Tracey's healthy yummy lovely journey

[newbee89]

Yesterday was a great success. It feels so good to have one proper good day behind me. My dinner was so good. The curry ended up being quite green because of the spinach and then we didn't have chicken stock so I had to use beef stock. It was delicious nonetheless. OH loved it too! He was going on and on about it which made me feel great. It was packed with super free and it was just what I needed! I'll post a photo in a few, it's on my phone.

I ended up having 2 coolpops so I ended up on about 14 syns. I really wanted to snack last night but I resisted, finally have some willpower back.

It's lashing here and work is really busy and stressful so all I want to do when I get home is relax, so this whole thing of preparing meals in advance and having a plan is working out really well. Tonight we're having Cajun Chicken Ceaser Salad, Rice and Corn on the Cob! OH probably won't eat the Corn so might need to make some waffles or something for him!

Here is my food diary for today...

Breakfast - Small bowl of Aldi Maple and Pecan Crunch with half HexA milk. I have no idea what syns is in this but I'm going to guess there was 5 and I only had a little bowl. Fresh Pineapple too! (5)
Lunch - 2 slices wholemeal bread (HexB + 2) with extra light mayo (.5) turkey, ham, peppers, mixed leaves and half HexA cheese. Packet of Aldi Popcorn (5) and a donut peach (these are really lovely. They are like a cross between an apple and a pear, unless they are just totally unripe and shouldn't be this way...
Dinner - Half an Aldi Ceaser Salad bag (5) with more mixed leaves, a little bit of rice, grilled chicken and corn on the cob with a teeny bit of butter (1)

Snack - Was going to have tea, but it seems I don't have the syns. Doh! Need to start having something like fruit and yoghurt for breakfast. From tomorrow I will! I also need to stock up on mugshots because I know I'll be peckish around 12 before my lunch. Oh well, I'll just have herbal tea instead.

Syns - 16/15 but really it could be slightly more or less because I guestimated the Caesar Salad and the cereal. I'll have less than OH though so I think 5 should cover it. I plan on having chopped peppers and red onion with mine to bulk it up.

Work is super stressful. I was on fire last week and this week it's DEAD so my boss will be really awful about the lack of sales. I can't do any more though, I don't know what is going on! Praying for a miracle and a crazy good wed, thurs and Fri. Debating whether or not to say it to him today because it might end up being OK, and if I tell him he'll really be watching me, but then if it doesn't fix itself Monday's sales meeting will be really unpleasant.

Back to work...

 

[newbee89]

I've been really enjoying cooking lately! I have an urge to make a carrot based soup so after work I've just gone in to Tesco got carrots, sweet potato, onion and garlic and i'm going to make a delicious syn free soup flavoured with some cumin to give it a curried flavour. I'm excited!

 

[Applekath]

I did carrot and lentil the other day from the new mag. Yummy!

 

[newbee89]

I did carrot and lentil the other day from the new mag. Yummy!

Sounds gorgeous!

 

[newbee89]

Yesterday was another great day. I ended up making the soup, today's lunch and dinner all in a bit cooking frenzy. It's so worth it when I do that. Makes life a lot easier during the week when you get in from work and you're tired.

I ended up not having corn on the cob in the end, but I did have a cup of tea with low fat milk so the syns would have been about the same. I had a Toffee Muller Light late last night and it was lovely.

I've brought a pasta salad with me today for lunch and I have this dreadful feeling that I've made it with full-fat Philadelphia. I have no way of checking till later on and by that stage I will have eaten it. I bought it when it was on special offer for €1 and it was when I wasn't being good so it could easily be full-fat. I'm hoping it is at least the low fat version. I'll assume it is and if it isn't I'll have less syns tomorrow I suppose. Or maybe I'll syn it as though it's full fat... that'll be really really high though!! Time will tell.

I'm going to Zumba tonight! Dragging my bum there and I know I'll feel great after it. It will be great to see my instructor too, as she's become more of a friend than anything else.

Today's Food Diary...

Breakfast - Small bowl of Harvest Morn Maple and Pecan Crunch with low fat milk. I'm calling this HexB but I know it's probably a serioud tweak. If anyone knows any info about the syns of this I would appreciate your help as I don't have access to the site or app anymore! For now I'll call a small bowl HexB. A flat peach also. I really like these!

Lunch - Pasta salad with pasta, frozen peas/sweetcorn/carrots, bacon and philadelphia stirred through (about 40g, 4.5 syns if it's full fat - not bad at all considering)
a Mango too. Can't wait for this. Just hope it's not over-ripe...

