Pootler's Going-It-Alone Diary

Pootler

Full Member
Been doing EE SW at home in Holland on my own using my Mum's books for a week now. Loving it. :) Last week was a good week, but I went over my syns a lot while I was getting used to it. Fine by me - I have about 40 kilos to lose so it might not even be bad idea to start out slower. A bit like a marathon. :)

I'm not doing a weigh-in as I have a history of scale obsession and eating disorders. I'm doing SW to get me eating more healthily as well as to lose weight, so I don't mind if I lose very slowly. I'll let you know when my size 24 jeans start falling off. ;-)

Anyway, I wanted to post my food diary to keep me accountable once the novelty wears off, and to hopefully get some feedback on whether I'm doing it right or not.

Here's yesterday's diary.
Breakfast:
  • 2 slices wholemeal French toast (b) (4 syns)
  • banana

Lunch:
  • egg, bacon ham, cottage cheese quiche (free)
  • mini bros (like Aero) (2.5)
  • tangerine
(Forgot 1/3 veg. First time though, coz I'm usually pretty strict with that.)

Dinner:
  • Rice
  • Chicken and veg curry (1/2 chicken breast, spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, onions, tomatoes, loads of coriander. Apparently Dutch curry powder is NOT the same as English curry powder. Totally useless. Have added that to my long list of things to smuggle back to Holland from my next trip home.)

Extras:
  • 250 ml semi milk (a)
  • curly wurly cake x 2 (3)
  • 125 ml rose wine (4.5)
  • bros (2.5)
  • melon

Exercise:
BIKE, 40 mins

Total Syns: 16.5
 
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BREAKFAST
  • 2 rashers bacon, fat cut off
  • 2 slices medium sliced wholemeal bread (b)(4)
  • 1 tbsp HP sauce (1)
  • apple
  • omega 3 & vitamin D capsules (1)

LUNCH
  • home made hummus
  • crudites (mange tout, peppers, cucumber)
  • lemon meringue pie (weetabix, lemons, eggs, low cal marge, sweetener) (4)

DINNER
  • roast chicken, skin removed
  • green salad, tomatoes, cucumber, peppers
  • sw chips
  • tbsp lo cal mayo (2.5)
  • free dressing

EXTRAS
  • 250 ml semi-skimmed milk
  • bros (2.5)
  • yoghurt

EXERCISE
Bike, 40 mins

Total Syns: 15
 
January 17th

Today was one of those days when I kept thinking "This is a diet? Seriously? Can't be!" :) I don't think I've ever eaten this well or gotten so much pleasure from my food. It's making me so happy! The rainbow trout I had for dinner was divine - tasted so buttery but there wasn't even a spray of fry light on it!

BREAKFAST
  • omega 3 & vitamin D capsules (1)
  • 2 weetabix (b)
  • milk from allowance
  • 2 tangerines

LUNCH
  • vegetable curry
  • rice
  • peach quark

DINNER
  • rainbow trout and mange tout baked in foil (with lemon and fresh dill)
  • SW chips
  • lemon meringue pie (weetabix, lemons, eggs, low cal marge, sweetener) (4)

EXTRAS
  • 250 ml semi-skimmed milk (a)
  • curly wurly (6)
  • 1 square extra dark chocolate (2?)

EXERCISE
None.

Total Syns: 13
 
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January 18th

Hmmm stuffed now after my dinner and haven't used all my syns. What a weird feeling. Really don't want to eat any more though, so I'll save those syns for later in the week. It's *week and I've noticed I'm using my syns on sweet stuff. It feels wrong, but my mum says that's fine. Maybe I need to use half on treats and the other half on proper food?

BREAKFAST
  • omega 3 & vitamin D capsules (1)
  • 3 scan bran (b)
  • peach quark
  • tangerine
  • kiwi

LUNCH
  • Fried potato slices (Fry Light, obviously)
  • 2 rashers bacon
  • beans
  • tinned tomatoes
  • mushrooms

DINNER
  • Pasta
  • Chicken
  • Sauce made from onion, tomatoes and peppers
  • Curly Wurly Cake (3)
  • Rice Pudding & blackberries (3.5)

EXTRAS
  • 250 ml semi-skimmed milk (a)
  • Melon
  • Smarties (3.5)

