Dave's diary - back on plan, back on Minimins

[Laddiesboy]

Apparently the smoothie thing is a number of factors - the main one I remember being the amount of fruit you would have (if just eating some fruit you might have one banana or a few strawberries or something, whereas in a smoothie you have lots of fruit and milk / yoghurt / whatever too - lots of calories in one hit). Also, because they have been smoothied, you are expending no energy to chew them, and also they will be digested a lot easier and quicker too. I'm sure there was more to it as well, but I don't remember them - it certainly made sense when I was reading it though haha.

In real terms, it means a smoothie is gonna cost me some syns, and considering that I am no fan of smoothies (would have been ok if free of syns!!) it ultimately means they are off my menu.

 

[Laddiesboy]

My Day three has just begun

After a good night sleep my legs don't ache like a thought they would

Brekky was 2 Weetabix (HEb), skimmed milk (HEa) and Splenda (free). Actually reached for the sugar by accident and had to get it back off my Weetabix before adding the Splenda lol - guess I was a little tired! Will hide the sugar away as it will only get used when we have guests over now. I think this will become my regular breakfast, or at least until I get bored with it haha.

I am back to work today, first day since starting on SW. Gonna take a lunchbox of Bachelors savoury rice (free) and a couple of hard boiled eggs (free). Need to weigh up what is good on SW against what is practical not only to carry around but also to eat while at work and the lunch I am taking today seems to tick all the boxes.

Dinner tonight is going to be Spaghetti bolognese, yum!! Spaghetti / mushrooms / onions are free, 85g extra lean minced beef is my HEb and I am going to make up the mince another 165g for 12 syns - I LOVE spag bol, and with the syns I can really treat myself yet stay within my daily limit My wife and I have toyed with making a sauce from scratch (a SW friendly one) and also with swapping the extra lean mince for quorn, but for tonight it is extra lean mince and dolmio (5 syns).

For snacks today I can choose from 2 x Dairylea original triangles (HEa), Muller light yoghurt (free), banana/apple/grapes (free).

So much food, and so little time to eat it!

 

[Aaleigha]

good luck with your day
I too am all planned
I do a spagbol from scratch - I will find you out the recipe - and its ALL free on green so its great - will be making a slow cooker full next week

real shame about the wii fit - but as you are so close to the weight - I think I would be very tempted to try it at least a couple of times a week
good luck with work and eating - hope its no ones birthday - cant have them bring in cakes can we

 

[Laddiesboy]

Aaleigha, I would LOVE to hear your free green spag bol recipe

No worries about people bringing cakes in, I am a train driver and spend all day on my own! The only temptation for me has been that in every station there are any number of pasty/takeaway places but I get around those by NEVER taking money to work haha

As for the Wii fit yes indeedy I will be on it every night, and hopefully it will just give in and let me use it sooner rather than later - if not then it's jogging for the foreseeable future lol

 

[Aaleigha]

OK here is the spag bol recipe
its never the same twice as I always forget something add it in at the end
but my daughter comes home to steal some when she knows I have made it

I have a LARGE slow cooker
2 bags quorn mince - stab bag and microwave to defrost start to warm
3 tins of chopped tomatoes ( the expensive ones have better juice than the cheaper ones)
mushrooms chopped finely (I often use at least half of a huge box)
three onions chopped
garlic to taste (I tend to use a lot)
2 or maybe 3 oxos herbs (italian mix is good if not mixed herbs will do) salt and pepper to taste
handfull of lentils (red ones they will disappear but thicken the sauce)
splenda

turn on slow cooker if you have one and add tinned toms half a pint of boiling water and the oxos and herbs and a handful of lentils

in a frying pan (use frylight) fry off the onions till starting to brown (do it slowly) add garlic and fry for a couple of mins - tip into slow cooker
then dry fry the mushrooms
add to slow cooker with the quorn mince
add further water until it just covers the contents
allow to cook all day - on arriving home for dinner check seasoning and add a teaspoon of splenda it takes the sourness from the tomatoes

if anything was not added (apart from seasoning and splenda add it before leaving home for work)

as you can tell this is a very adhoc recipe it sort of evolves over time

I now add small tomatoes that I have cut in half and sprayed with frylight to 'dry' like sundried tomatoes but I dry them in a coolish oven

if you prefer bovril to oxos use them - I use veggie oxo cubes as I am a vegetarian

now this is better if it is cooked for a second day
this will make 12 decent sized portions

if you dont have a slow cooker chuck it all in a large casserole and slow cook in the oven if you can if not cook and then recook/heat the next day

on green days have with as much spaghetti as you like
healthy extra some cheese if you want to

also makes a great lasagne - you just need to make a low syn white sauce for it

 

[AmandaC]

Hi,
Nice to meet you Dave
I'm glad I stumbled on your diary.... Or am I??? lol

I've been having a strawberry, banana and mullerlight smoothie for breakfast every day for the past 3 or 4 weeks :sigh:

No wonder I'm not losing weight!!!

