*Linzerellos Blog

I am finding this whole healthy eating business really hard at the moment. I was initially overjoyed with the new pro points system and was rewarded with a good loss. Since then, I have lost the plot completely. Not because I want to eat all sorts of crap, but because my life is so damned busy, I am struggling to plan anything.

Work is ridiculous still, I can't see it getting any better this side of Christmas, couple that with my incessant night's out and you have a major diet disaster. I _need_to_stay_in_more.

Last week went something like this:

Monday - pub, 2 glasses of wine, food (belly pork with mustard mash - great idea), home, more wine
Tuesday - out with work, much sparkling stuff, curry, very late night.
Wednesday - pub, 1 glass of wine, much diet coke, food, bed at 2030
Thursday - pub lunch (hot beef sandwich), 2 spritzers, evening, out with girls I worked with at DHL for Mezze, 1 glass of wine
Friday - out with a couple of friends, wine, food, late night.
Saturday  - lunch with friends, starting at 1pm and finishing at 10pm. Copious amounts of prosecco and red wine. Possibly a kebab on the way home, but that is a bit hazy.
Sunday - ATP Tennis final at the O2 preceded by lunch at Gaucho (300g Rib Eye Steak - amazing)

And here we go again....

I've not been weighed for 2 weeks. I have not pointed for 2 weeks either. On the plus side, I am so busy at work, I am not spending my days reaching for food to pass the time. The downside is, I am eating what I can grab. I am still aware of making healthier choices, but I've not pointed a morsel for days (maybe weeks).

I am also drinking far too much. Admittedly, alcohol has always been something I am fairly partial to, but I seem to be spending a fair amount of my spare time in the pub.

So, the plan of action is... well, I am not sure I have one. I have managed to cancel social arrangements tomorrow and Thursday, so I will be able to be better. Work is not going to get any better before January, so I just need to cope with it as best I can.

Wish me luck people, I am going to need all the help I can get to turn this around!

Long time, no speak. It's been a crazy week and I am so glad to see Friday night. Work has been utterly ridiculous and my social life has been completely hectic, I've barely had time to sleep.

The diet has been, well, not really a diet this week. I missed weigh in on Tuesday as I ended up working late and then going out from work, so I am not exactly sure how week 2 of Pro Points has gone. I anticipate a monumental fail. I've eaten out every night this week in one way or another, so it's been almost impossible to keep track!

This weekend is looking suitably mental as well. Out tonight with a couple of girls I used to work with, Lunch out tomorrow with friends and then the ATP tennis final on Sunday at the O2. Phew.

Work next week, in fact for the next 4 weeks, is likely to be as mental as it has been, so I am just going to have to take it one step at a time and hope for the best!

Hope you've all had suitably saintly weeks.

Happy weekend everyone (and Thanksgiving for any US people!).

x

It was a lovely day and very nice to meet Karon and Tina, I felt like I already knew them having read their blogs for a while. We are planning to meet up again in the New Year which will be lovely.

When I got home from London I was shattered and still fairly full from lunch, so I roasted a Gem Squash in the Oven and had that whilst watching the X Factor. I was in bed by 9pm - very rock and roll!

Yesterday, I had to work for a couple of hours in the morning, but other than that, had a fairly lazy day.

I cooked a lovely Mushroom, Leek and Onion Risotto for lunch (8) and literally lay around doing very little.


Mid afternoon, I decided to try my hand a baking a cake. Below is my attempt - sounds odd but it was delicious - Chocolate and Beetroot Cake!

I keep getting beetroot in my Able & Cole box, so I was a bit fed up of just boiling or roasting them. This was surprisingly good, the beetroot just adds an extra moistness to it and gives it a lovely slightly reddish tinge.

I pretty much made up the recipe (adapted from here) as I went along to try and keep the points down but thankfully it turned out ok.


Chocolate and Beetroot Cake (10 slices at 4 PP each)

• 50g Cocoa Powder 
• 120g Spelt Flour
• 50g Brown Sugar
• 2 medium Eggs
• 50 ml Oil (I probably used less than this)
• 40g Lurpak Light
• Large Beetroot grated (I boiled mine for about 10 mins first to help get the skin off)
• Granulated sweetner if required

I think work may just about finish me off this week. I'm on call as well as being the only regular member of my team for the next two weeks. The past two nights, I've been up with numerous phone calls during the night, so today I feel like I've been hit by a bus. I think a lot of coffee will be consumed. I wouldn't mind so much if what I did was saving lives, but it's bloody software for crying out loud. Does that really warrant me being up all night? I'm so tired today, I managed to trap my hand in the car window (don't ask) and walked into the door frame when I got to work, almost concussing myself!

So after the jubilation of WI, yesterday was a pretty messed up day food wise. I came in on points, but my choices were fairly bad. I cleverly forgot to bring breakfast with me, so I thought I'd make do with one of the new WW Dark Chocolate and Orange bars. Oh my God. Disgusting. I knew I wasn't onto a winner when the inside was a luminous orange colour. So sweet and fake tasting, that went straight in the bin. In the end I made do with an apple and a satsuma, which meant I was ravenous by lunchtime. Lunch was a Tuna Melt Panini for 12 points. Mid afternoon I snacked on a couple of mini caramel shortbreads that were teasing me from the kitchen (6).

