Pootler's Going-It-Alone Diary

[Pootler]

Monday January 31st

Oh dear. Inventory day at work today, and the company laid on a lunch. I sort of planned to have one bagel and a banana juice. But that turned into... well you'll see below. I actually wanted to take my own food into work but didn't want to be the weirdo. It turned out that a few other people had actually brought their own lunch and I would have been in company. I know for next time though.

BREAKFAST

• Omega 3 & vitamin D capsules (1)
• 2 weetabix (b)
• 150 ml milk
• banana

LUNCH

• 1 bagel with salmon and cream cheese
• 1 bagel with smoked chicken and pine nuts
• 1 slice of brownie
• 2 chocolate caramel cookies
• handful of chocolate coffee beans
• small banana and orange juice

DINNER

• Pumpkin soup
• Chicken
• SW chips
• Apple quark

EXTRAS

• Fun size smarties (3.5)
• Options (2)
• tomatoes
• banana

TOTAL SYNS

Jiggered if I know. Pffffftttt...

EXERCISE
none

 

[Pootler]

Tuesday February 1st

BREAKFAST

• Omega 3 & vitamin D capsules (1)
• 2 rashers bacon
• mushrooms
• cherry tomatoes
• tangerine

LUNCH
None. Oops.

DINNER

• SW fish and chips (3 syns for the breadcrumbs)
• Salad (1.5 for the dressing)
• 2 mini chocolate oreo cheesecakes (5 syns. OMG. Amazing. Tweaked the recipe from Slimming eats to make the syns lower. Could make them lower still and they'd still be amazing I think.)
• 2 scoops low fat ice cream (4)

EXTRAS

• Scan Bran cake (b)(5 - put melted chocolate in it. Made no difference really. Waste of syns.)
• Another irresistible cheesecake (2.5)
• Melon

TOTAL SYNS
22 Oh dear. Blasted cheesecakes.

EXERCISE
Bike, 60 minutes.

 

[julesm]

Hello! Just thought I would drop in and say hi. I saw your post about all you can eat sushi, where is that?!? I love sushi!!! And whenever I've had sushi I've had a good loss at weigh in!

Good luck on your journey! Cheesecake is my weakness too!!

 

[Pootler]

Hi Jules, the all you can eat sushi place is in the center of Amsterdam. Right across the square from where I work. Deadly! LOL! I don't know how they do it - they have the best sashimi I've ever had, everything they serve up is delicious and cooked to order, and you pay 22 or 28 euros (cheap at Dutch prices) to eat there for 2 hours. And that includes desert! Do you think there are any hidden syns in the plain rice/plainfish/veg sushi? Because I had some more last night.

As for cheesecake, perhaps 3 2.5 syn cheesecakes are still an improvement on a WHOLE PINT of strawberry Cheesecake Häagen Dazs. ;-)

Thanks for popping in. Nice to see someone is reading this and keeping an eye on me. ;-)

 

[Pootler]

Wednesday February 2nd

Date night. Except hubby was tired so he went home and I took myself to the pictures to see Love and Other Drugs. (Wasn't that good TBH). And that meant another cinema picnic.

Forgot to take all my happy pills this morning so I wasn't in a great mood when I got home and I was "hungry". I didn't know why - I ate a tonne of rissotto at lunch, had about 8 pieces of sushi at dinner... I think I was emotionally hungry, not stomach hungry. Usually that would mean hunting out the white bread, the cakes and biscuits and chocolates. But I had some quorn and some quark and a nommy 2.5 syn cheesecake. Did I mention the cheesecakes already? ;-) Didn't go over my syns though. Hurray!

BREAKFAST

• Omega 3 & vitamin D capsules (1)
• 3 scan bran (b)
• 45 grams light Philadelphia (4)
• Cucumber
• tangerine
• kiwi

LUNCH

• pumpkin risotto
• small kiev (0.5)
• courgette
• melon

DINNER

• Sushi
• carrots
• cucumber
• pineapple
• curly wurly (6)

EXTRAS

• banana
• chocolate cheesecake (2.5)
• quorn
• apple quark
• 250 ml milk (a)
• 2 tangerines

TOTAL SYNS
14

EXERCISE
None

 

[julesm]

Don't think there are too many syns in sushi, especially not sashimi but then my favourites are those reverse maki rolls- ones with avocado in and seeds on the outside! So they are probably quite synful!

Think the only syns are in the mirin that they use to bind the rice to make it sticky!

I think sushi is the best eating out option on SW mmmmmm!

Good luck with today, did u enjoy the film?

 

[julesm]

What's apple quark?

 

[Pootler]

The film was pretty bad. I'm absolutely not a prude but I really don't want that much graphic shagging in my romcom thank you. Gyllenhal and Hathaway were a treat to watch though.

