Where Are My Knees?

Baking Mad Monday - Raspberry Roulade

2012-02-27T19:40:00.000Z

The final instalment of the Baking Mad challenge is brought to you by Gemma.

Baking Mad provided the flour and sugar, the same types as in Sarah's post and then the rest was purchased by myself to make the roulade.

It was a complete cake fail!! I followed the instructions and the cake seemed perfect and tasted lovely but when I tried to roll it I split it and just had to fold it over. If you are a better baker than me (not hard) and want to give this a try here is the recipe:

You will need:

3 eggs
60g Half Spoon Granulated Sugar (Silver Spoon) plus extra for dusting
85g Self Raising Flour (Allinson Nature Friendly)
150ml creme fraiche low fat
125 fresh raspberries lightly crushed
cornflour for dusting

Method:

Line a Swiss roll tin with non-stick parchment paper. Place a large sheet of greaseproof paper on the work surface and lightly dust with cornflour and a light dusting of half spoon sugar.
Whisk the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until the mixture is pale and light in texture and a ribbon of mixture will leave a trail when lifted from the bowl.
Sift in the flour, and gently fold in with a metal spoon in a figure-of-eight movement, until the mixture thoroughly mixed.
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and spread out with a palette knife to cover the whole surface.
Bake in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, until the sponge is firm and springy to the touch.
Turn out the sponge onto a large sheet of greaseproof paper, then peel away the lining paper. Trim the edges, cover with a clean,damp tea towel and set aside for a few minutes to cool.
Mix together the crème fraiche and raspberries. Spread the mix over the sponge. Roll up carefully and transfer to a serving plate with the long edge underneath the roulade. Cut into slices.

Sunday Summary #47

2012-02-26T19:12:00.000Z

Hello all, have you had a good week?

Sarah - third week on Weight Watchers and it is going well! I lost 2.5lbs this week so am happy with my progress. 5.5lbs in three weeks is really good for me. I have used more weeklies than usual this weekend so I am hoping I can still manage 1.5lbs off on my next weigh in, I would be made up with half a stone in a month!

Gemma - Another good loss this week with 2.5 off taking me to 4 stone 10.5 loss in total. I'm planning on treating myself to something flashy and a bit special when I get to the -5 stone milestone as a treat and incentive to keep going. I had brilliant week, tried a few new recipes and allowed myself to have a few pancakes but the weekend has been a bit of a disaster again. Too much vodka, oops. I'm off to London on Saturday to meet up with bloggers and have food and cocktails so I'm going to be extra good all week and save up all my weekly pro points to blow on Saturday.

Sarah V - I lost 1lb this week despite eating terribly. However, since then I've refound my motivation and feel like, for the first time in a while, I've had a pretty healthy week. I've finished the Jenny Craig diet trial and being able to eat whatever I want again has added to my motivation - rather than having a strict rulebook to keep to, I can make nice healthy meals. It's actually made me want to start cooking more again. I have a few weeks with nothing significant coming up so I'm hopeful that I can get back on track for the first time in ages. Next step is doing more exercise!

Lucy - I feel as though I've had quite a good week this week, I properly started my Maxitone diet (you can read blog posts I've been doing here) and I've been quite strict with myself at work, something that can be quite difficult because we're forever being sent sweets/chocolate/cupcakes/macaroons to the office! I don't have any scales to weigh myself though so I can't tell 100% how I've done but hopefully a little bit of difference has been made! Now to carry this on through to next week...

Over to you, how has your week been?

Pancake Day

2012-02-21T17:26:00.000Z

I'm sure you all know how to make pancakes but I thought I would share a Weight Watcher recipe for them so you know exactly how many points you will be using from your daily allowance. I tend to go a little crazy with pancake day, frying them in butter and thinking nothing of spreading some nutella on them but I want to stay on track this year so I have come up with two low point combinations.

Basic Pancake recipe
Makes 8 pancakes
2 Pro Points per pancake

100g plain flour
a pinch of salt
1 egg
200ml skimmed milk mixed with 5 tablespoons of cold water
calorie controlled cooking spray

1 Sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the egg, Pour in a little of the milk-water mixture and begin to stir, gradually drawing in the flour as you go until you have a smooth batter.

2 Heat a 7 inch non stick pan, spray the base with the cooking spray and then pour in enough batter in to coat the base of the pan. Tilt the pan to spread the batter and cook for 1 minute. Flip the pancake and cook for a further 30 seconds, or until spotted with brown.

Simple!

On my first pancake I kept it classic and went for lemon and sugar but I chose half spoon sugar which is 0 pro points for 1 teaspoon. This meant that this pancake was only 2 pro points.

For my second pancake I put some frozen berries in a pan and heated them with a little lemon juice and artificial sweetener which is 0 pro points and added this to my pancake along with 30g of the Weight Watchers thick cream. For 3 pro points this tasted amazing but there was no guilt.

What are you going to eat with your pancakes today? Can you suggest any low point/calorie toppings?

Baking Mad Monday - Blueberry Muffins

2012-02-20T18:00:00.004Z

Week four in our Baking Mad challenge and it's Lucy's turn this week!

Baking Mad provided the flour and sugar, the same types as in Sarah's post and then the rest was purchased especially to make these muffins.

So, I chose to make healthy Blueberry muffins and THEY WERE SO GOOD. I've never actually made normal blueberry muffins because, for some reason, I always thought they'd be really difficult to make. I'm not sure where that thought process came from though because these were probably the easiest muffins that I've ever made! Admittedly they don't make for the prettiest end result but that small fact can be overlooked as far as I'm concerned and if I didn't know they were low fat then I certainly wouldn't ever have guessed. If you have a spare 45 minutes or so then I definitely recommend you knock some up, promise you won't regret it! AMAZING.

Here's what you'll need:

250g self raising flour (Allinson Nature Friendly)
1 & a half tsp baking powder
50g low fat margarine
75g Half Spoon granulated sugar (Silver Spoon)
100g blueberries
2 large Happy Eggs
235ml milk
lemon juice from half a lemon

Method

Preheat the oven to 18°C, fan oven 160°C or Gas Mark 4
Line a 12 hole muffin tin with cases
Sieve flour and baking powder into a large bowl, add the margarine and rub gently until it resembles breadcrumbs
Stir in the sugar and blueberries
Whisk together the eggs, milk and lemon juice. Add to the flour mixture and stir gently but do not over mix
Spoon the mixture into the pre-prepared muffin cases and bake for 20-25 minutes.
Serve warm for breakfast or afternoon tea. Yum!

