Sally's Scoff Box

[Sally_Cinnamon]

WEEK FOUR, DAY TWO (Sunday 16th May, 2010)

Good morning campers! I have had the laziest of mornings ever! I slept in, which is totally unlike me, and Susan had to waken me at 9.30am. So now I'm lounging around in my pyjamas like a complete Sunday-slob.

Yesterday was BUSY. One of my friends from my Monday night knitting group (yes, I am that nerdy) called to offer to take me to the Sheep and Fibre Festival. Susan's response was something along the lines of "Honey, I'll want to poke my eyes out after only two minutes of looking at yarn. Go with your friends. Look at yarn for hours. Save my eyes. I'll stay home and cook." Needless to say, I went with my friends and Susan stayed home and cooked.

I was remarkably restrained at the festival, buying only a mint and tea tree shampoo bar (for my poor, sore scalp), some Arabian Spice soap, and a skein of hand-spun alpaca yarn in the most gorgeous sea-foamy colours with a deep jade glitter thread and a thin chocolate brown thread running through. I haven't decided what I want to make with it yet, mostly because I only have one skein (it was one of a kind, the seller only ever makes one skein of anything unless it's a special order). It will probably end up as a hat for next autumn.

And I took 200 photographs. Of yarn and alpacas. I've already uploaded them to facebook so my poor friends can be bored to tears by them.

And when I got home, Susan had indeed been cooking. Dinner was on the table, waiting, and there was a huge vat of syn-free marinara sauce simmering away in the slow-cooker. I spent the night collapsed on the couch, intending to knit (those damn bears...) but never quite finding the energy.

Anyway, back to today. Up late, and all I've managed to do is add some detail to my Etsy cupcake cards. I need to photograph and list them later. That will be my task for the day. That, and knitting those damn bears.

10.00am

* Banana

11.00am

* Fat free Red Velvet Cake Yoghurt (it wasn't very good, actually. I doubt I'll buy this one again)
* Mug of hot water

12.30pm

* Leftover veggie chocolate chili and boiled rice 1 syn

3.30pm

* Mashed potato
* Baked beans
* 4 fish fingers 6 syns
* 3 slices of 35 calorie Flaxseed bread 1 HEB
* Glass of diet cherry Dr Pepper

6.30pm

* Two mugs of hot water

8.30pm

* Half a jacket potato with spring onions and a sprinkling of grated cheese 1/2 HEA
* Mug of hot water

9.00pm

* Skinny Cow Mint Truffle Ice Cream Bar 5 syns

10.30pm

* Wholegrain English Muffin, toasted 2 HEB
* Laughing Cow Cheese Triangle 1 HEA


TODAY'S STEPS: 1594

Syns for the day: 12

Syns remaining for the week: 79

 

[Sally_Cinnamon]

WEEK FOUR, DAY THREE (Monday 17th May, 2010)

Well, I had the munchies yesterday, didn't I? I wonder if, in part, it had something to do with not getting up until 9.30am and not really eating until lunchtime. Maybe I just pushed my eating clock back by a few hours. I'll have to keep an eye on that.

Anyway, this morning seems a little better, I already have my hot water and bowl of fruit at the side of me and hopefully things will go a little better today. Although, having said that, I didn't go off track with my syns, just seemed to eat a lot later on in the day.

It's a drizzly morning here in Kentucky, a lovely soft rain, and everything looks pretty and green. I've got a sort-of busy morning ahead of me--Susan has some online testing to complete so I'm heading out of the house to give her some peace and quiet and the use of the decent laptop (she uses the one I brought from England which is now about 5 years old and a bit unreliable). I'm going to take my knitting across to Starbucks and sit with a chai tea latte for a while. Plus, I've got to post Jessie-Mae's birthday present, stop off at the pharmacy and pick up some travel-sickness tablets, and drop off a pair of shoes for re-heeling.

