From SW to calorie counting...let's see what happens!x

xmisskx

Gold Member
Hi all :wavey:

thought i'd better start a new diary on here for my daily eats seeing as i'm now giving calorie counting a bash.

for the last 14 months, i've been following the slimming world plan, thought it was great and 2013 saw me stick to the plan almost 100% (give or take the odd social event) until round about november/december time when birthday and xmas celebrations started.

i went to class every week to be weighed, but could never stay for the meeting so i made the decision to go it alone this year...i wasn't missing anything other than paying someone £5 to weigh me and with the support on here, i felt i wouldn't be missing much as a whole.

anyway, i lost 5lbs for the month of january but feb seemed to be a bit iffy for me...on plan all week but not so much at the weekend so i was just maintaining.

my biggest love of SW, was that for me, it stopped me having constant thoughts of food, what was good/bad, what i wanted/was allowed etc and that was a huge thing for me....to not have guilt...to eat when i was hungry and still pencil in some goodies every night...but lately, these devil thoughts have returned and i seemed to become aware of how easy it would be to eat way too many calories on their "free" foods or to food abuse and it's really messed my head up a bit cos the battle of thoughts of food etc made a quick return :(

i stuck to plan 100% and saw a gain every 4 weeks....but was always ok with it cos i knew i hadn't "done anything wrong" and i just took it in my stride...it always sorted itself out the next week and it actually taught me that our bodies like to do what they want sometimes no matter what.

for the last 2 weeks, i've followed sw but also tracked calories in the background....and it's been driving me crazy! it's pretty hard work cos everything is made from scratch so trying to work it out was challenging!

i've had some stuff going on at home which has been consuming my thoughts in a negative way and really just felt that that, along with the food stuff was getting me down...it just feels too much!

so i made the decision yesterday, after battling all day to fight away tears, to calorie count and to try and give me one less thing to worry about.
with SW, you have to be prepared at all times and it's just been exhausting for me at times...pretty much down to other stuff which is making me anxious.
i decided that it's ok for me to need convenience things at times....and that calorie counting might help with that a bit better than SW.

i noticed that the days i was off plan on SW, i'd literally binge on as much off plan foods as i could....to get it all in when i could and that's not good. imagine how many 1000's of calories i'd be eating just for the sake of it!

initially, considered doing sw through the week, then calorie counting at the weekend to let me take control of the junk if i wanted it.

SW really taught me how to cook better, food optimising is fab and it seems normal when it comes to meal times so i know if i keep that in mind, i'll be eating healthier and saving calories rather than eating pre packaged food all the time!

so...i'm giving this a bash...to see what happens. not sure how long for, or if i'm making the right decision but i'm so terrified of putting the weight i've lost back on so i can't afford to be NOT following some sort of plan hence the reason for this new start!

i lost 2.5 stone in 2013, put on over nov/xmas time so sitting about 2 stone off now.
i'm tracking calories using MFP and have decided on 1500 a day which says i should lose 1lb a week....not what i want of course...we all want 5lb a week off don't we lol, but i know that it's probably a healthy number...and if it's constant, that soon adds up as the months go by!

i usually put my food on at night for the whole day rather than as i'm going along.

so now that i've written a novel to introduce myself...let's see where this goes....x
 
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Good luck, I'm quite new to CC too and it's going well so far xx
 
food for today looking like this:

Breakfast:
bowl of fruit salad with some yog
2 crumpets with a tsp butter

Lunch:
warburtons square wrap "pizza"
(tomato puree, onion, mushroom, pepper, 25g ham 25g cheese)

rocket ice lolly

Dinner:
chilli con carne with 130g (cooked) basmati rice
(extra lean beef mince, chopped tomatoes, kidney beans in chilli sauce, onion, peppers, oregano, chilli powder, beef stock pot and tomato puree)

Treats:
daim bar and a pkt of crisps


also drank 2 litres of water in NAS squash throughout the day and had a can of pepsi max/diet irn bru

total today - 1331
169 left to play with if i need something before bed

*update*
had a honey monster stix cereal bar for 60 cals so total today is 1391/1500 :D x
 
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Good luck with this section of your journey. Well done for the determination to carry on. I look forward to reading your diary and gaining ideas. X
 
Good luck with this section of your journey. Well done for the determination to carry on. I look forward to reading your diary and gaining ideas. X

Thank you lyndzi...
I just need to either focus on something else or just have a break away from the limitations SW can have sometimes but have control too...fingers crossed eh :) x
 
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Food for today:

Breakfast:
small bowl of fruit salad with yog
warburtons thin with egg mayo (well, light salad cream! lol)

Snack:
1 belvita biscuit and some cherries

Lunch:
pack of asda sushi and some homemade soup (carrot, lentil and onion)

