Tales from the scales #2

What an incredibly stupid, self-sabotaging week.

Last week: 18st 1

This week: 18st 4

Gain of 3lb

I have gained 3 pounds through binging on healthy stuff and then last night, I comfort ate a pack of yoghurt-covered raisins (which I didn’t enjoy at at all, but soldiered on anyway) and four slices of bread with almond butter.  I am suffering through the carb-induced headache this morning.  I also did absolutely no exercise this week due to a combination of exulting in having my car back from the garage and sheer slothfulness.

I need to get my mojo back before I wind up even heavier next week.

I’ve reached that age…

And on a completely different note… I can’t quite believe that Axl Rose is 50 today.    In my head he’s still young, heroin-thin, and hot.  (Do yourself a favour, and don’t google for any current pictures.  You’ll only upset yourself.)  Appetite For Destruction was the album of my teenage years and is still topping Most Influential album lists decades later.  Happy birthday, Axl!

Meal Planning Monday (6 Feb ’12)

 

As I am sometimes a Bear of Little Brain and prone to standing in the middle of the kitchen wondering what I planned to cook for dinner, I have taken to planning out my meals for the week.  This allows me to pretend to be terrifically organised and some sort of uber-mum.  Shh!  In theory this lets me shop once for the week and not have to battle my way round the supermarket mid-week.  (There was a point last year when I realised I’d been to the supermarket every day for ten days straight.  I blushed all the way home when one of the staff commented on it.)

Here’s my menu for the week.  All primal/low-carb/grain-free/whatever you want to call it.

M: Roast pork belly, carrot-cauliflower puree, roasted Brussels sprouts

T: Pad Thai (with zero-carb Miracle Noodles)

W: Chocolate chilli with cauliflower rice

T: Pork & fennel meatballs on courgette spaghetti

F: Sausages, cauliflower mash, braised red cabbage

S: Chocolate chilli with sweet potato fries and green beans

S: Chicken, bacon and butternut squash cauliflower ‘risotto’

In case anyone is interested, I actually have a laminated menu-plan adorning my fridge.  I am so mean… I moved all of Lucas’s beloved fridge magnets to the dishwasher so that I could use the fridge.  I use this gorgeous saucepan one from Ollie Bird and had it printed (A2 size) and laminated at a local print shop for about £3 and picked up some dry-erase pens at Tesco (£1.50 for two plus eraser).  Sadly laminated things don’t photograph well, but on the plus side you are all saved from squinting at my dreadful writing!

Tales from the scales #1

 

I have decided to be brave and reveal my true weight, rather than just saying how much I managed to lose each week.  Hopefully it’ll Jedi mind-trick me into keeping going with my weight loss so that everyone sees a smaller number each week!

Last week: 18st 2 (254lb)

This week: 18st 1 (253lb)

Total loss to date: 32lb

Last week I had a huge loss of 4lb, and despite having eaten well and exercised quite a bit this week, I didn’t think the scales would budge.  What a nice surprise!  In the upcoming week I’m planning to be extra motivated as I would love, love, love to see the scales say 17st 13 next Friday.  I don’t think 2lb is an unreasonable goal, so here goes!  I’ve made a meal plan, done most of the shopping (need to hit up a market stall for some more vegetables) and I’m planning to walk the school run more often next week to get in some extra exercise.  Not today, though. My little monster’s cough is getting worse and it’s still forecast to be subzero at picking up time, so I am taking pity on him and driving.

Celeriac Dauphinoise

 

Given my blog’s name, you might be forgiven for expecting my first food-related post to be about cauliflower, however quite surprisingly I find myself without any on the menu today.

What I do have is celeriac dauphinoise.

The celeriac is a very underrated vegetable. It would undoubtably get more press if it was prettier; I often think it looks like a brain that has somehow escaped from its jar. Luckily I have a very sharp knife, so feral jar-escaping pseudo-brains aren’t a major concern.

Celeriac makes a great low-carb substitute for potato in the French classic dauphinoise. Now, don’t expect celeriac to taste like potato; it has its own particular charms. It’s a little like celery, but not obnoxiously so, and a little nutty, too. Mostly it is delicious.  You can use many different cheeses to top the dauphinoise; I’m partial to Parmesan, but it also works very well with Cheddar.  A strong blue cheese would be glorious.  As you can see from the recipe, you don’t need very much to create a delicious result.

Today’s dauphinoise was served alongside some roast pork belly, some of the vegetables I roasted it on, and some very garlicky spring greens.