Chloe's Crusade to Slim

[CloBow]

G'Mornin happy campers!

How is everyone doing this fine Wednesday? I'm a happy bunny this morning as managed to bag another successful WI last night (despite 3 meals out at the weekend) - which I'm very chuffed about! I lost 2lbs which has taken my total to 2stone and 9 pounds off! Woop! :bliss:

I'm now not weighing in for two weeks as on Sunday I am jetting off to sunny Spain! :airplane: My boyfriend and I are holidaying for a week with two friends (another couple) which is very exciting, I'm so looking forward to it, especially as I've never been to Spain. I'm planning on being reasonably good, but enjoying myself at the same time. I'm menatlly prepared for a small gain (hopefully no more than 3lbs for the week) - but will try and make sensible decisions where I can to minimise the risk! Meals should be OK as I genuinely enjoy the healthier options such as grilled fish, steaks etc., so I'm not too worried about eating out. What I AM worried about is the alcohol! There will be plenty of wine and gin flowing so I shall have to be as good as I can and save my syn points! Wish me luck! arty0036::7834:

I'm also going to try and be super good this week in preparation for a not-so-good week next week!

Looking good hun, love the dress. Also - salted grapes.... I'm intrigued to try these, hmm, bet they're strange but lovely, but like beef and icecream? hehe xx

They were very strange (like the beef and ice-cream) - but also delicious!

Had a lovely weekend tho probably not good syn wise. But did play badminton for 2 hours so that might have helped. I'm feeling abit rubbish today, think its a chest infection so I've made a big batch of chicken noodle soup
it ended up taking 5 hours to get to Wales so we were only at the party for about 2 hours but we danced the whole time no body remembered a camera so the photos from my phone and my mum chopped my boyfriends head off the photo ha. Your photos look lovely. Yummy food and lovely dress
Hope you're ok lovely x

Glad you had a great weekend lovely! You're allowed a few extra treats as you've been doing so well - fingers crossed it hasn't done any damage! Sorry to hear you've not been well - trying to be good when all you want to do is eat comfort food must be awful! Hope you feel better soon pretty xx

I can;t see your photo for some reason - but I'm sure you looked amazing - glad to hear you got out your dancing shoes too!!

Speak soon all,

Cxx

 

[leelea]

oh well done on the WI again this week lovely. you're just shedding those pounds
I just made the paella from the comfort food booklet from the magazine. Was good but a bit expensive. The saffron cost £3.20 eeeek but still nice.
I can't figure out how to post a photo I'm probably being a bit dim. will try and figure it out so I can post some for you to see
x

 

[leelea]

Ah hah I did it better late than never x

 

[CloBow]

Hola everyone!

It feels like I haven't been on MM in forever - how time does fly when you are away!

So as you may have guessed I am now back from sunny Spain (landed on Sunday so I'm 3 days late getting on here) and we had a fab time. We crammed a lot into a week, but the weather was hot, the company great fun and we were never to far from a drinking spot so all in all - ideal!

However. My 'being reasonably good' attitude went out the window the minute we landed in Spain and I tucked into some Walkers crisps Essentially, I ate and drank appallingly for a whole 7 days. You name it, I had it. Chocolate for breakfast, pick n mix for brunch, boozy lunches, ice-creams, cakes - it all went in my mouth! Having said that, I enjoyed every minute of it and so didn't regret it when I got home....until WI last night that was...

I was going on the basis that as I was naughty in Greece for two weeks and put on 4lbs, a week in Spain should be 2-3lbs max. Oh no. I have managed to put on a whopping 4.5lbs!! In a week!! I couldn't believe it, all that hard work unravelled!

I did leave group feeling a little disheartened as it was a lot more than I had imagined, but I woke up the next morning with a fresh attitude and good intentions of getting straight back on plan - hopefully I'll shift the majority of it this week if I'm a saint

I figure now there's no major obstacles in my way until Christmas, so if I can get my 3 stone sticky by then I'll be a happy bunny!

How has everyone else been doing this last week or so? I feel out of touch with everyone

LeeLea your pic looks fab - you look so beautiful m'lady! You also suit brunette as much as blonde! How have you been getting on?

