Morning Tokyo 🙂

Good luck on your brunch date, and the return to work. You’ll have to just have a little notebook with you and jot down thoughts through the day and do a mass posting when you get back home ;-). That sounds like a plan re the food, especially if it’s going to be brunch and not lunch, you should be able to make it through to that. I’m not sure what we’re having today, but if the scones turn out ok, it’s going to be scone… LOL. I just thought it would be nice to have something with a coffee watching the football, I’m already foregoing alcohol (for the time being 😉 ) and compared to what we used to put away watching major sporting events; a barbecue or a buffet or a takeaway, couple of bottles of wine, crisps, chocolate slabs. I have to make this diet adapt to my life not the other way around. Whatever I’m doing, right or wrong, it’s working for me, anyway.

I’m really pleased this morning, I was so close to 18 stone a few weeks ago, now I’m nearly 15 stone something. It just goes to show, when you find the right thing for you, how well it can work.

Chickpea scones, eh? Are we talking sweet or savoury here? I’d have gone for savoury up to yesterday, but upon Googling (gotta love Google!) chickpea pastry, I saw that on some sites, it’s been used for sweet tarts and pies too, one recipe on a Coeliac forum used it for mince pies at Christmas! If I’ve ever been on a diet at Christmas in the past, I’d always have a ‘holiday’ from it and go absolutely batcrap crazy, gorging on rich food and naughty stuff. As daft as this might sound now, I’m actually relishing the thought of Christmas this year and adapting it to the plan! I make homemade Christmas puddings every year for all my friends and family, so I know I must do them to the original recipe or there’ll be trouble. I’m going to have to devise a BSD one that’s up to standard as well, aren’t I?? And when I do, I will send you all one 😉

And it’s good morning from the Northamptonshire/Leicestershire jury 🙂 Sun also shining here.. and I am wearing another pair of ‘those will never fit again’ trousers for work! It’s so exciting re-finding clothes in the depths of the wardrobe!!

Healthy chicken, courgette and chickpea curry last night, helped along by a couple of our favourite gram flour wraps. Didn’t bother with any rice alternatives, mainly because the cauliflower in the fridge was looking a bit ‘sulky’ and decrepit.. Flat mushrooms with a smidge of goats cheese and scrambled egg to start me off for the day today. Tea on our laps tonight while we watch the Wales game, so need to find something quick, easy AND practical for me. Last night OH said to me that I’ve done really well but presumably now I can go back to the stuff like pasta and rice… Duh! I don’t think he quite understands that I don’t WANT to eat those things anymore!!

Good luck with your return to work Tokyo.. Lucky’s idea of a daily catch up sounds a good one.. we can’t lose ‘Brenda’ from our Thelma and Louise set up now!

Lucky.. 15st is within spiting distance (although don’t spit, it’s not nice)..fantastic achievement!

I’m tempted to try another Elana recipe (I think she knows Paltrow tbh). Maybe the coffee cake or date and walnut bread. Votes please!! I’m not overly keen on walnuts (they make me cough!) but.. BREAD??? Really?? I want to know about gram flour baking sooner rather than later Lucky.. get your pinny on!

Hi Lucky Maneki – think you are setting yourself a tough goal, trying to create a BSD friendly Christmas Pudding. Think with all the dried fruit, getting the carb level down is going to be a huge challenge. Do keep us posted though, ‘cos I love Christmas Pudding so to be able to make a low carb one would be great.

Well done Janey, I think I am going to have to go through mine, I’ve only tried on the occasional thing here and there, I think it’s time for a mass try on. For tonight, thankfully in laws are coming after tea, so I am doing this – but without the potato in it… and probably reduce the amounts as it’s only for me and him.

http://www.rosalilium.com/2011/02/onion-bhajispanish-tortilla/

I would go for anything with walnut, but I love walnut… I’m not missing bread that much though. I have just been informed that my inlaws are sleeping over, so that’s me on the sofa tonight and now I’ve got to rush and tidy upstairs and put clean bedding on before I can even think of getting in the kitchen. Meh.

