Week 5 weigh in - Woohoo!

Woo-freakin-hoo!!! Another amazing 7 pound loss this week. That brings me up to a total of 45 pounds in five weeks. Three stone three pounds in 35 days. Twenty kilos in a month(ish).

This week I struggled to get all my award certificates on the kitchen cupboard door. I got my 3 stone award, my Club 10 award, Slimmer of the Week and Slimmer of the Month awards.

Another achievement this week too, I walked to group rather than take the car. Ok, so the whole trip is only a bit over a mile, but considering last month walking round the supermarket felt like it would kill me, I'm over the moon.

As much as I don't want the weight loss to slow down, I might have to slow it down a little so I don't get lynched by the ladies in group. Who am I kidding, I want more stickers... so planning another big loss in the coming week.

 

10% Benefits

I've done a bit of reading about the benefits of losing just 10% of your body weight and I thought it would make a great blog post.

First the medical benefits;

A healthier heart. With less you to lug around your heart doesn't have to work as hard, this can lower your blood pressure. Also to lose the weight, you will be eating healthier food, lowering your cholesterol.

You will reduce your risk for developing diabetes. Fat interferes with your bodies ability to regulate insulin.

A decreased risk of some cancers, studies have shown that reducing body fat can lower the risk for breast and colon cancer.

A healthier gallbladder. A diet rich in fatty foods puts a strain on your liver and gallbladder. Take it from me, when it goes wrong it can really hurt. Especially when the gallstones block your pancreas and you spend a week in intensive care.

Less pain. Our bodies were designed to carry a little fat to see us through the lean times, but not to waddle us into obesity. Reducing your body weight by 10% can significantly lighten the stresses on your joints.

Now for the other benefits;

Better sleep. Many obese people develop obstructive sleep apnea, and never know it. Every night your body fights for oxygen as your airway closes from the effect of fat weighing down your neck muscles, closing off your airway. Although you don't realise it, you wake up momentarily to gasp for breath. This broken sleep contributes to the lack of energy you may feel.

More energy. I thought this one was being over exaggerated, but having lost over 10% of my body weight now, I can vouch for the validity of the claim. I'm not going to be running the London marathon any time soon, but walking is becoming a pleasure rather than a source of pain. I wake up feeling ready to take on the world. I just need to build my stamina levels up to match the energy I feel I have.

And finally one for the guys, did you know that fat cells produce estrogen? The more fat you have, the more estrogen you can pump into your system.The more estrogen the lower your sex drive. So reduce your body weight by 10% to really kick start your body.

Maxx's Spicy Marinara Sauce

I thought it was time to post another recipe and I remembered last night's dinner. This is a recipe that I came up with many years ago when looking for something to eat a couple of days before payday. The cupboards looked bare, and the fridge was almost as bad. All I had was pasta, a carton of passata, an onion and a bell pepper.

They say necessity is the mother of invention, and I needed some dinner. I added some garlic, herbs and a little chilli and really enjoyed the result.

Ingredients

• 500g carton passata
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 large bell pepper, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 2 tbsp chilli sauce
• 1½ tbsp basil.
• Pasta - use a shaped pasta that will 'hold' the sauce

How to

1. Saute the onions and peppers in a non-stick pan. Using a good quality pan means you don't have to use oil. If you don't have a good non stick pan, use low calorie spray oil, like FryLight
2. Add the garlic and fry for about  30 - 45 seconds
3. Add the passata, chilli sauce and basil, allow to boil then reduce and simmer for 10 - 15 minutes, stirring occasionally
4. Boil the pasta, as per the packet cooking instructions.
5. Plate up the pasta, spoon over some of the sauce and garnish with a little grated parmesan cheese.

I have a couple of variations of this recipe. If I'm looking to add a some more protein to the dish I'll add chopped bacon (with the fat removed prior to cooking), or chopped ham or if I'm feeling decadent, I'll chop up a Peperami and fry that off with the onions.

I normally keep chopped onions and peppers in the freezer, so making this is really quick, I can be eating in fifteen minutes. That's faster than phoning for a take out.

6 times more fat than a Big Mac

Today I found out I am 72% lard. I bought a set of scales that not only tell me my weight, but it also measures body composition. I am 72% fat, 25% lean muscle and my body contains 33.9% water. I also now know my resting BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is 3106.

So what does this all mean and does it really matter? Well, at week 3 weigh in I lost 4 pounds, which I should really be happy about, but I know in the early stages of weight loss, I can lose more. I know I didn't consume more calories during the previous week, as I document every calorie that goes in to my mouth. I'm guessing that because I have lost a fair amount of weight, I'm more active. This will probably have led to either a slight increase in muscle mass, or more likely water retention in sore and inflamed muscles that have been used for the first time in over ten years.

The body analyser scales give me another metric against which I can chart my progress. Each week before I go to the group session and get weighed, I'll jump on my scales and take a reading for the week. That way I'll be able to see the ratio of fat to muscle change over time. I'll be able to track the impact of new exercises that get added to my activity list and the water levels will let me know if I'm retaining water.

I specifically chose the Salter Body Analyser Scale as it also calculates BMR. I've mentioned metabolic rate in previous blog posts, but in a nutshell it is the amount of calories your body burns over 24 hours to keep you alive. As long as I consume less calories than my BMR, I'll lose weight. Adding exercise or more activity into the equation will increase the calorie deficit and boost weight loss. At the moment my average daily calorie consumption is 1500. Over a week my body needs to find 11300 calories just to keep me alive. Each pound of body fat contains 3600 calories, so just existing I should lose about 3.5 lbs per week.

By adding more activity like walking further, more housework and gardening will boost my weight loss and in a couple of weeks when I've shifted a bit more weight, I'll hit the gym.

The Ultimate Weightloss Secret Finally Revealed

Here it is, the weight loss secret they don't want you to know. Diet food manufacturers try to hide it behind fancy marketing. Diet gurus with books and weight loss programs to sell, wrap it up in convincing pseudoscience and cherry picked studies. Even the trustworthy pharmaceutical industry don't really want you to know what I'm about to tell you...

Eat a healthy, balanced diet, that contains a mixture of carbohydrates, protein, fiber and fat. Make sure you consume less calories that your body needs and you will lose weight. It really is that SIMPLE. You don't need to exclude food groups, there are no bad foods, just too much food.

You could lose weight if you ate nothing but chocolate, but at 540 calories per 100g, you wouldn't be able to eat much. Ok so the chocolate example wasn't brilliant as you wouldn't end up feeling great due to the lack of macro-nutrients, but it is possible. Your body sees food as fuel; carbs, protein and fat all get broken down into glucose. If you consume too much food, your body stores it as fat. When you don't eat enough food, your body metabolises the stored fat to produce glucose. The reason I said at the start about a balanced diet is that the different food types are broken down at different rates. Fruit and carbs are broken down easily, proteins and fats take longer. If your whole meal is turned to glucose quickly, your blood sugar increases and your pancreas pumps out insulin to tell your body to store the glucose as fat, to bring your blood sugar down. Eating a balanced diet makes sure your body has a constant source of fuel over a longer period of time, no sugar spike, no fat stored.