Sunday Summary #46

2012-02-19T18:00:00.000Z

Another week done & dusted! How are you all getting on?

Sarah V - I'm doing terribly with dieting at the moment. I can't seem to get motivated, and even doing something as structured as Jenny Craig isn't helping - actually, I find that it makes me eat extra badly if I have a day away from home (and therefore away from the diet). But I do find myself looking forward to cooking more when it's over and making lots of yummy healthy dinners - something I've got really bad at doing over the past few months!

Gemma - Another 1lb off this week, slow and steady progress! I've had a really good week and then went a bit off the rails again on a night out. I find it easy to measure drinks before I go out and then just stick to small glasses of wine in the pub. What I do find tricky is saying no to drinks inside a club, people buy you drinks and don't think anything of ordering something with full fat coke or getting you a bottle of beer and these drinks soon start to eat into my points. I try not to worry about this too much, I would rather have a slow steady loss and still have fun.

Sarah - Second week of WW has been good, had lots of nice food and loads of treats. Too many treats maybe as I only had 10 of my weekly points left at the end of the week! I lost 1lb but hopefully if I cut out a few of the extra snacks this week I can double that and get 2lbs. I still haven't managed any structured exercise. It's been months (maybe even 6!!) since I really did anything. I keep saying I will rectify this but I can't see that happening til the evenings start getting lighter.

Sunday Summary #45

2012-02-13T20:11:00.000Z

Another week done! How was yours?

Gemma - After the disaster of last week I lost 3.5 lbs this week taking me to -4.5 stone all together. I had another big night out this weekend and I didn't even bother to count points after my 4th large glass of wine. I had veggie burger and chips the next day to cure my hangover and a wispa gold. I've got two days to turn it around before my weigh in on Tuesday. I'm really enjoying all my new found confidence and enjoy wearing all my new dresses but I'm trying not to slip back in to old habits and undo all my progress so far. Why is weight so hard to lose but so easy to put back on?

Charlene - I've finished the Jenny Craig diet and lost a total of 4 inches and 6lbs throughout the 28 day trial. I've got mixed feelings about the diet, but I'm posting an in-depth review later this week so I'll save my thoughts until then. It's back to eating my own foods now, and it'll be hard not indulging in things I've missed. I'm going to try and stick to the eating pattern and bulk up on vegetables like Jenny Craig taught me, so here's hoping for more losses...

Sarah - WW got so much easier for me after the first few days, a couple of the days I didn't even want all of my daily points. I am eating loads of fruit and veg, wholegrains and lean protein but getting the sweet treats that I crave at the same time and life is good!! I still weigh in on a Thursday and lost 2lbs in my first week. I still had 30 weekly points left last week and was hoping to better that this week but after visiting the chip shop on Friday (250g chips - 16 pro points) and a trip to Nandos on Saturday I have already munched my way thru 30 of my weekly points. Ooops.

Sarah V is in the wilds of Scotland this weekend, trying to stay away from fried breakfasts!

Baking Mad Monday - Banoffee Layer

2012-02-13T18:00:00.001Z

It's Charlene's turn to take part in the Baking Mad low calorie baking challenge this week!

As with the rest of the girls, Baking Mad sent me most of the ingredients, and all I had to add were bananas, dates, low fat spread, lemon juice and crème fraiche.

I was impressed with how quick this was to make - it was ready within 15 minutes, most of that time was spent poking at the dates and trying to get them to turn to 'toffee' as the recipe suggests. I'm not a fan of dates, but the addition of a little bit of sugar made them almost like toffee and a small amount in the layered dessert was a nice addition!

INGREDIENTS:
4 low fat oatcakes
3 tsp half spoon granulated sugar (silver spoon)
1 tbsp low fat spread, melted
75 grams pitted dates
2 bananas
Lemon juice
2 tbsp crème fraîche low fat
1 dark chocolate square

DIRECTIONS:
001. Place the oatcakes in a food processor and process until the become crumbs. You could also put the biscuits into plastic bags and beat with a rolling pin.

002. Mix the crumbs, 2 tsp sugar and melted low fat spread.

003. Place the dates, remaining sugar and 4 tbsp water in a small pan and heat gently until the dates have become soft. Beat the mixture so it resembles toffee.

004. Slice the banana and toss in the lemon juice to avoid browning.

005. Spoon half the biscuits crumb in the bottom of two glasses. Top with sliced banana then the date puree followed by crème frachie. Repeat the layers until all the ingredients have been used finished with a dollop of crème fraiche and banana.

006. Grate the chocolate over the cream and serve immediately.

Mmmm, it felt really indulgent eating these, and it was guilt free knowing that there was no fatty cream, biscuit base or sugary toffee to sabotage my diet! I will definitely be making these again, and also trying them with different fruits. They look great too, so would be a perfect way to impress if you're having friends over for dinner!

Guest Post - Exercise and the fight against depression by Liz

2012-02-11T14:00:00.006Z

This weeks guest post was written by the lovely Liz from distract me now please.

source

2011 was pretty much the year from hell. I had a massive bout of anxiety and depression; I had to spend time in hospital, I felt completely unable to function, and I went from being a workaholic to being someone who couldn’t go to work for five months.

By November I decided I felt able enough to start doing some exercise. I always knew that exercising would help, but it took me a long time (and several changes in medication) to find the motivation. I went for a trial at my local gym and honestly haven’t looked back since. I manage to go three/four times a week (unheard of for me, even pre-depression). I’ve found it amazing for beating stress, getting out my extra (anxiety-causing) adrenalin, distracting me, and helping me get to sleep better at night. It’s also given me extra energy; a few months ago I was unable to do anything apart from work and sleep, and now I can normally get to the gym and sometimes go out to meet friends afterwards. That might not sound like much but it’s helping me start to feel like ‘me’ again.

My tips for using exercise to help depression:

* Do it when you’re ready. It’s easy for people who haven’t been depressed to think that the solution is easy, and that sufferers are able to cure themselves if they ‘put their mind to it’. This is simply not true. It takes some people a long time to be able to start helping themselves (it took me about 10 months).

* Be realistic about what you are going to do, and about your levels of motivation. For example, I love swimming but hate walking home with wet hair, so I gave up on pledging to swim three times a week. Popping to a gym that’s just down the road is far easier!

* Remember that it won’t always be easy. Bad days will still come (and go) and when they hit you need to be easy on yourself: just because you miss a couple of sessions doesn’t mean you’ve gone back to square one.