Did I mention that my pedometer arrived on Saturday? I ordered it from Amazon a few days ago in a bid to see just how lazy I am and the conclusion so far is that yes, I am indeed lazy. I had it on all day yesterday and only managed something like 1500 steps. But then, yesterday was a particularly lazy day. My goal, I think, is to increase my day's activity by at least 500 steps a day until I get to a decent level of activity. We'll see how that goes!

7.00am

* Mug of hot water
* Bowl of chopped strawberries and banana

8.00am

* Mug of hot water

Well, my Starbucks plans have been quoshed. Eldest daughter woke up feeling dizzy and unwell and has gone back to bed. As it isn't exactly fair for me to gallivant off out and leave Susan to try to work and take care of a sick child, I'm staying home. I think R is mostly okay, she's 13 and pre-menstrual which always kicks her around a bit. Poor mite. So, instead of latte-ing, I've been curled up on the couch with my knitting and I'm proud to announce that I've finished one of the bridal bears for the wedding this weekend. Well, she isn't entirely finished, I need to pop to Michaels some time this week and pick up some navy blue organza ribbon to tie around her neck. And I need to get some more yarn because I don't have enough left for another bear. But, that aside, here is the grand unveiling of bridal bear...

Now I'm going to make some breakfast...

9.30am

* Mug of hot water
* Toasted wholegrain English Muffin 1 HEB
* Kraft cheese slice 1/2 HEA
* Egg, fried in PAM
* Morningstar Veggie Sausage Pattie 4 syns

11.00am

* Mug of hot water
* Fat free Blueberry Pie yoghurt

1.00pm

* Chana Masala
* Boiled Rice

5.00pm

* Potato salad made with boiled egg, chopped pickles, mustard and low-cal mayonnaise 5 syns

6.00pm

* Non-fat chai tea latte 1 HEA 2 syns

Took a break from the bears at my Monday night knitting group--mostly because the yarn makes my fingers go numb! So, I rustled up this little dishcloth for Izzy to give to her teacher (along with a box of Girl Scout Caramel Delite cookies that I've been hiding from everyone else) when school finishes in a couple of weeks time. I know it's a bit corny, an apple for teacher and all that. And it's far from the greatest thing I've knitted--I invented the pattern as I was going along. I might knit a couple more, with a bit more attention.

9.00pm

* Spinach and tomato pasta with homemade marinara sauce and two Laughing Cow Triangles 2 HEA


TODAY'S STEPS: 1858

Syns for the day: 11

Syns remaining for the week: 68

 

[Loopeylou]

What a gorgeous bear , you are so clever!!!
Dinner looks delicious too....i've uploaded some food pics onto my diary too now, great to look back on and to give other people ideas on how we can follow SW and eat amazing foods
xx

 

[Sally_Cinnamon]

Thanks Claire! The bears have become a bit of a signature thing--I knitted my first one this time last year when my niece was born, and since then I've knitted 6 more in different colours and yarns. After the bridal bears are done, I've got a black one to knit for Izzy's birthday in June, and a royal blue one to knit for a Christmas present (getting started early) and that's without the requests that come in in the meantime! They've been really well-received by everyone that has been given one and fortunately they don't take me that long to knit now that I know what I'm doing with them.

And I've been enjoying looking at your food pictures too--you're right, it's very inspiring to see what other people are eating and has certainly been giving me some great ideas for meals!

 

[Sally_Cinnamon]

WEEK FOUR, DAY FOUR (Tuesday May 18th, 2010)

Another day dawns, bright but not so sunny here in Kentucky. We've been promised better weather at the end of the week though, just in time for the wedding.

We're heading off to see Susan's brother today. It's election day, for the local mayor and for the senate candidate, and as Susan is still registered to vote in her brother's town that's where we have to go. And we'll probably get lunch over there so I need to save a few syns for that.