After work (an 11 hour day), I popped to the pub with a couple of colleagues for a couple of vodkas before heading over to a friends house for a Jamie at Home party, I ended up grabbing a quick Roast beef and horseradish sarnie before heading to hers where I  cleverly consumed a handful of Peanuts. All in all, not a stellar day. Still, I scraped in on points so I can't worry too much.

Today should be better, I've had breakfast, am armed with fruit and managed to bring lunch with me. If I can just make it through the day without falling asleep at my desk, I'll be onto a winner.

Really looking forward to the weekend. Matt is away golfing so I've the place to myself. Friday night, I am out with a friend for dinner and drinks. Saturday, I am heading into London to meet up with the lovely ladies that are Karon, Tina and Sarah. We've no firm plans yet, but are heading to Covent Garden for a mooch about and some lunch and perhaps a few beverages :) Sunday will be a day of doing absolutely nothing. Happy days.

Right, I had better get back to it otherwise I'll end up stuck here til midnight at this rate.

That pro points is a winner. 4.5 pounds off for me this week. Happy days.

I've eaten really well and managed a few nights out. What's not to like? Onwards and downwards. Happy dance!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Just a quick post as work is somewhat mental at the moment (usually we are a team of 4, for the next 2 weeks I'm a team of 1 - Happy Days!).

Pro Points is still going well, I am sometimes struggling to eat all of my daily allowance - so much so I had a mince pie yesterday afternoon to attempt to get anywhere near my 41. Not that I am complaining too much of course.

Slight amendment to my last post - my breakfast was 3 points (thanks Peridot). For some reason the tracker gives you the point for 1oz of egg as the first option - not overly handy.

Anyway, I digress, I've been after a spaghetti squash for ages after seeing them on many US blogs. They aren't something that you can find overly easy over here, so I was fairly excited (am I sad??) to see Abel and Cole advertising them and added one to last weeks order. They seem like an especially good idea now that pasta is the work of the devil.

Last night I made up a massive pan of Bolognese Sauce with all sorts of veggies (courgettes, mushrooms, onions, celeriac, beetroot, leeks, tomatoes) and some lean mince. This made me 4 fairly decent portions of sauce for 6 points a pop. I had mine with the spaghetti squash which I had cut in half and roasted in the oven skin side up for around 40 mins. I was sceptical at first that it would resemble any kind of pasta - but check this out:


It was lovely - I will definitely be buying a few more. Obviously it doesn't taste much like pasta, but it was very tasty and a great side dish for the sauce.


I am really hopeful for a loss this week given I have stuck religiously to my points. I've gone back to basics what with weighing everything and reassessing the best options on the new plan, so I know I will be disappointed if the scales don't budge. I will persevere though. I shall be back later with the verdict!

For lunch I cooked a tasty Vegetable curry - Onions, Courgettes, Red Peppers, Leeks, Mushrooms, more Kale and tinned Tomatoes with some Curry Powder - so simple. I had mine with a tiny sliver of Matt's pitta bread (he had chicken in with his curry, but I didn't want to use any points).

I don't really know why I am complaining, but... yesterday I couldn't eat all of my pro points. I seem to be getting a lot more food - or perhaps I've just refocussed and am now making better choices. Either way, I shall reserve judgement until next Tuesday.

Food yesterday went as follows:

Breakfast

• 50g Aldi Raisin and Cranberry Porridge with water (5)
• 1 Satsuma (0)
• 1 Apple (0)
• Skinny Latte (3)

Well, I was hopeful that this new WW plan would help motivate me and get me back on the straight and narrow - but actually, the 6.5 pound gain last night seems to have done the trick. In a perverse way, I am glad I had a big gain, because quite frankly, the way I have been going, if I'd not have gained, I'd have carried on trying to get away with it.

Monday night at Peter Kay was absolutely amazing, he was supported by Rick Astley, which was just bloody brilliant. Big girlie screams from me. Peter was hilarious, I can honestly say I have never laughed so much in my life. I was almost choking!

Anyway, I digress. So, last night I was expecting a gain, but not quite the 6.5 pounds I was met with. It's really made me think about what I have been doing of late and has helped me to reassess what I am trying to achieve. This year I have achieved precisely zero on the weight loss front. I've been playing around with the same stone since December last year. Utterly ridiculous.

I stayed for the meeting to try and get a better understanding of the new plan. It seems to make sense, and all of the clerks at the meeting who have been trialling it have had excellent results.

So basically, I get a shed load more points than I used to, but these don't in anyway correlate to the old points system. Gone are calories and saturated fat, in their place we have Protein, Carbs, Fat and Fibre. Most things work out to be more points (wine is particularly impacted) but some things have come out of it ok (think cheese and bacon... lovely!). It's slightly annoying that all of my old cook books, eating out guide etc. are no longer valid, but WW have provided some conversions for the books, so I guess it's not all bad. Fruit is now zero points, but we were advised not to go mad on the fruit front as it still obviously contains calories.

