Weight Watchers

[ClareBarr]

Well done Preston1990 for starting out at the gym :) Even though you say you've never been a gym person, I'm sure you'll love it. I used to go years ago before my injury & I loved it.....cross trainer, treadmill, exercise bike, glute machines, swimming....just bring some headphones with you & put some dance music on & try to work up to doing the treadmill/bike/cross trainer in time with the music :)

Today has been exactly a year since I last taught at school. In some ways it's gone quickly, in other ways it seems like ages ago. Rather than saying "I used to [be able to]......" (which I know I slipped into doing in my last paragraph!!!), I try to think of all the good things I've got going on in my life. :)

[Preston1990]

Well done Preston1990 for starting out at the gym :) Even though you say you've never been a gym person, I'm sure you'll love it.....

Thanks for those words of encouragement ClareBarr. I'm going to give it my best shot and try and keep up with it - maybe if I find the exercise OK - I'll dust off one of my bikes, in a week or so, and start riding to the gym instead of driving there. It's only about 2 miles away so it should be not too onerous as a start. Back pain permitting, I hope to build my cycling back up to what I used to be able to do a couple of years ago. I have missed it.

Today has been exactly a year since I last taught at school. In some ways it's gone quickly, in other ways it seems like ages ago. Rather than saying "I used to [be able to]......" (which I know I slipped into doing in my last paragraph!!!), I try to think of all the good things I've got going on in my life. :)

That's the spirit ClareBarr. It's great to hear that kind of positive attitude.

To misquote Ghandi......"Life can seem tough at times and even, on occasions, feel like a bit of a shipwreck, but we should never forget to sing in the lifeboats".....

Diane, as promised here's a link to that recipe and a couple of alternatives that caught my eye. One of them uses plums which I know you've got in.

http://www.waitrose.com/home/recipes/re ... cream.html Hazlenut Meringue with Blackberries and Cream

http://www.waitrose.com/content/waitros ... plums.html Hazelnut meringue wreath with roasted plums

http://www.waitrose.com/content/waitros ... vlova.html Delia's Strawberry and vanilla pavlova

You're inspiring me to want to make my own jams & chutneys!

If you do that ClareBarr - I'm looking to get my hands on a nice homemade fruity chutney.... Sadly, without much success so far.....

[Diane65]

Today has been exactly a year since I last taught at school. In some ways it's gone quickly, in other ways it seems like ages ago. Rather than saying "I used to [be able to]......" (which I know I slipped into doing in my last paragraph!!!), I try to think of all the good things I've got going on in my life. :)

That's the spirit ClareBarr. It's great to hear that kind of positive attitude.

I wholeheartedly agree with Preston1990 that you are an inspiration ClareBarr as are you Preston1990. You have both had/have health issues and are still going strong.


Diane, as promised here's a link to that recipe and a couple of alternatives that caught my eye. One of them uses plums which I know you've got in.

http://www.waitrose.com/home/recipes/re ... cream.html Hazlenut Meringue with Blackberries and Cream

I am loving this recipe Preston1990 so I will have to get out picking blackberries. I will have a think re casserole and dumplings as maybe a bit heavy as I am up the crack of dawn on Sunday as need to be in Northampton by 12noon as DD has a Waitrose order being delivered (I am driving her back to university (just so you don't think that I am completely mad) and you get £10 off your first order so cheaper to have it delivered plus will save on time).

You're inspiring me to want to make my own jams & chutneys!

If you do that ClareBarr - I'm looking to get my hands on a nice homemade fruity chutney.... Sadly, without much success so far.....

Lord Preston1990 both the delightful ejwrank and myself did offer to post some to you so I'll have less of the woah is me attitude

I have been healthy today back on the water, had All Bran for breakfast, covent garden soup for lunch and egg salad for evening meal plus did go out with OH today for a walk.

[Preston1990]

Lord Preston1990 both the delightful ejwrank and myself did offer to post some to you so I'll have less of the woah is me attitude

I have been healthy today back on the water, had All Bran for breakfast, covent garden soup for lunch and egg salad for evening meal plus did go out with OH today for a walk.

