Food Obsession vs Keeping Fit - an ongoing battle!

I love food. I love the taste, the smell, the look of it (I post a lot of food porn on social networks!), I even love reading the description of dishes regardless of whether I am actually going to eat it. 

There are not many things I dislike and am always willing to give new foods a go.
 I love fast food, homemade, cordon bleu, starters, mains and pudding, vegetables, meats, pasta and rice dishes. 
In fact, I would say the only thing I don't fancy is sushi, I love seafood but raw fish doesn't wet my whistle, but having said that I have never tried it so may be I would like it!

Cake I made for the
Queen's Jubilee

When I started having children I discovered I really enjoyed cooking meals from scratch, with the added satisfaction that they were getting healthy meals (cue smug housewife look), and I found an undiscovered talent in making cakes and desserts which the kids wolfed down!
Although the savoury dishes were reasonably healthy with lots of vegetables in and low fat, the puddings of course most certainly were not!  And, as the chef, it obligatory that you taste the raw mix as well as the finished product and perhaps also the odd ingredient as you go along, just to check it's ok of course! So, adding all those calories to my post-baby weight I began to resemble a small house.

Homemade chocolate cheesecake
for an Easter dinner party

Throughout my pregnancies I yo-yoed with my weight, gaining about three stone each time, losing a bit only to fall pregnant again. I would try to only eat when hungry and foods that were high in nutrients, but boy did I get hungry! I didn't stress too much about how heavy I was getting but I wish that I had been a bit more careful as I am still suffering from injuries caused by carrying the extra weight. I suffered from sciatica and lower back problems, and strained my groin pushing uncooperative trolleys round at the supermarket! The arrival of home deliveries for your shopping was a godsend and I used it all the time when I was pregnant with DD.

A bumper harvest from the garden

The boys were all born 18 months apart so there was never enough time in between to lose the extra weight before I fell pregnant again so, by the time I had DS3, I was about 4 stone overweight! I personally found it impossible to think about myself or look after myself with three young children so I didn't put myself under any pressure to lose the weight, and I had a husband who loved me no matter what size I was. Some of it dropped off naturally, but it wasn't until DS3 was two that I really had time

Imaginatively presented starter served
 in Cancun - crab and avocado 

to take care in what I was eating and tried to get active with the boys. We had recently moved house which had a large field at the back so we took full advantage, using it to ride bikes, play football and other ball games with the boys. I managed to get down to under 11 stone, only to discover that I was pregnant again! Not wanting to undo all the hard work, I was more careful with what I ate in the first three months and also took up a pregnancy yoga class with a friend and went swimming every week. However, despite all my good intentions, when I was in the last trimester I still blew up like a huge balloon and my appetite was ferocious so by the time I gave birth to DD I was back to 13 stone! Again, I was not unduly hard on myself - making sure my baby and boys were happy and healthy was far more important, and losing weight was the last thing on my mind.

When DD was around 3 years old, I finally wanted to do

Pâté starter - my favourite!

something about my weight and, as I had done WeightWatchers before and had all the books, I decided to try it at home. Big disaster! Whether it was because I had stretched my stomach and was used to eating larger portions, but by lunchtime I had eaten all my points allowance and was still hungry!

Then a mummy friend at school said she wanted to go back to Slimming World and another friend knew where the local group met, so the three of us joined up. I had never tried Slimming World so it took a while to get my head around the rules, but after a few weeks I got into the swing of things. I was amazed you could eat such large portions of free food and it really worked for me as if I was full I was satisfied and didn't feel the need to snack on biscuits! I also realised that the plan would work for the whole family as it encouraged cooking hearty meals from scratch, and I discovered a love of preparing and cooking wholesome, healthy meals, knowing I could fill my plate. It opened up a

A balanced breakfast in Mexico

world of possibilities with using herbs and spices for flavouring and I bought myself a slow cooker so I could have SW friendly meals ready at the end of the day. I used my syns for homemade cakes and biscuits I baked with the kids, figuring that I would rather spend them on homemade goodies than tasteless cakes at the shop!

