No more excuses! Back again for 2015

Hi! Thanks for joining, I don't think my diary will be as interesting as yours but will try not to disappoint on the SW weight loss front! :)

It's interesting already xx :). Think you're doing fab starting this side of Xmas. Whatever happens you'll be more in control than you would have been otherwise. We'll all have Xmas treats too but maybe we'll all least prevent the full xmas snack flood gates opening hey :). But whatever the Xmas outcome 2014 awaits us all :) x
 
Very true, I am so determined that I won't give in this time, I will allow myself some leeway over Christmas but hopefully with the right frame of mind I won't syn quite so badly! :)

My target is a holiday at Easter, this year we went with a few of friends and I felt so awful trying to cover up with really baggy clothes that I probably made myself look 2 dress sizes larger than I am! I didn't dare put on a swimming costume and made excuses about not being bothered about getting a tan... Never again am I going to do that!! ;)

On another note, isn't it funny how you so easily get into saving syns wherever you can, I regularly use under 10 syns a day so I have at least 5 to play with but I bought a Tesco Lamb Shank in Minty Gravy yesterday thinking it was free (as they are in Iceland but our local shop doesn't do it) and they are 1.5 points! I was so dismayed when I found out............but hang on! A lovely big Lamb Shank in Minty Gravy and it's only 1.5 syns!! :doh: :D

(Will still keep checking in Iceland for their free version though ;))
 
Todays Menu - Wednesday December 11th
HEXa: 45g Feta
HEXb: 2 x Alpen Light Cereal Bars

Breakfast: Scrambled Egg, Baked Beans, Grilled Mushrooms, Bacon (no fat) and Free Ketchup

Lunch: Plate full of salad vegetables, topped with sliced chicken and feta (HEXa) and a couple of spoonfuls of kraft fat free thousand island dressing drizzled over the top (1 syn)

Dinner: Sea Bass, New Potatoes and Stir Fry Vegetables.... de-bloody-licious! Added some chopped fresh basil and lemon juice to the seabass halfway through cooking. Yum!

Pudding?:
Will update later if I do :)

Snacks/Syns:
Cappuccino 3.5
Cappuccino Strong 2.5 - not quite as nice but it saves me a syn! :)
Which I then spent on..............Fat Free Kraft Thousand Island Dressing (unfortunately NOT a free dressing) 1 Syn
1 Peach
Alpen Light Cereal Bars (HEXb)
1 tsp tartare sauce 1 syn

Total Syns: 8
(so far)

black tea/coffee and glasses of water throughout the day
 
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Re: No more excuses! New me for 2014

1386795846011.jpg So proud of my seabass I had to take a piccie

I rarely cook fresh fish, hence the ott excitement :D

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Ps im guilty for watching your diary and not say hi * covers face*

Your doing so well, love your menus xx

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Thursday 12th December 2013

It's weird, I would live on cheese given the chance but since starting SW I am struggling to use my HEXa every day, I am rarely choosing bread for my HEXb so can't have it in a cheese sandwich (also weird for me as I love bread but do feel better for not eating it) and I really like to have my Alpen Bars as treats with a hot drink.

I have never drunk milk since being put off with the lumpy warm stuff they used to make us drink in school, how they thought that was good for us! I have always had black tea and coffee, so no point choosing milk as my HEXa either....

So lunch today was an experiment to use my HEXa and not use mayo and keep it syn free

From the science lab that is my kitchen: I mixed together pasta, tuna, my 75g portion of philadelphia light and a couple of large spoonfuls of quark. I also added some finely chopped onions in the hope that it would soak into the quark and make it taste better, and a good sprinkling of cracked black pepper. I left it in the fridge to let the flavours mingle for a while. I ended up making so much that there is a portion still in the fridge for tomorrow - so I STILL didn't have all of my HEXa today doh! :doh:
It was quite tasty and incredibly filling but still a little dry for my liking so I got bored with it half way through, may try a little lemon juice or fat free vinaigrette in the other portion to see if that makes it a little "wetter"...