In other news, I'm now officially out of bear yarn which means a frantic search over the next couple of days to buy at least one more ball. We're hoping to track some down on our way home this afternoon, otherwise I'll be driving half-way round the state tomorrow. Either that, or we'll be giving them one finished bear and one bear without a head or arms. :8855:

8.00am

* Mug of hot water
* Bowl of chopped strawberries and banana

10.00am

* Mug of hot water
* Three slices of 35 calorie Flaxseed bread 1 HEB
* Grilled asparagus
* Sauteed mushrooms
* Two poached eggs

Oh my, this breakfast was divine. I can see it becoming a favourite. But I daren't tell you the state the kitchen was in after I made it. I'm not good at anything that needs continuous attention in the kitchen so three pans and a toaster was just too much. The asparagus were burning in the skillet, the eggs were boiling over next to them and it took me two attempts not to burn the toast. Well worth the effort though, I'll just try to be more co-ordinated next time.

2.00pm

* Two large glasses of iced water
* Steamed, herbed potatoes
* Steamed squash, broccoli, carrots
* Chicken breast with sauteed red peppers, portabella mushrooms and a dijon mustard sauce 2 HEB plus 5 syns

The syns for the chicken are a guestimate. We ate at a restaurant chain called Applebees for lunch and, after considerable debate, I settled on this dish because the menu said it was lower than 550 calories. Proud of myself for making a sensible choice, though, their menu is packed with cheesy, fried foods, or pasta with heavy sauces. Even their salad came with a tomato basil soup that had cream in it--and with a dressing on the salad would probably have been more syns than the chicken. That's twice in a row I've made good choices eating out. Hope it pays off at weigh-in...

5.00pm

* Mug of hot water

7.30pm

* Mug of hot water
* Spinach and tomato pasta
* Sauteed onions, asparagus, mushrooms, sweetcorn, green beans and spinach in a sauce made from a splash of passata and four Laughing Cow triangles 1 HEA

8.00pm

* Mug of hot water




STEPS FOR THE DAY: 4008 (Big hike on yesterday's step count because I spent a couple of hours trawling the shops for yarn...)
Syns for the day: 5

Syns remaining for the week: 63

 

[Loopeylou]

Good luck for bear yarn search we can't have a half finished bridal bear.....oh no!!
xx

 

[Sally_Cinnamon]

Good luck for bear yarn search we can't have a half finished bridal bear.....oh no!!
xx

I'm off out again right now to search for yarn! Fingers crossed...

 

[Sally_Cinnamon]

WEEK FOUR, DAY FIVE (Wednesday 19th May, 2010)

YARN TRAUMA! :argh: I spent two hours yesterday hunting for the yarn needed to finish the bridal bears, tried four different shops (including the one I bought the rest of it from only a month or two ago), and even had a very helpful craftgay ringing around all the stores he could think of to try to track some down. All to no avail. No-one sells it anymore I found some online but it will be a week or so before it gets to me. So, it seems that only one bridal bear will be making the trip to Iowa this weekend, and the other will have to follow in the post. Hardly the romantic, sweet gift I'd envisioned, separating the brides even before they're married!

Anyway, bridal bear number one is totally finished now and I'm very pleased with her...

I chose the navy and lavender ribbons as those are the colours the bridesmaids are wearing.

Back to today. We have a BUSY day ahead. I've got a few errands to run, and a stack of housework to do as we were out of the house pretty much all day yesterday and I didn't do anything. Plus, we'd left several boxes of books over at Susan's brother's house before we moved here which we brought back with us yesterday so now our study looks like a library exploded in it. And we have no spare shelves. Between us, we have literally thousands of books--that's what happens when one half of a couple already has a PHD in literature (and the books that were required to get the PHD) and the other half is collecting the books that will be required to get another PHD. You name it, we probably have it between us! In fact, when I moved to the States and we were deciding what I should bring and what I should leave in storage, we discovered at least a hundred duplicated books in our collected libraries. No-one, surely, needs FOUR copies of Milton's Complete Works? And why we had SIX (yes, six!) copies of Lady Chatterley's Lover between us is anyone's guess! Anyway, that's by the by. The point I was rambling towards is that we have too many books and nowhere to put them :8855:We'll figure something out at some point.