Sushi has to be the bet eating out option. Going to London next month for work and have NO idea what I'm going to do for food. I think ham and carrot sticks from the supermarket is going to get boring after a couple of days, but my budget doesn't stretch to sushi for every meal. Though if it did, that would be what I'd choose to eat.

 

[julesm]

You could always buy the little boxes of sushi from Boots and Sainsbury's!

 

[Pootler]

Thursday February 3rd

Today I am rather proud of myself. Only because I had the foresight to take soup to work with me to have when I'd finished my late shift. I just had time to warm it up while we were cashing up and drank it from a screwtop beaker on the way home, making sure I didn't fail at running the fast food gauntlet at the train station. I think it's evil that the road to my platform is lined on either side by crappy food places. Luckily I had my scan bran with me too. Who needs pizza when you can have chipboard? ;-)

BREAKFAST

• vitamins (1)
• 2 bacon
• 1 egg
• mushrooms
• cherry tomatoes
• beans
• melon
• tangerine

LUNCH

• Pasta
• ham
• 3 Laughing Cow lights (a)
• tomatoes
• courgette
• rice pudding (3.5)
• blackberries

DINNER

• pumpkin soup
• 1 scan bran (b)
• Apple quark

EXTRAS

• scan Bran cake (2.5)(b)
• fun size smarties (3.5)
• teeny tiny apple
• 2 tangerines
• mini chocolate oreo cheesecake (2.5) (Nope - not nommed them all yet. It's the miracle of the mini cheesecakes! In fact, I took some in to work today for a couple of non-dieting colleagues who declared them very yummy.)
• 4 dolly mixtures (2?)
• 100 ml milk (a)

TOTAL SYNS
11.5

EXERCISE
Bike, 40 minutes

 

[Pootler]

That's a good idea!Thank you! ) I'm so out of touch with what you can buy in England now. I usually spend all my money in ASDA when I come home you see. If you can think of other good solutions for staying (sort of) on plan in London, let me know!

 

[Pootler]

Friday February 4th

Last day of my first month today.

BREAKFAST

• vitamins (1)
• 1 slice wm bread with 5g low-cal marge (0.5)
• 2 bacon
• 1 egg
• mushrooms
• cherry toms
• tangerine

LUNCH

• pasta
• turkey roll
• courgette
• aubergine
• tomatoes
• red pepper
• mushrooms
• 3 laughing cow lights (a)
• chocolate cheesecake (3.5)
• 100 g low-fat ice-cream (7)

DINNER

• Pumpkin soup
• 1 slice wm bread with 5g low-cal marge (0.5)
• ham

EXTRAS

• 2 tangerines
• 1/2 banana
• fromage frais
• 1 tsp cocoa (0.5)
• options (2)

TOTAL SYNS
15

EXERCISE
none

 

[Pootler]

Hi Jules - missed your question about apple quark! It's basically fat free, sugar free kwark with cinamon and bits of apple in it. Holland is great for dairy products and you can buy a one litre pack of FF SF yoghurt, and a pint tub of FF SF flavoured quark. I'm using those instead of Mullers (I finally found fromage frais too! yay!)

 

[julesm]

Wow! That sounds awesome!!!!!

 

[Pootler]

Saturday February 5th

Urg. Had the munchies today. Started when I got hungry again after lunch, at about 2. So I had some fruit. And some turkey roll and a couple of crab sticks. Much better.

I made a strawberry cheesecake which came out great. It's only 2 syns for a slice. So I had three. Even though I know that's not the point. Even though I know the point is to eat one slice, because all the free ingredients in it don't miraculously have negative calories just by being free. So because I felt terrible for having three slices of cheesecake, I decided the best thing to do would be to eat a leftover SW beefburger, and then go over my syns by having a rum and diet coke too.

Mind you, it DID actually do the trick though - I stopped eating after that. Though it's nearly 10pm and I'm hungry again. Actually proper hungry I think, not mind hungry. Better put myself to bed with my Paul McKenna CD before I end up scarfing the entire cheesecake.

I'm getting panicky that, even though I manage to adjust my syns the rest of the week if I go over one day, (unless there's a complete disaster of a day like last Monday which I just wrote off) there is no way I can eat all of this delicious food and lose weight. Which is daft because I've given myself at least a year to do this. But I'd hate to be putting all this effort into planning and cooking to just stay the same.

Those bloomin' jeans are nowhere nearer fitting. That's what's doing it. Seriously thinking about asking DH to hide them so I don't feel compelled to try them on every day.

I have a sneaky suspicion that this is all early onset PMT. :-/ In which case I will STS for 2 weeks and then the pants will magically fit overnight.