I lost two stone but did it slowly, losing about a pound a week, and didn't worry too much if some weeks I maintained or gained a little - the group was very supporting and helped me see that a bad week wasn't the end of the world, just put it behind you and try again the next week. Writing down what I ate really did help, just like they advise, and the release of a syn counter app for your smart phone made it very easy to keep track. I soon got to know what meals to go for in restaurants (grilled steak and jacket potato was my favourite) or at dinner parties - fill up on veg, rice, pasta and hope for a fruit pudding!

Homemade Christmas goodies -
not diet friendly!

After going for two years, I plateaued around the 10 1/2 - 11 stone mark, but kept attending the meetings as my goal was 10 stone. However, my enthusiasm for the plan was waning and I wasn't trying as hard as I should have, so I maintained a pattern of losing a little one week to gaining a little the next and never really getting anywhere! I kept reminding myself how well I had done to lose the 2 stone and that three years later I hadn't put it all back on, but I really wanted to lose that extra stone.

Finally, a change in leader of the group gave me an excuse to give myself a break and see how I would fare at going alone at home, and it seemed the years of advice from SW stuck in my head as I was fine. I would automatically count up syns in my head, know what foods to fill up on, give myself encouragement when I had a bad week by reminding myself no matter how much I had put on it was not 2 stone! 

Burger anyone?

By the following year I had lost a few more pounds, but at 5ft 4 I knew I should be nearer the 9 stone mark for a healthier BMI so I decided to switch to a calorie counting plan.

This never worked when the kids were younger as I just didn't have the time to work out calories and write it all down, but now they were older and more independent I found I could do it. The My Fitness Pal app was brilliant as it has a huge database of foods and was really easy to track my meals. It also helpfully gave an option to show your average calorie consumption for the week so you could offset bad days against good, useful if you knew a busy social weekend was coming up! 

It was similar to Weight Watchers as you can gain extra calorie allowance from exercise, which again

Cooked breakfast with champagne?
Don't mind if I do!

was very easy to log on the app. It also gave me a push to exercise more and get fitter, something I enjoyed before having kids but hadn't found the time to fit it in until they were older. 

Last year, we had booked a once in a lifetime holiday to Cancun and DH wanted to slim down too, so we started running through my fitness DVD's in the evenings. We started doing them three times a week with a cardio routine followed by a strengthening option, and then we changed to just doing one routine five times a week instead so it only took half an hour at a time (I wanted some
time to chill out in the evening!).
Over the past year we have purchased three new DVDs, as doing the same routine every week gets a bit boring, and at Christmas I won a 3 month membership to a local gym and pool so I go there twice a week instead which mixes it up a bit. When I get bored of that then I'll try out some of the classes available!

After following my new plan for 6 months, I was thrilled to break the 10 1/2 stone barrier, and 6 months later I got down to 10 stone which is where I've settled comfortably for the last few months.

I have a routine of always logging my meals on My Fitness Pal through the day and completing the entry at the end, and if I know what meals will be the next day then I can plan the others around it.

Homemade pizza

Sometimes I am very busy in the morning and miss breakfast, and although I don't condone this as breakfast is an important start to the day, it can help if I'm having a bigger lunch or dinner than usual that day! However, sometimes I have breakfast later which in turn makes lunch later so I then don't get hungry mid afternoon which is a bonus. On the days I do lunch duty at school this really helps, otherwise I find myself coveting the kids' lunch as I'm starving by then!

Over the years I have learnt to factor in a mid afternoon snack on normal eating days to my daily allowance, because if I don't eat something filling I start feeling ill and more likely to grab something quick and high in calories.

I've also discovered that having a breakfast type meal at lunchtime is usually less in calories than a normal lunch and filling, such as a bowl of cereal or egg and toast.

Most weeks, I know what type of evening meal we're having so I can almost plan the whole week, much to DH's amusement when he finds me hunched over my ipad! However, this helps me keep to

Cake I made for DS3

my goal if I'm out at the weekend.