* Reward yourself. Sad fact: I give myself a star on the calendar if I go to the gym (and a tick for going to work). I can’t explain why this works, but it just does. Find a reward that suits you.
Good luck and (I know everyone says it) things will get better. Honestly.

A Day in the Life of Weight Watchers #5

2012-02-08T18:00:00.004Z

I have been following the Weight Watchers plan for over a year and I am not bored of the plan yet. You get to eat varied food and you can still have all of your favourite things. For me Weight Watchers is about portion control and gaining a better understanding of you eating habits and what you can do to change them.

This is an example of what I ate yesterday on my day off. I wouldn't normally have such a big breakfast on a work day but I go to my Weight Watcher class on a Tuesday at 9am then come home and have breakfast much later than normal. Some of the combinations are a little odd but I don't like to waste food so I tried to use up all the leftovers in my fridge.

Breakfast

Quorn Sausages - 4
Nimble bread - 1
Egg - 2
Mushrooms - 0
WW Bacon - 2
Ketchup and fry lite - 1

Total - 10

Lunch

Pitta - 3

Roasted peppers, onions, carrot, tomato - 0
Red pepper and Chilli houmous - 2
Quorn pieces - 2

Total - 7

Dinner

Scallops & Chorizo - 5
Potato - 3
Coleslaw - 2
Salad - 0

Total - 10

Dessert

Meringue - 1
WW cream - 1
Fruit - 0

Total - 2

Snacks

Orange & apple - 0
WW Rich toffee choc bar - 2
Milk for tea - 1
Yogurt - 2

Daily total - 34

Are you a Weight Watchers member? What types of food do you like to eat on your day off?

Baking Mad Monday - Chocolate Brownies

2012-02-06T18:00:00.003Z

It's Sarah V's turn to take part in the Baking Mad low calorie baking challenge this week!

I haven't had much free time lately. Well, ANY. But I managed to grab half an hour yesterday to put these brownies together. It was a good thing as they were super quick and easy to make, and only used one bowl!

As Sarah said last week, the point of the Baking Mad challenge is to make lower calorie treats with Half Spoon granulated sugar by Silver Spoon. Baking Mad provided me with some products to use:

In addition I had to supply baking powder, low fat margarine and an egg.

I chose the brownies as I LOVE chocolate. I was quite interested to try them as my favourite brownie recipe is incredibly decadent, with a whole block of butter in it - these are a lot better for you!

Low Calorie Brownies

Ingredients
70g Margarine (low fat)
25g Good quality orange 70% dark chocolate, broken up
1 Happy Eggs lightly beaten
0.50 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract Blend (Nielsen-Massey)
60g Half Spoon Granulated Sugar (Silver Spoon)
25g Plain White Flour (Allinson Nature Friendly) sifted*
1 tsp Cocoa Powder
0.50 tsp Baking Powder

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan160°C/ 350°F gas 4.
2. Grease and base line a 14cm square tin.
3. Put the chocolate and low fat margarine in a large bowl over a pan of just-simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Stir until the chocolate has melted, remove from the heat and stir until smooth.
4. Add the other ingredients to the bowl and mix well. Spoon into the tin, levelling the surface with the back of a spoon. Bake for 25 minutes or until risen and firm around the edges but a little soft in the centre. Cool in the tin for 15 minutes. The brownie will continue to cook as it cools.

Although the recipe stated plain flour, I'd actually been sent Self Raising. Based on the small quantity, I tried it with Self Raising and it was fine. I think the brownies needed a raising agent to bulk them out a bit.

The brownies were yummy! Very light, and a bit more cakey than full fat brownies, but still chewy in the middle and lovely and chocolatey. The orange chocolate added a nice touch. I took them to work today and no one realised they were low fat!

Yummy!

Sunday Summary #44

2012-02-05T18:36:00.001Z

Another week already, phew! How are you all getting on with your goals? We'd love to hear!

Gemma - Bit of a disaster this week, I put 1lb on when I weighed in class on Tuesday. I had a bad weekend before and I couldn't reverse the damage in one day. I have weighed at home this morning and I have lost this lb and a little more so I'm not too disappointed. I have stayed within my points this week but I have used a lot of them for coffees and treats rather than food and this is not a trend I want to see continue. I will put it down to the cold weather this week and try and snack on more healthy food next week and have more filling meals.

Charlene - Feeling really un-motivated with my Jenny Craig diet now, I'm almost finished though. I'm trying hard to stick to it but I'm getting bored of the same foods. I spoke to someone else who is doing the diet and they've got a different food for every day of their 2 week trial, whereas I only have 7 different main meals so it's the same things every week. I upped my hours at work so I'm now doing 12hr shifts and having to take breakfast, lunch AND dinner into work with me. Does anyone have any healthy ideas except from soup? I have access to a microwave.

Sarah V - I lost 1.5lbs at weigh-in this week, but have seriously fallen off the wagon since then. A combination of celebrating my best friend's engagement and a ridiculously busy and stressful week at work has lured me off the healthy path and towards alcohol and naughty food! I'm going to try and get back on it this week, although like Charlene I am struggling with Jenny Craig, it's only Week 2 but I'm getting bored already! Just got to try and stick to it, I guess!

Lucy - Had a bit of a nightmare this week, if you read my blog or Twitter you'll know I'm in London for two weeks. My accommodation didn't work out as planned so I am now in a house-share with at least five other people and the kitchen is disgusting and the fridge is mouldy, thus meaning I don't want to buy things that need refrigerating or use many pots and pans, so I am having to spend a small fortune on meals for one every night. Certainly not the most ideal of situations but not a lot can be done unfortunately. I am starting my Maxitone diet not this week but next, so hopefully we'll start to get back on track then!

Sarah - I have been struggling to get back on track since the honeymoon :( I am just not in the right place at the moment for Slimming World. I love the diet and I know it works but you have to want that more than you want cake and at this moment in time cake is winning hands down each time... So, I still want to lose weight (23lbs or so more please) so I have decided to give Weight Watchers a go for a month or so and see how I get on with it. I have joined Weight Watchers online via Quidco (thanks to Mrs Sock!) and will get £30 cash back meaning 3 months membership will only cost me £2.85, a bargain hey! If any of you are thinking of doing the same thing let me know and I will send you a referral email :) I am now on day 4 of WW and am constantly hungry even though I am eating loads of fruit and veg and am hoping that my body gets used to 26 points worth of food quickly!

