Sophie's Slimming World and Cinema critiques!

[Cheese Thief]

Hey hun, glad your editing is all out of the way now and you can have some much needed you time. Sounds like you deserve a nice break after doing those 3 projects all at once! Have fun in Covent garden today, I'm so jealous as I'm stuck in today doing coursework. Having said that it's probably the best place for me as it's absolutely throwing it down outside. Considering heading out for a swim but I really think I've got the lazy bug today!

Hope you manage to get away for a break if money things allow. You can get some great deals this time of year, all the euro Christmas market places are pretty cheap atm.

Wish I had the patience/talent to make handmade gifts, they sound fab. The closest I got this year was one of those photo calenders you can make up online, it's for Chris and I've put pictures of all our memories from the last few years along with some of my favourite quotes. It took me about 2 hours to get it all perfect but it's honestly one of the best gifts I've ever got someone, not bad for £15!

I'm crap with tablespoons too, it's not really mattered that much to date as I've still got lots to lose, but need to be a bit stricter if I want to keep having decent losses once I get smaller.

Anyways I'm off, have a fab day and good luck for WI tomorrow xx

 

[Tetris]

-3 today woohoo! That means I've lost the * week gain and 2lbs more. Hello 6st award and ONEDERLAND! :O I am no officially under 200lbs and in the 100's bracket I am 199lbs and my first goal is 185lbs or so- it's really in sight now!
I now weigh 14st 3, which means I am pretty close to the 13's!! Crikey! Insane! Happy bunny!

 

[Cheese Thief]

YEYEYEYE!! What a fab result! Well done on getting into Onederland, I can only assume you didn't like my company as I've only just made it into Two-derland this week!
Bet it feels amazing to be teetering on the edge of the 13's! Have you decided on 13 st 4lbs as your ultimate goal or just planning to see how it feels like? xxx

 

[Tetris]

Cheese Theif- callendar sounds lovely!! I want to make something personal and handmade for G but he is allllways around! I might order some prints and make a sort of scrapbook thing but I'd have to scrapbooo at a coffee shop or something haha.

One year I made beautiful hand made photo albums for my aunts, dad and grandma (one each!) of arty pictures from over the years of their kids/grandkids... They came out so well! I bound card with string and hand made the lot... But it was SO time consuming AND the prints were expensive (even though ordered online!) took forever to chop boarders off he hundreds of pictures because hey were all oddly cropped! I had a paper cutter but still took forever!

It was raining in covent garden yoo yesterday hehe! We ended up putting our name in the hat for last minute tickets to The Book of Mormon and we got them!! They raffle off all of the best seats that are saved for press that dont show just two hours before the event- so we got front row tickets worth £75 each for £20 each! Fantastic!
Because we didnt have much time (and had to kill half an hour near by the theatre before they called the names) we stuck nearby and I had very intense sugar cravings again! Went to this pick n mix of dried fruit and turkish delights etc and got a few bits there, then split a fudgepacker brownie from the curzon theatre- they have the BEST brownies there! Back in my fatty days I used to have a lot of film meetings there and would religiously get one several times a week sometimes!
Anyway- half one plus 3 turkish delight and a couple of small pieces of honeycone wrapped in yoghurt, and a fairly big piece of glazed dried banana... Will give that all of yesterdays syns. I decided though that I had had enough calories there so just had a couple of theatre snacks (beef jerky (1.5) and an alpen light) and skipped the carby high cal japanese meal (pre WI? No thanks!)

I had a small cup of oat cereal for other part hexB and A when I got home. Lunch was trout with salad.
Feeling very good about skipping the japanese food- wasnt hungry but did really want it!

