Saltdog's Magic Shrinking Formula

[Saltdog]

that's the spirit...and I'd sort of ignored your Xmas blip as Im sure I'd have been the same if Id started before xmas too!

I see you live in orkney - Im very envious. I had a holiday in the highlands and Skye this year ( and we waved to the Orkneys from the top of scotland too I think? ) and I was blown away by the beauty. Got some amazing photographs and only a few midge bites in getting them lol . I also got some Sheila Fleet jewellery and I believe she's from your part of the world too.

x

Thanks for your kind words piX. Orkney can be a lovely place to live but we've not had much to be envious about over the winter! The wind has been relentless. Luckily it's nice again today but it really was beginning to get tiresome.

Sheila Fleet is indeed from here. In fact, I'm very good friends with her son Martin and his wife Mairi. We grew up together and still meet up regularly for meals, drinks etc. Glad to hear you're flying the flag for their business! X

 

[piX128]

Thanks for your kind words piX. Orkney can be a lovely place to live but we've not had much to be envious about over the winter! The wind has been relentless. Luckily it's nice again today but it really was beginning to get tiresome.

Sheila Fleet is indeed from here. In fact, I'm very good friends with her son Martin and his wife Mairi. We grew up together and still meet up regularly for meals, drinks etc. Glad to hear you're flying the flag for their business! X

I made the window display person ( Im sure he had a proper title ) pull apart a window in Plummer Dept store in Edinburgh to get the necklace that caught my eye. They had a huge range of her work in the store but not a second copy of the one I'd seen. They were very accommodating, but he did sniff at me a bit when he first had to come and help - grin. I'm also a Mair ( welsh rather than scottish ) !

I'll stop rambling now - grin

 

[Saltdog]

Hiya folks,

I never managed to get on yesterday because I was off work ill. Nothing serious, just a bit of a bug I think. Anyhoo, I'm back today and glad to say that even though I wasn'y well, I managed to stay on plan which wasn't easy.

I'll not bother putting my Tuesday menu on because I can't really remember what I had but I will say I had the Smash pizza for tea. I either made it wrong or it just wasn't for me but I thought it was horrible! I am so gutted because I love pizza and thought this would be a great comprimise. The base still tasted like potato and it just didn't work in a pizza IMHO. Oh well, still plenty of recipes out there yet to try.

However, my plan for yesterday is:

Breakfast
Usual (Toast (Hex B & 2 Syns), Mullerlight and Banana)

Lunch
Ham and cheese toastie (6 Syns and Hex A)
Apple

Dinner
Pasta
Extra Lean Mince
Low fat Dolmio Bolognese Sauce (3 syns for 1/3 jar)

I also drank a couple of buckets of water!!

Total Syns for the day: 11

 

[EmmyR1984]

sorry the smash pizza didn't live up to expectations

good on you for staying on plan when you felt yuck x

 

[Saltdog]

I probably did it wrong Em! I won't be trying it again though. Not when there are so many lovely recipes yet to be tried on SW.

Yay! It's Friday! POETS day!!

I had another good 100% day yesterday:

Breakfast
Toast (HexB) and Flora Light (2 Syns)
Banana
Mullerlight

Lunch
Open Omelette
45g Reduced fat cheese (HexA)
Tomato
Ham
Apple

Tea
Skinless Chicken Breast
Flava-It Aromatic Thai Marinade (3.5 Syns for 1/2 Sachet)
Green Pepper
Large Onion
Sweet Potato Wedges
Sweetcorn

Snack
Tesco Finest Belgian White Chocolate Cookie (6 Syns)

Total Syns for the day: 11.5

The cookie was a bit of an indulgence but so lovely and kept me within my max Syns for the day so hopefully it will be ok.

Fingers crossed I can keep a 100% weekend record too. Shouldn't be too hard with any luck.

 

[piX128]

we all need a bit of indulgence now and again and, as you said, you were still within your limit... well done for sticking to it while you were ill too. hope you're feeling better x

 

[Saltdog]

we all need a bit of indulgence now and again and, as you said, you were still within your limit... well done for sticking to it while you were ill too. hope you're feeling better x

Thanks piX.

Feeling a lot better now. Especially since it's Friday. X

 

[BopKatie]

I probably did it wrong Em! I won't be trying it again though. Not when there are so many lovely recipes yet to be tried on SW.

Yay! It's Friday! POETS day!!

