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Slimming World Update – Week 91/92

23/04/2015 by MrsSavageAngel Leave a Comment

Hi there

How’s your week been? Or should I say weeks? Yeah sorry about that. Symptomatic of the wider issue I feel. That’ll make sense in a minute.

Anyway, last night’s weigh in was a gain, same as the week before. Well, you know, that’s what you get from eating home made biscuits and cheesecake and banana bread and ice cream and crumble (Crimble Crumble for your FND fans!) and drinking wine and beer. It’s not rocket science guys. I didn’t gorge. I just ate. Ate things I wanted to and had missed. Ate and drank socially and in good company. Ate because my will not too has left the building.

Because you see I just don’t care as much as I used to. But then I’m dealing with stuff every day I didn’t used to. My meals are all healthy and planned and delicious, but what comes in between is not. The first few days of every week (after weigh in) are positive and thoughtful, but then something happens or something slips and the rest of the week falls into the abyss too. I’ve heard about people talk about this feeling but until fairly recently this wasn’t me. I could live my life the way I wanted and still lose weight. But something’s changed. People tell me all the time how well I’ve done and I don’t know if that’s wonderful or awful. On one had it’s lovely reminder to give myself a little pat on the back, but on the other hand it makes me feel dreadful because I know I haven’t come as far as I set out to. I want to feel that high of getting off the scales with a well earned loss, I do. I just don’t want it enough at the moment.

And there in lies the problem.

I still weigh more than most people who join ever will. But I can wear clothes I never dreamed of and look better than I ever thought I would. I’m not saying I’m giving up and going back to how life used to be (seriously I’m not OK!) I’m just kind of happy bimbling along here for a bit. And that’s why last night, after a fantastic discussion with my consultant and my group, I’ve decided to reset my target to 6 stone loss and maintain for a bit. Slimming World allow you to reset your target to anything you feel comfortable with at any time in your journey and I just think I’m not nearly focussed enough to push myself forward at the moment. But staying here? That I can do.

I don’t want you to think me a failure. I honestly never considered this an option before (trying to maintain), but once we talked about it, it just felt right. For me. For now. I’ve come to dread every weigh in, mostly because I know I have to write about it. I know it’s only pressure I’m heaping on myself, no one else is making me feel this way, but removing that pressure from a life that has plenty of other stuff going on (new, uncharted, scary, sad stuff) seems not a bad thing to do right now.

As my plan is to stay at target for a while, these posts could get awful boring. So I’ve decided to give the updates a rest. I still write plenty of other stuff you can read, should you feel inclined, but unless I have something positive and interesting to say I wont be writing the weekly updates for a while. I hope you can understand.

So long and thanks for all the fish

xxxx

The Boy Makes…..Cut Out Biscuits

23/04/2015 by MrsSavageAngel Leave a Comment

Like most nurseries (I guess), Oscar’s preschool celebrates each and every birthday in their midst. They invite the parents of the birthday child to come in and watch their child’s special day be celebrated by their friends (my guy’s school also carries out something of a rather abstract birthday ritual. The child carries a globe round a circle of children as many times as they are years old, whilst they all sing a song about the world. Yeah I’m not sure either, but the kids seem to like it). Said parents are also invited to provide a little treat for the children. I was so excited when I heard about this. What a lovely thing to be able to do and it was definitely something Oscar and I could prepare together. However, as is to be expected, the nursery have pupils with all kinds of specific dietary requirements. Oscar himself eats gluten free and he has a little pal who has a serious broad spectrum nut allergy. Meaning anything we chose to make had to be pretty well thought through. To the Googles!

As Oscar got so many lovely cookie cutters for his birthday, I decided it would be fun to let him try them out. That’s when I found a great biscuit recipe on the American site Momables.com. It was written to be purely gluten free however, I checked with Oscar’s pal’s mum and found the recipe was also completely free of nut contaminants too. Perfect.

I followed the original recipe, which being American, was measured in cups. However, because I’m nice like that, I have converted it to grams here for the baker who favours the scales.