Speak Soon,

C xx

 

[leelea]

Hey Hun, glad you had a good holiday
How have you done with weigh Ins since? I went out for my anniversary meal last week and ended up putting 2lbs on then just sort of fell off the wagon a little bit. Not happy with myself. Completely back on track now though. My boyfriends gone away for 3 weeks so I want to wow him when he gets back. Also started back at uni last week so I'm going to plan plan plan other wise it'll just be disastrous and I'll end up putting the weight back on :/
Well I hope you're ok lovely, speak soon xx

 

[CloBow]

And I'm Back...

Well Hello!

A very festive, snowy and belated ‘I’m back’ from me!
I’ve been very quiet for a little while (well actually, 3 months) and not been on MM for a whole host of reasons. I guess I’ve been really busy and the more that time went on the more I felt I couldn’t come back, but I’ve missed reading about everyone’s progress, catching up on advice and sharing my journey with people on the same road.

Despite not being on MM since September, I have still been keeping up with Slimming World and going to WI each Tuesday. When I last wrote to you I had just got back from holiday and had managed to gain a whopping 4.5lbs in a week and was back on the straight and narrow to lose it again. Well since then and 12 weigh ins later I have lost all my holiday weight and then some more to bring me to my current loss standing of 43lbs (3 stone 1 pound).

I’ve found my weight loss has definitely slowed over the last couple of months – I think it’s a combination of getting closer to target and the festive season kicking in, but I’m happy it’s still going the right way! I would have never have thought that all the way back in April I’d be going into Christmas 3 stone lighter than the year before and still actively going to group! Still, my plan for December is damage limitation rather than weight loss and I’ll get right back on the wagon 100% in the New Year.

We’ve had a really great couple of weeks at group lately which have been really useful, has anyone else had them? First of all we had a ‘virtual buffet’ where there were lists of food on plates on a table and we had to go an write down what we would put on our plates if it was a real situation. After that, Julia our group consultant went through the syn points in each item which we tallied up and compared to what we had ‘guesstimated’ our syns to be. Oh my gosh. I thought I had been reasonably good and come in at around 15 syns (not bad when there weren’t really any healthy options!) but in reality it came in at a whopping 38!! It was things like I thought Quality street were 1 syn each (actually 2 ½ each) that I had blown it on! Whilst a shock – this was a fab activity to help us understand how quickly Christmas can unravel months of hard work and has put me in a great frame of mind for Christmas.

The second (and most recent) WI was great too. Everyone who came bought in a SW friendly dish or drink and we had a mini-party in group! It was such a fab idea because we all got to share recipes and try things we wouldn’t normally. I’d never tried Falafel before (thinking it would be like eating cardboard) – but with a minty dip they were delicious – I’m definitely whipping some up over the festive season! I also devoured some spicy potatoes which were great because they tasted like Bombay potatoes (my favourite from the Indian takeaway) but without all the oil and no syns – so these will now be a staple on our home menu!

Anyhoos – enough random gibbering, I can’t wait to crack on and catch up with everyone else’s diaries and see how well you’ve been doing.

I’ve got my last WI before Christmas today (I’m going to brave the snow and ice) so fingers crossed for me (I had 2 of my work do’s this week so STS would be appreciated!) and I’ll let you know how I get on later.

Much Love,
C xx

 

[CAPRICORN]

"woohoo" There you are :wavey:
I wondered where you had gone -so nice to see you back and great to hear that you are still on track:happy036:
Fingers crossed for your weigh in..and I look forward to you getting back into your posting..
Keep safe n warm .... and hope you are having a nice festive build up :smiley522:

 

[CloBow]

Hellooooo and G’Mornin!

Wowzers – what a festive week it has been!:xmascheers: I hope everyone had an absolutely fabulous Christmas and managed to see lots of family and friends, after all – that’s what Christmas is about!

Christmas for us was really busy – I think when you’ve got two families to try and see over Christmas it can never be any other way.

Christmas Eve we spent at home, my sister and her boyfriend came over in the afternoon (I had a half day off work) and we watched Christmas telly with a nice bottle of bubbly (courtesy of an agency at work) and a selection of pate, olives and other nibbles.

