RECIPE - Chicken Breast in a Creamy Cajun Sauce

This is my favourite sauce discovery of recent times, and the best thing is it's only 1 syn on Red or EE but tastes really rich and delicious (or could be made using part of your HEXA allowance). I used it on chicken, but I also think the sauce would be lovely with some pasta or other meats.

Ingredients
(Serves 2)
2 Chicken breasts
4 tbsp fat free fromage frais
2 laughing cow light triangles
Cajun spices (amount depending on your taste)
Red onion, finely diced
200ml chicken stock
1 garlic clove, crushed

Method

1. Chop the chicken breasts into bite sized chunks and brown in fry light.
2. Add the onion and garlic to the pan, along with the chicken stock and cajun spices
3. Cook over a medium heat until the chicken is cooked through and the stock has reduced by half.
4. Add the laughing cow lights and keep stirring until they have dissolved
5. Remove from the heat and stir through the fromage frais.
6. Serve with Slimming World chips and extra veggies

Taking a Break

Sorry for the lack of blog updates recently. I've ended up having a couple of weeks break from Slimming World. After being really shaken up by an incident 2 weeks ago I turned to comfort eating, and no matter what I did I couldn't seem to get myself back on track. The day would start well, but by lunchtime would have descended into giving into the food cravings.

Then, just as I was starting to feel better again my hen weekend was upon me. I had an amazing weekend away with my brilliant friends, but I'm pretty sure that the cocktails, crisps, chocolates and general bad food choices have added a few pounds back on. But I don't regret it - I had been really looking forward to this weekend away, and I really didn't want to deny myself anything.

Slimming World is something that I do believe fits into your life most of the time, which is why I love it as a diet. I can easily see that continuing eating 'on plan' would be something that works throughout my life. However, there are always going to be times when I really don't want an apple - I want a big bag of crisps and a cosmo, and my hen was definitely one of those occasions. I love my food, and wouldn't want that to change.

I'm back home today, and back at work tomorrow, so I'm going to get back on plan tomorrow too. I'm avoiding the scales as I know it will only be bad news, and going to have a few success express days to give me a kick start again. Funnily enough, I'm actually craving something healthy now, so pass me that apple this time...

Week 24 weigh in

It was a good one this week - the stomach bug may have made me feel awful last week, but it did give me a bit of compensation, in the form of a 3.5lb loss this morning, taking my total weight loss to 23lbs. I was thrilled. It feels like I've really kick started myself. I'm being good, 100% on plan, and eating lots of vegetables. All I need to do now is keep this going.

It's nice to be in the 20s when it comes to weight lost as well - its now starting to feel like I've lost a good amount, and that I'm really achieving something. Hopefully I'll get another few good losses in between now and the wedding to take me into the 30s! (Though preferably without anymore stomach bugs.)

Refusing Temptation

Yesterday I was out for a family meal. Unbeknown to me, the restaurant we went to only did high teas, which meant that as well as choosing our main course, when we got shown to our table it was filled with a plate full of delicious looking cakes and another plate full of scones with butter and jam. They also brought out toast for us. Obviously it was a dieters nightmare! To make things worse, I was sitting directly in front of the cakes!

However, I was really proud of myself. I ordered a healthy main course - venison with new potatoes and vegetables (resisting the lure of the steak pie and chips!) and I announced early on I wasn't going to have any of the cakes at all. I had a half slice of unbuttered wholemeal toast with my main course, and afterwards picked out the smallest scone to have with only jam. I ended up having a tiny bite of my nephew's cake, just so that I could try something (it was delicious), but overall I was so pleased that I resisted such huge temptation. I just kept saying to myself that I'd rather look good in my wedding dress than eat the cake!

Stepping It Up

My wedding is now only 9 weeks away, and following the wedding is the honeymoon in paradise with the dreaded bikini moment. To say the pressure to be 100% on plan is high is an understatement. I want to feel slim and amazing on my wedding day. I want to be able to look back at my wedding pictures and feel really positive about myself. I don’t want to look back, as I do to when I was bridesmaid at my sister’s wedding, thinking that I could have done more to lose weight and tone up. Moving on to the honeymoon, I want to feel confident in my bikinis, not spending the entire time sucking my stomach in and comparing myself to other, slimmer women (though thankfully as we’re going to a tiny island in the Maldives there at least won’t be crowded beaches full of slim women!).