200g sugar
115g unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 tablespoon milk (or water)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum (omit if your flour already has it, mine didn’t)
250g gluten-free plain flour

I use Dove Farm Gluten Free Plain Flour and Xanthan Gum to great effect. You could also add spice such as cinnamon, if you were making these near Christmas

I used my Kitchenaid mixer, but you could do this by hand

Cream the sugar and butter together
Add egg, milk, vanilla extract and salt mixing well
Add flour and xanthan gum if using. Mix at a low speed until well combined. Dough should come together well and not be too sticky.
Wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour
Preheat the oven to 180c or Gas Mark 5 and cover two baking sheets with baking paper
Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface, as thick as you want. Mine were about 0.25cm.
Cut out the dough with cookie cutters, and place the biscuits on the baking sheets. Ensure the cookies are not touching.
Re-roll and re-cut dough until it’s all used
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, and let the cookies cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before removing them to a cooling rack.
Cool completely before decorating. If you’re so inclined. They’re lovely with or without decoration

Using his birthday cutters from his Aunty & Uncle

In the end I chose to make all heart biscuits as I reckoned they were a decent size. I got 24 out of this recipe, plus a handful of the smaller shapes you can see Oscar cutting above.

I decided to “decorate” them with a simple water icing. Unfortunately I had to do this when Oscar was in bed, but I totally plan to let him have a go next time! I think I used around 60g of icing sugar and a couple of tablespoons of water mixed to make a smooth paste, runny enough to drizzle. I used a couple of drops of Wilton colouring to get the amazing blue, then just drizzled the icing from the end of a spoon onto the biscuits at an angle. It did take a while to dry though so be factor this in when planning timings.

Lay the biscuits on baking paper before drizzling the icing over the biscuits. Leave until they are totally dry. — Lay the biscuits on baking paper before drizzling the icing over the biscuits. Leave until they are totally dry then lift them off and throw the paper away. No messy clean up!

They went down a treat with Oscar and all his pals. As one of his little friends told her mum “they had blue on them and they were yum”. What more could you ask for?!

Gluten Free Biscuits – Happy Birthday Oscar

My Liebster Award

19/04/2015 by MrsSavageAngel Leave a Comment

Last week I was nominated for a Liebster Award by the lovely Shannon over at www.shannonagains.com. The Liebster is a peer to peer blogging award, giving recognition to bloggers from within their own community and I’m thrilled to have been nominated.

I’ve actually met Shannon in real life at my first ever blogger event last September. Her daughter is a couple of years younger than Oscar, but I was drawn to the ladies with the babies! She writes all about her experience as a first time mum (rather like me!) and about being an American living in London. Thank you so much for the nomination Shannon!

The Rules:

OK, the rules of accepting the Liebster are fairly simple:

Answer 11 questions posed by the person who nominated you
Write 11 new questions for the people I nominate for the award
Nominate 11 people

So without further ado, here is my Liebster post

My answers:

How did you decide on your blog’s name?

Oh man! I knew someone was going to ask me that one day! OK, here’s the god’s honest truth. Maaaaaany years ago when I first started needing a username for online stuff I chose the name Savageangel because a) my boyfriend’s name was Ben Savage b) I was his angel (I know, I know!) c) I thought it sounded kinda kooky and cool. Oh dear! But it stuck and became my username all over the place. Then I married that boyfriend, so any new usernames became Mrssavageangel. I am Mrs Savage and I guess I’m still his angel 😉

Yes, you may puke!

What’s your favourite blog post that you have written?

Ooo good one. I’ve written over 200 posts (no seriously I have!) and I’m incredibly proud of all of them. I think one of my favourites has to be this one. I loved writing it and I know it touched the hearts of a lot of people. Any fool can make someone laugh, but to make people cry? Ahhh, now that’s a skill 😉

What’s your favourite colour?

Coral. It suits me better than any other colour. Last summer I had t-shirts, nail varnish and knickers in this colour!

Coffee or Tea?

Coffee. Coffee. Coffee. I can’t stand tea.

Who is your favourite Disney Princess?

Wow, this is a good one. Part of me wants to say none, because they largely perpetuate negative female stereotypes. But I just can’t. Disney has been in my life, all my life and of course I have favourites. I think I’m probably going to have to say either Cinderella or Aurora (Sleeping Beauty). Old school Disney is the worst for ‘young woman with dysfunctional life circumstances + rich man = happiness’ formula, but I just can’t help it. I grew up loving these stories.

Where would you go on holiday if money was no object?

