First day done!

So that's the first day over and done with, not a bad start, food was absolutely amazing, in under the calorie goal for the day, I seem to always be coming over my Sodium goal even when I did this for a short while before, hopefully, the amount of water I drink will offset some of that, if not we might have to think about an alternative if it causes an issue, hopefully not. I'm not feeling weak or hungry or any of those things, I feel well-fed and all in all, still feeling pretty positive.

This is the full food diary for today.

Flabs Away!

Chinese Salt and Pepper Chicken with Egg Fried Rice

Chinese Salt & Pepper Chicken - The Recipe and the Verdict!

Salt & Pepper Chicken, Fried Rice & Curry Sauce 

Wowzers! This is a Slimming Eats recipe (who are awesome, you should definitely check them out).

This is such a fulfilling dish, it has the right balance between spice, sweetness, and saltiness, it's perfectly accompanied by the Egg Fried rice, which is made even better with the addition of some Curry Sauce! This is a firm favourite of ours.

This can be made in the Actifry if you have one, or if not, you can cook the chicken in the oven and toss all of the ingredients in a Wok or a large pan afterward.

What are you waiting for, go out get the stuff and start making it, you will seriously not regret it!

Nom Nom Nom Nom!

Salt and Pepper Chicken Recipe:

The Ingredients: 

Chicken:

8 chicken thighs (approx 650g), cut into chunks (we used chicken breast)
4 tbs of cornstarch (cornflour in the UK)
Salt and Black Pepper to season
1 egg
Low-Calorie Spray Oil (Frylight is perfect for this)

Vegetables:

1 red onion, finely diced
3 cloves of garlic minced

1 red chilli, sliced
1/2 red pepper
1/2 green pepper
1 small carrot, julienned (or sliced into thin matchsticks)
1/4 cup (60ml) of chicken stock
1 tbs of soy sauce
1 tbs of rice vinegar
2 spring onions, sliced

Salt & Pepper Mix:

2 tsp of fine sea salt
2 tsp of black pepper
2 tsp of Chinese five-spice
2 tsp of sweetener

Tip: For more of an intense flavour, double up on the spice, we did this and it was 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!

Egg Fried Rice Recipe:

Ingredients:

White Rice (320g) - We use Boil in a bag for easiness
2 tbsp of Sesame Oil (or enough to coat)
1 Egg (whisked)
Handful of Spring Onions (to serve)

Tip: Ensure the egg is whisked thoroughly beforehand, so you don't try to just crack the egg in the pan)

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!

Curry Sauce Recipe:

Ingredients:

Mayflower Curry Sauce Mix

80g of Mayflower Curry Powder (It can be Medium, hot or extra hot)
300ml of Boiling Water

The Method:

1. Pour 80g of Mayflower curry powder into a heat-safe container.
2. Add 300ml of boiling water to the mixture.
3. Stir thoroughly until all lumps have gone, and you have a smooth consistent texture.
4. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes before serving.

Note: We find this to be a slightly thinner curry sauce then we're probably used to, but that's normal. It still tastes amazing, and adds a lovely punch of flavour to the Egg Fried Rice!

The Verdict:

Diet Plan (Next 4 weeks)

8th July - 4th August 2019 

So it's official, today is the day the diet starts, we have enough stuff bought in for the next month, including a giant bumper selection of meats, they messed up and gave us double the pork, so we have like 9 packs of 4 instead of 3 packs of 4, cha ching!

I'm going to be sharing with you all daily what I have to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks etc. And I'll share screenshots from my app daily, so you can track my progress along with me.

I'm not going to bore you with reviews/recipes of our lunches, it's going to be pretty basic stuff, ya know Jacket Potato, salads the odd pasta dish, but I will share with you our evening meal, the one with all the calories muhahaha! Feel free to tell me off if you see anything naughty, but I'm going to try my hardest.