The reason the fad diets work is that behind all their rules, you are reducing the amount of calories you eat. The eating plan rules or strange eating habits have a placebo effect, tricking you into thinking that, because you are eating differently, you are being good and losing weight. In reality you are just setting yourself up to fail. There are two reasons why fad diets don't work in the long run, firstly they are either difficult to maintain or the food is just unpalatable. Secondly you don't learn to eat healthy food, so when you reach your desired weight or lose the will to continue, you go back to your old unhealthy ways. Start eating a healthy and balanced diet to lose weight, you will find that there is so much choice in what you can eat, how good it tastes and there are no bad foods.

Science is great, and every day scientists are discovering more about how we digest food, but if we cherry pick parts of the research and invent diet plans based on the latest research, two things will happen. The author of the latest eating plan gets rich and you stay unhealthy. For thousands of years humans have eaten the food that was available and survived. Today we have food available 24-7 and we are fatter than ever. Our bodies evolved to take advantage of times when food was plentiful and store excess calories as fat. So once the food became scarce during the winter months, we wouldn't die. In the developed countries we just don't encounter food scarcity any more. We keep stocking up our winter fuel stores for a winter that isn't coming.

Now if you have read my previous blog posts, you will know I'm following the slimming world plan. I know I'm paying a company to follow their diet system, but I found that I need the feeling of obligation to do well at the weigh in. It fires up my sense of competition and that helps motivate me. The plan is also based on the principal of eating a balanced diet and learning better eating habits.

So there you have it, the ultimate weight loss system. Proven by ten thousand generations of our ancestors. Eat too much and you will get fat.    

What I eat

I thought I would post what I ate on a typical day. Whilst I'm basically following the Slimming World plan, I do tweak it a little, and I'm happy with the weight loss. You may see different results if you eat the same as me.

I took a random green day and original day from my food log spread sheet. If you have read earlier posts you will know that I don't eat at set meal times, only when I'm actually hungry. I also typically eat smaller portions that the Slimming World recipes indicate. Once I feel full, I stop eating, if there is food left on my plate, I'll reheat it later for my next meal, or as part of leftovers in the next day's menu.

Green Day

I typically start eating between 10 and 11:30 am. On the day I chose 35g of porridge oats (B healthy extra) made up with 175ml skimmed milk  (1/2A healthy extra)  and 50ml water. I sweeten the porridge with some artificial sweetener and 2 tsp of golden syrup (2 syns). Whilst I wait for the porridge to cool down a little, I have a banana.

After a couple of hours, I had a large handful of grapes and a Muller light yogurt. I know lots people automatically reach for yogurts whilst trying to lose weight, but I actually like the stuff.

My next meal was a Batchelor's cheese, leek and ham flavoured Pasta 'n Sauce (1 syn). I add chopped leek to the packet and once it's cooked I add a handful of dry fried onions, 27g of chopped, well cooked bacon (3 syns - all fat cut off prior to grilling) and 15g of grated strong cheddar cheese (1/2A healthy extra) , with a liberal sprinkle of cayenne pepper.

My last meal of the day was a spicy tomato and bacon pasta. I chopped up an onion and yellow pepper and dry fried them in a sauce pan with a little crushed garlic. Once they were starting to brown, I added 100ml of passata and 55g of grilled bacon (B healthy extra). I also added a dessert spoon of hot sauce and the same of dried basil and simmered for 10 minutes. Whilst this was cooking I boiled up 75g of fusilli lunghi pasta. I garnish with 10g of freshly grated parmesan cheese (2 syns).

Red Day

I prefer eating mostly green day foods, but I find I have a better weight loss if I throw in a red day or two. I do find however red days can be quite high in salt, so I make sure I don't have one too close to weigh in day, as I don't want to be retaining excess water from the extra salt I've eaten.

Yesterday was a particularly enjoyable red day as it included my current favorite food, chicken and bacon quesadillas. So after weigh in, there is a group meeting where the consultant gives us food tips, recipes and a pep talk for the coming week. Feeling peckish half way through, I had an apple and a banana.

I was hungry once I go home at 11:30, but had forgotten to get the bacon out of the freezer the night before. I had a fat free Greek style lemon yogurt (1/2 syns) some fresh pineapple and a banana.

By 2:30 I was ready for food, so I made my chicken and bacon quesadillas, to save a couple of syns I use 45g of cheese (1 A healthy extra and 3 syns). I've also started to add a chopped tomato to the recipe, to increase my veg intake a little. I count the wrap as a B healthy extra where the official plan says it's supposed to by synned. As I mentioned earlier, I tweak the rules slightly, but the tweaks work for me (38 lbs loss in 4 weeks) but this may not work for you.

After spending the afternoon in the garden hacking back the hedge, I had a Slimming World Hi-Fi bar that was given at the group meeting that morning (3 syns). I usually don't bother with these bars as they are quite small for the syn value, but it made a nice change.

By 7pm I was hungry again so I had bacon, syn free sausage, 150g baked beans (B healthy extra) and an omelet made with onion, sweet peppers, cheese (A healthy extra) and a large dash of hot sauce, 1 butter bud (1/2 syn) and a pinch of freshly ground black pepper.

I've also gotten into the habit of eating my last meal around 7pm so that I go to bed just as I start to feel hungry again. Your body uses a lot of energy to digest food, going to sleep on a full stomach means your body is working hard whilst it is supposed to be resting and repairing itself.

I know the plan says you can eat unlimited free and super free foods so you never have to feel hungry, but the plan is still basically a simplified way to limit calorie intake. I have taken the time to learn what my body is telling me and to tell the difference between hunger induced by thirst, boredom, emotions and actual hunger. I also make sure I don't over eat at a meal. I try to eat more slowly and stop once I feel full. Being properly hungry when you sit down to eat makes the food seem to taste so much nicer.

Week 4 weigh in

SEVEN freakin' pounds lost this week! Sept, sieben, sewe, siet, that's right another seven pounds lost, taking my total weight loss to 38 pounds, earning me my two and a half stone award and two more stickers for my collection. I won slimmer of the week too.

I knew I could lose weight fairly quickly but to have lost thirty eight pounds in four weeks of healthy eating has astounded me. I know that all of the conventional wisdom says slow and steady or you will put it all back on again. The main reason why people who lose large amounts of weight quickly regain the weight, is because they crash diet for a short period, lose the weight and then go back to their old unhealthy eating habits. I'm not on a diet, I'm eating healthy food, which I plan on eating for the rest of my life. I have however made a choice to completely cut out take away food for the next year to help speed up my weight loss.

I want to say that I enjoyed every tasty calorie I ate on my journey into obesity, but in all honesty, a lot of what I ate was just stuffed in my face mindlessly as I watched TV or sat at a desk working. Whole packets of biscuits would disappear as eating was easier than feeling. I'd rather get food delivered than cook, convincing myself that the diet would start tomorrow or after the weekend. After five weeks of eating proper food, I can honestly say I don't miss junk food in the slightest. Last night my wife asked for a McBurger and salad for her dinner, the thought of that grease sodden food actually turned my stomach. The smell from the drive though was even worse.

