JLou's Diary - Determined This Time It's Going To Work

[Jlou]

Hi I'm Jen, I'm a stay at home Mum with 2 children, ages 4 and 18months. I've always been overweight and have tried numerous diets over the years with varied success but then I fall off the wagon and it all goes back on! My problem is I just like food! I wouldn't say I have a particular weak spot for anything ... just everything! Although, I do find that since having the kids its very easy to grab the biscuits or crisps (or both! ) when I'm feeling peckish and feel I just don't have the time to actually think about food and these are sitting ready prepared in the cupboard.

So I've decided I want to do something about my weight, currently I don't have a specific goal in mind, my BMI is high and I obviously want to get a bit healthier for myself and my kids but mainly at the moment my aim is to feel a bit better about myself. We go on holiday in 6 weeks to Gran Canaria so this is what I'm currently working towards. I've done Slimming World before years and years ago and had my most successful weight loss whilst on this as opposed to other diets and I rejoined once I had my son and got the up to date info then (3yrs ago) but I'm going to try and do it from home this time as I don't feel I really have time to go to the meetings. However I do feel I will do better if I have the support of fellow slimming worlders to get ideas from and point out where I'm going wrong - hello new forum buddies! So in my first step I am going to start a food diary, I will also try my best to photograph my meals to post. I have been on plan since Saturday so 3 days to go until my first weigh in!

Breakfast: Melon, Grapes & Vanilla Mullerlight

Lunch: Ham and Salad Sandwich made with 2 slices of small wholemeal loaf (HexB) and a drizzle of Salad Cream(2), Roast Chicken Leg (random I know, I found it in the fridge after I'd had my sandwich already!)

Dinner: Coconut Prawn Curry (5) from Slimming World Magazine Jan/Feb 14 with Rice, Sugarsnap Peas and Baby Corn

HexA: Milk in tea throughout the day
HexB: 2 slices of wholemeal bread (small loaf)

Syns: Salad Cream (2), Coconut Prawn Curry (5)

Total Syns: 7

 

[Llamasoks]

Hi Jen!

Welcome!

Your day looks really good so far, are you thinking of sticking to one plan (I do EE constantly) or mixing them up? Are you looking to cook meals the kids will eat too?
I think everyone here can empathize with the crisps or biscuit issue, especially those that have children, it's so much easier just to grab on the go, but I think the key to SW is to plan ahead, then you shouldn't come unstuck too often!

What do you fancy for tea?
X

 

[Jlou]

Hi Llamasoks

I was going to do a Coconut Prawn Curry from a slimming world magazine for tea but feel I didn't have enough salad/veg at lunch time to make it an extra easy day and if its a red day then the rice is kind of out...what shall I do?

I think I'm best trying to stick to one plan, years ago when I did slimming world before there was just the red and green option but the extra easy sounds really good to me but I'm worried it won't show the results, so far I feel my meals this week haven't been diety enough if you know what I mean. I know this should be a positive but I don't feel like what I'm doing at the moment is going to show results, we'll see on Saturday when I have my first weigh in. I can see from your stats that you've lost over 2 stone doing extra easy which I would be so happy with, how have you found it?

xx

 

[Llamasoks]

Hi Llamasoks

I was going to do a Coconut Prawn Curry from a slimming world magazine for tea but feel I didn't have enough salad/veg at lunch time to make it an extra easy day and if its a red day then the rice is kind of out...what shall I do?

I think I'm best trying to stick to one plan, years ago when I did slimming world before there was just the red and green option but the extra easy sounds really good to me but I'm worried it won't show the results, so far I feel my meals this week haven't been diety enough if you know what I mean. I know this should be a positive but I don't feel like what I'm doing at the moment is going to show results, we'll see on Saturday when I have my first weigh in. I can see from your stats that you've lost over 2 stone doing extra easy which I would be so happy with, how have you found it?

xx

Depending on what you have for dinner, you can probably get away with just adding a few more bits of SF into it, I do EE and sometimes i forget completley for one meal, it's no reccomended but I don't think it makes too much of a difference for a day. Though I did feel the same at the start, like being full wasn't helping, always thought you had to be starving hungry for diets to work, a lot of people think that, but it does work if you stick at it. Give it a few weeks and see how you go, if you still don't feel it's working have a jiggle about, change your Syns etc.
X

 

[Jlou]

Food Diary for previous 2 days

Monday (EE)

Breakfast: 2 slices of wholemeal toast (HexB), Banana, Marmite

Lunch: Omlette made with 2 eggs, chives, cherry tomatoes, cheese (HexA), Salad (lettuce, cucumber, cherry toms, fat free vinaigrette), Raspberry & Cranberry Mullerlight, Grapes

Dinner: Singapore Beef Noodles (Extra Lean Mince, Oil (3), garlic, ginger, chilli, stir fry veg, spring onions, egg noodles)

