Weigh Day

It's that time of the week again and the prognosis was not good

I can't honestly say I'm that surprised. Sunday night I wrote out my meal plan and we were all set to do our weekly shop Monday night, then this happened...

Which led to this

   

   

 which then led to this... 

 then finally this

Yes that is pizza, yes I did, wholeheartedly, regret it as soon as I ate it

So as you can see, I probably really deserved my 1lb on.

Because we didn't get our weekly shop on the Monday night as usual, the rest of my week wasn't fantastic either....it wasn't bad by a long shot, but not as good as it could've been. However, my shopping arrived today (I ended up ordering it online) and I can now get back on track. I need a 2lb loss to get me back on track to be at target by Christmas....wish me luck!

Weigh Day

I got weighed last night

Syn-free pancakes

This is another recipe I discovered on Instagram and there seem to be a few variations (of which I will be trying)

Ingredients

* 30g Ready Brek (I'm aware it's no longer a HeB, but I'm counting it as one...feel free to use porridge oats)

* 1/2 tsp sweetner

* 2 eggs

Instructions

Whisk all ingredients together and fry..easy peasy. I served them with banana and 2 tsp of maple syrup (1 syn)

The other version which I have yet to try is 

Ingredients

* 35g Porridge Oats

* 1 pot of Muller Light (any flavour)

* 3 eggs

* Sweetner (if needed)

Instructions

Put your oats and muller light into a bowl and leave to soak overnight (or 3 hours). Add eggs and sweetner. Fry in Fry Light. 

A few ideas/recipes

In line with my flavoured coffee obsession, I made myself a SW friendly Mocha. It's nothing fancy, it's literally an option hot chocolate, coffee, a dash of milk from my allowance (although you might not need it) and a squirt of cream for 2 syns, less if you buy the light version...I just used what was in the fridge (left over from Christmas if I'm honest)

Monday Mocha - 4 syns 

 

If you want something different, I saw a lady on Instagram using Fluff Marshmallow on top of a hot chocolate. I think she said was 1.5 syns, but didn't say for how much and I'm afraid I can't find it on syns online, but it's something to consider if you have a jar and access to the nutrition info so you can syn it up. 

For lunch I made a tomato pasta dish: 

* pasta 

* chopped tomatoes 

* baked beans 

* onion 

* garlic 

* bacon

* 1tsp of light cream cheese

* Cheddar to sprinkle on top (optional)

You can add any veg you like to this...just cook the pasta, whilst that's cooking cook all the other ingredients together and finally mix with the pasta. Serve with cheddar cheese sprinkled on top. You can also add chilli, I didn't to this one because I was sharing it with my daughter. 

This is a brilliant family meal. This is my youngest daughter enjoying her THIRD bowlful!

 

For dinner I just had to try the Mushy pea curry that's been doing the rounds on Instagram (seriously, if you're not already on Instagram, you should join, there are tons of SW ladies on there posting delicious looking food, sharing ideas and recipes, just search for Slimmingworld under tags)

Ingredients:

* 1 can Mushy peas

* 1 can chopped tomatoes

* 1 can baked beans

* Curry powder (to taste) 

blend them all together to make the sauce. Add whatever meat/veg you want. Serve with rice, or SW chips. 

Meal planning

This may seem like it's late because I did the last meal plan on a Friday, but we do our grocery shopping every Monday, so Sunday night will be my time to plan meals and write a shopping list. 

I have 2 children so I have to make sure we have things in for them too. If they can join in the Slimming World meal they will, if not I've found an alternative. It's not that any of the meals are unsuitable for children, just that my girls don't like spicy food and I love it. We're also working around after school activities and can't always eat together...but I do love that Slimming World is family friendly. 

 

Today (whilst out shopping) I came across these and couldn't resist buying one of each flavour. Syns online says a chunky kitkat is 13 syns (one of them might be 12.5) so I plan to share them with my husband for 6.5 syns each. I can't wait to try the coconut one. 