Slimming World has an award called Club 10, which you receive when you lose 10% of your body weight. I'm a couple of pounds away from it now and am really feeling the benefit. When you are morbidly obese, simple jobs are difficult if not painful. Losing 10% of your body weight feels like you have been given a massive injection of energy, without the painful needle. I'm not going to run a marathon any time soon, but I feel like I could. I want to get active and it's only the buggered nerve in my spine that is slowing me down. But even that has gotten better. I've been able to reduce my intake of pain killers and can stay active longer between breaks.

That's enough of sitting on my arse writing this blog entry, the lawn needs mowing and weeds need pulling and I have plenty of calories that need burning.

Making time for food

The events of the previous three days have been somewhat unexpected and really hectic. Getting healthy would have taken a back seat if I had been less prepared. Eating healthy does take a lot of work, planning meals, shopping, preparing ingredients and cooking. Unhealthy foods are easy, grab a ready meal and nuke it, or the nice people on the other end of my phone will bring me pizza.

We sit down once or twice a week and plan out meals for the next few days, where possible we cook large batches of freezable meals, so it doesn't feel like we spend hours on end in the kitchen every day. I also chop up a lot of the veggies we buy and freeze them in recipe friendly portions. That way when I don't feel like all the hassle of cooking or when I return home, ready to tear chunks off a scabby horse, a nutritious meal is only minutes away.

This week I've had little time to cook, so microwaving portions of chilli and spaghetti bolognaise have saved my sanity and diet. On the days where I have been able to cook fresh food, I found that chopping all the ingredients I would use for the entire day, in the morning before I got busy, meant that when I got hungry, I could pull all the ingredients out of the fridge and whip up a masterpiece in minutes, just like the TV chefs and their dozens of little pots of ingredients (you can guarantee they don't have to do the washing up afterwards).

Another tip for when you are too busy to buy healthy food, is to let someone else do the shopping for you. Here in the UK our main supermarkets allow you to shop online and have your food delivered. The delivery prices have dropped to just a pound for certain days of the week and in some cases free if you spend enough. I've found I can do a week's shop in about a third of the time on my computer, with the benefit of never having to go near the chocolate biscuit aisle.

I've not managed to get out and be as active as I would have liked this week, but I've still managed to stick to the healthy eating plan and am looking forward to getting my 2½ stone award and my precious sticker at tomorrow's weigh in.

Diet coke chicken

I was skeptical when I first heard about this recipe, as far as I was concerned the only thing I ever mixed with coke was vodka. But several friends were raving about the full fat version after trying it at a friends braai (South African BBQ). So after a little research I came up with my own low fat version.

Once it was done it looked like a conventional chicken in a sticky sauce, so I manned up and tried it. I now see what all the fuss was about. The coke turns into a very pleasant sweet sticky sauce, but the Worcestershire and soy sauce take the edge off the sweetness and add depth to the flavour. The addition of the fresh chilli made it perfect.

Ingredients:

• 1 red pepper, 1 yellow bell peppers, chopped
• 1 sweet red pepper, chopped
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1-2 fresh chillies, finely chopped
• 4 skinless chicken breasts, cut into pieces
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 4 tbsp tomato purée
• 8 tbsp passata
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp dried mixed herbs
• 330ml can diet coke
• 200ml chicken stock
•  

How to:

1. Dry fry the peppers and onion in a large non stick pan for for 2-3 minutes
2. Add the chicken to the pan and continue to cook for 4-5 minutes, or until lightly browned.
3. Add the diet coke, stock, passata, tomato purée, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and dried mixed herbs and stir well
4. Bring to the boil, cover, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and the veg is tender
5. Serve with rice and steamed veggies.

This is a simple to make dish that tastes a whole lot better than it sounds. I like spicy foods, so you might want to reduce the amount of chilli you use. It also reheats well, so you could prepare it early in the day and just nuke it in the microwave when it's time to eat.

Staying motivated

After this week's weigh in I found my motivation levels had dropped. I know that a four pound loss would be a dream come true for most people, but having done this all before and had excellent results I felt kind of cheated. So I looked back at my weight loss journal from 14 years ago to see what I did differently.

It turns out that my weight loss slowed on week three back then too, it accelerated in week four and then settled into a five to six pound average loss each week. I'm also fourteen years older, less active and have to be careful of a damaged disc in my spine. I'm feeling better about my perceived lack of achievement. This made me think about motivation and if I felt knocked back after this minor hiccup, then how would I cope if I were to not lose weight one week, despite doing everything right?

I know that weight loss is essentially a simple calculation, consume less calories than you use and your body uses the stored fat to make up the energy deficit. Your body however does some strange things and your weight fluctuates daily, so you could be unlucky and get weighed on the day your body decides it needs to hang on to some extra water for whatever reason. Knowing this doesn't help my comfort eating brain, so I decided to make a disaster recovery plan to boost my motivation.

• Recognise your progress. Last week I calculated my weight loss in cola bottles then went out and bought that many bottles and was amazed at what it felt like to carry them all at once. Today I would need to add another two liter bottle to that load.

• Visualise your goals. I have a spread sheet that I record my progress on, with intermittent goals marked on and a forecast of when I could reach my goal if I lose five pounds a week. I did a second calculation based on an average of four pounds a week. It wasn't that much different when I think about my ultimate goal. I'll only get there if I stick to it and the desire to not go back to how I felt last month is stronger than the need for a consoling chocolate bar.

• Take it one day at a time. I didn't wake up fat and unfit, I managed to get here by a tough regime of overeating, sofa bashing and carefully selecting exactly the wrong foods. Getting fit can take just a long, tough regime of under-eating, pavement bashing and carefully selecting all the right foods to eat.

• Don't think it, do it. Rather than just sit there worrying that I've eaten something wrong, or a new food I added to my menu was the cause of my lack of progress, I should get up off my arse and do something. Do some chores, go for a walk. I'm already feeling the benefits of my weight loss in simple things like walking, go enjoy these new feelings. Strangely once I start doing something and feel good about myself, I feel motivated to continue and this feeling persists for quite some time after. 

• Perspective. I need to remember that this is not a diet, this is normal life now. Sandwiches are no longer considered a staple food group. Chocolate is an occasional treat, not an essential source of calcium. As nice as pizza and junk food is, waking up each morning in less pain, with a clear head, higher energy levels is so much better.

• Refocus. To anyone watching me walk through our village, I'd probably be dismissed as just a fat bloke walking about. I need to remember that if they stopped me and I told them what I had achieved in three weeks, they would be amazed, changing their perception of me. I need to change my perception too. 

As the quote in the picture says, it doesn't get easier, I just get better. The longer I stick with this, the more weight I will lose and the better I will feel. The cravings will subside, the old habits will be broken. I'll learn to replace comfort eating with better coping strategies and it will all seem easier because I'm better.

Healthy Summer Desserts

The sun finally is out and here in the UK, it's supposed to top 25 degrees tomorrow, so I pulled out my recipe notes for a couple of healthy desserts.

I'll be honest, as good as they are, these cooling treats won't beat the classic soft serve 99 from the ice cream van. They are however a healthier, lower calorie alternative. But just because they have fewer calories doesn't mean you can go mad and eat as many as you want. Remember every piece of food your body doesn't need for energy, will get stored as fat.

