Diary of my last half stone to target (Gwella)

Having lost 1 stone 12.5lb since September, I've got just 6lb to go (4.5lb on my home scales naked in the mornings!) til I'm at a healthy BMI, which is my initial target. I'd like to get there before my holiday on 5th June - three weigh-ins to go. It's doable, because on my best-ever week I had a 4lb loss.

However, given that I've been really faffing around with SW for a few months now, I need a kick to get there. I've been losing 1/2 a lb, gaining, gaining, maintaining, losing 2lb... So I'm setting up this diary to keep me accountable and also to help with the transition to the maintenance phase, because blogging has helped me focus in the past.

My weigh in was Tuesday when I was 11 stone 2 (lost my 2 stone award ). I was down in the dumps with myself as I know I could've been at target weeks ago if I'd stuck to it better. However, during those weeks I spent a lot of time figuring out my head and some doubts that were creeping in, and now that's out the way I feel ready to go for it. I also did the LiveBelowTheLine charity event (£5 for food and drink for 5 days - I ate SO much carbohydrate) and raised lots of money, but that set me back. I want to move on to maintenance, finally buy some jeans that fit, and start thinking about some other big goals in my life.

Having a Scanbran week (yuk!) and will try to have lots of fish at the weekend.

Yesterday went well and I felt surprisingly in control - I haven't had that for weeks. I felt pleased at sticking to 8 syns rather than going up to 20 or more! I also felt better in myself getting back to SW after eating a load of white bread and fried foods at my uncle's 60th, which made my insides bloated and hurt-y.
I did Green:
Breakfast: 2.5 Scanbran (1/2 hexB) with cottage cheese and tomatoes; diet coke
Snack: Hifi (hexB)
Lunch: Bean salad with rice, sweetcorn, mixed beans, spring onions, peppers, cucumber, tomato, feta (hexA)
Snacks: Papaya; Mullerlight; pomegranate (I like my expensive fruits)
Dinner: Pasta, peas, leeks, mushrooms, asparagus, rocket, blue cheese (1/2 hexB - some people say not to split them but I don't see a problem with it).
Evening treat: Double gin and tonic (8 syns) - a hard day! Diet cream soda.

Exercise: Cycled to and from the station plus a 10min walk to training. I really haven't exercised much lately and was going to do a DVD at home, but I was knackered...

Today I'm on Green again and this is the plan:
Breakfast: 2.5 Scanbran (1/2 hexB) with SW mushroom pate (mushroom, onion, garlic, herbs, cottage cheese, quark); diet coke
Lunch: Pasta, peas, leeks, mushrooms, asparagus, rocket, cheese (hexA)
Snacks: Strawberries; Mullerlight.
Dinner: Huevos rancheros with onion, courgette, peppers, tomatoes, beans, corn, jalapenos, fried egg and a brown tortilla (1 1/2hexB + 1.4syns). The tortilla isn't really a hexB but it has 5.8g of fibre so I count it (has worked fine for me in the past).
Evening treat: Freddo 5 syns (And maybe a single small G&T for 3 syns...)

Exercise: Cycled to work (17 minutes). Will walk home from work (40 minutes). Thinking about doing the DVD but (this sounds stupid) I washed my hair last night and it takes AGES to dry, so I don't want to get all sweaty! I'm not really that vain, it's just practicality...

Let's hope this works! I really want to try and get a 100% week in, with maybe a little bit of flexisynning if I go out for dinner on Saturday with my bf and his mum.

Another good day in terms of food. I'm amazed by how well I'm sticking to it this week. I used to be able to do this day after day no problem, but lately I don't know what happened to my motivation... and now it's suddenly back!

I even resisted amazing carrot cake baked by a colleague, and didn't buy any wine or chocolate at the supermarket. I have syns spare this evening so I could have a chocolate MiniMilk but honestly I don't see any need. And even though it's been an incredibly stressful week, I've not completely overdone the booze.

Which is good because I have a lunch out tomorrow... might even go for pizza as I've saved up enough syns.

