Fernando Torres top 20

Week ending 27th Sept 2010- cont'd

Well, I am really pleased, I lost 1/2 Lb. Its not much but its all in the right direction!  It's Tuesday now and still I am challenged!  Spent longer at the L&D than I envisaged and hunger was taking a grip. In the end I had half a bag of quavers...my beloved hubby then says 'oh you are not supposed to eat that!' Of course if I were following a standard diet, then that would  be oh so true, but in actuality, I can have those, (although I did throw half of them away) I just have to count it as part of my treats. I am allowed 5- 15 of those a day and half a pack of those was 4 and a 1/2! so hubby dearest, smoke that..much better than your snickers don't ya think??

What I have learnt so far in this journey that it's the situation we find ourselves in  that turn our desire or indeed need  for food/ fuel into a battle between good and evil. Sometimes good planning can offset this, but equally some situations arise quite unexpectedly and if its not possible that we can side step and still make good choices then we should not beat ourself up about it. I know I know...easier said than done!

Weekending 27th Sept 2010

Liverpool 2: Sunderland 2

I was reading the match report on the BBC , and I noted that the 606 debate was 'how was the 'pool's first goal allowed to stand?'.  Well my response to that is by the same reasoning that allowed the goal that was scored with the the aid of the beach ball was allowed to stand in the opposite fixture last season.   Do I sound bitter? Well may be so, but my point is that incidents such as these go around again and again  but it's always the people on the receiving end of the perceived injustice that will remember it!   This incident refers to the fact that Sunderland were deemed to have taken a free kick when Michael Turner kicked the ball back toward their goalie and Dirk Kuyt took advantage and scored for Liverpool!  Next time throw it!

If I am honest, I would have to say that this was a poor result from my beloved Reds, in particular on the back of being ousted from the Carling Cup by Northampton earlier in the week. ( not the same team though) but on balance I would say that we are not as bad as the pundits are saying but clearly no where near as good as our potential!

This brings me on to the subject of Luck, it appears to me that the whilst The FA, FIFA &Co dilly dally on the small matter of the use of technology to make key decisions in football the distribution of luck will have to rely on good old Lady Karma.  e.g last season there was a big raucous when Michael Owen scored the winning goal against Man City in the 6th Minute of stoppage time, when most of us felt that the whistle should have been blown...now fondly referred to as Fergie time...Darren Bent scored the equaliser  for Sunderland against Arsenal ( last week) in injury time and Mr Wenger was not amused... Is that luck? what is it?  We could be here citing many more examples.It was only when I saw the replay on MOTD that I accepted that the Torres's goal ruled out for off side was in fact offside. Technology would save a lot of heartbeats!

Last week, my gunner loving friend put out a vitriolic attack on my beloved Reds suggesting that Alex Fergie was correct to say that Torres was a cheat..somehow I have not heard from him, since his beloved Arsenal were beaten by West Brom!

Interesting Trivia...before this weekend, West Brom had not won at Arsenal since 1983 and funnily enough, Sunderland have still not won at Anfield since 1983. (Gary Linekar mentioned this  on MOTD)

Am writing this a bit prematurely this week, as have not been to my slimming world class yet. However I have had a mixed week!  At the start I came flying out of the starters box like Usain Bolt and kept sprinting and doing all nicely until Saturday! WHY oh WHY is the weekend so hard to follow a eating plan on. My hubby turning into Mr Hop along did not deter me, am trying to get the psychology behind not being able to keep to the plan or indeed be able to make good choices when one is outside of one's normal routine.  Yesterday I went to our old girl's association meeting in Bushey, it was a lively affair with lots of women screeching and all that and there was food- lots of it!  I tried to be sensible, a trait for which I was laughed at for by friends..imagine that..my friends that are the correct size for their frame.  I said to them, I want to be the correct size too..  I want to be able to buy nice jeans. I realised that people who can get nice jeans do not understand my desire....

Anyhow I digress..My sensible choice was beans with designer stew... well am yet to see how sensible that was. You would think that with Saturday over, Sunday would be easier..but hell no... I did not sleep well, as a result I did not get up on time, got lazy and my ability to make good choices for food slipped further and further away from me and I am beginning to realise that to lose weight and keep it off..is going to be hard work...

