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Healthy Living Challenge: Day 28 – Going back to the basics

Published by Oana

After writing my post yesterday I had a bit of time to reflect on the whys and I realised in the course of last week I made a few typical dieting mistakes:

1. I forgot to eat when it was time to eat and then I ended up eating too much/getting dizzy/eating the wrong things.

2. I forgot to drink plenty of fluids and as a consequence my bowel movement has been less regular.

3. I got lax about wheat and I pinched here and there things I shouldn’t have.

4. I didn’t plan as carefully my meals and I ended up eating less veggies than in the weeks before.

5. I got lazy and didn’t make time to exercise/blamed it on the weather.

6. I read too many dieting books but couldn’t synthesise all the information into one common philosophy, so to say.

So today I went back to the drawing board, so to say, and I mended a couple of things. For starters, I drank PLENTY. I made two teapots of herbal tea during the morning and kept myself hydrated(and warm!). Then I had plenty of short but timely light meals. I went back to rye bread and lastly, I braved the strong winds and the hail and returned ALL the dieting books to the library, except for Anna Richardson’s one, which is closest to my dieting philosophy.

Also made myself a very simple but nutritious salad with rocket leaves, beetroot, Gruyere cheese and cold meats. Mmmm…

This is day 28 of this 40-day-healthy-living-challenge and I am back on track! Excited about the last bit of this challenge!

Healthy Living Challenge: Day 27 – New Weight Plateau

Published by Oana

Yeap, I reached another one and this one is not budging. 68.4 for the last week and a half. It hasn’t helped that the weather has been darn cold and I wasn’t able to go out anywhere. Have you experienced plateaux when trying to lose weight? What were the solutions that worked for you? I am half way there with my weight loss but it would be nice to kick start my metabolism again and be 65 kilos by the time I hit the beach. Please help!

This is a frustrating day 27, only 13 days of this healthy living challenge!

I was actually 63.5 in this one but it’s just about how I aim to look this summer!

Healthy Living Challenge: Day 26 – 5 Ingredients, 50 Minutes, 500 Calorie Dinner!

Published by Oana

Yeah, so this morning I had no desire to slave in the kitchen, like I did yesterday. You see, I cook my dinners in the morning when Emma is in playgroup because there is no time to do it in the evening, after we come back from work. And I also like cooking in peace :-).

Yesterday I made my lean turkey stuffed peppers but it took me pretty much all morning so this morning I popped into Sainsbury’s, grabbed a couple of ingredients and had my dinner ready in less than an hour.

I had defrosted some organic chicken breast from the previous night and prepared it simply by popping it in the oven with a bit of coconut oil, sea salt and curry powder. It only needs around 30 minutes to roast to perfection.

We love Indian in this house but as you well know, Indian takeaways can be quite calorific so over the years I learned to make my own version of things. I had a great helper, one of my very good friends, who is from Pakistan and who taught me how to mix up spices.

But today I present you with a Nigella-like express recipe in which I used a bought-in sauce. Before you gasp and call me a cheat, let me tell you that my sauce has been carefully chosen to have only natural ingredients and have less than 100 calories per 100 grams. There, is that better?

I also dug out from my cupboard some chickpeas and thought that the spinach I got this morning in Sainsbury’s could also be put to good use.

Assembling all this was easy peasy: just warm up your sauce ever so gently then add the chickpeas and let them simmer for around five minutes to get infused with the flavours from the sauce.

Meanwhile, remove the chicken from the oven, cut it into bite-size pieces and add it to the sauce and chickpeas. Again, let it simmer for around five minutes or so, in order to blend in with the rest of the ingredients.

Turn the heating off then add your chopped spinach. And there you have it, dinner ready!

I usually serve it with Indian rice. Before you panic and tell me you don’t know how to make such things, let me share another easy peasy recipe for that. I usually put a cup and a half of Basmati rice with about two and a half cups of water to boil. I then add a bit of salt, two cardamom pods, half a teaspoon of cumin seeds and half a teaspoon of turmeric powder to the rice. I let it boil gently for about 15 to 20 minutes until water is absorbed and the grain is soft.

All in all, this meal shouldn’t take you more that 50 minutes, including cooking the rice. You only need chicken, Bhuna sauce (and no, it’s not hot so you can have it even if you can’t take hot food), chickpeas, spinach and rice. It should also come at under 500 calories per serving, pretty good for a dinner including rice!

This is day 26, there are only two weeks left of my healthy living challenge, stay well, cook smart :-)!

Healthy Living Challenge: Day 25 – Easter Joys

Published by Oana

This post will not be my typical healthy living entry as such but because Otilia, from Romanian Mum was so keen to find out :-), I will tell you about our new family tradition, an Easter tree!!

I actually had seen in before, on two separate occasions but it was only last week, when we were invited for dinner with friends and I saw their own version that I thought: “Aha, I can actually do this myself!”

So last night I sent hubby to find a sturdy tree branch. Fortunately for him, there are loads literally lying around as in preparation for a new road layout and he didn’t have to look long or do anything illegal 🙂 I had bought from PoundLand a few bags of small and medium fluffy chicks, three decorative egg types and some very cute miniature nests. Emma was fully on board with this, helping me hang the eggs, decorating the hollow ones with stickers and filling them up with small treats like chocolate coins and mini-chocolate eggs. The result was amazing and I was so pleased with it I was still raving this morning about it :-). The entire cost, including the sweets, the decorative butterfly Emma had done last week (Home Bargains buy) and all the things mentioned above? Less than £10 but my living room looks a million dollars to me now!!

Healthy Living Challenge: Day 24 – Juicing Phase

Published by Oana

Okay, so I felt I needed a change and I decided to start juicing this week. I don’t agree to excessive juicing or surviving only on veggie and fruit juice as this can actually put too much fruit sugar in your system at once. But a glass or two a day could only benefit me, especially on the days I am too busy or lazy to eat my fruit.

Today I was reading this detox book and since I had most of the ingredients mentioned there I decided to put them in the blender. I used beetroot, two small pears, an apple and half a banana. I added ginger juice(kindly provided by a good friend), wheat grass powder, spirulina powder, half a teaspoon of my immuno-build green powder(it contains stevia and I find adding more than half a teaspoon sickening) and a handful of fresh basil leaves. Hey, pronto, the result was an energising, tangy and refreshing drink I drowned in the blink of an eye!

Well, this is day 24 of my 40 day healthy living challenge, have a great week and take my dare to try at least one new food this week! Talk tomorrow.