My head is in the weightloss game ;) I've had a nice chicken stir fry I've been adventurous and put red peppers and mange tout in it - neither of which I've had before. Peppers are YUMMY! I'm a fool! :spin:

Oh and Sarah - can you put a laughter warning on your posts next time pls? I nearly sprayed stir fry all over my computer screen when I pictured you straddling that style! :rofl: :lol3:

I've been in a meeting for 3 hours - I took supplies! An apple, cheese and bread and butter and a drink and I still came out in a dead faint cos I needed food! :rollpin:

Hi!

I've been reading you're posts about the "Apple Crumble". It sounds yum!

Any chance i could have the recipe?

Thanks Sarah Ann! I might just do that. Going to read the nutrition section tonight, just finished the exercisey bit last night. Are you following it to the letter? My only doubt is that I really wanted to start training myself up to run properly, so am hesitant to start this interval training malarky.

Dull day here. We're one girl down so I'm kind of tied to my desk, but it's not quite busy enough to keep me entertained. Took a very early lunch too, which I hate doing - makes the afternoons last sooo much longer. Of course, my natural instinct is to dampen the boredom with a bag of crisps. I have one bag under my desk, I think I should maybe chuck them in the bin. In fact - they're in the bin! I'm going to go and fill my water bottle up too. Lunch was an M&S duck hoisin wrap - from the Count on Us range - didn't realise they'd started doing a lower cal version of my favourite wrap EVER. One dancing carrot for M&S! :carrot: Also had a lovely chocolate pudding type thing. Count on Us again, about 185 cals. Mmmmm - another dancing carrot to M&S :carrot:

Punch tonight at the gym. Can't wait! My friend is coming with, and I think a lady from work will join us next week. Nothing like making a tit of yourself infront of plenty of people you know!

Ugghhh so bored.... Only 3 hours til home time!

:wave: bone idle - Apple crumble - peel and core 1 apple and cut into cubes, put this in a bowl with half a cup of oats. Cover with water (about 1/2 a cup) and microwave for 2 minutes. You can also add Splenda and spice to taste. Take half a cup of cottage cheese add vanilla and splenda and blend until smooth. When apple and oat mix has cooled slightly, put cottage cheese on top and enjoy! :T

Freya - you could probably do couch to 5K as well as your BfL thingy. I don't like the fact that anything else you want to do is considered as extra. See I would not do HIIT and do "normal" running instead. However, if you do HIIT running, you will be able to run very well when you do try steady state running. It's a training technique that "proper" runners use to bring their speed up, so I wouldn't worry that you're not running properly. Try a walk interval then run as fast as you can go for your "10".

You really gotta love M&S!

I've spent all lunchtime on the phone tracking down a wedding dress I found in Brides magazine! It's *dribbly* gorgeous! It's a shirt and skirt combo - it's 3/4 length sleeved shirt with lapels and quite a deep neckline, then a skinny skirt with a fishtail train. I love it, and I think it will suit me hellish more than anything else I've tried on! Only problems are - 1) It's long-ish sleeved and I might get a bit hot with all the excitement and 2) It's £1000 :eek: :faint: I'm going to see how it looks on Friday, and I have another appointment for the one with the tie backs on Tuesday then I will decide! Oh :tantrum: It's all so hard! :lol:

That's what I was thinking too. I like his idea of efficiency, but I dunno - I sometimes feel better for getting in the gym and spending a good hour there. It's all in my head no doubt. At the end of the day, there are so many plans out there, but essentially they're all the same - eat less, move more. Anyway!

Managed to down a litre of water since I last post, and I have unearthed a mountain of holiday admin to sort out. Yay.

Frus - I think we need pictures of the dress!

Thanks for that!

It sounds scrum - will definetly try it tonight!

Find the "blushing bride" thread - there's some of ones I've already tried. There's a thread called "What do you think.." Or something similar that I started, of the strappy back one (not on me!!) that I'm also trying, but this one I'm trying on on Friday is in a magazine and I can't find it on-line... At least not yet! :lol: I'll have a look and I'll get the girlie to take a picture of me on Friday!

My favourite meal is chargrilled peppers. For one person for a main course or two people as a veg use a yellow and a red pepper and cut them in to decent size chunks (about 8 chunks to a fairly big pepper). Turn them over in a teaspoon of olive oil and then sprinkle with a teaspoon of cumin - then grill them on VERY hot starting on the underside and turning them after 3 minutes. Then grill them on the skin side up until it starts to go blackish in places - then drizzle with a little basalmic vinegar and serve. They go with just about anything and are really great on their own with couscous (perhaps with a bit of fetta cheese crumbled over). :p :p :p :p :p

No, I'm not doing all the BfL - I don't think I could manage the nutrition exactly as set out because I like cooking too much. I like the BfL training, though. It doesn't say you can't do more, does it? I thought I read it that you shouldn't do less than the 20 cardio, 45 weights. The cardio is GREAT - I've never known 20 mins on an exercise bike go past so quickly - but I'm still walking my dogs as well. (If I didn't then I think they'd start eating the furniture.) I'm hoping that soon I'll feel as enthusiastic about the weights but at the moment I'm still in the awkward process of figuring out what level weights I need to hit a 10 and then working my way backwards to find a level 5 to start with. Just to stop me getting bored I've decided to rotate three different training sessions for upper and another three for lower - they all use different exercises.

More adventurous apple crumble: Put 1oz of oats in a dry frying pan with 4 grammes of slivered almonds. Dry fry until golden and crunchy. In the meantime peel and core a cooking apple, cut in to 1cm x 1cm chunks, put in dish, add 1 teaspoon cinnamon (or mixed spice) and a tablespoon of sultanas - cover and microwave until not quite mushy then add in as much sweetener as you enjoy. Make up the cottage cheese mix as per Frus' post. Put the warm oats on top of the hot apple mix and pour over the 'vanilla cream'. This is actually SO nice that DH ate it and didn't realise it was a) diet and b) cottage cheese - he accused me of cheating. :dizzy: It also tastes great made with pears.

Oh you put the oats on without microwaving them! I "toasted" (burnt) my oats, then microwaved! :rofl: Yes it would be good like that too! :lol: Although if you're bothered about it being "proper ratios" if you add sultanas, put some more cottage cheese in! If you don't give a flying fig about proper ratios, then put raisins in and enjoy! Mmmm figs! :T

Anyone got any idea where I can get really pale tan boot polish from?

I've messed up my knee highs when I went through a puddle and I can't polish it out with normal polish. I've been to loads of stores but can't see any. Any other ways to get stains out of shoes. They are really nice too.

I love peppers! For ages they were one of the only vegetables I ate. I eat lots more stuff now but still like peppers.

Heather - interesting draw...

I might have to try those apple crumble recipes for a change.

Boring day at work today, I can't think of anything interesting I've done to report back!

I just saw the draw results...so will you be visiting us at The Willows? Be warned on the recent lack of female loos if so!!! Cut down on liquid a few days before that!!!
Impossible Princess: If in doubt try ebay...not checked myself but they are usually good! Or maybe those Timpson style boot repair places, they sometimes have that stuff.

Yes, I'll probably go to the game, although it depends what time it's on (assuming it will be on TV) because I have vague race plans that weekend and want to see whether I can do them both... I've been to the Willows before, so I'm prepared for the "facilities"!

We used to have ok facilities, we could go in the variety centre and it was warm and had paper...now we have a portakabin next to the burger van with one loo in it that has a door to the gents that doesn't lock!