7.30am

* Mug of hot water

8.00am

* Mug of hot water
* Bowl of blueberries and chopped banana

11.00am

* Leftover pasta and veggies from last night

1.00pm

* Three slices of 35 calorie Flaxseed bread 1 HEB
* Grilled asparagus
* Sauteed mushrooms (this time sauteed in a splash of balsamic vinegar)
* Two poached eggs
* Starbucks nonfat chai tea latte 1 HEA 2 syns
* Fat free Cherry Cobbler yoghurt (Definitely one to have again)

2.00pm

* Two mugs of hot water

5.00pm

* Spicy black bean soup with Laughing Cow Cheese Triangle 2 HEB

7.00pm

* Moroccan chicken (marinated in lemon juice, garlic, cumin, coriander, turmeric, and cinnamon with a splash of olive oil) 3 syns
* Asparagus, green pepper, and carrots sauteed
* Spiced couscous
* Large glass of water

Flippin' giant jaffa cakes :8855:

I ate two. Entirely by mistake, of course... :sign0007: 12 syns should cover it.


Steps: 5400 - had quite an active day!

Syns for the day:17

Syns remaining for the week: 44

 

[Sally_Cinnamon]

WEEK FOUR, DAY SIX (Thursday 20th May, 2010)

Just remind me not to make those giant jaffa cake things again, will you? I ate two of the flippin' things last night. They were so good. but clearly two of them is not going to help matters. Plus, I just remembered that I'm going to have to weigh-in early this week, on Friday instead of Saturday, as we'll be at the wedding on Saturday and I won't be near my scales. So, tomorrow is weigh-day and I have the usual pre-weight day panic Must be good today...must be good today...must be good today...

7.30am

* Mug of hot water
* Bowl of blueberries and chopped banana

8.30am

* Mug of hot water

9.00am

* Mug of hot water
* Fat free lemon pie yoghurt

12.00pm

* Mug of hot water
* Refried beans and savoury rice

3.30pm

* 3/4 Skinny Cow Mint Truffle Ice Cream Bar (the rest of it had melted and fell off the stick ) 3 syns
* Potato salad with boiled egg, made with mustard and a splash of olive oil 3 syns

I have two of those giant Jaffa cake desserts in the fridge and I'm feeling a bit tired and was so tempted to have one. I even got out the tupperware box that they're in, but I managed to resist and put it back. It's weigh-in tomorrow morning and I don't want to jeopardise that. Instead, I sat down and looked around on here for a while and found the inspirational slide show and have spent ten minutes looking at the amazing transformations people have made. If I needed another reason to resist the Jaffa cake thing, that was it...

5.30pm

* Glass of diet cherry 7up
* Salad with lettuce, spinach, pepper, cucumber, carrot, broccoli, finely chopped roast turkey and turkey bacon, grated cheese 1 HEA
* Bread 1 HEB 7 syns
* 1 tablespoon caesar salad dressing 3 syns

Steps: 5756

So I didn't succeed in increasing my step count by 500 today, but as I've increased it from a paltry 1500 at the start of the week, I'm not too bothered. Tomorrow will be sedentary though, as we'll be on the road for 10 hours...

See you on the other side of the candy buffet... :8855:

Syns for the day: 16

Syns remaining for the week: 28

 

[Loopeylou]

The Jaffa cake looks amazing but I'm only going to make it when I have a dinner party when I can guarantee that it all gets used or taken away when the guests leave lol
Well done on resisting today though hunny.
Sorry to hear about the yarn.....hope your bulk buying from now onwards
Good luck for your early weigh in tomorrow
xx

 

[Sally_Cinnamon]

WEEK SIX, DAY ONE (Saturday 29th May, 2010)

Good morning campers! Well, I've been away from my food diary for just over a week and it's been a week of eating and drinking and general culinary hedonism The wedding was fabulous, the brides were gorgeous, and the food was plentiful and delicious.