Dinner - Bowl of soup when I get in from work, then a bowl of chilli and 1 sweet potato about 7pm for dinner. Chilli is made from a sauce from Aldi (4) just because we had to use it up but it is packed with super free - courgette, peppers, mushrooms, and probably other things I can't think of.

HexA - Milk in cereal and 1 tea this evening.
HexB - *tweak Aldi Maple and Pecan Crunch
Syns - 8.5/15 but probably more due to tweaking the breakfast cereal... Still well within my syns though.

Having a really thirsty day so I plan to guzzle through the water.

I'm going to weigh myself on Friday morning as an official weigh in and then again next Friday and if I am happy with two weeks of weight-losses I'm going to try and do it myself without a group because I really feel that would bring so much happiness for me, and I don't feel I gain much from a group any more. Plus, I am so tired from work that I kind of love having Monday and Tuesdays off to do nothing and just relax when I get home. I'll see how it goes!


The curry from Monday



The soup I made yesterday - carrot, sweet potato, onion, garlic and spices like cumin, chilli and garlic. I threw brown rice and soup mix in too (lentils, barley etc) so so lovely! Enough in the fridge for a couple of days now.



Today's lunch. One is OH's lol. Made them yesterday when I was on a roll!

 

[Applekath]

Wow you certainly got busy in the kitchen. Lovely comfort food

 

[VeggieBev]

You certainly seem to be back in the zone. Your food looks delicious. You've inspired me to get off the sofa and go and prepare something for tomorrows lunch now

P.S. It's 6 syns for 25g of your cereal x

 

[newbee89]

You certainly seem to be back in the zone. Your food looks delicious. You've inspired me to get off the sofa and go and prepare something for tomorrows lunch now

P.S. It's 6 syns for 25g of your cereal x

Hi

Aw thanks a million, I'm feeling good.

Thank you so much for the syns info. Wow, 6 syns is not a lot. Wonder could I pass 25g as a HexB then? It's high in Fibre and usually things that are HexB are 6 syns. Hmm. Must weigh out 25g later and see what it looks like. Thank you!

Hope your getting on well x

 

[VeggieBev]

Hi

Aw thanks a million, I'm feeling good.

Thank you so much for the syns info. Wow, 6 syns is not a lot. Wonder could I pass 25g as a HexB then? It's high in Fibre and usually things that are HexB are 6 syns. Hmm. Must weigh out 25g later and see what it looks like. Thank you!

Hope your getting on well x

I am thank you. I'm on the countdown to my holidays at the start of October and I'd love to shift the 3.5lb I need for my 3st award before then but that seems to be easier said than done these days!

The cereal sounds delicious! I've had a look and can't see it on the HEB list, I'd guess that's maybe because it's high in sugars? Even though you can't officially use it as a HEB you do it anyway and you don't see it affecting your losses then that's great. If you think it is affecting you then it might be best to syn it x

 

[newbee89]

Still feeling great! It feels normal now which is exactly what I had hoped.

I brought soup for lunch today. I didn't think it would fill me but it actually did. The soup mix and brown rice in the soup make it lovely and filling. They give it more substance.

Was having a few bad days in work but it's picking up now and I'm already looking forward to the weekend. Man I'll be happy to get this month over and done with.

Today's Food Diary...

Breakfast - Small bowl of Maple and Pecan Crunch (HexB + 2) with half HexA milk. Melon.

Lunch - Bowl of carrot and sweet potato soup, muller light toffee yoghurt with a banana chopped in, and a flat peach.

Dinner - Left over curry with noodles. Loads of super free in the curry.

Snacks - Sliver of cake in work (3).

Loads of water!

HexA - Milk in cereal + 1 tea with milk.
HexB - Cereal

Syns - 5/15 so far.

Wow, you really notice it when your lunch and dinner are syn-free! I love Slimming World. Will probably have a packet of popcorn and a cool pop later so syns will most likely be 10.

Hope this day flies in, I'm so tired for some reason!

 

[newbee89]

Hello All!

Thank God it's Friday. We're getting a take away and I have been SO looking forward to it so I can't wait! It will be a bit off-plan but shouldn't be too awful. Yesterday I stayed within syns, but just about though. I am starting to realise what works for me and what doesn't. About 4pm each day I seem to get really peckish and I have nothing to grab. This has happened every day. Usually I have no choice because there is nothing I can have, but yesterday there was cake so I had a sliver, and then another sliver. Still within my syns but overall it would have been better to have something like a mug shot, an alpen light, a banana. I'll learn from it. Being hungry in those moments leads to bad choices.

