Sophie's Slimming World and Cinema critiques!

[Tetris]

I can't stand broccoli but much prefer the softer texture and taste of cauliflower! I'm going to try a cauliflower mash soon methinks.

Yeah- syns are strange things It's also weird having to syn for things you don't like- for instance the salad dressing I had today at the zoo (couldn't eat that salad bare but the vinagrette was gross!)

Today we went to Paradise Park, a zoo in Hertfordshire about a 40 minute drive from us (near where my dad lives). The weather was nice and we had a great day- managed to time our day well so we got to see cheaters and red pandas during their feeding time when they were super excited! Haven't looked through the pics yet, watched in envy as my boyfriend shot away with his 70-200mm PLUS 2x extender = 400mm! He could get any of the animals' face taking up the whole shot where mine had them like ant sized in shot grr.

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EE again today, am counting the several hours of walking around the zoo as my exercise since I was too wiped out to do any when I got home!

Breakfast: Did a big breakfast to keep me going! Potato and onion latke, scrambled eggs, ketchup (2 syns) and spaghetti hoops (sister wanted them!) plus an apple.

Lunch: A pretty nasty salad from the cafe at the zoo. Bacon and chicken, though most of the bacon was fat so didn't eat it >:/ had about 1/3 of the dressing from the side pot, will count that as 2 syns as have no idea how much it's worth- it was a vinagrette but quite thick.

Dinner: Had a small bowl of pasta when dropping my sister off as there was some leftovers- hex A cheddar, not much so think it will be within allowance, left some of it as it hadn't melted. Plus I think the whole batch of pasta had butter added to it, 2 syns to allow for that. When I got home I sloppily grabbed some spinach leaves, cooked chicken chunks and ham slices and ate them with salad cream (2 syns)

Snacks at the zoo: 2 x Alpen light bars (Hex B), mini milky way esque choc bar (4 syns) - so yummy, but so tiny :/! Apple, banana, a couple of quavers shared on the way home (1 syn) muller light at home.

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total 13 syns!

ANOTHER day where if feels like, despite all those snacks, I haven't had a proper meal apart from breakfast and that the syns don't feel enjoyed so much :/ oh well. My sister is gone now (sniff) so tomorrow will be back to norm. Off to see Warm Bodies FINALLY tomorrow! So behind with cinema this month! Am going on Thurs with another friend too though.
x

 

[cheekychinchilla]

Apart from rubbishy food, it sounds like you've had a good couple of days Can I ask what the Latke is?
Really hope you like Warm Bodies!x

 

[Tetris]

EE again today:

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Breakfast: Pasta! I ate my meals in reverse order today was starving in the morning so made a big bowl of pasta with a handful of mange tout, 2 chicken frank furters chopped in (2.5 syns each) half hex A of cheddar and other half hex A of philli lightest to make it nice and creamy!

Lunch: subway salad with chicken breast and sweet onion sauce (asked for extra so- 4 syns worth), special K Apricot and Peach (4.5 syns- bought these by mistake thinking they were a Hex B, BF has been having them but was starving at the cinema so had one to take the edge off)

Dinner: Minestrone Mugshot, fruit salad with nat yoghurt and sweetener, strawberries and nectarine (basically my breakfast for dinner and dinner for breakfast!)

Syns total: 13.5
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Bought some boxing gloves and sparring pads today so had 15 minutes with them this evening and did 5 minutes of weight lifting earlier. The sparring kit isn't great though, cheap from Argos, not so comfortable. BF hit a bit hard against the pad and my wrist kept getting pushed back so my hand is all achey now. :/ Will do some more weights now to make up my 30 mins exercise.