Hi Sunny – I’m sorry, I didn’t phrase it right, I know it wouldn’t be BSD friendly, but I want to make one that’s better for me than one that’s full of suet and sugar and white flour. I don’t intend to go overboard at Christmas but I will still want a few treats, and knowing those treats are made with better ingredients can’t do any harm. Failing that, it will be a hazelnut sized Christmas pudding for everyone!!

good afternoon ladies !!
well have returned from my brunch date and my cup of smugness runeth over !! i decided from the menu on scrambled egg and bacon but when she came to take my order i enquired was the scrambled egg made with cream or milk ? she replied milk eggs salt and pepper so i ordered it !! smug point 1!!!!
when it came however it was presented on two lovely pieces of hot buttered toast so i just scrapped it off and left the toast smug point no 2!!!!!!!
i also left some bacon final smug point 3 !!!!!!
i have over estimated in my fitness thing too so having chicken fajitas with luckys wrap for tea so thats my quota for the day !!
weigh in tomorrow end of week three so fingers crossed but i wore a dress today that i previously ” looked a right bugger” in !! so thats a positive there !!
on the christmas front i never expected to get past week one so i thought by christmas i would be back to eating hiw i normally do everything i shouldnt !!!!! BUT yesterday i had 1 weetabix for breakfast as yoghurt was out of date and i can say that i think i paid for it first one in three weeks and my stomach knew last night odd i know so maybe it wont be a case of just going back to eating how we used to as our bodies wont accept the old sugary stuff !!!!
on the baking front i am investigating as many chickpea flour recipes as i can find and have to say it does look immensely versatile , why have i never known about this before !!!
anyway hope everyones afternoon going ok sun gone in here so off to make wraps for tea !! x

Afternoon Tokyo, oh Smug One! Glad your day was a success, and well done on the dress… looked a right bugger in lmao. You’re not Northern are you, Tokyo? Sounds like the sort of thing my husband would come out with.

Oh isn’t that funny? It seems to be happening to a lot of people when they reintroduce food. I suppose it’s good in a way, we’ll be less likely to fall back on bad habits! Make sure you’ve got enough yogurt in in future.

I’m seeing Janey’s £8K brownies and I’m raising her Grain free lemon and blueberry scones. Jesus Christ on a bike, they’d better taste nice is all I’m saying and thank God I used my initiative. Bloody US recipes (no offence to anyone from the USA) with their cups, I’d have had nothing but liquid if I hadn’t added it little by little. The scone dough was moist to say the least, I nearly had to pipe it on the tray. They’re cooking now, look and smell nice but they’re flattening out like the worlds most calorific cookies. I won’t be able to cut one in half, so does that mean I get to have 2?????

I don’t think I’ll have time to do the pastry today, and probably best too considering how many calories in these scones 😛

Ok, one broke as I was getting it off the tray (honest!) so hubby and I tried a tiny bit each (about a cm) and – success! Flat, but very tasty indeed. Who needs flour??? And I was surprised when I worked out the calories – they’re a very respectable 280 calories each, which is good when you consider the recipe I use for ‘normal’ scones is 268 calories each. The more success I have with each ‘category’ of food, I know the more likely I am to stay eating this way for the long term. It’s not that I’m constantly bingeing on cakes and scones, honest! They’re getting frozen!

i am northern although my roots are growing up in manchester ( think thats where my heart is ) i now live the other side in yorkshire !!
congrats on the baking success i think like you the more food we have which appeal to us the longer we will stay focused!!! i am making some guaccamole as a bit of a side for tonights tea just a spoon but its a taste and i know what i have put into it !!!!
i have a free afternoon friday so may find something to bake for the weekend from my ever growing cupboard of unusal ingredients !!
i have to say when picture you and janey baking in my head its like paltrow and cotton in a bake off !!!( oh i just made myself laugh!!!)
i find if i am organised its easier so i fear i am turning into an organised stepford wife !!!! get me back to work !!!!!