It looks like you are back in the healthy zone with your food once again, Diane. And.... its good to see that you are getting some exercise in too I'm sure that this coming weighday you'll be rewarded with a good result.

I've had a bit of a departure from the norm for me today on two counts.

Firstly, I attended my first session on my gym course thing. My performance could be described as "lackluster" at best. A harsher critic would maybe employ the word "pathetic".

I was partnered up for a badminton knock about with a nice bloke 5 years my senior who like me was overweight and not in the best of health. I mention this so you don't get the impression that I was playing against whatever the badminton equivalent of Mo Farrah or Usain Bolt is. We weren't keeping score or anything competitive like that - just batting the shuttlecock thing back and forth across the net, sort of like a warm up by trying to keep a rally going for as long as possible. He never broke a sweat and was chatting away quite naturally. I, on the other hand, was struggling to talk and play simultaneously. The sweat was just pouring off me - after literally about 5 minutes I had to call a halt to the proceeding because I thought I was going to collapse with the exertion. Our instructor took over my place to keep the other guy going, and I was asked to "rest but keep moving" by walking slowly around the outside of the court. Needless to say everyone was lovely and non-judgmental but I'd be lying if I said that I didn't feel kind of humiliated. I did notice as I walked around that the guy's standard of playing against the instructor took on a whole new level of competence - suggesting that he'd been going very easy on me. Great!!

After 10 mins or so I did get back to it and after a while we both had a go at something called "soft tennis". A kind of easy tennis for young children. That said, I still got extremely exhausted very quickly with it.

Next was a session in the gym. As I've mentioned before, I'm no gym expert. There was lots of different machines: upright exercise bike, recumbent exercise bike, rowing machine, treadmill, stepper, some fearsome looking bits of kit with heavy weights attached to them ( I stayed well away from those ) and even something called a "cross trainer". If you'd asked me yesterday what a "cross trainer" was, I'd have been looking for an instructor with a red face and a short temper.

I tried most of the machines, but concentrated on the upright bike. I turned the pedals for 30 mins on a very low resistance setting and apparently burned off almost 200 calories

Overall, I suppose I enjoyed the experience and will be returning on Monday for another go. I do hope my stamina and staying power improves at some point though,

The second thing which was different today was I branched out into the world of smoothies. No nothing like that. There were so many ripe blackberries on the bush outside my house, I picked a waitrose coffee cartonsworth and used our new Aldi blender to whizzz up icecubes, skimmed milk, blackberries, banana, mint leaves and honey. It was surprisingly nice for something that was so obviously healthy. OK maybe all those gritty seeds were less than brilliant but not too bad.

Today's Menu

Breakfast: Two wholemeal baps with wafer-thin beef and tomato. OK, OK, so yes, it was last night really

Lunch: Sort of very disappointing broken up duck pancakes, eaten with a fork out of a bowl - shredded duck, with broken up pancakes (they were too brittle to roll up properly - post freezer) shredded romaine lettuce (no cucumber available ) spring onions and plum sauce (no hoi-sin to be found anywhere in the kitchen )

Evening Meal 1: Tub of Waitrose Chicken Multigrain Soup with green speckled lentils, red quinoa + amaranth grain - 368 kcals.

Evening Meal 2: Bramble and Mint Smoothie


I got very excited this morning when a parcel arrived for me via a courier - I immediately thought that some kind person had at last sent me some delicious homemade fruity and tangy chutney-like comestible. Yay Sadly though, upon opening aforementioned parcel with trembling fingers like a schoolboy on Christmas Day, three bottles of contact lens solution that I had purchased off the internet last week were all that met my disappointed gaze.

Oh Woe is me!

Be good everyone - What have you all been up to?