Saw Warm Bodies (awesome!) and Wreck it Ralph (not so awesome) tonight, finally! Might write a lil review soon but am knackered now. Busy week!

x

 

[Tetris]

Latke is a german potato pancake, very similar to Hash Browns, made of a grated medium sized potato, a grated onion and mixed into a whisked egg then fried in a flat pancake like shape. Takes a few minutes of frying on each side.
I used to always have scrambled eggs on toast but really enjoy having scrambled eggs on latke now! It's so filling and yum, especially when fried in Hex B of olive oil (makes it stick together as a pancake way better and crisps well, def worth using Hex B on it! Kinda goes to a mush with frylight and sticks to the pan) give it a go, very satisfying ^^

 

[cheekychinchilla]

Sounds really nice!! We don't have oil in the house, but I guess I wouldn't mind so much if it didn't stick together. But yeah, sounds really nice. Bet it'd be nice with runny boiled eggs too. Mmmmm!

 

[Tetris]

The oil just seems to help it cook and makes it way nicer! It's the only thibg so far that frylight just hasnt quite done it for, that I've tried so far.

Forgot to add that you have to squeeze the liquid out from the grated veg with your hands before mixing wih egg! The recipe said to use a cheesecloth but I just use my hands cba.

 

[Tetris]

WI today- 3 pounds lighter than last week! Yesss! Just 4 pounds away from my 2 stone award and club 10- woohoo!
Didnt expect it as am still bunged up with a cold, but I guess so far the best results for me have been when I expected nothing and the worst have been when I expected great loss! Is it the same for you?

Hadnt thought about it much this week, have been busy I guess. Cant wait for club 10!!

 

[cheekychinchilla]

YAY for your loss That's brilliant! Oh I've stopped trying to work out how my weight loss works lol. Judging by work scales this week I've put on 2lbs, but I was weighing in at a later time and stuff. Very odd considering I've been pretty good. But yeah, just take it as it comes lol.

I didn't see your post about going to the cinema. I'm glad you liked Warm Bodies Were you disappointed with Ralph?

Also sucks about the sparring stuff. I still have my proper karate ones, even though they are pretty old! If you ever want to upgrade, try places like Sports Direct/Soccor Sports. Not sure if they have stores near you, but worth a look. They really shouldn't be uncomfortable or hurt you

Haha, yeah I'd be hand squeezing the veg. Nothing as fancy as cheese clothes here Doesn't grating the onion really hurt your eyes? *wimp*

 

[EmmaB]

Hi Hun, here to subscribe, congrats on such a great weight loss this week! Need to know your secrets. Lol. Hope your feeling better soon too x

 

[Tetris]

Hi EmmaB thanks for stopping by! Had a couple of rubbish WI's recently after hard work so guess my secret this week was finally not stressing about it! haha...

Cheeky- I've finally nailed my eyes closed onion grating after some painful practises that led to some minor cannibalism. Worth it.

Haven't been around for a couple of days- damn Sims 3 re-obssesion taking up all my computer time!
Have been on plan, a couple of EE days, yesterday only had about 7 syns but didn't do my exercise! Half caught up today, recon I did what I'll class as about half an hour of weight lifting in total (using 3.5lbs weights in each hand) while watching the Biggest Loser (so inspiring!) over the course of about an hour and a half. I did 16 reps of 'crazy 8s' which are 24 lifts in each rep. I also did 15 minutes of intensive boxing with the sparring kit I bought, including the b*tch of an exercise I saw on Biggest Loser where you sit and punch above your head as the other person bats downward against your punches- agonising! So yeah, did about 45 minutes I recon- am just 15 mins behind in my 1 month goal which I've nearly completed 3 weeks of- woop!

Think the pads are OK actually, was probably just not blocking very well, needed to angle things better so my wrist wasn't getting hit backwards each time. Had to ask Gerard to ease up on me a bit too as he's stronger than me but thinks I can take it. Today he hit the pad so hard that it pushed right back into my face! Was wearing glasses so that SUCKED. Would prefer an arm pad that goes to the elbow rather than just a hand one... Will look out for one in those stores, definitely have seen Sports Direct around!