Will keep you posted on my weight loss if I make it to class this week. Watch out for my menu maker over coming soon!

VIDEO : Diving Nani Compilation

VIDEO : Diving Nani Compilation

This came from Twitter, could not resist sharing!

20th September: Gastrocnemius, Cheating and the 21st birthdays!

This has been a rather interesting week. I maintained, or in layman terms I stayed the same this week and to be honest I take that gratefully with all my heart!

As for the footie, my beloved reds were beaten by Manchester United at Old Trafford (3-2) and now they are languishing in 16^th! Imagine that it’s unheard of! However I am not going to dwell so much on the match but rather that I find it rather amusing that Fergie was not satisfied that the mancs took all the spoils but he had to accuse Torres of cheating – amazing! I did not get to watch the match this week, I was out at a tae Kwan do destruction seminar but from all the reports I have read, and indeed from my own hubby, I gather that the true reds were not as hopeless as everyone had written them off to be, this I believe to be at the heart of the issue Mr Alex Fergie had! He really thought the mancs were going to win 10-0! Instead he had to watch his darling little so and so squander a 2-0 nil lead by giving away needless penalties and free kicks! He probably thought oh no not at the hands of another Merseyside team! Lucky him then that they got away in the nick of time!

Well talking of cheating, when you are following a particular eating plan with the aim of losing weight the innocuous piece of cake or biscuit here and there seems harmless enough, but do it often enough the cheating goes against you and not the diet…Fergie in my books cries wolf too much and one day, an injustice will be committed against his boys and no-one will take any notice!

My personal cheating came in the form of being in a position to make proper considered choices about what I was going to eat.  Why am I making excuses? – It was my nephew’s 21^st Birthday on Friday... the celebration food was typically Nigerian and particularly oily- the plan was out of the window, what’s a girl to do? I could not take my own food now could I?  That would be just too anal.

As for the gastrocnemius that has no relevance on my attempt at losing weight except Mr Akiti tore his and we will be on the merry go round that will be trips to the hospital over the coming week…hopefully my routine will not be too busted!

Recipe of the week- 13th September 2010

Scotch Eggs

Ingredients:

6 hard boiled eggs

350-400g of lean Mince (I used pork, but u can use beef turkey)

2 slices of wholemeal bread from a 400g loaf (Makes 6)

Method

Put the mince into a bowl and season with garlic, black pepper, salt, thyme, curry and Worcester sauce. (Or whatever takes your fancy) and mix it together thoroughly.

Blitz the bread to form bread crumbs and set aside.

Beat one egg in a bowl.

Divide the mince into 6 portions. Roll each portion into a pattie and wrap one around each egg being careful not to rip the meat, but ensuring the egg is completely covered and that there are no gaps.  Dip each egg into the beaten egg, then into the breadcrumbs. Place  all six eggs onto a baking a tray and bake in a hot oven until the mince is cooked.  1 syn each.( for those of you in the slimming world know!)

This Week, ending 13th September 2010

A very interesting week indeed!  That is in both my struggle with the extra weight and in footie land!  It seems to have been the week of come backs!  My progress took a slight step backwards last week with the not so good result of putting on 1&1/2 pounds. I was so disappointed as I had followed the plan rigorously and as always recorded everything. I had a good little lament to the lady who sat next to me in class she seemed to think it was rather funny!  Anyhow I have looked through my sheets and it would seem as if I had not been eating enough fruit at least that seems to be the logical conclusion that I can draw. I have to link it to the fact that shock horror, England won two matches in a row, and in emphatic fashion and even the Rooney came good. I have to say that my effort proved worth it as this week I lost a whopping 4Lbs. I was so happy and imagine there were mini manicures at class, so I managed to get my nails painted as well.  Other comebacks included Everton, coming from 3 -1 down, to equalise 3-3 in the dying minutes of the match, and it would seem that even in the championship, it was going on as well as Leeds came from behind to beat Swansea 2-1 whilst, Burnley came from 3-1 down to beat Preston 4-3, making it a day of double woe in the Ferguson household.   When I switched over to watch the tennis, Aston villa were beating Stoke 1-0 so I could not have been surprised to see the final result was Stoke 2- Aston Villa 1! So there it goes, I only wish the same could be said for my beloved Reds!  I am still having faith and disagreeing wholeheartedly with the manky pundit who said that if Liverpool see 4^th they will feel like they have won the premiership!  Cheeky so and so….

