Finally autumn has arrived!

I may be one of the few people in England who is saying this right now, but i am so pleased the cooler weather is back! OK i know it hasn't been the best summer, but this really is my most favourite season of all. I love the change of colours, getting out the winter jumpers and all the community activities. At this time of year i always wish i lived in America.. i so envy the way they celebrate Halloween! I am lucky that i have a couple of Friends who are willing to celebrate it but we are definitely in the minority in the area i live in. Any reason to decorate your house, bake special treats, get dressed up and be involved with your neighbours is great i reckon. However this will be our first Halloween in our new house, so maybe this year will be different... can't wait to find out.

Plus of course there is the food. I LOVE winter warmers... stew, casseroles, bangers and mash, big roasts... anything that is stodgy and filling and makes you want to cuddle up on the sofa and sleep it off! Herein lies my down fall! It's not necessarily whats in them. I do know some fantastic recipes for low fat stews etc, its more about what i have with them (big chunks of white loaf) and the amount i consume (1 bowl is NEVER enough!). This time last year i had just lost 3 and 1/2 stone was feeling really good about myself and it was the start of my slippery slope back to fatdom.

What will i do differently this year? well for a start, i am not going to feed the 5 thousand as i normally cook for at every meal. I am going to think about portion control from the beginning and cook enough for a small portion for me, larger for hubby and a couple of freezer portions for little one... NO MORE THEN IS NEEDED! This will be a huge challenge for me! Plus I'm going to point the whole dish so i can be more accurate when i portion it out. This i have never done before, preferring the guesstimate that is always at least half what the dish probably is. Lets see how i can keep it up.

I have been spending way too long exploring the world of weight loss blogs this week. It is amazing to me how many there are (really naive i know!). Some are hugely inspiring but some really show you how quickly the enthusiasm can run out. I hope that this blog will be a success story and not a flash in the pan. Fingers crossed xx