Today I am meeting a friend in town and am going to be drinking! Post WI treat. Will have lunch (more trout) before I go but unlikely that I'll have dinner if I am drinking.
Might be going to Geeg's bf's gig after but didnt get much sleep.so might be knackered.
X

 

[Bettyboop23]

-3 today woohoo! That means I've lost the * week gain and 2lbs more. Hello 6st award and ONEDERLAND! :O I am no officially under 200lbs and in the 100's bracket I am 199lbs and my first goal is 185lbs or so- it's really in sight now!
I now weigh 14st 3, which means I am pretty close to the 13's!! Crikey! Insane! Happy bunny!

WOOHOO Well Done!!! That is so achievement such an inspiration!!! I have been doing much better in hotels myself the last few weeks (4.5 off in last 2 weeks) so I am really happy, onwards and downwards

 

[Summer86]

Fantastic loss Hun! 6 stone is an awesome loss, well done. Those brownies sound epic xx

 

[cheekychinchilla]

Wow! Well done on the loss mate. 6 stone That's so awesome!

Really cool you got those tickets too.xx

 

[Tetris]

Thanks lovelies!

Today I had 4 pints of strongbow throghout the night= 1060 cal. Breakfast was half an apple and a banana, lunch was one pice of trout (150 cal) and some lettuce and salad cream light (30 cal) plus two alpen light's just now (70cal x2)- soooo around 1500 cal! Not too bad!!!

Had a good night! Hung out with my friend Sol then went to see my friend Dom perform a charity gig and saw my friend Geeg after nice to go out and socialise (without G! As horrible as it is to say- lol! But nice to get space and talk to other people!)

There is a party tomorrow though (uhoh) so will probably drink more! :/

 

[Tetris]

Very quick foodie update-

EE today:
____

B- Spaghetti bolognase (lol! Hangover breakfast!) with gluten free spaghetti (made of corn and rice - not bad! A bit less slippery and more of a wholemeal pasta kinda texture) and the bolognase was packed with superfree but did have a banana just before too. Sprinkle of cheese (half HexA)

L- Trout, hard boiled egg, salad, salad cream (1)

D- cereal made of rice mixed with HexB oat cereal, milk (hexA2), golden syrup (2),

Snacks- Grapes at cinema, two meringues (5 syns)
____

Felt a bit of a dodgy day today as am sure I went over HexA allowance... was hangover hungry all day but felt the need to have a low cal day to make up for the drinking. Oh well, another time.
x

 

[Cheese Thief]

Sounds like you're doing well at handling the boozy nights and keeping it pretty low calorie. I haven't let myself have a drink since starting SW (except on holiday) as I'm scared stiff of losing control and eating rubbish/drinking 10 pints, but with Christmas coming up it can't continue indefinitely. Any tips for staying in control while on the booze? xx

 

[Tetris]

Hey CT!
I was scared to drink to start with too. I started off by doing vodka cokes with friends where I was bringing my own stuff- I saved up 50 syns that week and measured out 50 syns worth of vodka (cant remember how much vodka that was but it was a lot- around half a standard 75cl bottle) so basically I had my allowance then had nothing else! I did that a few times (and believe me, that was enough to get trashed on and I was a right heavyweight!) but think I usually had a less good loss than normal... But recently I have been more relaxed with it and followed dinking with a detox very low calorie day/'fast' ish day a couple of days later and it has worked well! Got a -5 that week I had a big japanese food stuff my face day AND drank 2 bottles of wine, so clearly the detox days helped to balance it (though am guessing it was to do with the good part of the menstral cycle too!)
It is a trial and error kinda thing I think, but we've gotta live! And we have to make SW work for our lifestyles. Have had a great time drinking recently!