So now my goal is to shift that last stone before we go in holiday in July, but it's not easy! Some weeks I'll maintain or gain a little without knowing why, which is very demotivating, and some weeks we are so busy socially that it is really hard to keep to my allowance (my social life always involves food!).

But keeping track makes sure I don't wildly over eat, and calorie counting is easy as everything nowadays has to have the calorie amount on the packaging. I still enjoy meals out, the odd glass of wine and snacks at the weekend as it's important not to deny yourself all the time, but I am able to enjoy these things because of the exercise I do during the week, otherwise I don't think I could eat any less! The most important thing is to not worry too much if I have a bad week, keep reminding myself that I have done really well to get back to a healthy BMI, and to carry on enjoying food!

My all time favourite - seafood platter

Disclaimer: I was not sponsored for this post and all my views expressed are my own

Doing My Bit For Charity (and having fun!)

Over the last few years, I have discovered that saying "yes" to trying things I have never done before can actually be rather fun. This may have something to do with my friendship with madmumof7 (read her blog here), whose motto is that of Dr Pepper - "what's the worst that can happen", of which she has quoted to me a lot since I first met her six years ago!

Ok, so I don't always enjoy the things she has roped me in to encouraged me to do with her, like the time she convinced me to go on a roller coaster ride at Legoland in Denmark (I'm not very keen on
roller coasters as I hate that feeling when you get to the top of the ride and your stomach gets left

Madmumof7 on one of the
gentler rides at Legoland!

behind as you fall down the other side). Unfortunately, once strapped in I discovered there were lots of drops like that and I screamed the whole way round, cursing her! And there have been moments when I'm wondering in my head "what on earth I am doing here?", like when I found mysef in a room of church goers doing ferret racing (not that I have anything against church goers, I am one myself, but this was a particularly odd mix of people!) But to be fair, most of the stuff we've done has been harmless enough and quite a lot have been really good fun, although this could be more to do with madmumof7's involvement than anything else as she makes any event fun!

Off to see Priscilla after being encouraged to dress up!

Being a guinea pig for a friend trialling spray tans

A few weeks ago, she asked if I wanted to take part in Team Honk, a fundraising event for Comic Relief, where bloggers around the country register to take part in a relay, person to person, from Lands End to John O'Groats, covering nearly 3,000 miles. The idea is that each blogger involved covers a set distance local to them by either walking, running or cycling, handing over the "baton" to the next blogger (click on Team Honk to read more about it).

Of course, neither of us are runners or very keen on walking (too slow), so we agreed on cycling. I used to do a lot of cycling with my Dad around where I live on my trusty 3-gear Dawes bike I've had since I was 13 (mountain bikes aren't my thing) so thought I could cope as long as it wasn't too far. I learnt we were tagging along with another local blogger, mymodelmummy, with a route to St Albans along the Nicky Line in Hemel Hempstead (a disused railway line), and when we met up last week to make plans we were all in favour of a leisurely cycle with refreshment stops along the way that we would put in our baskets, followed by brunch at a nearby pub when we got there.
Oh, and apparently we're going to do it in our pyjamas, which I was slightly dubious about but will go with the flow.....well, what's the worst that could happen?

(If you fancy sponsoring me then click the link here for the Hemel Hempstead donate page - very easy as you can simply click on the amount you wish to give and you can even pay by PayPal!)

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What's the Story?

This picture makes me smile as it reminds me of a lovely night away, sans kids, visiting one of my best girl friends.

We get together on a fairly regular basis but, as she now lives a couple of hours' drive away, it tends to be about every 4 months. Finding a date we can all do can be hard work as we're all so busy but, whenever we get a date agreed, I so look forward to it!

She is a fabulous host, from making sure we are fed and watered properly down to complimentary toiletries (once, we actually got chocolates on our pillows!). She has a beautiful home, which is fortunately very spacious as there's normally a whole group of us descending on her for the night! Her hubby is more than gracious about having his home taken over by a bunch of cackling, over-excited females, even going so far as moving out to the mother-in-law's with the baby so we had the house to ourselves (or perhaps that sounded a better option than staying?!)

