Thursday 31 May 2012

BBQ TIME!

Barbecues are definitely one of my favourite perks of summer! Perfect excuse to invite all the friends around and enjoy the sunshine! I've already had 2 barbecues this year! But the only down side of BBQ's is all the calories.. It is so easy to just sit and pick or eat far too much.. Or even worse if you get your food dished up for you, and you eat it all so you don't look rude (this seems to happen to me quite often)..

I thought I'd put together a list of my top 5 favourite BBQ foods that both dieters and non-dieters can enjoy!

1. Quorn Smoky BBQ Sticky Fillets - these are my personal favourite! And only 64 kcal per fillet! They taste incredible! If I could I'd eat these all day everyday, haha. They can be barbecued, grilled or cooked in an oven, personally I prefer them barbecued as it brings out the BBQ flavour better!

2. Grilled Portobello Mushrooms - stick a large portobello mushroom onto the barbecue and just let it cook! It's approx. 76 kcal per. large grilled mushroom. I had my first one the other day and it was amazing! I can't believe I never thought of sticking these on the barbie before! Nom!

3. Barbecued Bananas - these are DELICIOUS! You can do these 2 ways.. One: you can just leave the banana in their skins, stick them on the barbecue and once the skin starts going black and blistering them turn them over and cut them down the middle long ways (you can then add things into the middle of it, like chocolate, if you wish). Then once the other side has blistered, pick it up with oven gloves or tongs, and use a spoon to scoop the banana out into a bowl. Two: peel the bananas out of their skins, wrap the banana in tin foil (if you want fillings cut the banana long ways down the middle and then fill, before wrapping with foil). Stick them on the barbie for approx. 10-15 mins, then unwrap and serve. Yum!

4. Vegetable Skewers/Kebabs - These are so tasty and low-kcal! Just get metal skewers (with non-metal handles) or wooden skewers (if you use wooden ones, wet the skewer before putting veg on it else the skewer will burn on the barbecue). Stick vegetables on them, such as green, red, orange and yellow peppers, cherry tomatoes, button mushrooms, bits of onion, aubergine, etc. If you're a meat lover, you can also stick chicken, turkey, or any meat on there really.. But you'll have to cook them for longer and they'll obviously be higher calorie.

5. Strawberries and Splenda - No barbecue is complete without strawberries for desert! Always goes down well. Instead of cream or sugar though, buy some granulated splenda sweetener. It tastes like sugar, maybe even sweeter than sugar actually, and looks like it too, but it's calorie free! Just cut up the strawberries and sprinkle a tea spoon over each bowl and serve! Mmmmm!

Sunday 27 May 2012

Skydive - photos!

The skydive was INCREDIBLE! My boyfriend and I did a tandem skydive, from 12,000ft up, on Saturday 19th May 2012. We raised money for Wiltshire Air Ambulance, which is an amazing charity that pretty much relies on donations!

I felt so sick and I cried before the jump. I had to jump first.. I was absolutely terrified! My hands were shaking and then when I held my hands to stop the shakes, it made my legs start shaking, haha. Everyone kept trying to comfort me and calm me down, haha. I had it drilled into my mind that I was going to die and my parachute wouldn't open. But it did, obviously. Worrying for absolutely nothing.

Honestly, if any of you ever get the opportunity to do a skydive DO IT! You will hate it before, but once you've done it, you will love it and wish you were still up there freefalling! It's honestly just WOW. It's like a dream. Above the clouds is just so beautiful! So fluffy and golden. It felt like it was all a massive daydream. It feels weird to think I've actually done a skydive now.. It was all over so quickly.. But totally worth every second! Most amazing experience ever.

I will try and upload my skydiving video to YouTube soon and once I have I shall post it onto here! I'll either edit this post and put it on here or put it into a new one.

Here's a few of my skydiving photos (click to enlarge):







Wednesday 23 May 2012

Shakeaway tip!

I know having a Shakeaway whilst on a calorie counting diet may sound a bit absurd, but it IS doable! I have found a way to make it far less calorific than an original shake and in my opinion it tastes ten times better anyway!