BREAKFAST

• vitamins (1)
• 2 French toast (b)
• banana
• fromage frais
• tea with 1 tbsp milk (0.25)

LUNCH

• pasta salad with crab sticks, cherry toms, carrot, lettuce & cucumber
• dressing (3.75)
• strawbery yoghurt

DINNER

• 2 SW burger, no bun (about 160g lean mince total)
• handful SW chips
• salsa (1)
• salad
• 2 slices cheesecake (4)
• strawberries

EXTRAS

• cheesecake (2)
• another sw burger
• 5 slices turkey roll
• 2 crab sticks
• tangerine
• 3 x tea with tbsp milk (0.75)
• 35g Cheese (a) (+1.5 syns)
• 35 ml rum (4)

TOTAL SYNS
19.25

EXERCISE
Bike, 40 mins

 

[Pootler]

BREAKFAST

• vitamins (1)
• 2 rashers bacon
• 1/3 can of beans
• mushrooms
• courgette
• cherry tomatoes
• tangerine

LUNCH

• 1 bowl speedy soup (pumpkin, carrots, onions, red pepper, courgette, aubergine, beans, a few peas)
• wholemeal roll (b)
• 2 big slices ham
• 5g low-cal marge (0.5)
• small slice cheesecake (2)
• strawberries
• 1/3 banana
• strawberry yoghurt

DINNER

• half of an 800g roast chicken, skin removed
• SW chips
• roast pumpkin
• curry ketchup (1)
• 2 clementines

EXTRAS

• 250ml semi-skimmed milk (a)
• apple quark and strawberries
• fun size smarties (3.5)
• biscuit (2.5)
• yoghurt
• 10 g cheese (2)
• clementine
• mug of speedy soup

TOTAL SYNS
12.5

EXERCISE
bike, 60 minutes

 

[lolacola]

Enjoying reading your diary. I've been on SW nearly 4 weeks now and am doing EE. I've been having losses every week but not great ones because I am not very good at sticking to the 1/3 of your plate superfree rule... trying to improve though!

You're also doing great with the exercise. I can just about manage 10 mins per day on my cross trainer!

 

[Pootler]

Hi Lolacola, thanks for stopping by.

I don't why I'm managing to exercise 5 times a week. It seems like magic sometimes. I always just told myself that I had to at least get my shorts and t-shirt on, haul my butt upstairs, put on a good documentary and sit on the bike. If I really didn't feel like cycling I didn't have to. But usually I ended up cycling. 15 minutes at first. The first 20 minutes are always the hardest. So I'd just keep saying to myself "Come on, just 5 minutes more! That's not much is it!?" Or I'll tell myself I can watch the rest of this episode of The Tudors as long as I keep moving, even if it's not at a great pace. Jonathan Rhys Meyers is a great incentive. ;-)

After a couple of weeks it felt worse NOT getting on the stupid bike than it did getting on it. Honestly, I'll feel 'not quite right' if I miss more than one day.

I think if you're doing ten minutes every day, then you're on your way. Just 10 minutes will give your metabolism a kick start. How about you ask yourself to do 11 minutes this week? 12 next week. You won't notice the increase, but it'll soon add up.

As for the 1/3 superfree, well I'm lucky - I love veggies. The problem was always getting my lazy but into the kitchen and chopping the things, so I make loads and freeze a couple of portions. Need a bigger freezer now though.

You're exercising every day and losing every week. I think that's fab. I hope I can do that!

Oh and p.s: Cross trainers are EVIL. Hats off to you for going near the thing. I HATED mine!

 

[Pootler]

Monday February 7th

Still got PMT. Grrrrrrrrr.....Luckily nobody got killed today, though my hubby keeps looking at me in abject terror. I was at work today so I had a good distraction from the munchies. I ate carrots, tomatoes, grapes and scan bran cake between meals to keep me going, and do you know, I really enjoyed them!

I found out that a semi-decent squirt of cream is only 1.5 syns today. 1.5 syns, but it did the work of 10, because I felt so decadent having cream on my cheesecake. Will be doing that more often I think!

BREAKFAST

• scan bran cake (1.25) (b)
• half a banana
• bit of fromage frais
• vitamins (1)

LUNCH

• speedy soup
• 2 scan bran (b)
• 2 Laughing Cow lights (a)
• 4 slices ham
• 2 kiwis
• melon

DINNER

• beef stew
• cabbage
• mash (1 - for LC mayo)
• cheesecake and strawberries(3)
• squirt of cream (1.5)

EXTRAS

• carrots
• clementine
• grapes
• cherry tomatoes
• scan bran cake (1.25)
• peanut cluster (3)
• 150ml semi-skimmed milk (a)

TOTAL SYNS
12

EXERCISE
None

 

[julesm]

Hey Pootler, can I have the recipe for your 2 syns a slice strawb cheesecake? It sounds yum!