We always have tons of fun with non-stop laughing,  no matter who the mix of the group is (old friends, new friends, work friends or her cousins!), with a night out in her town, either drinks or a meal (and drinks!) and maybe a visit to the local "nightclub" if we've had a few too many (it's an awful place!)


Despite popping out many children over the years, I have always tried to keep up with my friends' nights out and have rarely missed our get togethers. Having a laid back, capable DH helped as I knew I could leave the kids in safe hands, and he never seemed to mind my nights out/away - a happy wife is a happy hubby I guess!


But seriously, us mums need to find time for us, to remember who we are without the kids, and to let our hair down once in a while - I know it keeps me sane! So this photo, which was taken at our last gathering a few weeks ago, is a reminder to myself to celebrate being me, and to say "Cheers!" to the the fabulous friends I am lucky to have in my life!

Magic Moments - my little ballet dancer

After another mad Tuesday dash of school run, ballet, Tesco shop and ballet again, I turned up to fetch DD and caught the last five minutes of her ballet lesson. Normally, the parents have to wait in the kitchen area of the hired hall so we don't distract the six budding ballerinas from their lesson, but as they only had a few minutes left I figured it was okay to stand and watch. The music played and they all went through the steps beautifully, but my eyes were fixed firmly on DD.

DD is on the left

It suddenly struck me how well she was dancing compared to the other girls, something I hadn't really noticed before when I stayed for their end of term performances. Of course, she and one other girl have been dancing since they were 4, and the other girls only joined a few months ago so she should be dancing better than them, but I think she's really improved in the last few months. Her hair was neatly up in a bun, she was wearing the official RAD Primary ballet pink leotard and skirt (she has her first exam in a few weeks), and her legs looked so strong as she pointed her toes. She had a smile on her face and I couldn't quite believe this was my daughter and how lucky I was. Needless to say I was one proud mummy!

My girlie girl

Having a daughter after having three boys was the icing on the cake to our growing family and, at one point, something I thought would never happen. Of course I love my boys and if number 4 had been another boy I would have loved him no less, but I secretly hoped I would get the chance to be a mum to a girl, if only to experience the difference. Lots of people warned me how girls were more hard work than boys but I looked forward to the challenge - after 3 boys I was ready for a change.

I prepared myself for a daddy's girl, a tomboy and a child less cuddly than the boys, all things I had been warned about by well-meaning friends. Not that I minded, I just wanted to be ready to accept my girl for who she was, not someone I imagined or dreamed about when having a daughter.

When we found out we were having a girl, we had the room painted pink and I indulged, with glee, in pretty baby girl clothes (even though I knew friends and family would give clothes when she was born). We bought a new red stroller (just in case the sonographer had made a mistake!) and I looked forward to having some girls' toys around the house.

After the first few weeks of struggling with breast feeding, giving up and swopping to bottles, the rest of the baby years were fantastic. Whether it was being more experienced and knowing the sleepless nights would get better, or that knowing she was my last and how quickly it would all go so I took more time to enjoy being with her, I don't know. I just remember being much more relaxed with it all and wishing I had been this chilled with the boys. I guess having the oldest two at school full-time and DS3 at nursery helped as, once the school run was finished, it was like having an only child for a few hours instead of juggling two toddlers and a baby - a breeze!

As a baby she was very much a mummy's girl, liking nothing more than cuddling up with her dummy (dee-dee) and muslin (muzzy), one arm under mine, the other nestled in my jumper. As she got older, I was prepared to be replaced by daddy but it was still me she came to for anything - if she got hurt or upset or just wanted a cuddle. She would often give me kisses on my nose, copying what I did to her, so sweet! DH and I would try to take it in turns to put her to bed but she often asked for mummy to do it!

Even now she's 6, she still comes to me for a cuddle or to give me a kiss, and asks me to tuck her in more often than daddy. If she has a bad dream at night, she will come to my side of the bed even though it's furthest from the door, and loves to snuggle up in our bed.