The secret is to ask them to replace the milk (they tend to use semi-skinned) with soya milk. And then ask them to replace the ice cream with frozen yoghurt! And then have whatever chocolate/sweets/fruit/etc. you want in it - obviously the fruit is better for you and has less calories, but sometimes a chocolate bar is more tempting, especially when you're there with friends who are all ordering fatty chocolatey shakes.

I normally get 'Reece's Cups' in mine! I have a slight addiction to peanut butter and Reece's Cups at the moment - not good as it's very fattening.. But I can't help it. I just have to hope it doesn't last long and it doesn't get out of hand!

Anyway, if you're planning to get a Shakeaway soon, try this tip out - even if it's just the one time ever! You will feel far less guilty! Think of all the calories you'll save! ;)


P.S. I survived the charity skydive by the way! I should hopefully be getting the photos by the weekend so I will post photos when I get them. Keep your eyes peeled for them).

Saturday 19 May 2012

Skydive todaaaaay!

Just a quick post for now..

Today is the day. The Charity Skydiveeeee, for Wiltshire Air Ambulance! I. Am. TERRIFIED. I can't believe the day's come around this fast. I'm just currently getting ready to leave. Got my 4 shirts, sweatshirt/jumper, sweatpants, socks, trainers and gloves on - raring to go. Jago's also jumping with me today.. He's not so nervous but I'm sure once we're there, he'll be more scared than me, haha.

Had a big fat fish and chips and some krispy kreme donuts - naughty, I know - last night for tea with Jago, as if this all goes wrong, that could have been our last dinner ever. Went over my calories by a crazy amount.. But oh well.. This is a one off.

So yes, if I survive I'm sure I'll be on here telling you all how it was! If I don't post within a few days or so, I'm probably dead.. Splatted on the ground somewhere in England, haha. We might be getting it filmed and photographed, so pictures to follow hopefully!

Wish me luck, WOOOO! :D

Friday 18 May 2012

Graze guilt-free high tea!

Got my first Graze box since coming back from Turkey yesterday, and to my delight there was one of their new 'guilt-free high tea' punnets inside of it! I've been wanting to try on of these since I found out they'd brought them out - mainly for the cuppa! I never thought I'd actually end up getting one though, as you can't select 'send soon' on any of them. So I was a very happy girly when I opened my graze box! I got the "carrot cake with an afternoon infusion". It was delicious - especially the tea! And only 102 kcal for the whole punnet! Yuuum!

The carrot cake is sweet and you can really taste the carrot in it. It has seeds on top and inside of it too, which is different, but very tasty! It's very moist and sticky, which I like (so probably best to eat it on the day you get your graze box, for max. freshness)! I hate dry cakes.. The tea has a very unique taste. I can't really explain it.. But it tastes completely different to any other cuppa I've ever had. I wish I could buy the afternoon infusion tea bags in supermarkets - they taste amazing! I know I'd definitely buy them if they did! If I had to point any bad points out about the punnet as a whole, it would be the size of the cake.. It is very small. I think it could probably do with being a tad bit bigger!

My cat, Muesli, decided to sit all over my graze box and rip the lid, so now it doesn't stay closed.. She's strange when it comes to cardboard and things similar (like paper carrier bags, newspapers and boxes). She likes to sit on them, then play with them, and of course eventually rip them to shreds. I have a weird cat.. But I wouldn't have her any other way. Speak of the devil, she's just come and jumped on my lap. Cute! 

Monday 14 May 2012

I'm baaack!

I'm finally back from sunny Turkey and only 5lb heavier (bad I know, but it's 1lb less than the minimum weight I was expecting to gain whilst out there)! We went to 'Palm Wings Beach Resort' in a place called Altinkum. The weather was LUSH - between 25 & 27 degrees everyday and about 15/16 degrees during the night. AND I have the most amazing tan evvveeer!! A few people have even asked me if it's a real tan or not, haha!