I ended up on about 12 syns overall yesterday, so still a good day.

I'm rather excited for the weekend now. OH has an exam in the morning so I'll be more or less solo tonight while he studies. I might watch a movie or just read my new SW magazine and relax. That's more or less what I've done all week. Tomorrow we are visiting my nanny and baby cousin and Sunday will be another nice lye-in, food-shopping and watching the All Ireland GAA Final. A nice relaxing day all the same.

I have peppers, mushrooms and courgettes in my fridge which I don't want to waste, but I've no meat, so I might make some sort of a tomato sauce with chunky veg that I can serve with pasta or chicken. I might make it with veg, tins of chopped tomatoes, stock, smoked paprika and choritzo. There, decision made. I'll do that tomorrow and stick it in the freezer. It'll be handy some evening next week!

Today's Food Diary...

Breakfast - A 0% fat yoghurt and fresh pineapple

Snack - banana. Again hunger pangs at 11am!

Lunch - a little lunch box full of things that I chop up together and put in microwave and then they go all melty and gooey and I serve it on toast. SO GOOD. Today I have turkey slices, onion, tomatoes, peppers and cheese. I'll serve that on two wholemeal bread toasted (HexB + 2) with a peach and a packet of Trebble Crunch (5).

Snack - a coffee or tea with my friend after work (HexA milk)

Dinner - 1/2 of a Massaman Curry with prawns (onion, potato, prawns) (7) That's a guesstimation but I won't have much and it'll be mainly onions and chicken
1/2 a singapore noodles (5) OMG these are SO good. Couple of thai prawn crackers (5)
So overall dinner should be within the 17-20 mark which means that I will be over my syns today by about 8-10. Realistically I could leave the crisps at lunch but it's Friday and I really fancy the low fat crisps with my toasty as a treat so feck it. It's ALOT better than what I had previosuly been getting which was a roll with breaded chicken, cheese and LOADS of may with crisps and a bar of chocolate AND on Friday a cake with it that would be about 20 syns at least.

All in all I am happy with this day

Really can't wait for my take away! It's the best I've ever had, so so good. I love thai food!

The weekend should be relatively on-plan but if I'm out I will definitely be making good choices. We might have lunch out tomorrow after OH's exam which will be lovely but I'll make dinner and then Sunday should be just a normal day too.. which reminds me we have syn free Mallons Sausages, hello on-plan sausy sambo for breakfast on Sunday. Yummy!

Off to have lunch, absolutely marvin! x

 

[asmallertasha]

Hello All!

Thank God it's Friday. We're getting a take away and I have been SO looking forward to it so I can't wait! It will be a bit off-plan but shouldn't be too awful. Yesterday I stayed within syns, but just about though. I am starting to realise what works for me and what doesn't. About 4pm each day I seem to get really peckish and I have nothing to grab. This has happened every day. Usually I have no choice because there is nothing I can have, but yesterday there was cake so I had a sliver, and then another sliver. Still within my syns but overall it would have been better to have something like a mug shot, an alpen light, a banana. I'll learn from it. Being hungry in those moments leads to bad choices.

I ended up on about 12 syns overall yesterday, so still a good day.

I'm rather excited for the weekend now. OH has an exam in the morning so I'll be more or less solo tonight while he studies. I might watch a movie or just read my new SW magazine and relax. That's more or less what I've done all week. Tomorrow we are visiting my nanny and baby cousin and Sunday will be another nice lye-in, food-shopping and watching the All Ireland GAA Final. A nice relaxing day all the same.

I have peppers, mushrooms and courgettes in my fridge which I don't want to waste, but I've no meat, so I might make some sort of a tomato sauce with chunky veg that I can serve with pasta or chicken. I might make it with veg, tins of chopped tomatoes, stock, smoked paprika and choritzo. There, decision made. I'll do that tomorrow and stick it in the freezer. It'll be handy some evening next week!

Today's Food Diary...

Breakfast - A 0% fat yoghurt and fresh pineapple

Snack - banana. Again hunger pangs at 11am!

