Pootler's Going-It-Alone Diary

[Pootler]

Saturday March 12th

Trying a red day today. I've got loads of salad greens to use up, so it was easy to just chuck a bit of protein on a plate and load up with salad. Actually quite nice not having to faff around with a carb to go with it.

We had a HUUUUUUUUGE joint of lamb in the freezer left over from Christmas that probably wouldn't survive us leaving the freezer door open again. So hubby roasted it on a bed of veg. And I could. Not. Resist. eating those lovely, sweet, caramelised carrots, even thought they were covered in fat from the joint. Oh dear. I hope 6 syns covers it. I had loads left though. Is it me or is it harder to use your syns up on red and green? I didn't seem to NEED them today and yesterday, the way I normally do.

Today's SW discovery is chocolate fingers. Can't get the Cadbury ones (booo!) but I found an alternative for the same calories. Choccie biccies for just 1.5 syns! Brilliant!

I've really enjoyed seeing other people's pics of their food, so here are mine. if anyone thinks I'm eating too much or too little, please tell me! I have to admit that I had another heaping portion of lamb once this one was gone, coz it was yummy, but I wasn't stuffed afterwards. Just nicely full. Oh and that's not a freakishly large egg that I had for breakfast - I use a 9 inch plate most of the time now after reading this book. Dinner was on a big plate though.

BREAKFAST

• 3 rashers bacon
• 1 egg
• mushrooms
• 70g baked beans (1/2 a B)
• muesli bar (1/2 a B)

LUNCH

• rainbow trout
• courgette
• red pepper
• green salad
• FF dressing
• strawberry quark
• banana

DINNER

• roast lamb
• roast veggies (6 syns?)
• green salad
• red pepper
• celery
• cherry tomatoes
• FF dressing

EXTRAS

• 2 satsumas
• chocolate finger (1.5)
• 1 finger Kit Kat (2)
• 250 ml skimmed milk
• 2 muesli bars (B)

TOTAL SYNS
13

EXERCISE
bike, 50 minutes

 

[hazysummer]

Hey Pootler,
where do you buy your bacon from? that looks like real bacon, not ontbijtspek or that superthin stuff they call bacon!! have things improved so much since I've been away??

photos look great btw

 

[Pootler]

Hey Pootler,
where do you buy your bacon from? that looks like real bacon, not ontbijtspek or that superthin stuff they call bacon!! have things improved so much since I've been away??

photos look great btw

You can actually get regular bacon at the supermarket now! It's shockingly expensive mind, but no more than it would be buying it from the English toko. AH has Marmite and HP Sauce too, and sometimes Colemans mustard. I've been here sonlong that it still tickles me that I can have a proper bacon butty now without flying 300 miles.

 

[-coco-]

hi pootler!

it's great to see u r back, I hav actually missed reading ur posts ... ur's is my favourite diary: it's easy to read, is always really interesting & u amuse me lots ... Ever thought about becoming an author? I'm serious! lol.

well done on ur good behaviour whilst away. seems u found some good items to pack into ur suitcase to bring home! yum.

I too hav had recent diversions onto green/red and like u, I find that I don't 'need' as many syns. I think ur portion sizes r fine, I tend to eat huge amounts especially on EE. my syn free chip portions r always huge but I find it does fill me up and tends to stop the snacking....(some days )

anyway, nice to see u back.
good luck this week!!

c

 

[julesm]

Your food pics look great Pootler. I really like your plates. How do you get your fried eggs like that too?!

 

[Pootler]

hi pootler!

it's great to see u r back, I hav actually missed reading ur posts ... ur's is my favourite diary: it's easy to read, is always really interesting & u amuse me lots ... Ever thought about becoming an author? I'm serious! lol.

Aw thank you! I'm dead chuffed to bits that you're enjoying it! I do actually write for a living. I haven't got the imagination or discipline to write proper books, so I'm a copywriter. Amongst other things. Editor. Buyer. Till dolly. Tidy-upper. But mostly I write, and feel very lucky that I get paid for it as well.

I really don't know why I didn't dare do red and green days earlier. They're a lot simpler than I thought, and feel even more generous than Extra Easy. I'm really excited at the idea of being able to use all of them - it should make my trip to London this week easier. Where I'll be replenishing my stock of SF jelly - that stuff is unmissable now. I use loads of it!

 

[Pootler]

Your food pics look great Pootler. I really like your plates. How do you get your fried eggs like that too?!

The plates look pretty chic don't they? But they're from the cheap shop! Well, cheap by Dutch standards anyway. My mum has similar ones and she got them from Au Naturale I think.

The trick to the fried eggs is really simple - you put a lid on it! Wait until everything else in your pan is nearly ready. Turn the heat down. Spray a spot in the pan with Fry Light. Crack your egg onto it When the white starts to set, put a lid on the pan. The steam from the bacon and mushrooms will cook the egg.