 

 Not necessarily a Slimming World friendly recipe but since these homemade tortillas work out at 6 syns each I thought I'd share them anyway. We had these with stew and it just made the meal feel a bit more naughty. Recipe here

 

Starbucks obsession

As I've mentioned before, I have a bit of a Starbucks obsession...well it's more of a coffee obsession but I just can't resist those fancy coffees from Starbucks so I'm experimenting with different things so I can still get my fix.

Today I tried out a tall, sugar-free hazelnut, skinny latte to then find the sugar-free versions aren't listed on syns online Hmph. The coffee was amazing though, I wouldn't have guessed it was sugar-free and skinny. 

  

After some research I found their nutrition sheet and the sugar-free syrups are 0 calories...I'm assuming then, that they are 0 syns (assuming you're counting the milk from your allowance). 

A blip

My Friday was filled with completing job applications. I've been a stay at home Mum for the past 4 years, but now that my youngest is in Nursery I feel ready to return to work. It was always meant to be a temporary break and now it's time to re-enter the world of work and I'm quite excited by the idea.

It would've been easy to sit and nibble on biscuits or chocolate whilst sat at my laptop, but I made myself a coffee and put out a bowl of grapes to stave off boredom hunger. It worked...




unfortunately the evening brought other challenges that I failed terribly at. I met up with friends for takeout and gossip. I was good and pre-planned my meal, but on the evening I felt bad that everyone else was sharing their dishes so I made the decision to share with everyone else and it was a downhill fall from there, because I then tried other dishes, dipped into starters (and we're talking prawn toast, spring rolls etc) and finished with one of my friends famous chocolate brownies...I'm pretty sure there are about 50 syns in the brownie alone.

I would sit here and write about how I could've avoided the extra syns, but even dieters need a night off once in a while. I'm not going to dwell on it, I'm not even going to kill myself trying to claw back the syns through the rest of the week because from experience this ends with me resenting the diet and I'll go on a binge. I will have 10 syns a day as normal and draw a line under the Friday blowout.

First weigh day

Today was my first weigh day (first where I find out if I've gained or lost)

 

I was hoping for a bigger loss with it being my first week back on the diet, but 2lb is not to be sniffed at so I'm happy with the result...here's to another good week. 

Slimming World Quiche

I love Slimming World. I love that I can have this breakfast and still lose weight. 

 

Today I decided to give the Slimming World Quiche recipe a go. For the official recipe go here. I had to use what I had in so mine contains bacon, onion and red pepper, but you can put whatever you like in it...pack it full of super speed foods. 

 

I really enjoyed the quiche and will definitely be making it again. 

Recipe: Terriyakiish spicy chicken and rice

1.5 syns

Serves 1

 

Ingredients

Rice (I just use the recommended amount on the packet)
1/2 Chicken fillet
Handful  of chopped mushrooms
Half a sweet red pepper
1/2 medium onion
i Garlic clove
Chopped fresh chilli
1 tbsp Agave Nectar (1.5 syns)
2 tbsp Soy Sauce

Instructions

Mix the Agave Nectar and the soy sauce together in a bowl and soak the chicken in it. I didn't soak it for long, but the longer the better.

Cook the rice to packet instructions...whilst the rice is cooking add Fry Light to a frying pan and fry the garlic, onions and peppers until soft. Add the chicken and all the sauce and cook through. Add the mushrooms and reduce the sauce down until it's a little like gravy...you could reduce it right down to a sticky coating on your chicken if you wanted to too.

Serve with chopped chilli sprinkled on top, or you could cook the chilli into the mix if you wish..or even use dried chilli like I did, although you might want to check if that is free, I had trouble finding it.

As well as trying new recipes/making stuff up. I've been scouring the web for snack ideas and my lovely SW group ladies mentioned these in our facebook page. I just had to try them. 

Maple Popcorn - 4.5 syns for the whole bag

Strawberry nougat bars - 4 syns each

Dominion sugar-free strawberry and cream sweets (from Aldi) - 6 syns for the whole box. It works out at less than 0.5 syn each sweet. 

Recipe for Spicy Rice and Salad

I thought it would be nice to share some recipes along the way. This is free on an Extra Easy day. I'm afraid we don't always measure things and don't necessarily time things properly, we just cook until things until they look "done" and add as much or as little of things as we like. 

