Weekly plan of fave low-fat meals

I needed a jump start this week, so I spent some time on the weekend preparing a meal plan I was sure to stick to. I've taken some of my favourite meals and recipes from a huge assortment of Weight Watchers meals plans and cookbooks I own, my Contours cookbook, and some recipes from Taste. Contours women's gym runs a six-week challenge every few months that is really worth doing. You get a cookbook, personal training on a 30 minute circuit and a bio-age assessment. I like the Taste website, because the recipes usually work, they're reviewed and rated, so you can be sure of the recipe you're choosing, and they give you nutritional data that allows you to make healthy choices.

My meal plan goes for six days, because I always eat out at least one lunch or dinner each week. If I don't, I can always just repeat one of the other days. I aim to eat 7000 kj a day, which is close to the recommended kilojoules for someone of my age, height and weight. I also try to keep the fat to under 50g a day - remembering that your saturated fat should be under 20g a day. I might update my table to show saturated fat soon, except not all recipes show this figure. Eating a bit under this each day allows for the extra kilojoules I'm bound to eat when I eat out, or gives me the flexibility to add another cup of soup or can of baked beans if I'm hungry.

I try to keep it balanced with a few sweet treats because if I don't allow myself to have them I end up eating a whole lot of them at once, which does a lot more damage. As long as you don't have more than about half a day's worth of your weekly kilojoules made up from sugar, you'll be fine. The main problem with sugar is it doesn't fill you up and often leaves you wanting more. You'll notice I also include a balance of fruit (at least two pieces a day), vegetables, proteins and carbohydrates. I've also put thought into how satisfying a meal is and what types of snacks I'm likely to want before the next meal.

I'm planning to make four of these plans in total. That way I've got lots of variety and won't get bored with the food. We tend to eat the same meals over and over normally, cooking our favourites each week, so hopefully I'll develop some real favourites that will help me be healthy for life.

I didn't lose any weight again, so I've only attached my exercise record for the week. I really worked hard at kayaking this week and was so sore and tired after my time trial on Wednesday night, I couldn't bring myself to fight the road traffic to get to climbing on Thursday night!