Today: Green again

Breakfast: mushroom pate with Scanbran (1/2 hexB)
Lunch: huevos rancheros with wrap (1 1/2 hex B + 1.4 syns)
Snacks: Mullerlight, pineapple.
Dinner: risotto with tomatoes, artichokes, sundried tomatoes (0.4 syns), goat's cheese (2 hexAs)
Evening treat: Gin again (4 syns).

I didn't walk home from work yesterday (cycled) but I'm working long hours, I have period pain and a developing cough so I will be easy on myself. Will do some exercise on Sunday if feeling better.

I don't really think of my cycling as exercise nowadays, but I guess it goes a fair way to keeping me active.

I went to look for jeans today because my wardrobe is getting pretty empty and I'm so near target. Didn't find any though - I'm a size 13 in Monsoon and a 29 in Gap and everywhere else there was a gap above my bum. Being a pear is so awkward sometimes... I do enjoy glancing in mirrors now and thinking 'I look ok actually, I look stylish', rather than hating how I look. On the other hand I'm still getting used to my altered body, learning what will fit it etc... I did buy a top in a size 8 in FatFace. There is no way it's a real size 8 - I'm still overweight for heaven's sake, it was more like a 12 - but ha! it amused me.

Food-wise, today went well on balance. I made a big error in having just yogurt and fruit for breakfast, thinking that I'd be going for pizza for lunch so I'd avoid bread. By the time we got to the British Museum I was really peckish and then I saw the amazing scones in their cafe... I had a feeling I wouldn't enjoy the exhibition as much if I was thinking about food (I get grumpy and dizzy) so, yeah, I bought an enormous scone... It was nice and milky, though probably not worth the estimated 20 syns! Really I would've been much better off having a Hifi with my breakfast/as a snack. I made the same mistake at a conference last week (saved my hexB for lunchtime sandwiches, then ended up having biscuits at 11am ). Won't do that again!

We then went for South Indian for lunch instead of pizza as that would be more bready stuff. I stuck to plain rice with a prawn curry (the only one that didn't seem to have coconut milk) and a little bit of salad. It was a small portion so I'm going to guess there were about 12 syns of oil/butter in there. Given I didn't have my hexB today and that can be oil, I'm going to count it as 6. Sneaky I know cos there's no way it was olive oil! I had diet coke rather than lassi or beer so overall was proud of myself. Then 3 mint imperials on the way out.

I also had a skinny frappuccino when out shopping - it was so hot (yay! I love being able to go out without a coat!) and I needed to use their loo! So I'm counting that as my hexA plus a few syns (I worked it out somewhere...)

Dinner was synfree fish, SW chips and masses of sprouts and broccoli.

I know a few 'tweaks' have worked there way in today in particular, but overall I'm doing ok in that averaged from Wednesday-Saturday, I am still well under 15 syns per day and having lots of superfree. Really the only off-plan element today was the low superfree at lunch and that flippin' giant scone!

Now I'm more than halfway through my SW week - just 3 days to weigh-in when I'll hopefully see some results of my newly-returned motivation. The end of my period will probably also give me a little boost (sorry to anyone reading who prefers to call it *week, but I prefer plainspeaking for this diary). Usually I weigh myself a couple of times during the week, but I am resisting this week because that anticipation of Tuesday helps spur me on.

I still have a cough so not doing 'proper' exercise but there was a decent amount of walking around at the museum and shopping.

Not such a great day today but I'm praying I'll get away with it.

In short, it was beautiful and sunny and I couldn't decide between ice cream and lager. So I had both. Add in the syns for the teeny amounts of feta and milk in my dinner and that's a total of 21.8 syns today.

I still feel ill. Also really dreading work tomorrow due to a stressy project I'm working on... At the moment I'm praying for it to be over and feeling like I'm no good at my job, so I guess emotional eating was alway a risk...

Total syns for the week so far is: 76.8, which is an average of 15.4 per day. So I might get away with it. Will aim to stick to no more than 10 syns for Monday and Tuesday though.

At the end of the day I can only do my best. If I don't get to target before my holiday it's not the end of the world. But I really would like it. Also I'd like to stop being between jeans sizes and be able to buy some in the size below!