Ingredients

Rice
Chicken
Sweetcorn
Onion
Red peppers
Mushrooms
Garlic
Ginger
Chilli
Soy Sauce
Fry Light

Instructions

Cook rice to the packet instructions. Fry the garlic, onion and ginger in some Fry Light until the onion is soft.  Add your chicken and cook through. Add the peppers  the mushroom and cook to your preference (if you like peppers crunchy cook for a minimal amount of time, if you like them soft, cook for longer). Finally add the sweetcorn.

Add your cooked rice to the chicken mix with some soy sauce and chilli...again do this to your own individual taste. You can leave out the chilli if you're not a fan of spicy food.

Serve with salad.

I survived the Yorkshire Sculpture Park

I LOVE to eat out. It is one of my favourite things to do, so when we plan a trip out as a family, like we did today, I am so tempted to suggest having lunch somewhere nice.

Today I had a late, big, breakfast of bacon, egg, mushroom, baked beans and toast and hoped that would last me through to dinner time. We then headed out to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park for some body magic.

Isn't it beautiful?..there was plenty to distract me from wanting to eat

 



We did have to stop at the cafe for a snack because my daughters were getting hungry, but I was good. I ordered a plain coffee and had an emergency Alpen bar light in my handbag for such an occasion.


Let's call this photographic evidence, much better than the nut who photographs her coffees. 

From there we had a short shopping trip. I'm a self proclaimed Starbucks addict so I had to find a way to diet and get my Starbucks fix, so say hello to a 'tall, skinny, vanilla spiced latte' I worked this out to be around 4.5 syns if you count the milk as a Healthy B (which I did)

Dinner time: We had my favourite...sushi! I could eat sushi all day, every day, and the best bit? It's really low in syns! I think this lot worked out at 1/2 and I was completely stuffed.

 

It doesn't feel like dieting

The thing I love about Slimming World is it's ability to have you feel like you're eating 'badly'. Look what I had for breakfast and it was completely free (if using a healthy B for the bread). 

Tell me this doesn't make your mouth water. 

 

Lunch was a deliciously thick butternut squash soup (handmade and completely free)

Dinner was a potato and onion frittata with salad.

First day back at group

Today I returned to my regular Slimming World group.

It was so lovely to be back. Even better? I got a brand new pack! New year, new start and shiny new pack...brilliant!

The damage this past 3 months wasn't half as bad as I thought it was going to be. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't good (8lb)...but I had gone completely off the rails from October to restarting my diet on 1st January.

Back home I immediate wrote out a meal plan and then a shopping list. 

Below is a computer simulation of me now and me at target (10st)

Source: http://www.modelmydiet.com/

New year, new me

Happy New Year!!!

It's the start of a New Year and I'm determined that this is going to be the start of a new me. I've tried losing weight before...years and years ago (pre-children) I was very successful with Slimming World, losing over 4 stone. I felt great! 

I had 2 children and put most (but not all) of the weight back on. I've tried several times to get back on track but my heart really wasn't in it. This year it's going to be different...why?...because my reasons for getting healthy are different. 

My first meal of 2013

At the beginning of October I was admitted to hospital with 3 Pulmonary Embolisms (P.E). This isn’t the first time I’ve had this problem and therefore I am now on lifelong anticoagulants (Warfarin) on Monday I start investigations into why I keep getting them.

The thing with Warfarin is it is highly effected by the things you ingest, so for the last 3 months I’ve been scared of getting back onto my diet for fear that it will effect my blood levels…but the truth is my blood levels haven’t been stable since I started the medication so I believe if I just take the plunge and get back on track, my diet will be more stable and therefore my blood levels will also.

There are other factors, like being ill can complicate my medication, therefore being healthy has a huge vantage point for me.

So here I am. I'm starting back on my diet today and will be back in my Slimming World class tomorrow evening. I plan to keep a log of my progress here, so stay tuned and wish me luck!


Plain omlette with salad and a splash of caesar dressing