Lemon Meringue Pi-napple

This has got to be the quickest and simplest dessert on my list. Cut up some fresh pineapple into small cubes, pour over some Müllerlight® Greek Style Luscious Lemon yogurt (other fat free lemon yogurts can be used instead) and then crumble in a small meringue nest and mix. The sharpness of the lemon yogurt works really well with the fresh pineapple and the meringue pieces add a little touch of extravagance to the dessert.

Choc Mint Frozen Yogurt

Take 250g plain yogurt, add ¼ tsp peppermint extract or flavouring, ¼ tsp vanilla essence, 1-3 tbsp sweetener, 20g fresh spinach (trust me on this) and 25g chocolate chips. Pour all the ingredients except the choc chips into a blender and whiz until smooth. Add the chips and whiz again for a second or two, just to break the chips up a little. Pour into a plastic bowl or old ice cream tub, anything with a lid will do. Freeze for about 15 minutes, then stir and place back in the freezer. Keep repeating the stir / freeze routine until you have something the consistency of ice cream. The spinach adds a great colour to the dessert but you really can't taste it.

Fruity Yogurt Pops

This one is simple, take your favourite flavour of fat free yogurt, chop up some fruit that tastes nice with your yogurt, add some sweetener and mix together. When you freeze foods you lose a lot of the sweetness, which is why you need additional sweetener. Pour the mixture into lolly molds, add the sticks and freeze. These treats are very refreshing and a great way to get kids to eat fruit.

Don't forget the sunblock, even in good old Blighty, the sun can still burn.

Week 3 weigh in

Went shopping straight after the group weigh in this week, so the post is later than usual. Woohoo a 4lb loss this week. That means another sticker for my collection.



I've now lost 31lbs in three weeks whilst mostly following the Slimming World plan. I know the experts say you should aim to lose a healthy 1-2lbs per week, but I'm eating enough food that I don't feel hungry. I'm eating a balanced diet, which typically sees me eating at least five portions of fruit and or veg per day. I've reduced my salt intake to an average of 3g per day, that's half the recommended amount. It's probably a little higher than that as I don't bother looking at the salt levels in the fresh foods, but all those trace amounts will add up.

As the weigh in is early in the morning and I don't typically eat that early, I tend to leave the house without eating breakfast and take some fruit with me in case the munchies strike during the group meeting. After the meeting I headed straight into town to pick up some shopping, we were running low on quite a lot of the fresh ingredients. I made the mistake of going food shopping whilst I was getting hungry. This made the freshly baked bread in the supermarket extremely tempting. This gave me the idea to post my tips on how I avoid buying less than healthy food whilst shopping.

• Never go shopping hungry, or if you know you will be getting hungry soon. Eat a healthy and filling meal before you leave the house.

• Make a list and stick to it. If you know what you want before you hit the shops you are less likely to be swayed by the special offers on foods that you don't really need or want. I find my resolve to get healthy is stronger at home, where I control my exposure to food etc. If I make up my meal plans on the fly, in the shop, I tend to overspend and don't always make the best choices.

• Supermarkets do us a favour for this next tip, they put all the nasty cakes, chocolates, sweets and crisps together in one or two aisles. That makes it easier to avoid temptation when the willpower is flagging. Walk past the danger zone, if you don't see it, you won't know what you are missing.

•  Plan your meals. I like to do one big shop a week, and one smaller midweek shop to top up the fresh fruit and veggies. Planning our meals is essential. I find there is nothing more dangerous to my weight loss, than being hungry and standing looking at the cupboards, wondering what to eat. I could still do some serious damage with the healthy foods I have in the house.

• Use the Internet to plan your meals. Most supermarkets allow you to browse their products and special offers online. The temptation to impulse buy is reduced as you can't just throw the items in your trolley. Find the offers that will let you make tasty but healthy foods and add them to your list.

Now I'm off to cook my favorite Red-day-all-day-grill-up-breakfast-extravaganza. Fat free sausages, bacon, baked beans and a cheesy omelet with onions and sweet red peppers.

Healthy Burrito

I've posted before that I love Mexican style food, but good places to eat healthy food are extremely limited. Here in the UK we are limited to one or two chain restaurants and the occasional independent place. So I end up cooking myself.

When I cook chilli, I tend to cook up a big batch and stock up the freezer, that way a fast but filling lunch is quick to make. Today our English summer is not playing ball and I really didn't fancy the salad I'd planned. So a quick rummage through the freezer unearthed a wrap and a portion of chilli. I also had half a tin of baked beans that needed using up, so I have the ingredients for chilli burrito and frijoles refritos.

Ingredients:

For the burrito (serves 1).

200g healthy beef chilli
1 wholemeal wrap
30g cheddar cheese, grated
100ml passata
½ tsp paprika
¼ tsp hot chili powder
¼ tsp ground cumin
pinch dried oregano

For the refried beans.

200g cooked pinto beans (half a can of baked beans with the sauce washed off)
½ onion, chopped
3-5 tbsp chicken stock

How to:

1. Stir the herbs and spices into the passata
2. Put the chilli in a line in the center of the wrap and roll it up. Put the wrap in an oven proof dish, with the overlapping seam of the burrito on the bottom side.
3. Pour the sauce over the burrito
4. Sprinkle with cheese, I like to add a sprinkle of cayenne pepper on the cheese.
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 °C for 20 minutes, or until the cheese had browned.
6. Dry fry the chopped onion until it starts to brown.
7. Add the beans and continue cooking, as the beans soften, mash them roughly with the back of a spoon.
8. Add chicken stock if the mixture becomes too thick.
9. Cook for about five minutes, until the beans are completely heated through

Serve with savoury rice or a simple green salad. I like to add a little hot salsa (½ syn 2 tbsp) and reduced fat sour cream (1 syn per tbsp). On Slimming World, wraps can't really be counted as healthy extras, so you will need to check the syn values as they range from 6½ to 10 syns per wrap.

Keeping you honest

Call it determination, strength of character or just plain old willpower, you need it in bucketfuls to succeed on any weight loss plan.

For pretty much all of us trying to lose weight, we got here the same way: Too much of the foods we like and the food we like are packed with calories. There will be times when you hear that lonely packet of cookies calling out to you for company, or you may be seduced by that dark, velvety mistress called chocolate. Avoiding temptation will only go so far, cravings can be a powerful foe.


So here are a few tips to help when cravings strike. 

• Write down all the reasons why you want to lose weight on post-it notes and stick them to the fridge and food cupboard doors. When you feel the need to over indulge, take a moment to read a couple of the notes. Will the cookie really taste as nice as reaching that goal you set yourself?

• Find a mantra or saying that you can say to yourself as you reach for the sweets. The old stalwart, 'A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips' is good, I like 'Short term gain, long term pain'. Find something that applies to you and use it. Don't just say it to yourself then munch the candy anyway. Think about what it means, how that little harmless sweetie couldn't possibly do you any harm, until you send the rest of the packet down as a search party.

• Identify your worse trigger foods and write down their calorie values, then next to each food, write down how long it would take to burn off those calories on the treadmill at the gym. For example to burn off the calories in one Snickers bar, takes thirty long and sweaty minutes on a treadmill. That tiny little bar contains 13% of the calories you need in an entire day. Ask yourself, would you be prepared to do the time on the treadmill before eating the chocolate?

• Studies have shown that willpower is linked to stress. The more stressed you feel, the weaker your resolve to make unpleasant decisions. So after a long stressful day you have little willpower in reserve to fight off the cravings. Fight the stress and you will strengthen your willpower. Find a way to relax and de-stress towards the end of the day. The endorphin release from exercise is a proven stress buster. A relaxing bath with some calming music, a walk in a park or play with the kids. Find something that works for you. 

• Apparently willpower is like a muscle, use it or lose it, they say. You can boost your willpower by using it more often. During the day find things you have been putting off doing, for whatever reason and do them. By doing tasks that you are reluctant to perform, you are helping yourself develop self discipline and in turn building up your will power.

• Try to break a habit. It might be something that has annoyed you (or your partner), or something simple like if you drink three cups of coffee a day, cut down to two. Changing habits is another way to strengthen willpower. 

You are not going to develop amazing will power over night, but it will get easier over time. Remember this is not a diet, this is you living a healthier lifestyle for the rest of your life.

Do diet drinks slow weight loss?

You have no doubt heard someone tell you all about the evil chemicals they use to sweeten drinks. They can cause cancer, multiple sclerosis or even in one case, made this guy's leg drop off.

In reality artificial sweeteners are the most studied food additive known to man. There have been hundreds of studies conducted on these chemicals and reviews of the studies show that there is no link between risk of disease and the sweeteners. The problem comes from the occasional study that indicates a slight statistical anomaly, which is then reflected in the paper's title. For example a study from the European Ramazzini Foundation of aspartame in rats showed increases in various neoplasms. The paper was reviewed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), and the report was found to be flawed. Their review stated 'The data on total malignant tumours do not provide evidence of a carcinogenic potential of aspartame.' Unfortunately the conspiracy nuts or the alternative therapy peddlers cherry pick these flawed studies to support their own claims, and in turn sell you their products.

Another claim that is doing the apocryphal rounds on the net is that the sweetness of the artificially sweetened drinks can trigger the body into releasing insulin and start up the digestion process. This is again a result of people cherry picking the science to back up their claims. The digestion hormones are released by the pancreas and other organs in response to blood glucose level and as part of the cephalic phase of digestion.The cephalic phase is where our mouth waters at the thought or sight of food.

The original claims were based on an animal study where the test subjects were fed sweeteners and the vagus nerve* was stimulated and the response of cephalic phase insulin release was monitored. Many human based studies** have shown that this effect is not replicated in humans.The chemical structure of the different sweeteners are incompatible with the glucoreceptors that report into the brain and pancreas when we eat sugary foods.

The most recent rant about artificially sweetened drinks is based on several reputable news sources reporting part of a report based on weak science. The claim is that fat folk who drink diet soda consume more food based calories than the chunky folk who enjoy the full fat sodas. The reports typically lead with attention grabbing headlines. What the reports fail to mention is that none of the people interviewed were eating balanced diets. When the study is read correctly, the bottom line is that people who eat poor food choices and drink diet soda may consume more food calories because they 'save calories' on the diet drink.

When you look at the overwhelming evidence proving the safety of sweeteners, the evidence that they don't upset our hormone balance and the fact that when used as part of a restricted calorie diet, they provide a low calorie alternative to high sugar drinks.

I've lost weight whilst drinking diet cola, my blood pressure has dropped and is almost at a normal level. My recent blood test shows I'm not at risk of diabetes and have normal cholesterol levels. I think I'll go with the scientists on this one, and enjoy my Pepsi Max as part of my healthy eating plan.

The science.
*The vagus nerve is the main facial nerve that is stimulated during the cephalic phase of digestion. It causes the brain, stomach, liver, intestine and pancreas to prepare for food consumption.

** http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9734727
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/49/3/427.full.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7652029
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3046854
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21245879

NB. Aspartame is broken down in the body to form a number of chemicals, one of which is called phenylalanine, an amino acid found in all proteins. People with a rare genetic disorder called Phenylketonuria (PKU) cannot process this chemical normally. People with PKU must be aware of foods that contain phenylalanine or sources of phenylalanine.

Measuring success

I had a happy moment today, I had to do my belt up one hole tighter. That might not sound like a reason to most people but 2 weeks ago I didn't even need a belt to hold my jeans up. Last week I had to put a belt on my trousers and today it's on hole 2.

This made me think about times in the past when I have been losing weight and the scales have lied to me about my weight loss. I knew that my clothes were feeling looser, so I must have lost weight.

Your weight fluctuates all the time, if I had weighed myself the next day I might have been happier with the loss for that week. There are many other reasons the scales might not reflect an accurate loss, one new one I discovered is that if you have started a new exercise program, or seriously increased your effort on your existing fitness activity, your tired and stressed muscle's defense is to hold on to water. Sore muscles typically suffer from inflammation and can take a a day or two to release the water retained within the muscle cells, that it was using as protection during the repair process.

Tape measures don't lie as often as the scales, so it might be worth charting your progress with measurements as well as weekly visits to the scales. You don't need anything fancy the humble fabric tape measure does a great job.
Measure yourself at several points on your body, upper arm, chest, waist, hips, thigh and calf. You could do more points, but these points are where you will see the most obvious size reduction.

Measure yourself once a week and record your progress, on weeks where the scales take a disliking to you, looking over your shrinking measurements will boost your will power no end.


Ideally we would all own a set of those expensive fat monitoring scales or the evil looking fat calipers, so beloved of the sadists personal trainers at your local gym. In reality a set of bathroom scales combined with a cheap tape measure will do an excellent job of charting your progress.

One final tip I read today, keep a pair of your big trousers when you shrink out of them. In a couple of months time when you need a boost, try them on and feel happy when they won't stay up.

Chicken and bacon quesadillas

Its a red day, that means plenty of meat and veggies. I usually have a salad for red day lunches, but this week I wanted to try something different. I'd been watching some cooking videos on YouTube and saw a recipe for low fat quesadillas. Their version of what constitutes low fat and mine were a little different, so I took the idea for the recipe and really cut the fat down to Slimming World proportions.

I have to make the following disclaimer, wraps are not yet classed as a healthy extra B choice, but as a single wrap weighs the same as the bread allowance for a B choice, I count it as one. For those of you who disagree, count the wrap as 6.5 syns (your mileage may vary depending on size / brand).

Ingredients

1 wholemeal wrap
30g grated mature cheddar cheese (60g if you want to use 2 x Healthy A)
3 rashers bacon, with all visible fat removed
50g sweet chilli chicken / any kind of spicy fat free chicken, chopped
½ sweet red pepper, chopped
3 spring onions, chopped
1 small tomato, chopped
2 tbsp hot salsa
2-3 squirts fry light spray oil

How to

1. Dry fry your bacon and peppers, cut the bacon into strips, set to one side when cooked.
2. Squirt your frying pan and place the wrap in the pan and cook over a med-high heat for one min.
3. Turn the heat down to medium and spread the salsa on the wrap
4. Sprinkle the cheese onto the wrap
5. Add the onion, peppers, tomato, bacon and chicken to one half of the wrap
6. Fold the wrap in half and cook till the wrap is golden, carefully turn the wrap over and continue cooking until the wrap is golden on the other side too.
7. Cut into 4 'pizza' style slices and serve with a fresh green salad.

My mouth still loves me for making this meal. It feels like a really decadent meal (I used 2 x healthy extra A portions of cheese - 60g) and it was worth every syn. SW have asked that bloggers don't post too many details about their system, as they don't want folks learning the plan for free, but apart from the wrap the rest of the ingredients total less than one syn.

If you are not following SW's plan you could add a couple of table spoons of low fat sour cream, but it really doesn't need it. I think this has beaten out my BBQ pulled pork and coleslaw sandwich for top spot on my all time favorite lunches. I even think it might have toppled Nando's from my ultimate lunch menu.

A rewarding experience

After rereading my post about why I joined Slimming world, I thought about the different motivations I have for losing weight and getting fit. I was surprised as to how important the weight loss award stickers, they stick on my book for each half stone loss, have become. I chatted to friends and they too are motivated by setting goals and targets. Some even suggested setting rewards for each target they reached.

Previously I have always celebrated with food. Drink has never really been my thing, although there are large gaps in the 1990s that can be attributed to vodka, sambuca and on one regrettable occasion tequila. Celebration and rewards for me have been eating out with friends, celebration cakes, the list goes on. So I thought I would set some targets and a few non food related rewards.

I tried to look into the science behind using rewards to encourage behaviour and found compelling research that indicates that it works, as well as persuasive research showing it doesn't. So that kind of cuts this post short really. From my own personal experience and the new obsession with my award stickers, I feel that positive reinforcement with rewards does work. The thought of how much weight I need to lose and the timescale involved seem insurmountable, but by dividing it into smaller way points the goals become more tangible. I know when I'm going full tilt on this plan I can lose 3-5 lbs a week, so setting goals every stone would diminish the sense of achievement. I have set a couple of goals on my weight loss chart as follows.

Reward 1: Lose 10% of my body weight. Most healthcare professionals agree that dropping just 10% of your body weight, when overweight has many positive benefits to your health. From lowering blood pressure and cholestrol to giving you more energy and a clearer mind. For this milestone I'll reward myself with a new book.

Reward 2: Lose 25% of the weight I need to loose. This is quite a big number and will take a couple of months, so I'm going to reward myself with a new video game. The one I want is due for release in November, so I also have a deadline to spur me on.

Reward 3: Halfway to my goal weight. This loss should plant me firmly in the feeling healthy, active and full of carrots department, so I'll reward myself with a PC upgrade.

Reward 4: Beat my previous best. I know I'll be feeling great by this point and will want to do something active. Not sure what kind of reward, but I'd love to do something like a balloon ride, kayaking, horse riding, flying lesson or other outdoor activity.

Reward 5: Goal weight... I suppose hitting target will be reward enough but a milestone like that requires some celebration. I don't have anything planned yet, but I am planning on putting one pound in a savings account for every pound I lose. Then when I hit target I will smash the piggy bank open and have a spending spree.

Week 2 weigh in

Week 2 saw another 8½ pound loss. That got me my one and a half stone award, narrowly missing my two stone award by
just one pound. I also won the slimmer of the week award. That's another two stickers for my book and two certificates for my kitchen wall.  

To put that in perspective I made the pictures on the right. Twenty seven pounds is five and a half bags of potatoes. When converted to metric it's nearly twelve and a half kilograms, or in soda, over six 2 liter bottles. I just loaded up my backpack with 27 pounds and was staggered by the weight. I have been carrying that around with me for the last couple of years. I am looking forward to shedding a few more of these backpacks over the coming months.

I knew I was feeling better, my skin looks healthier and clothes are starting to feel looser. Today I had to wait for a prescription to be filled. Usually I take the opportunity to have a seat whilst I wait, but today, the sun was shining and I took a walk around out village's shop lined streets. I'll admit that it wasn't the longest walk in the world, but I wasn't out of breath, my back pain had decreased and it felt good to be walking in the sunshine. Looks like I'll be walking to the slimming club in a couple of weeks with any luck. 

Overwhelmed by the need to eat

Did the photo on the right stir up instant cravings? I know it is a bit mean to post a picture like this, but some days it doesn't take much to trigger the junk food junkie inside us.

You want to lose weight and get healthy, you have been eating well, losing steadily and suddenly you NEED junk. Well that's not your body telling you that you are missing out on certain nutrients only found in a burger, but your addiction to dopamine kicking in. I've mentioned before that this chemical is your brain's way of reinforcing behaviour. Junk food is high in easily stored energy in large amounts. As we evolved in an environment where it was hard to find regular food, our brains have developed the ability to encourage us to eat energy rich foods when we find them. Nowadays however food is rarely scarce in our society and despite most of us growing up without experiencing famine, nobody told our brains this.

What we need to do is unlearn your response to high fat, high sugar foods.Some of this is habitual some is neurological. Research has shown that habits are formed through a process called ‘context-dependent repetition’. In other words, You wake up in the morning and reach for the breakfast cereal, it is a habit you have been taught by your parents. The though of a roast dinner for breakfast for most people is just wrong, but when you think about it a roast isn't much different from a full English breakfast fry up, meat, veg and some form of carbohydrate. Breaking the link between your brain and junk food is achieved by forming new habits in situations where you would normally indulge.  

Beating the chemical high is a little harder, but once the habitual aspect is broken, the chemical trigger weakens as your brain reprograms your behaviour by using dopamine to hook you on the healthy foods you are eating now.

So how do we break the junk food addiction?There are several tools available, some will work better for you than others.

Location: If you can't drive past a fast food outlet with your car magically turning in to the drive thru lane, find alternate routes. This might be difficult as fast food companies spend a lot of time choosing the best locations to lure you in. You can also avoid locations with fast food restaurants when you are feeling hungry or the old will power is flagging. Eat a healthy meal and make sure you feel full, hot dogs and chicken wings are harder to eat when you can't stuff them in. If you are eating out with friends, explain you are trying to lose weight and you would rather choose a place that has healthier choices.

Distraction: Make a list of activities that you enjoy doing and keep any resources needed for the activity to hand. When the urge strikes, pick something from the list and do it. Sometimes talking to someone can distract you, make sure you have someone who knows you are dieting and can call or talk to them in times of burger crisis. It sounds daft, but arrange a code word of phrase with your friend that you use at the start of the conversation that lets them know you need to talk about anything else apart from food. This might sound overkill, but if you are with people you don't know and the first thing you say is, 'Nobody mention burgers, ok?', the first question you will get asked is, 'Whats wrong with talking about burgers? They are soooooo nice.'

Comforting strategies: Many of us eat to feel better. Without wanting to sound dramatic, comfort eating might be masking a larger problem. It might be worth speaking to a sympathetic doctor, however not all doctors are so enlightened and you might be just told to stop eating so much and grow a pair. Whether or not you need or get help from a professional with comfort eating, you can help yourself by identifying the times when you feel the need to eat when you are not hungry. If you feel the need to eat, take a moment to write down what you want to eat, is it a specific food? Next write down what made you think about eating, was it something you were doing? Something you were thinking about or something someone said to you. Next write down how you feel about it, be honest here, write down the emotion, describe how it makes you feel. Next write down a solution that doesn't involve food. It doesn't have to be realistic, achievable or resolvable, but just something that would make you feel better. Now pick an item off your distraction list and do it, indulge yourself in something that makes you feel good, that's not food.
The point of all the writing is that some psychologists think that the act of writing helps your subconscious mind deal with issues your conscious mind refuses to. Over time you might find you are more willing to face the problem than mask it with food, if the writing doesn't work for you, then at least you should have substituted the comfort eating response with a healthier activity.