I'm not quite sure how today went, because cycling home from a meeting in the heat and with a sore throat I decided to get a bubble tea (green tea with flavouring, tapioca pearls and little 'popping candies'.) Estimates online of the calories in these vary a lot, and many of them deal with the milky varieties or larger portions. I'm guessing it was somewhere around 13 syns.

My other syns for the day were feta and milk in my pasta bake at lunch (total 0.8 syns) and some olives and mustard in my salad at dinner (total 1.5 syns). So that's 15.3 for today. Will try to keep it low tomorrow. I'm still hopeful of a good loss as I've been having lots of superfree, syns on the whole were around 15 a day on average, and most importantly it's the end of my period... fingers crossed.

Exercise: cycled to work, cycled to meeting and back, cycled to choir, but got the train home due to illness,total cycling 77 mins.

Off to make Scanbran Ferrero Rocher for taster night tomorrow, then to bed early to shake this cough.

I somewhat astonished myself today by losing 5lb.
That's the best loss I've ever had, even in the early days. Just goes to show what a week on-plan combined with post-period water loss can do! There's a very clear repeated trend on my graph these days for 3 weeks of maintaining, gaining or tiny losses followed by a really good loss week.

So I'm 1lb from a healthy body weight and that's very achievable in the two weeks before I go on holiday! I'm determined not to let things slip now. I do want to get more exercise in the next few weeks which may lead to a bit of water retention as I'm out of practice, but hopefully not too much.

Yay!

Today was Extra Easy; I didn't eat masses, think the lurgy has killed my appetite a bit.

Breakfast: Hifi (hexB)
Snack: sugarsnap peas
Lunch: salad of leaves, green beans, tomatoes, capers, olives (1 syn), egg, tuna and potato
Snack: blueberries
Dinner: noodles with stirfried veg and prawns
Treats: 2 humbugs, a pink wafer, 4 scanbran ferrero rocher, 2 SW truffles at group (total 11.8 syns).

Hm, just realised I haven't had my HexA today. Oh well, no point forcing it in now. I rarely skip my cheese!

Exercise: Cycled to work and back, cycled to group and back, total 44 mins.

Yesterday wasn't the most slimming day, but hopefully won't do too much damage.

Breakfast: 2.5 Scanbran (hex 1/2 B), quark, smoked salmon, rocket, diet coke
Lunch: Prawns and crabsticks, onion, peppers, baby corn, cucumber, salad, with dressing of soysauce, vinegar, lime juice, 1/2 tsp suga (1/2 syn)
Snacks: Melon, diet RedBull, mini cupcake (8 syns?), 2 mint humbugs (3 syns)
Dinner out: Small piece of ciabatta with oil (12.5 syns), thin crust veggie pizza, didn't eat the edges (estimate 40 syns, but I'm counting the oil and cheese as the rest of my hexes for the day so going with 19), 2 pints of Leffe (30 syns, oops)
Evening treat: 2 Scanbran Ferrero Rocher (2 syns)

I probably could've done without the cupcake (colleague brought them in and I was hungry... note to self that melon isn't really a very filling fruit), ciabatta (I wouldn't have asked for it but my friend always gets the extras 'for the table'...) and the second pint of Leffe (the waiter said 'another one?' and being mildly tipsy and happy with friends I automatically said yes... should've just gone for diet coke. Old habits die hard though.)

Total about 75 syns.

It's been a hard emotional week for many reasons. I've had a cough and period pain, my boyfriend is moving out soon so I've been dealing with the agent and the change in situation, I've had deadlines and pressure on a horrible project at work that just drags on, and my grandmother was ill and finally died. I wasn't close to her and she has had dementia for a long time but it's still a biggish thing.

Another meal and drinks out tonight. I'll try to be sensible but am also prepared for a maintain this week. Just don't want to gain. If I can 'stabilise' at my new weight for a week then have a go at getting the final lb off before my holiday I'll be happy.

Don't take it to heart, just try to get back on it today and if you decide to have a few treats tonight then don't beat yourself up about it, just start again tomorrow, problems start when you decide that you can't get back on it again, have a lovely meal tonight (jealous)

Thanks, I do feel that with my better motivation lately I will be able to get back on it. As I've just edited above, it's been a tough week emotionally so I'm not feeling too bad about it!

