What BeeBee Cooked: Slow Cooker Chicken Chow Mein

I have been relying quite heavily on ready meals and sandwiches since going back into the office. 

Instead of financing the local Tescos, I have taken to making my own meals on a weekend. Portioning them up and then storing them in the freezer. 

This is my Slow Cooker Chow Mein. I love it mainly as it is really simple to make. Also because it only really gives me one pot to wash up! God love the slow cooker. This makes 4 portions for me.

Ingredients: 

Skinned chicken portions
500ml Chicken stock
One bag of stir-fried vegetables (if you're being lazy like me) or a mixture of finely chopped veggies. 
Packet of dried egg noodles.
Garlic, grated - to taste I often use a tsp of garlic paste
Fresh ginger, grated - to taste or a sprinkling of ginger powder
1/3 cup Soy sauce (ish)

Method:













In your slow cooker (set to high) poach the chicken portions in the chicken stock, soy sauce, garlic and ginger for roughly 3 hours. 

When cooked through remove the chicken and set aside to cool slightly. Shred the meat and return to the pot. 













In the meantime, add the veggies to the stock for about 30 mins.












Add the dried noodles. 












Make sure the noodles are covered by the liquor. Leave until the noodles are cooked through, this should take between 15-30 minutes. All the stock should have be absorbed into the noodles. 












Return the chicken to the pot. 

Mix through. 













Serve and eat. 

Or cool and freeze.

Dieting Rollercoaster... failure

This past couple of weeks have not been good.

Carrying on from the tooth pains of the previous week I've been wallowing in my insecurities over life events at the bottom of a packet. You name it, I've probably hit the bottom of it at some point.

I wasn't going to write about it, then I thought where is the use in that. Ignoring the problem in the vague hope that it will just go away.

I've still not got on the scales as I don't want to see just how much I have gained again, but I can feel in my skin that it isn't going to be pretty.

Tapping into the reasons why I want to be smaller is key, my heart must be in it and right now it isn't.

It's a shame that you can't just throw money at it for the problem to go away.

Holistic treatment for life is required. Finding that happy balance where I don't go searching.

Stress is a trigger for me. I have spent a lot of time lately feeling unbalanced and tense. With no real down time. Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. I don't want to let anything go by and feel the need to live life to the fullest. This is also my downfall as I don't sit down so much as fall down.

Dieting Rollercoaster #3

Another week knocked off.

Still not feeling particularly easy. Or straight forward.

It has been helped slightly this week by the fact I have had excruciating toothache and some major dental work over the weekend.

I lost 2lbs this week, bringing my total so far to 3lbs.

There has been a couple of non-scale victories this week. I managed to not break into my sweets chocolate cravings for 3 days. My work trousers now fit comfortably. Which is a first for this particular pair, and I was too stubborn to go get a bigger pair, partially as I got them to replace another pair that were the same size, just a different cut.

What I have done this week is an amalgam of a few different bits and bobs.

I have recently been reading a little about something called Carb Cycling. What that involves is a mix of low carb days and higher carb days, adding to that 2 fist-sized portions of vegetables.

This does sound an awful lot like Slimming World's Red and Green days with a bit of Success Express thrown in for good measure. What you don't need to do though is count your syns. It is encouraged to eat protein in the form of nuts and seeds. Not unlimited but also not a portioned measure (although I do err between 10 and 20).

I have taken to eating 6 times a day. Making a concerted effort to eat breakfast, this has mainly been Porridge of one sort of or another. Followed swiftly by either some omelette bites or an apple with almonds (the almonds stop the apple giving me stomach ache). Lunch has been either leftovers from the night before or a ham salad). Afternoon snack has been soup or satsumas (dependant on how hungry I am). Tea has been a mixed bag again.

Overall I have been trying to reduce my portion size and up my veggies. Something seems to be working somewhere. I did however have a diet meltdown on Friday night though, after being overtired and in pain.

My fitbit has been used everyday. Strangely I appear to walk much more than I expected in the office. Using the company car park has been helping get to the 5k a day mark. I'm not sure how I'm going to get to 10k at the moment in the limited time that I have. I think I will need to release the power that is the treadmill before long, and have my car keys taken away from me when I am at home!

Here's to the next week. Which after a weekend of takeaways and nice coffees could be interesting to reign back in .

