Jo's beautiful bridesmaid dress diary

[JoRoger]

good luck for thursday it will soon be over which will be a relief for u then hopefully u can get on with ur lives :wave_cry:

Thanks Valerie, am just exhausted by the whole thing now, just want it over with, praying that it all comes through at the eleventh hour tomorrow (we've offered to pay yet more money!) and that it doesn't go ahead, then we are free of her forever and as you say we can get on with our lives.

How did you get on at your WI yesterday btw?

 

[JoRoger]

Am very, very pleased to announce that finally, finally, after two long horrible messy years, it is all over. This case has cost us an absolute fortune which we will probably be paying off for many years to come, but it has been more than worth it.

Everything was stopped at the last possible moment yesterday, as I'd hoped, by us paying yet more money. We'd also ruffled his ex's feathers by demanding a new information statement regarding her and her partners income - which is pretty high - as the old one was out of date, and did not reflect the value of the new car they have just brought! This coming from the woman who sent my OH a very nasty text because the CSA have made a mess up with their figures and she hadn't received her money and couldn't afford to buy her son clothes - despite the 6k paid to her in August!!!!! Hmmm, less said about that the better!

So that and the extra money was enough to make her solicitors change the order to much simpler terms, and it was finally approved late afternoon yesterday. I felt terrible tho, last night was just a melted blob of welled up emotions, so much that i've been keeping buried inside me, even to the extent of my dad having cancer for the past year, and my grandpa dying of the same in a nursing home - all that has been shoved to one side in order to find the strength to fight this, and now its all coming tumbling out.

Still, at least I didn't have to see her in court, and I truly hope that I never have to see her again for as long as I live.

Here's to the future everyone x

 

[Jane R]

Hi JoRoger, so glad that the case went well for you. I hope that you will feel some release from letting go of all the pushed down emotions. God bless X

 

[JoRoger]

Don't even want to know how many syns were in my dinner last night - we went to Pizza Hut! Eeek! Misery and celebrations now over, have to get right back on track and right back on with my life, having a very quiet day today as DS still not right, still full of croup and cold so we are just going to stay in the warm cuddled up.

Watched Edward Scissorhands on blu-ray last night with my OH, just adore that film, cried like a baby!

Am straight back on plan today with bran flakes for breakfast, macaroni cheese for lunch and egg flip pie for tea - we're in the pub later for a birthday party but will stick to water, can't afford another bad day, and if I'm 100% on plan today then the theme will stick for the weekend.

 

[vixmania41999]

So pleased that you got a good result hun, and don't worry about the pizza, you deserved it with everything you've been through. Well done hunny xx

 

[vixmania41999]

Meant to say hope your son is feeling better soon. I've full of cold and got an awful sore throat, hope my daughter doesn't get it!

 

[JoRoger]

Meant to say hope your son is feeling better soon. I've full of cold and got an awful sore throat, hope my daughter doesn't get it!

It hasn't been the best of weeks for hi he went to playschool yesterday but not today, he's still full of croup although it does seem to be easing - he woke up with a snotty nose to match this morning. We're all getting a bit cabin fever-ish! Hope you feel better soon and your daughter escapes it.

 

[JoRoger]

Have just taken a bit of my own advice and am about to devote a few hours to SW and have some SW time, will trawl through this site finding lots of different recipe ideas to get me through and out of boredom territory. OH came home for lunch and we made a menu for this weekend and next week (Sainsbury's shopping on Sunday) which looks something like this (we usually end up swapping stuff around). This is our dinners only:-

Friday - Green Day

SW Egg Flip Pie - 1 if using cheese as HEXA


Saturday - Red Day

Beans and Burgers in Smoky Sauce - I need to find a smoky bbq sauce recipe for this but its basically a can of mixed bean salad with cubes of beef patties that we get from our local farmers market - am really not sure of the syn content with the meat here so will have to be totally syn free all day to cover it.

Sunday - Red Day

Mechado Beef Stew as kindly written out by Capricorn in her diary, sounds very yummy, with rice as suggested.


Monday - Green Day

SW Spaghetti Carbonara - really easy to cook and went down a storm with all of us, so definitely want to do again


Tuesday - Green Day

Beans on toast with poached egg and cheese on top - cheese as HEXA - our best lazy dinner, SO nice!


Wednesday - Green Day

Unsure of syns here so any help appreciated - Sausage Meat Pie with sausage meat from local farmers market, mash, plum tinned tomatoes and apple sauce on the side - again will have to have a syn free day here to cover the meat as am unsure of syn content.


Thursday - Green Day

Chicken Risotto using our fat-free homemade soup in place of the veg stock mixture - a first time experiment, will let you know how it goes! Chicken as HEXB so must remember no bread today.


Friday - Green Day

Sausage, Mash, Beans - my sausage will be Linda McCartney version and may well have mexican beans instead just to jazz it up a bit.


So, thats my week ahead. Off now to get some ideas from here including different toppings for jackets - we love these in winter as we cook them on our woodburner, but we just get a bit lost with choosing toppings and are getting bit bored of the same ones. Just thought of one tho - light philly with pineapple and cheese, yummy!

