Katie Cupcake's attempt at slimming down!

Hi all

I joined Slimming World last week and weighed in at 11st 8lb (although on my home scales I'm 11st 6lb - much prefer my home ones, but assuming SW's are much more accurate!)

I used to manage to keep my weight steady as I did a lot of exercise (played roller derby for about 7 hours a week plus some time at the gym and a generally very active lifestyle). I've always eaten relatively sensibly but didn't have to worry about it too much with exercising. Unfortunately I was recently diagnosed with ME, and due to the fatigue and sheer exhaustion, I haven't been able to do any exercise at all for around 3 months now. Plus I am a lot less active generally than I used to be, having to rest a lot etc.

As expected, the lack of exercise soon resulted in weight gain! I decided it was time to do something about it when my clothes started getting a bit too tight... I can't afford a whole new wardrobe lol! I go to group (second weigh in tomorrow) but like the idea of posting my food diary on here to keep track and keep me accountable! So here goes...

So I've being doing relatively well in the last week now that I understand the SW Green plan. I'll be permanently doing Green as I'm vegetarian. Only problem is, yesterday was my work Christmas party so I knew that I wouldn't be able to stay on plan as it was a three course meal and free drinks all night...! I had:

Breakfast: WW dessert style yogurt and a banana.
Mid morning: 1 Alpen light
Work Christmas lunch: Cauliflower soup, portobello mushroom wellington (covered in puff pastry, served with veg which all seemed to have been roasted in oil...), and for dessert an apple crumble with custard. Needless to say this was pretty synful! Together with the wine and vodka diet cokes, I've put this day down at 51.5 syns from what I can work out :\

I had a couple of slices of wholemeal toast when I got in as it was really late and I was hungry but needed to get to bed.

Today's food plan:

Breakfast: WW dessert style yogurt and banana, and lots of water as was dehydrated from drinking last night!
Lunch: Couscous with salad leaves and tomatoes, and balsamic vinegar as a dressing, some strawberries.
Snacks: Grapes and 1 Alpen light bar (I also randomly brought a light Babybel with me but will probably only eat that if I get really hungry).
Dinner: Going to my mum in law's house tonight for a family friend's bday. They are getting Dominos and you can barely have 1 slice of pizza for your day's syns so I'm taking my own food to avoid temptation... going to take over a Batchelors Pasta n Sauce I think, nice and easy.
Syns: I'm planning on having a slice of iced birthday cake - say about 10 syns.

Good decision to take your own food, I'm not sure I could be that organised if it was me

Well I'll be home from 5:15pm and we're not setting off til 7pm so I have no excuse not to. If it hadn't been my xmas party (with 3 course meal) yesterday I might have indulged in the pizza but I can't have two really bad days in a row! Especially with weigh in tomorrow morning...eek!

Yay! It was weigh in day today - my first weigh in since the starting point of 11st8 last week. I've lost 2lbs!! So that's 11st6 now. I'm really pleased considering I had my work Christmas do on Tuesday (with 3 course meal and free bar). I had pasta last night whilst everyone ate their Dominos. Now I love pizza but amazingly I didn't feel deprived or left out, I just felt in control

So today's food:

Breakfast: 2 slices wm toast (HEXB) with small amount of butter (2 syns) and will have a banana shortly.
Lunch: Homemade pasta salad (all free) with light Pizza Express dressing (2 syns), olives (2 syns) and strawberries after.
Snacks: fresh fruit and tea using HEXA milk.
Tea: SW chips, egg and peas with SW cauliflower curry sauce - haven't made the sauce before so I'll let you know how it goes!

Well done on your weight loss

Thanks Bev

So I made the cauliflower curry sauce recipe I'd seen on here somewhere to go with SW chips for tea tonight - it was ok but definitely needs some tweaking if I make it again. I would use less water when cooking as it was a little thin (although did thicken a lot when it cooled down). I would probably also use more curry powder as it could have taken a bit more spice! Ah well, you live and learn.

So this weekend is going to be a bit of a challenge for me. I'm going to Dublin tomorrow evening until late on Sunday with friends. We don't really have any food plans and I have no idea where we'll be eating or anything so I'll just have to make the safest choices I can and hope for the best! I'm going to take some Alpen light bars and bananas in my bag. We'll be drinking on Saturday night but I'll forego the Guinness in favour of the less synful vodka and diet coke! Wish me luck.