Ahhhh I lived in Manchester when I was an impoverished student, and then a few more years, that’s where ex husband is 🙂 Latest (lol) husband is from Wigan, so I must have something for men in the Greater Manchester area or something 😉

Ohhhhhh I love guacamole, and yes, you have control of what’s in it and how much you have. Lovely to go with your fajitas 🙂

I think it has to be chickpea related. You do the scones, I’ll do the pastry and we’ll meet back at HQ at eighteen hundred hours and compare notes 😉

As long as Janey is Paltrow…? Tell me it’s not me, please *shudders*. Sooner be that woman who pokes through poo. Gillian whatsername.

It is easier to be organised, look what happened the other night when I made pink curry? Kebab delivery. Thankfully I had the willpower to eat just the chicken and salad and leave the bread, but on a PMT week… risky. I need to be better organised myself. I was really good at the start, planning what I was having for the whole week, making homemade soups and freezing them, but I’ve slackened off the last week or so.

Paltrow and Cotton in sumo suits maybe. I don’t ever want to look like one of those scrawny chicks! Your comment about clothes ‘fitting like a bugger’ also made me snigger behind my computer screen at work. The spotty trousers I am sporting today did actually make me look like a fat monochrome ladybird the last time I squeezed into them 😆

The gauntlet has been thrown down with the scones now…. Must be time to break out the apple cider vinegar and other bizarre ingredients as a parry.

By the way I’m not being Paltrow. She has a steam cleaned fairy cake 😳

Good grief, I’m with you there. I’m keeping my curves. The absolute lowest I would go (wishful thinking – maybe not!) is 10/10 and a half stone. I don’t care who says I should be 7 stone 13, that is NOT happening, I tell thee!

Fat monochrome ladybird??? Bwahahahahahahahahahah, what a vision I have in my mind now. I don’t have too much in the way of bizarre yet, I’m building up slowly, gram flour, coconut flour, coconut sugar, and almond flour. That said, I have blueberry muffins in the freezer, and I’ll freeze these scones too later, so I think I need to concentrate on savoury stuff now 🙂

Fairy cake???? What the what??????????

i went to school in leigh not that far from wigan ask him if he used to eat greenhalghs pasties !!!!( sounds wrong when its written down ) !!

He said Greenhalgh’s pasties were good on a buttered barmcake 😉

Tokyo – why do you think I’m so desperate to find a pie crust? I’m married to a pie eater lol

ha ha i longed for greenhalghs pasties i had told my other half about them many times then last year he had a meeting in wigan came home and said i have a present for you !!!
yes yes yes it was a greenhalghs pastie !!! and it tasted just the same as when i was at school!!!!
my cupboard of useless items has frown so i blame you too ( paltrow and cotton ) oh how i laugh every time i write it !!!!
am i really on a diet i am having way too much fun !!
so i have made the wraps i have made the guacamole and also a yoghurt dip so smug no 4
ladies and gentlemen i think i am done !!!!!

look what i found

http://powerhungry.com/2015/12/4012/

double chocolate chickpea flour cookies !!!!

Reminds me of Kryten in Red Dwarf – Smug mode: Engaged 🙂 hahahaha

Oh how lovely of him to think of you, it’s nice when they do stuff like that, it means more to me than flowers or jewellery. Just bring me a bloody pie, stat! Hubby just reminded me the pies I like from Wigan are Greenhalgh’s steak, oval shaped with a hole in the middle?

Oh God Tokyo, how good do those look??? 101 calories per cookie too! Are you making them, or are you going to continue your hunt??

Tokyo!!!! Janey!!!!

http://www.radiantrecovery.com/recipes/2010/11/08/gram-yorkshire-puddings/

Just….WOW.

Yorkie puds?!
Triple choc brownies????

All we have to do is find a low carb alternative to a roast potato and we are all set for Sunday dinner!!!

Can we pulse cauliflower in a FP and mix it into balls with gram flour and coconut oil or olive oil and maybe… some… some… almond flour and… and… and roast them?????? Clutching at straws, much?

Those yorkies look damn fine though!

Oh, and if nobody minds…

Ty’d ymlaen Cymru!

This ITV commentary is like listening to paint dry, geez… even hubby has said to put the Welsh Channel 4 on, and he can’t understand anything except colours and the word ‘beer’.

Roasted cauliflower balls? It could work? I mean if you can turn cauli into mash you can surely roast it??