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Food for the day: EE

B: Yog with splenda, banana, 2 kiwis, nectarine

L: Chicken with a whole pepper and onion and some pasta, mixed in some cheddar (HEX A) and a small dollop of Philli Lightest (1 syn) and a tsp of honey (1 syn)

D: Mugshot (ate lunch late so had a snack dinner)

Snacks: Muller light, Special K chewy delight (Hex B), half a curly wurly (3 syns), some light whipped cream at various intervals throughout the day (1.5 syns - squirted straight into my mouth like the classy bird I am) and half a pack of milk chocolate buttons (equivalent to a mini bag = 4 syns) which I ate one by one after each rep of weight lifts. I'm such a lazy bum that I've actually worked out how to exercise while on the sofa watching tv- lol! Hopefully building some good arm muscles for camera operating though!

Total Syns: 10.5
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As I mentioned to Cheekychinchilla in her journal, here are some pics of my cat Lil' Juan who is absolutely mental! We just celebrated his 2nd birthday. Sorry about the outrageously bad camera phone quality of some of these, terrible that I am a photographer and sharing such crappy quality pics but the phone is always at hand!


^Heard a weird noise in our room at 4am, turned the light on to see this... LOL.


^'Chickening', one of his favourite ways to sleep.


^Another way he likes to sleep- right at the top of his 'fort' which is 6ft tall!


^This wasn't him stretching, this was literally how he was sleeping


^This was one of the most bizzarre things ever- he was sitting like this for about 5 minutes while we laughed hysterically, wondering why we were doing so... SRSLY, wtf is he doing?! sometimes he forgets how to be a cat.

Ok, that's all for now folks! x

 

[cheekychinchilla]

Oh he is so damn cute!! I love his sleeping positions, esp the on the back stretched out ones. He's a beautiful kitty You got to love an animal with personality haven't you?!
My Sister's boyfriend has a slightly evil ginger boy called Che. You have to slowly put your hand out to him and he sniffs you. If he likes you he'll lick your hand and he will let you stroke him, but only over his shoulders. If he doesn't like you he nips or swipes at you She's had to look after him for over a month while his Mum's been in Australia lol! He bit my Mum twice!! I didn't attempt to make friends.

Your exercise is going amazingly dude! You're so motivated and really going for it. Hope it starts paying off for you, weight wise. But do you feel better for doing it anyway? Building my fitness and doing the Body Magic Awards really boosted me way back when I did them. I've just had such a rough time with mental and physical issues this past 6 months or so I've really fallen out of the habit

 

[Tetris]

Yeah, he's really got personality he does nip us but never hard, always sort of gnaws on our hand and then after a few seconds starts frantically licking, something he's always done since a kitten when he was teething and I'd let him gnaw
He's so mental though! He randomly starts running up and down the length of our flat darting out of the cat flap then runs all the way through and runs up his fort to the top then back down and out again- multiple laps! He's so crazy our other cat got really dopey when he turned 6 months but Lil' Juan still has a kitten mentality aged 2 now which is lovely!
He hasn't slept on his back like that for a while because he really loves his fort, but we do find him in the strangest places... Like the corner of the room behind loads of stuff:




He's so sociable but loves hiding places or being really high up (he regularly knocks over that wash basket to make a bed- lol!)


I do feel good after doing a long work out but this week have felt sluggish about getting to it, I think I've overdone it on exerbeat and I've played the boxing stuff to death so need to try out the other games a bit more but am not really feeling motivated to. I used to love the wii fit and part of me thinks I could turn that on and do it a bit but I know it's not burning as many calories so that puts me off! :/

 

[Tetris]

Green day today:

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Breakfast: FF Nat Fromage frais and fruit (kiwi, apple, banana)

Lunch: Rice with Bacon (60g - 2/3 Hex B) fried with fat removed with an onion and half a courgette, small spoonful of Philadelphia lightest (1 syn ish) and a dollop of FF yog to make it creamier.

