Fabulous first week - now to keep the motivation going!

Hmmm I have no idea with the Chorizo :/
But what you're gonna make sounds delicious!
We have a market once a month where i live and a German man has a stall and you can buy a bag of sausage for £10 and there is so many things in the bag, it's ace!
Enjoy it :)
 
Hmmm I have no idea with the Chorizo :/
But what you're gonna make sounds delicious!
We have a market once a month where i live and a German man has a stall and you can buy a bag of sausage for £10 and there is so many things in the bag, it's ace!
Enjoy it :)

I put the same query up in the Syns value sub forum and it's been suggested I'll just have to defrost 100g and see how much it weighs. There probably isn't a way to work it out without doing that. I think that may be the way to go. I can't see it adding more than a few syns to the total and split between a few portions of sauce it'll be fine.

I've only had 1.5 syns so far today anyway, so it's not like I'll be going over my total :)

I was overthinking it :D
 
Tuesday 18th February 2014 - Update

OK - going Green today :)

B : Banana, All Bran (HEXB1), strawberries, Aldi yoghurt (1.5)

L : JP, baked beans,jalepenos, cheese (HEXA1) (also had a sneaky ML yoghurt)

D : Spaghetti + HM sauce (tomatoes, onions, jalepenos) with chorizo (4.5) + salad

Snacks : Fruit
HEXA2 : Milk in tea
HEXB2 : Ryvita Minis - I decided 2 lots of cheese AND some milk in one day was uneccessary!


OK - so the frozen / fresh debate has been solved. Turns out 108g of frozen chorizo (which is all there was left in the bag) weighs 106g when defrosted. :hmm: Who knew?! Anyway. I wasn't putting 8g (or 6g) of chorizo back in the freezer, so I'm synning the whole lot at 13 and judging by the panful of sauce simmering away on my hob at the moment it'll easily make 3 portions at 4.5 syns each.

I feel like I've eaten sooooooo much today. I love Green days.
 
Wednesday February 19th 2014

Red day today

B : All Bran (HEXB1), strawberries, Aldi yoghurt (1.5), banana

L : Tinned mackerel in tomato sauce, salad (lettuce, carrot, cabbage, celery, tomato, onion)

D : Lamb chops (going to count 5 syns for these as they will still be a little fatty even though trimmed), mixed frozen veggies including peas (HEXB2), gravy (3)

HEXA1 : Milk in tea
HEXA2 : Not sure yet

Snacks : Fruit
 
Red day today B : All Bran (HEXB1), strawberries, Aldi yoghurt (1.5), banana L : Tinned mackerel in tomato sauce, salad (lettuce, carrot, cabbage, celery, tomato, onion) D : Lamb chops (going to count 5 syns for these as they will still be a little fatty even though trimmed), mixed frozen veggies including peas (HEXB2), gravy (3) HEXA1 : Milk in tea HEXA2 : Not sure yet Snacks : Fruit

Well...slight change to that!

B and L were as planned, but I really fancied chips with my lamb chops and veggies. So, as B and L had both had at least 1/3rd SF and I hadn't had a second HEXA or HEXB I swapped to EE and had chops, chips, veggies, gravy and mint sauce. Managed to trim all the fat off the chops, so am just counting 5 syns for gravy and mint sauce. It was delicious!
 
2lbs off this week! :clap:

Not terribly prepared for today. I've run out of yoghurt (Crisis, Baldrick, CRISIS!) so it's either porridge or a turkey rasher sandwich for brekkie. Salad and HM JP for lunch maybe with a small tin of tuna. No idea for dinner yet - have to go shopping.
 
Thursday 20th February 2014

OK - so now I have a plan for today's grub : EE today

B : Wholemeal pitta (HEXB), 3 turkey rashers, mixed salad, 1 tblsp HP sauce (1), banana (not on the pitta!)

