Wolf's SW Journey to lose 8 stone (2st gone)

[Wolf]

Weight loss this week: 2 lbs

Pleased with that! I haven't been quite as good with my water intake or daily walking as I should be so I'm going to work on that this week. I've also been finding that I'm eating a lot smaller portions than I used to. I was so used to cooking for 3 people and then, when my daughter moved out, I really struggled to adjust volume for just me and OH. I think I'm getting the hang of it now and actually leaving food on my plate when I'm full, which is something I never used to do!

Here's todays food:

Breakfast:
Smoothie: Oats (half HeB), hazelnuts (half HeB), almond milk (HeA), banana, cocoa powder (1 syn)

Lunch:
Fruit salad

Dinner:
Fry-up with eggs and bacon, sausage (2.5 syns), potato and mushroom hash

Snacks:
Fruit, apple juice (8 syns)

Total syns: 12.5

 

[Wolf]

Oh, forgot to mention. I've had to make some big changes to my short-term and long-term goals. One of my driving motivations for losing weight was OH and I going to Vegas next October to get married. The money we were planning to use for this is part of an inheritance I'm receiving soon but it now looks like it might not be quite as much as we originally thought so we've had to make some tough decisions.

We'd initially split it between our wedding, a house extension, deposit for daughter to buy a house, renovating one of our rental properties and a new 4x4. With the amount we are actually getting, we can't now do all of those things. The 4x4 was the first to get cut (OH almost cried lol) and after a LOT of discussion we've decided to prioritise the house extension over the wedding. We're 40 and have been together for 13 years so, although we both want to get married, it's not a top priority. The house extension, however, will almost double the size of our house (and it's value!) and since we live here every single day and even plan to retire here, that seemed a lot more important as our everyday comfort would be so much better (bigger rooms, better kitchen, conservatory etc).

This means no big holiday until 2019 but we still plan to sneak away for some weekend comic cons next year as we'll go mad if we don't have ANY breaks!

Here's the updated goal list from my first post:

1. Christmas 2016 - Seeing family, currently a lot bigger than last time I saw them. (Hit this goal with a 1 stone loss)
2. End of May 2017 - Mini break to Poland to meet gaming friends (Hit this goal with a 1st12 loss)
3. Early June 2017 - My 40th birthday (Hit this goal with a 1st12 loss)
4. Early July 2017 - Bryan Adams concert (Hit this goal with a 1st12 loss)
5. End July 2017 - Weekend away for London Film and Comic Con (Hit this goal with a 1st12 loss)
6. December 2017 - Weekend away for Wales Comic Con
7. April 2018 - Weekend away for Wales Comic Con
8. July 2018 - Weekend away for London Film and Comic Con
9. October 2019 - Holiday to Florida

 

[Jenny_b]

Hey,

well done on your loss

house extension plans sound great. x x

 

[Wolf]

Menu for today:

Breakfast:
Smoothie: Bananas, cocoa (1 syn) and almond milk (HeA)

Lunch:
Omelette with mushrooms

Dinner:
Friday night fakeaway: Homemade beef burger on wholemeal roll (HeB) with spicy wedges and salad (2 syns for marg, 3 syns for mayo, 1 syn for chilli sauce)

Snacks:
Fruit, apple juice (4 syns)

Total syns: 11

 

[Wolf]

Menu for today:

Breakfast:
Fruit salad

Lunch:
Smoked salmon on wholemeal roll (HeB) with Philidelphia cheese (HeA) and leafy stuffs

Dinner:
Homemade chicken curry

Snacks:
Fruit, 2 x coffees (8)

Total syns: 8

 

[Wolf]

Weight loss this week: Maintain

Poo.

I half expected it as I've been feeling soooo bloated this week. Think star week is close as I've been really hungry and am craving all sorts of bad things. Also had a sneaky burger king for dinner on the weekend, as OH and I were out buying DIY stuff and getting home and then cooking dinner would have meant eating at like 9pm! So that's probably contributed too.

Here's todays food:

Breakfast:
Oats porridge with almond milk, fruit and honey (HeB, half HeA & 2.5 syns)

Lunch:
Banana smoothie with almond milk (rest of HeA)

Dinner:
Sausages (2.5 syns) and mash, with mixed veg and gravy (2 syns)

Snacks:
Fruit

Total syns: 7


I've also made the decision to ban my beloved apple juice from the house. It's so high syn for what it is and I find it hard to resist at least one glass every night. Looking back on my written food diaries, it really was upping my overall syn count (by 4 to 6 syns a day). I want to cut back on syns a little this week and cutting out the apple juice was an instant way to do that.

 

[Wolf]

Just realised that I'm super close to being UNDER 16st so that's my goal for this week, to get into the 15's!

 

[Wolf]

OMG! A SW hash brown pizza recipe!

http://www.slimmingeats.com/blog/syn-free-hash-brown-waffle-pizza

I'm definitely going to try this!

