Stop Calling it a 'Diet' and You'll Change your Life

Let's face it, Bonfire Night is synonymous with food.

You've probably not given it much thought before, but I guarantee that if you celebrated the torture and ultimate execution of Britain's least favourite Catholic revolutionary Guido Fawkes last night, food was undoubtedly involved.

Toffee Apples, Hearty Soups and Big Pot Chilli's don the tables of stay at home celebrators, whereas those of us celebrating at our local display traditionally choose from hot dogs, burgers- or the local takeaway. Alex and I, living in a seaside town, keep alive a tradition that was started in our university days by chowing down on fish and chips from our favourite chippy each and every Bonfire Night. 

Tucking in to this seriously unhealthy dinner got me thinking: Would the absence of this meal have negatively impacted on my night? After not much internal debate, the answer was clear. The truth of the matter is yes; I have looked forward to this evening for weeks, and depriving myself of this little luxury would ultimately have led to Alex being unable to enjoy his meal, meaning that we both would have gone home miserable and hungry. Associating healthy eating with disappointment and resentment doesn't help anyone, and it is for this reason that I believe that everyone should allow themselves little treats with their nearest and dearest- even if you're mid-weight loss journey. 

This is why I think the term 'dieting' doesn't lead to a healthy association with food. Yes, living off salad leaves and water will help you drop the pounds, and completely giving up the treats we love the most will mean we save calories, most people can't maintain that lifestyle forever. Making sure you eat healthily most of the time, whilst allowing yourself one chocolate digestive with your evening cuppa or the occasional slice of pizza will not ruin your chances of weight loss glory. In fact, treating myself enabled me to change the way I looked at food incredibly quickly because I wasn't seeing my healthy eating as a chore that needed to be endured so that I could look like the girls in the magazines. The real reason I, and all of us trying to lose wight, should want to conquer the chub is to better our quality of life and improve our self esteem and happiness. It is important to appreciate that to be healthy and happy in your own skin, you need to eat a nourishing balanced diet containing lots of fruit and vegetables, small portions of carbohydrates - (unless your a certified gym bunny) - and a minimal intake of refined sugars and saturated fats. (That's minimal intake, not non existent.) That doesn't mean you have to cut out entire food groups to achieve your goals, you just have to readjust the way they occupy your plate. I found the blow image on Pinterest, and it's something I live my life by! Fill your plate with veggies, include a small portion of proteins and have a serving of carbohydrates that is no bigger than your fist. Simple, right?! Stick to this approach ninety percent of the time, and having a slice of cake once a week won't be a big deal at all.

http://www.pinterest.com/maketodaycount3/portion-sizes/

As well as helping you change your lifestyle, little treats can keep you motivated. For example, I very, very rarely give in to Alex's pleas for a Chinese take away. This is partly because I much prefer cooking home made sweet and sour pork and noodle-less chow mein,(Don't worry, those recipe's are coming!), and partly because when I finally give in I enjoy the novelty of not having to cook for myself so much more! The last thing you want is for 'Friday night take-out pizza' to become a routine. You want something like 'Friday night home made curry experiment' to become a routine, or 'Sunday night next week's lunch prep' to be a weekly staple. That way, you're never really 'dieting', you're just changing the way you think about food in an extremely positive way.

Taking all this into account, I don't think I'll ever go on a 'diet' again. Yes, there will be periods of my life where daily treats become weekly treats, and weekly treats become monthly treats, but just that's how it goes. Having confidence in your own cooking, and knowing how to make your favourite meals healthier, means you'll never feel deprived, and that's what life is all about. So enjoy your Bonfire Night fish and chips, safe in the knowledge that you'll be cooking a healthy home made wonder the following evening. That way, life's little luxuries shouldn't fill you with guilt and remorse, causing you to spiral into a self-pity doughnut binge. Enjoy them while they last, understand that they can't happen every day, and live your life!

Happy Cooking!

If you have any requests, comment on this post or follow me on Instagram and have a flick through what I've made so far! I'm happy to upload recipes of anything you want!

Gooey Blueberry and Banana Pancakes: Arguably the Best Way to Start the Day

I Bloomin' Love Pancakes.

They're a little party for your taste buds, aren't they? Unfortunately, when you're trying to lose weight, they can be a definite no-no. The lashings of butter, full fat soft cheese and ladles of sugar in conventional pancake recipes are enough to stop any progress in it's tracks. Over 100 calories per pancake isn't a particularly healthy start to the day, is it.

Well, I guess that's that then. No pancakes for us...

Wrong!!

