Heulwen(Tuesday, December 15 2009 18:24)

Chocolate Cake (Formula 1)
Making 7 inch cake.

Weigh 3 eggs (medium)
Equal amounts to egg weight.
Butter
Caster sugr
Half and half - self raising & formula 1 [Vanilla]
Half teaspoon baking powder.
Tablespoon of cocoa - mixed with warm water to thick paste.
Cream butter and sugar together, add the eggs, flour mixture & cocoa. Mix well. Put into greased and lined tins and bake until risen.
30-35 minutes.
150C - 160C. Cool on wire rack and ice.

You could also try a fatless sponge recipe e.g.
Swiss roll recipe.
This might work better. Enjoy.

Heulwen(Friday, December 11 2009 19:14)

Hello everybody
Just a quick message to say I was very pleased to lose all this weight. My prize money will come in handy to buy some new clothes!
What a lovely feeling.

David-Scott Older(Friday, December 04 2009 10:39)

Hi guys take a look at the news page to see the amazing food we had at Carl's last Tuesday. Thank you, it truly was delicious! the recipe is one of the first posts on this forum, try it for yourself you will love it.

Carl(Thursday, November 26 2009 18:19)

Welcome to your 5 + 5 + 5 incentives

SMAC objectives: Specific, Measurable, Achievable + Challenging

Name 5 things that that you have taken to doing that are working for you in helping you to manage and maintain your effort in your weight loss programme? Be excited with the success of this change.

Name 5 new things that you have learned that you will now do that would be beneficial to you in sustaining your new eating programme?

Now for 5 promises you make to yourself.

1. Promise to yourself the value of inspiration. Feel inspired with what you are doing for yourself. Get excited with your results and remember it’s ok to triumph with your success. Let your achievements drive you along to furthering your personal programme. It’s good to win with this race. It’s also good to ask for guidance. A small change may be a big thing to help you manage and succeed.

2. Promise to deal with the reality of the guilt that compromises your self honesty.
For example I bought a packet of dehydrated pineapple. I had seen an unquantifiable percentage of cane sugar that was in the ingredients written on the side of its packaging. I didn’t eat it. Just because it’s fruit it doesn’t mean it’s ok. Make the responsible and correct choices of food and drink understanding what’s in it. You owe this to yourself.

3. Promise to give exercise the space that it needs in your busy lives. If you have time to indulge then use that time to exercise. Maintain your commitment to a doable but personally challenging activity. Think of what you can do for yourself as an exercise in your day to day lives. It doesn’t have to be complicated and doesn’t have to involve a gymnasium. This exercise should be extra and has to be something more than what you are used to doing in your every day to be working for you.

4. Promise yourself to put into practise what you are learning? Do you understand the principles and effects of protein, water, fruit, fibre, sugar, fat and salt? How much of each? Take the time to find out what really is allowed and what isn’t. This is life education for us; this is life education for our children. Eat for life!

5. Promise yourself that this is nobody else’s battle but yours. We fight together but take the ownership of each personal struggle with the goal of winning the war.

FACT. Salt. Did you know that if you reduce your salt intake by one teaspoon a day you will also reduce your stroke risk by 25%? Medical evidence revealed on 25th November 2009.

There’s a great deal of responsibility and self care that is needed for you to fully succeed with your new eating plan. Your self worth is the most valuable ingredient here.

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2009/11November/Pages/High-salt-increases-stroke-risk.aspx

Heulwen(Monday, November 16 2009 16:39)

Chicken with coriander (Serves 4- 240 Cals, 8.1g Fat per serving)

Coriander seeds, 1tsp.
Cumin seeds 1tsp.
Skinless chicken breasts - cut into cubes.
2tsp grated ginger.
1 clove of garlic.
2tbsp ripe tomatoes - roughly chopped.
2 green chillies - finely chopped.
2 big handfulls of fresh coriander - chopped.
1tsp turmeric powder.
1 tsp of garam masala
2 tbsp tomato puree.
(Salt to taste)
Heat a small frying pan and add the coriander and cummin seeds. Dry-roast them with no oil until they start to darken. Transfer to mortar and crush to a powder. Heat a little oil in a heavy based pan, stir-fry the chicken over a high heat for 5 minutes to seal. Add the ginger and garlic and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add tomato puree, chopped tomatoes and chillies. Cook for 2-3 minutes until tomatoes are mushy and the sauce is well blended. Add the fresh coriander and roasted coriander and cumin seed powder. Cook for a few minutes to blend, then sprinkle in the turmeric and garam masala. Season with salt. Add 3-4tbsp water and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer gently for about 15 minutes. Or until the chicken is cooked through. This was really tasty and even my daughter liked it.

Carl(Tuesday, November 10 2009 13:53)

?

Do we care? The Self Critique Questionnaire

Are we at an addictive illness type group meeting for overweight people?