 

[Suseka]

Good luck with the next goal (can't imagine what being in the 15s would be like, yet) and thanks for sharing that recipe. My other half is very partial to a hash brown and I love pizza, so combined I can see it being a really nice meal for the weekend - yum. Just one problem - don't have a waffle iron so methinks I'll have to pay Amazon a visit

 

[Wolf]

Food for today:

Breakfast:
Smoothie:2 Bananas, cocoa (1 syn) and almond milk (most of HeA)

Lunch:
Banana and egg pancakes with honey (2.5 syns)*

Dinner:
Friday night fakeaway: Homemade beef burger on wholemeal roll (HeB) with spicy wedges and salad (2 syns for marg, 3 syns for mayo, 1 syn for chilli sauce)

Snacks:
Fruit, coffee (remaining HeA + 2 syns)

Total syns: 11.5


*Regarding cooked banana. I use the same common sense logic that I do with my smoothies: if I would eat that same amount of food as a meal unblended/uncooked then I don't syn it. I would never have cooked/blended anything as a snack or a drink in between meals though.

 

[Wolf]

Bank holiday weekend. We're not doing much as OH is busy with some DIY in the garden. We do have a Christening tomorrow though. Being a holiday weekend and due to the fact that our garden is a mess/building site with no real useable outside area, I'm doing a "fake" BBQ for dinner (cooked inside). Might be rather a high syn as OH has requested potato salad (his favourite thing). I'm going to measure the may carefully though so I can keep track.

Menu for today:

Breakfast:
Banana smoothie (3 syns for milk, 1 syn for cocoa)

Lunch:
Smoked salmon on wholemeal roll (HeB) with Philidelphia cheese (HeA) and leafy stuffs

Dinner:
Homemade chicken, mushroom and pepper skewer kababs, corn on the cob, potato salad (syns to be determined) and beetroot salad.

Snacks:
Fruit

Total syns: 4 so far

 

[Wolf]

Hey guys. I'm still here and on it. Not been having much time to pop on here and do menu plans but all meals and syns have been staying on plan. Slow and steady, as always. I'm 2lbs away from my 2.5st award so I really want to push for that next week! AND I'm now under 16st!! Wooo!

I'm also trying to make some realistic plans for sticking to plan as my life is going to get a bit busy/hectic from next month and I KNOW that I absolutely suck when it comes to wanting to cook after a busy day (when I go off plan, it's usually then). Next month my OH and I are starting to refurbish a property. It needs a lot of work and we are planning to do as much work ourselves as possible, to keep costs down, which also means that it will probably take a few months to do. If anyone watches "Homes Under the Hammer", that's the sort of transformation we're aiming for. Then, when that house is fully finished, we're MOVING INTO IT for a few months while we start a major extension and renovation of our OWN house. Again, doing as much of the work ourselves as possible. I'm exhausted just thinking about it and we haven't even started yet!!

So I know, realistically, that doing all this and cooking big healthy meals at the end of the day (when all we want to do is collapse on the sofa) is not going to work. So I am now considering a break from my 90% clean eating rule and thinking of stocking up with SW ready meals. I'm the biggest anti-processed food evangelist out there but I honestly think that this is the only way I'll be able to stick to plan and I'm telling myself that the "bigger picture ie: long term weight loss" is more important than half a year of extra additives. It will be nice to know that I can spend a day knocking down walls and pulling up floorboards and come back to an insta meal that I can shove in the microwave. I've chatted to OH about this too and he agrees that it's a good idea (although I'll let him pick his own micro meals, rather than make him eat the SW ones).

In other news, I've finally found my favourite low-syn boozy drink! In a perfect (and limitless syn world) I'd live on either Crabbies ginger beer or fruit ciders (around 13 syns for a bottle!!!! ) so I've been trying to find a lower syn alternative that I actually LIKE, rather than wasting syns on a drink I'm not 100% into. The result, of many months of trying various things, is RUM AND GINGER ALE! Sugar free of course. It's not quite Crabbies but it's damn nice and only 2.5 syns a glass. Heaven!

 

[Wolf]

I've updated my first post goals now too. I find it really keeps me focused, with lots of short-term goals and some longer term ones too.


1. Christmas 2016 - Seeing family, currently a lot bigger than last time I saw them. (Hit this goal with a 1 stone loss)
2. End of May 2017 - Mini break to Poland to meet gaming friends (Hit this goal with a 1st12 loss)
3. Early June 2017 - My 40th birthday (Hit this goal with a 1st12 loss)
4. Early July 2017 - Bryan Adams concert (Hit this goal with a 1st12 loss)
5. End July 2017 - Weekend away for London Film and Comic Con (Hit this goal with a 1st12 loss)
6. December 2017 - Weekend away for Wales Comic Con
7. January 2018 - Romantic weekend away for OH's birthday
8. April 2018 - Weekend away for Wales Comic Con
9. July 2018 - Weekend away for London Film and Comic Con
10. October 2019 - Holiday to Florida
11. May 2020 - Wedding in Las Vegas and Honeymoon in San Francisco
12. April 2021 - Holiday to Japan

 

[Wolf]

Weight loss this week: 2.5 lbs

Pleased with that as it got me my 2.5 st award! I've not had a perfect week but I have been drinking a lot of water so I guess that helped.

