Sunday Summary #23

Happy Sunday! How's your week been?

Sarah V - I lost 3lbs this week, which I'm really pleased with! Slowly but surely I'm returning to my pre-summer weight. I'm determined to lose again in my next weigh-in, so have been walking to work and trying not to be too bad. Although a summer of bad habits has meant my resolve has slipped somewhat, but I'm getting there.

Gemma - I lost 2.5 lbs this week, much better! After two weeks of staying the same because of various birthdays and weddings I was really happy with my good loss. This week I have been trying some new recipes too keep me interested and motivated and I'm hoping for another 2-3 lb loss this week. I'm going to Torquay next weekend which I'm little worried about but if I have two bad days I will just try and be extra good the rest of the week. I am now -41 lbs and I want to be -50lbs by the 5th of October for a friends wedding.

Sarah - I've spent this weekend in Brixham visiting some of the boyfs family so no Sunday weigh in for me this week.  After putting on 1lb at my class weigh in two Thursdays ago I am happy to report that I had lost 2lbs this Thursday... let's hope I haven't spoilt it all in one little weekend!

Lucy - Sorry for my lack of Sunday Summary last week, I had a traumatic day - I got stuck in a lift for two hours and then had to get a taxi to York instead of the train because I was going to see Olly Murs. I then had the Monday off work and traveled back down to London and yeah, I'm sure you get the issue! Anyway. I go to Australia in exactly 42 days and I'm still at square one. We've been doing this blog for twenty three weeks now and I am pretty much in the same place I started. I have no idea what my issue is. It's never too late to start again, is it...?

Charlene - No weight loss this week but I might have indulged in all the free cakes and doughnuts at work a little bit too much. And err, a chinese takeaway. Not good! Lots of fruit in the kitchen though for healthy snacking and I'm going to go at least 3 runs this week aswell as doing some arm weights and crunches.

Weight Watchers Simply Enjoy - Honey Soy Salmon and Vegetable Stir Fry

The lovely people at Weight Watchers sent me a copy of  their new book called Simply Enjoy, I was really interested to see what types of recipes it contained and if they would be quick meal ideas as well as something more elaborate. I will be trying a lot of the 'Working Lunch' recipes and I can't wait for Christmas party season so I can try out the Poppadum Crab Bites and the Red Currant and Cranberry Glazed Turkey.

I have really enjoyed trying to cook a few new dishes and it has given me a bit of a boost this week. Eating the same old dull dishes can really get you down and when you have been on a diet for a few months you really start to lose motivation.

Simply Enjoy is divided into chapters including: lunches; vegetarian ; quick and easy; picnics and BBQ’s; cooking for friends; Christmas; side dishes; snacks and sweet treats. There is something to suit all tastes and cooking abilities. I really like the index at the back of the book which arranges the dishes in to ProPoints values so if you can easily plan what to eat according to how many points you have left.The book also lets you know if the recipe is suitable to freeze which is very handy.

You can get hold of a copy of Simply Enjoy at your local Weight Watchers class or you can buy it online here (there are three free recipes if you follow that link)


Honey Soy Salmon and Vegetable Stir Fry


I decided to try the honey soy salmon and vegetable stir fry first because I already had some of the ingredients which you need to make it and at only 8 ProPoints it seemed like a filling but low point lunch option. I put way more veg in that it said in the recipe because I was pretty hungry and veg is 0 points. The recipe suggests that you can make this more filling by adding 50g of dried brown basmati rice per person for an addition 5 pro points.


This recipe has a ProPoints value of 8 per person and serves 4 people.

You will need:
4 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons clear honey
4 x 125g skinless salmon fillets
Calorie controlled cooking spray


For the stir fry:
2 large garlic cloves, chopped finely
30g of grated ginger
350g pack of mixed vegetable stir fry


1. Mix together half of the soy sauce, all of the balsamic vinegar and honey in a shallow dish. Add the salmon and spoon over the marinade until coated. Cover and leave in the fridge to marinate for 30 minutes.


2. Heat a large non stick frying pan, spray both sides of the salmon with the cooking spray and cook for 3 minutes until golden. Spoon over more marinade, spray with the cooking spray, turn over the salmon and cook the salmon for another 3 minutes. Keep the salmon warm while stir frying the vegetables.


3. Heat a large wok or pan, spray with the cooking spray and stir fry the garlic and ginger for 30 seconds, toss in the vegetables and cook until tender. Add the remaining soy sauce and toss until combined. Serve the salmon on top of the vegetables.

It tasted so good and I think mine looks a lot like the photo in the book, what do you think?

I have now lost over 40 lbs since joining Weight Watchers and I'm hoping that the recipes in this book will help to keep me motivated to lose an extra 40lbs. Dieting really doesn't have to be boring or restricting and great recipe books like this really do help.
Do you have any of the Weight Watcher cookbooks? This is my first one and I'm tempted to invest in a few more. What are your favourite healthy cookbooks?