Feeling inspired already and pretty positive, I know before I know it that my bridesmaids dress will be in stock, then once its new year it will be April in the blink of an eye, bridesmaid time, really want to make my best friend proud.

 

[JoRoger]

Massive Decision Made!

Following on from a conversation with one of my friends on Friday night, who had just got back from a huge Indian meal in a restaurant with her hubby and family (and a week long all inclusive cruise) we have both decided, after almost crying in the pub about how miserable we are with our sizes, to become fully fledged members of SW!

We are joining up on Wednesday morning, a morning class works best for both of us and she is more than happy to take me (which was one of the main problems in my way - lack of driving licence, and not wanting to go out in the evening and/or leaving my OH for the night - yes we are that sad!)

My friend is really up for it although I know I am probably going to have to keep an eye on her and help with her motivation as she does like her red wine and meals out with friends and family, don't we all though, and in return she can help me when I'm having a black day - we live very close together and so I know we can start having coffee together and so on. Our OH's are good friends too.

Only thing is that I haven't been to a meeting for so long - probably cracking on for eight years now - so I don't really know what to expect in terms of how much money to take with me (although I have seen from the website ads that membership is half price and classes are £4.95). How much are directories now and have they changed at all - I'm sure I saw on here somewhere that they know have all the eating out guides and so on inside them? Is there a 'starter pack' that I can buy? I love new things!

Very excited and positive that I have finally taken this last step - although it does mean that alongside my gym membership I will be spending nigh on £50 a month on myself I think I'm worth it!

 

[JoRoger]

Bad night last night, OH is ill with a cold, he can't breathe so was snoring like a hippo all night! Still feeling v positive about class although bit nervy that I finally have to properly address everything and really knuckle down - there's no hiding now! Also haven't been to class in such a long time, and worrying that my OH's comments of 'I don't know why you're bothering joining this again, after the WW failure' --- but that was only because I hated WW and the C! He's usually really supportive of me except when it suddenly involves spending money, tho I did bite back that we'll have a spare £15 a week anyway when he stops smoking in the new year - that shut him up!

 

[JoRoger]

First class today! Slightly nervous but looking forward to it as well, ready for the challenge and feeling positive. Not letting any negative thoughts in...oh ok all this excitement is because I'm going to be buying something new - how sad is that?!!

Seriously though I know that I just have to do it this time, otherwise I'm going to be dreading my best friends wedding rather than being excited, and I really want to look great in the photos, especially as both my BF and her sister are size 10 stunners. I know I'll never be their size but I really need to get my top half a lot smaller.

Going to be a good morning I feel x

 

[Jane R]

Good luck with your SW class today Joroger

 

[JoRoger]

Well it all went pretty well, the Consultant is really lovely, the best one I have had so far, she doesn't let people chatter away amongst themselves which is the best bit, as that has always been my one pet hate about classes. My weight was the same as on my bathroom scales, so I know that they are a pretty good indicator (which is weird as the gym ones weigh me lighter - in the future I'll fill in the weight log on my gym programme based on my SW WI).

I'm slowly getting my head around the extra easy plan, I always used to do just green days and possibly the odd Red every now and again, so being able to combine the two is fantastic, I think I will adapt to it quite well.

I like the features of the SW site, especially the food diary. Tonight we are having egg flip pie with bacon as my extra HEXB - I started off on a green day so I'll stick to that but I will work out properly how to get going on the extra easy days.

So far so good! Very impressed with the changes and the pack that you get given, tho it does seem to me as if they are possibly trying to slowly phase out the green/red day plans and just have extra easy.

I'm just off now to update my statistics and so on and try to work out how to build a ticker. My goal is most definitely to lose half a stone by xmas.

 

[uoyevoli]

Glad your class went well.

I've never worked out how to do Extra Easy days so I tend just to avoid them.

 

[JoRoger]

Glad your class went well.

I've never worked out how to do Extra Easy days so I tend just to avoid them.

I really enjoyed it, in fact I had to reel myself in a bit on the way home as I knew I'd make my friend think I was totally mad by going on about it!

I think the extra easy is just that - really easy - but because I've always done green days with the very occasional red I find that I keep thinking 'oh no, you can't have rice with meat', etc, whereas of course you can on EE. I will get more confidence with it but for now I think I'll just stick to green days and maybe have an EE weekend as OH will probably do a roast.

Oops just realised still not done my stats, doh!

 

[JoRoger]

First day went really well, feel like I can actually do this now. Ok, my first proper food diary (oh, that's the only thing I don't like about the new SW, the food diary sheets a bit small). Green day.

Breakfast:

Porridge Oats (HEXB1) and milk from allowance (HEXA1)

Snack: Apple

Snack: 3x Ryvita Thins 4.5 syns - ouch didn't realise that - with low fat soft cheese 3

Lunch:

Cheese Leek and Ham Pasta & Sauce 1
Tiny bit of grated reduced fat cheese from HEXA2 allowance

Snack: Grapes

Dinner:

Homemade Egg Flip Pie (SW recipe) with beans 3
Bacon strips (fat off and done on George) HEXB2
Oil used in pie - 4 (just used the rest of my syns as a guess as OH won't use fry light!)