Had a good excercise day, I walked into the next town (4.5 miles round trip!) where there is a Holland and Barratt, I bought some Scan Bran which I keep seeing in recipes, it looks like cardboard and I am pretty sure it will taste like cardboard but I have to try some of these recipes for myself because I cannot believe you can make something that tasty from roofing felt, I am bad enough with weetabix or ryvita! If all else fails I am sure we can use them on the shed roof :D

Thursday 12th December 2013

HEXa: 75g Philadelphia Light with Garlic and Herbs
HEXb: 2 x Alpen Light Cereal Bars

Breakfast: Fresh Fruit Salad of Banana, Raspberries, Grapes, Peach, Apple and blueberries with Banana & Custard Muller Light Yoghurt.

Lunch:
Wholemeal Pasta, philadelphia light (HEXa) and Quark and Tuna Salad, Bowl of fruit salad

Dinner: Thai Green Chicken Curry and wholemeal basmati rice - 2.5 syns or less depending on who's recipe I decide to ignore - I am leaving some things out, I have absolutely no idea what kaffir lime leaves are or where to buy them (fresh or dried) so they won't be going in for a start! And there is no place for aubergine in my house so that's not going in either - yuk! ;)


Snacks/Syns:
Cappuccino Strong x 2 = 5 syns
Dinner = 2.5 syns
Total Syns: 7.5

Fluids: Drank a few cups of weak black tea today and a black coffee while I was out. Tried to drink a small glass of water every time I went near the kitchen so should have had enough :)

You can tell I have spent most of today on my own, You can't shut me up! :D :D
 
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Update on the Thai Green Chicken Curry...

I mostly followed the SW recipe but I am sure it is not quite right! It called for 100g of fresh coriander, that is a bucketful! I had one growing plant and used everything it had to offer which was a fair bit and that only weighed 10g... so that would have to do, you have to chop it finely then liquidise it with the light coconut milk then sieve it out and throw it away!!! It's an absolute nightmare to chop finely so I am glad I didn't have 10 times as much, I just chopped it roughly because the liquidiser did the rest anyway. I also swapped the aubergine for a courgette as I felt they were the same sort of consistency.

It didn't look very appetizing while it was cooking and I was preparing myself to get some sausages out of the freezer but the longer it cooked, the better it smelled, I think I doubled the cooking time in the end. It wasn't very green, maybe you have to use all that coriander to stain the coconut milk but that's an expensive dye and seems a waste to me......

I still wasn't sure when I served it up but it actually tasted really nice, It looked quite watery in the pan but the juice soaked into the rice and made that more interesting.
Hubby even went back for seconds, always a good sign - but then he was probably starving by the time I had finished! :)

All in all, very nice but a bit faffy and took a lot longer than the recipe stated, so probably won't bother again unless I have time to experiment with it.
 
Hi x I've made the thai green curry before and I just used 2 tsp of dried coriander instead and it wss fine - definitely agree it's way to much of fresh coriander as stated on the recipe. Glad you enjoyed. The red thai curry sauce from the SW little book of sauces is nice too, I've made that adding chicken and baby corn. Good to get into the recipes.
 
Friday 13th December 2013

YES!! I managed to score me some Hi-Fi Rocky Road Bars today :D

As I do SW online I can't buy these and keep reading how delicious they are supposed to be, luckily a friend goes to a group and she got me some... and yes I agree they are yummy :)

Friday 13th December 2013

HEXa: 40g Light Cheddar (well.... 33g as that's all there was left, hubby who refuses to put on his reading glasses has been eating it instead of the full fat one!)
HEXb: 1 x Alpen Light Cereal Bars and 1 Hi-Fi Rocky Road Bar (Hopefully I can do this or I will go through the Hi-Fi Bar stash too quickly)

Breakfast: Fresh Fruit Salad of Banana, Raspberries, Grapes with Banana & Custard Muller Light Yoghurt.

Lunch: Jacket Potato, baked beans, light cheddar and a large portion of mushrooms

Dinner: Chinese Meal - I was soooo good! Chicken in Black Bean Sauce (5 syns) steamed rice - free, steamed beanshoots - free.
I drove so only a diet coke to drink too.

Snacks/Syns:
1 x Nescafe Cappuccino Strong 2.5 Syns
Dinner 5 Syns
Raspberries
Satsuma
Total Syns - 7.5

Fluids: Probably not enough today, mostly black coffee or tea, drank a couple of glasses when I realised...
 
