New to SW - 13.5 stone Lets share our daily food diaries

Hi Im Martina, 28 from london, Im a nursery teacher, and weigh 13.5 stone. I look over weight and I'm a size 18 just about, I have always been over weight, I went down from 16 stone as a teenager to 13 but that's it, and I'v been 13 stone ever sine..with the exception of a few crash diets that took me down to 11.5 stone. I've never had the pleasure of knowing what it's like to feel 'normal' and light and healthy, to go to a shop and buy a size 12 ( 10 would be ideal) and feel comfortable in my body.

I'm hoping for people who can identify with my situation/ weight..however it goes without saying that everyone is welcome. I just started SW online two and half weeks ago, and I love it, although I also love food and eat a lot , I'm not sure how well it will work for me, as the only way I have ever lost weight is fad diets like Cambridge ( it allows no food just three 'shakes' a day,made with powder and water)

I thought we could read each others diaries food diaries and give each other honest comment/ advise


I have had some experience in catering so I'm also hoping to share recipes as I love to cook and experiment. I hope someone will enjoy my posts, and definitely write back as I need the encouragement with blogs, I'v never written one.




I am not going to start writing my daily food diary just yet, i feel this introductory blog entry is quite long, I also feel that it is a bit selfish and would rather someone else shares, as it is important for me that you understand that I am here to give support as well as take it.

i would like to mention exercise ( once at the start because I don't ever exercise) I'm always on my feet and running around 2 year old toddlers, carrying them etc,,my job keeps me on my toes. I also walk around after work for two hours ( but nothing that resembles exercise just walking around in shopping centre) I buy lots of veg and carry home heavy bags of food every other day). So that's it, phew that was long.


So who is in? Also I'm always on this site ( but still very new so trying to get the hang of it) .

Hi I saw your thread on Jane's diary so just subscribing to yours. You subscribe when you write a comment on someone else's thread. It is automatic. Well done on joining SW. It really is one of the best diets to lose weight on. It doesn't actually feel like a diet. This is your space to write what you want to so write away and don't worry about boring people as it is YOUR space. Do you go to a group? How familiar are you with the plan? I tend to do the red green days but a lot of people like the EE plan. The best thing about this plan is that you can eat as much as you want to until you're full. I find that initially I will eat and eat then after a few days or a couple of weeks I just don't feel the need to eat as much. Weight loss differs each time I do it. It was slow to come off to start with this time round but it does kick in eventually and I have always lost on this plan so I would encourage you to keep eating all the free food you want and have your healthy extras and don't go over 10-15 syns a day. I find I cannot eat more than 10 or I maintain but everybody is different. I would encourage you to read your books cover to cover and have a good browse of people's diaries for inspiration and encouragement. Feel free to take a look at my latest one (link below - its in the weight loss section). Hope that is some help to you.

Thank you so much for your reply, I was so lost on this site, I just read your weight loss diary, and I think I will join your thread. If you don't mind a million questions!

Sorry about your car, but its not that bad, I had my license taken away after ten years of driving as I now have epilepsy out the blue..i was actually driving while i was unconscious and came out without a scratch, no one else was hurt either. it just made me realise how precious life. it also made me realise that even though I've been diagnosed with a life changing condition (one that depresses many people) it actually doesn't upset me half as much as my weight, and that just put it all in perspective.
I am happy you made it without bakes.. seems like we ave similar angels looking after us..they helped us with our car journey, and hopefully help with our weight loss journey too!

ok now I'm going to write on your thread...quite enjoying this..it's already helping me, as tonight I am home alone, this doesn't happen often, but usually its a recipe for disaster, a total binge with a 'food hang over' the next day..bloated, lethargic, and just wanting more..oh I didn't mention guilty. So this minimins is a good distraction for High risk times like tonight

Hello and welcome along!

In a childminder so understand the non stop days running after little ones!