Guest Post - Sally MyFitnessPal

2012-02-04T14:00:00.007Z

I've never exactly been a small person, I've always been somewhere between a size 12-16 since I was about 16 years old. And only recently I've found my weight increase for a number of reasons (got a new job which means I can afford tasty food AND share it all with my lovely man!) So before Christmas I knew that I needed to shift a bit of weight because I eat like a HORSE at Christmas (don't we all though?) and I wanted to join the post-Christmas dieters in the new year. So I looked into a few ways of losing weight. There were two problems with me doing this:

1) I LOVE food. I really bloody love food. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, afternoon tea, elevensies. Really offer me some food and I'll take it. I LOVE FOOD.

2) I'm SO lazy. I love nothing more than having alone time with my laptop or watching movies with my man or even when I feel productive and do some drawing it's not exactly like I'm being active. These past times do not aid me in any way for weight loss.

Upon further research into ways to aid weight loss I heard of a little app for the iPhone called "myfitnesspal" and boy, is it good.

It's basically an app that calorie counts. I've read/heard lots of things that make this sound like a bad thing, for example Pauline Quirke on the new Lighter Life advert, but really this app makes it so incredibly easy.

You put in your starting weight, and where you want to get to. It gives you the option of how many lbs a week you want to lose (as a guide-I think it's pretty impossible to lose 2lbs a week every week) and then tells you your new calorie goal for the day.

The point of the app is not to discourage you from eating (oh no, I got told off by it one day for NOT EATING ENOUGH CALORIES - it literally shouted at me) but to encourage you to work off the calories. It's good that it's all there in red and green for you as it's so incredibly simple.

So you basically tell it everything you eat throughout the day, and it has a MASSIVE database of food, I have always found everything I've eaten on there. And what's helpful is that it has a super good barcode scanner so that you can just scan what you've eaten and it'll load it in automatically. You have to work out the weight and portions of bits you've eaten to get the calories but really, the maths isn't that hard.

The same goes for any exercise you do. It has two categories, cardio and strength. I'm not really one for strength-induced workouts so I usually just put in the cardio. As I said I'm really lazy so I put in any sort of exercise that I do throughout the day:

Walking the dog
Walking in general (we don't have a car at the moment-boo)
Hula-hooping
Cleaning (it doesn't burn a lot but it counts!)
Zumba class

Daniel and I treated ourselves to an Xbox with Kinect for Christmas and got ourselves a few dancing games including Zumba and Just Dance 3. Just 20 minutes on Just Dance 3 burns about 100 calories! That's worth about 10 peanut butter m&ms :)

I even cheekily added "standing - playing guitar" once after we rocked out at an Adam Ant concert for a few hours. That burnt a lot of calories!

The last great thing about this app is the progress you make can be seen on a little graph. You just have to remember to weigh and measure yourself regularly and put it in. Seeing the little graph drop gradually is very encouraging!

So I did this for a month before Christmas and lost a total of 1.3kg. I went from 79.9kg (12.6 stone) to 78.6kg (12.3 stone). My target calories for each day was 1270 - so I could eat what I wanted as long as I burnt it off.

I took a break over Christmas because -let's face it- it's impossible to diet over the festive season. So. Many. Good. Thiiiiiings. But I started again on January 2nd and I didn't dare weigh myself over Christmas so waited until the weekend after and was pleased to see I'd lost a bit more!

I've gone down to 1200 calories a day and am currently at 77.5kg (12.2 stone) and have lost 2.4kg in total!! Having the Kinect has made it much easier to find fun things to do to burn off some calories, and best of all it's in the comfort of my own home with only my puppy dog watching me :)

So that's where I'm at right now, so far so good! A few of my friends use the app too so we can see how each other is doing and send each other little messages of encouragement! If you don't have an iPhone then you can use the website www.myfitnesspal.com and I believe it's now available for lots of other types of phones too!

My own personal aim is to get down to a healthy weight. It's not about looks for me, just feeling healthy - I have far too many dresses that I couldn't bear to part with if I lost too much weight!!

Happy exercising!

Sally xx

Diet Friendly Restaurants - Tibits, London.

2012-02-01T18:05:00.001Z

There are few phrases that strike fear into the heart of someone in their first week of a diet than 'Let's grab a bite to eat!' Let's face it, the majority of eateries out there are calorific. Or, the only low fat option is a plate of leaves and a little bit of meat, which doesn't do a great job of soaking up half a bottle of white wine.

I asked on Twitter for recommendations for somewhere healthyish to go in London last weekend with a friend, and Harriet suggested Tibits, off Regent Street. It was an EXCELLENT suggestion.

Tibits is, essentially, a big salad bar. There's a huge selection of dishes - all vegetarian - mostly cold, but some hot, and most of it is really healthy, too (I must confess a couple of beer battered onion rings found their way onto my plate). It's measured by weight, so you take what you fancy from the buffet and then take your plate to get weighed and pay. If you want to try a bit of everything, you're looking at around £10-15 a plate, but you can take as little or as much as you want. Here's my plate:

The selection is huge - but my favourites were the butternut squash, green beans, the quinoa and the falafel. Oooh, and the red pepper houmous. And the goats cheese foccacia! My companion also said the curry was excellent.

I can't recommend it enough - it's so rare to find something healthy, filling and yummy and Tibits was all of those things. It's also fast and - crucially for a buffet - fresh, with the dishes replaced regularly, which so many places don't bother with! If you're in London for the day, I highly recommend. They also do takeaway - if I worked nearby I think I'd be in there every lunchtime!

I'm thinking of making Diet Friendly Restaurants a regular feature - I have a few in mind but if you can think of any please do make recommendations in the comments!

Baking Mad Monday - Beetroot & Chocolate Cupcakes

2012-01-30T18:00:00.005Z

Our friends at Baking Mad have set us a low calorie baking challenge, over the next 5 Mondays we are all going to attempt one of their recipes and would like you lot to vote for your favourite at the end. All of the recipes use Half Spoon granulated sugar by Silver Spoon which is sugar with a touch of sweetener. It reduces the calories as you only need to use half the amount of standard sugar but because the texture doesn't change you still get the same results, excellent!