By making tiny changes, we can cut the calories down to around 150 per portion. (A portion comes in at a whopping 4 pancakes, I should add!) If you fancy some maple syrup on top of your not-so-naughty breakfast treat, that's fine too! Just add around 25 calories per teaspoon of yummy sweet goodness. Thank you, Canada. 

Okay, I'm already salivating. Let's do this!

First things first then slimmers! What are you going to have to find in your store cupboards to concoct this masterpiece of approximately 12 pancakes?

Your kit for breakfast domination

• 100g Plain White Flour is first on the list. As you can see by my purchase, quality is completely up to you!
• 125g Skimmed Milk. You can use semi-skimmed if you can't bear the thought of the red stuff, but remember this will up the calorific content.
• 50g Quark. If you aren't already best friends with this stuff, get yourself acquainted. It is a mild, creamy soft cheese that contains 80% less calories than conventional soft cheese! Did I mention it was also fat free?
• 2 Egg Whites. Get rid of those yolks, guys! You don't need them and they carry the calories. 
• 1 tsp Baking Powder. I like the nifty little Dr. Oetker sachets, personally.
• 1 Ripe Banana. Chop this into teeny tiny little pieces, as that way you barely notice them in your cooked pancake. They provide the lovely sweetness and gooey-ness that gives these pancakes their name.
• 1 Punnet of Blueberries. Set two or three handfuls aside, and chop the rest in half to be added in to your batter mix. 
• Oil, For Spraying. I can't stress this enough, GET A SPRAY BOTTLE FOR YOUR OIL. You'll be amazed at how little you actually need. If you don't have a spray bottle, add oil by the teaspoon. You shouldn't need to add any extra to the pan during frying, but if you do remember that less is more- and it'll help you shave those pounds.

You're going to need to also find yourself:

•  2 Mixing bowls.
• A Sieve.
• A whisk. I don't have an electric whisk and you don't need one either- whisking a perfect excuse for a mini bicep work out.
• A nice big frying pan. You should be able to cook about 3 pancakes at a time.

Step 1. My least favourite part.

• The first thing you're going to have to do is sift together the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. A fun fact about me is that I have a massive fear of flour! I can't bear the feel of it on my skin, it gives me goosebumps and makes me feel all queasy. You know what though? Even I touch flour for these beauties. 
• In a separate bowl, mix together the milk and quark until it is as smooth and combined as you can get it. Add a small amount of the quark mixture to the flour and mix into a thick paste. Slowly mix the rest, making sure you use some elbow grease to smooth out any lumps. 
• Now comes the time consuming part; whisking the egg whites into stiff peaks. If you have an electric whisker, it's your lucky day! If not, don't worry, we can do this together. It takes about 5 minutes of continuous hand whisking to get those eggs to the right consistency, and you'll have a lovely toned arm because of it.

Step 3. Work those biceps!

• You're now going to gently fold your egg whites into your quark/milk/flour/baking powder mash up. You need to do this gently in order to keep those lovely air bubbles in the batter! Fold in about a tablespoon of egg white and, when that is combined, carefully fold in the rest. When it's all mixed together, gently stir in your blueberries and banana. 

  Good news guys, it's finally time to cook!

It's all about the air bubbles.

• After spraying your oil and heating your pan on a low-medium heat, plop large spoonfuls of mixture into the pan. (Remember, you can cook about three at a time.) When lots of little air bubbles start popping on the pancake's surface, it's time to flip. Cook for about one minute more, then remove from the pan and keep them warm while you cook the rest of your batch.
• When you're done, stack them high, top with fresh blueberries and drizzle with maple syrup. Enjoy!

Oh, and one more thing. There is only one way these pancakes can be served:

In your comfy bed with a warm cup of tea on a lazy Sunday morning.

Let me know how you get on, and I'd love to hear about other flavour combinations!

Happy cooking!

A bit of Context for Good Measure

This Blogging thing is daunting, isn't it?

It's something that I've wanted to do for an extremely long time, but haven't known where to start. 

I have found myself asking a multitude of questions prior to penning this important first post; what to write about, when to write about it and, undoubtedly most importantly, will anyone be interested in what I have to say?

After quashing those unhelpful thoughts, it became clear that there was only one thing I should be writing about. 

In December 2013, I was the biggest I had ever been. After moving to the South West of England from my hometown Swansea in 2010, (and two years of heavy drinking that inevitably ensued at university,) my father died. He was 59, and the process was long, drawn out and devastating. Being away from my family and traveling back to visit him in hospital was the most difficult eight months of my life, and his death on July 4th 2012, (a mere 19 days before his 60th birthday) hit my family hard. The situation was not helped by the fact that just a month later I had to leave my family once more to return to university to continue studying.