L : JP, mixed salad, FF dressing

D : Chicken chow mein - chicken breast, egg noodles, onion, baby sweet corn, mangetout, carrot, pepper stir fried in half a pack of Aldi Chow mein sauce (3)

HEXA : Milk in tea

Snacks : Alpen Light bar (2.5), fruit
Syns : Large glass of white wine (8) Total for day 14.5

And all that without going shopping - although my fridge is going to pretty bare after tonight's stir fry! Will stop off at the Coop on the way home from work and get some yoghurt and strawberries for tomorrow's breakfast. The rest can wait 'til I get chance to do a proper shop.
 
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Friday February 21 2014

EE today - trying to keep syns lower today and tomorrow because I'm going out for lunch on Sunday and it will be tricky to keep it to 15 then :D

B :
All Bran (HEXB), strawberries, Onken yoghurt (2)

L :
l/o chow mein from last night (no syns in this as I counted them all last night but didn't finish it!) - need to cook some rice or noodles to go with it, apple

(Edited to add : I made a chicken noodle soup. A chicken stock pot, noodle nest, the left over chow mein and sauce and some additional beansprouts and spring onions. It was amazing. I love left overs!)

D : No idea - the fridge really is bare now so I need to go shopping. I fancy trying the fakeaway kebab recipe so will get some
lamb mince and salad

Happy Friday everyone :party0011:
 
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Fakeaway kebab is hereby pronounced a massive success! I used 200g of mince because I didn't want to "waste" a whole pack if the recipe was no good. But I put in all the spices in the recipe, and some extra chilli because I do like my food spicy :) Baked it for an hour on a rack.

So I've had kebab, chips and salad for tea! Diet? Who's on a diet?!
 
Sunday February 23rd 2014

Went over syns on Friday, despite saying I was trying to keep them low. Oops. Am seriously considering cutting out alcohol altogether because it's then that I seem to slip. In the past, one glass of wine wouldn't have touched the sides (to be honest, a whole bottle wouldn't :eek:) but now, after one glass I'm tipsy and that's when eating all the cheese spread in the house seems like a good idea. :sigh: At least I ate it with celery sticks. Pre-SW I'd have loaded it onto bread :8855:and followed it with crisps and a takeaway!

But - yesterday was better (both HEXs and 9 syns used) and I'm not going to beat myself up. Am going out for lunch today, so likely to go over again but I will try to keep it reasonable.

EE today

B : SW Fry up - 3 turkey rashers, 2 Cauldron veggie sausages (1), baked beans, tomatoes, 2 slices of 400g WM toast (HEXB), HP sauce (1)

L : Roast beef, roast poatoes (will probably be cooked in oil - need to count syns), lots of veggies, gravy, Yorkshire pudding - will total up syns afterwards, but bound to be at least 20

D : Probably not very much after 2 cooked meals! Maybe a salad with fruit and yoghurt for pudding.

HEXA : milk in tea

Actually - thinking about it - if I can keep lunch down to 20 syns then that evens out over today and yesterday to 15 syns a day. So, forgetting about Friday's blip (which was only 8 syns for a second glass of wine and maybe the same again for the chese spread) it's not looking nearly as bad as I thought.
 
Bit of positive thinking

Just notes for myself :

  • SW is starting to feel like a normal way of eating
  • I don't feel like I'm missing out - there are ways of making the majority of my previously favourite food
  • I don't feel like I'm on a diet - I get to eat chips, "kebabs", fry ups and shepherd's pie (absolute fav), I just cook them differently
  • Money spent on takeaways has dwindled to nothing. Instead I spend it on fruit :)
  • I'm really enjoying cooking good food again
  • This place inspires me
  • I can feel my clothes getting looser
  • I'm less out of breath when I walk up hills
  • I'm actually enjoying it - which is a bit :eek:. No-one's supposed to enjoy dieting! (See point 3 above)
 
Hmm...I've had a rough couple of days. Wasn't feeling well yesterday but I had to go on a one day course for work.

Felt so iffy that I just wasn't hungry at all. The facilities on the course were dire - stewed tea with those plastic tubs of preserved milk. Ick. No food provided at all. So I actually didn't eat anything until I was driving home at about 1500. I'd grabbed some fruit before leaving home so I had 3 plums and 2 clementines.