Sorry to hear your having an emotional week, it's waful when that happens, but if you can get focused you'll be fine

Hey Gwella, just spotted your diary. Well done on going back to basics, what an amazing loss after just a week on plan. Goes to show, it still works even so close to target. I hope you get to goal next week.


Sorry to read about your nan and the other things that are playing on your mind this week. Take it easy xx

Hello anyone who's reading and thanks for the support so far.

Feeling very sleepy and a bit down, the cough has taken it out of me. So glad it's Friday and a long weekend!

Yesterday's food was not too bad given I was being relaxed about it - I made some 'good choices' and enjoyed it a lot. Haven't had Nando's since I started SW. Shame their veggie options are a lot more syn-heavy than the chicken!

Green Thursday
Breakfast: eggy bread (hexB) with raspberries and tsp sugar (1 syn), diet coke
Lunch: rocket, beetroot, edamame bean&quinoa salad (pretty sure synfree as I took out the dressing pot), Feta (hexA + 0.6 syns), diet lemonade
Snacks: 1 humbug (1.5 syns), 4 sugarfree mints bought to help resist more humbugs (1.2 syns), 2 M&S yogurts, strawberries
Dinner: Nando's halloumi pitta (hexA + 16.5 syns), ratatouille (hexB in case there was oil), half portion of chips (6.5 syns), 175ml glass white wine (6.5), piri piri (maybe 1 syn max)
At the pub: Everyone was eating (so that we could get a table!) so instead of a drink I had a G&T sorbet (estimate 20 syns being quite generous), diet coke

Total: 54.8 syns, but my superfree portions were pretty high even at Nando's. I could've done much worse, having a full portion of chips to myself, having the wrap instead of the pitta, having a big glass of wine, having a bar snack at the pub and several more drinks!

Exercise: cycled to work (17 mins), walked to meeting then from St Paul's to Oxford Circus (at least 25 mins at brisk pace)

Mostly back on it today but going easy on myself as I feel ill - will update tomorrow depending on how I do this evening as Friday is a wine-related danger point for me! Probably should avoid alcohol for a bit to shake the cough, but...

Friday (Green)
Breakfast: hifi (hexB)
Lunch: quinoa, edamame, salad, beetroot, feta (hexA)
Treats/snacks: brownie made by colleague (13.5 syns), strawberries, yogurt, sugarfree mints (1.2 syns), 2 babybels (hexB)
Dinner: 2 quorn sausages (2 syns), SW chips, sprouts, broccoli
(Total 16.7 syns)
Exercise: cycled to and from work (34 mins total)

Saturday (EE)
Breakfast: hifis (hexB)
Lunch: 2 quorn sausages (2 syns), SW chips, sprouts, broccoli
Treat: kulfi ice cream (7.3 syns)
Dinner: pasta, courgettes, spring onion, fromage frais, smoked salmon
Drinks: 500ml red wine (17 syns), brandy (8 syns) (I bought really bad red wine, but discovered mixing it with diet Fanta and brandy made it taste almost like Sangria. Rather drinkable. Oops.)
(Total 34.3 syns)
Exercise: Walked to and from shops (20 mins total)

Sunday (Green)
Lunch: salad, onion, pepper, mushroom, jalapenos, refried beans, yogurt, cheese (hexA)
Snacks: 2 kulfi ice creams (14.6 syns)
Dinner: aubergine, sweet potato, squash, peppers, tomatoes, fromage frais, goat's cheese and cheddar (2 hexBs and half a hexA)
Drinks: 250ml red wine (8.5 syns)
(Total 23.1 syns)
Exercise: Went for a walk, and climbed some trees!

Average daily syns so far this week is 41. Yeesh. I'm not too worried, because I had such a good loss last week and am happy to stabilise a bit. I am finding that even though I'm near target now, I can maintain reasonably easily even with lots of syns. Many of the syns on Weds and Thurs were as part of meals which usually helps too as ultimately they replaced the syn-free calories I would normally have had. I think that whilst I'd like to lose that last 1lb before my holiday, knowing I'm likely to gain a bit on holiday means I am less focused on that and just happy to 'see what happens' while I deal with the other stresses I have going on.