Hi hope your weekend went well

Hi Bev - thanks for your message... it was a fantastic weekend but food wise was a bit hit and miss!

Friday

Breakfast: I was going to do a SW cooked breakfast but wasn't actually very hungry so had some blueberry wheats (HEXB) with skimmed milk, a WW yogurt and some grapes.

Lunch: We were out and about in town getting Euros etc so we ate at Trinity Kitchen in Leeds. There was next to nothing available that was SW friendly so in the end I went for a "naked burrito" which was like the fillings in a salad bowl rather than a wrap. I had lettuce, peppers, onions, salsa, a tiny bit of cheese (half HEXA), pinto beans and guacamole (the guac was synned), and a diet coke. It was actually gorgeous and had so much flavour that I didn't miss the wrap.

Tea: I needed to have an early tea before setting off for the airport so I had two quorn sausages (1 syn each), a big salad with balsamic vinegar, and two mini mushroom filo parcels which my hubby had picked up from Tesco (about 6 syns). I also had 2 vodka and diet cokes at the airport as I'm scared of flying, lol!!

Saturday

Breakfast: A nice big bowl of porridge with blueberries, strawberries and raspberries.

Lunch: I was at a roller derby bout in the middle of nowhere in Dublin and the ONLY food on sale were pies!! Not ideal... I had the veggie pie with mash and gravy (about a million syns...). Throughout the day I also snacked on a banana and an alpen light (HEXB).

Tea: I had a veggie chilli which was pretty average, but the only safe choice. I also had 4 vodka diet cokes and one strawberry cider at the afterparty - this is an improvement (apart from the cider!) as I would usually prefer wine, which has many more syns.

Sunday

Breakfast: A repeat of the nice porridge from yesterday.

Lunch: We did a tour of the Guinness factory and had our lunch there - I had a Spanish omelette/tortilla style thing with roasted carrots, red cabbage and coleslaw. Again, probably about a million syns but there wasn't really any choice, as even their soup contained meat! I also had a pint of Guinness as you get one free as part of the tour.

Tea: Tea was bought from a nearby Dublin supermarket and eaten at the airport whilst waiting for the flight. I had a falafel and red cabbage wrap and a Pink Lady apple. Although again this will have quite a few syns, there wasn't much choice on offer. I'm going to think of this one as a success as the meal deal was a wrap/sandwich, a drink and a choice of fruit, crisps or Lindt choc. In the past I would have gone for the crisps every time!!

My flight was delayed and I only got home just before midnight and was peckish, so I had a WW yogurt and a cuppa then went to sleep x

Today's eats have been much better, now I'm back at home and preparing my own food!

Breakfast: 2 small slices of wm bread (HEXB), WW beans, mushrooms and tomatoes cooked in a bit of Frylight.

Snacks: 1 banana and an Alpen light (HEXB) - managed to say no to an offer of biscuits when we visited family today!

Lunch: Had this really late when we got back from family's - had a Batchelors Pasta n Sauce with 30g light cheese (most of a HEXA) and some squash.

For tea tonight I'm doing the lovely SW sweet and sour quorn with rice (made this recently and it's gorgeous!)

I have actually been syn free so far today... first day ever. It wasn't intentional but probably a good idea considering what I've had over the weekend! We'll see if I fancy anything later.

Brilliant you seem to be right back on track

Morning all! So back to work today for me, and the day's food looks like this:

Breakfast: 35g blueberry wheats (HEXB) with skimmed milk, WW yogurt and a banana.

Lunch: Homemade beetroot soup with fat-free fromage frais stirred in, 2 slices of wm bread (HEXB) with 2 light laughing cow triangles, 2 plums, some grapes and raw mange tout and baby corn for snacking during the day.

Tea: I'm meeting my friend to swap xmas presents tonight and she didn't mind where we met, so I've gone with Wetherspoons. I'm going to have the 5 bean chilli with baked potato, without the nachos (should only come in at 1.5 syns for any oil used to cook). I am going to have two small glasses of dry white wine, totalling about 8 syns, so overall syn total for today: 9.5.