I’m watching Murray at Wimbledon before the game kicks off at 8pm. I’m hoping he hurries up and gets finished. Come on Wales!!

Just had carrot spaghetti (carrotti? Spaghotti? Carretti?) and was fully prepared to hate it with my bolognaise. But.. Lovely! A bit more substance than courgetti or bitterly and held the sauce well.. So thumbs up!!

Bitterly? We have Tokyo with her pot of hurrah, and you with your pasta of bitterness???

I’m just investigating turnips, currently…

http://blog.paleohacks.com/hacks-turnips-instead-of-potatoes/#

Bitterly??!’ Damn predictive text. Pasta of bitterness is quite obviously a Paltrow recipe. Bring me a pot of hurrah immediately!!!

How is your turnip investigation going…🤔

Pasta of bitterness with ground dust and steamed kale as a side dish. I don’t know what she used to steam the kale, but I’ll pass on it, thank you.

The wedges look promising, could be fooled into thinking they were potatoes if you cut them into… roast potato shapes and seasoned them. The twice roasted turnip looks ok.

Turnips don’t do it for me. Unless you mean swede because that’s the geographical confusion. Kale is supposedly a superfood bit TBH I just feed it to my Guinea pigs. Ms Cotton would be appalled, she’s addicted to the stuff.

No, proper turnips. I don’t think I’ve ever tried them to be honest. Keep having massive arguments with hubby because he insists on calling swede ‘turnip’. One’s orange, one’s white-ish. I’ve even Googled it to show him. Nope. Won’t have it.

I’ve never tried kale either to be honest, I keep buying bags of it and then it rots as I debate whether or not to eat it. My bad…

i find that i have bought things such as beetroot to make the falafels and then when i get home i am not interested enough to make them. I also have a growing cupboard of things that i will look at and probably never use. e.g preserved lemons god knows what i am going to do with them. I have planned better this week as its mainly fish. I have had the french fish casserole tonight it was a bit watery but eatable. Good luck with your baking endeavours tonight people.

I have found an olive oil cake on a Nigella site full of chocolate and some sugar but i am sure it could be adapted

oh yes i am going to try the double choc chick pea cookies and shall be writing a report hopefully tomorrow !!!
i am about to investigate the roast potatoe conundrum surely theres something to replace it then like you say we will be quids in !!!
the chicken and peppers with wrap were just as good as normal faijtas and the wrap held together amazingly !!!

good morning !!
well had my weekly weigh in , third week weigh in and another 0.7kg down or 1.5 pounds!! i know its not a lot but its steady i guess and just 2kg to my first goal ! so i am pleased and i will keep plodding on slow and steady !!
my actual final goal is 7 kg away and when i started this it was 11 kg away so i have to be pleased . although i would like it to be more but in the grand scheme of things i hadnt a lot of weight to shift as i am never going to be a sixe 8 a nice comfortable healthy 12/14 would suit me just fine thank you very much !! you can keep your size 0 kate moss !!!!!
anyway up and at em early again as for accupuncture for hot flushes later !!!! its all very zen like !!!
and my online shopping coming in a bit !!!!! see what bsd goodies i have got then this afternoon i am making the cookies !!!!!!!

Yayyyyyy Tokyo, well done! That’s a fab weight loss for someone with so little to lose (I mean no offence there) and from what I hear you say it’s coming off more in inches, with all these clothes you’re getting in to! Have you done your measurements today???

I have news to report too… Remember I said I needed a pound to get into the 15 stones? Well, I got that today. And an extra pound to boot! Today I bounded out of the bathroom weighing 15 stone 12 lbs, so today, I scratch not one, but TWO goals off my list 😀 – get in the fifteens AND lose 10% of my body weight 😀

My next two goals now are – another 3lb will give me my 2 stone lost and 4lbs will put my BMI under 40.

Hubby has also lost 2lbs this morning, he’s lost a respectable 17lb too in the same amount of time. I attribute this to all the walking we’ve done this week, it just goes to show it does help to get the weightloss shifting.

