The Slimming Silurian

[Madame Vastra]

It's been suggested that I keep a diary thread, so here it is!

My name is… not really Madame Vastra, of course, I'm not a Silurian, I'm just a Doctor Who fan. I'm 26, and I've just gone back to uni to do a Masters, so I'm living in Halls of Residence in Cardiff. I've been losing weight for about two and a half years now - I started getting health problems (unsurprising with a BMI of 53) in May 2011 and decided then that I needed to do something about it!
So my stats:
Height: 5'3"
Start weight:21st10lb
Current weight:10st5lb
Target weight: 9st

I got down to 10st calorie counting and tracking using MyFitnessPal, but then plateau'd (or rather, wavered and gradually inched upwards) to 11st over the course of the last year. I decided that as I wasn't doing particularly well on my own, I'd try a group, and Slimming World appealed. I joined two weeks ago and so far I've lost 9.5lb on Extra Easy.

My project this weekend is to do as much cooking and preparation as possible for the week ahead, to make it easier to stick to plan when I'm busy. I've made a Jambalaya, a veggie chilli and a red lentil and butternut squash curry, all free with loads of superfree in, and I'm hoping to do a spot more shopping tomorrow (I've found a bigger Tesco than the one I had been using) and make some packed lunches to take to uni with me. I've just downloaded the Slimming World app on my phone, so hopefully that should be slightly less awkward than flicking through my book while I'm in the supermarket, trying to decide what to buy! I also need to go and try on some dance shoes for Salsa and Latin dance class, for a bit of body magic.

I'm happy to post recipes if people are interested - the Jambalaya and the lentil and squash curry were modified versions of the ones on the SW website, the chilli I made up as I went along. Tomorrow I'm hoping to make some falafels to have for lunches, and maybe some pasta salad type stuff. I'm really enjoying cooking proper food for myself again and finding and modifying recipes to have lower syns and more superfree! I'd forgotten how much fun healthy eating can be.

Yesterday's meals:
Breakfast: Mullerlight with 1 scan bran grated in (1 syn.)
Lunch: Prawn and Quorn chicken Jambalaya (free) made with extra celery, red and green peppers, onion, tomatoes, and extra stock instead of white wine.
Dinner: Veggie chilli (free) made with Quorn mince, kidney beans, onions, peppers, mushrooms, courgettes, and tomatoes, and served with 12g cheddar (would have had 30g for full HEXA but I ran out.)
Snacks: A banana, two HiFi light bars, another Muller light with another scan bran (1 syn,) a Muller light Greek style (half a syn.) Lots of black coffee, Pepsi Max and fizzy water.
Total for the day: 2.5 syns.

 

[RebekahR]

All looks amazing food yum! Good work on preparing for the week ahead

I'm 27 and just looking at masters! Been working & finishing my degree with ou! Studying challenging but enjoyable too lol

Have a good day xx

Sent from my GT-I9300 using MiniMins.com mobile app

 

[Calisi]

Hi, thanks for the link, I'm pleased you've decided to do a diary Your food looks great ! I'm not a fan of cooking, so I'm hoping I can get inspired by your lovely recipes Good luck x x

 

[Calisi]

I'm not sure how to do a link to my diary, but it's in 'Slimming World - Food Diaries', and called 'My New Diary - green days'

 

[Madame Vastra]

Oops, in that case I think I've posted this in the wrong section - it'll probably be a bit of a weight loss journal and a bit of a food diary. D'oh! I only get weighed on Thursdays whereas I ramble about food all the time - do you think I should ask a mod to move it for me?

I've been having packed lunches to take to uni this week - managed to resist the free buffet, and stick to my pasta with roasted veggies. Also had a nearly-wibble last night on my way home from dance class - needed change to get the bus to uni tomorrow (the bus drivers here don't give change at all) and was sooo tempted to buy some chocolate - tried to justify it to myself that I'd danced for two hours so I deserved it. Changed my mind and bought the Slimming World magazine instead

Sunday's meals:
Breakfast: skipped :ashamed0005:
Lunch: cold pasta with roast mushrooms, peppers, onions and butternut squash, in a honey and mustard dressing from Sainsbury's Be Good To Yourself range.
Dinner: Veggie chilli with 30g cheddar (HEXA.)
Snacks: 2 Muller Light Greek style (0.5 syns each,) 2 HiFi light bars.
Total: 3 syns
Body Magic: Brisk Walking 90 minutes

Monday's meals:
Breakfast: Apple
Lunch: cold pasta with peppers, onions, butternut squash with fresh chilli and lime juice.
Afternoon snack: SW falafels, baked beans
Dinner: Cod in butter sauce (3.5 syns,) peas, sweetcorn
Snacks: 2 x HiFi bars, 2 x Muller Light
Total: 3.5 syns but really didn't get my 1/3 superfree in and basically had two dinners.
Body Magic: Brisk walking 30 minutes.

