Sorus's Mulled Wine Musings

[Sorus]

Aaaargh!! Disaster!!!

Today is weigh day and I have put on.................................... 2.5 lbs!!!

Jeez - where’s the smelling salts when you need them?

Ok. Time to calm down. Reasons I will not beat myself up over this:

a) Life is too short to be horrible to myself. There are plenty of people who will do that for me.
b) I knew last week’s weigh in was artificially low – mostly cos I’d felt sick the day before and had hardly eaten anything.
c) Haven’t had a poo for about 4 days. Not sure why. Not for lack of trying. Must have at least 2lbs of poo inside me.
d) I have enjoyed every single social occasion I’ve been to over the last week and don’t regret a single morsel or mulled wine that has passed my lips. Most weeks are not like this one!

I suspect I will put another few pounds on by my next weigh day next Tuesday. But the main thing is I feel better. I feel loads better. I am - whatever the scales say -looking better and slimmer than I would have been if I hadn’t started SW a month ago, for this most lovely and sociable time of year.


Today is going to be a good (Extra Easy) day, regardless of cooking and baking obligations. For brekkie I have had 2 eggs fried in fry light, one bacon, 5 grilled cherry tomatoes, one Toulouse sausage (6 syns! Hadn’t realised!!) and a bit of HP sauce.

Lunch will be a syn free bowl of chilli I found in the freezer. Tea will be bowl of pasta with tomato sauce, mushrooms, peppers etc. Parmesan grated on top for my HexA. If hungry at 9pm I have home cooked ham to nibble on and some SW friendly coleslaw I made yesterday. Cabbage, carrot, apple and red onion grated in processor, bound together with Hellman’s extra light mayo, one teaspoon curry powder, half a teaspoon Splenda. Delish! And very filling.

Note to self: remember to buy smelling salts this afty. Have a feeling I might be needing them next Tuesday.

 

[OzzieMoz]

Snotter disaster! It's merely a blip! An explicable blip at that! .... and next week will be a pre-meditated with malice aforethought blip! See you're not the only that's full of the proverbial brown stuff! I'm being disgusting, that's one of my failings, one that I'm not terribly ashamed of either, although I probably should be!

Anyway, glad you enjoyed yourself and in the scheme of things bearing in mind you are full of you-know-what it's probably not that bad a gain. As we said before, what's done is done, next week do what's got to be done (for that read, do what you want to do!) and then restart in earnest, which I believe is in Cornwall, in January!

Splendid. Problem solved. Next!

Glad to see you're an HP sauce girl, I am too!

 

[Sorus]

Ok so Christmas was a complete disaster. For my figure. But a storming success otherwise!

Everyone was on great form and there was only one 'almost' family row, which was quickly deflected thank God. The TV was crap so we played loads of parlour games which was far more fun anyway as it seems my entire family cheat so they usually descended into 'friendly' accusations and loads of laughter.

My daughter goes travelling for a couple of months next week so it was even more poignant for me - the kids growing up and moving away etc. So I'm so glad we all had a nice time.

Slimming World wise a disaster though. Didn't eat loads of chocolates or anything (in fact now I think about it I didn't eat a single chocolate) but the bread maker was going non-stop - bread is my absolute weakness - and I didn't deny myself any. Must've got through practically a loaf a day.

Today is my official weigh day but I'm not going to put myself through that trauma. I'm going to get one good day under my belt - ie today - then will weigh tomorrow. It'll still be dire but maybe a little less dire than weighing today as I had 4 pieces of buttery toast late last night.

Today have had bacon, eggs, one sausage and tomatoes for brekkie. Lunch will be tuna, sweetcorn, 2 teaspoons of extra light mayo and a baked potato and salad. Tea will be the famous syn free chicken curry (gorgeous) and a small bit of maybe couscous or rice.

Having an extra easy day, needless to say! In more senses than one: fully intend slobbing out in front of the telly this afty. Have bloody well earned it!

 

[OzzieMoz]

Sounds like you had a great Christmas - yayyyy! Freshly baked bread is so delicious, I can understand your trouble with it. Funny you should mention it, because I was wandering around with some Christmas money to spend yesterday and I vaguely contemplated a bread maker, then realised that that was an accident waiting (or weighting - scuse dreadful pun!) to happen!