I got very panicky this afternoon. I am an anxious person, but sometimes I get really twitchy and flappy for no reason. I was looking online for new clothes to complete my wardrobe: I badly need trousers, shorts, sandals, and a bikini for my holiday. I seriously struggle to get dressed at the moment as I have one pair of trousers that fit and they are a bit tight. But when I go shopping I'm between sizes and I get overwhelmed shopping online, especially now I don't really know my size and what will fit me now. In the end I ordered a lot of stuff; I will return what doesn't fit.

On the plus side, this means my wardrobe sorting, which has been going on for years and years, is very nearly finished. I read a lot of minimalist blogs and really aspire to cut down my possessions as far as possible. I think it's good for my mental wellbeing and better for the planet if I have and consume as little as keeps me content. I really like the idea of a streamlined, simple wardrobe in particular. I've been reading about Project 333 where you try to manage with 33 items (coats, sunglasses etc included) for 3 months. I'm not quite there, but I really have cut down on clothes. Now that basically everything fits me and I don't have a 'wardrobe in waiting' it's a great feeling. SO much has gone to the charity shop over the last few months!

I'm feeling pretty low at the moment. I think it's just lots of emotional things plus being ill crammed into a week. My boyfriend is moving out at the end of this week and I am pretty sad about it. We're staying together, but it seems like a massive step backwards having been living together for well over a year and in the same city for nearly two years. The process of untangling our belongings/lives is upsetting me. Then of course there's my grandma's funeral next week. I'm going on holiday straight after that and finding that a lot of old anxiety issues are arising around my 'to do' list and around packing and having enough clothes to take with me. I'm not sleeping well.

I think after weight loss, my next big goal in life needs to be to really work on my mental health and general happiness...

I think that will be important in terms of keeping the weight off too. I still turn to food for comfort, and alcohol, though much less than before. I had a bit of a binge last night, which is a bit unusual for me these days, but still I'm disappointed. I had had no syns all day and was fine with that. At choir we had crisps on offer instead of biscuits so I dug in. But due to my low mood (various reasons including a messed up schedule and the rain as well as the above) I wanted a drink so bought a can of mojito at M&S on the way home. Then THAT gave me the munchies. So I had a big bag of plantain chips and half a pack of baklava - absolutely millions of syns. Wish I'd just bought my favourite synfree calamari snack while I was at M&S

I did do some exercise yesterday though - about 6 mini Bollywood workout videos on Youtube, totally about half an hour of jumping around. I miss my Bollywood classes but don't really have the time/money to find a new one, so I'm planning to keep this up. It's a lot more fun than the Jillian Michaels workouts I was doing before, so I might be more motivated. I do ache today but in a good (ish) way. Then I ended up doing a bit of fairly brisk walking trying to find shops that were open.

Back on track so far today, ish.

Breakfast: hifis (hexB), yogurt, raspberries
Lunch: aubergine, sweet potato, squash, peppers, tomatoes, fromage frais, goat's cheese and cheddar (2 hexAs + 3 syns ish)
Dinner: orzo pasta with peppers, spring onion, cucumber, feta (hexB), olives (1 syn), dressing (not sure how many syns yet).

Might have some red wine later too. I'm off to the shop now to buy bottled water (forgot my bottle) and ought to resist chocolate really. It's so dreary out though.

I decided not to go to group tonight. I am feeling genuinely depressed and antisocial, I have a flat bike tyre and it's chucking it down so walking 25 mins isn't appealing. I have to confess, with our group being absolutely massive now it is getting quite boring having to queue to be weighed for at least 20 minutes. But I was going to go anyway. And then as I was putting on my coat to leave, I could NOT find my membership card anyway, so I just gave up. I wouldn't even trust the scales as I'm quite achey from exercise and that always means water weight for me. That said I know I've gained this week - it would be ridiculous for anything else to happen - and I need to face up to it so I'm going to weigh at home on my own scales in the morning and add 2lb cos I know that's the difference usually between the two weighs!

My grandma's funeral is next week and then I'm on holiday. Even if I have a really good week, I won't know whether I met my target of getting to a healthy BMI on the SW scales before my holiday. However, I hit a healthy BMI naked on my home scales last week so I'm satisfied. That's the first time that's happened since 2005, when I was rowing three times a week and living off pasta, tuna and tomatoes at college! I can't quite believe that I'm in the 10s...

