From here to inskinnity! My mission to lose 13.5 stone!

[Cheese Thief]

Flix - Glad it's not just me, it's such a buzz knowing this is actually working! Anyway, only 4 more sleeps to weigh in!

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Just got up had a shower and scoffed that crackery/crispbread (HEXB) and low fat cheese (HEXB) with tomato again. It makes a nice change from weetabix and banana for breakfast! I'm off out for a picnic at 1 today so getting started with my writing work in a minute. I've got 4 jobs today, in an ideal world I'd get them all done before dinner, but I know me, so I'm aiming for 2 this morning and 2 this evening. Normally I don't like writing in the evening as I get too distracted but Chris is on a 12-8 shift today instead of his usual 8-4 to cover for someone, so I'll have some peace and quiet - if I shut the kittens out of the bedroom!

Picnic today is going to be a salad from M&S, a bag of quavers (4.5 syns) and an apple I think. Bit nervous about seeing my friend and telling her about SW cos although she'll be supportive she's usually the one I eat a lot of rubbish with when we get together!

I'm sure today will be fairly synful as got a weight watchers ready meal for tea that I haven't syned yet (if its more than my remaining allowance I'll have an omelette instead), but as long as I go 15 syns or under I dont mind. My consultant told me at my weight that eating 15 syns a day isn't going to halt my progress, so today I think I'll be putting that to full use!

Well that's me off, have a good one guys, I'll pop in later and let you know how I got on at the picnic!

 

[VeggieBev]

Sounds like you have a very productive day planned. Good luck with the 4 writing jobs you have on today.

Your picnic sounds lovely. I'm sure your friend will be very supportive of your SW mission, you just have to convince her that you can still do lots together but that it won't necessarily involve eating lots of rubbish x

 

[emma_88]

Sounds a really nice day planned, hope the weather is nice.

Like Bev said, I'm sure your friend will understand and support your SW journey. Spending time together doesn't mean that you have to eat rubbish. Try making her a SW recipe and lure her to the dark side, haha.

I often find myself looking to WI also, only when I know I've had a good week other times I dread it, but then the outcome still isn't as bad as I think.

BTW, I don't have a diary as of yet because I know I won't update it as often as I should, but if I decide to start one, I'll let you know

 

[Cheese Thief]

Bev - Hope you have a good day too. Quite proud of myself as managed to get my jobs done for the day so now can relax. I tried clicking on the link to your diary btw but I don't have enough posts yet. You'll have to let me know how you get on each week here, when is your weigh in?

Emma - Yeah it should be lovely thanks, weather is cloudy but the sun keeps breaking through for a bit so it should be nice. Just looked at your weight loss so far, bet you cant wait to get that next pound off to have your 4 stone award!

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Feeling really drained at the minute, I'm putting it down to TOTM, can't wait 'till its over in a few days. I've felt like a bit of an invalid these last two weeks what with having cold and now period pains. Will be great to be back to 'normal' so I can feel more active and refreshed again.

Found out we're going out on Sunday with Chris's side of the family for a pub meal. With it being a Sunday I was thinking about having a carvery, but by the time I've syned the yorkshire puddings, gravy, roast potatoes and stuffing I'll probably be approaching 15 syns. Might be best to go for a steak and salad or something instead... I could even have the chips and syn them, it's got to be better than the carvery option! Having said that I know syns are a part of the plan so I might just see what I fancy on the day, I'm always super good on Mondays anyway as it's the day before WI!

I've also been looking at syns online for the best M&S salads (my lunch stop today). It looks like the 'Count on us' stuff isn't too bad. I know I like the Tomato and Basil Chicken Salad for 9 syns so I might go with that and then I can still fit in my weight watchers Tomato and Mozarella Pasta Bake for tea (4 1/2 syns)... though it'd be a bit of a pasta overload! Oh sod it, I'll just see what I feel like later.. I'm no good at this planning lark, I change my mind too much!

 

[VeggieBev]

Bev - Hope you have a good day too. Quite proud of myself as managed to get my jobs done for the day so now can relax. I tried clicking on the link to your diary btw but I don't have enough posts yet. You'll have to let me know how you get on each week here, when is your weigh in?