Athough we painted her room pink, I was fully prepared for her to turn out to be a tomboy being as she was the youngest of four with 3 older brothers, which I wouldn't have minded. I was the oldest with 3 younger brothers so knew what it was like! She was naturally quite outgoing and active so she mastered the climbing frame at an early age (I couldn't watch when she used to climb up to the slide!), and joined her brothers in their boisterous games, unpeturbed. Her brothers all doted on her and she had them wrapped round her finger, bossing them around. It made me smile at how confident and unafraid she was, this little bit of a girl joining in their games with the other boys in the neighbourhood! 

As she got older she became particularly interested in my make-up and nail varnish, leading to a number of messy events. I quickly learnt not to leave my bag of nail varnish in reach as, every time, I would return to find her doing her own nails. Not so much nails as whole hand/foot and clothing! I had to move my make-up drawer to a higher one as, once she was tall enough, she would gleefully help herself. We could never go past the make-up aisle in Boots without DD trying the sample eye shadows and blushers which led to some very odd looks as we walked back to the car with DD plastered in an odd combination of colours! 

As a baby I would obviously choose her clothing and I admit there was a lot of pink involved, but when she was old enough to dress herself I let her choose and even encouraged her to pick out new clothes at the shops so her wardrobe wasn't all mummy's choice! However, she still swayed towards pretty girlie outfits and she loved party dresses, more sparkly the better! Now, she chooses all her outfits and is developing quite a cool style with the essential accents of pinks and glitter.

Toy-wise, obviously there were lots of boys toys knocking around which were just as suitable for a girl to help with development through play, but after a few birthdays and Christmasses an assortment of dolls, strollers, tea sets and pink teddy bears began to take over and, although she could choose cars, trains or construction toys, she naturally gravitated towards the more traditional girls' items.

So, 6 years on, my DD is affectionate and cuddly, still a mummy's girl and very much a girlie girl, everything I could have wanted. Yes, she can be a challenge sometimes and I there will be times we will fall out as she's so stubborn, but I love her feistiness, her caring nature and her determination, even when it can turn into battles. She is a daughter to be proud of!

Her first proper ballet clothes

Silent Sunday

Spooky Fun

Although Halloween was a week ago, I thought I would write about what we got up to as I had so much fun!

I first really got into Halloween when the boys were at primary school and Chloe was about a year old. I thought it would be really fun to decorate the porch whilst they were at school to surprise them when they got home so, leading up to the 31st, I hit the shops in search of spooky decorations. I was surprised at the huge range of Halloween themed items available, mostly from our infamous pound shops which made it relatively cost effective - lucky, as I got rather carried away!




Chloe was unpeturbed as Mummy wrestled with mountains of fake cobwebs and dangly skeletons, happy to use a rubber bat as a chew toy whilst she slid around in her baby walker.





I was having a whale of a time and chuckled when DH arrived home early and had to navigate his way through the front door!

Spooky treats baked ourselves

Pumpkins were carved and I even carefully cut out the inside to use late for pumpkin soup and pie, keeping the seeds after washing them to use in craft activities. (Well, that was the plan but I think I ended up throwing most of it away when I ran out of time!)
The end result gave the desired effect and the boys were delighted at my efforts!

They got excited about dressing up and looked great in their costumes, even letting Mummy apply some face paint.

DS2 enjoying Halloween party food

My Halloween carrot!

With an invitation to a neighbour's Halloween party, I couldn't wait to show Chloe off in her cute pumpkin costume, even though she resembled more of a carrot!






After such a successful Halloween, my enthusiasm grew and every year I added to my collection of decorations. As the children got bigger, a new costume was bought for DS1 and the existing costumes were passed down in age, and I delighted in thinking up new ways of celebrating.

All ready to go!

DS3 pleased with his sweetie haul

DD proudly showing her "spider"
made of a tea cake and Matchmakers!