 

[Tetris]

Didnt go to the party last night as I ended up having a fight with G when I was supposed to be getting ready. Same old stuff, me getting fed up with things and having a go at him. Threatened quite strongly to leave him too:/
Calmed down in the end and wasnt in the mood to go partying anymore. We chatted for a while in a civil manner then went to see the new Hunger Games film 'Catching Fire'. It was really good!! I loved the first one and read the books (gave up half way through the last one though lol) and this one was fantastic too!
Will try to not give anything away but there were a couple of things I didnt like- there was one part that I thought was lacking, an event that happens in the fog. In the book it made me cry, but the film didnt develop the situation very well and I thought brushed it off too quickly. But to balance that out- Katniss' speech bit near the start that got to me way more than in the book!
I also thought the first half was too dragged and the second half too rushed, but otherwise it was really good. annoying that (like many trilogies) it ended incomplete, but will just have to wait until next year I guess
I love both parts so far and the books were good too but the third book lost me.
Has anyone seen Battle Royale? Similar theme, less sci fi elements and more gritty- love that film too!
Anyway, probably a 7.5/10 from me for this one a must see if you enjoyed the first, but you really need to have seen the first film to get it properly!
___

Was a late showing so we got home at like 3am! Got to bed at about 4am and slept unil 3.30pm :| woah! Had been shattered though and not sleeping so great recently, so a good catch up!
Had a banana and kiwi for breakfast at 4pm (lol!) and later while doing a food shop got all dizzy and desperste for something nice again :/ we had a £8 off £30 spend voucher that was about to expire so when we realised had to leave fast as we wanted to grt to the fruit amd veg stall too before it shut. In Sainsburys I felt so crap though! Really stupid to food shop when due a meal!

I felt torn earlier as really wanted a naughty meal out but also realise that I've been really relaxed about the this week and I believe this is the week in my cycle where I am due the best loss.
I have had quite a bit of gluten free rice cereal which I am allowing as a 'free' since there is ONLY rice in it, but food optimising thinks it should be 5.5 syns a bowl. Also probably over doing my HexA as I've been slacking about measuring milk and weighing cheese :/ not sure why this is all happening but I feel like since I allowed gluten free carbs again I've been struggling to do red days again!!
So anyway, I decided to resist my urges and since I'd got some reduced to clear low fat sausages (70p!) and had loads of bacon due to expire soon, I made a biiig fry up with fried onions, peppers, kidney beans, amazing scrambled eggs (2 with just one yolk and cheese on top- was the best eggs I've had like EVER! :O ) the whole meal was soooo good! The sausages were sainsburys reduced fat british pork sausages and they are hard to find values for online but one thread mentioned they were 1.5 syns each which sounds good (93 cal each) best low fat ones I've tried yet! Yum yum.
Anyway, that has cured my food cravings nicely. I am going to have another Red day tomorrow too and I might make a food plan for the week for once as I never do that and might help me stay on track a bit!

 

[Cheese Thief]

Typed this out last night and when I checked my laptop today realised I hadn't posted:

Yeah I bet, I miss drinking. I never used to drink loads but nothing beats a good blow out now and again. I'll have to have a night out in Prague so probably the best way is just to take enough money out with me for 3-4 drinks or something. That's a good idea with the vodka, amazing how much you got too. I love snowballs at Christmas so will have to syn out a bottle of Advocaat then I know when to stop - LOL @ how alcoholic that makes me sound! Just checked and Advocaat is pretty high syned - 35ml is 4.5 syns! Not missing out on my fave xmas tipple for no-one though!

Just saw above post. Sorry things haven't been good with G, glad you enjoyed your night though in the end. I was a bit disappointed by Catching Fire, I saw the first one three times at the cinema because I absolutely loved it, then I read the books and I've been looking forward to this movie ever since. I guess it's just difficult to get the back story across within the time limits of a film and I thought at times without that the second film seemed pretty similar to the first. I think I'll watch it again when its out on DVD and hopefully I'll enjoy it a bit more as I won't have such high expectations. I know what you mean about that poison fog scene, it was much better in the books. I didn't hate it or think it was a bad film overalll, I loved Jennifer Lawrence and the amazing dresses etc, think I'd just looked forward to it so much it was never going to live up to expectations.