First up is Sarah, being a cupcake addict she has chosen to bake the beetroot and chocolate cupcakes

Baking Mad provided us with some of the products for this challenge:

And we then purchase the rest ourselves:

Ingredients
3 x Eggs
150g Half Spoon Granulated Sugar
250g Beetroot, peeled & grated
0.5tsp Vanilla Extract
180g Plain White Flour
180g Ground Almonds

2tsp Baking Powder

2 tbsp Cocoa Powder

0.25tsp Salt

284ml Buttermilk

For the topping:

100g Plain Chocolate

2tsp Quark

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C, gas 4. Line two 12-hole muffin tray with paper cases.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk up the eggs and sugar for 4 minutes until they are light and fluffy.
Beat in the grated beetroot and vanilla essence. Add the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, cocoa powder, salt and beat until combined.
Add the buttermilk. Beat again to ensure everything is well combined.
Divide the mixture into the paper cases and bake for 20 minutes or until the cakes spring back when pressed gently with a finger. Remove from the cake tin immediately and leave to cool on a wire rack.

The cakes come out a lovely reddish pink colour

For the icing: Place the chocolate in a small bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water. Melt the chocolate gently. Remove form the heat and stir. Leave to cool. Add the quark and mix. Add enough milk to loosen the consistency to a spreadable icing. Spread the icing over the cup cakes and serve.

Makes 24 cupcakes, they work out at 7 syns each or 7 pro points.

The cakes were lovely and moist which surprised me with the lack of fat in the recipe and the chocolate topping added a lovely chocolate hit, mmmmm!

Yum!

Word of warning, your kitchen will look like you've massacred a few people whilst grating the beetroot but it's worth the mess. The lovely Sarah gave me a great tip for removing the staining from your hands, just put sugar and fairy liquid on your hands afterwards and wash. The colour sticks to the sugar and your hands are stain free, result!

Sunday Summary #43

2012-01-30T10:30:00.002Z

Another week, hopefully another weightloss! How did you guys get on?

Gemma - Great news, I lost 2.5lbs this week. Very happy with this loss and I feel like 2012 has started really well for me. Had a night out last night which involved a lot of alcohol and I ate silly amounts of toast with butter and peanut butter when I got home but you only live once so I'm trying not to worry about it too much. Would be happy to maintain this week or lose 0.5lb Life gets in the way of a diet from time to time but what is the point of me going on a diet if I can't have a good night out and go a little wild sometimes?

Sarah V - Even though I didn't eat very well last week due to being ill and just wanting anything to keep my energy levels up, I managed to lose 3.5lbs which was a nice dent in my Christmas weight gain! I suppose coughing must burn calories. I've trying out the Jenny Craig diet for a month which I started this week, and already it's making me address some of the bad eating habits I've fallen into, so I'm hoping it'll give me a good kickstart and get me back into good habits which is something I've really struggled with this year.

Sarah - I went to WI on Thursday even though it was my birthday and found I had lost 1.5lbs. Better than nothing I guess! Since then though I have haven't been at all on plan and have had 4 meals out, beers and cocktails so am hoping I can pull it back during the week and get another lose on Thursday.

Charlene - I've just finished the third week of my diet and I've stuck to it again. I'm getting a little bored of the same meals now, and I'm glad glad to have only 1 week left. I've learned a lot from the Jenny Craig programme, but I'm missing home cooked food! I haven't stepped on the scales lately because I found I was getting a little obsessed with the numbers, but I'm going to weigh and re-measure myself when I finish the diet this week. A few people have commented on how much slimmer I look, and I feel slimmer myself!

Lucy - There's been a few delays with the Maxitone diet that I'm doing and so I haven't actually recieved any product, nor have I had my chat with the nutrionist yet but hopefully it'll all be go at some point this week. I was hoping to be able to have started it before I go to London tomorrow but I'm having the stuff delivered to me there so hopefully it goes ahead soon. It's the same old story for me this week though, I'm still not really thinking about what I'm eating. I think I've got into the frame of mind that I'll be dieting soon so it doesn't really matter - bad thought processes, I know!

Guest post - Jogging by Becca

2012-01-28T16:00:00.002Z

I’m Becca from Diary of a Diva and I have been allowed to commandeer the Where Are My Knee’s blog and do a little post on jogging and the benefits it brings to me.

I do have to admit, I am a fair-weather jogger, I go through cycles of being highly motivated to days where I just can not face the cold/wet/foggy weather. When I do go though, there are noticeable advantages. I often suffer from stomach cramps after eating, or I can feel a heavy meal sitting in my stomach for hours after. When I’m in a good jogging routine though these problems seem to disappear! I have my own idea on why, and as a disclaimer I have to tell you that it is based on no scientific knowledge and is just the result of me sitting around thinking about things. I reckon that because I jog in the morning, I get up earlier, I eat breakfast at a regular time and I earn the right to be hungry. This is opposed to me lying in bed until 10 (I’m currently unemployed), stuffing my face with bread and then sitting at the laptop all day. The most important point is that it sets me up in a good routine, for a while I just skipped breakfast and had a brunch. Having a wheetabix after jogging means that I feel ready to eat, I know that I am eating at a sensible time and that I will then eat lunch at a sensible time and not just snack throughout the day.

Being unemployed (woe is me) jogging also means I get up early, mainly through fear of being seen if I try running during the day or evening. When I get home I’m high on endorphins and I get excited for the day. I do half an hour of pilates from Margot Campbell’s ‘Pliates On The Go’ book (which I highly recommend, you really feel it working and it means I can do it whenever I want) and I am ready to face a day of job hunting. I have to admit, I am lucky enough to live within 5 minutes of the beach and it is far easier to drag myself out of bed with the promise of a sunrise and a bracing run along the sand! One problem I have, being a fair-weather jogger is that I always imagine myself running along the sand with ease, the wind in my hair and going at a good pace. The reality is quite different, I’m huffing and puffing away, red as a tomato and slipping on stones… Don’t get put off though! Especially if you experience stomach problems like me, or just want to feel better in yourself. Jogging gives me structure, means I can eat the cookies I love to bake and my skin has never looked better, as for my legs and bottom, I can feel the difference already!

Thank you for reading and I hope I've inspired some people!

Sunday Summary #42

2012-01-23T08:04:00.001Z

Lucy - I'm still not in a eating well frame of mind, I'm still not really thinking about what I'm eating, I think that's because I know in my mind I'm going to be starting a new diet next week so I'm kind of thinking it doesn't matter right now. I know that's not the right way to go about it, but I'm so, so determined to do well in this Maxitone diet that hopefully it won't matter. I know I won't see results straight away but I'm already excited for the days when I can start noticing them!

Gemma - I lost 1lb at weigh in on Tuesday, very happy with this as last weeks loss was pretty big. I think I may do even better this week as I have been sticking to the plan 100% I started taking acai berry supplements yesterday, I'm rather sceptical but will give them a chance. I've got a few days off this week so I'm going to try a few new recipes from the Weight Watcher cookbooks and try and get some exercise in, not really done any in the new year.

