In the business of losing weight I think that sometimes you don’t feel like you’re winning unless the scales show a reduction in number. All the effort you put in can feel, frustratingly, a waste of time and in finding out at your weigh in you have stayed the same or put on some weight everything good that you did that week disappears out of your mind and we only focus on the negative and bad things we did previous to the weigh in. I am guilty of this, but this week my BFF Gemma, pointed out to me something called “a non scale victory” and I just thought that was the most fantastic concept.
Basically a non scale victory could be resisting a pudding when you’re out for a meal and feeling good about it rather than deprived because it’s a non scale victory! Or going for run or walk when the weather conditions are adverse.
I have found that whilst I am still under the effects of the depo injection and every pound I manage to lose takes a large amount of effort, that it is important to focus on all the small changes that I am making each day rather than what the scales say. Then when the effects of the injection finally wear off, I won’t have to particularly change my dieting behaviour to lose weight as I will already have all my good habits and exercise routine established.
This week I am focusing on drinking lots of water. Even though there was an article in the newspaper and it was on the radio that a new study has found that drinking lots of water has no more benefits than just drinking lots of any liquid, surely water is better than drinking litres of caffeine containing coffee! They’ll probably change their minds next week and there will be another study out saying it is of benefit.
The stand in leader at Weight Watchers on Tuesday was very very slim – the difference in seeing her and her before picture was astounding, one of the most dramatic leader “before and after” pictures I have seen. Looking at her, you would have thought maybe she’d lost a stone or something to get to goal. So if someone so slim that has achieved such a good loss and maintained it for 18 years, as she had, tells me to drink more water I am going to listen! So a daily non scale victory is drinking all of my 2 litres of water that I filter and pour into a bottle each morning. I have already had a pint of water and have yet to have a coffee!
My non-scale victory last night was making THE DELIA CURRY! Yesterday morning my special spices arrived to much excitement and glee. I got the tandoori masala blend from www.seasonedpioneers.co.uk and was so very impressed with the speed at which my spices arrived – I only ordered them Tuesday morning! I needed a few other ingredients which I picked up at lunch time, but the curry is very simple in that you don’t need lots of things to create it. The magic lies in the special seasoned pioneers spices!
So basically you brown your chicken – I used fry light, not the specified groundnut oil, I don’t think you can tell the difference and it does have an impact on your points! Take the browned chicken out of the pan. Using a mini-chopper, or my case, the chopper attachment to my stick blender, chop up an onion, 2 cloves garlic and some ‘Very Lazy Ginger’ from EPC. Blitz the mixture then adding more spray oil, fry the onion mixture gently for five minutes. Then stir in 4 teaspoons of the tandoori masala spice into the onion mixture for a minute or so, return the chicken to the pan, stir around to combine, then add a 200ml tub of half fat crème fraiche. Simmer gently with the lid on – I kept stirring as I was slightly concerned it might stick as it made a very thick sauce – for 15 minutes and that is it! It works out at 7.5 points a portion and makes enough for two!
Think Delia and her hubby like hot curries as the resulting gorgeous curry was very warm – ok for me as I like hotter curries, but TuT doesn’t like things too hot, so next time I make it, I will use 3 teaspoons of the spiced masala instead of four. A great success and makes you feel quite proud when you produce an authentic tasting curry without having used a jar!
So I ended the day well within my points even though I’d had a curry for tea and that made me happy. Another non scale victory scored!
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