I had another good 100% day yesterday:

Breakfast
Toast (HexB) and Flora Light (2 Syns)
Banana
Mullerlight

Lunch
Open Omelette
45g Reduced fat cheese (HexA)
Tomato
Ham
Apple

Tea
Skinless Chicken Breast
Flava-It Aromatic Thai Marinade (3.5 Syns for 1/2 Sachet)
Green Pepper
Large Onion
Sweet Potato Wedges
Sweetcorn

Snack
Tesco Finest Belgian White Chocolate Cookie (6 Syns)

Total Syns for the day: 11.5

The cookie was a bit of an indulgence but so lovely and kept me within my max Syns for the day so hopefully it will be ok.

Fingers crossed I can keep a 100% weekend record too. Shouldn't be too hard with any luck.

Aww sorry to hear you didn't enjoy the smash pizza! Food is looking absolutely delicious and well done for having a within syn indulgence! xxx

 

[EmmyR1984]

food looks great today

hope you have a good weekend x

 

[Saltdog]

Hi folks,

I really must try to get posting over the weekend. My diary is slipping and dare I say it, my motivation slightly when I don't have the positive feedback from here. It's not been a good weekend really and of course there was the obligatory (my GF made me do it!!) half bottle of wine on Friday night and a Chinese last night (although I had a chow mein so it's not all bad). I'll try and remember what I can about my last few day's food diary:

Friday
Breakfast
Usual (Hex B + 2 Syns)

Lunch
Either Omelette or Jacket Potato (Hex A)

Dinner
Sirloin Steak
Fried Onion
SW Chips
Garden Peas

Half bottle of dry white wine (12 Syns)

Total Syns for the day: 14

Saturday
Breakfast
Fried egg on toast with brown sauce (4 Syns)
Banana
Mullerlight

Lunch
New York Bagel (11.5 Syns?!?!?! Should've really checked this before eating it!)
Flora Light (2 Syns)

Dinner
Beef sausages x 6 (15 Syns :cry
Baked beans
Mashed Potato with Flora Light (2 Syns)

Total Syns for the day: 34.5 - Oops!

Sunday
Breakfast
Usual (Hex B + 2 Syns)

Lunch
Jacket Potato
Chicken and Sweetcorn Mayo (2 Syns)

Dinner
Beef Chow Mein (8.5 Syns)

Snack
Jacob;s Milk Chocolate Club biscuit (5.5 Syns)

Total Syns for the day: 18

Hmm, I never even realised how bad my weekend was until I just added it all up here. Oh well, if I manage to lose any weight at all at WI tomorrow morning I'll be shocked. I don't really deserve to with that performance. I really must try harder because I know it's my weekends that are bringing me down.

I started drinking green tea last night because I've heard it can boost your metabolism. Can anyone here confirm or deny that? I'm actually pleasantly surprised that I quite enjoy it though so it can't hurt.

Fingers crossed someone is smiling down on me for WI tomorrow morning. I'm going to need it!! Lol.

Kev

 

[piX128]

good luck at the weigh in - and even if you've not lost you can see where the problem area might be.

if weekends are difficult , how can you (and your gf ) help with them as it will be really demoralising to work so hard over the week and then feel you've gone backwards each weekend. Ive got some great chinese style recipes which might work instead of a chinese, though I totally understand the appeal of a takeaway and the chow mein wasnt that bad ..it just didnt need the choc biscuit on the same day ;-)

your bigger problem was saturday but now you know bagels are that high - grin! I'm not a sausage lover ( fnarr fnarr ) but are quorn sausages a bearable substitute? They've got to be way less syns which means you could have some lovely beefy gravy and still have less syns , or just dont eat 6 normal ones. And anyway, you could have had the bagel or the sausages( almost!) ..but the two together on the same day was a bit lethal !

I've hit a bit of a plateau after my initial weight loss, even though I'm not eating much at all - not got much of an appetite at the mo.

take care xx

 

[piX128]

ps I love green tea, esp the one with earl grey. Not heard about the weight loss connection before

 

[Purple Patsy]

Hope your WI goes well. Maybe you'll get away with your weekend indulgences. If not at least you know why it happened.

Hope the rest of your week is good whatever happens.

 

[Saltdog]

Well folks, a 1lb weight loss for my WI this morning. I feel quite lucky as I don't really believe I deserved it over the weekend. It's still a step in the right direction but I'm not feeling over optimistic about my mini-goal for Valentines day any more. That's no reason to stop aiming for it though. I'm learning with this diet all the time. Granted, I should possibly look at Syn values for food before I eat them but hey ho, we live and learn. I just got the new SW Food Directory for 2012 so it should be even easier to count those Syns.

