Guest Post - Rave dance class by Amy from (A) My Space

By Amy Rowland - amylysette.blogspot.co.uk - @amylysette 

I hate gyms. Really hate them. Last year I took leave of my senses and ended up signing up for a years membership. I did one gym class and never went again. That gym class cost me £444. OUCH. 

Anyway, I've already lost 20lbs with Weight Watchers but need to lose another 20lbs before I reach my goal. And I'm not stupid. I know to do that I do need to do some exercise. And I'm not opposed to exercise. Just gyms. So when I saw an advert for Fitness Freak's dance rave class I signed up immediately. Now dancing is a form of exercise I love so much so I don't even realise it's exercise.

My friend Elaine and I arrived at the Vaults under Waterloo station and were handed glow sticks. So far, so rave. There was a real party atmosphere inside which made you forgot you were about to exercise at all. It was more like you were in a club with your mates. 

The rave kicked off and was led by instructor Loren and Fitness Freak founder Shara. The first song was I like to move it, move it and so we did. 

The class was a mix of cardio and conditioning exercise with a lot of glow stick waving in the area and free styling. Oh and of course lots of 'big fish, little fish, cardboard box.'

The class was SO enjoyable. Unlike a gym where you feel everyone is looking at you, the rooms as dark so it really didn't matter if you made a mistake, no one saw. The aim of the game was fun whilst burning up to 500 calories. It certainly did that. I was very sweaty and had very achey thighs the next day!

There is no doubt I'd do it again as it barely felt like exercise. And as for dancing with a glow stick? I may make this a regular thing…

What I Ate Wednesday: (A Day In The Life of Weight Watchers by Sarah V)

I love Gem’s Day in the Life posts and it’s inspired me to do my own. I thought it might be interesting as I have a smaller points allowance than Gem (it’s allocated due to height, start weight etc). The lowest your points go down to is 26 and that's where I now am - I started on 28 points so it hasn't gone down TOO much, though.

My weigh-in is on a Monday night so during the week I normally try to stick strictly to my 26 points and then save my 49 for the weekend, unless I have a dinner out or something in the week.

This is an average day at work...

Breakfast:
Fruit & Fibre with an apple chopped into it & a splash of milk = 4PP (inc milk)
(I always have a variety of breakfasts at work as I don't always want the same thing. Sometimes I have an OatsoSimple porridge sachet (5PP including milk) and sometimes I have two Alpen Light bars (3PP) but I always try to have something.)

Lunch:
½ Pot M&S Chicken, Mushroom & Rice Soup = 6PP
(I normally have soup for lunch but try to stick to filling ones that contain carbs such as rice, potato or beans. This soup is more like a stew or fricassee, as it has giant chunks of chicken and is full of rice! It's SO tasty.)

Dinner:
Homemade Spaghetti Bolognese = 9PP
30g Low Fat Cheese = 2PP
(I try to keep most of my dinners at around the 10PP mark - the ones that are over are usually the ones that already include cheese like my chorizo bake. Posting recipes on here regularly forces me to keep trying new things and ensures I don't get bored of eating healthily.)

Snacks:
Skips = 2PP
2 Finger KitKat = 3PP
(I make sure to always have WW-friendly snacks in my drawer at work so that if I fancy something I don’t just have what’s around as it’s never a healthy option in my office! All the regular KitKats (not the Chunky ones) are 1PP per finger and 3PP if you have 2 - meaning they are probably about 1.4PP per finger but points are always rounded up or down. Skips & Space Raiders are 2PP a bag which is the same as a WW bag of crisps.)

= 26PP exactly

I find 26PP more than enough – and could happily miss out on my snacks most days. Something about knowing they're there makes me less likely to crave them, which I never thought was how my mind worked! On weigh-in days I usually skip the snacks and then have a bigger dinner or a chocolate bar once I've dealt with the scales.

I don’t drink tea or coffee so don’t have to worry about a milk allowance each day – but I think I often end up putting that towards cheese on my dinner! I think I mention cheese in every WW post I do… I just really like cheese.

Thank god for you, Pizza Express.

Lovely bloggers Lily and Michelle!

When I am on following a diet, I develop a bit of a dread about eating out. So few places make allowances for diet plans and so a meal out usually means going seriously off the rails. I usually don’t even track my WW points because I know that I’ve probably eaten about four billion without even realising it. Nightmare.

There are a couple of restaurants that I will try and steer people to though as I know that they are diet-friendly and Pizza Express is top of that list. I can’t think of any other major restaurant chain that makes as much effort towards healthy eating. The thing is, when you go to Pizza Express, you want to eat PIZZA, and they get that. Their Leggera range completely scratches the pizza itch without the guilt (and their salads are awesome, too).

Their supermarket range is incredible, too, and for the longest time it frustrated me as they didn’t seem to shout about it (they do now though). Many of their pizzas like the Sloppy Guiseppe and Pollo Ad Astra are 500-600 calories for the whole thing, which is perfectly reasonable for dinner – and that’s not even counting their reduced fat range.