Exercise: today I did 1 hr 20 mins of Exerbeat I burnt 2010 calories! WOOHOO! Played my own music on headphones over it and had a lot of fun that way, made it less repetitive.

Dinner: Was starving after that work out so wanted some major energy food. 2 scrambled eggs on potato pancake (1 onion, 1 potato and added a grated carrot for extra SF- doesn't change the taste so will do that more often!) cooked in 1 HexB of olive oil with some spaghetti(!!) 60g of cheddar (2xHexA) AND a few bits of already cooked chicken breast to make up for the other half of the HexB earlier (and extra protein for my poor achy muscles!) NOM. So SO satisfying. Wow I love having double HEX's!

Snacks: Rolo desert! mmmm! They are SO special, used to have them all the time but at 8.5 syns I decided to have one as I'd had such a low syn day and had a pretty darn good week syns wise, have some syns left over! Took about ten minutes to eat the tiny pot, definitely savoured it!

Total syns: 9.5

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Feel good about doing the exercise today, whipped my ass into gear after a sluggish few days, and plan to do more tomorrow too!

x

 

[Tetris]

Just had a cheeky WI as I've been recording Monday's too to eventually make them my WI day- but actually I enjoy WI twice a week so might stick with it

Another 2lbs down since thurs!! Think yesterday's hour and a half work out paid off- yes! That means since last mon I've lost 4lbs! Awesome! I'm just 2lbs away from club 10!! Going to work my tits off and get there by thurs, I've decided!! X

 

[Tetris]

Just did another hour of exerbeat and boy am I knackered and achey now! Went for more dancy routines so 1000 cal this time. Phew... Might have a nap.

 

[Tetris]

Green today, havent been very hungry strangely!

Stayed in bed late (woke up at 10 but had been up all night having bloody asthma attacks so just rested when the builders next door got noisy) so only had breakfast at 1pm! Nat ff from frais with a banana, kiwi and strawberries.

Lunch/dinner at 5.30 after my exercising was pretty much the same as yest- pasta, potato pancake with onion and carrot, scrambled eggs and chicken (hex b) cooked in olive oil (hex b) and with a double hex a of cheese.

Desert was home made ff frozen yog which turned out really creamy! Topped it with a tablespoon of maple syrup (2 syns)

Only 2 syns today! :S weird. Gerard barely ate too, have been feeling a bit run down so hope we're not coming down with something :/

Weekly Syns saved: 13

 

[Tetris]

Gerard and I have both been feeling a bit off again today. I had a bit of an upset stomach in the afternoon, and our appetites are all weird!

Green day today.
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Breakfast 8.30am: This morning I felt sick but also really hungry so after my usual yog + fruit at 8.30am (woke up stupidly early for me!) I then had lunch at 10.30am!

Lunch 10.30am: Pasta, chicken frankfurter (3.5 syns), cheese (Hex A1), 2(!!) caramelised onions and some egg scrambled into it all with some ketchup (1 syn) (I just can't have egg without it!)

Dinner 9pm: Can't believe I went 10 hours without a meal, so unlike me :S I did eat a LOAD of grapes at the cinema though, and my HexB Special K chewy delight, and a packet of salt and vinegar velvet crunch (4 syns), but even though that sounds a lot that isn't much over a ten hour period, shocking I usually get really pissy if I don't eat a meal every few hours!!
dinner was Uncle Bens Mexican Bean express rice (2.5 syns), cheese (Hex A2) another chicken frankfurter cut up into it (3.5 syns), tiny bit of ketchup (.5 syns) and a large handful of sugar snap peas (bought a HUGE bowl of these from the market for £1, am determined to eat them all before they go bad to boost my SF this week! I feel I've laxed on SF recently without so much veg in the house :/ but happy with the scales so can't be all that bad!)