Dieting Rollercoaster #2

Since announcing last week that I was back to watching what I ate, and logging my meals on myfitnesspal.com I can announce that I lost 1lb.

A single solitary pound.

I was fully expecting more. And when I got on the scales I was all geed up to write isn't this an amazing thing. All I did was cut back on blah and ate more of bleugh.

I'm not feeling that I can do that. I did have the quiche bites as a snack.

I've moved to eating more regularly. A little something every 2-3 hours. I didn't manage to move much this week at all. This is the reason I didn't lose more. Sadly most of my day is spent sitting on my bum typing and reading, and due to illness and work I didn't get to do my usual evening activities and spent most of it again either sat on my bum or sleeping. Oh what an exciting life I lead.

My Fitness goal for this week is to walk 5k steps per day.

This is much more than I do at the moment.

I will be working towards the magic number of 10,000 steps per day by the end of October.

To help me with these goals I have bought myself a Fitbit Zip Activity Tracker. It is a digital pedometer that you can use in conjunction with other apps and record your steps, once you sync it with either your phone or the website and input your personal data it will calculate how many calories you burn just sitting as well as during the exercise that you are partaking in.

What I like about the Zip above some of the other products fitbit have to offer is the simplicity. Out of it's holder it is roughly the size of a 50p. There are no buttons to catch, or accidentally reset. I also like that the clip means you can choose where you wear it. Either on your waistband or trouser pocket like with a regular ped. Or on the bra. 

I'm loving the bra wearing myself. It's discreet, you can check on it and your progress quiet easily without wrenching about and adding extra steps to it. Although I reckon a few looks could be given if I decide to check in the car park at the office... must remember that windows are see through. 

Saturday was my first day wearing it, and in the afternoon and up until bedtime, I only did 1,953 steps. This is why I decided to get this little device. A little something that means I can track how much exercise I am sneaking in during the day. Especially on a busy shift in the office where I don't get to move away from my desk, I am hoping that it will gee me into some extra action, and a bit of competition with myself too.

I also like that I can earn badges for the weight that you lose, which is about the only thing I that I do miss from going to weight loss groups, the shiny stickers and the mid week gee up that a pep talk from someone else managed to give you.

You can also log your food, sleeping patterns, different activities all on the interactive Fitbit website. Which also has a comprehensive help section and forums too.

I got mine in green from Amazon for £32.28 - however the prices vary wildly, seemingly dependant on the colour you want. Or from Fitbit for £49.99.

You can follow my Diet Rollercoaster on Twitter where I'm @dietbeebee 

Beware: whinging and moaning is par for the course on that profile. 

Plus-Sized Blogger

It is hard to deny that I am plus-sized. I'm at best a size 28 right now.

I am also a blogger. So ergo, ipso facto and other ponsy phrases I could use, I am a plus-sized blogger.

However, I don't completely identify with the plus-sized moniker.

I'm not embarrassed about my size, however I'm also not comfortable being this size either.

I do watch what I eat. Otherwise I would be, and have been, even bigger than I am now. I regularly fluctuate between a size 22 and a 32/24. I have managed to hold steady around the 26/28 mark for the last year.

I'm not impressed with myself. I'm also not angry.

I have been a larger than the average person now for many, many, many years. I'm not saying I can't lose weight, because I can and I have. I don't blame anyone except myself and my fondness of the sofa and chocolate and cheese.

I'm not happy at this size. Being so large affects my mood on an almost daily basis. I yearn to do many things that I don't feel comfortable even trying.

I feel for my kids, and the kids that I am an assistant leader to at Scouts, Brownies and Rangers. I want to be a role model to these kids. Part of my job is to show them the best way forward in their lives and help them make the most of the opportunities presented to them.

I'm not the average fat girl though. I go hiking, however my balance isn't great at times and on my last night hike I fell. At my size it created a lot of pain for the rest of the week. Pain I medicated with sugar, which led to a gain on the scales of 6lbs in just 1 week. Not a good moment.

So now I'm back on the trail of trying to not obsess over the little things, in all avenues of my life. Along with the longer hours I am currently putting in the office I need to look after myself that bit better. Making sure that I don't get sick or run down.

You can join me on my eternal journey to find long-lasting balance here.

This is my dieting rollercoaster after all.