Exercise
Bike, 40 minutes

Total Syns: 11
 
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Wednesday January 19th

Date night after work yesterday. Usually that means grabbing a sandwich and a cookie and smuggling them into the cinema. Never got into the habit of getting popcorn at the pictures so I don't miss that. But since one healthy looking sandwich from the shops could blow through all my syns, I had a sort of a picnic instead. :)

BREAKFAST
  • 2 weetabix
  • milk from allowance
  • banana
  • omega 3 & vit d capsules (1)

LUNCH
  • SW minststrone soup with extra veg chucked in
  • cucumber
  • little bit of SW hummus

DINNER
  • chicken roll
  • muesli bread bun (7.5)
  • carrots
  • scan bran curly wurly cake (3)


EXTRAS
  • 250 ml semi-skimmed milk
  • 2 tangerines

TOTAL SYNS
11.5

EXERCISE
None
 
Thursday January 20th

Late shift at work today, so a bit of a weird day foodwise. I have to leave for work at noon, get there at one, break is at 4, and that's when I get to eat. Home at 10:30pm. Last week I took scan bran and Laughing Cow to work to eat in the evening. Ran out of Laughing Cow, can't buy the light ones anywhere near work, and I'll go a long way for this diet, but not as far as eating dry chipboard with no topping. So dinner was rubbish, really, but at least I didn't go out and buy junk. :)

BREAKFAST
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 rashers bacon
  • Tomatoes
  • Mushrooms
  • Baked beans
  • Slice wholemeal bread (4)
  • Omega 3 & vitamin D capsules (1)

LUNCH
  • Chicken
  • Pasta
  • Tomato and red pepper sauce
  • Rice pudding (3.5)

DINNER
  • Tomatoes
  • Cucumber
  • Chicken roll
  • Curly Wurly (6)

EXTRAS
250 ml semi-skimmed milk
tangerine

TOTAL SYNS
14.5

EXERCISE
None
 
Oh dear. I'm going to start this diary before the day is even over in the hope that it stops me going completely bonkers and eating the entire contents of the syn tin.

Today started off so well - sensible breakfast, bit of cycling, followed by putting on a pair of jeans that had been so tight they'd ended up in the nether regions of the wardrobe and finding that, not only could I get them on and still actually breathe, they're actually a bit loose.

And then lack of sleep, hunger, forgetting to take my prozac and a dumb move by my husband all caught up with me and things went kerflunkely. Out went my rule about 1/3 veg and at least SOME meat with every meal - lunch was a BIG bowl of SW chips and a BIG squirt of mayo which I didn't even measure, but guessed. And then there were the curly wurlies. THREE of the b*ggers. The voices made me do it. They wouldn't shut up until I had eaten all three.

I had a few syns left over so I'm not appallingly far in the red. In fact, I'm a lot less in the red than I was last week, so it's not the end of the world.

BREAKFAST
  • 28 g Bran Flakes
  • 1/2 banana
  • milk from allowance
  • Omega 3 & vitamin D capsules (1)

LUNCH
  1. SW chips, lots and lots of them.
  2. 2 tbsp low-cal mayo (5)
  3. THREE!!!!!! curly wurlies (18)

Here is the line I am drawing under that little mini-fiasco:

---------------------------------------------------------------------

And we'll start again with dinner..

DINNER
SW Minestrone soup
Apple & cinamon quark (tastes like apple pie!)

I still want something. There is ice cream, my comfort food of choice, in the freezer and it's singing to me. Maybe I should just go to bed.....

EXTRAS
250 ml skimmed milk
Options (2)
Snickers (4.5)

TOTAL SYNS
30.5


EXERCISE
Bike, 30 mins
 
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Saturday January 22nd

Well, today went a lot better than yesterday. :) I made the SW doner, but couldn't get lean lamb mince. I was grateful to find lamb mince at all really, coz people don't really eat lamb here. It was really yummy though - even my hubby ate it - so I think I'll go see the halal butcher and ask him to make me some lean lamb mince so I can do it again. Using normal lamb mince meant that I spent all my syns on my dinner and had nothing left for treats in the evening. Won't be doing that again!

Oh, and forgot to syn the cocoa in the scan bran cake, meaning I went over my syns. Grrrrrr......