Sarah V - I've been really poorly for most of the week which meant I missed my second Rosemary Conley class of the year. Unfortunately I didn't lose my appetite at ALL - I actually ate worse than usual as I couldn't get out to the shops so just ate what I had around which often meant not the healthiest of things. But I weighed myself this morning and it looks like I'm still down 3 or 4lbs from my post-Christmas weight. I would have liked more considering I gained over half a stone in December, but I know I haven't been trying so just not gaining is a result. I'm back to my usual routine this week and starting a new diet regime so I'm hoping that I'll have some better results to show next week.

Sarah - I was 100% on plan the whole of last week and I gained 2lb's :( It's so disheartening when this happens. I am really, really struggling at the moment. I am not really enjoying what I am eating and am missing all the stuff I can't have and when being good leads to a gain it makes you want to give it all up. I am writing everything down this week so keep your fingers crossed for me. I am going for an early weigh in on Thursday as it's my birthday and I think I deserve a nice meal and a little bit of cake :)

How was your week?

Guest Post - Cycling by Matt

2012-01-21T16:00:00.036Z

Hi All, My name is Matt and I’m addicted to cycling. Immediately you may all be turning off your browsers and looking away and of course I could understand why - cycling isn’t something that at the moment strikes people as “cool” or “trendy” or any of those words people are using. However, bare with me and I will take you through the awesome ways to the cycle across the UK and help you understand the fitness you get from it.

Cycling - From the beginning.
People think that if you are cyclist you have to know bikes in and out, which is so far from the truth, you don’t need to know anything about bikes to enjoy cycling, you don’t need fancy sat-nav systems attached to your handlebars and you don’t need to go out there with the sole aim of losing calories or weight, here’s a little tip from me to you:

Go out and enjoy riding a bike again, forget weight loss and calories.

What if you’re not confident at riding?
Don’t let that worry you. Confident cyclists all started where you are today, worrying about the cars on the road and if they are going to be hit by one or if they are going to go up a curb and ruin their bike. These are two of the things you should worry about the least, cycling is now slowly becoming one of the most supported modes of transport for city and non-city dwellers, with cycle paths shooting up across all of the UK. From Hull to Swansea and Edinburgh to Devon, a majority of those routes are cycle paths designed just for cyclists. So there are now huge curbs to go up and down and there are no cars that will pass you, safe, undisturbed cycling for you all.

I don’t know any routes.
That is a question I hear quite a lot when volunteering for Sustrans (a cycling charity), people are worried that they don’t know where they are going when they get on a cycle route. They think that they’ll get lost and confused at the first turn. I’ll be straight if you here though, all of the UK cycle routes are marked. You can also see maps on the move and before you go at the following websites: www.sustrans.org.ukand opencyclemap.org

And now to the health benefits.
You will lose weight, I’d like to get that out there straight away, cycling is better than the gym because lets face it, nothing beats mother nature, a single cycle ride that is between 1 - 5 miles can help you lose calories, strengthen your leg and stomach muscles and gives you a huge boost in confidence and I know a 1 mile cycle ride can seem a lot but there are plenty of flat cities for you to give it a go in, why not go for a cycle a long a tow path or canal? Try one of the following routes to see how you feel:

Route 47 - Newport - Chepstow
Route 8 - Cardiff - Pontypridd
Bristol - Bath Railway Path

All of these are flat and you can do as much or as little as you think you are capable with, you’ll start to feel the benefits immediately.

Before I sign off this blog post, I want to give you all pre-ride and post-ride tips:
Always take some water, make sure you have a puncture repair kit and always stop to have a look at the view!

After the ride, you may feel your legs are a little weak, depends on how are you’ve worked them, if so, don’t worry about it, just lie down for five and have a cold drink or one of those ice pop things and your legs will feel good as new!

If you have any questions then let me know I can be found on twitter under http://www.twitter.com/mattdsgns and Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matt.dsgns

About Matt.
I’m a 21 year old, blogger and website owner, I run www.visionarygateway.co.uk with my friends @JohnJMurray and @sighnomoree, it’s a creative community for anyone who likes fashion, art, design, photography or music.

Best British Bloggers & Maxitone

2012-01-18T18:01:00.004Z

As I keep mentioning, I've been a bit absent from the blog over recent months. I've said in a previous Sunday Summary that I'd had a bit of a breakdown to the girls about how low I was feeling and how unhappy within myself I was. Since my return from Australia, everything seems to have spiralled out of any sort of control and I've reached an all time low. I'm unhappy within myself so I turn to junk food, which in turn makes me gain even more weight which then leads to me eating more to comfort myself. It's a horrible and vicious cycle. I then decided to ignore everything and just hoped it'd go away, I've always vowed to myself that I'll lose the weight one day, but with no plan or even any motivation to do it though, how was it ever going to happen? I was kidding myself and everyone around me. I'm full of good intentions but nothing ever comes of them.

Just days after my breakdown, Gem recommended me to Best British Bloggers and I can now announce that I'll be part of a massive Happy New You campaign that they're working on with Maxitone. It came at the right time, and I'm aware of how lucky I am to be able to work with them to help me lose weight and to try and help me on the road to happy. I'm one of six bloggers who will be working in unison with them, my progress will be tracked for three months and I'm going to blogging about it, not on this blog, but on the Maxitone blog so you can follow how well I'm doing on there. I'll obviously do updates on here too via Sunday Summaries but the main bulk of it will be done over there.

I was always a bit skeptical about protein shakes and supplements but I'm a lot more open minded after reading more and finding out about it and I'm excited to get started and to share my progress with all you loyal readers. Thank you for sticking with me and I promise I won't let you down again.

Sunday Summary #41

2012-01-15T18:02:00.003Z

Hello! Lots of you will have had your first weigh in since the New Year, be sure to let us know how you got on...

Gemma - I went to my first official weigh in of the year on Tuesday and I lost about 6.5lbs (not 100% sure of Christmas weight because I weighed at home) This means I only need to lose another 1lb and I will be back to my pre Christmas weight. I am really happy with this and feel like I am back on track. I have made all my meals this week, not eaten any ready meals and made an extra effort to move more and walk everywhere. I'm thinking of signing up to do a charity walk or run so I have a goal to focus on a work towards.