So Thelma and Brenda are happy today 🙂

Save me a cookie too. I’m going to have a crack at the pastry this afternoon, I’ve bought some lean minced beef and the plan is to make a minced beef and onion (and extra veggies in) pie. Just a crust on top of it though.

My lemon and blueberry scones were out of this world too. It’s a good job I froze the rest of the batch because hubby was hankering after another. Less milk next time though and they might look more like scones than extra thick cookies 🙂

Josie, just realised I missed your post last night – preserved lemons? Why on earth did you buy those??

woo hoo to you thats is bloody amazing !!!! you go girl !!! ( and hubby too)!
you must see a difference and feel it too
i have done the inches and in total i have lost 2/3inches of my bust ( seems to bee staying put for some reason here 5 inches of my waist and 2/3 of my hips but i am always going to have a booty !!! always have !!!
its the clothes were i see a difference i have decieded when i reach my first goal and clothes that are a big size are going i am going to be brutal !!!!!
have you done your cinderella bit yet ( trying stuff on etc!!) ?
and i agree about the walking think it made a difference for me this week !

I can feel it in my clothes, I don’t see it in the mirror yet, but hubby says so. I mean, it’s nearly 2 stone so I must look a bit different. I need to take underwear pics Saturday, I haven’t done so for two weeks. I’ll probably see it better putting the start and now ones side by side.

That is a brilliant inch loss, Tokyo, and 5 inches from your waist? That’s amazing. I’ve done nowhere near that yet, so it goes to show we’re all different and it shows in different ways 🙂

I haven’t done yet, no, my in laws are in my room until later. When they go out for the day (I’m not going today) I might just do that, take some time for me. I won’t have too many clothes that are going to be too big for me, because when I’m big, I don’t buy clothes only what I need and then it tends to be from charity shops. But the wardrobe I have in ready and waiting for me in smaller sizes… I am chomping at the bit to get into them! It’s pouring with rain here so once I have done my housework and bits I am going to get on the treadmill and make sure I reach my 10,000 steps today.

your braver than me taking underwear pic!! i have visions of taking them on my phone and pressing the wrong button and sending them to the whole universe !!!! can you imagine !!!
i think the weight loss you have achieved is amazing better than this bunch in lorraine !!! bikini plus one shes just feeding them dates !!!!!! omg now davina mcall is on now about weight should she join the paltrow cotton club?

What I do is take them, upload them to my pc and rename them, and the file extension 😉 So if someone were to find my pics on my computer it might say ‘Chickpea flour wrap 1.doc’ but really it’s ‘Underwear pic week 1.jpg’. Then delete from your phone (and cloud if it’s on there 😉 ) When you want to look at them, just rename the file back to .jpg 🙂 Sorted!

Dates???? No thanks lol. I’m not sure about Davina, she doesn’t seem too bad, just churns out DVDs every year or so, doesn’t she? I think I bought one from Poundland once, and I did ten minutes then sat watching the rest of it with a kebab and a bottle of wine 🙂 Not joking 🙂

Well I tried the paleo cookies to the recipe. Ychafi! Salty much!!?? They went straight in the bin. I remade them with the tinniest pinch pf salt and they were lovely!

In other news, on my way home yesterday something possessed me to do up the top button of my shirt. Normally this would be quite restrictive, but to my delight there was room for a few fingers in there! Inspired I tried on a suit that I haven’t been able to wear for about a year. Would you believe it, not only do I fit in it, it’s too bloody big! Again inspired, I tried on the suit that I’ve never worn, and that just about fits too! It’s a little on the snug side, but only just, so I reckon I’ll be in that for sure by mid summer.

I also tried on the tux that I bought for honeymoon. It was too tight really, but I ACTUALLY MANAGED TO GET IN IT!

Well chuffed. This really works. I’m 0.5kg down today too.

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Are you another Cymro Timmy??? Ychafi??? That made me smile 😀 Great that the cookies worked eventually, just a shame all this trial and error is so costly! Did you see the ones Tokyo posted last night, the chocolate chickpea flour ones???? Holy pooballs they looked lovely, although they do say we eat with our eyes.

