Struggling Slimmer

[laurab53]

Right. My 2 days of madness are now over. I have 'flexi synned' these 2 days, although I haven't actually counted up the syns. Went out last night and had a really good chat to my friends about our SW journies. They have encouraged me to keep up the exercising as much as I can and I've decided to give jogging round the block a go. My friend said something that really made sense to me - you don't have to run fast, it's not about how far you can go but how long you go for. Might only go round the block but as long as you're jogging at a faster pace than you walk it will all help with weight loss. So that's my aim for this afternoon - go out of the front door and get some exercise - every little helps

 

[laurab53]

Reason to be proud of myself today #1

Half hour wait in the bus station usually means grabbing a drink, crisps, chocolate or whatever from the shop. But today I had a wander up the road and popped into tesco express and picked up this. Perfect hangover superfree food!

 

[laurab53]

Reason to be proud of myself #2 (yesterday):
Even though I was really tired I got on my running shoes and went jogging! And I was super proud of myself as I managed to keep going for the whole route and didn't stop once! I took my friend's advice and took it slow and it seemed it work. So that hangover day could have gone the same way as the 2 days before that, but I drew the line and turned it around - go me!

Today I've just walked to asda again (2 miles) and did the weekly food shop. Got a lift home though as I had a LOT of shopping! I've found that the downside of being so in the zone is that I end up spending a lot of money on food, I've just spent £20 more than usual without really thinking about it!

It's zumba time tonight then i'm going to make the chicken pie with rosti topping out of the current magazine. Hope it turns out as yummy as the picture!

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[laurab53]

WI last night - lost half a pound :-/ Was quite happy with the result as when I weighed myself at home before going I thought I was going to have put on! A little bit disappointed though, as apart from Friday night and Saturday I have been really good and have exercised loads more than usual. Had a word with my consultant and he said it may be because of the exercise and may just be water retention (muscles tear when starting to exercise a lot and body retains water to repair them). I think this may be the case as a similar thing happened to me last year when I started exercising loads.

So my aim this week is to continue as I have been doing and continue to exercise as much as I can. Our mini challenge in group this week is 'Lucky 7s' which is 7 glasses of fluid, 7 superfree foods and 7 speed foods per day. Was a bit unsure af first until I looked in my book and saw how many things are actually speed foods and lots of things I eat will be both superfree and speed so will tick 2 boxes!

This week I have also made myself a treat box - it's a tupperware tub filled with 56 syns worth of treat size chocolate bars. These are for me to eat throughout the week whenever I want, which leaves me with 7 syns per day for other stuff. Never tried it before but thought it may help me and my sweet tooth.

Zumba tonight and my bf is cooking the cod steak recipe from current magazine, with potatoes, courgette and tomato on the vine. It will be ready for me when I get in after zumba Before I go out tonight I'm going to make scotch eggs (yummy!). I make them with cous cous for the coating which technically is a 'tweak' but I don't count it as syns, it's only about 2 tablespoons of cous cous per egg! And it is part of the meal, it's not like the cous cous cake. I usually make 4 - one for my lunch on a Thursday, one to eat on my way to college on Thursday night, and 2 for my bf to have for his tea since I'm not home to cook! I use the bowyers 5% fat sausages (1syn each) and usually use 2 sausages per egg. I'll post pictures later today...

 

[laurab53]

Food diary: Wednesday 9th March
Extra Easy

Breakfast: weetabix (HEXB), milk (HEXA), banana
Lunch: Salad - cous cous, chicken, rocket, tomatoes, cucumber, spring onion, 1.5 boiled eggs. Activia apricot yoghurt
Dinner: Cod steak with potatoes, courgette and cherry tomatoes (from current SW magazine) (2syns for bread on crust)

Snacks: Banana, satsuma, grapes, 2 x crackerbread with cottage cheese and ham (2 syns)

Total syns: 4 / 7

I've also had 2 items from my chocolate tub which is to last me the week but I'm not going to count them in my daily allowance as I have allowed 56 syns for all of it for the week.

Here's a photo of the lovely cod dish that my lovely boyfriend made while I was out at zumba. This is his portion, mine had a few less potatoes!

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[laurab53]

Food Diary: Thursday 10th March
Extra Easy

Breakfast: Weetabix (HEXB), Milk (HEXA), Banana
Lunch: Scotch Egg (2syns), rice, cucumber, tomatoes
Dinner: Leftover chicken pie from Monday

Snacks: Scotch Egg (2syns), banana x 2, strawberries, activia strawberry yoghurt, grapes

Total syns: 4/7

Had 2 more treats from treat tub but haven't counted in diary.