BREAKFAST
  • Omega 3 & vitamin D capsules (1)
  • 1/2 a Scan Bran cake (2 scan bran, 2 tbsp cocoa) (b) (2.5)

LUNCH
  • 3 scan bran (b)
  • 3 Laughing Cow lights (a)
  • Tomato
  • Cucumber
  • Chicken roll
  • Melon

DINNER
  • Mini pita bread (6)
  • Home made doner (7.5)
  • Iceberg Lettuce
  • Tomato
  • Home made garlic sauce (1)

EXTRAS
  • 100 ml milk (a)
  • Banana
  • Apple quark
  • 2 tangerines

TOTAL SYNS
18

EXERCISE
Bike, 40 mins
 
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Sunday January 23 2011

I tried making Smash pizza today and I wasn't very hopeful. But it turned out great! I made a sauce from herbs, pasata, onion and garlic, and froze the leftovers. Topped with my hexa and lots of mushrooms and ham, it was ace! Better than when I make it with a ready-made bread base even! Would have been perfect if I'd remembered to add a bit of extra superfree in the form of salad or fruit.

I'm trying to stay under 12 syns to make up for screwing up earlier and going over my syns twice. Not easy, but only because I keep forgetting!

BREAKFAST
  • 3 rashers of bacon, rinds removed
  • 1/3 tin beans
  • a big fresh tomato
  • loads of mushrooms
  • 1/2 slice wholemeal bread (2)

LUNCH
  • Smash pizza made with pasata, ham, mushrooms and 2 babybel (a)

DINNER
  • roast chicken
  • sw chips
  • salad
  • dressing made from 1 tbsp low-cal mayo, yoghurt and a bit of veggie stock cube (2.5)

EXTRAS
  • 150 ml semi-skimmed milk (1.5)
  • tangerine
  • muesli bar (b)
  • 2 bros (5)

TOTAL SYNS
12

EXERCISE
Bike, 40 minutes
 
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Monday January 24th

I think I'm getting the hang of this. :) Still loving it. Can see myself keeping this up for a long time.

Starting to notice the difference too - I feel less sluggish, there's a spring in my step, and exercise is getting easier.

I've been worried about my portion sizes, thinking they were too big. But I just made the beef stew from the EE recipe book tonight, and it divided into exactly 4 portions just as it should, and each one was the same as what I put on my own plate.

It's frustrating not knowing if I'm losing weight or not because I will not get on the scales. I know they will be my downfall. But if my portion sizes are right, and I'm following the rules, then it has to work, right?

BREAKFAST
  • Omega 3 & vitamin D capsules (1)
  • 3 scan bran (b)
  • 3 laughing cow lights (a)
  • apple

LUNCH
  • SW Minestrone soup with added courgette and aubergine
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • apple quark

DINNER
  • Spag bol, with extra peppers and courgette chucked in
  • 50g ice cream (6)
  • 2 SW rocher (2)
EXTRAS
  • 100 ml milk (a)
  • 1/2 banana
  • 1/2 scan bran cake (2.5)

TOTAL SYNS
11.5

EXERCISE
None
 
Tuesday January 25th

BREAKFAST
  • Omega 3 & vitamin D capsules (1)
  • 3 scan bran (b)
  • 2 funny cow (a)
  • 1/2 tsp nutella (1)
  • 1 tangerine
  • 4 cherry tomatoes

LUNCH
  • Quorn frittata
  • green salad
  • free dressing

DINNER
  • SW Beef stew
  • Cabbage
  • Mashed potato with low-cal mayo (1)
  • Apple quark

EXTRAS
  • Curly Wurly (6)
  • 150 ml milk (a)
  • 2 SW rocher (2)
  • 3 clemetines
  • Options (2)

TOTAL SYNS
13

EXERCISE
Bike, 40 minutes
 
Wednesday January 26th

Date night tonight, and since hubby and I had some serious stuff to talk about we went for dinner. The good thing was that we went for sushi and I made EXCELLENT choices. The bad thing was that it was an all you can eat sushi restaurant and I ate all I could eat. Mind you normally we'd do three or 4 rounds and this time we were full after just one. I was a piggy and wanted the second round which made me feel SICK. Turns out you CAN eat too much sashimi. No idea how many syns I had in this meal but I think I actually succeeded in picking only free foods. There may have been syns in a tiny bit of oil, or in the last traces of may that I couldn't scrape off, but I'm not going to count those. Will just be careful not to go over my syns the rest of the week.

