Sorus's Mulled Wine Musings

[OzzieMoz]

Anyway next door neighbour seems really nice and I'm sure wouldn't treat me as if I have the IQ of retarded amoeba

That phrase made me choke on my one treat of the day ... my digestive! It was worth it though - a beautiful phrase!

Re your new neighbour, the consultant, I have mixed views and have come to no conclusion. Part of me, says she is showing a pretty poor attitude, not by putting on weight, yes she is human, but by not following the plan she advocates and is paid to advocate to others. On the other hand, part of me says, well it is maybe just her job, and when she spoke to you she was in her own private time and should she not be free to be totally frank. So as I said, I haven't really come to a conclusion, so I'm no help!

Finally, I know what you mean about the danger of these diaries appearing totally self-absorbed when no-one else comments! Doesn't stop me writing though! ME ME ME - it's all about ME!!!!

 

[HOE]

Hmmm sounds like she is trying to convince herself more than you! Yes I am sure there is some obligation - at least moral! I personally could not talk the talk unless I was also walking the walk. I am a medical rep selling emergency kit and at my docs meetings I show a video of me being drilled with my own device with no local anaesthetic - gives me a cetain amount of credibility and stuns them into silent attention LOL!

I agree that the weigh ins are important and the group camaraderie - I was once thinking of starting a group for all dieters... eh em I mean food optimisers(!) and just have them weigh in and record it then they could either go or have a group discussion or education session. Calling it 'Weigh To Go!' I would have happily paid two quid for that! I find this group is really good like that - a virtual club and weigh in, we keep each other very well supported on our threads as I'm sure you SWs do too.

 

[Sorus]

Have badly neglected my diary the past few days. Been really busy. I am now about to make a load of mince pies. Not SW friendly ones either. :sigh:

Despite running hither and thither - like most women at this time of year - have largely managed to stick to plan.

Made the syn free chicken curry a couple of nights ago. My god - it's gorgeous! And on Extra Easy I can have rice with it too! Can I really lose weight on this? In fact it was so delicious I had 2 large helpings. Eeek.

Only thing is - I wouldn't bother putting potato in it next time. In my opinion it doesn't need it.

Tonight OH and I are making crab cakes for a starter then SW burger, chips and tomato salsa. Both from the EE book. Will let you know how it goes! There are some really scrummy recipes in there.

If only I could bottle the motivation I feel at the moment. That's always the holy grail. Most diets can be stuck to when motivation is high. It's keeping that motivation going that's always the tricky bit. Have to keep reminding myself how horrible I feel when I can feel more than 2 chins wobbling when I speak.

 

[Sorus]

Just thought I'd report back on tonight's cook in. Well I wouldn't bother making the crab cakes again. They were nice enough but also very forgettable in my opinion. The burger, on the other hand, was stupendous! As was the salsa and the syn free chips. I made the burger with pork mince, rather than beef mince and it really worked well. The salsa was divine and the chips... yum, yum, yum!

So today have had shredded wheat for breakfast, left over syn free chicken curry and rice for lunch, then crab cakes with coriander salsa followed by burger, chips and tomato salsa for evening meal. Large quantities of latter two meals, too. If I lose weight this week I'll be well impressed cos it really doesn't feel like a diet on Extra Easy.

Or is there some part of the human psyche (at least mine) that thinks we have to suffer in order to lose weight? I do wonder sometimes!

 

[OzzieMoz]

Oooh I think I might come to your house to stay - your dinners sound lovely. I'm a half-hearted idle cook. I think I need to have more variety, I just hate the planning stage of cooking, deciding what to have and making sure I have the ingredients, I don't mind the actual cooking part!

Are the slimming world burger and tomato salsa in the book? I need to send off for some SW cookbooks - just wary at the moment as Auspost are apparently going to be doing striking, so what with that and Xmas post, I think I'll leave it til it all settles down.

Re, the human psyche and suffering when on diets, I think it is very true as typically most diets do involve elements of deprivation, most from my experience involve lots of hunger pangs! I think that's why SW is more of a healthy eating plan as opposed to a diet as such. It's interesting that even when I first start SW and I often am eating more than I did when i was eating "badly" I do feel hungry, but I know its a psychological hunger because I can't possibly be really hungry, but my mind associates diet with hunger. Anyway, I'm wittering.

I better get busy looking up plane fares and I'll be at yours for dinner in a couple of days

 

[HOE]

Sorus the Poinsettia was a great hit although I think I probably consumed the best part of one whole jug myself yesterday - that would account for the headache then! The neighbours loved it and I will definitely be making it again - lovely Christmas drink. I added some raspberries which looked magical floating around and then tasted wonderful at the bottom of the glass!

 

[Sorus]

Hey! I'm so pleased. I never thought of adding raspberries. What an inspired idea! Note to self: add raspberries to already humungous shopping list....

 

[HOE]

Yes thanks so much for the idea Sorus... also add to your shopping list some paracetamol and ibuprofen for afterwards!