At the meeting, we were given an example of 2 breakfasts of 300 calories each. One was 2 slices of bacon, a poached egg, mushrooms, tomatoes and a slice of toast. The other was a muffin with butter and jam. The cooked breakfast comes out at 8 pro points whereas the muffin is 9. I know what I'd rather have. Apparently the theory now is that protein takes longer to digest and you can burn up to 25% more energy trying to digest it. So - protein rich foods come out better in the new Pro Points plan.

I now get a massive allowance of 41 pro points a day (that's gone up a point thanks to my mammoth gain) plus the extra 49 per week that I can dip into. You cannot carry over any daily points, so if you don't use them, you lose them, and you can earn a maximum of 6 activity points per day. In theory, you can therefore have an extra 91 points a week on top of your daily allowance. Seems a lot of food.

Here is an example of a daily allowance of 29 points (the minimum you can ever have).


I can't see how I can go hungry on this, but similarly, I get another 12 points on top of that and it just seems like a lot. Anyway, I am willing to give it my all this week and see how I get on. I have a fair few night's out to negotiate, but I suppose I will just have to guestimate as best I can.

I actually feel excited at the prospect of getting my arse back into gear. Once the eating is back under control, I might even tackle my exercise demons.

Good morning people and what a miserable day it is. Thankfully I am working from home today, so I've not had to venture out into the wilderness, but tonight we are off to the O2 to see the legend that is Peter Kay, so I think I'll have to brace myself for the onslaught of the elements. Very much looking forward to seeing him, I've heard a rumour that his warm up act is Rick Astley! How cool??? (just me then?!)

I've had a lovely weekend with my nieces, but goodness me, children are exhausting. Hat's off to anyone who manages to look after them full time. A weekend with them and I need a week off to recuperate! I think my sister and her hubby enjoyed the break as they went into London on Saturday to see a show and have dinner. Nice for them to have a child free day.
Legoland was good, but it was so ridiculously busy on Saturday due to the Fireworks. All of the rides had at least an hour's wait, which was somewhat disappointing, but the girls seemed to enjoy it all the same. We walked their little legs off - mine were aching by the end of the day, so I can understand why they both fell fast asleep in the car on the way home. I managed to get them both straight to bed from the car without waking them up, so me and Matt could have a Curry and some Wine in peace. I slept very well on Saturday night, I can tell you.

After my admission of my struggle yesterday, things didn't really improve. I opted for a low point soup for lunch, which left me feeling completely dissatisfied. Purely mental as I wasn't at all hungry or in anyway in need of any further sustenance. I managed to convince myself that the only way to rid myself of this dissatisfaction was to eat a packet of Ready Salted McCoys and some Galaxy chocolate. Clever Linz, very clever. So the evening continued in pretty much the same vein. I ate too much for dinner (albeit fairly healthy) and I drank some wine and then some Glayva. I then cried at Matt and told him I was completely losing the plot (bloody hormones). 

Somebody stop me. I have no idea what is wrong with me at the moment, but I am just not in control. I am craving crap, I am trying to stop myself from eating aforementioned crap, but most of the time I am failing. I am in danger of resembling Miss Piggy by Xmas if I am not careful.

My diet this week has been pretty much a bread fest. We didn't get our usual Veggie box delivery at the weekend since we were up in Edinburgh, so I have embraced that as an excuse to live off rubbish. Sandwiches mainly, with a token bit of salad thrown in and the odd apple here and there. It's just not good enough.

Last night we saw Jimmy Carr live in Reading (so no WI). He was hilarious and extremely controversial as usual. I really enjoy live Comedy and we are lucky here that we get a lot of the big name comedians every year. Beforehand we went for dinner in Giraffe. The menu has some perfectly healthy options, but I went for a bloody burger. I didn't eat most of it and I didn't really enjoy it overly - so why did I do it? Because I am a pig. That is why.

Today I convinced myself I would be better. I made myself breakfast before leaving the house, packed my lunch, a few healthy snacks and that should have been it. So can someone please tell me, why at 11am, my lunch and all my snacks for the day have gone?

Today I have consumed already:

• Mushroom Omelette
• 2 mini baby bel lights
• Cherry Infused Raisins
• An apple
• Roast beef, onion and salad sandwich.

Sorry people, normal service will resume tomorrow, when I will hopefully be a paragon of virtue.

Hello dear people, hope you all had a lovely weekend. Mine was fab, we had a great weekend in Edinburgh, it's about the 5th time I have been, but I had forgotten quite how much I love the place. We stayed with friends and their hospitality was amazing. I can't say I've been overly mindful of the diet situation, but we walked so much my legs are blooming killing me today, so I am hopeful there has been some sort of counteraction. 
After a fairly hearty breakfast we went for a long walk along the sea. I am hopeful that burnt off a few of the calories consumed.I am wearing about 40 layers here, so I look a bit Michelin Man-esque, but it was bloody freezing despite the sun.