Lunch - a little lunch box full of things that I chop up together and put in microwave and then they go all melty and gooey and I serve it on toast. SO GOOD. Today I have turkey slices, onion, tomatoes, peppers and cheese. I'll serve that on two wholemeal bread toasted (HexB + 2) with a peach and a packet of Trebble Crunch (5).

Snack - a coffee or tea with my friend after work (HexA milk)

Dinner - 1/2 of a Massaman Curry with prawns (onion, potato, prawns) (7) That

Up the Dubs! Sounds like a lovely weekend. Would also love a toastie today but use my HEB already! Enjoy! x

 

[newbee89]

Up the Dubs! Sounds like a lovely weekend. Would also love a toastie today but use my HEB already! Enjoy! x

Hello Tasha how are you? What part of Dublin are you from? Or are you? Hooray for Irish on Minimins!

Well done on your loss, that's amazing. Are you going to a group or just doing it yourself?

Oh I'm really looking forward to my toasty! I hadn't actually finished that post when you posted LOL, boss walked in!

*off to check out your diary*

 

[newbee89]

I am thank you. I'm on the countdown to my holidays at the start of October and I'd love to shift the 3.5lb I need for my 3st award before then but that seems to be easier said than done these days!

The cereal sounds delicious! I've had a look and can't see it on the HEB list, I'd guess that's maybe because it's high in sugars? Even though you can't officially use it as a HEB you do it anyway and you don't see it affecting your losses then that's great. If you think it is affecting you then it might be best to syn it x

It's really gorgeous, like really really amazing! I think I might even have it twice a week and just syn the 25g, that's probably the best thing to do! Thanks for your help

Oh good luck losing the 3.5 pounds before your holiday, I know it's a lot harder done than said! Where are you off to on holidays? No more holidays for me this year that I know of. Have been away a good bit in 2013 though, but a sneaky weekend away to Leeds might be on the cards, I'm terrible, always booking things.

Well done on your losses, it is so inspirational. I'm off to check out your diary

 

[asmallertasha]

Hello Tasha how are you? What part of Dublin are you from? Or are you? Hooray for Irish on Minimins!

Well done on your loss, that's amazing. Are you going to a group or just doing it yourself?

Oh I'm really looking forward to my toasty! I hadn't actually finished that post when you posted LOL, boss walked in!

*off to check out your diary*

Haha, been there! I love seeing other Irish ladies on here!

I'm from Wicklow but I work in Dublin so am supporting the Dubs by association

I go to group! I definitely need the WIs every week to keep me on track! I'd def find excuses if I just did it myself!!

xx

 

[newbee89]

Haha, been there! I love seeing other Irish ladies on here!

I'm from Wicklow but I work in Dublin so am supporting the Dubs by association

I go to group! I definitely need the WIs every week to keep me on track! I'd def find excuses if I just did it myself!!

xx

Ah I see, you'll be happy we won today so Did you watch the match?

I used to feel like that about weigh-ins but I want to do it for me, and my slimming world class was getting so repetitive and I wasn't getting anything from it so I'm doing OK on my own so far. Hopefully it stays this way!

 

[newbee89]

Sunday evening, and I'm just sitting down to relax for the evening. I've just had the nicest shower and now I have a date with my PJs, Slimming World magazine and then watching The Kardashians. Love my Sunday evening wind-down before the week ahead. I spent the day shopping and cooking, and having KFC OOOOPS! :cry:It was so what I wanted at the time but I felt rotten after it, the usual

The rest of the weekend was pretty OK food-wise. Friday night was the take-away but I didn't have anything else unplanned. Saturday we had lunch out but I opted for the hoisin duck-wrap and a side portion of noodle salad. It was really tasty. Dinner was also OK in it's healthiness but I used syns I didn't have. We had a cassarole I made with leftover veg from the fridge, choritzo and chopped tomatoes etc and I added gnocchi and cheese on top, all served with a pita with light phily on it. Really tasty. I had a bar of chocolate too, a small one, with a cup of tea in my mam's. We went out that night to a house party and I didn't end up drinking much but I did have a packet of crisps and picked at some nachos.

All in all the weekend was off-plan but it could have been worse. I'll weigh myself tomorrow to see where I am. I weighed myself on Friday and I had lost just under 3 pounds in the week so there is no reason another good Monday-Friday shouldn't happen again this week. It's my birthday next weekend so that won't be on-plan. I am doing so much better in general though so I am making progress.

