Battling being Big in Belgium

dm0191

dm0191

Full Member
Hi I'm Deborah
This is about the 100th time I've started a diet and never got to goal other than once doing slimming world. Difference is that this time I'm trying to do it in Belgium, the land of waffles, pastry, excessive cava consumption and frites with mayo!
Living over here there is no group, online membership is ok but I find the support here better so re-starting the log in. Also living here makes it difficult to stick to the diet 100% with a distinct lack of fat free yoghurts, cereal bars etc, and my other half likes the Hello Fresh boxes so I've agreed to keep to that to begin with.
My inspiration will be that my other half and I want to start a family, we are recently engaged and I would like to feel confident wedding dress shopping and we are having a competition to see who can get the weight off first. The person that loses the least every week has to clean the bathroom! Eugh! the worse job! And I'm secretly very competitive.
I'll be trying to follow the slimming world principles even if it's not an exact science, and a food diary here helped the last time, hints, tips and even harsh judgment all welcome :)
My profile picture is me at goal weight (also when I met my other half) so I'm hoping it will inspire me every time I see it.
Thanks for stopping by. Hoping Slimming World at Home/Abroad is still achievable.
D
 
Monday 4 January 2016 (so far)

2 x Mini Fromage Frais for breakfast - need to look harder for fat free versions
large handful of red grapes
Carrot and Parsnip soup with turmeric for lunch
2 x clementine's.

Planning to go to a pilates class tonight after work, but worried about dinner my other half likes the Hello Fresh boxes where they deliver the ingredients that you need for three meals a week to the door along with instructions. At first glance they don't look unhealthy but I suspect they are full of hidden syns. I agreed to stick with it for the moment so trying to be free through the day so that the syns are saved for evening meal.

Tonight it will either be a chicken dish (which I think comes with a sauce but I can always have a small or no portion of that) with potatoes and butter nut squash or falafels in some sort of wrap (I guess I leave out the wrap)

I have went to the effort of buying extra vegetables so that I can make sure that I have 1/3 of my plate as veg at least.

Still it's week 1 so I need to be patient with myself and with him. He has agreed that if I don't lose anything after a few weeks with the HF boxes then we will change, and it is very convenient.

D
 
good luck :)
love the challenge youve set with ur OH haha
deffo would not like to be cleaning the bathroom!

congrats on the engagement also!
 
Thanks guys! I think the bathroom challenge will keep me focused in itself! There is talk of another forefeit for if you put on weight, possibly washing the floors (our whole downstairs is tiled). I'm resisting for the moment!

Just had dinner and this is where the difficulty comes in... No idea what syns are in it so saying the full whack and using my b box for one of the wraps (which might be cheating).

Hello fresh provided wholewheat lebenese flat breads with falafels and Turkish yoghurt, served it with salad and red onions. I added mange tout and baby corn to make sure I had superfree on the plate.

No idea what to syn for it but it was very filling and think I'm probably done for the day now, maybe a cuppa after Pilates (which I'm dreading)!
 
dm0191 said:
Thanks guys! I think the bathroom challenge will keep me focused in itself! There is talk of another forefeit for if you put on weight, possibly washing the floors (our whole downstairs is tiled). I'm resisting for the moment!

Just had dinner and this is where the difficulty comes in... No idea what syns are in it so saying the full whack and using my b box for one of the wraps (which might be cheating).

Hello fresh provided wholewheat lebenese flat breads with falafels and Turkish yoghurt, served it with salad and red onions. I added mange tout and baby corn to make sure I had superfree on the plate.

No idea what to syn for it but it was very filling and think I'm probably done for the day now, maybe a cuppa after Pilates (which I'm dreading)!
Click to expand...

good luck at pilates
im sure u will be fine :)
 
Hi Deborah
Here to sub & cheer you on :)
Im worried youre at a disadvantage to your OH! Men seem to lose a bit faster than women, but I'm rooting for you lol. Though I'm a weird one that finds scrubbing the bathroom quite satisfying!
The Hello Fresh boxes sound nice, and I'm all for a healthy extra tweak. Maybe see if it affects your losses and act accordingly!
It must be so hard trying to stay to plan over there. I put on about 5 lb in three days in Bruges lol x
 
Hi RosiePops,

The more cheerleaders the better so welcome!

I share your concern about the way men lose weight, but have to say i'm not that concerned for this week, he is going through rice cakes like there is no tomorrow :) if he does always win I might switch it to the ironing which I have to do anyway!

We spoke last night about trying to find non-food related rewards for us when we reach mini targets - like 7lbs, 10%, a stone etc but it's so difficult to find ones that don't involve going out for dinner or something! Especially for a man - I would quite happily treat myself to a massage or something but he wasn't so keen. Any ideas would be welcome!

It is hard to stay to plan here, I think I'll find it easier if I start now as I am pretty much in hibernation so no lovely waffle smell!

I see we also share a target :) weddings for motivation, should help to keep us focused! Good luck on your journey - just popping by your diary now
 
Food Diary: Tuesday 5th January

Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs & small bit of butter (1 syn)
Lunch: Prawn Salad with sesame seeds (6 syns - at a restaurant and wasn't a very big portion so just guessing)
Snack: 10 cherry tomatoes

Planned dinner: Carrot and Parsnip soup (bit boring for dinner but it needs used up)
Planned snacks: apple, banana and clementine's, fromage frais (6)

Seems like I won't use my healthy extras today - I think if I don't use it at breakfast then it's a bit tricky to use it - unless can avocado be one? then I could use that and have it with a rice cake as a snack. And the salad I guess had a sesame seed oil on it so maybe I could use that as my B box if Avocado can't be used?