Sunday Summary #22

Happy Sunday everyone! Eeek, it's 20 past midnight - technically still Sunday right?!

Sarah V - I've been a bit poorly this week so missed my slimming class and didn't do any exercise. I haven't really lost my appetite, but I also haven't really felt like snacking, either. So I've been eating pretty well, and as of this weekend, the scales were looking pretty positive. I'll know for sure next Tuesday though - I am away visiting friends this weekend which always tests my dieting resolve!

Sarah - I've had a chat with my Slimming World consultant to try and find my missing motivation.  I had gained 1lb by the time I went to class on Thursday so I need to turn things around pretty quickly.  I still weigh the same as I did last Sunday so I have managed to undo this already and am now determined to get a good loss this week!  I know what I need to do its just finding the willpower to stick to it oh and I need to find the inclination to start the 30 day shred again and to stop just talking about doing it!

Gemma - I didn't weigh in last week because it was my birthday but I did go this week and I stayed the same (boohoo). I have eaten out loads over the week because of my birthday and on Friday when I went to the South West blogger meet up but I take my Weight Watchers 'Eating Out Guide' with me everywhere so I always knew what the low point options are. I haven't had any alcohol this week so I'm hoping for a good loss next Friday. I have a wedding in 8 weeks and my dress fits but it is very tight so my next mission is for that dress to fit and look fabulous at the wedding!

Charlene -  I've had quite a good week! I went running for the first time in a long while and managed to run 3.6k at what I think was a record time for myself! It was raining and getting dark which is why I think I pushed myself harder - I just wanted to be home. I've done quite well dietwise too. I've got a sweet tooth so I've realised that I'll never be able to cut out things like chocolate or cake but I feel a bit more in control of how much I eat when I do have a craving. Hoping to do more running this week and some arm exercises. Does anyone know any specific exercises that are good for the dreaded bingo wings?

Lucy - 

Guest Post - Rhiannon from Vintage Extraordinaire

This weeks guest post is by Rhiannon from Vintage Extraordinaire.

Exercise is horrible, isn’t it? Ugh - all the sweating, all that moving about, and if you’re a lucky gal like me, your face turns a special shade of maroon - just to make sure that everyone around you knows that you haven’t done it in a while. Not since PE at school anyway, and you didn’t even do it at GCSE’s - why would you? It wasn’t mandatory. Plus the sweet shop was open, and in the middle of the day there was hardly any queue. See where I’m coming from? EXERCISE SUX. 

This has been my stance towards it since about two or three months ago. I’ll bring it back to the whole ‘P.E at school’ issue. They don’t really make it an appealing prospect, do they? 

“RIGHT! Run seven laps around the field”

Of course you didn’t want to run seven laps, you’ve just had five hours of lessons and are pretty sure that you just failed your physics test. Still, there were no attempts to spice it up. It just seems as though it was a constant slog of effort and not much reward. I really thought all there was to exercise was running around in your shorts in a frosted field, feeling like your lung’s collapsed and dry heaving, whilst someone in a toasty warm tracksuit blows a whistle at you and repeatedly shouts “Oh come ooon, it’s not that cold!” 

It wasn’t until I started going for walks with my best friend, Amber that I realized that it was possible to get fit, have a laugh and have a decent excuse to over-indulge later that evening - “well I did climb a mountain this morning, I’m morally allowed that third slice of carrot cake.” 

Let me be clear here - we don’t actually climb mountains. The most we’ve done is go up a path that was “a bit hilly”, but I’ve come to realize that the simplest, easiest form of exercise still counts as “working out”.

Walking isn’t that strenuous, it’s free, and it’s a great way of chattering away with your bestie without wasting your money in various branches of Starbucks. You don’t even have to wear shorts! Luckily for me, Amber is of the same “let’s not over-stretch ourselves” attitude. We treat our walks as some sort of FBI project - they’re held in secret locations, we don’t go anywhere we might be spotted and we go make-up free in order to shield our identities. Our routes are in the hills on the outskirts of town, because our stance is very much “ugh gawd, but there are people in the park, they might see us.” 

My advice is to chose a walking buddy on the same level as you - in fitness, attitude and sense of humour. It will come in handy when you’re lying on the floor in the middle of a pedestrian path, wailing “my legs! MY LEGS!”. At that point of the two-hour walk you’re going to need someone who’s going to lie down with you, saying “I know, I know”, and who will say encouraging things like “THINK OF THE BACON SARNIE AT HOME” and “Your arse will thank you for this.”

Then we go home, have cake, and watch Desperate housewives on catch up tv and feel like better humans than everyone else for the remainder of the day, because as the law states, “she who does some exercise, is allowed to be smug and eat cake.”

(and if you like, you can even call it ‘hiking’, that’s what Americans do.)