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So….I fell off the weight loss wagon and made a crater the size of London underneath me!
I hate this. I’m so ashamed and disappointed in myself words can barely begin to describe.
I’ve fallen off the wagon, the slimming world diet, eating healthy, exercising….just about every healthy wagon in my life I’ve fallen off and not lightly. I know why and how it happened but that doesn’t comfort me in all honesty.
There’s a huge part of me doesn’t want to write and publish this post, which is why it’s taken me so long because, in a strange way it makes my failure real and I know that sounds stupid because it’s clearly real. You an I can see the weight I’ve put on, I can feel the weight, but just admitting it to you all here publicly is so hard because not only do I feel like I’ve let myself down, but I’ve also let you down. Continue reading
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Missed Two Weigh-In’s But Stayed The Same!
Last Thursday I actually managed to get out of work quick enough to get to class, shocker I know! I’d missed the last weeks because of 15/16 hour days, and even though I’ve been sticking to plan as much as possible (not easy) I was still a little anxious getting on the scales.
It was fine though, I stayed exactly the same. Not the best of results but least its not a negative (a gain).
I’m trying my best to stay on plan, with the crazy hours that I’ve been doing lately…It’s really not easy.
Have you missed a couple of classes in a row, how did you get on?
The Holy Grail of Buffets!
OMG! That buffet was freaking amazing, I’ve never been to one like it before. The sheer amount of food was overwhelming without adding the never ending choices. Seriously the pictures below don’t do it the spread justice in the slightest.
A Little taste of Italy This Weekend…I think so!
Tomorrow I’m going to my first holy communion for my mums friends children, I’m not really a religious person, at all, so not only is this going to be my first communion, but it’s also going to be in Italian!
As I said, I’m not really into the whole religion thing, that’s just me, but what into and excited about is the food that’s going to be laid out afterwards…hey I’m a recovering fat person, what do you expect?
I can’t wait to see (and eat!) all the traditional Italian food being served, knowing how much they love and take pride in their foods, it’s certainly going to be something special. I know the family pretty well, like I said it’s my mums close friend’s kids and I’ve heard nothing but planning talk for the last couple of months running up to this and 99% of it has been about the food!
They’ve been running all over the place sourcing specific ingredients for each dish its mad. My mum told me last night that they had to travel miles to this one shop for, and I quote “proper American yeast” for the homemade pizza’s; what’s the hell is proper yeast when its at home? Yeast is yeast, right? Continue reading
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Why I decided to change Slimming world groups
About a month or so ago me and my mum decided to join a new slimming world group, leaving our old group of almost a 2 years! I’m sure most of you are thinking, “why, you’ve been there so long, what’s changed” well quite a lot to be honest, not just with the group, but in myself.
Same old same…
I kinda felt like I had outgrown my group, it was the same old stuff each and every week. I knew what was gonna happen and when and that made me switch off and stop listening. It was like autopilot because I’d heard it all before which wasn’t a good thing at all. The size of the group was also growing extremely fast and, now this might seem petty but the whole signing in, paying and then getting weighed was taking foreverrrrrr! I hated it, just standing there waiting for ages isn’t my idea of fun, especially if you know (or expecting) you’ve had a bad week.
It wasn’t all bad don’t get me wrong I lost 5 stone with that group, granted I put a stone on over Christmas and new year while I was stil
l with that group, but the major weight loss is still a credit to my old group.
Time to kick arse!
Moving on to my new group, it’s great, nice and small, very cosy almost. Despite it being just another slimming world class it is really different; the layout, the atmosphere, all the people and the way the leader delivers the information is really fresh and has given me a new spurt of enthusiasm. I’m gonna be honest since December my interest levels have been slipping a little here and there and that has cost me with some weight gains, it’s no one’s fault but my own, but I’m not gonna dwell…that does nothing but cause more damage, am I right?
I’m really happy and excited to have this revved up feeling again for slimming world and losing more weight again and its all down to changing class!
Has anyone else done the same?
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Slimming World Essential Ingredients – Hold on to ya wallets!
So you’ve decided to join slimming world, or maybe you recently started which is fantastic, you’ll love it, I do!
Let’s face it being on a diet is about losing weight, well that’s the overall goal right? But like I’ve said before I think it’s the food (and planning) that makes or breaks any successful diet, I mean who wants to eat boring, cardboard crap? Yeah! Me neither.
I’ve gotta hand it to Slimming world, they have got a ton of recipes books that are packed to the rafters with some pretty cool recipes that are fine on the slimming world diet, which is what we all want. The problem is the amount of ingredients you need to make all these amazing dishes, you need almost an entire aisle of Tesco, and I don’t need to tell you they don’t come cheap.
I don’t want to bad mouth slimming world (honestly!) , but there not really forward about the cost of following their diet plan.
Hell, “join now for £9.95” (£14.95 when not on special) sounds so much better than, “join now for £9.95 plus £80 for ingredients!”.