Here to subscribe x

Hi Martina you came on my site so just checking in to see if you are ok x

Welcome everyone that joined my thread, I was not expecting any replies, I'm so chuffed ands its given me loads of mental support to see.

to answer some questions, I haven't been to any meetings, have been doing it all online, but, I decided to go on Monday to a meeting. So far I've been going for 2.5 weeks, which longer than any diets I'v been on in a long time. I find it really easy, the only thing I need to concentrate on is planning my meals (which is easy cos I always think about food and love cooking) I'v never felt deprived.

I didn't weigh myself when I started because truthfully I didn't really think I'd stick to it. But from what I remember I lost at least 4 lb.

im not really sure how lucyloo has been doing her plan. I always thought I'm on extra easy, but really now I'm looking at my food its mainly green days that I'v been doing...by that I mean as many meals that I want, and two healthy extras.

yesterday this was my menu

2 alpen light bars ( which I think is 1 HE)
2 weetabix cereal biscuits with 100 ml almond milk and blackberries. ( I think that is another HE for the weetabix, and only a third of HEb)
A pot of veg soup ( liquified) with half a can of sweetcorn and half a can of chickpeas, with quinoa for extra bulk.
some grapes and blueberries as a snack


for liquids I drank two mugs of light Ribena, 2 mugs of coffees and one mug of diet lemonade

im not sure if that's correct, the red and green days confuse me with the amount of HE I can have..and can I snack on my actual meals during the day..or is it only in my three set meals that i can have as much as i want ( as in three servings of dinner for example but only in one set sitting

any help?

Hi everyone,
jane thank you for clarifying the weetabix biscuit quirky, so happy to know that they are healthy extra.

i want to sare some good news, I let another two pounds that's a total of 6 in just under three weeks, I ne'er thought the weight will drop so quickly with all the food I'v been eating. Never give up these three weeks felt so easy.! I can't eleve it

i was thinking four pounds a month weight loss, so its looking good so far.

weekends are so hard, I try to be out the house as much as possible.

this is my meal plan for today.

morning
2 weetabix with 300 ml of almond milk and bone banana.

snacks few handful of blackberries.

lunch
lettuce with chickpeas, spring onion, red bell pepper, and smoked salmon, sweetcorn, and lemon with salty for seasoning.
im planning on snacking on this until dinner, and adding fat free yogurt as a dressing...yogurt is really nice with spring onions and a bit of chicken stock powder.

dinner

pasta, green beans, yogurt, salmon with spring onions.

for snacking
I will have some weight weathers yogurts ( they have a dessert flavoured addition, its yummy I recommend, it includes apple pie, cheese cake, lemon tart..they are amazin)

More fruit and if I get greedy I might make a green veg only soup..especially if I feel I didn't gave enough veg.

for syns I will probably exceed my milk alowness, lets call it 3 syns.
And two mugs if options light, although I Mae it only with one teaspoon not three like the box suggest..lets say another 2 syns.

Total syns 5

please share some more recipes..I'm so buzzing from the results, is anyone else feeling like this today?

love Martina

If you are on Red or Green you have 2 x A choice which is milk or cheese or yogurt
2 x B choice is your 2 alpine light bars hxb and 2 Weetabix hxb

because you are on any one of these days means if green you can't have meat because you have used up your hxb on the above or you can change the alpine light bars to 7syns or Weetabix to 6.5syns and one of the B's for meat
If you are on red day the same goes for potatoes because you have used your hxb on the above unless you syn also you can't have sweetcorn unless you syn

On a EE day you can only have 1 hxb choice and 1 x A choice, then the potatoes, sweetcorn and meat are free where your alpine bars or Weetabix one you have to have as syn

Well done on your loss, not tried the weight watches yogurts might give them a try, keep it up, if you get stuck ask anyone of us to try and help you. xx

Well done on your great losses. Yes Jane is right re the HEXs. The best thing is to read your book and it does say somewhere about the green and original (red) plan. If you want meat on a green day you would need to weigh it and count is as a HEX - check your book for al the HEXs. But you can only have 2 HEX B choices in total on a green plan. On EE you can have as much meat and pasta together as long as you have a third of your plate superfree veggies and fruit and only have 1 HEX a and 1 HEX b a day. Hope this helps. You seem to be doing really well but if the weight loss slows it might be worth rereading and checking. xx