Yeah my diary is in the Silver Members section so you need to have over 500 posts to view. I did it because there were certain people (nosey 'friends'!) who I didn't want checking up on me...! My WI is usually a Tuesday but I sometimes go to a different class on a Monday instead. I'll keep you updated. For the moment I'm in a bit of a lull with the weight loss. I got my 2.5st award just before my birthday in July (which was my target at that point ). I had a 3lb gain after my birthday weekend (fully expected!) then a 4.5lb loss, a 2.5lb gain and a 0.5lb gain since. So I'm basically only 0.5lb down on where I was over a month ago!! I've been pretty good the past few weeks so don't really understand it but I'm sticking with it and I'm sure I'll get there. Not sure I'll manage my next half stone award by my birthday which was my aim but I'll certainly give it my best.

Hope your picnic is good x

 

[Cheese Thief]

Bev - Ah that's why I can't find you then! I guess when it gets to under a stone to your goal it will take longer, but you sound really focussed so I'm sure you'll do it, you might just have to fight a bit harder for every pound. Which is a pain, but will be sooo worth it when you reach goal, I can't even imagine how goo that will feel! Have you tried any body magic? Might help speed things on a bit.

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Had a lovely day in the park with my friend catching up, visited the parentals, picked Chris up from work at 8 and went food shopping to ASDA. I've only just eaten my tea, I was starvin'!!

Breakfast - Crackers, light cheese and tomato (HEXA, HEXB)
Apple
Lunch - M&S 'Count on Us' Tomato and Basil - 9 syns
Fruit salad - melon, pineapple, grapes
Tea - Weight watchers pasta bake - 4 1/2 syns with sprinkle of low fat cheese 1 1/2
Yoghurt
Grapes

Total syns - 15!!

Maxed out my syns today for the first time! Felt good though and I did a mile walk in the park too, so a bit more body magic there too. Btw, it's funny how i've started picking up the lingo, before SW it was just exercise! I feel like i'm slowly becoming indoctrinated into a cult or something!

 

[VeggieBev]

Morning! Glad you had a good day yesterday. How did your friend react when you told her about SW?

I've still got about 1st to lose to get to my final target which us to get to under 10st and be within a healthy BMI range. Just now I'm focusing on my mini target for my holidays.

I've already achieved Bronze and Silver Body Magic and I'm on week 3 of Gold now. I started the Couch to 5k programme a few weeks ago because I've always wanted to be a runner. That covers 3 Body Magic sessions then I go swimming once a week and do yoga once a week which makes it up to the 5 sessions you need for Gold Body Magic.

Anyway I'll stop rambling about myselfnow! Have you any nice plans for the rest of the weekend? x

 

[Cheese Thief]

Bev - With all that exercise it sounds like you're doing great. I'm currently re-doing week 1 of the bronze award, completed it initially but then had a week off due to illness. Bronze seems fairly manageable so far, 3 sessions a week is easing me into it quite nicely. When I first started I went like a bat out of hell and did too much so taking it nice and steady this time!

As for the weekend I'm going to be watching Kick Ass 2 later, mowing the lawn (when it's dry), going on a family meal Sunday and hopefully having a BBQ on Monday. Stupidly I also accepted a 1000 word article that needs to be completed over the weekend (I normally give myself the time off), but after the £450 car repair bill last week things are a bit tight this month, so every little helps. Do you have any plans this weekend?

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After a lovely long lie in today I've munched on a banana for breakfast and now here I am perusing my favourite forum and seeing how everyone is getting on. Me and Chris are making a low fat slimming world lasagne for lunch, I say lunch but it won't be done till 3 o'clock as we've just got started (we'll he's got started, I'm sat on my ass telling him what goes in next, haha)! In case anyone's interested, the link to the vid is How to cook: Slimming world style low fat lasagne - YouTube - The ingredients are spinach, mushrooms, onion, garlic, mince quorn, pasta sheets, chopped tomato, low fat yoghurt, low fat cottage cheese, low fat cheese (optional, but I'm having it!) and coriander. It looked lush in the vid so I'm hoping it tastes just as good. Also it's completely syn free, except for the cheese on top.