Tuesdays meals:
Breakfast: apple
Lunch: cold pasta with roast butternut squash, peppers and onions, and a honey mustard dressing.
Dinner: Jambalaya (about 50% superfree)
Snacks: 1 egg, 1/2 tablespoon of RF salad cream (0.5 syns), 1 Muller Light Greek, 2 x HiFi Light bars.
Total: 2 syns
Body Magic: Brisk Walking 60 minutes; Salsa and Latin Dance 120 minutes.

I need to try to concentrate on getting more superfree food in - it's probably accounting for 1/3 of my meals, but not 1/3 of what I eat when you count in the snacks like Muller Light and HiFi bars. Not looking forward to today's Body Magic (walking to and from concert band practice) - only in Wales can it possibly rain this hard.

 

[Calisi]

Hi I'm sure it's fine where it is, but if you did move it you will probably get more Slimming World people responding to it, which always helps

 

[Madame Vastra]

1.5 on for me this week. Really embarrassing, I cried during IMAGE therapy. Dread to think what other people were thinking, there are people there with Actual Problems and I'm crying about my weight. I'm blaming Star Week, both for the gain and for the tears.

But, onwards and upwards, I haven't let it stop me following the plan (I was slightly naughty on Thursday night after WI and had a Curly Wurly, but it came within my syn allowance for the day so it's not that bad.)

Wednesday's Meals:
Breakfast: banana
Lunch: SW falafels and baked beans (put extra superfree in the falafels so about 1/3 of the meal.)
Dinner: veggie chilli (Quorn mince, onion, courgette, mushroom, tomato, bell pepper,) with 30g cheddar (HEXA).
Snacks: 1 Muller Light normal, 1 Muller light Greek (0.5 syns,) 2 x HiFi light (HEXB).
Total: 0.5 syns
Body Magic: Brisk walking 60 minutes.

Thursday's meals:
Breakfast didn't happen.
Lunch: banana (was in a cafe with friends with absolutely nothing free.)
Dinner: banana, apple, noodles, peas, sweet chilli sauce (3 syns)
Snacks: 1 Alpen Light bar (HEXB), 1 curly Wurly (6 syns)
Total: 9 syns (for me, that's really bad.)
Body Magic: Brisk walking 60 minutes.

Friday's Meals:
Breakfast: Banana, apple
Lunch: Jambalaya (Quorn chicken, prawns, rice, celery, bell peppers, onion, tomato)
Dinner: Ham, cherry tomatoes, HEXA 5x Laughing Cow Light
Snacks: Mugshot creamy cheese (2.5 syns,) nectarine, apple, 1 x Alpen Light (HEXB), Muller Light Greek style (0.5 syns)
Total: 3 syns
Body Magic: Brisk walking 15 minutes

Will see if I can find a friendly mod to move this!
ETA: I can't PM a mod until I have 50 posts. Will have to talk more!

 

[RebekahR]

Your post is in the diary section hun

Food looks good maybe try eating your 15? Sure that would help

Have a good weekend xx

Sent from my GT-I9300 using MiniMins.com mobile app

 

[klairbear]

Love the user name, I am a fellow Who fan myself, only 34 days to go!!
I look forward to following your plan

 

[Madame Vastra]

Thank you both and hello to my fellow Whovian! I'm really looking forward to seeing what Capaldi does with the role.

Saturday's meals:
Breakfast: Ham with Laughing Cow Light (HEXA), cherry tomatoes, apple. I'm not very good at this eating-breakfast-food-for-breakfast thing.
Lunch: Butternut squash, carrot and red lentil curry with a swirl of FF yoghurt.
Dinner: Smash, sweetcorn, carrots, Tesco meatfree Lincolnshire sausage (1.5 syns,) Bisto (2 syns)
Snacks: Muller light, 2 x Alpen Light bars (HEXB), apple, banana
Total: 3.5 syns
Body magic: Brisk walking, 15 minutes. Lazy.