Hi everyone, its really hard for me to write this, in fact I considered not coming back to minimins because I feel so helpless at the moment and scared that this diet is over for me...
i went on the scales at the end f the day yesterday, after eating lots of free food and superfree food, even when not hungry, and suprise suprise, my two pounds came back on by night titime then I started thinking..." Of course you will never lose weight the way you're eating, so what if its healthy you are still binging on food'

this sparked another binge but this time of really fatty foods full of syns...as if I was angry at the diet for giving me false hope, and annoyed that the weight will never all off.."

So this morning I woke up feeling physically sick from all the grease, and also wanting more fatty food today..to add to all this...I'm emotionally annoyed because I feel that all this self control I ad for three weeks, only resulted in two pounds of weight loss.

what now..give up on this or try again without faith and anger at this whole diet... Rant over

You are letting the diet take over you and for one you should never weigh yourself at night, 1st thing in the morning is best and without clothes or just your under garment, let your scales be on a solid surface and not carpet for best results. if you are at class them you can compare the two scales.

You need to write down and try and plan your meals and snacks, try and stick to it if you can, if you stick to the plan you will lose the weight, if you fall of the wagon the next day just get right back on it and put the day behind you and start again, you will get there, just think about the tortoise and the hare, you are the tortoise taking it nice and slow and taking the scenic route and once you reach your final stop the weight would of come off before you have even notice.

You mentioned that you never plan your food and this diet you really do need to plan esp your healthy extras. The other thing you mention is that you don't have any scales. These are a must. You must weigh your HEXs. You need to follow the plan to the T. If it is free food then it IS free food but other stuff you need to weigh and meaure. The other thing is that as Jane said - never weigh in an evening. I can go up 4 pounds in a day! Also only weigh yourself once a week as your weight does fluctuate up and down throughout the week. It is crazy to stop when you have hardly just begun. You can and will overcome but you need to stick at it and you will get loads of support on here so don't give up yet. It took me a few weeks for the diet to kick in this time but I KNOW it works and trust it but you do need to follow it to the letter. Big hugs and hope you make the right decision. x

Oh also, about the binging.... I usually start off by binging on free food. This is fine and you will find that you will come to binge less and less as you get into it. If it is free food then binge away. It will settle down. I promise ya. x

You are both such angels, I did start again today and that was because of janes words if wisdom and support, today I counted my syns that I had last night, I thought it might make me feel better, and I tell you what it really helped to know how bad I did , compared to thinking I eat crazy amounts like no normal people would do.
I calculated 69 syns last night, it made me realise it's not so bad because for the last three weeks I had 0 -5 syns on average .

Today I had fruit, veg soup , 2 bars of alpen light and two coffees with 200 ml almond milk. So iv come back stronger.

Thank you hazel for reassuring me about the free food binges.. It relaxes me that I know I'm just like any normal person with my eating, as a result I'm eating less because I'm not upsetting myself that I'm a fat pig that eats like no other person .. Which in turn makes me emotionally over eat.

This forum has taught me that most if my binges are emotional but the funny thing is , I only get emotional because I think I eat abnormally, did anyone else binge purely because they thought they are a pig? If you did don't be so hard on yourself it's not true I promise you. Most people over do , but accept it and don't get upset and eat more as a result .. It's insane and irrational.

Hazel and Jane you have given me another opportunity at happiness, thank you for listening and helping, I would never have realised the root of my emotional eating if it wasn't for me writing on this forum!

Now I feel I need to give you ladies something back, it's only small but two things,

1.I recommend the weight watchers 0 fat dessert flavoured yogurts apple crumble , Lemon tart the list goes on.
2.try alpro hazel milk and almond milk ( if you don't have but allergies) they are good for two reasons
A . They are lower in calories compared to milk, no wonder you can have more if it as HE (300 ml)
B. It has a sweet taste and different flavour, it adds flavour to coffee and is amazing with weetabix

let me know your opinion if you try either.