Decided that today will be my first green day- purely so I can have the cheese as both my HEXA's and don't need to syn them (clever thinking!). I'm still not 100% confident with the whole green day thing yet, but I know it means 2 x HEXA and HEXB and I'd just have to syn any meat I have, so as long as I steer clear of meat today for tea I'll be fine. Fancying a fairly low syn day after hitting my 15 yesterday, but as I haven't planned tea yet we'll just have to see... It's not just that I'm crap at planning meals, I always change my mind about what I fancy and when I'm out with Chris we're pretty spontaneous, an hour out could end up being a whole day. I just don't like being tied down to meal choices that might get wasted.

Woke up today feeling a bit lighter. I know that sounds weird, but while I haven't physically noticed any changes (apart from feeling better in myself) some mornings I do feel physically like I weigh less. So that's a bit of good news, lets hope it's not just me imagining things and it shows on the scales on Tuesday! I'm itching to get into the 22's, not sure if it'll happen this week as it'd mean another 4lb loss (and I don't weigh myself at home so I can't check!) but I'm crossing my fingers! If not this week it's definitely achievable the week after, will just be so good to see the back of the 23's for good!

 

[Cheese Thief]

I'm just back home from seeing Kick Ass 2 and I've got to say it's amazing! Complete gratuitous violence mind, but loads of fun and I really enjoyed it!

The SW lasagne I was talking about earlier turned out really nice, it honestly didn't taste like slimming food and even Chris enjoyed it. The layer of natural yoghurt which you put on top gives it a really tangy cheesy flavour and it's much nicer than some 'normal' lasagne that I've tried. We cut it an quarters so there's enough for dinner on Monday, not bad for 2 meals as when I costed it up it was around £8 for the ingredients.

We're going out for a meal tomorrow with Chris's family. I've had a look online at the menu and it looks like on a Sunday they do 'Award Winning Sunday Dinner', which doesn't exactly sound too healthy! I had a look at the other options and pretty much everything is pretty bad, I've posted a thread asking for some help with picking a less synful option as nothing strikes me as being healthy - take a look if you like - http://www.ashford-arms.co.uk/menus/a_la_carte_2009.pdf - any help muchly appreciated!

Food today has been pretty good though, here's what I've had:

Breakfast - Banana
Lunch - Slimming world style low fat lasagna - 2 x HEXA for cheese
Grapes
Benefit bar - HEXB
Tea - Big bowl of cereal - HEXB + 6 syns and 1.5 syns for a splash of milk
Raspberry, blueberry, strawberry, grapes and low fat yoghurt
Total - 7.5 syns

 

[VeggieBev]

Your lasagne sounds like a success. I haven't tried any since starting SW because I was convinced it would taste like diet food. That one isn't any good for me because I don't like Quorn but I might have a look at it and then adapt the recipe to suit. How did you find your first Green day? I only ever do Green days because I don't eat meat so the other plans don't really work for me. My consultant did say when I started that people only doing Green tend to lose a bit slower than others but it seems to have worked for me so I won't complain! Slower is better than not at all I say.

Not sure I'll be much help with your choice for tomorrow because I don't have a clue about meat dishes and the veggie ones all look creamy (but delicious!). I am quite happy these days to be a fussy customer though and ask for sides to be substituted - the other day I changed my side of garlic bread for a corn on the cob - or dressings and sauces to come separately so I can control how much goes on. They've never had a problem with any of my requests so don't be embarrassed to do that if it's going to make you feel better about whatever you order x

 

[Cheese Thief]

Bev - That lasagne really is worth a try if you can find a suitable quorn replacement, it honestly doesn't taste like diet food, which is always my main worry when cooking a slimming recipe. My first green day actually went pretty well, I really enjoyed the extra HEX's allowed on the plan. Considering I don't eat meat that much I might do it more often. It's obviously a bit of a worry if it does slow my losses down, but I figure at the moment with so much to lose the plan should still work well even with more green days. Compared to the rubbish I ate before I'm eating healthier than I ever have in my life, other diets included. For me it doesn't feel like a diet, just like I've ditched a unhealthy way of thinking about food and replaced it with a healthy one.