So – BEST EVENT EVER. Pizza Express invited myself and a few other bloggers to visit their Holborn store and find out about their new menu. They talked a lot about their efforts towards healthy living, not just for adults but for families as well (they do a lot of work with schools, teaching children about using fresh, healthy ingredients).

Then, awesomely, we got to make pizza. And not just adding toppings – we got to throw dough around and all sorts! So much fun.

Once we’d finished our masterpieces, they were taken away and popped in the oven before we all sat down for a lovely pizza dinner. As well as our own personalised pizzas, there were huge portions of the new Superfood Salad out which I am now a bit obsessed with (I even got it as takeaway for lunch the other day!). I always prefer not to order salad when I go out for dinner but now I can’t wait for my work lunch at Pizza Express next week because I need that salad in my life again!

This was a fantastic event, and I learnt a lot too. It completely backed up everything I’ve been banging on about for years about how great Pizza Express are (seriously, go back and read my early posts!) and it was so much fun. I know it probably sounds like I’m being sponsored by Pizza Express, but I promise I’m not – I genuinely think they’re amazing for considering healthy eating without compromising on taste. Even if you’re NOT on a diet, their pizzas are so much better for you than anyone else’s – and cutting down on your fat isn’t a bad thing for anyone to do. I love you, Pizza Express!

Wild Mushroom Lasagne

Confession time: I have a Food Network problem. My Freeview box is pretty much permanently tuned to Channel 48, and I could talk for hours about Nigella Lawson or Ina Garten. Any Barefoot Contessa fans in the house? I love her so much. I mean, she’s kind of awkward and her husband is a little bit creepy, but don’t you just wish she was your neighbour? Her food looks SO good. So good. If you have ever watched Barefoot Contessa, you’ll be wondering why I’m bringing her up in a diet blog. Ina Garten likes to cook with vast amounts of oil. But hey, she’s 65 and she really doesn’t look it. Maybe there is a lesson there. Gillian McKeith and Nigella Lawson are the same age, after all. I have a point though, I swear – the other day, she made this Wild Mushroom Lasagne which looked utterly heavenly, and I wondered if I could adapt it.

The original recipe (posted here, if you’re curious) has about 200g of butter and I think half a bottle of olive oil? Plus cheese and full fat milk. It’s a lot of fat, and it’s not really needed. I adapted this using my favourite Bechamel sauce substitute, Campbell’s Low Fat Mushroom Soup. Have I converted you yet?

Because much of the flavour depends on the mushrooms, I made the executive decision to leave the butter in. I know, it kind of terrified me too! But Lurpak Lighter is almost as flavourful, and 2 tablespoons only added an extra point each.

Wild Mushroom Lasagne
9 lasagne sheets – 17pp
2 cans Campbell's or Bachelor's Low Fat Mushroom Soup – 8pp
2 tablespoons Lurpak Lighter (30g) – 5pp
80g Parmesan cheese (grated) – 9pp
125g Light Mozzarella - 6PP
Fresh garlic cloves - 0PP
2 red onions - 0PP
200g Spinach - 0PP
Black pepper – 0PP
500g mushrooms – 0PP

45PP / 8PP

To reduce points - Use less cheese, use less soup, cut out the butter.

1 - Preheat the oven to 190 degrees.
2 - Separate the mushroom stems from the caps and discard the stems. Slice the caps 1/4-inch thick.
3 - Heat the butter in a large sautee pan (I used my wok). When the butter melts, a couple of garlic cloves then abotu a quarter of the mushrooms at a time. Sprinkle with salt, and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes, until the mushrooms are tender and they release some of their juices.
4 - If they become too dry, add a little water. Toss occasionally to make sure the mushrooms cook evenly. Repeat with the remaining mushrooms and set all the mushrooms aside.
5 - Thinly chop up your red onions and cook until soft. Remove from wok, mix in with your mushrooms (you could also cook them together, to be honest).
6 - Steam your spinach by placing in the wok with the lid on for a couple of minutes until it wilts.
7 – To assemble the lasagne, place 3 of your lasagne sheets in the bottom of your baking dish.
8 – Add about half a can of soup, spreading until it evenly covers the pasta sheets
9 – Add half the mushrooms, then top with a third of parmesan.
10 – Add another layer of noodles, 1/2 can of soup, 1/2 mushrooms, 1/3 parmesan
11 – Top with a final layer of noodles, a whole can of soup and the remaining parmesan.
12 - Bake the lasagne for 30 minutes, or until the top is browned and the sauce is bubbly and hot.

This was really good, but I felt like it could have been better. It was a bit... wet. Which meant that the parmesan got kind of absorbed, which was a real waste. I think cutting out the oil made the mushrooms retain water, which seeped out in baking, and it was a very saucy dish. But the mushrooms cooked in butter and garlic tasted AMAZING and so I want to make this again because I think it could be SO much better!

Next time, I would assemble it more like my Butternut Squash Lasagne:
A layer of the mushrooms/onions/spinach mixture, a layer of strong grated cheese (more substantial than Parmesan), a layer of pasta sheets, another mushroom layer, a layer of pasta sheets, a layer of mushroom sauce and then top with cheese. I will let you know what it's like!