Week 1 (in which I eat the world's most pathetic snack)

I'm not going to lie: during the first week on the plan, there were points when I felt pretty hungry. I think this is down to a couple of reasons – my stomach needed time to shrink to a size where proper portion sizes are enough to fill it; and I should have eaten more vegetables, as they really fill you up for barely any calories at all. 

I knew that vegetables were low in calories, of course, but I didn't quite realise how low. A spring onion is five calories, for goodness sake! FIVE! I know that shouldn't be groundbreaking, but it's the little things that count, I suppose. I bloody love spring onions. Watch out for sweetcorn and peas though - they might be a bit higher in calories than you might imagine.

Could you be the saddest snack in the world?

The lowest point of my week came on the Saturday night. Only four days into the plan, and with my stomach not quite shrunk to the ideal size for my new portions, I decided to treat myself by creating my own 'cheesecake' recipe with a couple of crushed up biscuits, a smidge of butter, low fat soft cheese, yoghurt and fruit. (This wasn't the low point – it was quite nice, actually.)

Because the cheesecake was 200 calories, I only had 112 calories left for snacks for the day. I'd eaten tea early, so I became rather hungry later on. However, instead of choosing any of the following delicious looking 100 calorie choices, I went for a contender for the world's saddest snack. Brace yourselves.


Here it is.

Look at it. Pathetic.

Just a sweet potato. On its own. That was my snack. Sigh. I suppose I did put salt on it so that sort of makes two ingredients, at least. 

The rest of the food that I prepared for myself was nutritious and delicious, though, and within just a few days my stomach stopped growling so much and I started to feel more energetic. By the start of week two, I'm beginning to feel full before I've used up all of my calories for the day – which means I'm able to have a couple of vodka and diet cokes (55 calories! Hello!) without feeling like I'm starving myself! Hooray!

Here are a few of the meals and snacks that I've made for myself this week. If any take your fancy, just let me know and I'll point you in the direction of the recipe :-)

Cheesy blueberry crackers. 280 calories

Forest fruit cheesecakes, 198 calories each

No-fry fry-up, 413 calories

Brilliant banana bagels, 284 calories

Veggie cobbler with scones, 405 calories per portion (there are four portions here)

SUPER DUPER TIP OF THE WEEK

Buy a small plate. Seriously. This is a meal that I made last night, which on our bigger plates would look like a normal portion, but on here looks like a huge pile of food.

Using a smaller plate has really made a difference to my attitude to portion sizes. I know that I'm eating from a smaller plate, but I still really feel like I have more food than when I eat from a large one. I can't explain it, but it works. The human brain is a strange thing! I picked up this plate for about 30p from the charity shop down the road – so even if the plate thing doesn't work for you, at least you don't need to have spent a fortune on trying it!

Next week, I'll let you know how I get on with my first forays into exercise in rather a long while...

Thanks for reading! :-)