Dinner:
100g chicken breast, homemade roasties, half a veg pouch, sprouts and gravy

bowl of chopped strawberries, 30g yog and 10g all bran choc crunch cereal

Treats:
going to have a freddo and a packet of tayto whisps

total coming in at 1316 for today
184 left for something if i'm hungry before bed

lots of fruit and veg today...been hungry at times but just drank plenty :D
x
 

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You day looks yummy. Love the idea of strawberries, yoghurt & cereal x

it was really good.
sometimes i'd have sliced banana with it too and usually use more of the choc crunch cereal or muesli and mix it all in :)

have prepared magic porridge (overnight oats) for tomorrow at work...have you tried it before? it's oats mixed in yog and left overnight. it's good, goes thick cos of the yog but more filling...i love it!x
 
Breakfast:
a cold boiled egg and a belvita before work
small costa cappuccino, magic porridge with some frozen raspberries and fresh blueberries mixed in when i was there
(this was 17.5g oats soaked in 100g of asda GFY rhubarb and vanilla yog, added the berries and left overnight...was lush!)

Snack:
4 seafood sticks, 3 wm crackerbread with 30g chilli philadelphia light

Lunch:
homemade soup and a kerry low low snack pack

Dinner:
ate a pineapple stick and a snack a jack before i had
chilli chicken noodles (pack from asda - noodles, chicken, sauce, pepper, onion, cabbage, carrot, sugar snap peas)
this was worth the 304 calories for the whole pack! couldn't eat it all!

Treats:
crisps and a freddo

20 mins walking gives me 1595 to use for the day. total in at 1216 leaving me with 284 if i want something before bed

another colourful day with fruit and veg :D
 

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Sounds like a great day. Your lunches look really yummy.

Stupid question but how fishy do the crab sticks taste?
 
Sounds like a great day. Your lunches look really yummy.

Stupid question but how fishy do the crab sticks taste?

thanks! :D
the seafood sticks are quite "meaty" in texture...not to fishy though (in my opinion)
i'm not a huge fan of fish...just like the basic tuna, cod, odd bit of mackerel but not salmon, sardines etc.

they're worth trying, they smell more fishy than they taste and can sometimes be a bit sweet.
i like them to bulk out a salad...and i also like them deep fried in batter at my local chinese buffet...but that's a whole other level haha x
 
Mmm I quite fancy the oats in yog idea. I'm guessing you just get a normal packet of oats and put in some fat free yoghurt and leave in fridge overnight? x
 
Hope you have a good day Miss K x x

and you :D x


Mmm I quite fancy the oats in yog idea. I'm guessing you just get a normal packet of oats and put in some fat free yoghurt and leave in fridge overnight? x

i just weigh out either 17.5g of oats (which is half a healthy extra on the sw plan....just cos i'm used to it) and put it in a yog, cover and eat it the next day.
sometimes i'll have 35g and put it in a bigger one - the size of a muller light/activia 0% snack pot.

all you can taste really, is the flavour of the yog....it's so much more filling tho :)
i'd never really make myself normal porridge so i like having it this way especially cos they're good for you and i buy the big bag of morrisons savers oats for less than £1 so they last ages! ;)

i took a pic this morning so will post it later when i'm updating my food for the day x
 
I'm ordering a massive bag of oats in my shop this week as that sounds like a great breakfast to have in a dash. May even throw in side raisins :0)
 
I'm ordering a massive bag of oats in my shop this week as that sounds like a great breakfast to have in a dash. May even throw in side raisins :0)

love raisins...hadn't thought of those! on SW, i'd need to syn them and liked to keep my syns for goodies but i can totally see that working!

you can also make "pancakes" using the mixture too...just add 2 eggs (if you've used 35g oats and a bigger yog), mix til it's like a batter then make little individual ones.
i tried once but they stuck to my pan :( but seemingly it's really filling! they always looked fab in ppl's pics...with fruit and a wee drizzle of syrup :drool: x
 
Breakfast:
boiled egg, small cappuccino and some magic porridge with 20g of blueberries and frozen raspberries (17.5g oats and 100g yog)

Snack:
4 seafood sticks, 3 wm crackerbread with 30g philly light and a shortbread finger

Lunch:
few mouthfuls of homemade soup, kerry low low snack pack and a homemade scone (eeek! lol this was my colleague's fault!)

Dinner:
chilli con carne in a baked sweet potato (excuse the spiderman plate in the pic lol)

Treats:
pkt of revels and some walkers hoops and crosses

1500 cals plus 119 for walking. total in at 1605 for the day leaving me with 14 spare


been hungry today but think it's cos i've used some of my calories for stuff i wouldn't usually - the scone and shortbread used a few hundred which, if i'd not shovelled down my throat, could have picked better choices on more filling food!
anyway...lesson learned but gonna try and not feel guilty cos it's still be within my allowance and under the amount i'd need to be maintaining my weight!x
 

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