Keeping it secret makes it a bit harder

I've fallen foul of my need for secrecy again. I didn't tell Mum about watching what I'm eating, and she made a lovely dinner last night, which I ate with appreciation. But it was relatively high calorie compared to what I've eaten this week. It was lamb, veg and potato rosti. Everything was okay except the rosti. Lamb is a rich meat, but it's not as if I ate a whole leg, so that was okay. But the rosti were from Marks & Spencer, so they were mass produced. Very nice, but not entirely healthy. And definitely not low calorie. Still, Mum makes quite small portions in comparison to what TMM and I dish up, so it wasn't entirely beyond redemption. I mean, she's not stingy with her food. Far from it. And I never leave a meal hungry. But TMM and I are completely greedy hallions, so we really pile the plate up.  

She then handed me a bowl of stewed apple with natural yogurt and toasted seeds. I couldn't turn it down. Well, in fairness, I didn't want to turn it down. Again, it wasn't a massive portion, but it was more than enough. And it was a sensible sized portion that any normal mortal would have been more than happy with. I was more than happy with it. It was delicious, and a really nice dessert. Healthy too. There weren't too many seeds to make it heavy in cals. In all, I was a very full, satisfied wee bunny after dinner last night, and only a couple of hundred cals over. Then, yes, there's more, she gave me a square of dark chocolate. About ten grammes worth, I reckon. And it would have been totally out of character to refuse it, so I didn't. I really don't want to tip her off yet about the weight loss. So I took the hit. 

Today, TMM and I met for lunch. He was working in the morning, so we went to a local cafe and had a burger each. It wasn't the best choice on the menu, but as it wasn't the worst either I didn't feel too guilty. But after a breakfast of scrambled eggs and smoked salmon on toast, it's made for another day over my target. I had no spread on my toast at brekkie, and the toast was low cal Nimble bread, so some consolation there. But the last two days haven't been great. When I ate out last week, it was doable because I'd had a light breakfast. That wasn't the case today. I'd forgotten that until I wrote it down. That's what I mean about writing keeping me accountable. Even if it's after the fact, it's useful. I can act on it next time.

In order to make up for a cooked breakfast and quite a heavy lunch, I made my homemade Sweet Red Pepper and Chilli Soup for tea. TMM won't eat much in the evening after we've eaten lunch out, but I get hungry again later, so I need to, or I will go to bed feeling very deprived. The soup is a go to idea for something low in cals, but high in fibre and general satisfaction. It has the bonus benefit that I can eat as much of it as I like, without feeling as if I'm over indulging. TMM won't eat this at all, as he thinks that the five spice in it is the devil's vomit, so it's all mine! Teehee.

It's simply made, and quickly prepared. It's just the cooking time that slows it down slightly. I take three red peppers and three onions, chop them very roughly and throw into a large pot. Add three chicken stock cubes. This makes the recipe quite high in salt, so I'd recommend doing that to taste. Two might be enough for someone else. Then I add some chilli flakes, Chinese Five Spice and powdered sweetener. Again these are to taste. I use about two teaspoons of five spice and a good heaped teaspoon of the dried chilli flakes. That makes for a relatively spicy soup. I use about two tablespoons of sweetener. To all this, I add about a litre of water and see how gloopy that makes it. It's easy to add more later if it's too thick. I let it simmer for ages, till the onions and peppers are really soft. Then blend it all with a hand held blender. Et voila! Sweet red pepper and chilli soup. This is also really tasty as a pasta sauce. Just add a lot less water and once it's blended to more of a thick sauce consistancy rather than a soup, add cooked chicken and/or smoked bacon, possibly mushrooms too. It's yummy that way. 

The last couple of days lead me to try not to have my hopes too high for my weigh in tomorrow. I'm weighing after only six days instead of seven, and I haven't stuck to 1240 cals for three out of those six days. A two pound loss does not seem likely to be on the cards. I will try to content myself with whatever happens (easy said!) However, even my slightly off days have been low in cals when weighed against how I was eating two weeks ago, so I'm hopeful of a small loss, and I'm happy that I'm getting a little healthier every day, regardless of what I do or don't lose this week.