Saddlebag's Refeed

Hoorayyyyy I'm finally here!

So today was my weigh in day and I was chuffed to have reach goal, and an extra pound. Yesterday I had a cheeky weigh and was 10.4, so was a little surprised to be 10.6 today, but I didn't get much sleep and have been a little *ahem* bunged up for a few days. So perhaps that's why

I'm going to be following the Slim and Save refeed programme, which will be 10 days for me as I have lost more than 3 stone.

Day 1

Breakfast - Biggest Loser chocolate crunch bar (had one left)
Lunch - S&S spaghetti bolognese
Dinner - 150g turkey mince, 100g cabbage, 100g carrots

Out of the turkey I made 'burgers'. I put the mince in a bowl, and mushed it up with a little soy sauce, a clove of garlic and a bit of chilli powder. I made these into two burger shapes and fried them in a little fry light. I put a bit more soy sauce over them near the end of cooking as I find turkey can get dry. The cabbage and carrots were steamed with salt and pepper.
Turkey burgers were really nice- I think I'll have them again tomorrow.

For info, 100g raw carrots makes about 80g cooked by steaming. 100g raw cabbage stays about the same.

Welcome! Look forward to following your refeed diary!

Hiya Weasey! We can swap recipes and things

So, here is my diary of...

Day 2

Had an odd day eating today in terms of times as I was up at 4.30 for work. This is fairly unusual so won't happen often. I had breakfast at 5, so was starving by 10 so had some veg sticks I'd taken. I had a bit more veg than I should have had today but the surplus was from the allowed veg listen so don't think it'll do much, if any damage. Didn't have time for my S&S pack until 3pm. Got home and ate my little apple which was yummy straight out the fridge (forgot to put yesterday that I had an apple). I've missed fruit so much! I wasn't hungry at dinner time but had it anyway at 6.30 as the refeed instructions say not to eat after 8pm and I was going out at 7.

Breakfast - 30g special K with skimmed milk (didn't use all the milk, saved some to have with coffee at work)
Lunch - S&S spaghetti bolognese pack
Dinner - 150g turkey mince, 50g cabbage, 100g carrots (same dinner as yesterday as I wanted to use the turkey)
Snacks - Celery and cucumber sticks and gherkin, 100g total, and an apple

200g raw turkey made around 160g turkey burger (fried in a little fry light). Forgot to weigh the turkey after cooking yesterday but realised today that it would lose water when cooking so used a little more. Quantities not quite right but not far off!

Well, day 3 has been quite delicious

Day 3

Breakfast - 30g special k with skimmed milk (167 cals)
Lunch - S&S spaghetti bolognese (163 cals)
Snack - Asda fat free stick toffee pudding yoghurt (70 cals)
Dinner - 4 quorn sausages, 100g broccoli and 150g boiled new potatoes (445 cals )

Breakfast and lunch was nice and easy. I'm really enjoying my cereal, it's so nice to have something crunchy. The quorn sausages did stump me though. The pack said 250g in total and there were 6, so decided to be cautious and grilled 3. I weighed them when cooked and they only came to 80g! And it says to have 150g of protein, so I cooked another. I had the boiled potatoes which were nice and broccoli provided some much needed moisture! I'd never had quorn sausages before and was pleasantly surprised. However I put it all into MFP and the sausages came to 280 cals! Now I'm panicking that I shouldn't be having the sausages, just the mince or something. Total calories today was 845- I know I shouldn't fuss about it as that still isn't many but it's a lot more than I've had of late. I'm also really full, uncomfortably so, so tomorrow I'm thinking of only having 2 sausages for dinner and adding an egg. Ho hum... Maybe I'll email Rob and see what he says, I think he'll say not to have sausages Shame as they are nice.

Fear not - 800 calories is nothing. I'm up to my BMR on average now, so 1400 calories. Now that's scary .

Good luck with it.

Thanks BG. Increasing calories is scary isn't it? It's got to be done though, I can't live like a rabbit forever... Although microwaving sachets was very convenient!