Sarah - I still can't find my dieting mojo. I am really struggling with both motivation and cravings. Great intentions usually lead to filling my face with junk whilst all the healthy food slowly decomposes in the fridge :( I am battling to change this and haven't had any junk since my weigh in on Thursday, new week and all that! I am baffled how I managed to lose 2lbs this week after eating some form of junk every day and not following plan at all. BUT I will take that and run with it and hopefully can build on it this week. I have also decided to try living as a veggie for a few weeks to see if it helps my weight loss. I find green days easier to follow on Slimming World and it's usually when I try to follow red or extra easy that I buckle and reach for the KFC so I will be mainly eating pasta, cous cous, Slimming World chips and lots of veggies. Any tasty meal suggestions will be much appreciated.

Charlene - I wasn't at home to weigh myself this morning, so I'm not 100% sure how accurate the scales I used are but they weighed in at 4lbs lower than what I weighed last Sunday, the day before I started the Jenny Craig diet. I'll probably edit this post after weighing myself with my normal scales tomorrow morning as I'm a little sceptical whether it's right or not! If it is though, I'll be super happy! I was hoping for 1-2lbs loss!
EDIT - 1lb off! I knew it was too good to br true! But still, a loss! And it's my time of the month so I'm quite pleased!

Lucy - I had a bit of a breakdown this week, I've been very absent from the blog for a while and haven't had much input behind the scenes either. I've been more than in denial since my return from Australia, I've been eating like the world is going to end and not really caring which in turn makes me unhappy and then as a result of that I just eat myself into obvlivion. It's a vicious cycle but I've finally admitted to myself that something does have to change. An exciting email popped into our inbox earlier in the week and hopefully something to help me get started will be happening soon, I can't say too much but watch this space.

Sarah V - I'm back on it this week! Back to my Rosemary Conley class and I had a BIG gain over Christmas which I'm actually ashamed to admit here! But I spent the rest of the week trying to eat well and when I weighed myself on Saturday morning, I was down 4lbs! A wedding this weekend has thrown me off track rather but I'm determined to be back on track by Monday morning - I want a big loss recorded on Tuesday! 4lbs in 3 days though - quite proud of that!

Guest Post - Student Eating by Emily

2012-01-14T15:00:00.000Z

Hi everyone. I’m Emily and I blog at What Emily Did Next. Many thanks to the ladies of Where Are My Knees for letting me do this guest post!

There are a lot of excuses for not eating a healthy diet when you’re a student. You’re poor, you don’t have the time, you don’t have the facilities, and you’re being offered cheap junk food each and every day. Who wants to go home to lentils and yoghurt when there’s someone outside the library offering you a flyer for a £1.99 pizza?

In my first year of uni, I lived on a diet of takeout, canteen dinners, prepackaged wraps, bacon sandwiches, and vodka. Sometimes I would cook the bacon on a George Foreman grill instead of frying it in a pan, and this was considered the epitome of healthy eating. Canteen dinners were all stodge, cheese and chips. There was a salad bar, complete with some sad, lifeless lettuce, and a bowl of grated cheese to sprinkle on top. Unsurprisingly, I gained weight. My weight was never a huge issue, and I don’t have an inspirational weight loss story to share with you today, but I felt awful. I was spotty and my jeans were too tight. By the time I was in my second year, I had moved out of halls and was ready to start eating properly. It wasn’t always easy, and I won’t pretend that I haven’t touched a pizza and chips since, but now I make a conscious effort to eat things that are good for me. The most surprising thing I discovered was that it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. I tracked down the nearest greengrocer and butcher, so I was able to stock up on super cheap lean meat and fresh fruit and vegetables.

Here are some recipes that I found were easy, cheap and healthy – the holy trinity for student food. As a bonus, they’re all delicious as well.

Sweetcorn fritters. I know they don’t sound like the most delicious thing in the world, but bear with me. How much does a tin of sweetcorn cost in the supermarket? About 50p? You probably have one hanging around in the back of the cupboard. Mix it with a few other staple ingredients, fry it with a little bit of oil, and there you have it: an unusual, elegant and easy dinner. If your budget doesn’t stretch to an avocado, go without.

Red lentil dahl. I know that lentils might sound like scary, flavourless hippy food, but I absolutely love this recipe. If you can find a continental store near you, you can probably buy a wheelbarrow full of lentils for pennies, but even buying a bag from the supermarket is sure to be well within your budget. The addition of Indian spices adds a huge amount of flavour. This is perfect on its own, or as an accompaniment to a meal.

Thai style turkey burgers. These burgers are delicious, fresh tasting and just a little bit spicy. Ask about minced turkey at the butcher, or look out for offers in the supermarket. A great idea would be to make the burgers and then freeze them, so that you can take it out of the freezer in the morning and have a tasty meal to come home to in the evening.

Finally, here are a few tips I was given that came in very handy:

Never underestimate the power of batch cooking. When you have a spare afternoon, make a huge pan of chilli, curry, soup or a stew, freeze it into individual portions (use the Tupperware your Chinese takeout came in, or freezer bags), and you’re never more than five minutes in the microwave away from a decent meal.

If you’ve got a long day in uni, take a packed lunch. It will be cheaper and healthier than a sandwich from the union shop, and probably taste better too. You might get a few funny looks when you get out a hummus wrap and a banana in the library, but who cares!

If your uni gym has subsidised membership, join! You may never find a gym as cheap ever again.

A Day in the Life of Jenny Craig - Vegetarian #1

2012-01-13T17:00:00.001Z

A lot of people have been saying that the thing they'd like to know most about the Jenny Craig diet is whether or not the food tastes nice, so I thought I'd do a couple of posts sharing what I'd eat on a typical day and let you know what I think of some of the dishes.

Here's my food for today. I've got Jenny Craig packaged food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I then have 3 other snacks throughout the day which I've chosen as a pear, a yoghurt and one of the Jenny Craig cereal bars. It doesn't look like much on it's own, but lunch is bulked up with at least 1 cup of salad, and dinner is bulked up with at least 1 cup of veg. Lunch and dinner both have additional nutrients that I need to add (eg 1 protein, 1 starch or 1 fat).

TODAYS MENU

Breakfast:
Chocolate coated wheat flakes
1/2 cup of milk, 1 banana.

Snack: 1 low fat yoghurt

Lunch:
Noodles in sweet & sour sauce
Salad, min 1 cup
Add 2 protein (I chose 1 slice of quorn bacon & 1/4 cup cheese for my salad)
* Also used 1 "limited" portion which was 1tsp of chilli sauce in my salad

Snack: 1/2 cup milk, 1 pear

Dinner:
Thai vegetable curry with rice
Add 1 protein (I chose my 1 left over slice of quorn bacon)
Cooked veg, min 1 cup (random mix of my favourites!)