I've tried to get back on the wagon since we got home, with varied success--when I've eaten at home I've been fine but we've eaten out every day this week which has been a bit complicated to navigate--Italian, Mexican, and the most fabulous crepes at a new cafe that has opened near us (and right opposite one of our favourite parks and outdoor pools). It serves sweet and savoury crepes (has about 40 varieties), savoury paninis (yum) and about 12 different flavours of authentic Italian gelato. It's a lovely, lovely place with great owners and is set to become one of our favourite places to eat--I just need to learn how to navigate the menu to do the least damage to my plan. I can't decide which is less damaging, a crepe or a panini (they offer wheat bread so I can use a HEB for that at least). Regardless, I can make healthy choices for the fillings--I can use a HEA for any cheese and the rest of the fillings are all fruit or veg or lean meat. For example, yesterday I had the Mary Anne crepe which was filled with egg, swiss cheese, onion, and spinach, but there can't have been more than an ounce of cheese in it, the rest was egg, onion, and spinach. And I can pretty much ask for whatever I want to be added or left out. But how many syns will a crepe work out at compared to the bread in a panini? Drinkswise, they offer iced teas (which I don't like) or coffee (again, I don't like), or water, so at least I won't be using unnecessary syns there. They do serve a bag of kettle chips or similar with every meal, but they give them to you in the bag so I can just pop them in my hangbag and bring them home for S or one of the girls to eat. I need to find a way of working this place into my plan, I've a feeling that it's going to become part of our regular eating and we're meeting friends there on Sunday morning for brunch. I'll figure it out though.

So what else? Well, we're having fun with a shrug this week. S had to wear a purple shrug at the wedding (as did all the bridal party) which even the brides apologized for in the end as it didn't quite go with the gorgeous navy satin and chiffon dresses they'd chosen. So, in the spirit of fun and affection, S has been taking the shrug with her wherever she goes and I've been snapping pictures of her wearing the shrug in unexpected places. We've been emailing pictures to one of the brides (who loves what we're doing and is very amused by it ) and we've set up a blog called The Daily Shrug. It's a lot of fun. I'll pop the url in my signature for anyone that wants to play along with us

And I'm back to the knitting. I'm waiting for the yarn to arrive so that I can finish the second of the bridal bears (they loved the bear that we gave them at the wedding), so in the meantime I'm working on more dishcloths for my Etsy shop. And I'm thinking that this week I might start on my first pair of socks

Okay, gabbling over now...

9.00am

* Mug of hot water
* Bowl of fresh raspberries, blueberries, and chopped bananas

Susan is making American pancakes, bacon, and french toast for the girls and their friends (we seem to end up with sleepovers every weekend). I'm staying out of the kitchen until the danger is passed :8855:


Steps:

Syns for the day:

Syns remaining for the week: 105

 

[Sally_Cinnamon]

WEEK SIX, DAY THREE (Monday 31st May, 2010)

So I've been a bad girl and haven't updated as much as I should the last couple of days. I've pretty much stuck on plan though--although I did have a panini at 6 Friends for brunch yesterday which was probably about 6 syns but other than that I've not really been too bad. Need to be a bit better disciplined until the end of the week.

9.00am

* Mug of hot water
* Bowl of blueberries and chopped banana
* Fat free Cinnamon Roll yoghurt

10.00am

* Mug of hot water
* Hard boiled egg

1.00pm

* Three slices 40cal wheat bread 1 HEB
* Two poached eggs
* Asparagus and mushrooms sauteed with balsamic vinegar

2.00pm

* Glass of diet cherry Dr Pepper
* Small bowl of leftover pasta with one Laughing Cow cheese triangle 1/5 HEA

5.00pm

* Vegetable kebabs (courgette, onion, pepper, tomato, mushroom)
* Potato salad (made with hard boiled eggs and pickles, mustard and low-fat mayonnaise) 3 syns
* Grated cheddar cheese 1 HEA, 1 HEB

9.00pm

*Skinny Cow Chocolate Truffle Ice Cream Bar 5 syns
* Luna Bar 9 syns


Steps: 1400 A terribly inactive day. Really need to try to do a bit more...