 

[Sorus]

Blimey!! It's my weigh day today (and I never weigh inbetween) and wasn't expecting to have lost much. In fact was half expecting a gain. But I have lost 3.5lbs! Making a total of about (cos I weigh in kilos so keep having to convert) 12lbs lost! In 4 weeks! Considering I'm a lifelong dieter, ancient and menopausal that's amazing.

Btw I am praising the SW diet, not me! I'm just doing what I'm told. More or less. Which in itself is a rarity.

This week I have been off piste a couple of times, but not in a major way. It is always wine with me. After the first glass I 'forget' to count the syns... Had Sunday lunch out and yes I ate the potatoes, the Yorkshire pudding and the best part of a bottle of red wine.

Yesterday took daughter Christmas shopping (not sure why I bothered - she barely spoke 3 words in total - why are 18 year olds so moody?!) and had Christmas lunch out. And very nice it was too. Managed to eschew the wine as I was in a hallowed place (Cathedral cafe) but did have the stuffing, the parsnips and the roasties.

Got home mid-afternoon and despite nice lunch out was starving. Weird! Found a bowl of left over bolognese sauce in the fridge so at 3.30 I was curled up by the fire watching a cringingly schmaltzy film, eating a big bowl of bolognese and a cup of tea! Must admit by 6.30 was still feeling full so cooked tea for son but didn't eat much myself. Maybe that accounts for the weight loss - not eating a huge amount after 4pm. That is not something I do regularly though - possibly once a decade. :sigh:

Was trying to think what I'm doing that seems to be working. Because I know - absolutely know - that I'm going to go off piste at Christmas and I know what I'm like at getting back on an eating plan. I'm pathetic. Once the first momentum has gone, it is lost forever with me. The 2nd time around is always much more difficult. So really, for the sake of my waistline if nothing else, Christmas should be cancelled.

As that is unlikely to happen these are things I must remember to do when I get back on plan afterwards.

1) Write everything down. This really helps.

2) Always, always, always have a big bowl of syn free chilli, curry or bolognese sauce to tuck into if I'm hungry. I always make loads so I always have some leftovers in the fridge. This has got me through many a 9pm attack of the munchies.

3) Enjoy a glass or 4 of red wine occasionally and don't beat myself up about it.

4) Know that I can and will lose weight if I follow the plan to the letter. I had got to the stage where I genuinely thought I couldn't lose weight no matter what I did and was pretty much in a state of impotent despair.

5) Keep eating a wide variety of food and tons of it. Worse thing I can do is starve myself.

The bit I find hardest? It's cutting the fat off the bacon. Goes against the grain completely. I have to chuck it straight into the bin. But heck, if it means I can have a full English and still lose weight - well, even I can manage that!

 

[biggysmalls]

Have been lurking for a while and really enjoy reading your musings. Just wanted to say Wow! That's a great result. Enjoy the high and keep going x

 

[Sorus]

Thank you so much Biggysmalls! Great name btw. I can see you're doing really well too. Excellent!

Well I've just had my favourite lunch. Chicken livers fried in fry light, then about half a cup of balsamic vinegar thrown in the pan and simmered till vinegar is reduced to a lovely caramelly, sticky sweet sauce and chicken livers no longer pink. I serve it on a bed of rocket or any leaves I happen to have. It is always absolutely delicious, filling and incredibly cheap! Syn free too!

A few days before I started on the SW plan out of sheer desperation I started taking kelp and zinc picolinate every day cos I thought my thyroid might be sluggish. Could this have also helped I wonder?

 

[OzzieMoz]

My goodness you're doing ever so well! You've lost way more in 4 weeks than I've lost in 8! Well until this morning that is - my scales have stopped working, so by my reckoning, I've lost my weight entirely and now weigh 0.0. Have I gone to far ? *worries*

Seriously, though, glad to see you've had another successful week even without sticking 100% to the rules, maybe you just flexible syned without knowing it!

My daughter is such a chatterbox it will be strange if she turns into a taciturn wordless teenager in years to come. Do the words gradually diminish... or will she make me go cold turkey?

I better tootle off and have another go at getting the scales to work, it's not the battery as I've changed that. It did this a few weeks ago as well and then spontaneously started working again! OMG - just think of my weight gain... no more 0.0 lb for me!

 

[Sorus]

I think you'll have to go cold turkey, Ozzie! My daughter used to be a chatterbox too. I'm hoping she'll turn into someone I vaguely recognise by the time she's in her twenties. I think I was vaguely civilised by then.

Last night I had egg, beans and chips. I love this diet! Sorry - plan! And while SW chips are obviously not as gorgeously delicious as home made ones they are, IMO, a thousand times nicer than oven chips.

Today I had yet another turkey dinner out. This is becoming something of a habit! And yes I had the potatoes and the parsnips... But.... roll of drums.... today my OH and I went for a little jogette!! Now I know you don't know my OH but when I first met him about two and a half years ago he was nearly 21 stone and hadn't moved from his sofa, except to go to work and back, for years.

