Extra Easy Jakes food diary - one man's 12 year struggle.

[Jake]

Hi everyone

I saw other people keeping a diary on here and thought it might be a good motivator for me.

Im 26, 5'10 and 14.7st, I'm a broad lad and spent pretty much most of my life hating my body, later realising my lack of love for my self is effecting other parts of my life so now it's time for a change, finally.

Im currently on day 3 of slimming world extra easy. My first goal is 1 stone in 30 days.

Along side my food optimising I'm also trying to go to the gym regular, mostly cardio with weights (end goal in to cut fat and then bulk in muscle)

Im currently on day 3 so I'll update my first 2 days here.

P. S input is more than welcome since I am new I may do something wrong.

DAY 1

Breakfast - 3 eggs, trimmed bacon, shrooms, white bread (4.5syns)

Lunch - still full

Dinner - potato, chicken, bacon, veg stock bake. Cheese HEA
With swede and carrot mash 2 tsp butter (4 syns)

Snacks - weird oat cookie things with with sugar and chocolate powder (4 syns) HEB Oats

Total syns 12.5



Day 2

Breakfast - overnight oats, only had 3 spoonfuls found it way to sour!

Lunch - mugshot

Dinner - 97% fat free beef mince bolognaise with broccoli, pasta and cheese HEA

Snacks - mugshot, and what seems to be the most amazing discover in my purple of day journey, muffins made from fat free yogurt, bananas and oats. Absolutely delicious! I added honey and coco power making 12 muffins at 1.2 syn each.
X3 muffins HEB

Total syns 3.6

Ill update my progress at the end of each day or the following morning.

 

[Mini]

Welcome Jake

I love the look of your muffins and I am going to have a go at making them...how much of each ingredient did you use to make 12 muffins?

 

[Jake]

Welcome Jake

I love the look of your muffins and I am going to have a go at making them...how much of each ingredient did you use to make 12 muffins?

Hi

You will need,

1 cup of fat free yogurt
1 cup of oats (works out around 90g)
2 large eggs
2 medium to large banana (I used 3 small)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

So far if I am correct the recipe is syn free?

Now for the syns,
3 tbsp honey (7.5 syns)
26g milkybar buttons (7 syns)
1 tsp low can drinking chocolate (1 syns)

Or replace milkybar and drinking chocolate with blueberries.

It's all made in a blender, add the ingredients apart from the oats, then blend. Then add the oats and blend again. And that's it! My mixture did seem quite runny last night but they baked absolutely fine. Bake for 15 min or until they start to turn golden on top, they may be a little squishy in the middle.

Ill be making more tonight but without the milkybar and swap one tbsp or honey for raisins.

Make sure you post a photo when you've made them

 

[Mini]

Thanks a million Jake!

As soon as I get time to make them...I will let you know how they turn out and will post a photo...even if they don't look as delicious as yours.

 

[Jake]

You're very welcome

I'm a bit of a chef so watch this space for some delicious healthy (maybe slightly sinful) food.

@Mini can I ask is there a place for progress photos of weight loss? Or maybe they'd be best kept private

 

[Mini]

Somehow I guessed you were a chef and I am so looking forward to your healthy creations.

You can add your photos to your diary, or in your own photo album or on the SW Inspirational Photo forum or all three...it's entirely up to you.

https://www.minimins.com/forums/slimming-world-inspirational-photos.225/

 

[Jake]

DAY 3

BREAKFAST - half of apple, small banana and 2 what I now call bananayog muffins. (2.4 syns)

LUNCH - mug shot syn free

DINNER - minced beef bolognaise with broccoli and a teaspoon of quark, served with Orzo with 30% reduced fat cheese HEA and lettuce.

SNACKS - x2 bananayog muffins (2.4 syns) half a small bag of pom bears (2.1 syns) - I felt to guilty to eat the rest of the bag, plus it was 1am..

TOTAL SYNS - 6.9

Day 3 was my most enjoyable dinner, I used two ingredients I hadn't used before.
Quark - first impression wasn't great, first taste wasn't either but when you use it in cooking.. Wow it definitely ticks the creamy box for me, and its a free food!

Orzo - the food that can't decide if it wants to be pasta or rice.. Its basically pasta shaped like rice, very nice and went well with my bolognaise. It would be perfect to eat cold so I'll be cooking some up for some pre made lunches next week.

One thing I have noticed is that I eat late and I'm not getting enough speed foods.

 

[Jake]

Forgot to attach photos.

 

[Mini]

My consultant last night reminded me that if you cook banana you have to Syn it.

Banana, puréed/cooked ( per 100g) 4 Syns

Porridge oats, dried (40g) HE 7 Syns
Porridge oats, dried (25g) 41/2 Syns

As I am new-ish to this Syn counting, I'm not sure how many Syns in the plain mixture before adding honey and other extras, as you have 90g of oats which is awkward for me to figure out how many Syns in 90g...or, could I adjust the dried oats and make it 80g so it is easier to count?...so half a dozen could then count as a HE plus the Syns for the cooked banana. Then that begs the question could I eat half a dozen...guess I will have to try to find out...I'm probably making this more complicated than needs be.... HELP! pleeeease...