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Saturday 14th December

Christmas tree is up and decorated at last, Lights have been unravelled, how is it that you pack them away carefully, put the box in the attic where it is not touched for another 11 months but when you take them down they are all knotted together!

Finally untangled them and plugged them in to test them only to find half of them don't flipping work! So straight in the bin they went, No point trying to find replacement bulbs because they seem to change them every year and I am not spending hours trying to find which bulb or bulbs are faulty.

Why oh why did I not just plug them in for a quick test before spending half an hour unravelling them.... duh!

So I had to go to the local Garden Centre to buy some more before I could finish but now it's done and very nice it looks too.

It's starting to look a little like Christmas round here :) We also have the double issue Radio Times on the coffee table to finish the effect. This is something that I loved to see when I was little, I knew it was nearly Christmas when that came out in the shops. I don't use it as the TV guide on the Telly is more than enough but I still have to buy one...

Saturday 14th December 2013


Healthy Extras
a: 40g Reduced fat Cheddar (grated so finely that I got loads of use from it! :))
b: 2 slices wholemeal bread (small 400g loaf)

Breakfast: Fresh fruit salad and Muller Light Vanilla Yoghurt

Lunch: Sandwich (b) Salad, Grated Cheese(a), Ham and Tbsn Branston Pickle (1 syn) and a packet of quavers (4½ syns)

Afternoon treat: (while hubby munched his way through the mince pies, harumph.....) Nescafe Cafe Menu Cappuccino and an Alpen Light bar 3½ & 2½ syns)

Dinner: Jacket Potato with SW Chilli con Carne with the rest of my grated cheese sprinkled on it and Salad

If I have a pud it will be a free one today - Muller Yoghurt and Fruit

Syns

Branston Pickle tspn 1
Alpen, Light Cereal Bars Chocolate & Fudge 2½
Nescafe, Cafe Menu Cappuccino, dried 3½
Small Pack of Quavers 4½

Total Syns 11½

Fluids: Black Tea, Black Coffee, Plenty of Water
 
Re: No more excuses! New me for 2014

I enjoyed it really. .it was a good excuse to drag hubby out to choose more lights... I am always a bit of a skinflint when it comes to that sort of thing (probably why half of them stopped working) but hubby chose some that should last forever! Whether they will untangle themselves next year is another matter! :D

And yes it does look nice and cosy :)

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Sunday 15th December 2013

Well, today looks like a real pig out day!
But I managed to keep it SW friendly (ish, not really enough on the fruit & veg front in the morning) and breakfast was a late one so it was lunch too :)

Walked about 3 miles today to try and make up for it a little, I felt so bloated last night though I really needed a break from all the fruit! Have drunk loads of water today and it feels better now, I bought some sugar free cranberry juice too which I found out was free! woop woop! I like cranberry juice, even better with a shot of vodka in it ;)

I tried some baking today, my friend lent me a little SW comfort food recipe book and I tried the blueberry muffins 3.5 syns each, the picture looked lovely - they did not turn out like that at all! They just tasted of breakfast cereal with too many blueberries - may play with the recipe and try again though, it could do with some mashed banana and less blueberry and that shouldn't change the syns should it? I also need to play with the sweetener amount, not sure which sweetener the recipe used but they didn't taste sweet at all... Will leave them overnight to see if they improve with age but if not they are going in the bin! I wasted 1 syn just tasting some :(

Healthy Extras
a 40g Reduced fat Cheddar
b 2 Alpen Light Cereal Bars

Brunch:
Mushroom, Onion and Cheddar (HEXa) Omelette served with Baked Beans and Linda McCartney Red Onion and Rosemary Sausages

Late Afternoon Treat:
Cappuccino with my HEXb's

Dinner: Roast Chicken, SW Roast Potatoes with steamed Broccoli, Leeks and Carrots and a splash of Schwartz Chicken Gravy.

It's a huge chicken so I will be using it for the next 2 days, so will look for some interesting recipes..... hmmm, chicken and leek something or other?

Syns
Cafe Menu Cappuccino, Original, dried 3½
Schwartz Chicken Gravy 2½
Tasting the horrid muffin 1
Total Syns 7

Fluids:
Lot's of black tea and plenty of water - avoided coffee today except for my cappuccino
 
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