I get what you're thinking. Jeez! This blog is a bit heavy, isn't it?

Well, the only reason I'm telling you this is to put my story in to context. My fathers death is the reason I turned to food. Everyone has their reasons, and it is important to understand yours before you can change the unhealthy association. I have loved to cook since the day I realised I could, and the sadness that engulfed me led to me cooking massive portions of (what I like to call) Belly Hug Food. I was treating my boyfriend and I to army sized pasta dishes, colossal pastry pies and lashings of processed food snacking because they made me feel better. I was a typical comfort eater, taking solace in carbs and living each day by looking forward to dessert. It was a situation too many of us find ourselves in; the endless cycle of feeling sad- eating -looking in the mirror -feeling sad -eating. Sooner or later, for the sake of my health, something had to give.

The day after my 22nd Birthday was the day I decided to change.

I was nursing a hangover, and eating a sharer bag of sweet chilli Walker's Sensations, whilst uploading the pictures of my big birthday bash the night before. My night had been somewhat tarnished by the fact that, for the first time in my conscious memory, I had found myself with no option but to purchase a size 16 dress. My birthday outfit shopping trip had seen me come away with a strapless, plain black, knee length dress, having found nothing else that looked good in the horrific all-the-way-around mirrors. Up until this particular shopping trip, I was able to kid myself that I could still slip in to a UK size 14, but after much struggle in River Island's dressing room I just about managed to jiggle myself into the larger size. I hadn't given the experience too much thought until the aforementioned birthday pictures popped up, large and unforgiving, on my laptop screen. That can't possibly be me, I thought. Just three years earlier, I had been a happy and healthy size 10, without too much effort. I had been a competitive swimmer in my teenage years, and I never had to think about what I was eating or how much exercise I was doing. How was it possible that I had let myself get this big?

Before we continue, it's important for you to see the transformation for yourself. After all, this post is all about context!

18 years old

19 years old

20 years old

21 years old

22 years old

Looking at yourself like this is pretty strange, as although the (five stone) difference is obvious when it is laid out in front of you in an almost straight line, gradually gaining weight is a strange thing.You don't necessarily notice it going on, little by little by little, but instead notice it one day when something shocks you into realisation. For me, it was this picture, staring back at me whilst I nibbled the last few crumbs of my family sized snack:

Alex and I on my 22nd birthday

This picture made me more unhappy than any picture had before. I looked bloated, twice as wide as my partner and a million miles from the woman in my head. At this point in time, it was only 9 months until my graduation, and I couldn't think of anything worse than seeing the pictures of Alex and I the day after the ceremony and feeling the same crushing humiliation. I would want to keep those pictures forever, so something needed to change, pronto! 

My unhappiness is key to my story, as I believe you should be driven by self confidence and happiness above all else. You only get one life and, as I learned from my father, it is far too short to be spent feeling glum. So, in January 2014 I decided to change my life for the better. The only problem was, I still wanted the belly hug food that I so fervently enjoyed. I do not believe in fad diets and quick solutions; 'raw before 4', 'paleo-veganism', 'juice cleanses'...these were never going to be options for me. What hard work, I've always thought. I wanted to change my lifestyle so that I could maintain it forever. I wanted to make it as simple, and as cheap, as I possibly could. Essentially, what I needed to do was relearn how to eat, so that's exactly what I did.

It's been nearly a year, and I can honestly say that I am the most comfortable in my own skin that I have ever been. In total, I have lost over five stone, dropping from 15st (210 lbs) with an obese BMI of 34.9 to 9st 10lb (136 lbs) with a healthy BMI of 22.6! Throughout my journey I have not felt hungry, deprived or unhappy- in fact I'd go as far as to say I did not go on a diet at all. I just did all the seemingly boring things everyone tells you to do: 

• I drastically cut down on- but did not cut out!- carbohydrates.
• I drastically cut down on saturated fat and sugar.
• I made sure that I ate at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
• Instead of getting the bus, or jumping in a taxi, I walked to university and work.
• Lastly, and most importantly, I did not deprive myself anything. If I wanted a biscuit, I had one biscuit, not the entire pack.

It doesn't sound like fun, but it really is. I have learned so many nifty tips and tricks along the way and can't wait to start sharing recipes and stories with you all!

Before I go, it's only right that I share my favourite 'after' shot with you. This picture was taken on the day of my graduation.

Alex and I before my graduation

All I want to do with this blog is help those who are where I was eleven months ago and gain more knowledge from like-minded people. Let's get healthy, and more importantly happy, together!