When I got home I had a pasta and sauce (1.5) with some HM chilli mixed through it, followed by an apple.

That's not enough food, I know. No HEB or HEA at all. Bad.

Still not feeling good this morning and am currently on a train to London for an all day meeting. Bleughh.

I had some strawberries and vanilla ML before I left home but I don't know what the food will be like at lunchtime. It's an organised conference venue. So hopefully there'll be some decent salad options. The last one of these I went to gave us a stand up, no cutlery buffet - of sausage, mash and onion gravy! Ridiculous. We all ended up using the teaspoons from the tea and coffee stand to eat it!

I've stashed an Alpen Light in my bag, but honestly I'm not feeling like eating it or anything else really.
 
Well, lunch turned out to be several hot options, the least bad of which (SW-wise) was chilli and boiled rice. Portion was tiny, but it was swimming in oil (and not terribly nice to be honest, but everything else was pastry or contained mushrooms. Hate mushrooms!). I'm counting 5 syns for the chilli. They had put some really nice fruit platters out for dessert though, so I had an orange segment, one hugggge strawberry, some melon and some pineapple.

Ate my Alpen light on the train on the way home so at least I've had my HEXB today. Just got home and I feel washed out. There are some pork chops and plenty of salad in the fridge but I really just can't be bothered to cook them. The chops, not the salad.

So tired though. Might just go to bed instead.
 
Wednesday February 26th

Right, had a lot of sleep (and some odd dreams but that's just my strange mind) so I'm feeling a little better. I am working from home today so I am in total control of my food for once.

EE today

B : All Bran (HEXB), ML

L : Pasta + HM chorizo sauce (4.5), mixed salad, fruit

D : Pork chop and salad (didn't eat anything last night, so these are still in the fridge), maybe some SW chips?

HEXA : Milk in tea

So that's looking a bit better than the last couple of days. Here's hoping for a good result on the scales tomorrow - but not expecting much after being all over the place this week.

(Edited to add - the bowl of All Bran obviously kick started my metabolism because I've just wolfed my lunch (at 11am!) because I was so hungry. Now I know I'm feeling better!)
 
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Hi Theria,

Well I have absolutely loved reading your journal so far, your musings and thoughts are very witty and some of them seem to have come straight out of my head! I’ve been on SW for over a year now and although I’m still losing it’s been a great reminder of how the plan *should* be done. Newbies are sometimes the best teachers! Not so much in this job, but certainly a while ago I had the same issues as you around meetings/buffets and often hotel food and whatnot, all in the name of work. If it was an internal meeting I would contact the organiser and ask them not to cater lunch for me so that I didn’t feel there was food going to waste and I was forced to take something of my own when the day came around. I would take something that didn’t look like “diet” food so that it was easy for people to just think I had a food allergy or something! Likewise if it was a course/seminar with a bunch of strangers, although I agree it’s a bit difficult if you’re at a customer site. But honestly, when we’re overweight I think we can be very self-conscious about what we eat and think that other people are clocking every morsel when in fact most people couldn’t care a fig!

You must be so thrilled with your progress so far and I can really empathise with where you are. I was a very similar weight to you when I started last January, although you’re a little taller than me. I certainly remember that feeling of getting into clothes that were previously unobtainable or a bit too tight. Now I have grown into and out of everything I’ve ever had in my wardrobe and I’m shopping in regular stores. Gotta love that feeling!

Slimming World is such a flexible plan, I’ve never tried another “diet” because I knew I wouldn’t be able to make a success of anything that felt restrictive or left me feeling hungry (hungry = miserable!). A few years ago a SW leaflet dropped on my doorstep and I was hooked, lost about 7 stones and then gained it back with a spectacular falling off the wagon when I got very very poorly. But now I’m back at it again and I’m hoping that experience will contribute to my success this time. I’m think the phrase is “character building”... ;)

Anyhoo, enough about me, but I did just want to share a bit because I can relate so closely to where you are. Really looking forward to checking back in to see all your fabulous planning and you even-more-fabulous success! Go get em girl, I’m rooting for you all the way!
 