I really really must try and find the time to put my meals on here. I do scribble everything down in a notebook every day but don't get round to sitting at the computer and typing it up.

I also have some brilliant SW recipe blogs that I use a lot so I'm going to start linking the recipes when I use them.

I'll start again today and see if I can keep it up:

Breakfast:
Oats porridge with almond milk (half HeA), grated apple and honey (2.5 syns)

Lunch:
Grilled chicken & pasta salad (2 syns)

Dinner:
Meatballs and pasta with parmesan (5 syns)

Snacks:
Fruit, coffee (2 syns, half HeA)

Total syns: 11.5


I usually spend some of my syns on a morning coffee (syning both the milk and sugar) but I'm out of milk and don't feel like going to the shop. I might be asleep my lunchtime without it though.

 

[Wolf]

Food for today:

Breakfast:
Smoothie:2 Bananas, cocoa (1 syn) and almond milk (most of HeA)

Lunch:
Banana and egg pancakes with honey (2.5 syns)

Dinner:
Friday night fakeaway: Homemade beef burger on wholemeal roll (HeB) with SW chips and salad (2 syns for marg, 3 syns for chilli sauce)

Snacks:
Fruit, coffee (remaining HeA + 2 syns)

Total syns: 10.5

 

[Wolf]

Food for today:

Breakfast:
Nothing (slept in )

Lunch:
Hard boiled egg on wholemeal roll with salady bits (2 syns for marg)

Dinner:
Homemade chicken curry

Snacks:
Fruit, coffees (HeA + 4 syns)

Total syns: 6

 

[Wolf]

Forgot to do yesterdays food. Meals were all on plan but ended up going over syns. Mostly on coffees. One of my bad weaknesses. OH drinks a lot of it and when he's home on weekends that encourages me to drink more. I usually stick to one "treat" cup a day but yesterday I just carried on and had one whenever he did. That's a lot of sugar and full cream milk adding up! (I don't touch artificial sweeteners and I don't like skimmed milk so my coffees are 4 syns a cup). On top of that, OH had bought a pack of fresh white bread rolls and I gave in and had a couple of those with my lunch. Paying the price today as I feel super bloated (bread, as much as I adore it, does NOT agree with me and combined with all that sugar, well . . . ).

Back with it today and have decided that I'm going to try cut out coffee and stick to a herbal tea with a little honey if I want a hot drink.

Food for today:

Breakfast:
Smoothie: Oats (half HeB), hazelnuts (half HeB), almond milk (3 syns), banana and cocoa (1 syn)

Lunch:
Chicken salad (2 syns for sweet chilli sauce)

Dinner:
Cheesy, spicy potato wedges with mayo and garlic & herb yogurt dip (HeA and 2 syns for mayo)

Snacks:
Fruit

Total syns: 8

 

[Wolf]

Well. Last night did NOT go as planned! I went to reheat the lasagne I'd taken out the freezer that morning and it was still frozen solid! Clearly my kitchen isn't warm enough for defrosting. We then spent a panicked few minutes digging in cupboards to find something else we could do. I had no meat defrosted and since we don't eat much processed stuff, there was nothing like soups or microwave meals. I really really didn't want to resort to ordering takeout so in the end we decided, since we had lots of potatoes, to make spicy wedges sprinkled with melted cheese. I also made a yummy syn-free yogurt dip to go with it. So, severely lacking in speed foods but at least it was on plan!

I have now managed to survive two days without coffee. I really was drinking too much of it so having a break feels good.

One good thing about the colder weather is that I've been able to get my slow-cooker out again! I really struggle to get speed foods into my meals in summer but with slow-cooker meals, stews, casseroles etc it's sooo much easier.

Food for today:

Breakfast:
Smoothie: Oats (half HeB), hazelnuts (half HeB), almond milk (HeA), banana and cocoa (1 syn)

Lunch:
Chicken & pasta salad (3 syns for sweet chilli sauce)

Dinner:
Slow-cooked chicken and bacon casserole with new potatoes (2 syns for cornflour)

Snacks:
Fruit

Total syns: 6

 

[Wolf]

Food for today:

Breakfast:
Waffles with grated apple and honey (HeB & 2.5 syns) - http://www.slimmingeats.com/blog/classic-belgian-waffles

Lunch:
Smoothie: bananas, almond milk (3 syns) and cocoa (1 syn)

Dinner:
Leftover slow-cooker lasagne (HeA) - http://twochubbycubs.com/2016/01/10/slow-cooker-lasagne/

Snacks:
Fruit

Total syns: 6.5

 

[Wolf]

Weight loss this week: 1.5 lbs

Another loss!

I really feel like I have my head in the game at the moment. I'm super motivated and determined to lose as much as I can before December. The next week, apart from Saturday, should be free of distractions. On Saturday we're helping our daughter to move so there's a high possibility of grabbing something to eat along the way. With the rest of the week on plan that shouldn't be too much of an issue, hopefully.

Haven't figured out todays food yet so will add that later.