We did the shopping today and I have my meals planned for the week. Today I cooked Slimming World Enchiladas which we'll have Tuesday for dinner (and OH tomorrow, as I'm meeting a friend for Nandos, all to be syn'd). I also made a new recipe from Britmum's Slimming Eats blog which is AMAZING if none of you have ever been on it. I made this creamy honey mustard chicken | Slimming Eats - Slimming World Recipes but unfortunately I couldn't get fat free cream cheese so I had to use low fat. The dish ended up being 20 syns but there are three portions in it so about 7 syns per portion which isn't too bad because it is SO creamy and amazing. I highly recommend this recipe, and using the cheese as a Hex A and using the lightest one would make it really low in syns. I'm so glad I tried the recipe though. I added mushrooms and peppers too to up the superfree.

Just about to settle down now and chill, hope you all had a great weekend and here's to another brilliant week on Slimming World. I'm going to give it 100%.

Plan for tomorrow, just to keep me focused...

Breakfast - Wheetabix with low fat milk and banana (HexB and most of HexA)

Lunch - tomato and herb mugshot with some tomatoes and peppers, carrot sticks, a pear and an Aldi greek yoghurt (4) that's a guess but that's what the Muller one is....

Dinner - Nandos's - Butterfly chicken (3.5) with corn on the cob and salad. I'd love rice but gotta think of the superfree.

Snack - 1 tea (rest of HexA) and a cool pop (.5)

Syns - 8/15

I would be VERY happy with a day like that to start the week. HOW can I only be using 8 syns AND eat out? God I love Slimming World!! I should add on an extra 2 syns to cover extra Nandos sauce and a teeny bit of salad dressing, so really we're looking at 10/15 which is amazing.

 

[newbee89]

So yesterday didn't go to plan. Why does my willpower slip so easily?

When I was on the way in to town to meet my friend I started thinking about going for food in fattening places, when we had already planned Nandos. WHY? We went to Nandos as planned but I didn't get what I planned to get. I got a chicken wrap with pineapple and halloumi (about 15 syns) and spicy rice (3) with salad and a little dressing (2). THEN I hade a decaf pumpkin spice latte (7) AND a cookie (8) AND then I came home that night and had a packet of velvet crunch (5) an ice pop (4) and a a few bites of SW Enchiladas (4). WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?

Yesterday's syns ended up being over by about 35. That is just pathetic. I really am so annoyed with myself. At the time it seems like a great idea but I feel like crap after it and I regret it so much.

So what can I do now? I can continue the trend and let it spiral out of control, or I can take control. I'm taking control and learning from it. Truth be told I could have justified the Nandos, and had a tea in Starbucks. I would have saved about 20 syns that way. Lesson learned.

So my plan now is to have under 10 syns for the rest of the week, drink loads of water and go for a walk tonight and Thursday because I need to start getting 3/4 evenings of exercise in a week. A brisk 40 minute walk would make all the difference!

So moving on, and not letting this take a hold of me, but LEARNING from it because I do not feel good about it at all. I'm never going to start losing weight until I learn to say NO.

Today's plan...

Breakfast - Hex B cereal with pineapple and HexA milk
Lunch - chicken and mushroom pasta n' sauce (.5) made with skimmed milk (3) with peppers, courgette, and tomatoes. (feel weird having something so processed and I really don't understand how something so stodgy could be only half a syn, but I'll roll with it). I also have a Muller Lite and a packet of apple pieces.
Dinner - SW enchilada (5 including the cheese) served with vegetables.

HexA - Milk in cereal
HexB - Cereal

Syns - 8.5/10

Come 7.30 I'll be home from my walk, showered and sitting down to dinner KNOWING I have had a really good day.

I'll feel so much better when today is done and is a success. I'm struggling to see a point where I'm losing weight consistently again, but I know deep down I can do it.

I have my birthday this weekend so I simple HAVE to be an angel for the next couple of days. No two ways about it!

Back to work I go x

 

[VeggieBev]

I can totally sympathise with you... I've also been off plan this weekend and I know I could have been so much better so I'm annoyed with myself too. I'm going to take your lead though and take control starting tomorrow! I hope you have a good day to get you back on track x

 

[newbee89]

I can totally sympathise with you... I've also been off plan this weekend and I know I could have been so much better so I'm annoyed with myself too. I'm going to take your lead though and take control starting tomorrow! I hope you have a good day to get you back on track x

Thanks Bev, I did it again yesterday though :cry:so let's hope your willpower lasts longer than mine! I ended up going over my syns by about 15. So annoyed at myself!!