Back on deck

It really feels like forever since I've written anything decent about my weight loss journey. This can be attributed to things like uni assignments taking up all my time that wasn't spent sleeping.

My last recorded weight loss was 17 October 2012, when I weighed in at 83.5kg, just 500g from my 83kg goal set for 31 October 2012. Key words recorded weight loss.
In those two weeks, in fact, in just one week, on 24 October 2012, I weighed 85kg. I put on one and a half kilos in a week. I wasn't surprised, I'd barely slept, had consumed obscene amounts of carbs and sodium, and was stressed to the max so was in lots of pain. Thanks, uni, thanks. Go back and read all about it here. 

Enough of all that sourness and negativity already. I'm back, and I'm ready to do this shit! Not that I haven't been ready all along, assignments are just pooh and occupied my free time.

On Sunday, my girl F posted a picture of her dinner on her Facebook page. Now, I'm pretty sure I had already eaten by that stage, but I became all shades of hungry again when I saw it. What did she make for dinner? Oh, just the tastiest prawn salad ever.
Warning: am really not happy with this photo. My phone was flat and I had to resort to using A's, which I'm not particularly fond of. Add this to the fact I was ravenous and I was getting pretty darned shitty with the photo-taking procedure.

Prawn and Mango Salad

So, like I said, this recipe came from my girl, F. Also, I am terrible at remembering to take step-by-step pictures. I like to get things done without any interruptions, perhaps that's why. I think we did this slightly different to F, but the results were pretty impressive. I'm also not a whiz in the kitchen, so my terminology may not be so sound.

Ingredients:

• Green prawn meat (thawed)
• Cherry tomatoes
• Mango
• Bean sprouts/shoots (whatever they're called, I'm too lazy to go to the fridge and look)
• Mesclun salad mix
• Canola oil (so the prawns don't stick to the pan)
• Olive oil (for the dressing)
• Lemon (fresh juice for the dressing) 
• Salt and pepper to taste (we use rock salt and peppercorns in our grinders)

     

Method:

1. Heat canola oil in pan
2. De-vein prawns, cut cherry tomatoes in half.
3. Cook prawns; add tomatoes once prawns are cooked and heat through.
4. Rest prawns and tomatoes; rinse mesclun mix and bean shoots.
5. Dice mango.
6. Add olive oil and fresh lemon juice as desired to prawns and tomatoes, stir through.
7. Layer salad: Mesclun, bean shoots, mango, prawn and tomato with dressing mix.
8. Serve.

That's it. Really simple. My kind of cooking. Mind you, all I did was steps 1, 3, 7 and 8. A did the others as he's a champion in the kitchen (kinda comes with being an ex-chef, I guess).

Along with cooking that delicious dinner last night, this morning is Wednesday Weigh In. Wasn't too sure how things would look this morning. I stepped on the scales with trepidation (okay, maybe trepidation is a slight exaggeration, but you understand what I mean). I waited til they stopped before looking down. I could see the line that represents 85kg AND the line that represents 84kg! Woohoo! I made it, even if only a week late! I got to 83kg at long last!
Writing that sentence, it has just dawned on me - I HAVE LOST 15 KILOGRAMS since 18 April 2012. When I was weight myself this morning, I was just excited to see 83kg and the fact I was one step closer to losing 5kg by NYE this year to have lost 20kg. I clearly did not switch my brain on til now: 20 - 5 = 15.

Anyway, enough with the numbers, and back to food.
Routine has been missed so much in this house over the last few weeks, possibly even the last month. My half-arsed attempts to meal plan have been exactly that, half-arsed, and we've eaten lots of carbs in the evening, something my body doesn't understand anymore.
Today, I'm able to get back on the meal planning bandwagon, and so far, we have the following on the list (please note these are mostly dinner ideas):

• Wednesday: home made pizzas
• Thursday: One-pan chicken and chickpeas
• Friday: Meat curry 
• Saturday: Fishy wraps
• Sunday: Lunch: Green Bean and Quinoa salad, meat and salad rolls/wraps, crackers and other assorted healthy snacks Dinner: Whatever we buy at Harvest
• Monday: Lamb with spicy chickpeas
• Tuesday: Roast with veges

So, now that list is actually written, let's see how well we can stick to it. I am fairly confident everything will be fine though. On that note, I best go check out the kitchen situation so I can compile the list of items required in the groceries this afternoon!

Toodaloo!