In order to make productive, slimming use of this evening I'm going to make a Plan!
Goal: overall to maintain (at roughly 10 st 12 I think, though will check what the scales say in the morning) until after my holiday.

Tonight: finish my glass of wine, then stop! In addition to my food noted earlier I had a couple of biscuits at work and some chocolate to celebrate a colleague's pregnancy announcement, so total 25 syns for the day. Not a great week, all in all.

Next SW week:
Wednesday to Friday: on plan, aiming for 10 syns a day
Saturday: on plan, 15 syns (performing in concert then drinks with parents/bf)
Sunday: synfree breakfast and lunch, then 'sensible' dinner out/in plus a couple of drinks (last meal with my bf before he moves out)
Monday: on plan, 15 syns (will need most of them for M&S salad or something on the train to Birmingham)
Tuesday: synfree breakfast, 'sensible' lunch and dinner depending on what mum has planned, plus probably a couple of drinks with parents (my Oma's funeral)

Following 2 SW weeks:
Wednesday: synfree breakfast and lunch, then 'sensible' dinner out with a friend and probably a drink or two
Thursday: synfree breakfast, 'sensible' lunch depending on what mum has planned, airline dinner on the way to Spain, maybe some wine when I arrive!
Friday to Thursday: In Spain being 'sensible'!
Friday and Saturday: I'll maybe go to the shops with Mum to make a plan for Friday/Saturday
Sunday to Tuesday: on plan, aiming for 10 syns a day

What I mean by 'sensible' is similar to what I tried to do at Christmas.
- Where possible knowing syn values in advance (eg looking at menus before going out and looking up)
- Where there are options, go for the healthiest which will satisfy me, and cutting extra courses that I don't need/really want
- Think about what I really want in terms of weight
- Think about what I really want in terms of taste. Sometimes actually the healthier option will taste best to me nowadays. I'm not sure I like wine as much as I used to either.
- Think about how I'll feel after eating, eat nice and slowly and mindfully, and stop when full. Something I want to remember is that one of the best things about a holiday is feeling well in myself, feeling healthy and 'glowing' from the sun and the exercise. Eating til I feel sick/hungover will just undo all of that! Even if it has oil, wine etc I want to make the most of all that healthy, wholesome Spanish food.

The following weekend I'm going to Bath with my boyfriend - really excited as I've not been, and I have visions of afternoon tea and sipping champagne elegantly in a spa! So I'll be aiming to maintain that week too before shaking the last few pounds.

I'm off to try and do something productive with my evening now to see if I can lift this depression a little. I do feel slightly better having posted here, so thanks to anyone who's 'listening'. Maybe I'll write an email to my close friend who just moved to Canada, to offload a bit more...

Hi Gwella

I've read your last few posts, and in your last one, I can "feel" your mood lifting slightly as you set out a plan for the coming weeks.

You've an awful lot to deal with at the moment, things that in a normal week you wouldn't have to contend with. So, sticking to plan the best you can is great. I don't know about you, but many times I'd have used it as an excuse to jack it in. If you can maintain or not go totally off the rails, then I think it's a sign of your will power and commitment to getting healthy.

I am so sorry you're feeling down though, it's an awful to go through, and (for me) I always feel like I should just snap out of it. Whereas it's not that simple, and you have to ride the wave, so to speak. I hope you begin to feel better soon x

Hi coughdrops, thanks so much for your support, it means a lot. You're right that writing a plan lifted my mood a bit. I then sent a long email to a couple of friends which helped too. Yeah, I'm just going to ride the wave as you say, keep putting one foot in front of the other and focus on enjoying my holiday. xxx

Weighed at home this morning at 10 st 10.5 which means 10 st 12.5 by SW's scales, a 1.5lb gain. I amused myself when I went to input it into the SW website and my graph suddenly shot up - I'd typed 11 st 12.5, I still can't get it into my head that I'm in the 10s for the first time in 9 years!

So the aim is to maintain that til after my holiday, and prob til after I go to Bath as well. I need to be strict for a few days to give me a bit of leeway.