Afters: Muller Vitality

Total for Day: 15

Ok so I think that was a good day, I am a bit concerned that I might have slipped over my syns tho, I haven't yet checked that the vitality was free but I'm presuming it is, will check the site soon.

I'm a bit cross that my OH won't use fry light - he seems to think its 'disgusting' although I'm not too sure how he would know that; won't ask as it might turn into an 'ex wife' argument! I think I'm going to have to plan my days through a bit more in terms of who is doing the cooking and what will be used - we do use a Lakeland Oil Sprayer which reduces it down but what we're using is proper olive oil which I know isn't that good.

Sticking to safe jackets with mexican beans and cheese for tonight!

 

[EmmyLou30]

Well done on geting back to a class! It makes all the difference having a good consultant. My local class has a useless one so I don't go any more

I should just do the cooking and not let him know you used the frylight. My OH says it tastes funny and so does my Dad and Nan but at a guess I'd say they all used waaaay too much of it trying to grease the pan like you would with a dollop of oil. I've never tasted it at all. Must be why I'm losing weight and none of them are......you can only tell them the wonders of frylight so many times before you give up Stick to your guns, it's your weight loss. And oil is so high in syns. Better with the sprayer thingy though.

 

[JoRoger]

Well done on geting back to a class! It makes all the difference having a good consultant. My local class has a useless one so I don't go any more

I should just do the cooking and not let him know you used the frylight. My OH says it tastes funny and so does my Dad and Nan but at a guess I'd say they all used waaaay too much of it trying to grease the pan like you would with a dollop of oil. I've never tasted it at all. Must be why I'm losing weight and none of them are......you can only tell them the wonders of frylight so many times before you give up Stick to your guns, it's your weight loss. And oil is so high in syns. Better with the sprayer thingy though.

The Consultant is really nice (tho she does say mmm-kay quite a bit which is a bit odd!) she's been there tho - she's gone from a size 32 to a size 18-20, she put quite a bit on with her last child and is working towards a size 16, she's 6ft tall so I'd imagine that would be a nice size and shape for her. She's quite commanding and everyone listens to her which is good, I've had a few weedy ones in the past and the classes were just really painful as the C was really wimpy and weak and everyone talked over her.

I'll definitely be sneaking some fry light in when its my turn to cook - bet he doesn't even notice! Maybe I should put it in the sprayer we have here, that would be a good test. I think people just get used to certain tastes but I really don't want to waste my syns on oil.

 

[JoRoger]

Just had a bit of a shock - Muller Vitality yogurts are 2.5 syns! Wasn't expecting that, oh dear, looks like I definitely went over my syns yesterday.

Oh and was a bit shocked by my lunch too - Heinz Spaghetti with Sausages - 7 syns!!!! eeek! They were nice tho.

Here's what I've had today. Not sure about dinner yet I think we're having mexican mash - mexican beans, mashed potato, mashed butternut squash all in a casserole dish with grilled cheese on the top, yummy, and just 1 syn from the beans, possibly actually half a syn as they are 1 for the whole tin. Mmmm! Although I have gone slightly over syns again, dammit, must reel myself in a bit more tomorrow. I've eaten all the Ryvita Thins now and won't be buying them again, I'll stick to Ryvita Sweet Onion crispbread as a HEXB.

Ok, babbling now, here's my food diary:-

Breakfast:

Porridge (HEXA1)
Milk (HEXA2)

Mid-morning:

Apple
Ryvita Thins & Soft Cheese - 6

Lunch:

2x Warburtons Healthy Choice bread (HEXB)
Flora Light - 1
Spaghetti and Sausages - 7 !!!!
Muller Vitality - 2.5

Dinner:

Mash Potato 1 (from margarine)
Mashed Butternut Squash FREE
Mexican Beans 1/2 can - 1/2 syn
Cheese on top (HEXA2)

Total: 17 1/2 damn that spaghetti and those Ryvita thins!

 

[JoRoger]

WOW! Yummy Dinner!

Cancel my above diary - OH decided to get creative in the kitchen and came up with an amazing recipe:-

Butternut Squash & Sweet Potato Pasta

First of all you need to make a soup:

2 onions - chopped
2 celery sticks - chopped
1 chilli or 1 tsp chilli powder
2 cloves garlic - crushed
3 sweet potatoes - chopped
2 carrots - chopped
1 butternut squash - chopped
2 pints vegetable stock
Fry Light

Fry the onions, garlic and chilli in Fry Light, add the rest of the ingredients plus veg stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 40 minutes. Blitz in the blender.

We had this mixed in with pasta and then with reduced fat cheese as HEXA grilled on the top.

You can also have this as normal soup with a HEXB roll.

Absolutely gorgeous!