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Today at the meal we had 3 courses, but I made healthy choices where I could (every course except dessert) and although I've exceeded my syns for the day I don't feel bad. Only had 7.5 syns yesterday and tomorrow I'm planning on having under 5, which means I'm feeling pretty guilt free about the whole thing. The meal was booked for 2.30 so I had a light breakfast (grapes) anticipating we'd be eating then. Anyway by the time we actually found the place and sat down to eat the food didn't come 'till 5, so it was very much a lunch/dinner combo! I was absolutely starving, but boy did I enjoy the food!

For starter I picked the onion, pepper and chicken skewers with basil and low fat dressing. As it was low fat dressing the starter was completely free!! Main was grilled steak (all fat chopped off), grilled tomato, grilled portabello mushroom, salad with a small portion of chips. The chips turned out to be refillable but I stuck with the small portion I had, they tasted completely divine. Apparently the average portion of pub chips has 17 1/2 syns but this portion was much smaller than you'd normally get (probably why it was refillable) so I'm guestimating 10 syns. Then dessert.. well what can I say, there were no healthy options at all, so I just picked out what I really fancied, which was the black forest gateaux! I don't even want to think how many syns were in it, so I'm just going to guess at 20. So yeah, that's 30 syns for my meal out, but with my 15 for today and 7.5 I saved from yesterday that only means I need to recoup 7.5 from tomorrows allowance for it all to be kosher! And yea, I know I could just "flexisyn" it, but I only want to do that for very special occasions like I did with my birthday last week.

Feeling really positive about the SW plan at the moment, this week I've enjoyed a Chinese and had a 3 course pub meal within my weekly syn allowance! It's great to know if you're super good most of the time that you can enjoy an occasional treat and still lose (hopefully)! Can't believe it's Monday tomorrow, I'm loving this long Bank Holiday weekend as we've got a BBQ in the afternoon. It's all planned though (see I can plan sometimes!), I'm going to be having super healthy chicken, peppers, onions, tomato and courgette kebabs that I make myself. I do dip the chicken in BBQ sauce (which is what my 5 syns tomorrow are going on!) but apart from that it's completely free, with lots of super free, so I can enjoy them 'till I'm full without feeling like I'm missing out. For the most part burgers, ribs and things don't interest me at all anyway so I'm not going to be drooling over anything I cant have.

Anyway, as I overlaid this morning I STILL haven't finished my article that I needed to write about volunteering in Kenya! Grr! Deadline is midnight so I'm going to crack on with it now and then watch a movie with my Chris before bed. Yay for no work for him on Monday!

 

[VeggieBev]

Your meal today sounds lovely. Enjoy the barbecue tomorrow, sounds like a great plan with the food x

 

[Cheese Thief]

In a bit of a rush today as about to jump in the shower and watch a movie. BBQ was cancelled today due to weather (this mornin it looked rubbish) so had to alter my food plans:

Cereal and milk (HEXA and HEXB)
chicken, swede, mash, mushrooms and cooking sauce (6 syns)
2 x babybel cheeses (6syns)
strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, yoghurt

So not great, 12 syns when I planned on 5... but won't be having any more today!

 

[Cheese Thief]

Ooh and it's weigh day tomorrow, im crossing my fingers toes and everything! Will I get into the 22's? Will I lose at all after the meal on Sunday? I can't wait to find out tomorrow! I just hope it's onwards and downwards...

 

[hayley_jayne]

Just been reading your diary, well done on the great progress so far and good luck for tomorrow. have subscribed x

 

[Cheese Thief]

Weigh in went well, another 2.5 lb off this week, meaning in 3 weeks I've lost 9.5lbs! I didn't quite break into the 22's this week, but with only half a pound to lose I'm pretty confident my next weigh in will mean I'm saying farewell to the 23's at last!

Bought some of those hi fi bars today for the first time, the rocky road ones are so yummy. Had them for my breakfast while I was at group! Also picked up this month's magazine, it looks like there's some fab recipes to try out - shepherds pie, Mediterranean pasta and Mexican taco's look really yummy!