Later that afternoon we went over to see my Grandparents and had our Christmas meal with them which was lovely. My Nan who has been T-total for 45 years (despite being a publican for that long) decided she was going to have a drink and got very tiddly on 4 sips of gin! It was absolutely hilarious, she was such a lovely giggly drunk and had totally sobered up by the time the main course came out – I wish I could do that!

Christmas morning me and my lovely exchanged pressies (I was a very spolit girly) and then headed off to his parents for Christmas breakfast. Steve’s Mum cooked up a feast and we guzzled it all down with bucks fizz! Then we got back in the car (I only had one Bucks Fizz fear not) and pootled over to my Mum’s where we spent the rest of the day with my family, eating and drinking, eating and drinking and oh, eating and drinking! It was great to catch up with everyone and by the time it came to go home we were totally pooped. :nightf:

Boxing day was a reverse of Christmas day so it was breakfast at my Mums with baskets of croissants, pancakes, freshly baked bread and endless pots of tea, then back to Steve’s family where 18 of us tucked into boozy beefy and mash – with all the trimmings! We had a fab night – especially when the karaoke was wheeled out and I was genuinely convinced I’d give Chris Martin a run for his money when I broke out Viva la Vida! :banana dancer:

Monday and Tuesday involved more family things, more meals, more drinking and generally more shenanigans. Steve’s mum made a turkey curry on Monday night which was amazing and a great way of using up leftovers.

Then it arrived...Tuesday weigh in...after a week of gorging myself on everything in sight I had to face the scales... I was expecting a 4lb-5lb gain (bearing in mind I hadn’t even tried to be good and had such delicacies as Ferrero Rocher for breakfast, gin for lunch and pizza/curry for tea). With all that in mind I still made myself go along and was pleasantly surprised with a 3.5lb gain. I felt a lot better for going, despite the gain, as I know what I have to loose this week and it helped me get more focused – I wonder if anyone ever looses anything over Christmas?!

Anyhoos – I’ve drawn a line under it and am throwing out all the naughty food left in the house after New Year and I’m back on the road to target! I will get there by the 1 year mark I’m determined!

I’m really looking forward to New Years Eve as we’ve got friends coming over and I’m planning on a Slimming World buffet for everyone, which means I get the fun of cooking it all (Igenuinely love cooking!) If anyone has any ideas on easy SW picky food please share, I’ll try and get piccys too!

Right, I’ll stop gas-bagging now and leave you be.

If I don’t speak to you before, have a FANTASTIC new year everyone and here’s to all of us in 2011!

C xx

 

[Louise24]

Aww, sounds like a great Christmas hun, hope you have a good NY eve.. I've got the girls coming round for cocktails and pizza, which is great as I don't really like pizza, yippee (just need to avoid kebab shop on way home) x

 

[leelea]

Hello lovely, nice to see you back.
Happy new year!
Unfortunately I fell off the wagon a couple of months a go and have managed to gain 11lbs. Totally disgusted with myself but I'm joining a new group tonight so I'm starting completely afresh. I can't wait to get stuck back into it.
Well done for staying on track, you're such an inspiration.
Talk soon x

 

[CloBow]

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had fabulous new years and have hit the ground running in 2011! Why is it that we feel a new resolve to start afresh in the new year and not at any other time? I always start the year with such good intentions, it will be interesting to see if I can keep them!

I had a really great bank holiday weekend – I was very grateful for the extra day on the Monday that’s for sure. Our original plans for NYE were to have a quite, civilised evening with a couple of friends at ours with a few drinks, some dinner and cava for midnight. Well, to put it bluntly it was a massacre! We ended up with my best friend and her girlfriend joining at the last minute as well as my boyfriends best friend, in addition to our two friends already planned. Our nice quiet evening turned into 6 bottles of wine, 14 bottles of beer, one bottle of Crème de Menthe, one bottle of Pimms, one bottle of Chocolate Liqueur, one bottle of Malibu, one bottle of Gin, one bottle of Southern Comfort and a bottle of champagne, so needless to say we were all a tad delicate the next morning! No one had planned to stay but three people did as getting home wasn’t an option at 3am and when I came downstairs the next morning the cottage looked like a set for Skins, but it was a fabulous night! Needless to say my syn counting had gone out the window that evening. On the plus side, I was so delicate on New Years Day all I had was water and a bit of pitta bread so hopefully it evened itself out!