Snacks: Quavers (4.5), Mugshot Roast Chicken, Toffee Mullerlight

HexA: 28g Cheese
HexB: 2 slices of wholemeal bread small loaf

Syns: 7.5


Tuesday (EE)

Breakfast: Melon, Grapes & Strawberry Mullerlight

Lunch: Egg Salad (lettuce, cucumber, tomatoe, 2 eggs, salad cream (3.5), fat free vinaigrette), 2 slices of wholemeal bread (HexB), quavers (4.5)

Dinner: Gammon with 2slices of pineapple (2), slimming world chips but cooked in olive oil as didn't have any frylight (2), lettuce, tomato, cucumber and fat free vinaigrette

Snacks: breadsticks x 2 (2), Muller light cherry

HexA: Milk in tea
HexB: 2 slices of wholemeal bread small loaf

Syns: 14

 

[Llamasoks]

I'd swear off mugshots as a snack for starters, I made this mistake when i first started and couldn't understand why I felt rubbish and didn't lose all that much, they're so much better when combined in a meal, it really is too much food for a snack (it's free I know, but they're about 200-300 calories, which is really high for in between meal snacks!) Your omlette sounds divine! overall your food looks really good too!
X

 

[Jlou]

Thanks for the tip with the Mugshots Llamasoks I didn't even think to look into the calories I just went for it as I knew they were free.

So for dinner I made the Coconut Prawn Curry that was in the Jan/Feb 14 magazine, has anyone else tried this? I had to tweak the recipe a bit as I could tell as I was going along it wasn't going to work out as the picture showed and not be very nice, has anyone else found this with the Slimming World recipes?? The end result was delicious though and got the hubby's approval too so we'll be having this again!

xx

 

[Llamasoks]

Thanks for the tip with the Mugshots Llamasoks I didn't even think to look into the calories I just went for it as I knew they were free.

So for dinner I made the Coconut Prawn Curry that was in the Jan/Feb 14 magazine, has anyone else tried this? I had to tweak the recipe a bit as I could tell as I was going along it wasn't going to work out as the picture showed and not be very nice, has anyone else found this with the Slimming World recipes?? The end result was delicious though and got the hubby's approval too so we'll be having this again!

xx

I did too when I started, free and delicious so ate them a lot, but got slow losses, wasn't till someone pointed it out my head went "oh yeahh" now if I want one, I'll mix 2 together, add lots of veg and use it as a quick dinner!
X

 

[Jlou]

Ok so my good intentions of writing a diary everyday didn't work last week! However I still lost 4lbs yay!! I did have a few wobbles, Thursday was a pretty naughty day. I went through to Sainsburys with the kids and as its a bit of a drive home and I was trying to keep the kids happy I let them have some "Eric the Elephant" sweets (Sainsburys version of Percy Pigs), I kept the bag in the front with me and handed them back to the kids every so often but of course by doing that it meant that the bag was sitting open on the passenger seat and so a couple of elephants ended up hopping into my mouth too! Then my little boy had a friend come over to play in the afternoon and they baked some cookies together, which of course I had to sample, and I didn't just have 1!! I made sure that all of my meals were syn free that day and that I was eating lots of superfree but I was really worried that I'd done this just two days before my first weigh in and it would be just in time to show on the scales on Saturday. I was relieved to see that it hadn't effected my losses when I weighed in but I guess this is the beauty of Slimming World by being good for the rest of the day I had partly balanced out my naughty treats. I really do need to keep a closer eye on what I'm doing though so I'm going to be doing a paper and online diary this week - promise!!

xx

 

[Jlou]

Monday 5th May - EE

Breakfast: Fruit Salad with Mullerlight (Strawberries, Melon, Blueberries, Grapes)

Lunch: Tuna & Mackerel Salad, Lettuce, Beef Tomato, Cucumber, Spring Onions, Tuna, 1/2 Mackerel, Balsamic Vinegar, 1tblsp Mayonnaise (5)

Dinner: 5 a day pasta with salad. A really nice recipe I found on the Tesco's website a while back and using Parmasan as HexA is only 2syns as everything in the recipe is free apart from using 2tblsp of olive oil and I only used 1/3 and froze the rest, and that served two. So, Tomatoes, Peppers, Garlic, Courgette, Leek, Spinach, Onion, Basil, Pasta and Parmasan (HexA) plus Lettuce, Tomato, Cucumber

HexA: 28g Parmasan
HexB:

Snacks: 2 x Nice Biscuits (4), Eric the Elephant Sweet (1.5), Mayonnaise (5), Oil in dinner (2)
Total Syns: 12.5

I've only just realised looking up the syns in my mayonnaise how much can be saved by switching to the low fat option, I thought I'd wait until I'd finished this bottle but now I think I need to do it now! and I'm going through salad like nobodys business!! but I think looking at my menu I've definitely had my five a day! 15 different fruit and veg today!! wow!!!


