I love butternut squash and risotto so this recipe makes the most of this traditional autumn/winter vegetable whilst it’s still available. This makes a satisfying evening meal and its low fat too as it avoids the cream which is normally added to risotto. I hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients: Serves 2-3

• 1 large butternut squash
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Knob of butter
• 1 large white onion
• 200g Arborio/risotto rice
• 1 glass (175mls) white wine
• 500mls hot chicken stock
• 30g parmesan cheese shavings
• Sage – dried or fresh

Method

• Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas mark 6
• Peel the butternut squash, de-seed and roughly chop the flesh into 1cm cubes. Put the butternut squash cubes into a roasting tray and drizzle with the olive oil, sprinkle with a generous amount of sage and add the 2 garlic cloves in their skins to the tin. Shake around to evenly coat with the oil. Roast in the oven for around 45 mins until the squash is soft and starting to get a blackened colour on the corners.
• Whilst the squash is roasting you can start on the risotto, the risotto will take between 20-30 mins to cook so time accordingly so that it is ready with the squash.
• Heat the knob of butter and a tsp of olive oil in a large frying pan. Finely chop the onion and fry on a low heat until softened.
• Add the Arborio rice and fry for a couple of minutes until the grains are coated and start to go translucent at the edges.
• Add the glass of wine and cook until the rice has absorbed the liquid.
• Stirring continuously add a ladle at a time of chicken stock and cook until the stock is absorbed by the rice.
• Continue to add stock, one ladle at a time until the rice is cooked. It will take about 15-20 mins, the cooked rice should be softened but still have a bite.
• Once the rice is cooked stir in the parmesan shavings. Remove the butternut squash from the oven and stir into the risotto. The roasted garlic should be easily removed from the skins and stir into the risotto.
• Leave to stand in the covered pan for a few minutes for the flavours to develop and for the risotto to become creamy.
• Serve with a roasted chicken breast, baked fish fillet or any other low fat protein choice.

And that’s it! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, please do let me know how you get on by posting below.

I’ve had a good week. At the moment I have opted to go for a general reduction diet to ease me in gently and to see how the weight loss goes. I tend to find at the beginning of any weight loss programme that relatively simple changes to my diet start to show on the scales and as the weeks pass by I reach a plateau and need more drastic measures to maintain the weight loss. So I am following a basic low fat, reduced calorie diet.

Week 2 of my weight loss journey; All 12stone 4lbs (172lbs) of me!

I have also started walking for an hour each day, I am usually a runner but unfortunately a recent injury has stopped me in my tracks, literally! So again I am easing myself into more exercise gradually and plan to join a gym next week to step things up.

As ever, as soon as I tell myself I am on a diet, I start dreaming of chocolate, cream cakes and ice cream, all things that I wouldn’t eat on a daily basis anyway but all of a sudden they are forbidden so I crave them!! It’s amazing how our minds work. Even so I stayed on track throughout the week and knowing that I have to confess all here helped me to focus! The only blip on the horizon was that I was invited to a friends house for tea., now I can hardly say “yes I’d love to come for dinner but you have to cook me a delicious low fat, low calorie meal”, can I? So, I say nothing and willingly (!) devour the 3 course meal that on a rough estimate exceeds my entire daily calorie allowance. I go home feeling stuffed and guilty but hey, it’s only one day. Life’s too short, I had a great time with my friends and tomorrow is always another day. My philosophy is to try each day to do your best, if things don’t go entirely according to plan, don’t beat yourself up about it, just try harder tomorrow!

And the outcome of it all…jumped on the scales today and I’ve lost 3lbs! Woohoo! So I now weigh in at 12stone 4lbs. (172lbs). For me that’s all I need to see, a slight weight loss on the scales and I feel motivated to tackle another week and to just keep on going until I reach my weight loss goals.

I hope that you’re having a good week too and if you’ve got a weight loss or dieting story you’d like to share please post a comment below, I’d love to hear from you.

Until next time,

The Wizard

Breakfast - your most important meal of the day for weight loss success.

So, why can eating breakfast help with your weight loss?

To many it goes against common sense that by eating extra calories in the morning as opposed to skipping breakfast would help your weight loss. There has been a lot of research on the subject and studies have shown that those that eat breakfast on the whole weight less than those who regularly skip a morning meal.

There are many reasons that starting the day with a healthy breakfast can help you achieve your weight loss goals:

• Eating breakfast can reduce hunger throughout the day which helps you make better food choices in the rest of your meals. If you skip breakfast, chances are by mid-morning you’ll be grabbing for that packet of crisps or chocolate bar and come lunch time you’ll be so ravenous you’ll have munched your way through a high calorie dinner before you know it!
• Eating breakfast is part of a healthy lifestyle, if you are making wise food choices and eating balanced meals at regular intervals you are more likely to be making long term changes to your habits and helping you on your road to weight loss success. If you skip breakfast, especially with the intention of saving calories for later in the day you are only fuelling your habits of binge eating and excess.
• Eating breakfast gets your metabolism working from the moment you start your day. We all know that starvation causes our metabolism to slow down and to go into “starvation mode” holding on to all the fat and calories that comes our way. When you skip breakfast bear in mind you have had nothing to eat overnight so waiting until lunch could mean your body has gone over 12 hours without food, this can be classed a mini-starvation.
• Eating breakfast gives you the energy boost you need to start your day the right way, without it you will feel sluggish and tired.
• It has been shown that eating your calories earlier in the day gives you more time to burn them off and prevents you going to bed with a stomach full of food! Perhaps the traditional way of having a hearty breakfast, large meal at lunch and a small meal in the evening is the way to go.

So there you have it, if you want to start each day the right way and achieve your weight loss goals faster then tucking into a healthy breakfast every morning is the way to go.