Hope you enjoyed your extraeasy day slobbing in front of the telly! I would do the same, but the telly is mainly being hogged all day by OH watching cricket, although to be fair, I enjoy watching it too, just not all day, every day! But it is his holiday from work and he doesn't get many of them, so I shouldn't complain! ... and this is your diary, not mine, so I'll shurrup!

Good luck with WI, may the angels of weightloss lift you up, so you don't weigh so much on the scales ....

 

[Sorus]

Have weighed. Soooo glad I delayed it a day. Have put on a pound. Yes I know that sounds brilliant given it's just been Christmas week but the week before I'd put on 2.5. So that means over the last 2 weeks I've put back on 3.5. Guess it could've been a helluva lot worse.

Poor OH weighed in at his class last night and he'd put on 7lbs. But the week before (I think counting the total damage across the fortnight just gone is more helpful than just one week) he'd lost half a pound. So his total damage over Christmas is 6.5 lbs. I don't think that's toooooo terrible! Given we both had a fabulous time.

Anyway - main thing is it's onwards and downwards from here. Just had yet another cooked breakfast. Can't quite get back into my shredded wheat habit just yet.

One of my favourite 9pm 'treats' is half a pack of frozen summer fruits defrosted till a bit warm then I add Splenda. Now does this count as cooked fruit? I've not been counting it as syns cos as far as I'm concerned I'm not 'cooking' it, just warming it up a bit. Anyway it's delicious. Could have it with yoghurt I guess if I actually liked yoghurt. Local Tesco's doesn't sell it so am on a mission today to go further afield to get some. Must be chock full of vitamin C too!

I have a holiday in 6 weeks' time. Target is 11 stone 7lbs by then. Bit of a tall order but might as well at least aim for it.

Btw if anyone knows the answer to the not-cooked-but-a-bit-warmed-up-frozen-fruit conundrum please let me know!

 

[OzzieMoz]

So weigh-in overall wasn't so bad then, considering you really did let your hair down over Christmas! You did so well in the run-up to the festivities that I bet you'll shake off those few pounds gained pronto tonto.

I've given the summer fruits issue some thought and I have no answer - helpful aren't I !! I wouldn't have thought they were technically cooked, just not technically uncooked either! It's all in your technicalities you see! My view in the absence of a definitive answer from anyone else, (you may have to post elsewhere in the forum for a sensible answer!) is that you keep doing it and see how your weight goes, if weight falls off you then carry on, if you struggle then stop eating the warm fruit. Suck it and see so to speak! <<---- that's a lot of s's

 

[Sorus]

Gosh I am so excited about tonight. Not.

What is it about NYE? It's just a date. An arbitrary number. Not only that, it's a date that preludes the two most depressing months of the year. (With apologies to Ozzie and other Australian members!) Personally I can't see anything to get excited about.

However, despite being possessed by the ghost of Victor Meldrew today I know I will schlepp down the hill later and aim to be jolly. At least it is nowhere near as bad as it used to be.

Around 10 years ago a Sunday paper cited my town as the 3rd best place to celebrate NYE, behind London and Edinburgh, in the UK. Which meant that for the next 5 or so years 35,000 people descended on us - a town with a normal population of 8,000. Which was completely fab if you made a living from tourism (that would be me) but hideous if you were a local merely wanting to spend NYE with your mates in your own pub or favourite restaurant (that would also be me).

Anyway thankfully the town has fallen out of fashion at NYE (hooray!) and the last couple of years have been almost pleasant. It's worth going down just to see the fancy dress. I am always staggered by people's imagination.

I intend using flexi-syns to their fullest potential this evening.

Last night I tried BritmuminCanada's sweet chilli chicken with vegetable rice. My god it was gorgeous. So simple to make and with ingredients I always have in the house anyway. I'm not sure how many the recipe was meant to serve but I ate almost all of it. It was impossible not to. Looking forward to trying a few more of Britmum's recipes. They all look gorgeous. Though probably the point of SW is not to try them all in one day.