 

[Jake]

My consultant last night reminded me that if you cook banana you have to Syn it.

Banana, puréed/cooked ( per 100g) 4 Syns

Porridge oats, dried (40g) HE 7 Syns
Porridge oats, dried (25g) 41/2 Syns

As I am new-ish to this Syn counting, I'm not sure how many Syns in the plain mixture before adding honey and other extras, as you have 90g of oats which is awkward for me to figure out how many Syns in 90g...or, could I adjust the dried oats and make it 80g so it is easier to count?...so half a dozen could then count as a HE plus the Syns for the cooked banana. Then that begs the question could I eat half a dozen...guess I will have to try to find out...I'm probably making this more complicated than needs be.... HELP! pleeeease...

OK now you've really confused me..

Oh no!! I didn't know banana became sinful once cooked.. Oops

On let's try figure this out,
My 3 banana weighed 450g total, so if 100g of cooked banana is 4 syns, my total banana syns for the batch is 18 syns, decided by 12 is 1.5 syn each.

I can't make much sense of the part you wrote about oats?

So before the honey etc they are 1.5syns each.

Is it how many you need to eat for your HEB your trying to work out? 90g works good because that will mean there is 30g of porridge in every 4 muffins and also 6 syns.

I realise the amount went up to 40g after making them so if I was you I would use 120g porridge then it's still 4 for you HEB. If you're not going to use any honey or sweetener how about making them savory? Or maybe make some plain, some with honey and some with say cheese and ham?

Ill be posting my tortilla pizza recipe soon for any pizza lovers out there

 

[Jake]

DAY 4

BREAKFAST - 4 egg omelette with grilled trimmed bacon, savoy cabbage and 15g 30% less fat cheese - half(ish) HEA

LUNCH - Apple, kiwi

DINNER - shallow fried chicken breast strips, 1 tbsp coconut oil (6.5syns), 1.5 tbsp flour (7.5syns), paprika, black pepper, egg. Peppery rice and lettuce

SNACKS - pop bears (2.1syns), 2/5 of a bar of malteasers teasers bar (3.8syns) 40g oats and half cup semi skimmed milk HEB and other half HEA

Total syns - 19.something, I forgot and I'm not counting again.

It's fair to say yesterday I was craving bad food, I was very close to ordering a takeaway, I even looked through a few menus. After talking my self out of it I decided to go for something not all that healthy, but at least it was fresh ingredients and I know how much fat etc went in.

 

[Mini]

Your food looks lovely Jake.

I had a go and made strawberry oat muffins...I will try raspberry ones the next time. 1 Syn for 3 when used as a HexB

 

[Jake]

Hey mini great job they look really good, how did they taste?

I made something amazing yesterday, dessert and syn free (or nearly), see next post.

 

[Jake]

DAY 5


BREAKFAST - 1 banana, 7 half of strawberries, the *beeping* things just wouldn't ripen all the way to the top so I bit off the good bits and angrily threw the remains on the bin.

LUNCH - mugshot syn free

DINNER - Beef Stroganoff with rice and lettuce. 0.5 syns for the Dijon mustard but the rest was syn free and tasted amazing!

SNACKS - I'm going to call it oat and yogurt bake? a syn free muller light with 40g oats HEB, egg, 2 strawberries quarted, and syn free sweetener. Now maybe my taste buds are just appreciating food and flavours more but it was really delicious and didn't feel like an healthy alternative. I'm going to count 0.5 syn just for the 2 strawberries that got baked, its 1-1.5 syns per 100g so its hardly anything really.
About 10 tiger nuts, not the natural kind, walkers crisp type ones, I was half asleep when I ate them on my way up to bed after falling asleep on the sofa. Old habits! I'm gonna estimate 4 syns for those.

Total syns - 5


Unfortunately my phone had a little accident today (day 6) so I don't have pics of the beef stronganoff. It looked and tasted amazing too! I'll fix my phone maybe tomorrow or Monday and get the pic uploaded with the recipe. Day 5 wasn't too bad but I'm still not really eating in the day I am more or a night eater, always have been.

I have been avoiding mirrors till weigh day, does anyone else do that? If I look at my body in the mirror everyday I don't think I will notice the difference in my body as much.

 

[Mini]

Hey mini great job they look really good, how did they taste?

I made something amazing yesterday, dessert and syn free (or nearly), see next post.

Husband tried one this morning with a cup of tea thinking it was going to taste like a fairy cake and had his taste buds prepared, only to be greeted by a bland stodgy taste, (his words)...he said, the expectation and the result where miles apart.I told him if he tried one with yogurt and fruit it would taste better...he has declined my offer. I thought they were ok with vanilla yogurt and fresh raspberries.


Photos are best for doing comparisons over time...and of course you will notice as your clothes feel looser.

Look forward to seeing photos of your delicious food when your phone is fixed.

 

[Wolf]

Just popping in to say hi! Those muffins look great so I'm going to have to try make some too!