Syns for the day: 17/15

Syns remaining for the week: 57/105

 

[Sally_Cinnamon]

WEEK SIX, DAY FOUR (Tuesday 1st June, 2010)

Feeling fed up and fat today, and like I've made no progress at all :sigh: Trying to re-motivate myself but struggling with it.

8.00am

* Mug of hot water
* Bowl of blueberries and chopped banana

10.00am

* Mug of hot water
* Half an English muffin 1/2 HEB

1.00pm

* Mug of hot water
* Potato salad (as yesterday) 3 syns
* Sauteed peppers and onion
* Pasta 'n' sauce

1.30pm

* Glass of diet Cherry Dr Pepper

In other news, I finished knitting my first ever sock today! I started it over the weekend, it's taken me four days of on/off knitting but here it is, in all it's purple socky glory! I suppose it's more of an anklet (or as Susan calls it an "old-lady footie") than a true sock, but it still required heel-turning and lots of other complicated knitty stuff. I'm very proud of myself, just have to knit the other one now...

3.00pm

* Small bowl of homemade babyfood soup (basically lots of vegetables, made into a soup and then blended into a smooth soup. Yummy.)

6.00pm

* Glass of water
* Spaghetti squash
* Home made marinara sauce
* Parmesan cheese 1 HEB

8.00pm

* Skinny Cow Chocolate Truffle Ice Cream bar 5 syns
* Glass of diet Cherry Dr Pepper

It's getting late and I'm peckish but I don't know what to eat. Trying really hard to be extra good because we're going to see Susan's brother tomorrow and he's promised us a trip to Dairy Queen, which basically means 38 syns worth of Chocolate Extreme Midnight Truffle Blizzard and which will then leave me with 11 syns for the rest of tomorrow and Friday...do-able, but tricky...


Steps:

Daily syns: 8/15

Weekly syns: 49/105

 

[Sally_Cinnamon]

Actually, I just realized I'm a complete idiot and have totally miscalculated my syns over the last couple of days.

These are my syns so far this week...

Saturday: 15
Sunday: 15
Monday: 17
Tuesday: 8

So far this week that's a total of 55, which leaves me with 50 syns for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. So, if I have my ice cream tomorrow I'll have 12 syns left until Saturday. Hmmm. Maybe it IS as bad as I thought then... :8855:

 

[Sally_Cinnamon]

WEEK SIX, DAY FIVE (Wednesday 2nd June, 2010)

The day of the Dairy Queen!

We've been over to see Susan's brother today--his television has broken and is too big to fit into the back of his car so we took the truck over and helped him transport it to the repair shop. Susan had a few reservations about him leaving it at a place where he had to pay $30 just for the guy to look at it in the first place and was even more disconcerted when he said that he wouldn't even be able to look at it, let alone fix it (which was still debatable anyway) for at least two weeks. I was mostly intrigued by the sort of man that owns a place that functions as both a television repair shop and a tanning salon all in the same building. I kid you not. Right next to the piles of broken television was a stand full of various tanning oils, and just behind the counter was a partition behind which was a state of the art tanning bed. Weird.

Anyway, we dropped off the television and went to Dairy Queen. In terms of syns (and just common sense) it probably would have been better for me to have a burger and fries but I cannot, repeat cannot, got to Dairy Queen without having a Blizzard.

On the way home, we popped to the supermarket and bought stuff to make cupcakes for Izzy for school tomorrow--they finish for the summer and as it's her birthday over the break she wanted to take in cupcakes for her class. I made her these...