 

[Sorus]

BritMumInCanada is my hero. Have now tried her bacon, mushroom, courgette and tomato pasta, and last night her fusion chicken. Both completely delicious. Only problem is, I can't believe I'm losing any weight. I seem to be enjoying my food far too much, and eating plenty of it. Is it part of the female psyche - as someone suggested in the newspaper I was reading yesterday - that we have a need to feel we're suffering in order to lose weight?

Anyway tomorrow (actually today, just seen the time, thought it was the middle of the night) it will be cooked breakfast then roast pork at lunchtime. Having the family round for lunch cos on Monday my beloved daughter goes off to Thailand for two months. Two months!! *sobs* I'm partly terrified cos I know I'm going to miss her so much and partly dead jealous cos I've never, ever done anything like that, and so wish I had.

But... roll on 3 or 4 years and then I fully intend having a gap year. Or at least a gap month. 30 years later than most people but what the heck.

 

[OzzieMoz]

I have sooooo many of BritMumInCanada's recipes copied, printed and saved in my recipe folder, I agree she is a SW legend! However, the downside is that I am so badly organised that beyond appreciating the fact that I will love the food, and printing the recipes etc, I never get round to making them! *hangs head in shame*. I'm going to have that as a target this week to try two new dinners!

Great idea about the gap year - I'm thinking about doing a work year, I'm job hunting soon .... I should have been for the last few months but I am a top notch world class procrastinator!

 

[Sorus]

Lol - that's my target! To try 2 new recipes a week. Boredom is the kiss of death to any diet for me.

I've been looking at my little book, 'One pot suppers' by Good Housekeeping. The book was dead cheap (£1.99 from Amazon) but it's got some gorgeous recipes in - and ones that I think could easily be adapted to SW. So my mission is to try a couple of them this week. If they work I'll post the recipes.

Realised today over our family lunch that I have a secret target. As I mentioned before my beloved daughter is going travelling for 2 months tomorrow. My ambition is that when she comes home, she sees me and says, 'wow!' She doesn't know I want to do this. I can lose a stone in a couple of months, surely?!

 

[OzzieMoz]

I reckon you could lose a stone in a couple of months, that would be averaging just over 1.5 lbs a week, judging by the flying start you got off to on SW, I think for you, its do-able! She probably would notice the difference after being away for a little while too, it's when people see you every day that they may not notice the subtle change!

Bet you'll miss your daughter but at least with the improvements in communications and stuff, its much easier to keep in touch with the other side of the world nowadays! At least with my girly, it will be a few years yet before she goes off into the big wide world! Mind you, if she becomes a pain in the backside teenager in a few years time, I might start counting the days!

 

[Sorus]

I have noticed in another thread that I have been described variously as 'mad' and possibly even a lunatic. I have no idea what you're basing that on, Ozzie.

Right, tomorrow is weigh day, so to get things moving in the, um, bifidus digestivum department I decided it had to be veggie curries all the way for tea. So made some from the SW curry book and extremely tasty they were too. I even - because I like to live life in the fast lane - threw caution to the winds and had a tablespoon of mango chutney with them, at a cost of 2 whole syns.

I am being a tad hopeful here cos normally a month of the hottest vegetable curries imaginable would barely get my bowels going (I'm a martyr to me bowels...) but I had to try something cos at the moment Ozzie is beating me by 2lbs.

This absolutely will not do. Obviously.

So today have had 28 gms bitesize Shredded wheat and 2 boiled eggs for brekkie. Lunch was sauteed chicken livers (ok, sauteed in Frylight - I have to use my imagination a lot...) with reduced balsamic vinegar on a bed of warmed up lettuce and red onion (delish), then at 4pm - bizarrely - I had a bowl of Bigga marrowfat peas with loads of salt and vinegar.

There is a Christmas Eve story behind the Bigga marrowfat peas but anyone reading this would lose the will to live very quickly if I relayed it. Suffice to say I have never had home soaked and cooked Bigga peas before and am never likely to have them again. But they did the trick in filling me up till tea time.

Tea was the curries, couscous and mango chutney and supper will probably be a bowl of my favourite warmed up summer fruits.

I waved my baby off on her travels today. Ok, she's nearly 19, but she's still my baby! 2 whole months she'll be gone. When she returns she won't recognise me. In fact I'll have lost so much weight she'll accuse me of looking positively gaunt. Well, that's the plan.