I got on my Wii Fit Plus last night. Turns out it's been longer than expected since I did it last. My last fitness test, the game reliably informed me, was 343 days ago!! Oops. Anyhoo, it was good fun getting back in to it a wee bit last night. I don't think I puched myself enough on it and may have to resort back to the slightly more punishing EA Active but it was good fun.

Food for yesterday:

Breakfast
Usual (Hex B and 2 Syns)

Lunch
Open Omelette (Hex A)

Dinner
Home made burgers (amazing recipe)
SW Chips
Baked Beans

Total Syns for the day: 2

Now that's how I should spend my weekends!!

 

[EmmyR1984]

well done on the loss it's all a step in the right direction x

 

[Purple Patsy]

Well done on the loss. Onwards and Downwards

 

[BopKatie]

Well done on the loss xxx

 

[Arctic-BNG]

Hi Saltdog!

Found your thread! Good reading.

I've heard about green tea and metabolism, don't know if it's true though. It's given me a thought as I only said tonight I think I'm drinking way too much coffee, 3 cups before nine in the morning! I'm sure there is a box of green tea with lemon in my desk??? Time for a drawer search in the morning!

There are cheaper syn options from the take out menu, Chicken and black bean is 4.5 I think? Off the top of my head, and of course boiled rice is free! OR save a take out for a Tuesday night, then it is a sort of weigh day treat, obviously after your WI though! lol

Good luck with the exercise!

 

[Saltdog]

Hi Saltdog!

Found your thread! Good reading.

I've heard about green tea and metabolism, don't know if it's true though. It's given me a thought as I only said tonight I think I'm drinking way too much coffee, 3 cups before nine in the morning! I'm sure there is a box of green tea with lemon in my desk??? Time for a drawer search in the morning!

There are cheaper syn options from the take out menu, Chicken and black bean is 4.5 I think? Off the top of my head, and of course boiled rice is free! OR save a take out for a Tuesday night, then it is a sort of weigh day treat, obviously after your WI though! lol

Good luck with the exercise!

Cheers mate!

The way I see it with the green tea, it's free so it can't hurt to try it. Plus, it's making me pee a lot so that's all weight coming off!! Lol. I've never been a coffee drinker so I don't really have that problem. I occasionally get my caffeine fix from a diet coke. I'm trying to stop myself drinking too much of the stuff though. I was drinking far too much of it and although it's free on the SW diet, the sweeteners still make it a killer for your teeth! Me ex is a dental nurse and was very obsessed with these things.

That's really interesting about the black bean being less Syns. The new SW Food Directory that came home today has a take away section so I'll be studying it carefully. I do like the odd take away and wouldn't like to deprive myself completely. I don't have them every week but just a treat every now and again. Like yourself, I like to cook a lot and often cook home take away food. In fact, along with the Food Directory I bought the SW Curry Heaven book. Can't wait to try it out. Probably Thursday night for the first attempt. I have my son every Tuesday and Wednesday night and he's a wee bit young for curries still. I'll get him trained eventually though!

Decided to give up on the Wii Fit Plus. I just did a 33 minute workout and only burned 180 calories. If I'm going to do a bit of exercise in the house, EA Active is far superior. I get a real sweat on doing it. I'm still aiming to get outside as well but that's definitely not an option with my son in bed. It all helps.

 

[Saltdog]

Back in the office. I don't mind Wednesdays. It's where the 2nd half of the working week starts so it's then a nice easy downhill bringing us in to the weekend!! I probably should be working more but I've got a wee bit of spare time and feel that since I stopped smoking, I should still be entitled to the same comfort breaks.

Had a good day again yesterday:

Breakfast
Toast (Hex B + 2 Syns)
Mullerlight
Banana

Lunch
Jacket Potato
Tuna Mayo (2 Syns)
Apple

Dinner
Pasta with SW Pasta Sauce and grilled chicken

Supper
Mullerlight

Total Syns for the day: 4

I also had 2 cups of green tea yesterday and am going to try and keep that up for a while to see if it makes a difference.

I'm slightly stiff after my Wii Fit session last night but I'm guessing that's just from the lunges. At the time I didn't really feel like I'd had much of a workout. Going to start a 9 week programme with EA Active 2 tonight. Last time I did it, I knew about it!! For anyone with a console at home who sometimes can't get out to the gym or the weather's too bad to exercise outdoors, I thoroughly recommend it.

Kev