Batch cooking, yummy smells and lots of laughter - and that's just Lawrence's home on a normal day! Along with his Support Worker, Gold, Lawrence has embarked on his weight loss journey and that all begins with food and nutrition.
Gold: It all began when Lawrence mentioned that he wanted to lose some weight -especially around his waistline. We discussed how we might achieve his goal and decided on a few small lifestyle changes which will hopefully have a big impact. Having light meals for tea and avoiding eating very late at night were the take aways of our first discussion, which then lead us onto writing a meal plan.
A meal plan is a great tool to use for anyone wanting to lose weight or monitor their diet. You can develop your meal plan in a way to suit you. If you prefer to see visually, you could draw your weekly meal plan or colour it in. If you like to be a bit more methodical, a table or online spreadsheet might be your preference. Not only is it a great way to get organised, but it allows you to plan ahead. You can get all your ingredients ahead of time which may stop unnecessary snacks appearing in your cupboard after every trip to the supermarket.
"Thank you for showing concern towards achieving my goal, Gold. It makes me feel good when I get encouragement from my Support Workers and others." - Lawrence, supported the community in Whitby
Gold: We started on operation healthy eating right away. Lawrence was eagar to get going with a meal plan, calling it an amazing idea, but thought it would make more sense to start the meal plan at the beginning of a new week. He wanted to do his meal plan to help him regulate the amount of food consumed in a day and to keep track of what goes in his stomach. We of course couldn't just sit around and wait for the new week to roll in so we went to the kitchen and started batch cooking!
With his Mum coming over for tea that night, the pressure was on for Lawrence and Gold to cook up something spectacular. Keen chef Lawrence can often be found in the kitchen cooking up a storm - as seen in the array of photos (and trust me, there were lots more we could have used - Lawrence seems to always be rustling up something delicious).
Gold: Lawrence had decided he was going to make mashed potatoes for him and his mum that night but was keen to batch cook some spaghetti bolognese to store in the fridge to have over the next few days. We had a look at what he already had in the fridge and Lawrence made a list of what he needed in order to make the best bolognaise in Whitby. After a trip to the shops and a lot of chopping, peeling and creating, Lawrence had made a delicious spaghetti bolognaise as well as some mashed potato for his dinner party with Mum that evening. I was due to leave shortly after we had given the whole kitchen a tidy up and happened to pass Lawrence's mum on my way out...
"Lawrence is strong-willed and will stop at nothing till he achieves whatever he puts his heart to even with little to no involvement from his Support Workers." - Gold, Support Worker
And that's only the beginning of Lawrence's journey! He has already swapped out sugar for sweeteners and along with his meal planning and bulk cooking, he's well on the way to his goal of losing a bit of weight around his waist.
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