Don’t get me wrong it’s not just slimming world, its the entire dieting & weight loss industry. They brush over the real cost of losing weight because shifting the fat is tough enough without telling newcomers it’s gonna cost them an arm and a leg.
Listen to me, I’m making it sound like it’s hopeless, but its not, far from it infact. It’s just…I think its only right for me to highlight this problem and the most common ingredients found in slimming world recipes so there are no shocks and surprises.
I’ve looked through all my slimming world books and online, making notes on the most common ingredients. I’m not talking about chicken & eggs, I mean the store cupboard herbs and spices that most of the dishes need, yet most of us don’t have to hand.
Ready! Continue reading
Top Three Tips To A Successful Cheat Meal
A reader emailed me this week asking about cheat meals and how to stop them from spilling over into cheat days or even weeks.
I replied via email, but then thought that other people, like yourself, could benefit from the information, so here goes.
I just wanted to say that I like your idea of a cheat meal.
So I wanted to ask, What kind of things did u eat for your cheat meal?
What’s reasonable for me to do? (Lol I had to ask cuz I ate 6 slices of pizza for my cheat meal once. It was supposed to be 3, but I couldn’t stop myself)
And how do u keep it at just a meal. I tried a cheat meal and it lasted 2 days while telling myself, “this will be the last time”?? (I really struggle with this)
Before getting into my top 3 tips, I wanna say right from the beginning, I’ve been there. I’ve had times when I’ve Continue reading
Making A Life Changing Decision…
I love watching movies and American dramas; immersing myself in the lives of the characters and the storylines that unfold, their day to day lives seem soooooo much more interesting than normal life, don’t get me wrong I know it’s fiction and made that way to be entertaining, but don’t you just look at them in awe, making life huge…epic…life changing decisions (each week in tv shows) that have massive repercussions on those around them; seriously some of them are nail biting to watch and see the outcomes while adding my own thoughts and views on the situations and what I’d be doing if I were in their position.
Don’t we all at some point or another wish for a life like they have in the movies, even just for a day, to live on the edge, at 100 mph, making decisions that alter the course of their lives forever onwards, or is it just me? Am I the only sad one out there?
Where’s this going?
If you’ve got this far your probably thinking, “what the hell is Darran going on about today, this is a blog about losing weight and slimming world” and you’d be right to but stick with me.
Isn’t losing weight a huge decision? A decision that could, in actual fact change the course of your life and countless others at the same time. It may sound like I’m majorly over cooking this, but am I really? Continue reading
Store Cupboard Essentials & Weekend Fakeaway Cooking
Last Thursday at my new slimming group I picked up a copy of the new fakeaway recipe book, as you all know I love a takeaway so I thought this book would be perfect for me. There’s some pretty interesting recipes in there that I’m looking forward to trying; donner kebab, pork in black bean sauce, burger (big mac) in a bowl, chicken tikka masala and spiced chicken to name a few.
The thing is when every it comes to healthy cooking you need so many different herbs and spices to add the flavours that the fats and oils would in the regular junk versions, you can’t just start cooking unless your cupboards are full…mine wasn’t!
Who said diets are cheap?
Late night trip to Tesco is was, and £35/40 later and I had most of the store cupboard ingredients I’d need for the book ( I had a couple of other bits in there too). Who ever thinks dieting and healthy eating is cheap, is wrong plain an simple. All the store cupboard ingredients they will last me a while and make quite a few recipes and that’s the cost of eating right and eating a variety at the end of the day. Put in simple terms it’s a small price for our health and weight loss goals.
The first fakeaway
Saturday me and mum decided to do a little cooking together; I started on the fakeaway pork in black bean sauce that looks soooo nice in the book, and isn’t hard to make.
It turned out really nice, and it’s crazy why Continue reading
Lunch Time on Slimming World
The biggest problem I, and I’m sure most of us have with diets and healthy eating is eating on the go, and let’s face it most of us never stop for more than 10 minutes these days, and cooking food is far from the top of the priorities list.
We’ve got no time, no time!
Things go from back to worse when you factor in being out on the road, work, college etc. because we’re not able to cooking something quick and easy like we would at home. It doesn’t stop there though; people that aren’t watching their weight (yeah those lucky, lucky sob’s!) can simply pop to Tesco and buy something there and then, a sandwich, a pastie, a microwave meal or they’ll pop McDonalds or something. I’m not saying it’s a healthy lifestyle their living, but it’s a darn easy one when it comes to eating!
Me, and you on the other hand can’t; sure we can have fruit, salad and cold meats, but that gets every old very freaking fast and expensive…don’t get me started on the cost differences; that’s a post for another day!
I drive for a living, and I’m on the road almost all day, every day. I do stop and some of my shops that have microwaves that I can use but apart from that, I can only have what I carry with me.
I’ve had to get a little creative with lunch times on the road, and although I’m not 100% happy and still learn/tweaking, things aren’t that bad. Continue reading