Snack - Jenny Craig cereal bar.

So far the food has mostly been good. I'd say that I don't get that excited over the dinner meals to be honest. None of those have really wow-ed me. I had pearl barley and asparagus risotto for dinner last night and couldn't eat it because it tasted quite meaty, even though there was no meat in it. I know that's a bit of an odd description but it just didn't taste right and was a bit mushy and bland. Apart from that (and a mushroom stroganoff - but I don't like stroganoff anyway), I've enjoyed everything I've ate so far. I enjoy having my veg as a 'starter' and then having my dinner separately as a 'main' course!

I really love the lunches in particular - the soups are brilliant (and filling!) and there's a little pot of mashed potato with croutons and rosemary that is so stodgy and satisfying and feels like such a treat! The pasta pots do taste a bit pre-packed but are still nice. The sweet and sour noodles I had today had an amazing chilli kick to them and were packed full of flavour!

I feel like I'm eating constantly, and I'm definitely eating more often than before however I've noticed that I do get hungry at meal times whereas before the diet I was snacking, on unhealthy foods, so often that I wasn't hungry at mealtime. I definitely think this is something to do with correct portion sizes. I've been getting really bad chocolate/sugar cravings at night because that's when I'd usually sit down and snack, so I've decided to swap my after lunch snack (chocolate biscuit, cereal bar or potato bites/crisps) with my after dinner snack (fruit or a yoghurt) which has really helped.

I've stuck to the diet religiously and I haven't eaten anything from the "limited" foods (I can eat up to 3 portions of these a day if I want) apart from 1tsp of chilli sauce in my salads so I'm crossing my fingers for a loss when I weigh myself on Sunday!

If you have any questions, or anything you'd like me to cover in a post let me know!

New Hotpants!

2012-01-12T19:19:00.000Z

Following much hype on their facebook page Zaggora have launched several new products today. I was hoping for something to sort out my arms but the new products are just as exciting!

The biggest thing I would change on the original hotpants is their length, I would prefer them to come below my knees and now they do! They are now available in two more lengths and they have also launched a thinner pair especially for wearing under clothes, lets hope they make less of a swooshing noise too! I am being sent a sample so expect another review once I have had chance to trial them.

Who else has tried hotpants? How did you find them? Click here to read my original review.

A Day in the Life of Weight Watchers #4

2012-01-11T18:00:00.003Z

I've had a fresh start this week as far as my diet is concerned. I have been trying lots of new foods and recipes and making an effort to to write everything I eat down in my tracker. I really want to shed all the Christmas gain and push for another 20lbs loss this year to take me to -80lbs which is my next goal.

I have written food diary posts before which you can view here:

1, 2, 3

I thought I would write another one for all of you that have just started Weight Watchers or were thinking of joining so you can see what a typical day is for me. I get a 35 pro points allowance per day and this is how I use it:

Breakfast
Porridge - 3
Skimmed Milk - 3 (used in porridge and tea during the day)
Melon, grapes, blueberries - 0

Snacks
(eaten throughout the day)
Melba Toast - 1
WW Cream Cheese - 1
WW Rich Toffee bar - 2
Dairylea Dunker - 3
Apple & orange - 0

Lunch
WW pitta bread - 3
Roasted peppers, tomato & onion - 0

Low fat piri piri hummus - 2
Quorn fillet fried in garlic and lemon - 1

Dinner
Starter - Roasted butternut squash, pepper and onion soup - 0
Bread roll - 3
Toad in the Hole with onion gravy -11

Late Night Treat

Cup of tea and WW cookie - 2

Total 35/35

So, who is following the Weight Watchers plan? Any new joiners? How are you getting along?

The Jenny Craig programme explained

2012-01-09T17:11:00.001Z

I think one of the things I struggle with the most when sticking to a diet is the fact that it's not me who decides what we eat at home and it's not me who does the food shopping either, so I don't have complete control over what I eat and how healthy (or not) it is. Being on a diet plan is something I've thought about for a while. I think it would make me feel more in control of what I was eating, which would be a big help.

When Jenny Craig contacted me asking if I would like to try their programme for a month I said yes! Jenny Craig was founded in 1983 and upon doing my research I've found a lot of positive weightloss stories. They don't just send you the food required for the diet but they guide, support and motivate you throughout the programme in the form of weekly phone call consultations with your own personal consultant.

Sounds good so far, right? Not only that but their food looks tasty (see some of their dishes for yourself here) and they even have menus to cater for vegetarian, vegan and kosher diets. I must admit, I'm a bit sceptical about how such 'normal' dishes (pasta, cheese, and there's even chocolate) opposed to 'rabbit food' will help me lose weight but a chat with the Jenny Craig team has taught me about portion sizes and the amount of faith they have in the programme has almost reassured me that it will work for me!

I received my delivery of food for the month this morning and my first thought was that everything looked quite clinical and ready meal like but on closer inspection I do actually like the sound of the meals. Each morning I start off with a cereal or porridge, followed by a snack (eg. fruit or yoghurt), lunch is a selection of yummy sounding soups or noodle dishes. I then get yet another snack which I can pick from potato bites (crisps!), chocolate biscuit bars or a cereal bar. Dinner comes next and there are 7 different meals available including pastas, thai curry and risotto and I get another snack (again, fruit or yoghurt are recommended) before bed. All of the food can either be microwaved or cooked on the hob and is really quick to make.

It seems like such a lot of food but the portions look smaller than what I'm used to so I'm feeling positive so far. I've just ate lunch (pot of noodles [which turned out to be pasta!] in a cream sauce with salad) and has filled me right up! The good news is that non-starchy vegetables (brocolli, courgette, salad and my favourite.. mushrooms!) are all free foods which I can add to my meals to bulk them up.

I didn't get a clear photo of my whole menu, but here's a snippet of what this weeks menu looks like. As you can see there are extra foods to add on to lunch and dinner which are simply labelled as '1 protein, 1 fat' which gives you some freedom to pick and choose. The shopping list of things I need to buy is minimal, only including items like salad, fresh fruit and veg, yoghurts, cheese (yes, really!) and bread.

So... here goes! Wish me luck! I'm hoping to lose a healthy 1-2lbs per week and kickstart my weightloss for 2012! I plan on doing a few more posts on my progress throughout the month - please let me know if there's anything in particular you want to know!

* Jenny Craig has provided me with a free 1 month trial however all opinions about my experience with the programme are my own and are completely honest.