I'm rather pleased with them, I have to say. They're cute. And I haven't eaten any of them, which is even better. I also made another batch of the Black Forest cupcakes that were such a hit with my writing class, but this batch were for the local Humane Society. One of the workers there, Jenny, dropped off some more kitten food for us so I figured we'd say thank you with cupcakes.

And that's that.

8.00am

* Mug of hot water
* Bowl of blueberries and chopped banana

10.00am

* Mug of hot water

1.00pm

* Dairy Queen Chocolate Extreme Midnight Truffle Blizzard 35 syns

4.00pm

* Glass of diet Cherry Dr Pepper

7.00pm

* Glass of water
* Pork, cooked (in the slow cooker) with apples, onions, and sage
* Potato, mushroom, asparagus and spinach risotto

Steps: 4033

Syns today: 35

Syns left this week: 15

 

[Sally_Cinnamon]

WEEK SIX, DAY SIX

I had an "unofficial" weigh-in this morning. I'm not going to reveal the results though, because my real weigh-in day is Saturday so I don't consider any weight change real until then. But I gave in to the temptation to hop on the scales. I hate it when I have that feeling that I want to weight myself all the time, it's very emotionally unhealthy. The scales become "mood predictors" rather than a way of measuring my success.

Anyway, back to the day. It's the last day of school for the girls today which means that it's the last day of peace and quiet for Susan and me for the next ten, yes ten weeks. Not sure how we're going to get through it, to be honest. Becs will probably spend the whole time texting (she can send around 600 texts a day when she's in school so heaven knows how many she'll send when she's off school) and sulking in her room, Izzy will be fine if she has someone around to play with but Maddie (who lives next door) will be in daycare because her mum works. She does have a couple of friends living round the corner, in safe walking distance, so hopefully they'll be around. Susan will (fingers crossed) be working--we should hear about that in the next couple of days. And I'll be trying to stay busy.

It's not that I don't have stuff to do--I have plenty to do. I do the bulk of the housework (Susan cooks), and I'll no doubt get to play taxi-driver for the girls but we can't afford to spend many days out and about so we'll mostly be stuck at home. And when I'm stuck at home, even if I'm busy, there's a temptation to snack. I'm much better if I can get out of the house for a few hours. Anyway, whine over, just needed to acknowledge the threats to both my weight loss and my sanity that the next ten weeks pose...

Back to today.

I've done laundry. Lots of laundry. Three loads so far, in fact. I've decorated 30 cupcakes (see yesterday's diary for a photo) to take in to Izzy's school today but I'll have to take them later than I wanted to because our car is presently blocked in our driveway. That's another story. I've finished some cards for etsy, and taken photos. And now I'm watching (half-watching) an episode of Smallville while I wait for the man to finish cutting our grass so I can get the car out and take the cupcakes to Izzy...

6.30am - 11.00am

* Four mugs of hot water

11.30am

* Leftover spaghetti squash with homemade marinara and one Laughing Cow triangle 1/5 HEA

By the way, I have the most FABULOUS friends in the world. There was a knock on the door this afternoon and my friend from Monday night knitting appeared, clutching a big brown paper bag. She's majoring in Sustainable Agriculture at Uni with me, and is interning over the summer at the University farm/garden and at another organic garden in the city. She brought us these...

Fresh from the ground (picked this morning) red lettuce, spring onions, garden peas, and radishes. Now, what to make with them for dinner tonight...

And I've been busy uploading card pictures to etsy. These are the cards I've made today...

It was hard to get the colour to come out properly on this picture--they're a lavender and mint combination.

But I'm rather fond of this orange and lemon colourway...

Now, what to do with those radishes?

3.30pm

* Diet Pepsi
* Potato, mushroom, asparagus, and spinach risotto (leftover from last night) with some fat free cottage cheese mixed in.


