Musings: Food I tend to keep stocked up

After just doing a quick shop and un packing it all, I thought it may be a good idea if I let you know the staples that I've been keeping in the cupboards to keep me going on this weight loss journey.

Doing Filling and Healthy rather than counting points has made me really focus on foods which I may have skipped on to save points for 'naughty' treats. Now I feel like I'm properly fueling my body, which is great!

- Eggs: Eggs are a great base for everything. They work in breakfast, lunch and dinner. They can be made sweet and savoury and I pretty much go through at least a pack a week. So versatile.

- Poultry: I bet chickens hate me, but I get through quite a bit of chicken and turkey as it just really bulks out meals, and I love meat! (Sorry veggies) My dad cooks a whole chicken which he puts on sandwiches (for him and my mom) in the week, and I find myself picking at that whenever I'm in a picky mood, which is fine for F&H :D

- Tomatoes, Mushrooms & Peppers: I was just going to write fruit and veg but I'm guessing that that is pretty obvious right? Instead here are three I tend to add to most meals. They're great at bulking and adding flavour to meals.

- Bananas: Not only are they a great snack, they're also great for adding to baking recipes to keep things low points!

- Weight Watchers Bread: Whilst not all WW bread is free, the majority is, and I love their Pittas and wraps. They make food prep a hell'a lot easier.

So here are just a few staples. I'd love to hear yours too!

Image source: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/444660163180149796/

Food: Rhubarb Falpjacks

Another sweet treat to tickle your taste buds today.

It's not my usual recipe post as I literally copied a recipe from the Filling and Healthy Facebook page, but swapped cherries for rhubarb.

But hey, I still thought sharing is caring.

Here is the original recipe.

I swapped the shop apple sauce for homemade apple sauce to make it 0pp on filling and healthy.

A nice tasty treat for you to try.

What do the scales say?

I'm still quite shocked, but also extemly happy to tell you I've lost another 3lbs this week.

I'm not quite sure how I'm doing this if I'm honest. This is now 9lbs in 3 weeks.

I've also hit my next half a stone, so now I've lost 1st 8lbs in 8 weeks. Pretty shocking.

I'm just waiting for the week it's going to catch up on me.

Anywho, see you next week!

Musings: Hiding beneath the layers

One of the most satisfying things about weight loss is getting back into clothes you could no longer squeeze yourself into and watching the numbers inside said clothes get smaller.

It is a regular occurrence for me to have an evening trying on my smaller clothes and then running into my parents room to show my mom. If I wear one of those items of clothing over the coming days I feel good about myself and confident and I like that feeling, it spurs me on. See my Instagram here on a night out for my boyfriends birthday, I felt damn good about myself and he agreed (although he always has, he's a good egg!)
http://instagram.com/p/s5WCcDDJp6/?modal=true

Tonight (last night) was one of those said nights in which I've tried on the smaller clothes, done a dance for my mom and gone to bed feeling pretty damn proud of my achievements and encouraged for the rest of the week. However, I noticed something which has struck a chord with me, a lot of my smaller clothes are 'nice' going out clothes and I was left thinking ' I wish I had somewhere to go out and wear these.'

People who know me know I'm 22 going on 82. I'm usually in bed by nine and asleep by quarter past, even on weekends. I much prefer a quiet night in than a late night out, but is that because I'm getting older, or because I was getting fatter?

Whilst I've always loved my sleep, I used to love a good night out. I'd spend ages planning what to wear, how I would do my hair and makeup and practise walking in my heels without looking like a pregnant duck. However over the last couple of years I slowly found myself going off it.

At first I thought it was because I had a boyfriend, I didn't need to spend the time going on a night and dressing up as I had a guy at home I could spend time with. As sad as it was one of the reasons I got so dolled up and slimmed down was to meet guys, it was a confident boost (even if I had some Dutch courage going on too.)

Then I thought maybe it's because I don't drink anymore. Clubs are very different when you're sober let me tell you. Also when you're sober you don't have the Dutch courage pushing you through, telling you that you can in fact dance and are basically the white Beyoncé.

But tonight it's sort of hit me; have I been hiding? I'm a lot more confident in how I look again now, and to be honest, I'd still rather be tucked up in bed than painting the town red, but I don't really go out anymore.

Last weekend my boyfriend and I went shopping and I honestly couldn't remember the last time we'd done that (aside from supermarket shopping.) We don't go out to dinner, just the two of us anymore, and just tend to spend most our weekends at home vegging out, which is totally my doing.

I've also stopped wearing makeup, which for someone who has a beauty blog is a big deal. It started with me stopping wearing makeup to work, in honour of sleep, but then stretched out to me wearing the same look on the odd occasion I would leave the house. I stopped experimenting in fear I'd look stupid and embarrasses myself, and in turn my little blog has been neglected which makes me sad as I put so much effort into it.

Whenever I've lost weight in the past I've always noticed my confidence sky rocket, but in the past I've always lost weight so I could feel good in clothes and confident meeting new people. This time I did it because I knew I had to for my health. I wanted to be 22 knowing there was a good chance of me seeing 82!

I have a boyfriend who loves me now matter what my appearance, I've finally gotten to the age where I'm less bothered by what people think, but tonight I've realised I've been hiding. Part of it is just because I'm a home girl who would marry her bed if she could, but the other part of me has realising I've been hiding within myself (let's face it, there were plenty of hiding spaces) and that's really struck a chord with me.

They say weight loss is not just a physical journey but a mental one, and I wholeheartedly agree with that statement.

The purpose of this post seems to have gotten so lost that I can't even remember the point anymore. I just felt the need to get this written down and shared. I wanted this blog to be where I shared my thoughts and food with the world, and this is one of those posts.

Food: Filling and Healthy Lemon Drizzle Cake

As I mentioned in a previous post the only downside to Filling and Healthy is there are little sweet treats that fit into it. Of course I use my 49 for the odd sweet treat (mainly poptarts, yum!) but I want to eat sweet treats that aren't compeltely full of sugar but still satisfying. Enter this little creation.This recipe is adapted from a Weight Watchers one (here) and some tips I've found from a Filling and Healthy Facebook group.

One of the main things I've learnt from this Filling and Healthy group is to replace flour with ground oats instead, as that'll make it 0pp.

Here I've got:

3 eggs

75g caster sugar

2 lemons

75g of oats mixed in a food processor to ressemble a more flour like consistency

Begin my whisking your eggs, sugar and lemon zest (from one lemon) in a bowl. I recommend an electric whisk as it takes about 5 mins to do. You need a 'thick, light and airy consistency'.

Add the oats and a tsp of Baking Powder and gently fold in. Then transfer to a cake tin. Cook in the over on 190 for around 15 mins.

For the drizzle I used the juice of both lemons and the zest of one with 1 tsp of icing sugar. I'd say one juice would be plenty though as mine came out rather tart.

Your cake is now done.

I cut mine into six and it'll be 1pp of slice on Filling and Healthy. It wasn't perfect, less lemon in the drizzle is a must and longer in the oven (mine sank in the middle due to me getting it out too early and finding out it wasn't fully cooked). For a first attempt though, I'm proud.

What do you think?