Normally by lunch time I would have had more food but the eggs seemed to really do the trick at filling me up. Still have the yoghurt and fruit that was supposed to be my morning sacks, probably now desert, must kick the OH out of bed early more often to make me them before work :D

Really intrigued to see how I do this week, finding it difficult to stay off the scales in the morning (does daily weighing really make a difference though?!), we agreed to make Friday our weigh in day (to allow for weekend :0bathtime: cleaning) so I guess I don't have that long to wait.

Also a little worried that I'm not eating enough (strange thought to have on a diet) - especially if I don't do the HE boxes...
 
Non food related treats are difficult! Me & OH are big foodies and it tends to be our go to treat. For rewards I try to go down your route- massage, manicure (sometimes at salon, more often at home with a new nail polish) new top/dress or an experience e.g cinema, zoo. We struggle financially sometimes as I'm a ft student so don't often do these things.
Re food quantity I think the old "eat when hungry, stop when full" is the best rule of thumb.
I don't think avocado is a hexb any more but willing to be corrected! I treat any tbsp oil as a hexb but as I said I'm all for a tweak ;-)
Daily weighing is much debated- it can spur you on or drag you down! Try wait til Fri this week and hopefully you'll have a nice surprise!
 
RosiePops said:
Non food related treats are difficult! Me & OH are big foodies and it tends to be our go to treat.
Click to expand...

We are the exact same! I guess that's why we are in the situation of both needing to diet! We have a huge eating out problem (which is why we have no savings for a wedding) so we have already agreed to stop the eating out/takeaways until we reach certain points so I suppose we will do food ones but I would have liked to created non-food ones too. New nail polish is a great example! I might save that one for me, and I'm looking forward to owning my first item of clothing that is too big - literally never happened before!
I think we will have a cheese explosion (I am a huge cheese fan and the HE A box just doesn't cut it) when we get to halfway and then dinner out somewhere really nice when we get to the goal - but it seems so far away that I don't think it's feasible for us to wait that long - maybe we'll make it the first order what you want meal out and until then we have to have salads or things in restaurants.
Thanks for the tips! Going to talk to him about 'experiences' we could do together that doesn't involve food and watch his face implode!
First challenge on tonight as we just found out he got a job he went for before Christmas - would normally head straight for a celebratory dinner, we might stretch to more than soup but we can't fall off the wagon so early!! I'm feeling determined :)
 
Ah well done to your chap on the new job! Could you have a look at the slimming world fakeaways for your celebratory meal? They're free/low syn versions of all kinds of takeaway food. The tikka masala is really good and burgers really decadent!
Forgot to say before, I've had my wedding! Got pretty much to target and stated near it throughout my hen parties and for the big day. It's the best to look back at the pics and be so happy with how I looked! So keep at it :)
 
Ah well done you on achieving your goal!

We don't have a date or plan or anything yet, I just want to be happy with my body by the time I get to wedding dress shopping!

As expected dinner didnt go to plan today... Ended up at a friends house, i resisted wine, cava and gin but the food was fish in a creamy sauce with potstoes, green beans, carrots and sprouts. Not entirely bad, but... I saw him cooking oil, butter, cream, he took great delight in telling me it was low fat cream!

A fakeaway is a really good idea though, I love the chicken tikka masala recipie, so he goes on Monday to sign the contract. Think I'll cook that then as a celebration!

I hope everyone else's evening has been good and as on plan as realistic!

Dxx
 
So after the fish in creamy sauce and knowing the day I have ahead today I couldn't resist weighing in this morning and to my surprise it looks like we may have some success - I think 1.5 lbs are off so far, although difficult for me to judge as our scales are in kilos and every conversion site gives a different amount when you convert to stones and pounds, but I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself, and now more comfortable to relax until Friday.

My day ahead is what I would call a healthy day but not necessarily a slimming world day, none of the foods are on the naughty list but...most of them have a lot of syns, but I have to use up what we have in the house as I absolutely hate wasted food and even on Sunday I was still in two minds as to whether to do slimming world or just try to eat healthy so I made some slightly strange food shop choices.

The plan for the day is:

Breakfast: Fromage frais (not 0% as that is difficult to find with a flavor over here and I don't like the natural)
Snack: Clemintines or grapes
Lunch: 3 rice cakes with avocado (see told you synirific) cherry tomatoes, half a red pepper and prawns
Snack: Apple and Banana
Dinner: still to be decided as I'm going to Pilates straight from work and won't get home until around 8:30/9ish so I may just want cereal or scrambled eggs or something

So not a lot of free food but I'm going to go with the hype about avocado's being healthy fats and so actually good for you :)

Hope everyone else has a lovely day

Dxx
 
So I had maltesers, not.the end of.the world at 9syns, but they only do giant bags here so I guessed a normal bag size and gave the left overs to a strict colleague with instructions that they need to last a week.

Also had a few grapes and a banana before Pilates (2 classes one week is impressive for me) and then scrambled egg, baked beans and a cuppa when I got home.

Not a brilliant day but not awful either.

OH has made red pepper soup for tomorrow lunch, already excited about that!
 
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