That’s absolutely fab news about all your clothes, between you and Tokyo, you’ve (almost) inspired me to go up to my bedroom and raid my wardrobe now they’ve all gone caravan hunting. The only problem is I have loads of ironing to do… What’s that? It can wait because I may be ironing clothes that don’t fit anymore and will only end up going to the charity shop? Oh, ok!

It does really work. It does. Not yet four weeks in and nearly 2 stone down. It’s the stuff of fairytales.

Not that I’m a Cymro, mind, I’m a Cymraes 😛

Yeah I’m a Jack. Really speaking I’m a mixture of everything. Born in Scotland to a Scottish mother and Welsh father. Moved back to Swansea when I was 4. Grew up there so I consider myself 60% Welsh and 40% Scottish!

Moved to Sais-land when I was 19 and have been here for the last 20 years! So I’m a true Brit.

I’m a hybrid too, Welsh Mum, English dad. Sais-land 😂👍🏽. I did a stint there but home is where the heart is. I go back to Manchester for gigs (concerts really, but I want to sound hip 😂) but there’s no way I could live in a big city again. I’ve never been to South Wales which is pretty shameful really.

‘Louise’ signing in.. good morning Thelma, Brenda and Timmy (it’s beginning to sound like a Famous Five book.. all we need is a Fanny… STOP) Great to hear that you are all rapidly reducing people (not as in dwarves) 😀 As you all know, I do not weigh but I looked at myself in the mirror in my underwear last night and realised there’s a lot LESS of me than there was 2 months ago!! Happy dance on the landing! Some clothes are actually beginning to look a bit silly because they are hanging off me! I’m resisting the temptation to SHOP, SHOP, SHOP but it is my birthday in a couple of weeks and my boss confirmed I hit my half year bonus this morning so maybe a leeeeeeetle trip out……

Timmy – salt in the cookies?? I must’ve missed that because I put none in at all! That was a costly trial for you then 🙁 The über choccy cookies that Tokyo found online look the business.. I may try my hand! Josie – preserved lemons?? Just.. why??? I think I have seen one recipe ever that requires them???? I challenge you to use the jar up before, say… 2020!!

Lucky – sod the ironing and go and try clothes on. We need to know how they’re fitting! 2 st and several inches off will have to open up many more options in the wardrobe for you.. like Narnia???

By the way, I’m NOT Welsh but I have been to Wales.. does that count??!

Morning Janey! Oh my God, you just reminded me of something there. When I was young, I’d say 7 – 9, I was (and still am) an avid reader, and my Mum used to buy me a hardback Enid Blyton book every time one came out, and I built up a lovely little library. Brer Rabbit. Amelia Jane. The Naughtiest Girl in The School. And then there was a series called The Faraway Tree. My favourite. Remember that? Anyway. After I grew up, my Mum passed them down to my cousin, with the instruction to look after them, as she wanted them to go to my children when I had them. The time came. My youngest three sat on the bottom bunk, ready and waiting for me to start reading a few chapters of my favourite. I didn’t get many pages in, because the children were called Jo, Bessie and Fanny. My children were crying tears of mirth, I was crying tears of frustration. I have up after about ten pages. Thank God I didn’t get around to when cousin Dick visited, is all I can say.

I think they’ve been reprinted now, with Jo, Beth and Frannie. And cousin Dick is now cousin Rick. Phew.

Oh you must go on a spreeeeeeee! You’ve earned it!

Narnia, eh? This could be interesting… I’m going to just finish off down here and I will multitask, trying clothes on while cleaning bathroom and keeping too-big clothes 🙂

well done timmy everyone having a ” cinderella” moment ( i have no idea why i call it that but i am sticking to it !!!!!!
cant wait to hear bout your clothes trying on lucky
and for info i am making cookies this afternoon so will post results in the league table of bsd ( bloody strange / delicious? !!) do you see what i did there !!!!
i too am not welsh as mentioned yesterday BUT i used to be dragged on holiday to a farmhouse just outside pwillheli and my favourite place was llanbedrog ( excuse spellings !!) because it had a shop that sold and i am not making this up enid blyton books my favourite were the books about mallory towers and was it st clares i think! so thats my link
aa timmy would say BOOOOM. off to have accupuncture now oom !!!!