Food, footy and a weighty issue!

I was listening to or rather reading the BBC news sports page regarding the Transfer window and all the wheeling and dealing that was going on.  The topsy turviness of it all reminded me of being on a diet. The ups an downs, the rumours, the hints, the truths and the outright lies.  In the end, when the window closes you can physically see the results, ie. Joe cole left Chelsea and went to Liverpool, just as Yossi benayoun left Liverpool and went to Chelsea.  This was the case in many clubs in many divisions in many countries all across Europe. 

So, how does this compare to dieting?  I  was thinking that  when a diet is successful where does all the fat go? How much of it si transferred into muscle and how much of it is used in fuel. Whilst the transfer market is conducted in Pounds, players and Euros, the diet is conducted in food, fuel, fat waste. Measured in terms of calories etc.  I think the logic applied here is straight forward and can be quite scientific. We all know by now that a mars bar has more calories than a stick of  celery; however the psyche is not  necessarily so scientific and can be a hindrance or a help in the battle of the bulge.  In this mode one can wake up in the morning and feel awfully ‘fat’ and the feeling can prevail for the whole day or indeed days, but quite often can dissipate just as quickly as the feeling arrived.  Some people always feel fat despite having anorexic body proportions. The point I am really aiming at is that fat is relative to the individual.   It varies by gender, culture, social groups etc and the impact of the feeling of fatness manifests in the society to such an extent that there is room for a multi-billion pound diet and fitness industry.

Myself, I often feel fat but I like to think that it does not affect my personality or indeed how I view myself.  I do worry about it in terms of my health though. I participate in martial arts. Tae kwan do to be precise, and I love it. I have obtained a black tag belt, this is the level that my instructor refers to as black belt in waiting or indeed sometimes virtual black belts. Needless to say the grading was very hard. I knew it was going to be hard, and I practiced a lot with my friends as often as I could. Indeed in the run up to the grading I went to the class 3 times a week, and in the two weeks immediately prior to the class I  did the class 4 times a week. I don’t need to tell you that I was absolutely shattered by the end of it.  In the end, I  got the belt and i suddenly thought that it would have been a lot easier if I was not carrying so much weight. In fact when that thought came in my head, I did really begin to feel fat. Funny then that not long after this I was st with a group of colleagues who all seemed to be doing one diet or another and in the end, I decided that I was going to make a concerted effort to lose weight, I was not however willing to starve in the process. I then enrolled in Slimming world for the 3^rd time. ( yes I had done it before quite successfully in fact). I had to think long and hard about my motives and what I wanted to achieve. I then decided that I wanted to drop at least 2 dress sizes.  3 would be better, but I did decide that I was going to take it slowly and realise that the world and indeed my world was not going to stop just because I was dieting.

It was with this in mind that I was able to adopt the edict that it was a lifestyle change rather than a diet.  Indeed that was to prove to be the challenge the ‘lifestyle change’,  changing the habits of a lifetime, those habits that are often routed in tradition and culture. They are often very comforting too, evoking comments such as ‘just like mummy made, yummy, to die for’ and so on and so forth.

So I have been on this plan now  since April and I have lost 1 stone and 4 pounds. Nearly a dress size. I am still highly motivated but its getting harder I have to be honest. And so I will soldier on, I must however spare a thought for my long suffering hubby ( not so suffering really) but will have to put up with my experimental cooking and my incessant search for the fat and sugar free versions of everyday comfort foods like cakes.   I must say though that I do make up for it to him in that I am a footie fan and lover of most sports except golf and horse racing. So am sure you can guess the contents of this blog – yep you guessed...food and footie.