After group I went for my podiatry referral appointment, apparently my feet are in really good condition, I've just got to stop wearing ballet shoes as I'm getting pain and swelling in my big toe joint. It should stop if I change my footwear, so that's as good an excuse as any to do some guilt free shoe shopping!

Didn't manage my first week of Bronze award body magic last week, I was one session off! Really going to focus on that this week, I've clearly got the food side of things sussed, now I just need to get more active. After tea I'm going for a walk round the park with Chris. It's not far, only 1 3/4 miles but it's a really nice evening walk. We'll just have to avoid the very tempting pub at the side of the park!

I'll post my food diary later, now I've got 3 articles to get done this afternoon so I'd better get cracking. Hope everyone is having a lovely day! Tuesdays are my new favourite day of the week!

 

[VeggieBev]

Congratulations, that's another fantastic loss! Pity you didn't get down to the 22s but, the way you are going, you'll defnitely get there next week.

I didn't know the new mag was due out, I'll definitely pick one up at WI tonight and try and find some inspiration. I'm a bit of a rubbish cook but I do like to try a new recipe at least once a week and very occassionally they do work out for me

I love the chocolate/fudge HiFi bars, I could eat the whole packet given the chance (hence the reason I had to do SW in the first place I suppose!!)

Enjoy your walk tonight and good luck for getting the Bronze Body Magic x

 

[Belletabbycat]

Here to sub

 

[Cheese Thief]

Bev - how did your WI tonight go? I've been crossing my fingers for you!

Annoying end to the day as about 30 minutes before we were due to go on the walk it started raining. I would have gone swimming but the session had already started and by the time I'd got their I'd have only be able to go for 20 minutes! Grrr! Anyway, tomorrow is a new day and I'm determined to get myself moving, even if it means dancing round the living room for 15 minutes to some cheesy tunes!

Still feeling happy from weigh in this morning, losing weight puts me in a great mood for the day and group always inspires and motivates me to stay on plan! The 4th week is normally where in the past (on other diets) I've got complacent and gone off the rails, so I'm being extra mindful this week of everything that goes in my mouth! I've briefed Chris to watch me this week to check I don't sabotage myself. Of course I don't feel in any danger of doing this, I guess I've just failed so many times that I know exactly what's going to wrong before it happens!

Week 4, day 1 - GREEN

2 x Hi Fi bars (HEXB)
Salad - tomato, cucumber, beetroot, sweetcorn, egg, tuna pasta ( 3 syns for bit of tuna)
2 x mini babybel (HEXA)
Stir fry with beef (2.5 syns - only had half a plate as it was horrible!)
cereal and milk (HEXA and HEXB)
raspberries and grapes

Total syns - 5.5 syns

 

[Cheese Thief]

I've had a bit of a brainwave regarding body magic. I know I need to get fit and active but it seems difficult when I'm still losing weight without doing anything. So I've been thinking about what I can do to motivate myself, and looking online I've seen some interesting ideas.

I'm thinking some kind of fitness challenge, nothing too daunting like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro just yet, just something I'd need to work towards and hopefully succeed at. The race for life would probably by the easiest thing, but at my current weight I'm not keen on running, it would be too high impact on my joints. Of course it's something I'd love to do when I'm closer to target, into the 20's maybe, but at 23 stone its just not feasible right now. And I know I could walk it, but anyone can do a 5km walk, even me so there'd be no challenge.

Anyway, I've been reading about the Great North Swim, it's an open water swimming event on Lake Windermere. It's not until next June so I'd have over 9 months to prepare and there are different distances you can do - 1/2 a mile, 1 mile, 2 mile or 5 km, so it'd be suitable for a complete novice like me. Although I love swimming in the pool I know it'll be much more difficult on the open water, so I'd really need to put the hours in at the pool to get super confident with my swimming. And on the plus side I could probably get a mini lake district break out of it too, I'll do anything for a holiday!

Nothing is set in stone at the minute, I want to explore other options before I commit to something, but I think a challenge would really help me focus with the exercise. It'd be nice to raise some money for charity too, and can't help but look good on a university application form! Don't worry my altruism isn't dead but sheffield hallam like to see that applicants are physically fit so it can't hurt!