why not try Brunch instead of Breakfast...

Lately, on my 500 calorie fasting days, I've been trying to put breakfast off for as long as I can, and enjoying the ingredients I would have had for breakfast in a slightly different way!

As you may know by now, I do love to have my morning coffee in a tea party style...

After I've had my cuppa, I try to get a few jobs done around the house to keep me busy for a while. I've been doing a fair bit of gardening, trying to grow a few herbs and salad leaves that I know I'll use, and watering them is a great way to get me out there. I can see what is growing, and what has been eaten by bugs, what flowers are out, and all that. 

I've also started the process of recovering an old Parker Wingback Armchair. I'm quite excited about how great it will look when I get it finished, but it was so well made, that the tacks and staples are taking forever to remove! never mind, it's giving me lots to keep my mind off food!

By around 11.30am, I'm usually starving (good to actually know what that feels like) and I start to get my brunch ready.

Today I made my breakfast ingredients into a kind of Caesar Salad 

This photo looks a bit retro, but I did it to show you the ingredients.

I was able to pick enough green salad and herb leaves from my garden this morning (50g)

rocket, baby spinach, basil and chives

3 x cherry tomatoes

1 free range egg (boiled)

1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese

35g wholemeal bread cut into squares and dry fried/both sides till crunchy

1 tablespoon walden farms calorie free Caesar salad dressing 

always with a glass of water or two

The great thing about doing your fasting day this way, is that you use up the morning getting useful things done, and then you can be rewarded with a lovely salad, and maybe put your feet up for a little while.

I still have 100g snack of carrot and 50g of apple for the afternoon up my sleeve, and before I know it, it will be time to make dinner!

It's 2.31pm, and Ive only had 202 calories so far...

And the exciting thing is that I have lost 12kg, and more could be gone tomorrow!

I'm expecting things to slow down as time goes bye, so I won't be hard on myself if I don't lose 1kg every week, thats a little unrealistic.

Healthy Brownies for an occasional treat

These Brownies are what I was experimenting with the other day

They have been tested by my husband and I, and have been given the thumbs up!

I based them on another recipe, but I've made a few changes.

Healthy Brownies

Ingredients:

150g apple sauce

200g mashed banana

3/4 cup smart sugar (195g)

2 tsp vanilla extract (10ml)

50g cocoa powder (1/2 cup)

1/2 tsp salt

300g (2 cups) grated zucchini 

2 cups Self Raising Flour

60g (1/2 cup) walnut pieces

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix all wet ingredients together with the smart sugar.

Then add sifted cocoa, SR flour salt zucchini and walnuts

Line a 28cm x 33cm pan

(11 x 13 inch) 

Or 2 x pans that make up that size altogether

Spread mixture over lined tray

Bake in moderate oven for about 25minutes or until brownies spring back when touched

Cool in pan, then cut into 24 equal slices

If you use normal sugar, each slice is about 120 calories

If you use smart sugar, each slice is about 102 calories

Smart sugar is a mix of natural sugar and Stevia extract, a natural plant ingredient which can be up to 300 times sweeter than sugar. Smart sugar is blended so that you only use 1/2 the amount of sugar you would normally use, and you still get the same sweet result. Lower in calories!

I freeze the brownies after they have been cooled and cut, between sheets of baking paper, in airtight containers. When I plan to treat myself, I just get a slice out of the freezer an hour or two before I plan to eat it, and put the rest back in the freezer. They taste great if you thaw them, then microwave for 20 seconds, and then have them with coffee ice cream! And a strawberry!

enjoy!

It's my 12th week on the 2/5 diet and so close to losing 12kg!

This week is my 12th week of doing the 2/5 diet my way, and this morning, after fasting on Monday and   wednesday of this week, I'm 100g off losing 12kg!

I decided that I really wanted to have lost 12kg in 12 weeks, so for the first time, I have fasted for a third day today, hoping that will ensure that I succeed this week. I don't plan to do that again any time soon, but it just felt like a goal worth reaching for.

Today, I've been busy recording what I've eaten, so you can see another 500 calorie day's worth of food. I did a bit of experimenting, but that's for another day.

When I woke up this morning, first thing, bathroom, then weigh myself...

Then, I boiled the kettle and made myself a little pot of coffee, put it on a tray with a 30ml jug of skim milk, and my lovely fine bone china cup, so I could have a leisurely cuppa. If you put it in a pot, it seems to stretch out the same ingredients, you just drink a bit more water and I got 3 cups of coffee instead of one mug, and a lot of pleasure from the whole experience of pouring the milk and the coffee into my special cup.

After my cuppa, I got up and got busy, I wanted to have more of a brunch than a breakfast. I pottered in the garden, then did some baking, and before I knew it, it was 11am. Time to cook some breakfast!

Instead of cooking an egg and mushroom separately, I made an omelette. I used less mushroom than I usually would, so that I could have some Parmesan cheese, and instead of spinach, I used grated zucchini, and some fresh herbs from my garden.

Breakfast

1 egg

31g mushroom

33g grated zucchini

1 Tbs Parmesan cheese grated

1 Tbs water

basil leaf, fresh thyme, chives

3 x cherry tomatoes

26g fresh asparagus 

30ml skim milk for coffee (earlier in the day)

Total for Breakfast - 134 calories

Always with a glass of water or two.

Lunch (or really, Afternoon Tea)

100g Apple with skin on, cut into wedges

and maybe a cup of black minted green tea or another glass of water

keep a glass near the sink so when you see it, you can have another one

Total for Lunch - 73 calories

An Easy Dinner

I made this batch of soup the other day, and batched it up into plastic containers, some with 1 cup and some with 2 cups, to freeze. It's so easy to have meals, ready made and in the freezer, labelled with the serving size, and the amount of calories. You don't have to work hard every day!

(I have done a recipe for a similar soup in an earlier post that would work like this one)

Total for Dinner - 259 calories

Dessert

I made up 4 x 1/2 cup serves of this Lite Port Wine Jelly in crystal glasses and they have been so nice to have for Dessert, after dinner. I keep them in a container in the fridge, so easy and just enough!

1/2 cup lite jelly

28g Nestle Ski Divine Vanilla Creme Yoghurt

Total for Dessert - 36 calories

Total for all of Today's food - 502 calories

I hope that when I wake up in the morning and weigh myself, I will have achieved my goal of losing 12kg in 12 weeks!

Diet drinks aren't free...

Today, I got a bit of a shock!

I'm not much of a label reader, usually because the writing on most labels is so small or is printed in gold, and I can't read it without my glasses, which I don't carry with me all the time ( I think they do that on purpose ). I decided to give myself a bit of a treat, as today is a fasting day for me. I thought that I'd buy a bottle of diet lemonade, but unfortunately, there was none left in the supermarket, so I looked around and decided to buy a diet ginger beer. A nice refreshing drink for a lovely Spring evening, and I assumed that it would be free of calories. 

Never make assumptions!

When I brought the bottle home, I scanned it with my trusty myfitnesspal app, and for one 250ml glass of this diet ginger beer, it was 33 calories!

Not free at all! I guess I'll just have to put some iced water into a special glass for my treat tonight,

There'll be no ginger beer for me today, maybe tomorrow if I feel like spending that many calories on a drink.

The moral of this story is...always read the label, and don't just assume like I did that sprite zero, or coke zero or anything labeled diet, in the drink isle, is free of calories.

If you've had much to do with weight watchers, the words "points free" is bandied around a lot, and if you are actually trying to count calories, there is very little that is actually calorie free. Even herbs have a calorie count! It's something to think about, and to watch out for.