Has anyone got any new years resolutions? I’ve been thinking about mine and I think where I’ve failed before is that I’ve always set too many, or set unrealistic ones so it’s never happened. Last year is the first year that I ever set a resolution that I kept, which was to read one book a month (although hefty novels stretched to two!). This year I’ve set myself two. The first one is to continue my reading – I’d forgotten how much I love delving into books and I’d really missed it! The second is to try and achieve my target weight with Slimming World by the end of April 2011, which will be one year since my first session. That gives me 16 weeks to lose 23lbs – a fairly big feat but totally achievable if I’m dedicated! If it takes me a little longer though that’s fine, but if I’m almost there I’ll be happy. I always think it’s important to remember how far you’ve come as well as how far you have left to go because often there is more loss behind you than to come.

This week was the first WI of 2001 and wowzers were there a lot of new recruits there! Funny how the week between Christmas and New Year there was only 5 of us but this week there were almost 50! It was a really good session though, a great buzz in the room and everyone fired up after what was essentially a naughty festive season all round (it was good to know I wasn’t alone!). One of my friends there shared her story of wearing a dress this Christmas for the first time in 15 years which was really inspiring. She bought in some before and ‘in progress’ photos, as well as one of her in her party frock and she was beautiful, the difference was staggering! It made me think maybe I should do the same so I thought I would share them with you lovely lot too (despite them making me cringe massively) as they made me realise how much Slimming World has changed me. The first is me before joining SW and the other two were my Christmas party and Christmas morning (in my festive jumper):

I also did some measurements this week after being recommended to by my consultant I was absolutely staggered to find I’ve lost almost 15 inches from my waistline! No wonder my belts don’t fit anymore! Anyone who is feeling a bit stagnant about their journey should definitely do this exercise as it makes you feel fantastic to see how far you’ve come. Do it! I checked my BMI too which has gone down from 32.8 when I started to 25.4 – 24 being classified as ‘healthy’ for my height so that’s spurred me on too!

There isn’t much in store this week other than a trip to the grandparents on Saturday so fingers crossed for another good WI on Tuesday. I’ll try and get on here a bit more this week if I can – damn hectic work/social life is keeping me from my sofa time!

Hello lovely, nice to see you back.
Happy new year!
Unfortunately I fell off the wagon a couple of months a go and have managed to gain 11lbs. Totally disgusted with myself but I'm joining a new group tonight so I'm starting completely afresh. I can't wait to get stuck back into it.
Well done for staying on track, you're such an inspiration.
Talk soon x

Hey lovely! So glad you are back too - it wouldn't have been the same here without you to natter with! Don't feel angry with yourself, instead try and feel positive that you KNOW you can do it because you already have! How has this week gone? I want all the goss

Aww, sounds like a great Christmas hun, hope you have a good NY eve.. I've got the girls coming round for cocktails and pizza, which is great as I don't really like pizza, yippee (just need to avoid kebab shop on way home) x

Thanks Louise! Hopefully you avoided the kebab shop and weren't as useless on New Years Day as I was!

Righto everyone, now that I've written a short chapter I had best leave your screens and get some sleep!

Take Care,

C xxx

 

[leelea]

Your photos are amazing. You've come so far.
Well I went to barcelona this week and although I started sw last week I sort of got caught up in the excitement of being away and having a few naughty treats. But yesterday at WI I'd lost 3.albs which I'm very pleased with. My boyfriend, in all his wisdom bought me a bungee jump for Christmas so my plan is to lose a stone before I do that. Starting again has given me new enthusiasm and I'm not getting caught up in how much I've got to lose because I've got less to lose now than the first time. If that makes sense? I feel a little closer to my goal.
Hope you have a good week lovely, speak soon
xx

 

[CloBow]

Good Eeevening!

Hope everyone is having good weeks and the January blues are slowly starting to subside now!