Day 4

Breakfast - 30g special k and skimmed milk (167 cals)
Lunch - S&S tomato chilli (yuck! My friend gave me this as a leftover, remembered why I only got a sample ) (167 cals)
Dinner - 2 quorn sausages, 150 potatoes, 100g broccoli, 110g quark (359 cals) (see below for experimental recipe)
Snacks - 50 sliced cucumber, fat free banoffee yoghurt (75 cals)

Total calories - 768
Total carbs - 100g
Total protein - 62g

Enjoyed breakfast again so don't think I'll deviate to porridge oats or shredded wheat until I get bored. The crunch is nice! It's surprised me how long 30 grams of special k can keep me full for. However I did get up fairly early (ok it was 8.30 but hey it's a Saturday!) then set about mowing the lawn and doing gardening up until about 1pm when I was really hungry. So I sliced up a bit of cucumber really thinly with a couple of squirts of salad light (I like this stuff- it's by the same people as fry light but it's a salad dressing) and munched on that. I didn't want my lunch too early as was going out with a friend and knew I'd be out until about 6, so didn't want to be hungry.
Lunch I had at about 2, a tomato chilli pack. Blurgh. Doused it with lee and perrins as I didn't like it, but it filled me up and wasn't hungry until I got home at 6.
Had my yoghurt before starting dinner. It was a banoffee one, came as a pack of 4 from asda with the sticky toffee ones and it was really nice.
Sliced the potato lengthways thinly and put them in the steamer whilst I went out to play with the dog for 10 minutes. I took them out after and put the quorn sausages on and also put the broccoli on to steam. I decided to only have 2 sausages today after yesterday's panic (S&S Rob says quorn sausages are fine by the way, although probably should have had 3 rather than 4 but said not to worry ). As I discovered yesterday, they lose a lot of weight after cooking so I decided to buy some quark earlier. I know it's not on the list but it's very low carb, low calorie and virtually fat free, and I thought I ought to supplement the sausages as they wouldn't even weigh half of the 150g allowance. The sausages were dry so I wanted to experiment- fraught with danger as I'd never had quark before! Had a taste and it was a bit like natural yoghurt but thick. I mixed 110g with a little skimmed milk to loosen it, put a little salt and pepper in (tasted funny... Salty yoghurt... I thought oooo this is gonna be gross) and added a crushed garlic clove, I love garlic.
I put the almost done broccoli in an ovenproof dish and poured over most of the quark mixture. I layered the potato slices on top and seasoned them, then put the remainder of the quark on. Stuck it in the oven at 180 for about 10 minutes and finished it off under the grill to brown it. Sort of like a gratin.
It was scrummy! Quark didn't make a sauce but was like a crumbled cheese on the broccoli and gave the spuds a lovely tang. I would definitely do it again.

Quark is really nice, and very versatile. I hadn't even heard of it before this diet but S&S said it was ok to have it as one of the protein options so I decided to try it. I like it and it's good as a savoury option or I mix a little sweetener with it and have it as a topping for some red fruits. Not sure if you're having fruit yet but red fruits are much lower in sugar that other types. Rhubarb (which is actually a vegetable not a fruit) is also good. Low calorie and low carb. I have it with sweetener as it's just too tart for me without but 100g (uncooked weight) makes a nice portion and is only 21 calories.

I have porridge at the weekend. 1 serving made with water comes to about 120 calories so about the same as your Special K. It's nice and filling too.

You're right in that quark is very versatile. The cheesy flavour is so mild I could barely taste it but I imagine it would be lovely sweet like you say over fruit or maybe I'll try a cheesecake one day? If cheesecake is something you like, I do a low carb version with ground almonds instead of biscuit for the base. Usually I mix them with melted butter but I'd probably do it with low fat spread now and probably wouldn't notice too much difference.
I love rhubarb. I have to add a little sweetener too. Xylitol is good as it tastes just like sugar too me, and it's spoon for spoon the same strength so good for cooking, but it's expensive. I might try a rhubarb fool with quark, sweetener and rhubarb, mmmmm. Rhubarb is nice with a little water in the oven, baked/ poached and dusted with a bit of cinnamon.
I can have a small piece of fruit or a yoghurt so I've been having one or the other and enjoying both! Although I used to eat them both before dieting I didn't go mad for them but I really look forward to them now.

I'm in love with Alpro plain soya yoghurt at the moment. I quite often have a tub of that instead of a meal as the carbs aren't high and the protein it gives me is relatively high. A whole tub is only 230 calories and it fills me completely.

Ooooooo I'll definitely be looking at some of that for when I've finished my refeed! Lunchtimes will be a bit tricky for me as I eat on the road 99% of the time and have no cooking or reheating facilities so have to have cold lunches, preferably not sandwiches as they are one of my weaknesses... A pot of yoghurt would be so simple...