Today's food plan:
Breakfast: hifis (hexB) (I've been having small breakfasts lately as really struggling to get up on time)
Lunch: salad of pasta, spring onion, pepper, cucumber, capers, olives (1 syn), dressing (2.5 syns) and feta (hexA + 0.7 syns)
Snacks: Mullerlight (I don't have any fruit with me, oops), a Fudge bar (5.8 syns), a babybel (3 syns)
Dinner: noodles with stirfried veggies and prawns with lime juice and chilli

Total syns: 13
Exercise: walking to bus stop, then home from work, total 45 mins.

I feel ok about my gain. It was entirely expected given what I've eaten this week; in fact you could say I'm lucky it wasn't more. Overall I'm not too worried about what I ate - I think it's within the realms of what a slim person might have on an indulgent week - but I drank too much alcohol and Monday night's plantain/baklava binge wasn't good.

I'm intrigued by the effect PCOS is having on my weight loss and vice versa. I had such a good loss last week, the best I've ever had, which I'm led not to expect this close to target and eating all my syns. So I think maybe it's true that with PCOS, losing weight does help you lose more weight if you see what I mean.
Unfortunately weight loss does not seem to be helping with other PCOS symptoms - hair growth seems worse if anything, my skin isn't much better and I've had terrible dandruff lately. A look online suggests quite a few PCOS women find this, which is contrary to the doctors' stock advice to 'lose weight and PCOS will be soooo much better.' It may just be my hormones adjusting, it may be the effects of a calorie restricted diet on blood sugar, I may be eating too much sugar (perhaps all this fruit isn't a great idea after all), or there may be some key nutrients missing. Once at target I will do some diet analysis and adjustment and look into this.

I'm very pleased that I stayed on plan yesterday after that wobbly week. Hope I can do it again for another 3 days til my meal out on Sunday.

Today (*edited for accuracy afterwards*):
Breakfast: cheese toastie with mushrooms (hexA & hexB)
Lunch: noodles with stirfried veg and prawns
Snack: chocolatey bite (4 syns)
Dinner: salmon, with cucumber/pepper in fromage frais, steamed spinach, basmati rice, tandoori paste (1 syn)
Drinks: 100ml chocolate oat drink (2.5 syns)

Total: 7.5 syns

Peed off as my bike tyre, which I thought I'd fixed last night, is flat again, and I don't have time to walk so it's the bus for me today. Total exercise 15 mins walking.

Busy weekend so just checking in with my food log. Not quite on my plan but could be worse.

Friday (EE)
Breakfast: eggy bread (hexB) with raspberries and sugar (1 syn)
Lunch: salmon, with cucumber/pepper in fromage frais, steamed spinach, basmati rice, tandoori paste (1 syn)
Dinner: pasta, leeks, mushrooms, goat's cheese (hexA)
Drinks: glass red wine (8.5 syns), 330ml lager (5.9syns)
Snacks: oily bread and hummus (???)

= 16.5 syns plus the bread and hummus (lots of syns)

Exercise: walked to and from work, total 80 mins

Saturday (Green)
Breakfast: Mullerlight, raspberries
Lunch: pasta, leeks, mushrooms, goat's cheese (hexB)
Dinner: rice salad with corn, beans, green beans, spring onion, pepper, tomato, cucumber, feta (2hexAs), oil (3 syns)
Snacks: 2 hifis (hexB), strawberries/pineapple/kiwi, pasta with cheese (6 syns), martini (6.9syns), Mars ice cream (7 syns)

=22.9 syns

Exercise: walked to and from station, total 30 mins. About 5 hours singing hard (Mendelssohn's Elijah - very dramatic) at rehearsals and concert - genuinely exhausting and we were all starving afterwards!

Sunday (EE)
Lunch: roasted sweet potato, mushroom, onion, pepper, courgette, celery; feta (hexA)
Snack: Mars ice cream (7 syns)
Dinner (out): oily bread with hummus, imam bayildi, roast aubergine with yogurt, vegetable steamed dumplings with sour cream and pepper relish, 2x175ml white wine

= Not sure how many syns but lots of oil!

Exercise: loads of cleaning hovering. Walked to restaurant, 40 mins.