It's all about planning, it will probably be a long time before the cravings goes away, but if you plan ahead you might be able to stop yourself from succumbing every time. The other thing to remember is that if you do slip and eat something bad, don't beat yourself up about it. It happens to everyone, don't feel guilty as that will only trigger more inappropriate reactions and then food related solutions. Just mark it down as a learning experience and see if you can figure out how to strengthen your crisis plan.   

Savoury rice

On Slimming World green days you can eat most carbs as free foods, so this recipe is great as it's just rice and veg. I add a grilled chicken breast as a healthy B extra and eat as a full meal, or once cold mix in some cooked and chopped Syn free Quorn bacon style rashers to make a quick snack.

Ingredients
 
1 carrot, cut into small cubes
2 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 onions, finely chopped
2 sticks celery, cut into small cubes
1 red pepper, cut into small cubes
A handful of frozen peas,
Long grain rice,
1 vegetable stock cube, veggie stock
1 bay leaf,
Mixed herbs.
1/2 tsp Turmeric

How to

1.  Fry onion and garlic in oil until softened, then add celery and carrot and continue to stir for 1 - 2 minutes
2.  Add rice and stir 
3.  Add enough water to cover rice/vegetable mix
4.  Crumble stock cube into water, add bay leaf and mixed herbs (if dried - if using fresh, add close to the end).
5. Stir continuously, adding more water as necessary.
6. After about 5 minutes, stir in chopped pepper
7.  Continue to cook the rice until it is almost done, then add frozen peas and cook for a further 3 minutes

By adding the water slowly, and allowing it to absorb you can judge just how much to put in, as you don't want to end up draining the rice. There should be just enough added in each time to keep it moist, but not drowning in liquid. The great thing about this recipe is that is is so versatile. It goes with a lot of stuff, and can also be eaten on it's own (to which I normally throw some other vegetables in to bulk it up).

All you can eat

The good thing about the Slimming World plan is that you never need to go hungry. Some diets let you have a set amount of food or points worth of food. Some limit your calorific intake. This plan is good because there is always free food to eat or snack on.

After writing the HALT post about thinking about why you are eating, my wife suggested I post about my eating habits on this plan.

Probably the biggest difference from my fellow slimmers in group, is that I have gotten back in to the habit of only eating when I am hungry, rather than at set meal times. This means that some days I don't eat for several hours after waking and some days, which I call hungry days, I eat every couple of hours. The advantage of only eating when I actually feel hungry is that I find I eat less food.

Not eating at set times is a little strange at first, you see lunchtime roll round on the clock, but I have a drink, wait a few minutes and figure out if I feel hungry or if I just feel like eating. Usually it was just the habit of eating that made me think of food.

I know there are a lot of people who say skipping meals, especially breakfast, is all kinds of wrong, but I'm betting that as my body is the product of millions of years of evolution, it has a better idea of when I need to eat than a clock does. The other factor in my favour is that I'm not going to starve to death any time soon. One pound of fat contains 3500 calories worth of energy and my basal metabolic rate is somewhere around 3200 - 3700, which gives me in excess of 200 days worth of fuel stored in my wobbly bits.

The second thing I do differently when eating is stop when I feel full. It's not unusual for me to leave food on my plate. I can hear my gran giving me earache for wasting food. I just box up the leftovers and reheat it later when I get hungry, or use it as a snack the next day. To try to counter this problem I have switched to using smaller plates, I know I can go back for seconds if I am still hungry.

I try where possible to avoid social eating in the same way alcoholics avoid pubs until they get their heads around their problems. Even when your friends and families know you are trying to lose weight, they can sabotage your will power without realising it. Imagine the situation where you are eating in a restaurant, with friends and you feel full after half the meal. You know you will get comments like 'Is there something wrong with your food?' or 'It's so nice, it's a shame to waste it.' We have been brought up to be polite, leaving food or causing a scene is not worth the bother over half a plate of food, so you just eat it.

I don't completely avoid social eating, but I make sure before I go, the people I'm with know that I might not eat much, I might leave food, or ask for a doggie bag. I also suggest places I know will provide food that is compatible with the plan. I also limit my Syns on the day before and day after so as to minimise the impact of the restaurant's chef's love of adding oil and sugar to make food taste that little bit better. 

I know this kind of eating won't work for everyone, especially for the more sociable folks out there, but the tips can be tweaked to work for you. Think about when you eat, try to wait until you are hungry then only eat enough food to satisfy your hunger. Remember that every forkful of food you eat after you feel full is another 10 minutes on the dreaded cross trainer.

I'd rather freeze than run a marathon

I have found some new research into something I had suspected for a long time, being cold uses up more calories than living life in our centrally heated houses.

Ex NASA scientist Ray Cronise along with his co-authors Dr. Bemer and Dr. Sinclair, are looking into the effects of cold on metabolism. The research started when Ray struggled with losing weight after reaching the 'plateau' stage many of us are familiar with. He had tried a lot of the different diets out there with the same results, initial loss up to the plateau, when he would lose focus and regain the weight.

By chance he heard about an Olympic swimmer who ate 12000 calories per day. Swimming burns about 500 calories per hour, which meant that the swimmer would need to swim for over 18 hours per day, which is impossible. He wondered where all that extra energy went. Ray then realised that the swimmer spends a lot of time in the pool and that water is 24 times more thermally conductive than air. It occurred to him that the cold water was draining heat from the athlete and his body had to consume the extra calories to maintain normal body temperature.

He started his own personal research into whether his own weight loss would be affected by low temperatures. It turns out from his findings that by limiting his calorie intake like any normal diet and exposure to cold worked better than calorie restriction alone.

There is a point before we start shivering that our metabolism ramps up internal heat production to maintain our core temperature. Lowering our house or office thermostat and leaving off the layers till we feel chilled will trigger this response. Over time you can train your body to acclimatise to feeling comfortable in cooler temperatures. Turn down your shower and don't take hot baths. If you want to go to extremes, take the occasional cold bath for a boost. He does stress though that it should never be painfully cold and always protect your extremities.

He calculated that when runners complete a marathon they will have burnt an extra 2600 calories. Most of us have 2000 calories of energy on tap, stored in our muscles and liver. Once this energy has been depleted, our bodies fire up the fat burning process to free up more energy. That is a lot of running to burn up 2600 calories or 3/4 of a pound of fat. His tests showed that just immersing the body in water, significantly increased the metabolic rate and the increase lasted for  30-40 minutes after leaving the water.

If you can get used to living at 15 degrees, you can boost your metabolism by around 20%. Lose the duvet and sleep with just a sheet or PJs and the boost works out at 2800 calories for the average man and 2100 calories for the average woman. You could burn up more calories than a marathon runner and save money on your heating bill at the same time.