Hope you've had a great day, and thank you for the pearl of wisdom, I'll be back to see how you're getting on! :flirt2:

Take care
Amanda

 

[Laddiesboy]

Aaleigha, thanks for the spag bol recipe I'm gonna give it a shot and I'll let you know how tasty I think it is

Amanda, I was lucky to find out after having only one, but the good thing is you know now. If you have otherwise been 100% then tbh I can't see it doing any damage but you know now for the future - and of course if you are a big fan of smoothies there's nothing to say you can't syn them or come up with one lower in syns - the nutritional world is your oyster on SW

Day 3 all but done now, survived my first day on SW at work. In fact it was great tucking into my rice and eggs while others around me had dull sarnies lol.

My friend has joined SW this evening at her local class, and I am very proud of her for it. I know she reads this forum and I look forward to her posting here soon, she has a lot to offer.

Tomorrow is my Day 4, very important day for me as it is my final assessment which if I pass I become a fully qualified High Speed train driver Been revising tonight haha, feeling pretty relaxed about it.

Tomorrow's brekky and lunch will be the same as today (if it ain't broke, don't fix it!) and dinner will be cheese omelette with beans and a corn on the cob - but not until after my 1st weigh in @ 18.30

I'm finding the SW diet very easy, very fulfilling and just hope that it works haha

I will find out tomorrow I guess

 

[tfmd]

Good luck for your weigh in...I stayed the same this week, which I am ok with really!!
Had lovely scotch broth for lunch today..Green day toally free...
Not sure if that made the STS as it was full of [earl barley and very very filling.
Oh well, we'll see what next weeks weigh in brings..

Good luck in your test too

Hil

 

[susierabbit]

hiya

hi dave big up you for getting up and doing this. its so hard being addicted to food for years iv eaten when im happy sad lonley or board and since i throw my ex out and im stuck in with 4 young kids its got worse iv done slimming world before but im trying so hard to make this the last time hopefuly by next year we will all be thiner and taking our kids to the pool:family2:

 

[susierabbit]

if you love spag bol why not have it on extra easy then you can have both mince and pasta x

 

[Laddiesboy]

Hi tfmd, I've never had a scotch broth before but they always look so good on the pictures! I like what you say about being ok with staying the same at a weigh in I think some people worry too quickly if they stay the same, or even lose or put on 1/2 or 1lb, and it doesn't help to do that imo. A persons weight will fluctuate daily anyway by 1 or 2lbs and there are so many other considerations too - it is the bigger picture that counts

Hi susierabbit I know what you mean about food addiction - although even now I still don't understand WHAT led me to actually eat so much crap when I did!! I hadn't been hungry for years so it certainly wasn't that, I didn't particularly crave anything in particular. Felt like someone was taking over my body and doing it, while I was watching from above powerless and feeling guilty. Not a good place to be, but SW has helped me come out of it (actually, my wife and kids probably kicked me out of it but SW is helping me stay out!!). I really can't wait to have the self-confidence to go swimming with my boys, I feel so bad that I always say no and they miss out. If I had to write a list of reasons why I wanted to lose my weight that would be number one on it. Best of luck with your journey

I have just gotten off the Wii fit, didn't try to weigh myself on it first tonight, just went straight for the jog. Did half hour again, and tonight in Wii metres I went 6987m - compared to last night's 6558m. Felt much easier tonight, despite my legs having been aching all day haha. May give it a miss tomorrow as I plan to go out for a bike ride after work and don't wanna do too much too quickly.

I am soooooooooo looking forward to my 1st weigh in tomorrow!!! I will have only done 4 days on SW by then so I am not expecting any miracles, but I hope to have lost something. I am gonna pick up a magazine while I am there and order a couple of books too. Oh, and I am gonna win the raffle - must have beginner's luck surely? lol

All the best and good luck to everyone who is on SW avenue heading towards healthyhappylifetown

 

[MarieN]

Hi, my name's Marie and I'm a good friend of Dave's. I'll probably ease myself into posting as I become a bit more comfortable with it Thanks Dave for your support.