Yay! You can do it. Give yourself a few weeks in before you give up. Keep an eye on those syns and check your HEXs. xxx

Hi how's your day been today, still on track x

Yeah how are you today?

Hey ladies, I had a very busy day just sat down and finished dinner, I was thinking about you and couldn't wait to log into mini mins , because it was such a long day out the house it was an easy day, and I'm still on track. Today my colleague at work said they see that I lost weight on my face which is always a confidence boost. I told one about slimming world and gave her the rules. She is also starting soon.
Today I had -

breakfast
2 alpen bars
3 coffees

lunch
One small potatoes with 2 helped tablespoons of backed beans and one scrambled egg(nursery lunch always cooked without fat

dinner
one weight watchers yogurt
veg soup
fish with tomato sauce .. Really tasty with any carb or just steamed veg)
One tangerine

i haven't had syns yet apart from one teaspoon of ketchup
for my HE I had 2 alpen light bars and 300 ml if almond milk

i will probably have more veg soup later tonight

thank you for pointing out that I shouldn't weigh at night, I used to weigh myself four times a day.I weighed this morning and my weight is in track, can't wait to wake up tomorrow and see my weight.

wikl give you the fish recipe for the Mediterranean fish in red sauce

xx

Glad to see you're on track hun. x

Warning don't bother reading, if you don't like fish..
Ok, so I'm just about to go to sleep, but firstly I'd like to share some RECIPES with you ( I noticed that 200 odd people see my post but I never really get any comment apart from two lovely ladies above) Anyway here it goes and I hope I pleased some people. A bit nervous because it turns out so tasty but my cooking is more to taste than measurements, I like experimenting, I hope I don't waste your ingredients, or you will never trust me again..

Mediterranean fish
you can use any white fish, but I like tilapia, its white and comes in fillets, slightly softer and more delicate than cod or haddock, but those will do as well

put some fry light in a slightly deep frying pan that has a lid.
chop onions, I flake them along their natural layers.
chop some orange and red peppers in strips
some garlic, I chop it. I'v never tried it crushed but might also be nice.
add some chillie to taste, or chilly powder to taste
let it all sauté until soft

add some tomato purée, to the sauté, add some chicken stock and water to taste..I put a lot of stock as I don't use salt.
add pepper and put the fish in, cover and let it steam for roughly 10-15 min or until the fish is cooked, flakey but not hard and chewy.

When adding the stock and water, Don't put too much water, just enough to cover the fish and make a thick sauce, don't drown the fish ( they are dead and can't swim anymore, I know I know bad joke)

Snack recipe number 2

smoked salmon with fat free yogurt and tomato, not sure how to roll it to make it look appealing, but it taste just as good, if its messy... I like tasty food I don't really care about its appearance...ha I guess that's also true for my attitude about myself..until slimming world of course.

recipe 3 Chinese chicken stir fry.

spring onion chopped
garlic chopped
soya sauce
Chinese egg noodles
chicken breast cut into long strips
i guess you can add bean sprouts but I was too lazy, it's also nice with one teaspoon of sesame oil at the end tossed about just for taste..but I don't use my syns on this

sauté The chopped spring onion and garlic in fry light (and sprouts if you love food)
Add the chicken and let it also sauté, I like giving it a bit of a crispy/ charcoal colour with the soya sauce
then when the chicken has a nice crispy layer, add some water and put the noodles in, not too much water, just enough to make sure the soya sauce doesn't dry out in the pan. In fact I keep adding a tiny bit of water all the time to make sure the pan doesn't completely dry and burn from the soya sauce.

so thats it, those are my favourite dishes...but usually I just have liquidated veg soup with quinoa or lentil soup ( which consists of sautéed onions, garlic cumin chicken stock and lentils) hope I explained it well, and that you like my dinners
Its easy, I'm lazy and its very filling. In fact all soups are good, I might try the pepper soup Jane and hazel where talking about.
it will get more adventurous but for the mean time, I'm content with these.