Day 4 - Food Diary

As always and as promised, here is the completed food diary for day 4 of my journey, some tasty things on offer tonight, check out the recipes if you haven't already! If there's anything you want to know about, just send me a message, there's a contact form on the home page. :)

Slightly over my sugar and sodium (again) goal, really need to start keeping an eye on that.

Flabs Away!

Sticky Chilli Chicken with Noodles

Another delight this evening was the Sticky Chilli chicken, mmm so good, it's best described as having a very woody, oriental taste, with a bit of a kick from the fresh chilli. The chicken, in my opinion, is best to be charred a little, to give it more of a Barbeque taste, but of course not necessary, the crunchy mange tout and the yellow peppers mixed with the chicken and noodles, were just really tasty, definitely a worthy winner, I've yet to find something from Slimming World that doesn't taste great!
I have to admit, for this being a Chinese dish, I Wasn't overwhelmed, it was tasty, spicy and sweet and had a lovely oriental vibe, but it didn't really feel that Chinese-y to me, albeit still very nice indeed, if you want to be adventurous, you could always serve it with some salt and pepper chips.

The Ingredients:

For the Chicken

4 Chicken Legs (We used Breast)
Frylight
4 nests Medium Egg Noodles
3 Bell Peppers nice and colourful (we went for yellow)
1 Pak Choi chopped (Personal preference, but we didn't use this)
1 bunch spring onions chopped
1 pack Mange Tout
1 pack Sugar snap peas (Again we didn't use this)
2 Limes

For the Chilli Sauce

4 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp Rice Vinegar
2 tbsp Granulated Sweetener
6 tbsp Tomato Puree
4 Garlic Cloves minced (finely chopped is fine if no garlic press)
2 tbsp Fresh Ginger grated
2 Limes (juice of)
1 tsp dried chilli flakes

1 pinch of fresh chilli
300 ml Vegetable Stock (300ml boiling water & 1 veg stock cube)

The Method:

This is not my recipe, so to comply with Pinch of Nom's Terms of Service, I can't post the full recipe, it's really easy to follow, click HERE to view instructions on how to make this deliciousness!

The Verdict:

That was so much easier than I thought!

So I'm just back from the gym after being away from it for a full week, my nerves were probably at their peak, however, I got through it and went in, this time I got a couple of looks as I walked in and peoples heads turned, this again may have just been an innocent look, sometimes we can't help ourselves to look when someone walks into a room, there were no obvious signs that this was anything malicious, but me being me automatically assumes the worst. I sheepishly go and put my bag into the locker and crack on, what came next really, really surprised me.

This is the first time I've noticed a real difference in my ability at the gym, in previous days, I very much felt that awful burning  and aching sensation in pretty much a few minutes, but as time went on, I was absolutely fine and could manage so much more than I did in previous times, my legs just didn't ache at all for maybe the first 10-15 minutes, then it started, this was a weird sensation, not one I've ever really felt before, albeit made me very proud of my achievements. I also noticed that my heart rate was taking slightly longer to reach Moderate-Peak, not sure if I'm just imagining it, but if I'm not, then this change has come about pretty quickly, and I've surprised myself, if this is what happens after just 3 days, then imagine what would happen after 2 weeks.

I definitely managed to do more than I ever have done today, with the exception of not being able to do much on the Elliptical at the end (LOL), but not only did I manage to do more in general but I managed to do it for longer at a slightly quicker pace, something I'm going to slowly build on. One thing that I haven't changed in all of the days, is the level of the incline I set on the treadmill, I use a 4% incline, which I will slowly start to increase, this makes it a tougher workout, sometimes it feels like I'm clambering up this really steep hill and believe me you can feel the pinch after you've walked at an incline for a while.

As stated previously, I use an Apple Watch S3 to track my workouts and calorie burn, etc. Whilst I know that the Calorie burn maybe slightly overestimated, I've calibrated my watch to make sure it's as accurate as possible, I believe the margin of error is around 5% so not too bad, you may think that the calorie burn is ridiculously high, but I have a lot of weight behind me and it's easier for me to burn more calories because of my size and the amount of effort required would naturally be greater because it's a tough job being the fat kid.