If I had said, back then, that one day I would get him jogging uphill he would have laughed for a week. And I haven't been jogging for over a year cos of a back injury. So we were incredibly tentative. Walked briskly along the coastal path for about 40 mins (stunningly beautiful today) and then walked back along the road interspersed with little jogettes. We probably looked like tubby arthritic octogenarians cos I was so scared of hurting my back again but it was fab!

OH is now just under 17 stone btw. I'm so proud of him!

So I reckoned I'd earned a couple of potatoes but I have turned today into a red day instead of an extra easy day cos of having way too many HexB's. Have made a chilli sans kidney beans for tea. Put loads of peppers in instead. And totally syn free!

 

[OzzieMoz]

Go you and your OH! Well done on the jogging, although your description of the event did make me giggle!

I keep forgetting about SW chips. Must give them a whirl! I nearly had a little ice-cream Sundae from Hungry Jacks (Burger King) last night - my OH couldn't be bothered cooking so he went and got takeaway for the rest of them including the sundaes and he didn't like to not bring one home for me! I was thinking about having it, but my stepson told his dad that I didn't want it, because I'm being really good and strict about what I'm eating and that he shouldn't be trying to tempt me! In the face of that, I didn't like to let him down - so no ice-cream for me :cry:

Anyway, this is your diary, I must stop writing essays wherever I post!

 

[Sorus]

Amazingly I managed NOT to have a turkey dinner for lunch today. Not only that, but I have done a little jig because I bought a dress today for a do tomorrow night. And the dress is size 14!!

Now ok, I do actually really need a 16 but they didn't have any 16's (or even 18's) so I just tried it on for a joke really. This is the White Company and their sizes are notoriously generous or I wouldn't even have bothered. The dress I was going to wear to the Christmas do is fine - ish - but it's sleeveless and sadly my upper arms really have seen better days. I look a bit like Peter Kay in drag in it.

So half-heartedly I was looking for a top, or something today, to wear instead - half hearted cos I didn't really want to spend money on something sparkly that I'll only wear about once a year. Well this dress leapt out at me. They had nine size 8's, five size 10's and one size 14. And it wasn't expensive! And I can wear it all year round! It looks really nice, or would do if I was another 7lbs lighter and my decolletage didn't look like a dried up river bed. Hey ho...

Having an EE day today. Had eggs, bacon, syn free sausage and lots of tomatoes for brekkie. Left over chilli sans beans for lunch and will be having roast lamb and lots of lovely veg and minty gravy for tea.

 

[Sorus]

Diary is looking sadly neglected. Always a bit of a give away that I haven't been very good...

Had a do Friday night and ate everything on offer. Including pudding which I absolutely swore to myself I wouldn't do. Thankfully - god that sounds sad - I had a wave of nausea that wouldn't go away so had to leave early. Probably saving me from about a thousand syns in wine.

However made up for that yesterday instead, with Sunday lunch. It's the time of year. I cannot deny myself. It seems too lame, too party-pooperish. No one likes a dieter at Christmas because a) unless you can do it very discreetly it seems to scream 'look at me, how disciplined I am to be dieting even at Christmas', and b) it makes other people feel bad because it reminds them that they're not dieting, but probably should be. It also makes you look boring. Which frankly you probably are if you're counting syns even at Christmas lunch.

Well those are my excuses anyway! If I could limit the damage to just a couple of pounds on over the next ten days I would consider that a massive result.

Have been pretty good so far today. But now am cooking The Christmas Ham. And tomorrow have to make chocolate roulades and the like. Blimey - there's no hope really, now I think about it.

 

[Chicky Noops]

Hello! Just popped in to see your diary after you replied to mine... I love it, a nice, refreshingly honest read!

I also had to undergo an *ahem* operation last year, it sound pretty similar but I wouldn't dare mention the name of the procedure on this forum - it's too scary for words!

You've done really well in a short space of time. Hope the next 10 days aren't too damaging to the progress you've made to date!

 

[OzzieMoz]

Blimey - there's no hope really, now I think about it.

Pfffff - where there is blind optimism there is always hope!

You've done really well on the plan so far, and if you do wander off here and there it isn't going to be the end of the world. You know you can lose the weight when you put your mind to it, you know what you need to do, it's just perhaps a case of doing a deal with yourself that there is a cut off point at which you will return to goodliness! I think if you're going to be naughty, just make sure it's worthwhile naughtiness, make sure you enjoy it! I have a feeling you will

 

[Sorus]

Thank you Chicky. And you're so right Ozzie. Just need to keep the faith that I can get right back on track after Christmas as soon as is humanly possible.

Think the universe is on my side, mind. After running the gamut of Sainsbury's this morning, then some last minute shopping for pressies with my 15 year old, I decided the one thing I couldn't possibly live without over Christmas was a box of M&S Belgian truffles. They are my absolute favourites.

So went into Marks but the queues were virtually snaking round the back of the shop. Total bedlam. So left it. Decided it was the universe's way of telling me I'm enough of a lard-arse already without stuffing my face with chocolates in the name of the baby Jesus.

 

[OzzieMoz]

Marks and Spencers food :cry:

Oh and lard-arse and baby Jesus all in one sentence, you have style!