Thought I'd swing by and give you all a little update on how things are panning out for me this week. I was on a high after loosing 2.5lbs last week at weigh in that it carried me through the week and I cooked up several yummy Slimming World dishes. My favourite was the chicken curry which tastes so good it's hard to believe it's syn free! Here's the recipe (which is also on the SW website if anyone wants it):

Serves: 4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes
Syns per serving:
EE: FREE Red: FREE Green: FREE*
(*Add 6 Syns if not using chicken as a Healthy Extra)

INGREDIENTS:
2 large onions, sliced
568ml/1pt chicken stock
2 tsp turmeric
3 cardamom pods
1 x 2.5cm/1in piece cinnamon stick
4 black peppercorns
4 cloves
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tbsp peeled and grated root ginger
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp mild chilli powder
3 garlic cloves, crushed
4 x 113g/4oz skinless and boneless chicken breasts, sliced
283g/10oz fat free natural yogurt, bought to room temperature
salt
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves, to garnish

METHOD:
1. Put the onion and 426ml/¾ pt of the chicken stock in a large, heavy-based saucepan. Cover the pan, bring to the boil and then boil for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat, uncover the pan and cook gently for 20 minutes, until the onion is tender, golden and syrupy.

2. Add all the spices and garlic to the pan, and cook for 3-4 minutes. Then add the chicken and cook for a few minutes to coat in the spices, then stir in the remaining chicken stock.

3. Cover the pan and simmer very gently over a medium heat for 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked.

4. Transfer the curry to a large serving bowl. Add 4 tbsp of the cooking sauce to the yogurt and stir well. Gradually add the yogurt into the curry, stirring continuously.

5. Season to taste with salt, and serve immediately with boiled rice (Free on Extra Easy and Green or 2 Syns per 28g/1oz boiled on Original), and garnish with the chopped coriander.

It seems a lot of effort but it's really lovely!

My efforts paid off as yesterday I weighed in and managed to shake off another 2lbs which brings me down to 10st 7lbs :happy036: I was a very chuffed lady!

So I've been spurred on again this week - 4lbs to go till my 3.5stone shiny! I keep thinking I'm going to try and cram in some exercise but it's so dark, wet and miserable I don't think it will realistically happen! I'm terrible at the best of times motivating myself to get out and get fit so this appalling weather isn't helping.

I did have a bit of an annoying let down today as I wanted to try these new Belvita breakfast biscuits - they're the ones being advertised by Lisa Snowdon and Jonny Vaughn. I picked up a box from Asda as they were on offer - well BLEUGH. They come in packs of 4 biscuits and they taste like really cheap malted milks. Stupidly, I didn't look up the syn value until after I'd eaten the pack (I seem to have this inability to not eat biscuits even if they aren't that good) and then the shocker came....3 syns...PER BISCUIT!! I'd just blown 12 syns on a 'healthy breakfast alternative' and they didn't even taste nice! I'd have rather have had 2 glasses of wine! I should know by now, even if it says healthy it doesn't mean it is and to always check the syns points before putting anything in my gob. Then again, I didn't know why I even thought biscuits could be healthy!

Anyhoos, onwards and upwards with this week - I've got nothing in the way so no excuses not to have a loss this week.

Your photos are amazing. You've come so far.
Well I went to barcelona this week and although I started sw last week I sort of got caught up in the excitement of being away and having a few naughty treats. But yesterday at WI I'd lost 3.albs which I'm very pleased with. My boyfriend, in all his wisdom bought me a bungee jump for Christmas so my plan is to lose a stone before I do that. Starting again has given me new enthusiasm and I'm not getting caught up in how much I've got to lose because I've got less to lose now than the first time. If that makes sense? I feel a little closer to my goal.
Hope you have a good week lovely, speak soon
xx

I'm really pleased you had a loss this week sweetness, awesome job! You've definitely got the right mental attitude, don't think about before, just think about now and you'll do ace. Although, OMG a bungee?! Are you terrified?! I would be! It gives you a great target to go for though

Rightyho I'll sign off but check in soon with the next update,

Take Care

C xxxxx