My goal for the next nine weeks is to lose a stone, which averages about 1.5lbs per week. This won’t take me to target, but I would be close to target, and I think that is a reasonable goal to aim for. I wouldn’t complain if a few more pounds decided to disappear too though! In terms of following the plan, I need to be 100% on it, and I want to make as much use of the Success Express and Red Day plans as I can, as I find these are the best at speeding up my weight loss, though I do intend to allow a few Extra Easy or Green days to mix things up, and to allow for meals out.

I also really need to start increasing my exercise again. I’d been doing really well with my walks before I started my new job, but I’ve been finding it harder to fit walks in around work, wedding plan and flat selling. I’ve only been managing about 1 a week, and that really needs to increase. So, I’m considering a few options – firstly I’m contemplating walking to work in the morning (when it’s dry!). It would get the exercise out of the way first thing, the only problem being me forcing myself out of bed a bit earlier, as it would mean leaving 45 minutes earlier, and I am very much not a morning person!

I’m also considering taking up running again. A few years ago I joined a beginners running group and built up to 25 minutes of solid running, however after the course finished I let the running slide and it’s now been over a year since I last did any sort of running (unless you count my odd runs for the bus!). I do feel its an exercise that does tone me up, and once I manage to force myself to break through the pain barrier at the start, I do enjoy it. I also think I’m fitter now than the last time I ran, so hopefully I’ll be able to build up quickly again. I’ve downloaded the Couch to 5K programme to give me a plan to get started again, and I’m thinking about going out for my first attempt. Wish me luck!

Weeks 22 & 23 Weigh Ins

Work has meant I’ve not had an opportunity to update this blog as often as I’d like – including the results of my last 2 weigh ins.

Unfortunately they weren’t good. Week 22 saw a loss of half a pound, and week 23 saw a gain of 2lbs. Neither was particularly unexpected. I’d been very good during week 22, having Success Express days for the beginning of the week, and then the weekend arrived, and I ate a bit of rubbish, and drank a bit more! So all in all, I had to be satisfied that I’d had any sort of loss.

Last week went even worse. It all went wrong from last Wednesday, when I went out for a curry before my monthly book group. Every day after that involved far too much naughty foods – I dread to think what the syns added up to for the week! (Well aside from a 2lb gain!)

Looking forward to my next weigh in I’m a lot more hopeful of getting rid of that 2lb gain and a little bit more. I’ve had a stomach bug since Tuesday this week, which has meant that I’ve been eating very little for the last few days, and what I have eaten has been mostly soup or mashed potato. Whilst I’m starting to get back to normal and introduce more foods, I’m not in any danger of a binge! I’ve felt terrible all week, so I’m really hoping that the silver lining of this bug will be a good weigh loss on Tuesday morning.

Week 21 Non Weigh In

Confession time today - I didn't weigh in this morning. I knew it would be bad, and I didn't want to make myself feel miserable by seeing a gain. Last week was mostly spent eating. On Tuesday I had a work's team building event in the afternoon, which involved a sausage supper from the chip van. Thursday night, I was so exhausted that I broke my no takeaway rule and ordered an Indian.

The weekend then went from bad to worse. On Friday, I was out for a friend's birthday and we were at an Italian. Whilst I made good choices for the starter and main course, I couldn't resist the pudding menu and had two scoops of delicious ice cream, and then a bag of chips on the way home! Saturday began with a fry up (although it was at least done on the George Foreman without oil!), and the event I was at again ended up with an order being put in to the chippie, and another sausage supper for Laura! Later on in the evening, I also had some buffet food - sausage rolls, cheese straws, crisps etc. All in all it was bad! And because I was in the way of eating badly, Sunday and yesterday weren't brilliant either (although were at least a bit better!).

With all that there is no way I've avoided a gain this week. However, I'm feeling really motivated to get right back on track today, and I'm going to try a few Success Express days to try and quickly get whatever I gained off. I deliberately avoided the scales as I know that putting a figure to the gain is only going to demotivate me. I'll be back on them next week, hopefully with a loss.