We have agreed that one of our favourite things is Sunday Lunch, so we are going to aim to have a Sunday lunch every, well Sunday, we're going to pack it with vegetables and use as much low fat, reduced salt and sugar ingredients as possible, but it will likely be the most carby, naughty meal we'll have and as such, I don't feel you really need a review of that, as we don't follow a recipe and it's just something we know how to make, therefore this is our Naughty but mindful meal.

So here is the next 4 weeks of dinner, sorted and in a handy little list, I shall review each one for you, the recipes are not mine, so I can't post the full recipe, but will provide links and ingredients, and any tips we've found along the way to make it taste that little bit better.

P.S. Calories are an approximation, I've tried to get them spot on as we're measuring our food, but may be slightly out, no one can be perfect.

Evening Meal Plan

Week Commencing 8th July 2019 

Monday 8th July - Salt & Pepper Chicken, with Egg Fried Rice & Curry Sauce (677 Calories)
Tuesday 9th July - Pulled Pork & BBQ Sauce with Chips (726 Calories)
Wednesday 10th July - Big Mac & Fries Fakeaway (345 Calories)
Thursday 11th July - Sticky Chilli Chicken & Noodles (719 Calories)
Friday 12th July - Black Pepper Beef with Egg Fried Rice (481 Calories)
Saturday 13th July - Chicken Alfredo with Tagliatelle & Cheesy Garlic Bread (373 Calories)
Sunday 14th July - Roast Chicken Sunday Dinner (Our Naughty but mindful meal)

Week Commencing 15th July 2019 

Monday 15th July - Nando's Peri Peri Chicken Fakeaway with Spicy Rice & Salad (557 Calories)
Tuesday 16th July - Lemon Chicken Goujoins, Salt & Pepper Chips & Curry Sauce (760 Calories)
Wednesday 17th July - Slow Cooked Teriyaki Pork with Egg Fried Rice (518 Calories)
Thursday 18th July - Spaghetti Bolognese (350 Calories)
Friday 19th July - Mac and Cheese (436 Calories)
Saturday 20th July - Chicken and Sweetcorn Lasange (550 Calories)
Sunday 21st July - Sunday Lunch (Naughty but Mindful)

Week Commencing 22nd July 2019

Monday 22nd July - Singapore Chicken Noddles (532 Calories)
Tuesday 23rd July - Stove Top BBQ Chicken & Chips (400 Calories)
Wednesday 24th July - Pizza Topped Chicken (298 Calories)
Thursday 25th July - Tangy Chilli Beef Noodles (420 Calories)
Friday 26th July - Melt-in-the-middle Bacon Cheeseburger & Fries (410 Calories)
Saturday 27th July - Mega Stuffed Meatballs in Tomato Sauce & Pasta (600 Calories)
Sunday 28th July - Sunday Lunch (Naughty but Mindful)

Week Commencing 29th July 2019 

Monday 29th July - Chicken Fajitas (240 Calories)
Tuesday 30th July - KFC Zinger Burger Fakeaway (351 Calories)
Wednesday 31st July - Stir-fried Beef with Ginger and Spring Onion (321 Calories)
Thursday 1st August - Sticky Chinese BBQ Pork (212 Calories)
Friday 2nd August - Slow Cooker Crack Chicken & Rice (400 Calories)
Saturday 3rd August - Classic Chilli & Rice (420 Calories)
Sunday 4th August - Sunday Lunch (Naughty but Mindful)

So there we have it...

So there it is, I mean this is a pretty solid menu plan, however it may be subject to change, but I'll be posting my review of all of the meals daily, one thing that's important when dieting is obviously having moreish tasty food, right? Absolutely! The Sunday lunch thing will more than likely change, it's just an excuse to have family round and indulge in some naughtiness (especially the yorkshire puddings), if this hampers progress, or becomes too much of an issue, we'll cut it out, but we shall see how things go, it's important to have a treat to look forward to, or you'll go insane.

Anyway, that's enough from me, hope you're hungry, because I certainly am!

Flabs Away!

Diet Starts Monday...

'We'll Start on Monday, yeah?'