I love it when you can pick up some bargains from the reduced section, usually it's cream buns and stuff at the shops near us but yesterday managed to get bacon! I've been finding it harder to do red lately, with this cold weather I'm really enjoying my carbs. Hope you're right and have your biggie loss this week, might even get you in the 13's! xx

 

[Tetris]

Shame you didnt love Catching Fire! Sounds like you had massive expectations for it.
I think on further reflecion that the other tributes were under developed for the most part. The arena stuff was way too fast! Tick-tock was over way too quickly but it made one part of the film so tense! Most of it was really different to how I imagined actually. HOW HOT WAS FINNICK?! Crap, I was ooglig over him. Especially pre arena- that sort of charm and beauty in a man is intimidating LOL. I find Peeta so annoying though *sigh* and not very attractive. He is the same MBTI personality type as me (ENFP) and Katniss and Gale are the same as G (INTJ) lol! I love their characters! But their types are my best match so that is probably why, and maybe I dislile Peeta because I dislike myself or some Freudian crap like that. Not that I am particularly lile him in any way. Sorry about the MBTI tangent any of y'all know your types?

 

[Cheese Thief]

Just did that personality test and I'm INFJ - it definitely fits with my obsessive planning nature (booking and planning holidays and trips months in advance!) and how I cope with stress better if I can get work done well before the deadline.

The summary from the test describes INFJ's: "They regularly have to face the difficulties of bringing dreams into reality. The time and effort it takes is always more than what their intuition initially suggested. They are determined, perseverant, inspired and often see things just around the corner, into the near or far future." - Completely reminds me of myself, especially with things like planning my career change to go back to uni etc. Glad you mentioned it as I find this stuff pretty interesting!

I too agree that Peeta is a complete sap! In spite of my initial thoughts my friend has pursuaded me to go an see CF again with her on Thur, she thinks I'll like it more second time around. I'm not sure but willing to give it a go as I really WANT to love it, I just didn't! I think sometimes though when I've read the book I have images of what happens so clearly mapped out in my own head that the movie just doesn't live up to my imagination! And like you say, I wouldn't mind spending a bit more time looking at Finnick!

 

[traveljody]

I'm in two minds whether to see CF or not, I got mum a cinema voucher last xmas and we need to use it soon, I saw the first of the series on a plane but have never read the books!

Despite having recently eaten a large SW roast I am now craving sausages , I bought the Tesco low choice ones and had been counting them as 1 syn each but apparently they are only 0.5 so I will most definitely be quadrupling up next time round. I spent a fortune on food shopping Friday and I feel like the fridge is empty again already which sucks majorly, luckily my office is about 3 min walk from a large Tesco and often they have reduced meat so I will need to stock up.

6 stone is an AMAZING weightloss, do you look at your old photos and feel like you are looking at someone else? When hubby and I first got together I was a slimish 16 and was always clothes shopping, I absolutely love Jane Norman but I haven't been able to fit into anything from there for about 4 years! If/when I get slim enough, I will be in there shopping without a budget, that's a scary thought

 

[Tetris]

CT- INFJ WOOO! That's one of my two relationship matches actually. It's also the rarest type ;D less than 1.5% of the world is INFJ (out of 16 types!) very 'magical' type. And one of the 4 types (as is mine and Gerard's INTJ) that is led by intuition- means we are the weirdest with the wackiest senses of humour but also have the most creative brains- NICE RESULT!

I love MBTI, it's like star signs but scientific, there is so much to learn about yourself through it as well as about other people. As an INFJ I wouldn't be surprised if you OH was a similar type to me as it's an 'opposites attract' kinda thing, you are most suited to ENTP and ENFP and I get a bit of an ENFP vibe off of Chris from what you've said

I'm not sure CF will grow on you round two- but more Finnick time mmm! hahahaha...
I totally know what you mean about your imagination painting such a picture when reading that the film can ruin it... I kinda rushed through the book and don't remember it in huge detail, but I do think they under developed the tribute's characters in the film which was part of what made the book so great- oh the feels when stuff went wrong to those beloved characters!!
I really want to re-watch it actually I hated Finnick in the book but holy crap I loved him in the film LOL.