No exercise yesterday as was at college and didn't get home til late. Making a quiche at the minute for me to snack on over the weekend and as soon as it is cooked I am going for a walk again. I'm going to walk the bus route towards town then when I can't walk anymore I'll hop on the bus the rest of the way! Going to go for another run tonight also with my bf, and go on Saturday and Sunday too. Zumba again on Monday too so I will have done plenty of exercise again for the week and hopefully this time my hard work will show up on the scales on Tuesday...

 

[laurab53]

Food Diary: Friday 11th March
Extra Easy

Breakfast: weetabix (HEXB), milk (HEXA), banana
Lunch: M&S sushi snack selection (1/2 syn), SW quiche
Dinner: Pork steaks, smash, roasted peppers, onion, courgette

Snacks: Banana, ham & cottage cheese, 12 x mikado (6 syns)

Total syns: 6.5/7

Didn't go for run tonight but did walk quite a long way before getting on the bus. Will run tomorrow and Sunday - promise!

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[laurab53]

First of all food diary for today: Saturday 12th March
Extra Easy

Breakfast: Weetabix (HEXB), milk (HEXA), banana (see a theme here??)
Lunch: SW Quiche, large salad, cottage cheese
Planned Dinner (in the oven!): Homemade meatballs (beef, garlic, nutmeg) in tomato sauce with onions & red pepper, rice

Snacks: Kiwi fruit, activia kiwi yoghurt, Ham, pineapple, melon

Planned snacks for later: 14 x mikado (7syns)

Total Syns: 7

Secondly, I am very proud of myself because I've just been for a run even though:

• I didn't want to go
• My bf wouldn't come with me
• It's dark and had started to rain

AND I made it all the way round without stopping again! Now, this time I listened to my ipod and was home before the 2nd song finished so I don't think it was even 10 minutes, but I'm still happy because it's better than no exercise, and I can try and build up to lasting longer.

Now I'm looking forward to a quiet Saturday night in with my bf and his dad (we live with his parents!) eating my lovely meatballs then finishing the rest of my box of Mikado! We're saving up at the moment so can't go out a lot. But the reason we are saving is that we are leaving for a year on a round the world trip in June, so it's worth it. That also means I don't have long to shift as much weight as I can so that I can sit comfortably in all those aeroplane seats!

Noone has commented here for a while....

 

[laurab53]

Food diary: Sunday 13th March
Extra Easy

Breakfast: Weetabix (HEXB), milk (HEXA), banana
Lunch: SW quiche, salad, cottage cheese
Dinner: Diet Coke Chicken (chicken, diet coke, passata, chinese 5 spice), plain rice, steamed veg (brocolli, carrots, green beans)

Snacks: Apple, Melon
Syns: 14 x mikado (7syns)

Exercise: Jog round the block


Food diary: Monday 14th March
Extra Easy

Breakfast: Weetablix (HEXB), milk (HEXA), banana
Lunch: Pasta n sauce (cheese and brocolli) 2 x crackerbread (2 syns)
Dinner: Pasta bolognese (lean mince, tomatoes, onion, garlic, mushrooms)

Snacks: melon, mango, pineapple, ham, chicken, muller corner - fruit granola (4 syns), mikado, breakaway biscuit...

Syns = ?? (too many!)
Exercise: Zumba class

Ooops, had a bit of a blip yesterday but it could have been so much worse! It got to about 8pm and I really wanted chocolate and biscuits so I had a bit of a splurge and ate a few biscuits etc. Don't know what the syns would have been but it will have pushed me over for the week which I am disappointed about as I'd been doing so well, and had visions of myself at group tonight saying that this is the first time in ages that I haven't gone over my syns for the week. Oh well, I'm just glad I didn't get that craving earlier in the day or earlier in the week otherwise my week could have been very different! As it is I am pleased with my work this week and am hoping for a good result tonight. Hopefully the few biscuits last night won't have too much of an effect! I'll be syn-free today (until after WI!!), and might go on the wii fit before WI tonight.

In other news. Me and my friend / SW buddy have signed up for the race for life in May so have something to aim for with our jogging routine! She is doing the same as me - jogging round the block, which isn't far but hopefully we can both work on it and build it up so that we can run further. Don't think we'll be able to jog the whole 5k at race for life but we can give it a good go!!

On another note - I'm at work at the moment and have just been reminded of how annoying it is when people ask me if I want a drink while they're making a round of tea&coffee. I've worked here 6 months and have never accepted the offer - I wish they would just leave me out! I'm sick of saying 'no I'm fine thankyou!'. I've even had the conversation with most of them about how I don't drink a lot of tea/coffee during the day, I tend to stick to water. I have my coffee on a morning with my breakfast then don't generally have any more. I know that must sound alien to a lot of you, but it's so annoying if you're not a regular tea/coffee drinker at work!!