Australia. I’ve wanted to visit since I was 10 and obsessed with Neighbours. Before we had Oscar I stipulated to Ben that if I were to die before having a chance to visit, he was to use my death in service money and take some of my ashes to Uluru. I don’t have death in service any more (hahaha can you imagine how much it would be if SAHMs got paid!!!) but I still really want to go.

Which TV/movie/book character do you think you are most like and why?

I can’t think of any that I’m like to be honest, but if I had to chose one I’d want to be like, I’d want to be Marge Simpson. She’s strong, resourceful, patient, loving, caring and sexy. I’d love to pull off a strapless frock like she can!

What did you have for breakfast?

Erm Slimming World police look away now.

Coffee.

How do you unwind after a difficult day?

My therapy absolutely used to be cooking. I would come home and cook and sing and enjoy the hell out of it. I still cook most nights, but I don’t find it as relaxing as I used to.

I guess now it’s to eat something delicious and watch TV with Ben. My faves are sitcoms, or factual programs, particularly those about other places or other times. Or food. Give me Masterchef or Bake Off and I’m happy.

God I’m dull!

If you could send yourself a Tweet to the past, to when would you send it and what would it say. Remember the 140 character limit!

If the fact that I wasn’t on Twitter until 2010 doesn’t matter, then I’d send one to me in late 2006. I’d just been made redundant from a job I adored and was temping. I’d been consistently losing weight, but stopped trying so hard around then as I was so miserable. I also set up a blog I never wrote called ‘Lisa’sLosingIt’.

“Don’t let sadness undo all your hard work honey keep going. And keep writing the blog. Blogs are gonna be huge! #listentome #futureyou”

If you could have the power of invisibility or the power of flight, which would you choose and how would you use it?

Flight. I’d go to Australia.

So there you go. I hope my answers are as interesting as the question setter hoped they’d be!

Right so here are my 11 questions for my nominees.

My Questions:

If you’d been born the opposite gender to the one you are, what would you have been called?
Why did you start blogging?
Best birthday present you’ve ever received?
Have you made any money from your blog and how long had you’d been blogging before you did?
Pinterest or Instagram?
When do you find you write the best and where?
Most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?
Have you been to any blogging conferences/meet ups and did they help you as a blogger?
Favourite book as a child?
If you could give me just one social media tip what would it be?
If you could be on a beach or up a mountain right now which would it be?

My Nominees:

I dip in and out of a lot of blogs and I find new ones almost daily. It’s such an exciting medium. But of all of them these are my nominations. I highly recommend you check them out:

The gals I’ve nominated all write blogs I enjoy, but I have no idea if they’ve already been nominated for a Liebster, so as with anything like this, I ask they only join in if they want to.

I just want them to know I think they rock!

xxx

Slimming World Update – Week 90

09/04/2015 by MrsSavageAngel Leave a Comment

Hiya

How’s your week been? I hope you’ve had some of the good weather we’ve had this week. Man alive it’s sooo good to feel the sun on my skin and the grass between my toes again. I always thought Autumn was my favourite month, but the older I get the more I love the summer. I think I was born to walk bare foot! The sunshine just makes everything feel more hopeful.

We’ve had an amazing week in real life too! It was Oscar’s third birthday last Thursday. I know, my little itty bitty baby is now a strapping three year old, with a shock of blonde hair and the cheekiest grin. We had a day out on Thursday for him, which if you missed you can read about here and then a full on celebration on Saturday at The Hen House, in Haslemere. I’ll be writing a post about that shortly, but suffice to say we had an awesome time.

But as far as the food has gone this week? Well, let’s just say it’s not been quite so awesome. On top of Oscar’s birthday shenanigans the house has also been awash (sort of) with Easter chocolate. Add to that party food, the odd tipple to celebrate and cake, well let’s just say this week was a write off.

At least I assumed it was.

Last night’s weigh in was a weigh and run. Not because I didn’t want to stay, but because I was coming out the back end of a 24hr bug and feeling ropey to say the least. To be honest, I could have just not gone at all, but I felt that would only compound the chance of me continuing to gain, so regardless of the fact that I felt rough and was going to have to face the result of an Easter/Birthday week, I made the effort and went.

What I wasn’t expecting, in any way, was the result I got.