Sunday's meals:
Breakfast: Ham and Laughing Cow Light (HEXA), cherry tomatoes, apple.
Lunch: Eggs, mushrooms, ketchup (1 syn,) plums
Dinner: Smash, baked beans, Tesco meat-free Lincolnshire sausage (1.5 syns), carrots, sweetcorn, apple.
Snacks: Muller light, 2 x Alpen Light bars (HEXB)
Total: 2.5 syns
Body magic: nothing. Ran up and down the stairs a few times, and I live on the seventh floor so that's a fair distance but didn't do it for long enough for it to count.

I'm not really eating breakfast food at breakfast time at the moment. I'm getting up late, eating lunchy food at lunchy time, but then because my whole body clock's off I'm eating another two meals because I'm staying up really late. Plus most breakfast foods seem to use up my HEXs and that means I can't have my HiFi or Alpen Light bars later. Contemplating trying green/red to get the extra HEX allowance, but my consultant thinks that for the first month you should stick to Extra Easy.

I get that I should probably be eating more of my syn allowance, it's just hard to get my head around how I could be eating this much and possibly lose weight - I've contemplated doing a week where I follow the plan but also count up my calories just to see how much I'm actually eating, but that's probably not such a good idea. Theoretically it would be possible, and not even that difficult, to eat enough to gain weight on SW, so much food is free! I've bought some Options / Highlights sachets today so I can add 2 syns at the end of a day and have a chocolatey treat, and I'm going to try to introduce a couple of syns to meals rather than trying to make everything absolutely free. But I also need to get off my arse more, instead of just walking to the bus stop and back and not going further because I'm wearing impractical shoes. I've done a bit more today, I need to make some sort of commitment to it - I miss swimming, but I just can't afford it this year, I need to walk more!

 

[Madame Vastra]

1.5lb on again this week. Apparently my theory in my last post - that you can gain by eating too much free food - has some merit.

Considering sewing my mouth closed.

 

[Happy Holidays]

Your food sounds yummy. Just a thought, you say you're not having enough syns & you're not too good with breakfast food at breakfast how about syning a hifi bar for breakfast.

Or I sometimes have fruit couscous for breakfast, you can make the couscous the night before & just add fruit in the morning.

 

[Madame Vastra]

Thanks, that's a good idea. I often want savoury things for breakfast, I just worry that it's 'not normal' - I've been reminding myself this week that Full English breakfasts and Continental breakfasts (cold meat and cheese) are both savoury so I'm not just a weirdo. I worry too much about what other people think.

To try to get myself back on track I've been 'cheating' the last couple of days - following the SW plan but also measuring my Free food and looking at how many calories I'm eating. I haven't set myself a target calorie range or anything, I'm just trying to see whether that's the problem or whether it's just my body being awkward. So far I seem to be OK, but so far this week I feel like I am losing weight again? I don't know really, I'll find out on Thursday!

I know I've skipped a couple of days (in my computerised food diary, every ingredient is recorded separately, and I can't be arsed to put it all back into meals) but here are the last couple:

Friday's food:
Breakfast: apple
Lunch: Tuna bake (AKA Bex is too lazy to make fishcake shapes): with 130g tuna, 15g smash, one small red onion, seasoned with Thai seven spice, and served with one green bell pepper roasted in 5 sprays of Frylight.
Dinner: Apple, Mugshot Chinese style, ham 45g, Laughing Cow light x 3 (HEXA)
Snacks: 1 x Alpen Light bar lemon drizzle, 1 x HiFi light bar chocolate and caramel (HEXB), 1 x Muller Light raspberry and cranberry.
Beer: Sharpe's Doom Bar, 1 pint, 9.5 syns.
Total: 9.5 syns
Body magic: Brisk walking 90 minutes.

Saturday's food:
Breakfast: apple, banana
Lunch: weird noodle dish that looked grim but tasted amazing: egg noodles (28g dry,) peas 60g, 3 mushrooms, 1 small red onion, 1 large egg, 10 sprays of Frylight, soy sauce 20ml, thai 7 spice 1tsp.
Dinner: 20g Smash, 40g reduced fat cheddar (HEXA,) carrots, 1 small red onion, roasted in 3 sprays Frylight, Tesco meat free Lincolnshire sausage (1.5 syns,) Bisto 10g (2 syns,) 1 beef Oxo cube (mostly chucked, I boiled the carrots in it then threw the water out.)
Snacks: Alpen Light apple and sultana, HiFi light Rocky Road (HEXB), Highlights hazelnut hot chocolate (2 syns.)
Total: 5.5 syns
Body magic: Brisk walking 90 minutes.