We did lots whilst out there. Went on a boat trip, went to the beach, spend lots of money shopping and at the Saturday market! The market was absolutely mental, but very fascinating too. We both played football, table tennis, bingo, karaoke, and water polo. We both jumped off the top of a boat (about 2 stories high, I think) into the sea - I was terrified, but I still did it! Went on the water slides and went swimming. I did enough sunbathing for the whole year I think, haha. Went to the evening entertainment every night. Went to an al a carte restaurant on the last night and went out for a cooked english breakfast (a "fry up") some of the mornings. I only went in the internet cafĂ© once during the whole week, and that was only for 30 minutes (personal improvement there, I think).

Me & my boyfriend, Jago, paid to have a professional photo shoot taken, within our resort, whilst out there. The photos are so beautiful, we both love them and so does our families. It was a lot of money, but we reckon it was totally worth it. We got a photo album free too with 40 of the photos printed out and stuck down inside of it - such an amazing memory for us both to keep forever.

The food in our hotel was lovely! Well I say that, but the breakfast sucked which is why we went out some of the days for breakfast. But lunch and tea was amazing, and so was snack-time! I didn't have a lot of choice in foods, as I don't eat meat and their food was very meat dominated.. But what I could eat was delicious! The main things I could really eat was pasta, chips, potatoes, crepes/pancakes and bread.. Which I don't really eat much of anymore since I started calorie counting, which may have been partially why I put on so much weight in such a short space of time. I always bloated after eating too, which was quite embarrassing. But anyway, the food was DELICIOUS!

I did accidentally eat meat three times though. They do not label their foods with a 'V' or 'vegetarian friendly' or anything, and some of the foods that have meat in are not labelled clearly. One of the labels said "spinach and egg", so I took a big mouthful to find it also had ham shoved in it. So I spat what I hadn't already swallowed out. Same again with the label that said "stuffed vegetables". I took a big bite out of one to find out it had little bits of beef in it. One time was their fault though. I asked them "is this minestrone soup meat free", they said yes, so I was enjoying the soup until I came to the bottom of it. I had a spoonful and found a piece of lamb in my mouth.. So I fished around my soup to find there was about 4 pieces of lamb that had sunk to the bottom of my soup.. I was not a happy girly..

But overall, apart from the meat slip-ups, the week was incredible! We met some wonderful people and did some amazing things. I didn't want to leave! But I feel the week has brought Jago and I even closer and made us stronger as a couple. I am so happy to have been able to spend the week out there with the most amazing boy I have ever met, hehe. :3

Here's a few photos from our trip (click to enlarge):

















Wednesday 2 May 2012

Off to Turkey for a week!

Me and Jago, my boyfriend, are off to Turkey for a week. We leave at 3am tonight (3rd May)! I'm just letting you all know so you don't panic about me not posting anything anymore! I will be posting again once back (probably about all the weight I've gained as we're going 'all inclusive', which includes buffet meals for breakfast, lunch and tea all week long)..

I'm am so nervous and stressed out! I keep crying and arguing with pretty much everyone for the past week. It's not good. For the last week, leading up to today, I have been eating like a fat pig! Probably because of the stress. I've been craving chocolate like mad. Not good! I feel quite ashamed with myself about it actually.. I've been losing all this weight, one reason being to look great for this holiday, and then I go and eat like a pig and but on 2lbs! Such a fatty. My bikini body is pretty much non-existent  now.. Such a bummer..

I will try and get lots of photos whilst out there! Not sure if I will be in many of them though as I'm normally the person behind the camera, not in front of it. I will make a post, full of photos, when I get back!

Byyyeeee!

Herbs - update!

I told you that I'd let you all know when they start popping up, so here's the herb update!

I didn't even know that they had started growing! My mum came to my room telling me she has to take their lids off as one of them was pushing up against it. I had no idea, as about 3 days before she told me, I watered them and absolutely none of the pots had anything growing in them at all. They're growing so fast! Especially the coriander. They're not edible yet though, but even if they were I want to leave them until they get really big and full. So proud of myself for actually being able to grow something! Normally any plants I buy, that grow, die within the first 2 weeks.. So I guess this is a personal achievement, haha.

I'll give an update one these again when they're even bigger!