 

[Pootler]

Sunday March 13th

Green Day

Day out today. We took The Boffin to the natural history museum in Leiden. He's autistic as well as boffinny, and my hubby has ADD and Asperger's, so a day out means getting there early and b*ggering off home before the crowds arrive and drive them both nuts. It's quite good really - you get the feeling of having done something, but still get an afternoon to slob around watching telly. Or reading minimins.

I packed a small rucksack with food for everyone, but mostly for me and my MIL who is sort of doing SW with me. I'm actually starting to feel naked if I leave the house without a bag of food. I made a couscous salad to take for lunch and put it in a cool box. Took water, diet coke, muesli bars, treats from the syn tin, carrots, peppers, satsumas and apples, absolutely determined that no apple pie or chocolate gateau was going to sway me. And they didn't. Even when everyone else sat and nommed cakes at the cafe and I'd left my bag in the car because I am a wally. And that led to me getting into a grump because I was hungry - for just the second time ever. I was so glad to get back to the car, and open up my yummy salad.... only to find that I'd forgotten to pack a fork. ARGH! Never mind. Ate a muesli bar and some carrots and peppers and was fine until we got home an hour later.

And the rest of the day went swimmingly. Seems like there's so much more food on red and green. Mind you that is a small plate my chilli is on, and I have to admit I went back for seconds and had about half as much again. Sort of defeating the purpose really. I still didn't manage to use all my syns, but look at how many extras I had even so!

BREAKFAST

• flourless pancake (2 eggs)
• 10g caramel syrup (2)
• banana
• vitamins (1)

LUNCH

• couscous
• haricot beans (half a jar)
• green salad leaves
• tomatoes
• celery
• chopped apricots from HEXB
• FF dressing

DINNER

• quorn chilli - as ever with loads more veggies than in the recipe
• rice
• SW blancmange and squirty cream (2)

EXTRAS

• carrots
• red pepper
• 3 muesli bars (1.5 B's)
• coffee with koffiemelk (1)
• 2 choccie fingers (3)
• 4 sugar free caramels (2)
• options (2)
• 2 satsumas
• 250 ml semi-skimmed milk (A)
• 70g dried apricots (0.5 B)
  

TOTAL SYNS
13

EXERCISE
none

 

[lolacola]

Hehe I was just going to ask about your eggs, but I got beaten to it - they look fab!

Your red and green days are looking great! Glad to hear you are enjoying them. I started off on EE too, then tried a couple of green, and have done red pretty much exclusively for the last couple of weeks (except for not Friday night just past, but the one before where I HAD to have carbs!!!)

How do you make the flourless pancake? It looks so tasty

 

[-coco-]

Aw thank you! I'm dead chuffed to bits that you're enjoying it! I do actually write for a living. I haven't got the imagination or discipline to write proper books, so I'm a copywriter. Amongst other things. Editor. Buyer. Till dolly. Tidy-upper. But mostly I write, and feel very lucky that I get paid for it as well.

I really don't know why I didn't dare do red and green days earlier. They're a lot simpler than I thought, and feel even more generous than Extra Easy. I'm really excited at the idea of being able to use all of them - it should make my trip to London this week easier. Where I'll be replenishing my stock of SF jelly - that stuff is unmissable now. I use loads of it!

I knew it!!!! so I was right in my talent spotting! LOL.
that's brilliant that it's ur job - so creative! must b a lot of fun!

sounds as tho ur doing a spot of travelling lately too, another of my passions! think that's what got me interested in ur posts, the chat re items in dutch supermarkets. I hav a bit of an obsession with foreign supermarkets, love them! even as a child I just loved looking at all the different products u cd buy and the foreign names - I tell myself it's coz fate will one day intervene & that I will be a regular Spanish supermarket shopper, living there someday. hopefully it's gonna happen, otherwise I must just b a complete weirdo obsessed with foreign food packaging! haha. nah, just love foreign languages, cultures & cuisines - the food especially! hence why I'm now a SW follower.....

c

 

[julesm]

Coco I love foreign supermarkets too! Thought it was just me being weird... X

 

[-coco-]

Coco I love foreign supermarkets too! Thought it was just me being weird... X

hi jules!

haha! brill, I love it!

 

[Pootler]

I like foreign supermarkets too! You can always find something fabulous in the little ethnic supermarkets, and something surprising on the big megamarkets.

 

[Pootler]

Monday March 14th: Red

I woke up at 2 this morning with my stomach almost imploding from hunger. Normally I'd just roll over and go back to sleep, but there was no chance of that happening. I really didn't want to get up and eat, because that's exactly where the slippery slope started last time - 2am hot chocolates and cookies to help me get back to sleep. But I had to get some more sleep. So after an hour of lying there listening to the rumbling and growling, I got up and had the SW version of hot chocolate and cookies.

Still not been on the scales, but I know things are moving in the right direction because I spent a considerable portion of my time today hitching up the smallest of my size 24 skirts, which fit perfectly just a couple of weeks ago! London on Wednesday - I'm going to see how close I am to a UK size 20 while I'm there.