Steps:

Syns today:

Syns remaining: 15

 

[Sally_Cinnamon]

WEEK SEVEN, DAY ONE (Saturday 5th June, 2010)

Another 2lb off this week :talk017:

I was just pondering, as I started today's food diary, how I'm starting my seventh week and have only lost 9lbs. Then it occurred to me that 9lbs isn't an "only". It might not be the huge losses that other people manage to have, but it's more than 1lb a week and that's been achieved with a weekend away and a wedding and eating out on average three or four times a week. So 9lbs is pretty flippin' good. And it's 9lbs lighter than I was six weeks ago. And I could tell yesterday when I put on a pair of trousers that I was less bloated around the middle. All good news

I need to buy new batteries for my scales today and I'm hoping that doesn't mean that they've been wrong all along and I've not lost anything at all When I got on them this morning, they displayed my weight as they always do but then after I'd got off, as they were switching off, they displayed the battery error message. So it's off to get new batteries and hope that I'll still be this chipper when the new batteries are in!

I've not been brilliant about updating here over the last couple of days, but I did finish knitting my first ever pair of socks...

There's a couple of mistakes in the pattern if you look closely but on the whole I'm rather delighted with my first foray into the world of hand-knitted socks. I've got yarn for another six pairs, all anklets like these but with slightly different designs. Watch this space.

The yarn came for Bridal Bear today so I have her to finish and get in the mail, then I want to knit a black bear for Izzy's birthday (which is in 13 days...) so I'd better get cracking.

What hurdles are ahead of me this week, in terms of my eating plan?

* Friends coming for brunch tomorrow. Susan is making quiche, bacon, and salad. I've promised them muffins. I'm going to make myself a SW quiche, packed with veggies, and eat that instead of the gruyere cheese quiche that Susan has planned. And I'm going to get some turkey bacon and have that instead of the usual stuff (it's impossible to trim American bacon the way you can with British stuff). Salad will be fine. As for the muffins--I've got three dozen to make (three different varieties: pumpkin and chocolate chip, sunny morning, gingerbread with lemon curd filling). I'm hoping that our friends will eat plenty of them (two adults and two children so that's not out of the realms of possibility) then I'll send them home with a box of muffins. And I promised my friend Shannon (the one who brought us all the fresh veggies the other day) some muffins as a thank you, so that should take care of at least another dozen. Then I'll hide them at the back of the fridge (or maybe even freeze them) and let my girls munch on the rest.

Other than that, I think we have a fairly clear week. No plans to eat out during the week--we did have a "date" with some friends for dinner and a classic movie ("The Graduate") on Wednesday but they've had to reschedule so although we might still go to see the movie, we won't have dinner. The real challenge will be keeping myself busy and avoiding the boredom munchies.

On with the day...

10.00am

* Mug of hot water
* English Muffin, toasted 1 HEB
* Kraft Cheese Slice 1/2 HEA
* Egg, fried in PAM
* Morningstar Veggie Sausage Pattie 4 syns

10.00am to 1.00pm

* Four mugs of hot water

1.30pm

* Quorn and lentil curry
* Boiled rice

Huge portion. Stuffed now. But as I'm about to go grocery shopping being stuffed will at least put me off buying unnecessary snacks.

(Did I mention that I'm quite sure no-one can eat as much as me...?)


Steps:

Syns for the day: 4/15

Syns left for the week: 101/105

 

[Sally_Cinnamon]

Allie, those are exactly the socks my eldest daughter wants (she's 13 and a bit of a fashion diva...). I've seen an adorable pattern for a knee-high sock with the cutest trellis pattern and a ruffle and ribbon tie at the top...may have to knit those next...

Brunch will be lovely, I just have to be prepared

 

[Loopeylou]

Well done on your loss this week and 9lb's in total is fab! so be very proud
I'm back from a wonderful 8 days in sunny Lake District, lovely golden tan which was not expected....back to reality now though lol
Hope your keeping well
xx

 

[Sally_Cinnamon]

Hello Clare! Glad you had a good time--I love the Lake District and miss it terribly :sigh: Hoping for flight prices to come down (yeah, right) so that we can get back over to the UK to see everyone soon.