I tried this whilst on my recent cruise, even though I don’t like celery (I thought I’d pick it out but it was actually quite nice), and I enjoyed it so much, I decided to recreate it. It’s so quick and easy to make and it’s ideal to pack up and take to work for lunch.
Servings: 1
Smart Points: 2 per serving
Time to make: 5 mins (+time to cook the chicken breast)
What you need:
1 grilled chicken, thickly sliced
1/2 eating apple, chopped into bitesize chunk
handful of grapes, halved
1/2 stick of celery, thinly sliced
3 walnut halves
2tbsp 0% fat Greek yogurt
lettuce leaves
What to do:
Put the apple, grapes and celery into a small bowl. Break in the walnut halves and add the yogurt. Stir until everything is coated.
Top the lettuce leave with the yogurt-covered mixture and top with the chicken.
Top Tip: I cook an extra chicken breast when I’m making my dinner then it’s ready to go into this delicious salad.
It’s not all about the alcohol here on Drink of the Week!
I’m a BIG fan of tea and enjoy trying all different types
and flavours. I also love to dunk biscuits into my tea but I don’t love the Smart
Points values that come with them! So imagine my delight when I came across
these bad boys whilst doing my weekly shop.
Now, my tea-purist relatives turned their noses up when I
mentioned it to them, but, having tried a cup, many have been won over.
So what’s it like? Well, it’s just like tea and Rich Tea
biscuits but without the sludge of crumbs that end up at the bottom of your mug
when you dunk. Because it’s made by Taylors of Harrogate (the finest purveyors
of English Breakfast tea IMHO), you also get a strong brew, which isn’t always
the case with flavoured black teas. What’s more, if you make it using milk from
an allotted allowance for the day as I do, it costs you 0 Smart Points! What’s
not to love?
If you have any tea recommendations, please let me know. Mr FFF says I’ve got far too many varieties in the cupboard as it is, but what does he know?!
It’s been going on for weeks. Mr FFF knows and is all for it. The ‘someone’ I’ve been seeing is a personal trainer and so far, it’s going well.
I made the decision back at the beginning of the summer. I have a personal training session once a week and then I go independently another 2 times. My reasoning for paying more on top of my gym membership for PT sessions is that I’m an obliger* – I find it difficult to meet expections that I set for myself but easy(er) to meet someone else’s expections of me. I don’t want to turn up to my PT session on a Saturday and have to say to my trainer that I haven’t been since I last saw him.
I’ve also chosen to go with a gym program for a couple of reasons, despite the fact that I’ve previously always found the gym to be mind-numbingly boring. Historically, I’ve always preferred to attend group exercise classes such as Zumba, Step and Body Pump. I love the music and find that I push myself harder when there is an instructor watching me (there’s that obliger tendancy again). However, my busy schedule during term time means that meeting or training sessions sometimes cause me to miss a class. The problem is, rather than simply going again the following week, this can be enough of an excuse to kick me out of the habit. Going to the gym, however, means that although I’ll still have scheduled times for attending, if I can’t make it for some reason, I can simply go at another time that day or during the same week as I’m not relying on a class timetable.
I’ve been going since the second week in July and so far haven’t missed a session, even when I was on holiday. Before I went, I also booked a PT session for my usual time on the day I came back from holiday to get me straight back into the swing of my healthy lifestyle rather than letting any holiday laziness continue until the following Monday.
So far, it seems to be working and I’m seeing small steps of progress. I’m already lifting heavier weights than I was when I started and finding it easier to do so. The thing I am most proud of is that I can now do 3x 1 minute planks. Previously, I’d always struggled to get to 30 seconds when doing them in a group class, but when there’s someone sitting right next to you with a stopwatch in hand watching only you, (that obliger tendancy kicks in again) you dig that bit deeper.
The real test is going to come now that I’m back at work and have to exercise afterwards rather than getting it done out of the way first thing in the morning. I’ll update you in a few weeks and let you know how I’m getting on.
Thanks for reading,
FFF
What are your top tips for keeping to your exercise routine when you’re busy with work? Let me know in the comments section.
(*For more information on obligers and to find out whether you are an obliger, upholder, questions or rebel, visit Gretchen Rubin’s website to find out about her Four Tendencies Framework.)
Cheesecake is one of my favourite foods ever. So when I saw a recipe for a breakfast cheesecake, I had to try it, even though it sounded a bit weird. However, with so much soft cheese and sugar, it was pretty high in Smart Points value so here’s my recipe for a slimmed down version.
Servings: 10
Smart Points: 4 per serving
What you need:
75g low fat spread
650g low fat soft cheese
2 eggs
60g oats
juice and rind of one orange
4 tablespoons sweetener (I used Stevia)
pinch of salt
What to do:
Heat the oven to 170C/Gas Mark 3. Line a 23cm springform tin with baking paper.
Beat the cheese until smooth then stir in the rest of the ingredients using 1tbsp of the orange juice.
Scrape the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about 25 minutes until it is just set with a hint of wobbliness in the middle.
Serve hot, warm, cold or at room temperature with fruit coulis.
Top Tip: For ease, I line the baking tin roughly by pushing in a rectangular sheet of paper. It gives the cheesecake slices a ‘rustic’ look but saves faffing about cutting out strips and circles of paper.
Fat Fighting Foodie 