 

[OzzieMoz]

- oh dear I've been busted ... I also called you an old dear I think on the anti-thread But in my defence, I think I am correct about the lunacy, I've just taken a show of hands and counted 2 - which is 100% of all hands present therefore motion carried! Besides, you described my molten lard melting in a pool around me ... I think you may have thrown the first stone madam

You cook better meals than I do, although the veggie curry sounds somewhat dangerous and potentially explosive, I'll keep an eye on the news to see if I read about any explosions or earthquakes in your neck of the woods!

As for marrowfat peas??? Ewwwww - ewwwwww - ewwwwww! Deranged I tells ya!

 

[Sorus]

The veggie curries worked! More a 'contained' explosion than armageddon thankfully. Hope no-one's eating while they're reading this.

And today is weigh day and I've lost 4.5lbs!! How fab is that?! So that's the 3.5 I put on over Christmas and a bonus pound. Which, considering I had a vat of alcohol on NYE, and have been eating humungous quantities of delicious food all week, is something of an achievement.

Just goes to show, if you stick to plan (which apart from a month's worth of alcohol on NYE I have done) the diet, sorry plan, does work. And you really can have decent quantities.

I've enjoyed trying a few new things this week as well - largely thanks to BritMumInCanada's recipes - which has made the week very enjoyable. It also shows I can have my warmed-up-but-not-actually-cooked frozen berries for supper.

Haven't been on the treadmill once, mostly cos my treadmill is in the garage and it's about minus 30 degrees in there at the moment. I know I would be warm within 5 mins but I can't quite make myself stir from the blazing fire. But! That will be remedied this week!

To add to the excitement snow is actually forecast for the far west of Cornwall today. We NEVER get snow!

 

[OzzieMoz]

Hmmmm, so the suggestion that there was a WMD in Cornwall turned out not to be true Glad you're all errrrrm sorted now!

As to your 4.5lbs - pahhhh! I say pahhhh!! You had to beat me didn't you, MrsI'veGotToWin You are now ahead again by 2lbs and in all honesty you're likely to stay that way or increase the lead knowing the way my weight loss goes which is s----l----o---w---l---y! I can but try, and I will - I have my determined face on, which is also probably similar to my constipated face, I can't be sure though as I've never looked in a mirror when suffering that particular trouble! Perhaps that could go on our 2010 list of goals

My exercise is still at the planning stages where it has been for the last year or so .... will find it easier once youngun goes back to school, but that isn't til the end of January, Grade 3, my baby is growing up! :cry:

Anyway, good luck with next week, eat lots of cakes and drink lots of booze, you know you want to Dammit, I have to try and beat you somehow, and if leading you astray will help well then..... yes, I am that low, I will plumb those depths!

 

[Sorus]

Thank you for rescuing my diary from down the back of the sofa, Ozzie! Or at least, the cyber equivalent - ie the bottom of page 2! Lots of people keeping diaries now, which is great.

Now I wouldn't get too excited about my 4.5 lbs. I have a holiday coming up mid-Feb and there is NO WAY I'm not having garlic prawns and hunks of bread every day, to say nothing of the general help yourself to all you can eat buffet. I am resigned to putting back on quite a lot that week!

But... this is for life. I don't care how long it takes me. I know that I am going to have to stick to the SW way of living Mon-Fri at least for the rest of my life to maintain the weight loss. I also know the chances of my doing that are zero. :sigh:

So frankly, the longer it takes me, the longer I have to get used to this being how I eat now. When I reach target I will have weekends off. That's the plan anyway! Generally though, I would like to be roughly at target by my 50th in November. So that gives me plenty of leeway to go off piste occasionally, like on holiday.

I am dead grumpy today. Woke up with a bunged up cold in the night, feel crap now after only one hour's sleep, and to add to my woes this tiny corner of England seems to be the only place without snow. There are schools only 5 miles away that are shut because of snow. The microclimate here is weird! We, instead, have bloody rain. Huh.

28gm shredded wheat and 2 boiled eggs for brekkie. Lunch will be a bowl of chilli. Tea will be a sausage pasta thingy. And plenty of it.

