How do you welcome the newest member of your team? You let him settle in, then ask him to write for the blog… fortunately for us, Matthew is a seasoned veteran (pun intended) of Slimming World, and was delighted to do so! Take it away Matthew!
So… Monday morning arrived last week, and I get a wee voice in my left ear telling me it’s my turn for the Biggest Loser Weekly Blog – to start from Friday just gone!!! Thanks team, you couldn’t have picked a worse candidate for words!!! Pictures I can do, but words….. hmmmmmm let’s see.
I’m very much a creature of habit and routine so Friday, like I do every morning, started with my usual bowl of cereal and my daily allowance of milk.
“Daily allowance of milk?” I hear you all ask. Well 10 months ago I joined Slimming World as it became apparent I needed to lose a few pounds and part of my daily routine is to use my 250ml daily allowance of semi-skimmed milk. Fast forward to today and so far my Slimming World story has netted me a 4 stone loss.
Again being said habitual creature I bring my lunch to work everyday, slimming world style, with Friday’s choice being left over pasta from Thursday evening’s tea.

At home I had my usual go for a walk with the dog before our evening meal, which, much to my stomach’s delight, was an amazing Mixed Grill! Again this was slimming world style… OK.. OK… Everything we eat at home is Slimming World style so I won’t keep mentioning it!
Saturday comes and goes with me photographing a wedding, at which I never find time to eat much, although I did “nibble” on a few slices of pizza off the evening buffet, but heck I was on my feet for most of the day so surely the buffet was balanced out?
Sunday rolls around, post wedding and always I’m not very active and glued to my mac editing photos. The usual breakfast is follow by a late lunch/early dinner of a glorious chicken dinner, all cooked slimming world style, with an Eton Mess for desert.

Monday morning blues once again, staying in bed as long as possible as I can still feel myself aching all over from the weekend’s events.
Breakfast as usual – cereal and milk, and then my nice healthy salad and a couple of slices of wafer thin ham, followed by a Muller Light Yoghurt for lunch.
Back home, and after the nightly dog walking session we settled down to chicken curry, rice and slimming world chips… Heaven!!! So all in all Monday was a good day!
Bring on Tuesday.. Official weigh in day at Slimming World. Start the day the right way as usual with my breakfast, followed at lunch time by a flask of home made leek and potato soup… I get on the scales at class, and BANG!!! That’s another 1lb off!!! Whoop Whoop!! Party Time!!
Evening meal after class is always a FAKE-AWAY!!! Tuesday night’s delights was our Pizza banquet – where we make our own pizza dough, pizza sauce and top it to taste, combine this with a bowl of slimming world chips, and home-made coleslaw, along with home-made garlic dip, and we have a feast fit for a… well fit for anyone really! You truly wouldn’t know it was done slimming world style.
I enjoy our Fake-away so much that I’ll even share the recipe with you:
Pizza Dough
Ingredients
125g strong bread flour
7g sachet instant active yeast
1 tsp salt
Method
Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl and make a hole in the middle
Pour in 75ml of warm water and mix with wooden spoon, until soft, and fairly wet dough
Need for 5 mins on a floured surface (no need to let dough rise)
Roll dough into very thin circle about 22cm across
Base now ready to be topped with your preferred choices
Tomato Pizza Sauce
Ingredients
4 shallots – finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp dired oregano
400g can chopped tomatoes
4 tbps tomato puree
small handful of finely chopped fresh basil
salt & freshly ground black pepper
Method
Put the shallots, garlic, oregano, chopped tomatoes, tomato purée and most of the basil into a saucepan.
Cook over a medium low heat for 25mins until you have a thick, spreadable sauce.
Season well
Scatter over a little more basil and spread over your pizza base
Our preferred toppings
Pan fry small pack of mince
Half an onion and half pepper chopped to taste
3 mushrooms chopped
Few rashers of bacon (with the fat removed) chopped
Chilli flakes to add a little kick
Jalapenos and cheese for a final touch
Once dough and sauce spread over and the rest of toppings on cook in over @ 200 for 15 mins.
Voilà!

Wednesday cometh and half way through my week, and guess what? I had my usual breakfast of cereal and milk!! You all knew that didn’t you… Told you I was a creature of habit!! Lunch consisted of my regular salad, this time partnered with a couple of small jacket potatoes and our evening meal was a beautiful dish of Salmon with herby lemon sauce!
Now Thursday was a complete bust… with my only saving grace being my usual salady based lunch.
After work I took the other half to the Metro Centre to get her nails done ready for her weekend of “events” – enough said! I’m plodding around the MC window shopping for at least 2 hours…
That isn’t a typo.. 2 hours! So by the time we were on our way home it was too late to cook so a greasy kebab was acquired on route!
Friday I was off work and so never weighed in to BL this week. I was also left home alone so had to fend for myself all day and night! The usual breakfast of cereal and milk, no lunch and decided upon oven cooked chicken and slimming world chips for my evening. Pretty short day per se.
My weekend consisted of being out all day on Saturday – 14hours to be exact shooting a wedding, which saw me being fed chicken in some sort of creamy white sauce, followed by a rather indulgent slice of chocolate cake, and then nibbling at the evening buffet. Did I feel guilty? Nope! The amount of walking I did again would see to that!

Sunday was spent pretty much recovering from Saturday and letting my aching body chillax!! Tuna salad for lunch and an amazing chicken curry and crispy kale for dinner, finished off with a home made trifle!
Overall my week has been a mixed bag, albeit with a fair bit of repetition for breakfasts and lunches but ultimately I will be expecting a rather sorry state of affairs at Slimming World weigh in on Tuesday!