Some years we went trick or treating with the neighbourhood children, other times we invited friends and their children over for a party, and in more recent years we would start the evening at our local church with a Light Up the Dark event which was a mix of art and craft activities, apple bobbing and fun food-making, like apples dipped in chocolate. It was Messy Church without the focus on spooks and ghouls and more about warming, traditional autumnal      
activities, literally lighting up those dark winter nights.

After a warming cup of hot chocolate and a hot dog, we would walk back through the village with the children of madmumof7 so the kids had a chance to add to their sugar high by doing some trick or treating, knocking on any doors that looked remotely Halloween-y. Then it was back home with a quick stop-off at our next-door neighbours' who always insist on seeing the children in their Halloween glory (they love Halloween too!). 

Last year I decided to combine Halloween with my birthday celebrations, wanting to see what other people would dress up as and giving me an excuse to hire a hall and a disco to go the whole hog!

In a Halloween decor shopping frenzy I had a great excuse to go even more overboard and picked up some great table decorations as well as more cobwebbing to cover the hall. I spent hours searching on the internet for drink and food ideas (this was before Pinterest!) and giving the DJ a list of suggestions for themed songs to play. There was so much scope if you use your imagination!

Me with my lovely
corpse groom!

Next I had to sort out an outfit for me and DH and after a browse on ebay, I got excited by the idea of a corpse bride and groom. ebay was full of Halloween costumes but the best ones were proper dresses that people had turned into costumes. After a bit of searching I found a white prom dress that someone had bought from Bhs and made it gruesome by adding brown and green paint, splashes of red and a bit of creative ripping - perfect!

Then I had a rummage in DH's wardrobe and found an old woollen suit jacket, some old suit trousers and a really old shirt which already had a nice bit of dust and mould on it to add to the effect! I may have enjoyed cutting up his clothes a little too much, but after adding a bit of fake blood and paint it looked great.

Roping in my lovely friends to help decorate the hall on the day, we soon transformed the bland room into a spook-fest, complete with a bloody footstep runner leading in from the front door, rats running riot, various themed lights dotted around, table settings complete with monster hands and a ghostly pumpkin, and a last-minute burst of inspiration with a sign written in "blood" so people knew to help themselves to drinks!

Even the toilets got a bit of a makeover with my purchase of a sticker that you put in the toilet bowl making it look like a zombie hand coming out!

Just before the party started, we brought in the ice hand to go in the witches brew (complete with gummy snakes) and the fab "wedding cake" made by madmumof7 was put in pride of place!

Witches brew or vodka & orange test tube shots anyone?!

Me and madmumof7

Mad cake!

Needless to say, I had a fantastic night and all my efforts were well worth it!






This year I had wanted to do the same again but host it in our house, but unfortunately lots of people couldn't make the date (it was half term) so, once numbers were confirmed, I realised I could turn it into more of a Halloween dinner party. Having already purchased a pretend menu board for the kitchen, I set to work googling the list just to see what I could cook and conveniently found recipes for every item listed!






One of my friends who is amazingly good at cake-making had already offered to make me a Halloween cake which fitted in perfectly with the menu too!









With Pinterest in hand, I referred back to already pinned decor ideas and set to work on mummy tea lights, bloody candles and spooky eyes (to put in the bushes outside!). The children helped put together small coffin cakes, jelly brains and assorted eyeballs, had great fun helping decorating the porch, living room and kitchen/diner ready for our guests, and seemed suitably impressed by my homemade decorations!

The table looked great bathed in candle light, with Blood Bites (cherry tomatoes soaked in vodka and tabasco sauce), pumpkin shaped bread rolls, Monster Claws (chicken strips), Halloween shaped crisps and Maggot Stew (beef with Orzo pasta!).
I also did a chocolate fountain with red food colouring to look like blood which was yum!
Everyone dressed up for the occasion, enjoyed the food, and lots of cackling was to be heard! It was hard work but I totally enjoyed myself - I love creative activities and cooking so I was in my element. My only problem now is what to do for next year.......

Disclaimer: All views and opinions are my own, I was not sponsored for this post

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