 

[Sorus]

Have just been for a lovely long walk down to the harbour and along the beaches. In a blizzard I might add! I'm like an 8 year old child when it comes to snow. I cannot possibly stay in. I have to be wrapped up and out in it. Unlike my 15 year old who can't summon up any enthusiasm to even throw a snowball. How sad is that?!

Today is lots of comfort food. For brekkie I had bacon, eggs, M&S extra lean sausage, lots of grilled plum tomatoes and HP sauce.

Lunch will be a large bowl of left over sausage, pepper, tomato and mushroom pasta. Parmesan shavings on top for my HexA.

Tea is going to be lamb shanks with a minty gravy, sweet potato mash and carrots, sprouts and red cabbage.

Supper will probably be a bowl of warmed up frozen berries and Splenda.

Might even go for another walk later. Another blizzard is forecast. Cool!

 

[Sorus]

I am completely housebound today. After moaning about lack of interesting weather here, compared with everywhere else in the UK, I am now bored with it. My road is a sheet of ice. No one is moving anywhere. Can't even put the dustbin out. Not that any dustbin men will be coming today, I'm sure. For the far west of Cornwall this is pretty unprecedented. The salt in the air from the sea normally keeps this area frost free. Have only had to de-ice my car on two occasions in the last 13 years. In fact I was amazed I managed to find some de-icer the other day.

So I am bored beyond belief. I have so much to get on with but can't do any of it because it all requires leaving the house. In fact am so bored I might even clean my kitchen floor.

Thankfully I picked up a few provisions yesterday so today's menu is: Brekkie - 28 gm shredded wheat bitesize and 2 boiled eggs. Lunch is left over lamb, minty gravy, roast carrots and sweet potato and braised red cabbage. Tea is going to be a soy sauce and sweet chilli beef stir fry.

Boredom is the killer for all diets so I have to keep busy today. Might even dig out a jigsaw and do my long overdue accounts. Desperate times.

 

[Sorus]

The last couple of days I've been snowed in - or more accurately, iced in - so have been raiding my rapidly depleting cupboards for ideas for comfort food. Necessity is the mother of invention!

Didn't have much left in the way of fresh veg - just some sweet potatoes, mushrooms and onions. So I made a sort of sweet potato and chick pea dahl. And it was gorgeous!

I fried, in Frylight, a chopped red onion and 2 large roughly chopped sweet potatoes. After about 5 mins I added 2 teaspoons of curry powder. Tossed it all around a bit then added about half a pint of chicken stock (using half a stock cube). Also added some chopped mushrooms. I let that simmer for about 20 mins till sweet potato was nearly soft then added a tin of Asda chick pea dahl. Simmered for another 5 mins.

Well it made several portions and it was really lovely. Even my OH thought it was fab and he's not a huge curry fan. Of course you could add fat free yoghurt or whatever veggies you have in the cupboard. So I'll definitely be buying more of the chick pea dahl. All syn free too on a green or Extra Easy day.

Today I made Hunter's chicken using the barbecue sauce I found on the recipe thread. It was gorgeous too! In fact I might make up a batch of the barbecue sauce and freeze it in individual portions. It certainly jazzes up a pork chop or piece of chicken. I had the Hunter's chicken with roast veggies - ie parsnips, sweet potato, beetroot, carrots and garlic cloves. Also had some sprouts and cabbage with it. Feel absolutely stuffed now.

It'll all be a tad different next Sunday. I have a minor op Monday week and I'm not allowed to eat ANYTHING the day before. So in fact I can't eat for about 48 hours. But I still have to cook for my son. Aaargh!

Not only that - I've been sent, by the hospital, some sachets of something scary. Apparently I have to dissolve the contents in exactly 4 dessertspoons of warm water, wait for it fizz up then drink it. And in capital letters it tells me to MAKE SURE A TOILET IS VERY NEAR BY while I'm drinking it.

Jesus.

 

[OzzieMoz]

Good Lord! I take a couple of days off and I come back to more WMD in Cornwall ! only this would appear to be a controlled explosion - one would hope anyway!

So you got your snowy/icey weather then Sorus - yayyyyyyyy and awwwwwww poor you! I always did think, snow was great on the roofs, trees and in back gardens, but hated it on the roads/pavements!

Sounds like you're doing an excellent job managing to stay on plan in spite of cupboardy/fridgey type crises!

Hope it all pays off come WI day!