I've still not had a HexB today so may count the olive oil in my dinner as that, and knock 2 syns off for today, or may have some ryvitas later on with some cottage cheese but at the moment I don't think I'll need it

xx

 

[Jlou]

Well I survived until bedtime without feeling hungry so I'll count the oil from dinner as my healthy extra B for the day and that takes my total syns for the day down to 10.5.

So far today just a banana for breakfast but I'm feeling a bit peckish now so I'm just making a cup of peppermint tea and might have some carrot sticks xx

 

[Jlou]

Beakfast: Banana

Lunch: 4 sesame seed ryvitas(hexb) with tesco chive and onion cottage cheese (I believe this is free, am I right?), tomatoes and cucumber and a pack of aldi cheese curls (3)


HexA:
HexB: 4 x ryvita sesame

syns: cheese curls (3)

 

[Jlou]

Had quite a good day I think

Beakfast: Banana

Lunch: 4 sesame seed ryvitas(hexb) with tesco chive and onion cottage cheese (I believe this is free, am I right?), tomatoes and cucumber and a pack of aldi cheese curls (3)

Dinner: Harissa Lamb Stew from Jan/Feb magazine (1/2) with couscous said it would serve two but theres a big portion left over which I may have for my lunch tomorrow

Snacks: Malted Milk (2), Sugar Free Jelly (1)


HexA: Milk in tea
HexB: 4 x ryvita sesame

syns: cheese curls (3) Harrisa Lamb Stew (1/2), Malted Milk (2), Sugar Free Jelly (1)

Total Syns 6.5


The recipe for the stew said it would serve two but theres a big portion left over which I may have for my lunch tomorrow. I wasn't too sure about it as I was making it but actually was really nice, my husband wasn't sure as he's not a fan of butternut squash, doesn't like anything that's not ordinary, carrots, broccoli, peas etc. I thought it would also have been really nice with some fat free natural yogurt with mint in to cool it down a bit as could be a bit firey if you like your food to be a bit milder.

xx

 

[Jlou]

Saturday 10th May

Beakfast: Fruit Salad with Muller Light Vanilla

Lunch: Salad (lettuce, celery, spring onion) with Mackerel, Prosciutto, Egg and Fat Free Vinaigrette

Dinner: Spinach & Mushroom Cannelloni with Rocket and Tomato Salad (Parmasan on top of Cannelloni HexA)

Snacks: 1 x Prawn Cracker (1.5), 3 x Eddie the Elephant (4.5), 1/2 a Cider (5)


HexA: Parmasan on Cannelloni
HexB:

syns: 2 x Prawn Cracker (1.5), 3 x Eddie the Elephant (4.5), 1/2 a Cider (5)

Total Syns 11

 

[Jlou]

Sunday 11th May

Beakfast: Fruit Salad (Strawberries, Blueberries, Grapes) with Muller Light Vanilla

Lunch: leftover Cannelloni with Rocket & Tomato (using HexA for Parmasan on top)

Dinner: Steak with Peppercorn Sauce, Leonaise Potatoes & Green Beans (1/2)

Snacks: 2 x Alpen Lights (HexB), 2 x Choc Chip Digestives (8), Grapes


HexA: Parmasan on Cannelloni
HexB: 2 x Alpen Lights

syns: Brandy in Peppercorn Sauce (1/2), 2 x Choc Chip Digestives (8)

Total Syns 8.5

 

[Jlou]

Monday 12th May

Beakfast: Banana, 2 x wholemeal bread, 1tsp spread (1 1/2), marmite

Lunch: leftover Cannelloni with Rocket and Tomato salad

Dinner: Homemade fish & chips with peas (1.5)

Snacks: Grapes, blueberries, breadsticks x 2 (2)


HexA: Milk
HexB: 2 x wholemeal bread

syns: Spread (1.5), Breadsticks (2), Dinner (1.5)

Total Syns 5

 

[Jlou]

Tuesday 13th May

Beakfast: Fruit Salad (Melon & Grapes) with Muller Light Vanilla

Lunch: Chicken Salad and chocolate chip cookie (4.5) - naughty and this was my first downfall - it got worse!!

Dinner: Gammon with fried egg and slimming world chips, baked beans, mushrooms and grilled tomatoes

Snacks: 2 x chocolate chip digestives (8), walkers crinkles ready salted (7.5) apple, grapes, 1 x alpen light


HexA: Milk
HexB: 1 x Alpen Lights still have half a HexB left but think i've had enough naughties for the day

syns: choc chip cookie (4.5), choc chip digestives (8), walkers crinkles (7.5)

Total Syns 20 - such a naughty day. Draw a line and do better tomorrow