OK, so I want you to understand I DO NOT know how this happened (unless the sun can melt weight!). I also DO NOT mean to advocate Prosecco and M&Ms as a weight loss method. But yes, this week I have had a loss. And a rather substantial one at that. I lost 5.5lb taking me to 6 stone 2lb lost. When I looked at the scales I was convinced it said 5.5lb ON. I sort of sighed. Then my sad face turned to a shocked face and I had to be asked if I was OK. I continued to be baffled all the way home. I seriously can’t explain what is going on with my body at the moment, and I’m well aware this week might come back to bite me on the behind next week. However, it has given me a much needed kick in the right direction.

Funnily enough a couple of other things have happened to bolster my motivation this week. Firstly I had a message from a friend I haven’t seen, or even spoken to, in about 8 years. She said she’d just seen a picture of me (ahh good old social media, how I love thee, you weird little thing!). It said:

I hope you don’t mind me messaging you out of the blue but I saw a picture of you and did a double take so I just had to tell you how bloody fantastic you look!

This friend was someone who helped me enormously when I lost some weight back in 2006. She was my inspiration, in the way I hear people tell me I have been for them. So it was super flattering to hear her say how impressed she was with my progress and a real boost. Secondly, I was looking at getting some boots online. I haven’t bought any boots since winter 2013, and I know it’s the end of the season but they really are falling apart! I used to buy my boots from the plus size retailer Evans, as their wider fit suited me. Now, although my feet are much smaller than they were, they are still wide fit (I’ve had wide feet literally all my life – I was an H fitting as a child). So I thought I’d take a look on the Evans website, to see if they had anything in the sale. Now, I haven’t visited their site for aaaaages (I’ve not needed to) and almost as soon as I landed on their homepage, I just felt so very sad. Like, I don’t really know how to explain it, but sad that this used to be my life and desperate that I don’t want this to be my life again. I had a quick look around, feeling worse and worse and closed the browser. I didn’t get any boots.

So all these things combined to make me think a bit really. To make me not want to slide back into oblivion. And I’ve come up with a new target for myself. I want to get back to what I was just before Christmas. And I want to do it by the time I go on holiday. To do that I need to lose 8.5lb in 5 weeks. I think that’s realistic.

And I don’t ever want to have to shop in Evans again.

I’ve got some super meals planned this week, including a couple from the Slimming World Fake Away book:

Pan fried Salmon, stir fried vegetables and noodles
Steak, SW Chips, salad, mushrooms and red cabbage
Black Bean Pork with peppers, green beans and noodles
King Prawn Dopiaza with spinach and rice
Chicken and Aspragus Risotto

And I’m feeling really focussed for the week ahead.

Let’s see if can’t limit any damage the last week may do to me next week! I’m going for a loss of 2lb.

Enjoy the sunshine and smile.

We can do this.

Xxxxxx

Slimming World Update – Week 89

03/04/2015 by MrsSavageAngel Leave a Comment

Hi guys

Just a quick update this week.

So I don’t know if any of you follow me on Instagram, but if you do you’ll know I spent the past week uploading pictures of my meals – not normally something I do. I thought perhaps if I could keep a visual diary it might help me stay focussed AND get a little accountability back in my life. If you do follow me, this is the kind of thing you’ll have seen:

My lunches and dinners have all been fully on plan and optimised to the max. The only syns in any of these was in the sweet chilli sauce in the noodles. Boom!

Only this wasn’t all I was eating. Yes my meals were all bang on, but in between? What I like to call the hidden food? The bits and snacks no on sees you eating? Yeah, they’re the ones that caused me to gain 3lb this week.

Shit.

I don’t know what’s wrong with me lately. I just cant stick to it. Some days I can’t, some days I just don’t want to (and mark me there is a difference). I’ve taken a food diary this week and I fully intended to use it. It’s Friday already and I haven’t written a single thing down. No point in lying, I haven’t. I had a syn free dinner last night and am currently preparing one for tonight (my favourite Pepperpot Stew, with green beans and rice) but I know I’ve gone over my syns yesterday and today. And if I’m being honest I know tomorrow probably wont be totally food optimised either.

I feel a bit like I’m unravelling. It’s all well and good saying ‘Oh yes I’m going to do this and this and wont do this and blah blah blah’, but if it comes down to the crunch and you do the opposite it’s just all bluster and hot air. Good intentions never helped anyone lose weight.

Sorry this hasn’t been more positive. It’s hard to inspire others when you don’t even have the inspiration to help yourself.

Laters