[Diane65]

What a workout Preston1990 I am so impressed and to continue when you are dropping point takes some stamina. I would never have put blackcurrants and bananas together but I will give it a go. I still need to go blackberry picking so will have to go on Saturday as I'm already out the next 2 evenings (only 1 involves eating cake) plus my neighbour arrived again last night with a bucket full of plums as he knows that I don't waste food so looks like it will be a long evening making plum jam - I won't get in until about 8pm so not enough time before bedtime to make more chutney.

Menu of the day:
Banana and raspberry milkshake
caramelised onion hummus, garlic crackers, tomatoes followed by a peach yoghurt.
Costa Coffee and a cake

I have a proper lunch today so will be able to fit in a 1 mile walk not enough time to do more and eat.
I will drink lots of water too.

Have a good day everyone.

[Preston1990]

What a workout Preston1990 I am so impressed and to continue when you are dropping point takes some stamina.

It's lovely to hear friends putting a positive spin on my pathetic attempts, even though it's in no way justified.

I would never have put blackcurrants and bananas together but I will give it a go.

I decided that if I make it again it would be better to use low-fat greek yoghurt in place of the skimmed milk. I'd also put it in the fridge to cool, rather than using whizzed up ice cubes, as mine turned out more of a watery drink than a creamy smoothie.

....so not enough time before bedtime to make more chutney.

I wish I had some chutney

You seem to be missing a few cals in your Today's Menu Diane. I'll assume that you'll be having another pre-bedtime snackette which you haven't recorded here. Well done with the water and the walking = you'll be golden on Monday.

In other news, Look at this:

https://groups.freecycle.org/group/rugb ... dmin/46683

You'll probably be shocked, but I've been really lucky not to have fallen for this my self in recent weeks. In my case the scammers were posing as friends who I knew. They offered to post out "free" items to me, but I was astute enough to see through their little plans and cleverly just ignored them. In my case it wasn't Flatscreen TVs or laptops though, it was highly desirable and much sought after homemade food items. As people say, if something seems to be too good to be true, then it probably is. What is the World coming to

Be good everyone - and let's all be careful out there!!

[ejwrank]

Obviously our chutney is simply not up to Lord Preston's standards, Diane! Still no pm from him with his address even though I offered up a jar to him. Would taste lovely after all those strenuous badminton sessions.

[Preston1990]

Obviously our chutney is simply not up to Lord Preston's standards, Diane! Still no pm from him with his address even though I offered up a jar to him. Would taste lovely after all those strenuous badminton sessions.

Arrgh - it's happening again. Where's that email address you're supposed to report it to?

Oh, I almost forgot:

Today's Menu

Breakfast: what was left of yesterday's smoothie

Lunch: Salad with diced up party eggs

Evening Meal: Chicken, rice and peas.


Keep the Faith! Preston x

[ClareBarr]

Only just getting up - feeling rough so today will be "easy to prepare" food (cereal, toast, crackers), then nice home cooked meal from my boyfriend tonight.

Have a good day everyone :)

[Diane65]

Only just getting up - feeling rough so today will be "easy to prepare" food (cereal, toast, crackers), then nice home cooked meal from my boyfriend tonight.

Have a good day everyone :)

So sorry to hear that you aren't feeling too good today. Hope that your dinner was delicious.

Obviously our chutney is simply not up to Lord Preston's standards, Diane! Still no pm from him with his address even though I offered up a jar to him. Would taste lovely after all those strenuous badminton sessions.

Arrgh - it's happening again. Where's that email address you're supposed to report it to?

Keep the Faith! Preston x

I know what you're saying ejwrank!! I imagine he even has his own vineyard.

I am having a meltdown this evening as I got in after a few errands at just after 8pm to commence the task of making plum jam but as for some reason these plums seem to have a lower than average pectin level it wouldn't reach setting point but as I am not one to give up without a fight good old Delia came to the rescue and after a good squirt of lemon juice I am now the proud owner of 4kg of plum jam I still have my washing up bowl full (I don't have anything else that large) of plums to make something else with. Any ideas will be greatly received. I imagine I will go to bed dreaming of plums. Ooh I also have about 20 apples too. He has given me all this as he knows that I won't waste food.