TravelJody- SW roast, mmm! I bet you could throw some sausages into a roast situation quite nicely
These ones from Sainsbury's were so good! I was chuffed at the cumberland be good to yourself ones as I had no idea sausages were even an option with SW, but these 'low fat British pork sausages' from Sains were WAY better- actually, they were better than a lot of the herby expensive ones I tried before SW that I never liked much haha! The BGTY ones were OK but nothing special, 0.5 syns also but I'd rather splurge a coupla extra syns on something nicer. Let me know what you think of the Tesco ones! Maybe they're even better and also lowlowlow syn!

You know what's weird? I was SO PSYCHED to get to 5st off but 6st off AND 'ONEderland' just didn't excite me so much- what the hell!? haha... I think I get more excited by getting into the next stone bracket- can't wait to be in the 13's! But also by NSV's, I am just dying to call myself an official size 14 now but my size 16 primark dresses aren't loose at all- damn shops all having different awkward sizes!
Jane Norman- never been there! Probably too expensive for me, I literally only clothes shop at supermarkets and occasionally New Look sale items cheap git or what? But I always ruin clothes by rolling around in mud on a shoot or getting paint on them or whatever, haha...


Food today was a good low cal Red day. Had cod and chicken which needed using up, lots of veg. Didn't eat much though actually- made lunch at 4pm and was really hungry- until I came to eat it... and then wasn't that hungry :S so I had half of my lunch and had the rest for dinner. 120cal of cod, 1 chicken breast (marinaded it and grilled some mozzerella on top of it), some kidney beans, some veg, a meringue and a banana and apple... under 1000 cal I'd say! Lots of things but small portions...

WI tomorrow for my mid-week start-week WI, so will see how things have shifted since Thurs. I feel like I am due a treat, so might have some rice tomorrow or go out for a meal or something. Two low syn red days in a row- phew... Just goes to show how much harder it is once out of the red routine- these EE days and rice has made me want carbs more again! Or maybe it's the weather.

G and I had a bit of a bonding day today, we talked loads and we decided we needed to get out of here and have a mini break to bond some more (this house is like a prison!) and so we're thinking of doing a short trip to Paris and nip to Disneyland on the way I'M OBSESSED WITH DISNEY. It's not even funny. Last night I felt so sad listening to disney music because I realised it wasn't real and Aladdin wasn't going to show me the world with his magic carpet. *cry*
I need to grow up LOL! But seriously... nothing makes me happier than Disneyland and I'd be psyched to go- even though I was just at DisneyWORLD this summer! We'd also do some romantic Paris stuff which would be nice. Just need to find a cat sitter!
I feel such a sense of relief at the thought that we might go away for a few days- really need some unwinding time after the past few months of non stop editing!

Wrote around 4000 words today for my novel, need to write 4k a day if I'll complete it on time! Hmm... not sure that'll happen but it feels good to be writing anyway

 

[Tetris]

-2lbs since Thurs!! So that means -4 since last Mon I anticipated hat his week would be my best cycle week for a good loss and it seems to be the case. Hoping for another -2 by Thurs to get into the 13's!!! One can only hope
I am now 14st 1lb eee... Insane!
My wiifit tells me I am 9lbs away from 'ideal' BMI! It's exactly a month until xmas now so I doubt I'll reach ideal BMI by then (certainly not my first goal which is 11lbs away) but it will certainly be an insentive not to go too crazy over xmas!

 

[cheekychinchilla]

Well done on all the losses mate! Just wow Can't believe you're so close to a healthy BMI now!! Absolutely fantastic.