If you're reading this, please feel free to comment. I really like reading your posts, but noone has commented for a while...:cry:

 

[Merrymidwife]

Really enjoying reading your diary! Live the syn tin, might try that myself. Well done on the running and exercise too x

 

[laurab53]

Really enjoying reading your diary! Live the syn tin, might try that myself. Well done on the running and exercise too x

Thanks Merrymidwife! The syn tin has really worked for me this week but I think that's because I had nothing big planned during the week. This week I have a night out to contend with on Saturday so I think I'll need to save some syns for that! Will still have the low syn treats but will have to count them each day instead.

 

[laurab53]

Weigh in last night - lost 2.5lb!
Initially I wasn't too pleased as I had hoped for more. I've had a brilliant week and couldn't have tried much harder. But then I was thinking about it and I think I need to realise that I'm never going to get huge losses like others do (my first week I lost 3lb) so I just need to accept that! 2.5lb is still really good and if I lost 2.5 a week I'd easily get to my mini target of 2 stone before I go away in June. I just missed out on SOTW too, it got right to the end and there was me and another lady who had lost 2.5 (so we would both win), but then the bloke sat next to me lost 3.5lb and won it! I took the piss saying he shouldn't be allowed to win it as he's won it too many times already (his book was on the chair between us with all his stickers on!). I've won it before so it can be done - something for me to strive for!

I'm not going to post my food diary from yesterday - you wouldn't want to know! Anyway it was WI day so doesn't count! I always have a little treat after weigh in, I don't go mad, just have something I wouldn't have during the week. By the time I get home it's 8:30pm anyway so don't have time to faff about making something. Last night I had a sandwich with white bread, crisps and a muffin!

Right, plan for this week! I can't do my chocolate tub thing again (although it worked brilliantly last week!) as I have a night out on Saturday. So, I'm thinking I'll still aim to have 7 syns a day, which will leave me with 56 'spare' syns for the weekend when I will go over, hopefully only through alcohol - I will try to control my eating still. We are staying over at my parents' on Friday night so hopefully my mam will be cooking (she always cooks healthily). The only thing is that sometimes we go out to their local pub when we stay over and the food there is amazing (but not SW friendly!). I'm going to take 2 weetabix and a banana with me to have for breakfast on Saturday morning, so no chance of going over syns by giving myself a generous portion of cereal. Add to that 2 zumba classes, and as many jogs as I can fit in and hopefully my week won't be too bad. I'd love to get another 2lb off next week then I'd be back up to my half stone (I won that award about 6 weeks ago!) and I can add the sticker back to my signature!

So one step at a time - today: I've just been to tesco express on my way in to work and have bought some snack packs of fruit - one pineapple and one melon. I've also got a banana, apple, kiwi fruit, nectarine and activia yoghurt with me for snacking on during the day. That should do me! I just need to stay away from the tub of celebrations on the staff room table and the tuck shop shouting at me from the corner! I want to try and kick start my week by having a syn free day today.

Wish me luck

 

[laurab53]

Food Diary: Wednesday 16th March
Extra Easy

Breakfast: Weetabix (HEXB), milk (HEXA), banana
Lunch: Home made salad: salad leaves, cucumber, tomato, spring onion, chicken, rice, 1.5 boiled eggs
Dinner: Chicken breast stuffed with quark mixed with garlic and herbs, wrapped in bacon roasted in oven with roasted courgette, peppers, mushrooms and rice

Snacks: Activia yoghurt, Banana, Apple, Melon, Kiwi fruit, pineapple

Syns: 0

Exercise: Zumba class

Really really proud of myself for yesterday. A good start to the week is half the battle I think. Sometimes I have a bad day on a Wednesday as I think it's the first day so I time to make up for it, but that never happens. If I have a bad Wednesday I usually have a gain or STS. When I got in from work yesterday I spent about an hour and a half in the kitchen making scotch eggs for today and preparing last nights dinner so my bf could cook it while I was at zumba. So I was exhausted by the time I finished that but still went to zumba and had a great time. My friend said that I was really dedicated when I text saying I was at zumba. I think it's only because it's zumba and I enjoy it so much! If it was any other class I would have stopped going by now and definately wouldn't have gone last night. I usually go with my bf's sister but she was too tired last night, so I went on my own.

Really glad I managed to have a syn free day - that's 15 syns towards the weekend (3 vodkas!).

Won't be able to be syn free today as I have 2 of my humongous scotch eggs (2 syns each) one for lunch and one for on my way to college tonight. Fills me right up though! I also have a full packet of batchelors / ainsley harriott rice with it at lunch time rather than half a packet I usually have with lunch. Last week after lunch I was absolutely stuffed and stayed full all afternoon, for only 2 syns. I love this diet!