Ray says that if you slowly ease yourself into the lower temperatures, your body will adapt very quickly and people can live very comfortably at lower temperatures once they have acclimatised.

Shepardless pie

On Slimming World's green day eating plan, meat is restricted to two portions a day as part of your healthy extra choices. Vegetarian meat substitutes such as Quorn are great as you can make dishes like shepard's pie, spag and chilli without using up one of the precious B choices.

With a few substitutions make a Syn free version of this dish, but I prefer the extra taste so my recipe for shepard's pie does have a few Syns. If you use a non stick pan, you don't need oil. If you do need oil, rather use fry light.

Ingredients:

300g Quorn mince
2 onions, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 stick celery, grated
½ courgette, grated
415g tin baked beans (substitute with 400g peas if you prefer) 
400g potatoes
2 Oxo beef stock cubes, (lamb if you prefer)
2 tsp dried mixed herbs
2 gloves garlic, crushed
2-3 tsp butter or spread
10g Parmesan cheese (2 Syns)
Ground black pepper

Optional
60g grated cheddar cheese (1 healthy extra A choice per serving)

How to:

1. Sweat off the onions, carrot and celery in a large pan.
2. In a frying pan fry off the garlic for 30 seconds then add the Quorn mince. Fry for about five minutes. Add the mince to the veggie pan.
3. Add the beans, courgette, herbs and stock cube to the mince and veg and lower the heat and simmer for 10 - 15 minutes. Add a little water if the gravy is too thick.
4. Peel and boil your potatoes.
5. Mash your potatoes with the pepper, butter and grated cheese if you are using it. Set it aside to cool.
6. Transfer the mince mixture to an oven proof dish and allow to cool a little.
7. Spread the cooled mash over the mince and sprinkle over the Parmesan cheese.
8. Bake in an oven at 180 °C for 20-30 minutes, or until the mash starts to turn golden.

This dish will serve 2 - 3 people, possibly more if you serve it with extra vegetables. It freezes very well and once defrosted just needs 3 - 4 minutes in the microwave to reheat it.

If you leave out the butter and cheese you can make the dish Syn free. Lakeland sells a product called Butter Buds that add a nice buttery flavour to mash for only ½ Syn per sachet.

Power up

The news is filled with miracle pills and potions to help you boost your metabolism and lose weight without trying. So is this possible? We all know someone who can seemingly eat whatever they want and never put on weight. But what is the truth behind the headlines?

Firstly we need to understand what metabolism actually means. When you eat food your body needs to break down proteins, carbohydrates, and fats into the fuel your body needs. You metabolise foods through a series of chemical reactions. These reactions can't be made to go faster, so what do they mean when they claim to be able to boost your metabolism? They are referring to your Basal Metabolic Rate or BMR.

Your BMR is the rate of energy expenditure measured in kilojoules per hour per kilogram of body mass. Put simply how many calories you need per day to keep your body ticking over. We all know the basic guidelines for women is 2000 calories a day and for men is 2500. But that figure is based on an average person. There have been a rise in popularity of online BMR calculators that let you know what calories you need to consume based on your height, weight, age and gender. The calculations are based on some reliable science, but don't take in to account the difference between lean body mass and fat cells. These two cell types have vastly different energy requirements, lean muscle needs much more energy than fat cells. So whilst my BMR is higher than the average 2600, it is not as high as online calculators would suggest.

So how can we 'boost' our metabolism? The solution is simple, make your body consume more energy than you put in. Reducing the calories you eat is the first obvious step. Eat good food is step two, a balanced diet will help as your body uses many processed to metabolise different foods. Fiber is good as the body has real problems absorbing it completely, but still expends a lot of energy trying.

Muscle cells need more energy per hour than fat cells, so exercise is another metabolism boost. Not only does it actually burn calories, but it builds muscle mass, increasing your daily energy requirements. Some studies have shown that a single 20 minute high intensity workout can not only burn calories but induce something called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption or 'afterburn', which raises your BMR by up to 10% for several hours after the workout.

Temperature also has an effect on your metabolism. We have a built in response to being either hot or cold as our bodies need to operate within a limited temperature range. To regulate our internal temperature our body burns fuel, if we are cold, the body burns more fuel. Dutch and Japanese studies have shown that people exposed to lower temperatures have increased BMR. The studies were conducted at temperatures that were above those that caused the test subjects to start shivering. So turning down your thermostat will help you lose weight and save the environment.

Canadian researchers have found that EPA and DHA, the omega-3 fatty acids found only in fish oil, may have the power to boost your metabolism by about 400 calories per day. Fish oil increases levels of fat-burning enzymes and decreases levels of fat-storage enzymes in your body. For the best metabolism boosting benefit, choose capsules containing at least 300 milligrams of EPA and DHA total.

Researchers are working on more ways to boost metabolism, such as the effect of capsaicin in spicy foods, drinking iced water and a whole host of other methods. But as with anything, do a little research yourself, especially before you part with your hard earnt cash

First weigh in

It's Wednesday morning and I have just returned from my first Slimming World group weigh in with a HUGE grin on my face. I was expecting a good loss in my first week as I have followed the Slimming World plan in 2000 and had a great loss in the first week. I wasn't surprised when the lady operating the scales tapped the screen to make sure they were working properly. She then called our consultant over who looked at the screen, pressed a button, and then with a smile almost as big as mine, congratulated me on an eighteen and a half pound loss. I was gobsmacked. One stone, four and a half pounds lost in only a week.

I'll be the first to admit that a lot of the loss can be attributed to water loss. Over the last week I have tried really hard to reduce my salt intake. Doctors recommend you consume less than six grams of salt a day. I have no idea of my salt intake prior to re-starting my healthy eating, but suffice to say salt could have been classed as a staple rather than a condiment. This week I have manage to average less than four grams of salt. My blood pressure is down from 140/77 to 130/80 and my feet and ankles are a lot less swollen.

It might sound childish but I am proud to now have my half stone and one stone award stickers attached to my book. I know this isn't a competition but there is something inside me that is driven to obtaining my next sticker. I know that I'll be dropping over two and a half pound in the next week so I'll be coming home with at least one more sticker. I am however aiming for my two stone award, however a nine and a half pound loss might be a little out of reach.

In group a lot of my fellow slimmers took the time to congratulate me on my loss. I really appreciate the support I get from the group and the feeling I get from this helps when suffering with the late night munchies. One group of ladies in particular asked me how I managed such a big weight loss. They were surprised when I mentioned about only doing green and red days, as they were only doing the extra easy days. For me, it is all too easy to consume extra calories on extra easy days. Speaking to people who do extra easy days, they follow the ratio of one third super free foods and two thirds free on their plates, but ignore how high they pile up foods like potatoes and pasta. Whilst the food is still healthy, the basic secret behind the Slimming World plan is to fill up on the less calorie dense foods and limit the carbs and protein. In my view extra easy makes it a little too easy to abuse the medium to high calorie dense food. So I explained to them that I prefer green days and a simple way remember how to do them, as the book can be a little confusing till you get your head round the principal.

So despite the first week's junk food withdrawal symptoms being difficult and the fact I still don't really like veggies, I am extremely happy with my eighteen and a half pound loss.