UPDATE: I had 2 what I thought were small white wines, but turns out they were 175ml not 125ml so that makes 12 syns in wine. I also asked for no sour cream but it came with a small pot which was all garlicky and lovely and I couldn't resist. Synned that at 2 syns as it was only a small amount. So total syns today are now 15.5... over but not too badly considering!

Wetherspoons always seem to be good syn value

Yeah that's why I picked there as it's easy to work out syn value (as it's all online) and I know I can have a baked potato. Only just remembered I'm going for lunch with work colleagues tomorrow. I've just had a look at the menu and although you can get a potato, the only veggie fillings are cheese or coleslaw... not sure which would be best. Coleslaw will be full of mayo, but the cheese will probably be way over my 30g allowance...!

Hi all! (I say all but I don't know if anyone is actually reading this - apart from Bev who's said hello!) My colleague ended up booking today off meaning we didn't go out for lunch. Luckily I knew this yesterday evening, giving me chance to take lunch in. Today's food looked like this:

Breakfast: Porridge made with 35g oats, skimmed milk (HEXA), sweetener and topped with bluberries and raspberries, and a banana.

Lunch: Homemade beetroot soup (free), 2 slices of wm bread (HEXB) with 2 cubes of light Laughing Cow (half HEXA), and then snacks during the day of grapes, a plum, some FF yogurt mixed with half a sachet of Highlights caramel and an Alpen light (half HEXB).

Tea: Quorn spaghetti bolognese - all free apart from a slosh of Port I added to give flavour, which I've sinned at 1 syn. Added 15g light cheddar as my other half HEXA.

Syns: 1 for Port, 1 for the half sachet of Highlights and 4 for a bitesize flapjack given to me by a girl at work. Not many syns today, which isn't intentional but I've had a cracking headache and haven't been as hungry as usual.

It's weigh in tomorrow.... as it's time of the month I have no idea how it'll go - I find I usually weigh a bit more at this time; is anyone else the same?

Food plans for tomorrow so far:

Breakfast: 1 slice of wm bread (half HEXB), 1tsp butter (2 syns - but worth it as margerine just doesn't compare!) and marmite, with a WW yogurt and then I'll have a banana when I get to work after WI.

Lunch: Baked sweet potato with WW beans, 1 Alpen light (half HEXB - I'm trying the new-to-me lemon drizzle flavour, I'll let you know how they are), mange tout, babycorn and cherry tomatoes to munch on, grapes and maybe other fruit if I'm still hungry throughout the day.

Tea: This is the tricky one... I'm going to my brother's and don't know what he's planning to cook but I'd feel a bit rude asking so let's hope it's nothing too synful! I'll let you know.

I had my weigh in this morning... it didn't go well! 1lb on :cry: I know I went to Dublin for the weekend but I still tried to make as good choices as possible and was totally on plan apart from that... I'm just a bit discouraged and wondering whether it really is too good to be true that you can eat so much (free food etc) and still lose weight!

Quick update as I've just got home from my brother's. It definitely wasn't a SW friendly tea but it was soooo darn nice! He made homemade pizzas - I had 3 slices of the veggie one which was topped with onion marmalade, beetroot, tomato, rocket and mozarella. There was some left and I would usually have polished off but I managed to say no. I also had 2 small glasses of white wine and a bite sized white chocolate Florentine. I'm gonna guess I'm pretty over my syns for the day.... :wave_cry: I'll have to properly work it out so that I know the damage.

Morning all! Well I'm still hard at work whilst everyone else seems to be enjoying their Christmas break Although when I say "hard at work", we really don't have that much on today! So a bit of an update on my weekend. It was a tough one food wise, as I had two pre-booked three course meals (Christmas things) so all I could do was stay on plan surrounding those.

Friday

Breakfast: Fat free yogurt with raspberries and blueberries, and a banana.

Lunch: Baked sweet potato with WW beans, and the usual variety of fruit and crudite, plus a lemon drizzle alpen light.

Tea: I made "pizzas" using two wholemeal rolls sliced in half, topped with my HEXA 35g cheese, peppers, tomato puree, onion and sweetcorn. They were lovely!

Syns: 1 After Eight (which I didn't really want but felt bad as someone from work bought them for us and then mentioned we hadn't opened them!) - 2 syns; a CherryChocMoo Yoomoo frozen yogurt (yum) - 7.5 syns. 9.5 in total.