Do we have a proven workable programme that we believe will work it for us?

Do you think this programme is working for you?

Are the necessary changes easy to make?

Is it hard to get used to a new eating plan?

Do old eating and drinking habits die hard?

If this has changed, then well done and congratulations. If not, why hasn’t it?

Are we putting into practise what we are being taught?

Are we all still sip on glasses of water all day to stay hydrated?

Do we read the ingredients on labels of the food we buy?

Do we understand what all this science on the packets means?

Physics, chemistry, sociobiology and common sense. Are these all essential ingredients?

Do we care?

Are we self conscious about how we are feeling and so won’t share our experiences?

Do we ask ourselves enough questions?

Are we self conscious about what we are doing?

Do we understand what we are doing?

Do we understand what will happen to us if we don’t do something about it?

Are we still looking for the fairy and the wand to fix this all with our minimal effort?

Where has that magic fairy gone to now?

How honest are we being with ourselves?

Are we excited with the prospect of winning these battles?

We're well informed, don’t you think?

Before we started here, we were all slowly killing ourselves with poor eating behaviour. Did this matter?

Do we care?

David and Jemma are here to give healthy guidance. Are we listening hard enough?

Do we use the information offered wisely?

Do we take these one to ones offered and take the guidance and reassurance given?

Do we think we know better?

Are we scared to face the reality of what we are doing to ourselves by not working this?

Were we killing ourselves with our diets and secretly unaccountable behaviour?

Do we feel there’s a judgement for getting the programme wrong?

Are we fearful of criticism?

Do we get criticism?

Do we care?

Do we try variables of the good information provided to help us get it right?

Do we drive ourselves along and take the responsibility for our own health and welfare?

Do we look at our kids and ask ourselves what example we are setting them, and do we care as parents how good our dietary examples are for our kids?

Do we understand our kids learn from our examples?

Do we care for our kids?

Have we stepped forward and changed our eating habits for the good?

Are we still comfort eating and drinking believing it’s ok because "it’s just occasionally?"

Conscious eating changes. Is full fat milk now semi skimmed milk or soya?

Is this all ok?

And, do we care? Do we really, really care?

We care!

David-Scott Older(Monday, November 02 2009 10:13)

There is a new add on to this site at the top right hand side of the screen at the top of the page. Thumb this up, please click on this to help promote this site so we can promote wellness more easily, thanks guys.

Beverley(Tuesday, October 13 2009 14:01)

Hi everyone, for anyone like myself who is doing this challenge using the herbalife products but isn't really that keen on teh herbal tea, I have found a way to have it that I actually really like, just add about a teaspoon of no added sugar blackcurrant and apple or any red fruit squash to it with your hot water and it's delicious :o)

Carl(Tuesday, October 13 2009 11:37)

Pan fried chicken breasts with posh ham

Give your taste buds a wallop of flavour with a dish that is very easy to prepare, delicious to the taste and uses protein friendly ingredients.

This dish serves 2

Ingredients

2 skinless chicken breasts
4-6 slices of prosciutto, pancetta or palma ham. You can buy these in a sealed pack from the deli section of the supermarket.
Fresh Parmesan cheese from the deli or hard Italian cheese from the shaker which is just as good. Morrisons call it Grated Italian Hard Cheese
Piri Piri seasoning which is easily available in a glass shaker from most supermarkets herb and spices section
Olive oil
A fresh lemon
Freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

1. Lay about 2ft of cling film out on your work surface and then fold it in half onto itself reducing the size to 1ft. Place a chicken breast on the film before covering the chicken with the other half of the film. Bash the thicker end of the breast with a rolling pin or something equally solid until the chicken breast becomes fairly equal in its thickness.

2. Open the film and sprinkle to taste the Piri Piri seasoning. I like it quite spicy and so I'm rather generous.

3. Sprinkle the parmesan or Italian hard cheese to taste onto the chicken as well followed by the freshly ground black pepper.

4. Drizzle the juice of a quarter of a lemon on to the cheese, pepper and piri piri seasoning.

5. Lay the prosciutto, pancetta or palma ham onto the breast to completely cover it. It usually takes 2-3 pieces to cover the breast. It doesn't matter if the ham is slightly overlapped.

6. Heat a frying pan to a faily high temperature with a drizzle of olive oil. I usually heat mine to about mark 9 on your electric hob.

7. Place your chicken into the hot pan with the ham side down on the pan and cook for no more than 3 minutes. When your timer goes off turn the chicken with a fish slice and cook the other side also for 3 minutes. The high temperature of the pan will crisp your pancetta and cook your chicken so that the moisture remains to keep the breast tender.

8. Serve the chicken and posh ham dish with a fresh salad drizzled with your favourite low fat dressing in moderate quantities. The texture of the crispy cooked ham goes brilliantly with the chicken. Drizzle the juice of a quarter of a lemon on to the chicken then serve.

Enjoy!