Day 5

Breakfast - special k and skimmed milk (167 cals)
Lunch - S&S spicy spaghetti (136)
Dinner - 2 quorn sausages, 110g quark, 100g potatoes, 100g courgette (307)
Snacks - fat free sticky toffee pudding yoghurt, handful of green beans (oops) (105)

Total cals - 715

Still enjoying the special k for breakfast! Nipped to the shops for the next few days' supplies and nearly bought different cereal but decided special k is fine- might have a change when I've used it up. S&S spaghetti was ok, have to say I'm relieved that I don't have to eat them all the time now. I went to my mum's at 3 as my brother was visiting- they were eating at 2 but as usual were running late and when I got there, there was a massive barbecue spread on. Massive rib of beef, potato salad, cous cous, coleslaw, bread....... And some green beans which I shovelled into my mouth just so my fingers had something to feed my face with! To be honest I had it in my head they were on the list of allowed veg and kicked myself when I checked. Oh well. Had my yoghurt when I got home. Then for dinner I had the same as yesterday, except used only 100g spuds and had courgette instead of broccoli as it's marginally lower carb and calorie than broccoli, to try and make up for the beans incident. The gratin thing was still yummy with courgette, I had to dry them in kitchen roll first though so it didn't go soggy. All in all, not too much damage caused. Total carbs 95... All these carbs are making me a little uneasy I have to say!

You are having loads of things I can't have yet on my slow refeed! Not fair!

Well they say slow and steady wins the race Weasey I could take or leave the potatoes, I'm enjoying them but don't think I'll have many when I've finished my refeed. Dare I say I'm not craving carbs?!
Thursday and Friday I'm meant to have bread... Eek! My tummy will be nearly popping!
I have been craving chocolate tonight. But that's probably because I know there's 3 biggest loser chocolate crunch bars in the cupboard, and they're very yummy but they are also lunch for the next 3 days (ran out of suitable lunch S&S sachets) so I'm being restrained.

Day 6

Breakfast - special k and skimmed milk (167)
Lunch - Biggest Loser chocolate crunch bar (200 cals but oh so yummy)
Dinner - 150 cooked rice, 150g quorn, 100g allowed veg (353)
Snacks - fat free banoffee yoghurt (70)

Total cals - 790

I reeeeeeally enjoyed my chocolate crunch bar. Really hit the spot for those chocolate cravings I've had for a couple of days.
New introduction for the day was 150g rice or jacket potato. Since I've had potatoes for a few days I decided to do rice for a change. Opted for brown rice as it seemed to be all together lower in everything, but had to cook it for what seemed like an age! I fancied 2 quorn sausages again as they're nice and had some open, but wondered what to do as the rice and quorn would be very dry.
In the end I chopped up the courgette into small cubes, chopped the broccoli into small pieces and steamed them. When the sausages were done I cut them into small bits too, then mixed the veg and sausages into the rice with some soy sauce and Lee and Perrins. It was delicious! I'm so full now though I might burst

Just wanted to post my signature here as I'm going to delete it and start a refeed one, but want a record of what I lost each week

Week 1 - 7lbs
Week 2 - 7lbs
Week 3 - 3lbs
Week 4 - 4lbs
Week 5 - 3lbs (AAM week)
Week 6 - 4lbs
Week 7 - STS (still an average of 4lbs a week so can't complain!)
Week 8 - 4lbs
Week 9 - 3lbs
Week 10 - 3lbs
Week 11 - 5lbs
Week 12 - 1lb
Week 13 - 4lbs
Week 14 - STS :sigh:
Week 15 - 2lbs GOAL!!

Goal 1 - get into the 13s - DONE!
Goal 2 - get into 12s - DONE!
Goal 3 - get into 11s - DONE!
Goal 4 - get into 10s!!! - DONE 25/07/12 over the moon!!

Goal reached 25/07/12

Saddlebag if I had that signature I'd have it framed hahaha
Your loses are amazing. good luck with the re-feed x x

Ahhh that's nice of you to say, thank you. You are doing great and will be at your goal before you know it x

Day 7

Breakfast - special k and skimmed milk
Lunch - Chocolate crunch bar
Dinner - 2 quorn sausages, 150g brown rice, 50g cabbage, 50g courgette
Snacks - Asda low fat vanilla yoghurt, boiled egg

Total - 830 cals

I found so golden syrup flavoured Oat So Simple sachets in the cupboard! I worked out that with skimmed milk one would come in at under 200 cals. I was allowed sugar yesterday and today on cereal but chose not to have it as I refer cereal without. I was really hungry by lunch today so I think I'll have porridge tomorrow to see if it fills me up better.
Lunch was the bar which filled the gap but by the time I got home after 5 I was really hungry and enjoyed my yoghurt. Got dinner on which I cooked in the same way as yesterday but with cabbage instead of broccoli and it was nice. My friend popped over to watch some Olympics tonight and I made her a quick tea as she'd not eaten, spaghetti hoops on toast, then she had some dorritos and dips, so I really wanted to eat something! Opted for a boiled egg then I was satisfied.

Wednesday is weigh day for me. I was 10 stone 3 lbs after 7 days on refeed. I'm quite surprised (pleasantly surprised ) but maybe the carbs will hit me in the next couple of days!