Hi Theria,

Well I have absolutely loved reading your journal so far, your musings and thoughts are very witty and some of them seem to have come straight out of my head! I’ve been on SW for over a year now and although I’m still losing it’s been a great reminder of how the plan *should* be done. Newbies are sometimes the best teachers! Not so much in this job, but certainly a while ago I had the same issues as you around meetings/buffets and often hotel food and whatnot, all in the name of work. If it was an internal meeting I would contact the organiser and ask them not to cater lunch for me so that I didn’t feel there was food going to waste and I was forced to take something of my own when the day came around. I would take something that didn’t look like “diet” food so that it was easy for people to just think I had a food allergy or something! Likewise if it was a course/seminar with a bunch of strangers, although I agree it’s a bit difficult if you’re at a customer site. But honestly, when we’re overweight I think we can be very self-conscious about what we eat and think that other people are clocking every morsel when in fact most people couldn’t care a fig!

You must be so thrilled with your progress so far and I can really empathise with where you are. I was a very similar weight to you when I started last January, although you’re a little taller than me. I certainly remember that feeling of getting into clothes that were previously unobtainable or a bit too tight. Now I have grown into and out of everything I’ve ever had in my wardrobe and I’m shopping in regular stores. Gotta love that feeling!

Slimming World is such a flexible plan, I’ve never tried another “diet” because I knew I wouldn’t be able to make a success of anything that felt restrictive or left me feeling hungry (hungry = miserable!). A few years ago a SW leaflet dropped on my doorstep and I was hooked, lost about 7 stones and then gained it back with a spectacular falling off the wagon when I got very very poorly. But now I’m back at it again and I’m hoping that experience will contribute to my success this time. I’m think the phrase is “character building”... ;)

Anyhoo, enough about me, but I did just want to share a bit because I can relate so closely to where you are. Really looking forward to checking back in to see all your fabulous planning and you even-more-fabulous success! Go get em girl, I’m rooting for you all the way!

Thank you so much for that - incredibly inspiring and supportive post. I shall go and find your diary and get reading, because you have a lot to teach me too :)
 
My body is making up for two days of very little food with a vengenance today!

It doesn't help being at home, where food is always available. At least it's all SW friendly :)

Snacks today, apsrt from the food listed on my daily entry above have been :

Alpen light bar - 2.5 syns
2 clementines, 1 apple
One medium potato made into "crisps". (Instead of having chips with dinner)

I know SW say you have to syn these HM crisps. I only have them once a week and one potato, once a week (as long as I don't batter it and deep fry it!) is not going to make a difference to my losses at this stage. In my opinion. Your mileage may vary. I may reconsider this viewpoint at a later stage.

So all that - on top of all bran and a pasta lunch and I'm even starting to get hungry for dinner already. Oh well - I've used 7 syns and there will only be 1 or at most 2 in dinner for some salad dressing. Let's hope I haven't gone over the top. Weigh in number 6 tomorrow.
 
Well. 3lbs off! :bliss:

It might not be a true reading - might be down to those two days of eating not very much at all, but I'm bloomin' well claiming it and going to work hard to keep it off this week. Only another 2lbs to lose to get my 2 stone shiny :D

Into another stone bracket too. Cannot wait until I'm out of the 20s altogether.
 
Thursday February 27th 2014

Right then - onwards and downwards to keeping that 3lbs off and aiming for another 2lbs this week to get to 2 stone in total.

EE today

B : All Bran (HEXB), ML Vanilla, 3 slices of melon

L : Pasta n sauce (1.5), salad, [STRIKE]dressing (1.5)[/STRIKE] (wasn't neccessary)

D : Chicken fried rice with celery, baby sweetcorn, spring onion, mangetout, stir fry sauce (2)

HEXA : Milk in tea


Snacks : Clementine, apple, melon

Keeping the syns lowish today as I'm away overnight from tomorrow and it will be nice to have a few spare syns.
 
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