 

[laurab53]

Food Diary: Thursday 17th March
Extra Easy

Breakfast: Weetabix (HEXB), milk (HEXA), banana
Lunch: Scotch Egg (2syns), rice, cucumber, tomato
Dinner: Bolognese, 3 x crackerbread (3syns)

Snacks: Scotch Egg (2syns), apple, grapes, banana

Syns: 7

No exercise today as had college after work and didn't get home til 9pm. Wasn't really hungry when I got home, but I had got my leftover bolognese out of the freezer so I just heated that up and had it with 3 crackerbread instead of making some pasta. Then didn't want anything else as it was so late. 7 syns not too bad, I don't want to go over 7 any 'normal' days this week, so that I have plenty to cover tonight and tomorrow night. Going to my parents tonight so not sure what we'll be eating. Will be really good all day until then (no syns) incase it is not SW friendly. Think I will make another quiche today to have over the weekend as that really helped last week. I'm waiting for my '30 day shred' DVD to arrive, after reading so much about it on here! If it comes today I will start today, but if not I think I'm going to dig out an old fitness DVD and do that for a change. Not sure if I'll get time to exercise tomorrow so I need to do something today.

I am really happy at the moment as I am so 'in the zone' and even though there are tempting things around me I'm not tempted at all! It's so strange how I can be like this one week and then completly fall apart the next. I just need to work on staying in this zone for longer. I'm already starting to notice a change in myself - mainly that I can now touch my toes when stretching - I've NEVER been able to do that before! I think it must be the zumba, as I've been going since January. I just need to remember how good it feels when I notice changes like that, and do my best to keep myself on track for once!

Coming on these boards every day does help a lot. There's so many inspiring people on here!

 

[Nellylou]

Hey Laura
Have been reading through your diaries and you have really inspired me to cook some new things. Im struggling after having a really good SW experince in 2008 to a really slow one this time and have started posting for some help and ideas.
Your Smash Pizza sounds great and the scotch eggs yum!
How was the chicken pie (rosti topping) I keep meaning to make it but never get round to it. :sigh:

 

[laurab53]

Thanks Nellylou I'm glad my rambling are helpful to someone!

Not going to post a food diary today as have had a bad few days. Went out last night and stuck to vodka and diet coke (yey!) but then ended up getting a chicken kebab with garlic sauce and raiding the biscuit tin when I got in (boo!)

On a brighter note I'm making something new tonight - a lasagne recipe from an old SW magazine using yoghurt for the base of the White sauce. Will have to resist putting loads of cheese on top though! Am also going to attempt to make garlic 'bread' using smash, along the same lines as the smash pizza. Will let you know how I get on...

Ooh and I started the 30 day shred DVD today - was very hard work but will be worth it if I can keep it up. Wish me luck!

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[laurab53]

Lasagne and garlic 'bread' was a huge success! Very full now!

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[Kia-Ora]

Lasagne and garlic 'bread' was a huge success! Very full now!

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Ohhhhhhh sounds fab, can u post the recipes??

 

[laurab53]

Ohhhhhhh sounds fab, can u post the recipes??

It was gorgeous and so filling!

The lasagne recipe was in one of the old magazines but basically you just make a bolognese sauce as usual and then the white sauce is made up of fat free yoghurt and 2 eggs all mixed together until smooth. Layers are: bolognese, lasagne sheets, white sauce (repeat until all used up!). Then sprinkle some grated cheese on top (optional) if you want to use a HEXA or some syns!

The garlic 'bread' I just made up. Made up a pack of origional smash with as little water as possible so it makes one big lump. I divided it into 6 balls then spread them as thinly as I could just with my hand on the work surface. Spray baking tray with frylight and put the bits of smash on and spray with frylight again. Baked for a few minutes in the oven until starting to go golden brown and crispy, then carefully turn over and spray again with frylight. Few more minutes in the oven, then spread some garlic (not too much!) on each slice, and sprinked some oregano on top. I use a jar of easy garlic so just used a teaspoon to spread a little on each bit. One more spray of frylight then about another 3-5 minutes in the oven!

It was so nice and felt like I was being really naughty but it was all free! I say this all the time but god bless slimming world!

In other news - I got my ass out of bed at 5:45 this morning and did day 2 of 30 day shred DVD before my shower. It was sooo hard making myself do it but I feel really good now. It's good to know that it's only 8:15 but I've already done my exercise for the day! Found the DVD a little easier than yesterday but I know I'm to hurt more tomorrow

 

[Kia-Ora]

I'm gonna try that yum!! I got to day 16 of shred before hurting my knee, lost 8 inches in that time alone! Brilliant it is... But can't bear to restart it and go thru the pain again lol