Things sound so strained at home at the moment. It must be really difficult to almost constantly living under each others fit. Would be different if one of you had a job where you were out most of the time, so must be incredibly difficult you both being home an awful lot. Think a break away from your place will be really nice! Seems like when you guys do fun stuff together it really help And, you know, DISNEY!!

Btw I think you're right about having low cal/syn days after a big meal or drinking. I think saving up syns or having a day or two of really low syn days after are a really good idea and can really help balance things out. I've eaten some pretty bad stuff recently, but managed to keep my weight stable by having really low meals and days in between. And, like we keep saying - we have to live

Hope you have a good week matey.xx

 

[Tetris]

Thanks Cheeky!
The more I talk to you and Cheese Theif about it the more I am noticing how 'tricking' the metabolism with high and low calorie days really does work for me- also how my body cycle quite predictably gives me two mediocre losses/STS/small gains a month, one decent one and one really good one! It's been really interesting to notice these things and how my body works... Yes, if I do only Red days I would probably get to goal faster, but... meh! It would only be max a couple of pounds extra off a month and for all that limiting... So now I'm happy to do about half Red, half EE, gluten free (so much easier now that I have those other cereals to have!) and I'm happy!

Today I did another fry up with the last of those low fat sausages (that should have been eaten up two days ago but still were great!) and cheesy (hexA) eggs minus a yolk (so good- I think I just don't like yolk that much anyway!) bacon, fried onions, tomatos and peppers and some kidney beans (hexB) - SO satisfying! I am going to be having this at least twice a week as it's just delicious! Two sausages at 1.5 syns each and a double portion of ketchup = 5 syns in total. This is my fave meal at the mo and it's suited to a Red day- woop!
Also had a light choc mouse from Sainsburys which is 3.5 syns and a nectarine.

Slight rant ahead!
I am realising things about slimming world that are a bit off for me... Like, I was full but I wanted something sweet- so I thought "yoghurt = syn free" but really the 3.5 syn mouse was less calories, so in this situation where I want to kill off a sweet craving... I'd rather have something less calories and MORE craving depleting than something 'syn free' on the plan. It is syn free as it keeps you full for longer but if you are full already and just need that sweet taste then 100cal on a yoghurt is quite a bit to be having...! So yeah, the mouse was 65 cal, not a huge difference but I'd rather max out my syns and have had less calories, if that makes sense? Ten mullers a week (1000 cal) vs ten chocolate mouses (650 cal) is quite a big difference in the long run- 1/4 of a day's calories difference, but 0 syns vs 32 syns! Bit twisted.

I was discussing this on another thread recently... So many people get happy about having low syn/syn free days when they've bulked up on pasta snacks between meals that are 'syn free' like mugshots, pasta n sauce's etc which are hundreds of calories! Would be better for weight loss to just have that 6 syn curly wurly (120 cal) that you actually fancied rather than 2 mullers and a mugshot which work out to be 450 calories..! SW is a great way to not have to think about calories but it is just interesting that as I become more observant of the calories in things, that I realise there are some real flaws to the system that we aren't really warned about... They DO say that eating all your syns is good, but they don't really explain why! I can recall days where I totally obliviously had 5 yoghurts (mullers or whatever!) totally unaware that totalling to 500cal that was 1/3rd of what my calorie intake for the day should have been!

So yeah, I guess I am less wary of syns now and more wary of calories... Which I think is a good thing in the long run, as I'd like to be able to go to pizza express when I'm at goal and have a 800 cal pizza one day and know how to balance my calories for the rest of the day instead of depriving myself all week of syns
I guess what I'm getting at here is that SW should kinda educate their members of the 'free food' thing... I know it's their selling point, but there could be a bit of info in the books about how syns should be viewed as better than free foods sometimes. Those 5 muller light's never did fill my chocolate cravings- but a curly wurly probably would have for a fraction of the damage!
Rant over

I was totally naive about calories and dieting when I joined SW so I guess this is stuff that a lot of people had at the back of their minds... I just never really did!