I lost nearly 3 stone when I started ww in September last year. Sadly I have put nearly all of it back on. But positive thinking, and some encouragement from my friends and I am glad to say I have enrolled at Slimming World this evening and tomorrow is the start of my new and hopefully last campaign to lose weight and start liking myself again

 

[Laddiesboy]

Marie!!

So glad you posted :talk017:

You had enough time to check out all the books yet that you were given? This is gonna be sooooooo easy with me you and Al all doing it and helping each other out, and with all the great people on here too. How can we fail eh? lol

:grouphugg:

 

[MarieN]

Haha...it's been fun watching your moods change from highly excitable to mellow

Everyone seems very supportive and I hope to be in a position soon to be supportive in return and offer advice. I've had a good read of the books, still confused as to whether to start on extra easy or just go with green and/or red days. Grateful for any advice out there.

 

[Laddiesboy]

Ooooooooooooooh, advice eh?

Well my consultant briefly mentioned ExtraEasy days to me, but said it probably best to learn, understand and get used to green and red days first.

Although of course I will be on greens every day lol

 

[Laddiesboy]

Very exciting day for me, albeit very off topic haha. I finished my assessments and am now the proud owner of a High Speed train driver's licence

When I got home from work I went out for a bike ride with a friend, and we covered 5.32 miles in a little over half an hour - bloomin hilly!! lol My calves feel achy but I hope after a long hot soak they might free up a little ready for Wii fit tonight

Back to the diet! Had 2 x Weetabix (HEb) / 350ml skimmed milk (HEa) / Splenda for brekky, and Bachelors Savoury rice (free) and 2 x boiled eggs (free) for lunch. Fairly standard,but very tasty and filling all the same.

Dinner is going to be cheese omelette (eggs (free), 42g reduced fat cheddar (HEb) and maybe 42g reduced fat cheese (HEa) if required, frylight (free)), with baked beans and corn on the cob.

Will be a late dinner tonight as I have my first weigh in at 18.30 and want to get it done before I eat.

Today I haven't naturally used any syns so I am gonna have to add something else in later but I haven't decided what yet.

 

[Aaleigha]

Good luck with weigh in and well done on that licence
and on the bike ride
my 2 mins at intervals during the day is working - still hurts the knee joints though

I thought you were going to add fruit to breakfast

as for using the syns I am having problems with that too - cant fit in all the syns and not hungry - not sure what to do about this

Marie nice to meet you

 

[Laddiesboy]

Aaleigha, have you tried wearing knee supports? you can get hold of them quite easily and they are quite cheap too.

I don't remember saying about fruit for breakfast, except for when I had my little whoopsie with smoothies lol, perhaps I should read my own posts I quite like the idea of sliced banana on Weetabix but I'm really not much of a breakfast eater anyway - only having one as SW requires me to. Think the Weetabix is enough to kickstart my day and I would enjoy my banana later on - I quite like one after doing the Wii fit actually, bit of a reward lol

As for syns, most days I have used some with my dinner (mayo with jacket potato, etc) but today is just one of those days where all my food has been free and HEa/HEb. I bought some Alpen bars to try so may give them a go later this evening. A day like today where I haven't used any syns would seem the perfect opportunity to have a treat for being so good but tbh I have enjoyed this diet so much I have eaten everything I wanted anyway lol

 

[tfmd]

Dave - Well done on passing your licence..
Good luck with weigh in too....
I am off this week and am not being very good...Went out for lunch today and had burger and chips.,...Not a very good start to my week. Got to get on the cross trainer later and hopefully work it off!! lol
Counted it all as syns though, I am doing a food diary this week...

Marie
Welcome to the site, we are all very friendly and all in the same boat with good days and bad days...Hope you lose the weight you want to..

Extra easy - it's best to get your head round the Green and Orginal plans first....I do like the EE days though...I like to have a mixture of all 3 during the week..
Maybe I should just stick to EE the whole week and see what happens at weigh in....I might try that with my menu next week..

Good luck both

Hil

 

[Ossireo]

Good luck with your weigh in and congratulations on your new licence! Your diary is so energetic and positive to read, such an inspiration and I will be following you for sure xx