BREAKFAST
  • Omega 3 & vitamin D capsules (1)
  • Scan Bran chocolate cake
  • tsp chocolate sauce (Yes, for breakfast. :) So shoot me. :) Woke up in a p*ssy mood and this hit the spot.)

LUNCH
  • Quorn fritata
  • Green salad

DINNER
  • Sushi
  • Sashimi
  • yakitori chicken skewer
  • 2 portions Edamame (soya beans)
  • 2 Grilled vegetable skewers

EXTRAS
  • Grapes
  • Rum and diet coke (6?)
  • mini Snickers (4.5)

TOTAL SYNS
16

EXERCISE
None
 
Hi Pootler,

I'm new to SW, but not to NL as my OH is a cloggy - but we live in West Africa now... what part of NL are you in?

Can't comment too much on your choices, as I'm too new to be sure - but I envy you your access to 0% dairy.

If you have a Chinese Toko nearby go and have a good look round the shelves, they may well have familiar UK brand curry powder, as well as other bizarre import things which you won't need to bring over from UK.

Groetjes
Hazysummer
 
The toko! What a great idea! Why didn't I think of that? There's a multi-culti one nearby that I think sells Sharwoods.

I live in Hoorn, work in the center of Amsterdam. It's surprisingly easy to follow SW here - the only thing I can't get is fromage frais, surprisingly. Fry Light isn't in the shops but you can get it online. And as for all the other stuff, well not having access to mug shots and hi-fi bars and so on just means that I have to eat fresh free foods instead. And apple and cinamon fat free quark is absolute heaven. :) I bet it's tonnes better than Muller Lights. ;-)

How on earth do you manage to follow SW in Africa? En spreek je ook nederlands? :)
 
Thursday January 27th

Late shift today, so meals were all over the place. Decided on Brunch at 10, dinner at 4, and snacks of fruit and scan bran cake. Worked out fine.

Last week I dug out an old pair of jeans - hubby's old size 40 G-Stars which always looked FABBY on me - to see how far I had to go before I could wear them. Couldn't get them fastened and thought I had about a month to go before they would fit.

They fit. :) Well, pretty much. Give it another week or so and they'll be perfect. I did the happy dance all the way back upstairs to put on the jeans that I thought DID fit me. And they were too big. More happy dancing. Blimey, it's good this diet. Never hungry, loving my food, eating chocolate every day and still losing weight? I keep thinking its too good to be true!

Looking at today's diary I see that I didn't really get my healthy extras in. I find it hard to get the HexA in most days and never use all of my milk up. :-/

BREAKFAST
  • Banana
  • Clementine

BRUNCH
  • 3 rashers bacon
  • 1/3 tin of beans
  • mountain of mushrooms

DINNER
  • Chicken and veg curry
  • Rice

EXTRAS
  • Scan Bran cake (2.5) (1/2 Hexb)
  • Cucumber
  • Clementines
  • 50ml milk (a)
  • Curly Wurly (6)

TOTAL SYNS
9.5

EXERCISE
Bike, 40 minutes
 
Friday January 28th 2011

Today was a very baconny day. Well it needed using up. :) I had a HUGE lunch and ended up not being able to eat my dinner. And unlike in the old days, I didn't force myself - I just froze the leftovers. :) It did mean that at 9pm I was hungry, but I just snacked on fruit and had some chocolate, and an options with marshmallows on it. All within my syns allowance.

I do feel like I've been a piggy today, and I have panicked about that. But when you look at what I've eaten, I would say that defo more than 50% of all the stuff I've pigged on was fruit or veg. It was the eggs, bacon and cheese that made me feel so full.

BREAKFAST
  • Omega 3 & vitamin D capsules (1)
  • Bacon
  • Courgette
  • Cherry Tomatoes

LUNCH
  • 3 rashers of bacon
  • Omelette made with two eggs and cheese (a)
  • Green salad
  • Sweetcorn
  • Tomatoes
  • Cucumber
  • Dressing made from low cal mayo (2.5), quark and lemon juice

DINNER
  • SW Butternut risotto (with bacon)
  • 1/3 SW Chicken Kiev (wrapped in bacon) (1 Laughing Cow Light used per kiev, so 0.5 syns for the bit I ate.)