So, I plan on sharing my exercise activity report from my phone for future workouts, the distances and speeds seem relatively low, but I also do have a bad hip and suffer from a couple of other ailments that I'll share with you later on in the journey. Please cast judgment aside, in the grand scheme of things, I know this may not seem like a huge workout to you, but to me it's huge, and I sweat from ear to ear.

Flabs Away!

Today's Workout

Day 3 - Food Diary

Another day completed, under my calorie goal again for today, I'm getting quite used to this now. Something we struggle with is trying to find the right things to eat after the gym, I don't want to be eating back those calories, so tonight and because of how late we got back, it was a ready meal, I know not the best, but we will endeavor to find something better moving forward, I've heard high protein stuff is best, so watch this space!

Flabs Away!

Big Mac & Fries Fakeaway

So our evening meal tonight was a Big Mac & Fries Fakeaway, don't get me wrong it isn't really that close to a Big Mac, or the fries, but it's a tasty treat that tasted as equally as good, the burger sauce, is pretty much spot on if you get it right, you may find that you need to tweak the spices to get it to your taste, it's a little bit of trial and error, but so so worth it!

We couldn't find any wholemeal rolls (part of healthy extra), so we used some Brioche Buns that were in the freezer, this is not how you are supposed to do it and it did make this meal slightly unhealthy, but in future, we'll make sure we have the right stuff in. Nevertheless, the burger was meaty, juicy, well seasoned and was a bit of alright!

Ingredients

For the burgers:

450g (1lb) of extra lean ground beef (less than 5% fat is best)
1/2 tsp of fine sea salt
4 Whole Wheat rolls

For the burger sauce:

2 tbs of half fat mayonnaise
6 tbs/90ml of fat-free plain yoghurt
½ tsp of paprika
¼ tsp of mustard powder
¼ tsp of onion powder
2 slices of pickle, diced
½ tbs of sweetener

Tip: We found that by using 6 tablespoons of fat-free yoghurt, there was an overpowering Yoghurty taste, we reduced this to 2 tablespoons and doubled quantities of the spices, this gave it a rich and intense flavour (more like burger sauce than Yoghurt with a bit of spice)

For the topping:

1 cup (240ml) of shredded iceburg or romaine lettuce
1 small white onion, finely diced
4x30g (1oz) of cheddar, sliced - (Healthy Extra)
2 slices of pickles

For the Fries:

We just used the Slimming World Friendly Chip recipe from earlier on, click HERE to view the recipe and the instructions, let me assure you they taste amazing!

The Method:

This is not my recipe, so to comply with Slimming Eats' Terms of Service, I can't post the full recipe, it's really easy to follow, click HERE to view instructions on how to make this deliciousness!

The Verdict:

Day 2 - Food Diary

Another day is done and all is great! I may have slightly overindulged during work last night, I had a full fat can of monster and half a bag of Malteser Buttons, but I also had some grapes, that's not going to do me any favours in the long wrong, as I doubled my sugar goal, this is not going to be the start of the plan going downhill, not after just one day, it's a slight blip, and all temptation is now gone, because I have nothing as bad as that in my bag or in the house, I still came under my calorie for the day which is the main thing, but must try harder in future.

P.S. If you're wondering why Breakfast is missing, it's because I didn't have any, and tend not to after a night shift.

Flabs Away!

Back at it tomorrow!

Pretty much a week later, I'm feeling ready and now in the right frame of mind (ish) to head back to the gym, we're going to be heading there tomorrow night again. The main crux of the aches and pains have gone from my left leg, but I still can't fully bend it without it being uncomfortable, therefore it's the right time, hopefully the least of the eurgh can ease overnight.

I must admit, having a week off from the gym, has been slightly depressing, I have found little to do with my nights, whereas I would usually be doing something to improve myself. It's been so long, that the nervousness has built again, I saw a few familiar faces when we went last time, and I don't want them thinking we were there for a couple of days and then just gave up. So my motivation for going to the gym is severely lacking, I'm not as optimistic as I once was, however once I get stuck in and get started, I'm sure that will pass. I honestly feel like I'm going to be back at square one and feel like any improvements or progress I've made over those 3 days will be lost, on the flip-side, maybe my left leg especially has strengthened enough for it to take a bigger impact, we will see and of course you will be first to know! 

Flabs Away!