All good things, start on a Monday right? Well at least 99% of dieters have at some point in their lives said 'Oh, we'll start on Monday' and Monday never comes, or Monday turns into Tuesday, etc. etc. I really wanted to avoid starting this on a Monday and kind of break that habit, however, that's not how things have panned out, over the past week we have been eating more healthy, but we didn't want to waste food, so we got rid of all of our nasty foods, by get rid of, of course I mean shovel down my throat as quickly as possible, you know the usual stuff, Pizza and Nachos (Oh the cheesiness). The reason we didn't bin it, is because we don't particularly want to waste money and the majority of our stuff is frozen and not really suitable to be given away, we also wanted one last hurrah, before we set off on this part of our journey, you might think that's an awful idea, but it's kind of an education in itself. I realise that I'm spending a while trying to justify eating unhealthily and well, that's the problem we're trying to sort, anyways food was nice, ha! 

So we have stockpiled on Herbs and Spices as a lot of the Slimming World recipes require a lot of these, we've also bought lots of fruits and vegetables, as well as water, water is the most important part of any diet. Bye bye, sweet Coke nectar I'll miss you. We've also bulk bought some meats from Muscle Foods, they sell massive variety packs of meat, at reasonable prices, we've used them always, to be honest and they've always been pretty spot on, if you're interested in what they have to offer just click above and away you go (By the way this is not a paid placement or anything, just a recommendation for something we use and enjoy). Slimming World has a huge and diverse range of recipes to choose from, I tend to find they are more Asian-orientated, which is completely fine with me, I love Asian food, that's why I weigh the size of a house-end, I have a weakness for Chinese Food (Who doesn't). There's absolutely nothing to say we can't have Chinese, it's just about limiting yourself, not overindulging and it helps to work some or all of it off too! 

How I'm feeling...

I'm not just saying this, but I feel completely positive and really optimistic, it's the first day of changing something huge, for what I hope to be the rest of my life, I really want to look in the mirror one day and think, wow instead of avoiding even glancing in a mirror everywhere I go, it's a problem as they're all around, I get it, I know that a lot of people don't like what they look like, but for me it's a bigger problem, I get nervous in situations where I meet new people because of my weight, I get nervous and feel really embarrassed going to eat in a restaurant, about how I look to others, so much so that I get palpitations, I hide it well, but inside I'm completely melting down, I have absolutely no confidence, this has been a problem for as long as I can remember, which I guess is why my social circle is so small, and I avoid leaving the house if I can help it. I know I shouldn't care about what people think of me, but realistically I do and can't help it, I'm forever pleasing others even if it means not pleasing myself. But enough of that, I'm feeling great about starting this fresh diet and I'm honestly so looking forward to the meals we have planned, which of course I'll share with you. 

The Plan...

I use an app called MyFitnessPal to track all of my meals, drinks, and snacks. Now I do work night-shift, so that's a whole other problem in itself, but to keep things simple, a new day is Midnight-Midnight, regardless of whether I'm on shift or not. We have recipes planned from Pinch of Nom and Slimming Eats. My calorie goal is 2360 per day, which I know is just slightly less than the recommended daily amount, but I was probably eating and drinking in excess of 4000+ calories and beyond, so it's a huge step in the right direction, however, my personal goal is to stay below 2000 calories a day, at least for now. I am mindful that I have 15 'Syns' to use on Slimming World, but will also try and limit these as best as I can. I also use an app called SlimIt which tracks your daily Syns, so I'll be keeping a beady eye on that. Now technically speaking, when you workout you burn off calories, and therefore this frees up those calories, I'm going to limit myself in this as well, don't want those calories to be eaten up again, however it's important to replace what's been lost during exercise, so I'll always aim to eat a little something afterward. 

What's on the Menu?

On the Menu for this evening is Chinese Salt and Pepper Chicken, with Egg Fried Rice and Curry sauce. Surprised? It comes in at 677 Calories for everything, compare that to the real thing, and you're probably looking at, at least a 300-600 Calorie reduction, let alone the reduction in fat content, I'm so excited, we've tried this before and it was nice, but tonight will be even better. Stick around for the verdict a little later on this evening.

Flabs Away!