EXTRAS
  • Muesli bar (b)
  • Apple quark
  • 2 mini bros (2.5)
  • 2 options
  • 6g marshmallows (1)
  • grapes
TOTAL SYNS
14

EXERCISE
Bike, 15 minutes
 
Oh and of course you know that De Tuinen is the same as Holland and Barrett? I used to make suggestions of product lines they could try from the UK in my local one and it occasionally worked.

I'm basically eating only real, fresh food - and some of the packaged / tinned UK / NL faves we have with us, so I'll just have to syn those as and when. I don't have frylight either, but got hold of a mister which works well for me - I just put about 3:1 oil to water in, and give it a shake before spraying, or I syn or HEXB olive oil.

I do pay an arm and a leg for 0% yoghurts when I can find them (not always), - I know what you mean about having difficulty with the HEA's especially since the milk here is longlife french stuff, and the cheese is awful too - as long as you are having a yoghurt/ quark a day I think you'll be OK - something to do with calcium being important during weightloss...and if not there's always yummy dutch cheese!

ja ik spreek ook nederlands, maar schrijven is nog een andere verhaal...
 
How can I have lived here for 13 years and not know that De Tuinen is Holland and Barrett? They seem so different to me! I'll have a look there for Scan Bran, or ask if they can get it. In my defense, I am sufficiently ingeburgerd - I DO eat haring. :)

That's a good tip, using a mister instead of Fry Light!~I did think of doing that but wasn't sure if it would work. I've written out the basics of EE in Dutch now for my mother-in-law and she's having a go. (She's having trouble getting her head around the idea of eating as much as she likes though.) I'll suggest she try an oil/water mix in a spray bottle until I can get her some FL next month. If I can fit any in my suitcase with all the Alpen Lights and Mug Shots. :)

So did you live in NL for a while?
 
Saturday January 29th

So this is the start of week 4. With the exception of the times I had eating disorders, which don't count, this is the first time I've stayed on a diet for longer than 3 days I think. :)

I thought I could only have ONE slice of bread for a healthy B. Turns out I can have 2. I found out that if I cut a cm off 2 slices of Dutch bread, they will weigh 57g. :) Not that I'm a big bread fan (really Extra Easy is perfect for me coz I'm really not fussed about bread or cheese) but it does save me quite a few syns for Curly Wurlies if I don't have to syn one half of my sandwich. ;-)

BREAKFAST
  • Omega 3 & vitamin D capsules (1)
  • Cinnamon French toast (b)
  • Apple (covered in cinnamon and fried in the pan with the French toast)
  • Tangerine

LUNCH
  • Pasta Salad (tomatoes, ham, cucumber, sweetcorn, rocket and watercress) with a dressing made from low-cal mayo (2.5), quark and a bit of veggie stock cube
  • 2 mini Baby Bel (a)
  • Apple quark

DINNER
  • Pumpkin soup (pumpkin, carrots, onions, potatoes, courgette and cannelini beans and a couple of chicken stock cubes)
  • SW Lemon Mousse (Loads of work, very tangy but surprisingly filling!)
  • Mini Bros (2.5)

EXTRAS
  • Curly Wurly (6)

TOTAL SYNS
12

EXERCISE
Bike, 55 minutes
 
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Sunday January 30th 2011

I think my appetite is getting smaller. It's happening more and more often that when dinner time comes around, my first thought is "Oh gawd, not more food!" :) I managed a bit of dinner tonight - ate all my veggies like a good girl, picked at the rest, and then decided to stick the leftovers in the fridge and have them tomorrow. I'm not even poorly. What is going on?

Note to self - stop obsessively getting those jeans out of the wardrobe and trying them on. You're getting as bad as you were with the scales. Try again in a week.

BREAKFAST
  • Omega 3 & vitamin D capsules (1)
  • Bacon Butty (b)
  • 1 tbsp HP sauce (1)
  • Melon

LUNCH
  • Rainbow trout, baked in foil with red pepper, lemon and cherry tomatoes
  • Pasta
  • 2 Laughing Cow Lights (a)

DINNER
  • Roast chicken
  • Frozen veg - broccoli, cauli, carrots
  • SW chips
  • 1/2 tbsp curry ketchup (0.5)

EXTRAS
  • 150 ml milk (a)
  • Fun size smarties (3.5)
  • Mini Bros (2.5)
  • Options (2)
  • Lemon Mousse with chocolate sauce (2.5)
  • Tangerine

TOTAL SYNS
13

EXERCISE
Bike, 40 minutes
 
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