Desert was my other HexB ---- ANOTHER chewy delight bar man I love those. Found a bunch of boxes discounted at Sainsbury's today because they need eating up in March, BUT I CAN AND WILL EAT THEM BY THEN! All 5 boxes... hehehe

Syns total today: 15

Weekly syns saved: 13
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No exercise today, having a break I guess as I've been feeling so tired and achey. I did enough to make up for this yesterday though, so am letting myself off

Cinema Critique: Beautiful Creatures 6/10

My friend who also has a cineworld pass invited me to see this with him as he thought it looked 'right up my street' (always taking the piss out of my 'terrible' movie taste!) and he wanted to see it for the 'fit birds'. Alas, he was let down. We discussed after how it should have been called "Mediocrely looking creatures" hehe. Nah, the main girl was very pretty, interesting pretty though rather than 'hot' as he wanted to see it seemed strange to title this film 'Beautitful Creatures' when really it focuses on one girl who is very humble about her looks and you barely seen the other girl who is beautiful. I found the trailer quite misleading, but overall it was watchable. Cheesy though! It was a production of Summit Entertainment and definitely had a Twilight-ish feel to it (the whole glowing eyes stuff and the general vibe of the relationship) but the lead girl was much more likeable and I did really like her face I like K-stew's face too though.
Anyway, I give this 6/10 as it was watchable and vaguely interesting but not something I'm in a rush to see again. Just find it weird how the title and ads make it sound like some sexy demoness's seducing men to devour, when really it was about a teen romance featuring a slightly magical but cursed girl who was very sweet and endearing throughout!

 

[Tetris]

Cinema Critique: Wreck it Ralph 4/10

I hadn't seen a trailer for this but had been led to believe it was full of nintendo/computer game characters, which was totally not the case. There were a couple of vague references to much loved characers, but all of the featured ones were invented for the film. Dang, I really thought they'd hit the jackpot with an idea to bring loads of video game characters together, but I guess they didn't want to pay for the permission or something. I did think, throughout, that the lead character Ralph and his game were actual old school games that I just didn't know (and thus wasn't enjoying as a fan would) but Gerard made me aware that this wasn't the case.
ANYWAY, that disappointment aside- it just wasn't very funny :/ there weren't many jokes and for a film that is aimed at both kids and the older generation who liked games similar to Wreck it Ralph, there was nothing but pretty colours, a few aliens and cutesy candy stuff to really interest, which just wasn't enough! I was pretty bored by the end of the first half, but I think the second half was a bit better. I only realised during the film that Sarah Silverman was voicing the girl, and that woman is comedy gold! So it was sad that they'd obviously reigned in on her lines as it didn't make me laugh out loud at all

 

[Tetris]

Cinema Critique: Warm Bodies 8/10

Loved this film! Found it really unique to be at the viewpoint of a zombie and that it wasn't just a brain eating monster baddie, but a likeable character and one of the good guys! It was great that the world of the zombie's (or 'corpses' as they're called in the film) was explored from the inside, it was full of great jokes and wit and featured an interesting relationship with a cheesy ending, but which somewhat satisfying at the same time.
I thought it was cast well, well paced and the narrative was funny (so often internal narrative is overused, but it was full of jokes for this film!) definitely worth the watch

 

[cheekychinchilla]

Hey! Just catching up. Hadn't realised how long I'd been away. You've been battering the exercise! how do you feel after your day off? Are you and the Mr feeling any better?

L'il Juan is such a cutey! He has an adorable face

Well done on another 2lb's gone. See what happens when you keep the faith? LOL! Remind me of that next time I'm whinging over on my diary about another sts or mystery gain

Can't believe you found reduced Chewy bars! Well done. I'm trying to save mine until they're on offer somewhere

My Mum and Sister were pleasantly surprised by Beautiful Creatures, although they did say the trailers were totally misleading. I probably won't get to see it on the cinema now they've both been, me and my lot don't really do that kinda film.
Tis a shame about Ralph But really glad you like Warm Bodies after me banging on about it. The book's fantastic!

Hope you're doing ok and are feeling a bit better. And thank you for the nice messages over on my diary :bighug: