Just Call Me Delia....

Something else I thought I might share is this recipe for courgette muffins

Taken from AllRecipes.co.uk

Ingredients

Serves: 12

• 225g (8 oz) wholemeal flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 175ml (6 fl oz) skimmed milk
• 2 egg whites
• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 4 tablespoons honey
• 4 oz grated courgette

Where are you?

Preparation method

Prep: 15 mins | Cook: 20 mins

1.

Preheat oven to 190 C / Gas mark 5. Grease muffin tin lightly with oil or line with paper muffin cups.

2.

Combine wholemeal flour, baking powder, salt and ground cinnamon, mix thoroughly.

3.

Mix the milk, slightly beaten egg whites, oil, honey and grated courgette together. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir until just barely moistened. Batter should be thick and lumpy. Fill muffin tins 2/3 full with batter.

4.

Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

While my children mostly refuse to be convinced they are really nice, filling, sweet and low fat for cake.  Wholemeal banana bread is currently in the oven. I am hoping for more success with that!

And we're back

I have a small addiction to passive or not aggressive cat pictures currently.  But we discovered last week I am a gap in my skull and I am leaking brain fluid here and there so maybe that is why.

I spent the first half of the week in hospital and the second at a wedding in the south of France.  One was considerably more fun that the other.  I didn't take a pedometer to France but I did do a fair bit of walking.  The converted textile factory on grounds we stayed in were about the size of my street and also there were hills.  Not hills on a Sheffield scale but hills on roads with no pavement shared with French drivers.  I kept myself moving and the heart rate up...

So as it stands I don't know if my gap means more treatment or what so for now I am carrying on as normal.  Both my girls are now in school full time and the walk to and from just twice a day has already upped my walking quota.  The cycling is still trailing miserably behind but my new plan is to try and fit some cycling in every day (Monday to Friday) now I have the house to myself, preferably whilst watching Homes Under The Hammer.

Plus I am at the hospital twice this week for a consultation and then physio on the fookedfoot.  The manipulation and conversation are both going to be painful to some degree but at least that is another couple of good walks factored in.

I know this is not a diet blog and I know we are not in the business of hating ourselves but a wedding did mean photography and most of the photos I have seen of myself make me want to cry to be honest.  I watched Clare Richards: Slave To Food too.  My self confidence is not exactly sky high but I figure if I put half as much effort into keeping moving as I normally expend of trying to bury my feelings under chocolate it will be far more productive!

Scores on the doors:
Bike - 1.5 miles completed, 21.1 miles done in total leaving 478.9 to do
Walking - 19 miles completed, 85.5 miles done in total leaving 414.5 to do

Yo

I've fallen off the wagon with 30 day shred because I had some MinorHealthDrama and I'm still knackered. I do know that I can do it though, so can do it again soon. Run out of money so been doing lots of walking the last few days. That's good :)

Going to Paris on Wednesday, where I shall have a week of detox on good food and will prob lose weight through shitloads of walking. So, on balance, yay.

Exercise, a diet that's wise and a bit of diddly-dum

Sorry for the lack of recent posting, been really busy with work and other boring stuff. Something significant did happen though. Fitness wise. I went to the gym on Sunday and the oddest sensation came over me.

I was enjoying myself.

I got into the zone on the cross trainer. The minutes flew by. I wasn't counting them slowly one by one and charting my progress in percentages. It became fun. I forgot my troubles and everything melted away. It was a nice feeling. I also managed a great swim afterwards which was a great thing for me as being a complete water baby, I never feel motivated enough to actually do anything when I'm in there other than float and daydream about being a mermaid.

Food-wise, I'm doing well. I've ordered my first Graze box, which was stuffed full of healthy snacks and it kept me away from the biscuit barrel at 11pm. If you fancy a free Graze box, you can have one on Olympfit by quoting the code R3GNXJK when you sign up.

In other news, my clothes are definitely looser and I think that putting on something that used to be tight and feeling that it's now loose may well be one of the best feelings ever.

All being well I'm off to face my nemesis, Body Pump tonight. Wish me luck!

Just a Quickie

So it would appear I am going back to hospital for a brain scan tonight so just a quickie

So no cycling but I have managed some walking.  12.9 miles done making a total of 66.5 miles with 433.5 miles to go!

I'll be back.....

The Horror Of Google

So I'm back with 2 weeks worth of figures for the 500 mile walk and the 500 mile cycle.

But you know, I don't like to just write stuff.  I like youtube videos and images to jazz things up a bit.  As usual I turned to google to provide me with a suitably funny or quirky illustrative image for this blog post.  I typed in 'walk funny'.  I have done quite a lot of walking, 18.5 miles in fact which brings the running total to 53.6 miles leaving 446.4 miles to go.  A tenth of the total completed, I am happy and pleased with myself etc.

I should have twigged something might pop up I wasn't wanting when the images seemed to feature this or similar on t-shirts etc .

On I scrolled until suddenly I was confronted by several pictures of a man with a crime watch photofit face, no clothes and a rather alarmingly large penis.  I gasped at the computer, clutched my pearls and closed my eyes quickly to prevent any further filth sullying my mind.

^That could be me.  But obviously it's not.

OK so now you have gone and tried that on google to see of you can find Mr CrimeWatch it only remains for me to make know the fact that I also managed 11.6 miles on the bike, meaning 19.6 miles completed and a mere 480.4 miles to go.

Stop! Rest day time!

As you can tell from the title, my MC Hammer pants are back from the dry cleaners. Aren't they pretty? Yes, yes they are.

No, not really. This week has been....middling. I finished level 1 of the 30 day shred on Tuesday, yay! I'm having a rest day today because my back is buggered and I think it needs a wee rest. Am making the other half dinner tomorrow (chili! woop!) so probably won't have time tomorrow either. But I'll get back on it soon enough. :)

This week's biggest sin is that I am drinking more diet coke than I would like- not as much as before, but still- and also, that I bought an 8 pack of niknaks for me and my brother. Turns out he doesn't like them. So I've had 4 packets in 2 days. On the upside, multipack packets are TINY compared to singles. And I'll get sick of them soon, which means I can go another 5 years without eating them. So,,, that's okayish. Maybe.

My jeans have started falling down. I don't know whether that's because I'm thinner or because they've stretched (ie, am fatter). This exercise lark is confusing :(

Have had a rubbish week at work, including a true Day Of Shite, but I resisted the urge to have a couple of glasses of wine. Proud of that :) (I just ate nik naks instead....er....)