june - one year on

Woo - it is now a year since my reversal operation - and thus a whole year since I last had a drop of alcohol .. cool ..

My weight loss has pretty much stalled -- a little over 4 stones -- I'd still like to lose another stone or two -- but hey, it's good and it'll be ok eitehr way ..

I've also been getting very strong on the bike - and my new target is to do Alpe d'huez and Mont Ventoux in France this year ... I think this is really possible cos I have been training at accelerating up hills to build my stamina .. on hills that B tells me are the same sort of gradient .. only you have to do it for two solid hours! LOL

I've never actually cycled an alpine climb b4 - tho I've done the foothills of mont ventoux and seen them all in the car - domestique-ing for brigid .. well now she'll have to peel the bananas for me!

end of march

It is nearly ten months since my reversal operation, and I've been keeping to a good healthy eating regime the whole time since ...

My rate of weight loss has slowed, but this weekend I clocked in four stone lighter than I was at the start of June ...

I am pleaed with this progress and can't quite belive that I'm still finding it relatively easy to stick with it

:)

Another soup

I made this from just what I happened to have in, looking a bit worn out and sorry for themselves really - but it turned out to be a good sweet combo for a mildly spicy soup tha I'll probably do again:

This makes four massive portions

two onions
tablespoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cardomom
ghee or veg oil

three or four parsnips
1/2 celeriac
two carrots
one sweet potato

1.5 litres chicken stock

Fry the onion in some ghee until starting to brown, add the spices and warm them through, but be careful not to over-heat

Add the stock and the other veg, which need to to be chopped.

Cook until tender, upto 1/2 an hour depending on toughness and age of the roots!

Puree - reheat if necessary

Check seasoning

serve with a little melt of ghee or butter and some broken walnut pieces sprinked on the top ...

:)

more 1/2 term

Well, me n the missis went back to strict "health farm" with healthy food and cycling on five consecutive days .. but I still don't seem to have lost anything this is a bit of a surprise. Maybe there were just too many pub-lunches and hidden extras that made a difference ..

Or it could be the old "muscle weighs more than fat" thingy! My legs are certainly very strong now after all the hill work I've been able to do .. including up to Lask Edge from Rudyard and up to AXE EDGE from Longnor -- that is such a fun ride .. reall slog up then a brilliant descent on another road back to the village!

I bought myself a jacket in TKMaxx and a couple of tops to snap up my wardrobe into a slightly more funky look, size 16, which feels a lot better than size 22! I don't want to spend much on clothes that wont be around for long, but need the encouragement of actually looking better .. TKMaxx is great for that!

1/2 term

I've lost three and 1/2 stones since my operation in June last year, which has been a good steady loss of about 2 pounds a week, most weeks.

This has been going good, but last week I had a blip, with no loss at all, mainly induced by too much snacking on sweet treats at work. I was glad to get to half term, cos my missis will keep a good eye on me and get me back on track.

To this end we are being very busy, gardening on Saturday, a few miles up and down the Tissington trail on Sunday and a staggering 25 miles today .. well I was staggering by the time we got back .. we were out for nearly three hours, non-stop and the reason it was a fairly low average speed is cos we did some good hills. In particular I stayed on for most of the climb up to Lask Edge from Rudyard ... not an easy climb. It was worth it though, the views from there are really good, you can see out all around across past Mow Cop into Cheshire on one side, and across to Morridge on the other side, and the Cloud behind . lovely.. especially as the weather was kind to us, no rain and quite bright mlost of the time we were out, really.

We had tomato soup and homemade bread for lunch when we got back, very tasty. Then we had jacket spud and a sort of waldorf salad with radishes and no mayo... it is really nice. If I carry on being this strict I reckon I'l be back on target at the next weigh in.

cauli curry

half a sweet potato - cubed
small cauliflower - small florets

large onion finely sliced
tin of tomatoes

ghee or veg oil (small as you can)
four cloves garlic
slice of ginger - finely chopped together

tsp ground coriander
tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp turmeric

boil the sweet spud for about ten minutes, when starting to soften add the cauli and boil both till soft

meanwhile fry garlic and ginger till soft
add spices and fry a bit more
add tinned tomatoes and mix well .. might need a drop of water as well

when veg are soft drain them and add to tomatoe sauce ... at this point you could serve straight away, but I put it in the oven on gas 4 to blend more and soften so the cauli was a soft as butter .. and really good to eat

served this with spinach and a left over jacket pototo which I cut into small cubes and cooked together with a bit more ghee and some chilli, fennel seeds and a pinch of powdered cardomom .....

this is an inspired spice combo, suggested to me from a diferent Madhur Jaffries recipe

christmas 2008 - lanzarote 4

Christmas lunch - well lunch nearly every day, crackers and mojo sauce! See the atlantic in the background? The waves were rolling in on the cliffs below us here, and there wasn't another soul in sight.

christmas 2008 - lanzarote 3

These three pics are all in the side of the volcano that rises above Papagayo beaches. We peddled out here on Christmas day, totally empty, and sort of beautiful in its own desolate way. The blue sky and crashing waves made it better than it looks here!

christmas 2008 - lanzarote 2

christmas 2008 - lanzarote