Chicken and mushrooms stir fried with coconut oil, chilli, garlic, corriander cashew nuts and lime juice. Salad of watercress, corriander, cucumber, celery, tomato, courgette  and 1/2 orange pepper

Count 8

I am not a vegan and have a meat meal when I feel like it. 

Tip of the day - listen to your body. I strongly feel if you are eating enough nutrients then your body starts to crave less things. When I started eating 10 a day I would have added noodles to this dish, but I found over time I was wanting the noodles less and less. But if I feel like them I will add them to my diet - always NOT at the expense of fruit and veggies. 

Apple and Rhubarb crumble

This was based on this recipe

For the filling
4 sticks rhubarb, 2 apples, 2 dates, 1tblsn linseed, cinnamon to taste
Blitz up and put in bowl

Topping
Handfull of nuts (I used hazelnuts) handfull dates and vanilla extract
Blitz up and put on top of filling

Enjoy :D this one is REALLY yummy

Courgette pasta and tomato sauce

For the pasta I make noodles in the spiraliser from one courgette then toss it in a little lemon juice.

For the sauce
Blitz
6 cherry tomatoes, 3 sun dried tomatoes, 1/2 orange pepper, 2 spring onions, 6 olives, little smoked garlic, Italian herbs and black pepper

19/8/14

Breakfast
2 banana, hazelnut milk and 1 spoon nutella smoothie

Count 2

Lunch
Oatcakes with corriander hummus, 3 apricots and 1 orange and mango juice

Count 2

Cheat - 6 mini picnic eggs
Sometimes we just need something naughty! Go for it but make sure and still eat all your 10 a day

Tea
Courgette pasta with tomato sauce

Count
4

Supper
1 pint milk and 1 portion of Apple and Rhubarb crumble

Count 3

Total count for the day
11















Point for the day - Only count juice as 1 of your 10 a day as juice has most of the fibre taken out of it while having lots of natural sugars in it. Personally I also have about 1/3rd juice to 2/3rds water as I find juice alone too strong and too sweet

Raw Pizza

OK it looks nothing like a Pizza but it was yummy. 

Base

Handful walnuts, olive oil, 1 mushroom and 1/4 tsp veggimite 

Blitz together till it looks like fine breadcrumbs then press onto a baking sheet to about 1cm thick. Dry in dehydrator or a 100C oven for 15 min (or longer, I was hungry)

'Cheese'

Soak a handful cashew nuts in water (I only did it for a couple of min) drain and blitz with 1/2 tsp veggimite and a little of the soaking water until it becomes a hummus like consistency

Tomato sauce

6 small tomatoes, 4 sun dried tomatoes, 1/2 orange pepper, 2 spring onions, 1tsp dried Italian herbs  

Blitz together

(I made a little too much and it made a great dressing for the salad too)

Carefully put base on plate (its crumbly) spread with sauce and top with 'cheese'

OK its not Pizza but with the veggimite it satisfies my craving for savoury salty food

12/8/14 Food log

Breakfast
Banana, tinned pineapple and coconut milk smoothie

Count - 2

Lunch
oatcakes and red pepper hummus, 1 apple, 1 nectarine, orange and mango juice

count - 3

Tea
Raw pizza and salad

Count 6

Evening snack
1 pint milk, 1 orange, handfull Nut, chocky, date bites

Count 2

Total for the day - 13



Exercise - 10 min exercise video, 90 min agility training

11/8/14 food and exercise log 193 pounds

Breakfast
Banana, mango and hazelnut milk smoothie

Count 2

Lunch
oarcakes and cream cheese 3 apricots, 1 nectarine

count 2

Tea
Cashew nut green curry (same as last night with tomatoes added to the sauce and spring onions added to the rice)
Count 7

Evening
Pint of milk, orange and handfull date nut and chocky bites
Count 2

Total count for day 13

Exercise today - rest day so just ~1 hour walk with dogs

Thought for today
Dont say you cant - just you cant today

16/8/2014 My diet log todays weight 196 pounds

Todays breakfast

Bananna, blueberries, hazelnut milk and a little nutella blended up to a milkshake

Count - 2

Lunch
Hummus on oatcakes, Orange juice, 2 plums, 1 nectarine

Count - 3

Tea
Raw cashew nut green curry with cauliflower rice (recipe)


Count - 7

Supper
Pint of milk and handfull of dates, nut and chocky bites

Count - 1

Total fruit and veg count for the day 13

Exercise, circuit training with the dogs, 10 min warm up walk, 3* sprints up stairs then 6 sprint up short hill and walk down, 15 min cooldown walk



Thought for today - In the world many are overweight but malnourished at the same time - perhaps their bodies are craving food to get the nutrients they so desperately need  - eat more food - eat better food

Raw cashew nut green curry with cauliflower rice

For the rice

Make cauliflower rice  and add a little lime juice to keep it fresh
To this add some finely chopped vegetables, I chose 1 red pepper, 1 stick celery and 1 big chunk cucumber.


For the sauce

soak one handfull of unsweetened shredded dried coconut (or fresh if you can get it) in around 200g canned mango in juice for a couple of hours
add
1 inch ginger
big handful coriander
2 spring onions
Lime juice
Chilli pepper and garlic to taste

Blitz in a blender

Pour over 'rice' and add a handful cashew nuts

Cauliflower rice

A very simple alternative to rice

Take around 1/2 a head of cauliflower and pulse it in a food processor until it resembles breadcrumbs/rice

I cant remember where I first heard of this method but here is a video of someone making it

Use in place of rice in dishes such as

Raw Green Tai Curry

Hi :)

OK I wasnt sure about starting this blog but I am hoping it will help keep me motivated and also be a place I can share some of the fun recipes and tips that have been working for me.

So a little history

About 18 months ago I hit my highest weight ever

gulp 227 pounds

There I have said it (OK I said it in pounds so everyone in the UK has to work their calculator)

Last year I worked hard and struggled with restricting my food and lost about 7 pounds IN THE WHOLE YEAR!!

That is when I figured that diets really dont work, it is not possible (for me anyway) to have willpower 24/7

and if you are craving things all the time and have no energy because your body thinks it is in a famine then you are just working against yourself

So I started experimenting on myself

The first realisation I had was exercise
Rather than just diet and be thinking about food all day if I work out first thing then that is that over and done with and I can get on with my day.

and that did help lots

But as I was getting fitter I wanted to fuel myself better so started to think about the governments '5 a day' and decided to try and make sure to have my 5 a day every day

In no time I realised this was not enough, I could do better than that. My target now is AT LEAST 10 a day

and doing that a couple of really interesting things happened

I stopped being starving at nighttime, my old way of eating was to starve myself all day then think about food all evening
This way I am eating a load of fruit and veg all day and I am thinking less about food in the evening

and my taste buds started to change, I could put less dressings on salads, everything is suddenly sweet and full of flavour.

Now Im not going to lie - I still fall off the wagon! I will try and be honest about all of that

So I HAD lost 35 pounds, but I did fall off the wagon and get back into horrible habits so I put on 7 pounds

So I am starting this blog to keep a track of things as I get back on track.
It is mainly for me :) but I hope I can help people a little with it as well