3AM

• 2 muesli bars (1 B)
• options (2)

BREAKFAST

• vitamins (1)
• satsuma
• 3 rashers bacon
• 1 egg
• courgette
• mushrooms
• muesli bar (1/2 B)

LUNCH

• roast lamb
• salad greens
• carrots
• celery
• cherry tomatoes
• dressing - EL mayo and yoghurt (1)
• strawberry quark

DINNER

• pancake (2.5 for flour, milk from allowance)
• smoked salmon
• quark
• capers
• green salad
• SW blancmange and light squirty cream (2)
• no-cal strawberry sauce

EXTRAS

• 2 choccie fingers (3)
• 2 SF caramels (1)
• 250 ml semi-skimmed milk (1 A)
• 3 satsumas
• apple
• muesli bar (1/2 B)
• options (2)

TOTAL SYNS
14.5

EXERCISE
none

 

[Pootler]

Tuesday March 15th: Red

Oh dear. Did it all wrong today.

I had a small breakfast, then a brunch, wasn't hungry at lunch time so skipped it, and then... well then it went rather downhill.

I ate a whole Kit Kat. Those seem to be a trigger food for me. I know I often just have one finger and seem very controlled, but I could easily eat 30 fingers. I was still within my syns though, after 4 of them. Mmmm..... Kit Kat....

But that didn't last very long.

I bought some little chocolate meringues for my son and hubby's pudding tonight. Only 30 cals each, but before I knew it I had hooverd up NINE of them.

At that point I thought, ah, s*d it, let me just eat what I want now, have a few glasses of port, and start again tomorrow. But then I realised I didn't want to. I wanted to stop right there and then. So I did. Amazingly.

I think I know why it happened - not eating lunch for a start. Feeling vaguely 'wrong' about a few things, like leaving for London for 4 days tomorrow when things between me and my hubby are really starting to improve. And, possibly having a bit of stim burnout. Which basically means that all the noise, talk and hyperactive bouncing off the walls (literally! Off the walls!) that you are bombarded with when you live with an autistic kid, sometimes really feels like torture. The Boffin has bounced, talked (and stuttered) run around and made his stimmy noises for 2 and a half hours non-stop now, and it's doing my head in. It's not the activity that's crazy making as much as the fact that it's impossible to DO anything else when he's at it without getting even more frustrated and wanting to punch something. And I'm such a nice, patient person normally.

Some days it's easier to cope with than others. Some days he's just as noisy and bouncy and any other kid. Some days he's oh so much worse.

I can't shout at him to give it a rest because he can't really help it, and also, he's actually impossibly adorable. (For example. He just told me his sofa blanket makes him feel really happy because I crocheted it for him. Melt!) So I demolish something with sugar in it instead.

Oh well. The extra syns were the calorific equivalent of the meal I skipped, more or less. So it could have been worse.

BREAKFAST

• banana
• muesli bar (1/2 B)
• vitamins (1)

BRUNCH

• bacon
• egg
• mushrooms
• cherry tomatoes
• 142g baked beans (1B)

DINNER

• steak
• mushrooms
• courgette
• quark

EXTRAS

• banana
• satsuma
• NINE choco meringues (13.5)
• Kit Kat (11)
• 125 ml semi-skimmed milk (A)
• muesli bar (1/2 B)

TOTAL SYNS
25.5

EXERCISE
none

 

[hazysummer]

hurray for you - you did so well to draw a line under your whoopsie,you are making such great progress - physically and mentally too - you should be proud of yourself for not going on a mini-bender after your slip

 

[julesm]

Well done Pootler. You did really well. Don't worry about those extra syns. You've done brilliantly to draw a line under them.
And you could easily make up for it by keeping your syns low for a few days. And its good that you know where you went wrong- ie not having lunch.

Hope you're feeling better.

 

[julesm]

Hi Pootler, where have you beeeeeeen?!!!?? We are missing you!!!

Hope you're ok hun. xxxx

 

[Pootler]

Still here....

... again.

Went off the rails in London. It involved beer. Lots of beer. And Cadbury's. And, lord forgive me, Burger King.

I don't even LIKE Burger King.

I started off great, took my bag of free and superfree foods and Alpen Lights everywhere, but the beer was my undoing.

Got straight back on track as soon as I came home. I've been super busy though and just not in the mood to write everything down at the mo. I am keeping my food log though. Be lost without that.

I'll be back.

 

[Pootler]

I'm still here. And still losing. I'm a size 20 now - that's 3 sizes down in just 3 months! And yesterday I went to the shops to see what size I am and I was getting into size 18 skirts AND trousers with ease. My boobs and spare tire are still stubbornly a size 20 though. ;-)

So that's grand. But I notice that doing the plan is a whole lot easier when I'm not fretting about writing everything down in this diary. I still keep my nerdy spreadsheet and I'm sticking to the plan really well. I'm enjoying it much more now too, and I didn't even think that was possible because I loved SW from the start. So I think I'm going to stop keeping this diary altogether.

But I will be hanging round on the forum. I'm not gone. Thank you to everyone who read and commented - you really helped me get off to a flying start!