Wednesday 20 March 2013

20/3/13

Bit later today as I have had soooooo much going on today!!
So, yesterday was a big day for me. I spent the day with my cousin. It was amazing. We had such a laugh! Definitely doing that again soon. I was very good with food too! I didn't get a chance for food yesterday morning before I left so I got to our meeting place a little early and went and got some prepared fruit and a cherry mullerlight from Tesco. That was lovely. I met my cousin, did some shopping and then went to get some lunch from Tesco. I bought a salad, chunky chicken and cottage cheese with onion and chive :) All free! I bought a ltr bottle of water to have with me as well to make sure that I wouldn't get dehydrated with all the walking that we planned to do and did do. I got home happy but slightly sore from all the walking. I have no idea how far we walked but I know we were on our feet for nearly 3 hours. I was so glad when I finally sat down!! :)
We went into B&M and I got some Mug Shots (3 for £1), a tomato and basil Pasta Vita (1.5 syns), some different tea-bags to try and some Alpen Lights (Double Choc and Apple and Sultana).. I walked down the sweety and chocolate aisle and I thought that I was going to be wanting to eat it all... but actually, I didn't. I just walked through it like a normal every day aisle. I did not crave one thing on those shelves.. Okay maybe the Me2You bear easter egg... but only because it was in a cup!! I want the cup!! hehehe!!
When I got home, I had my breakfast (2 weetabix and my milk) and had one of my Alpen Lights (3 syns). It came to deciding what we were having for dinner and my lovely sister suggested a Chinese from the take away. I tried so hard to get her to change her mind.. I didn't want take away.. especially with tonight being weigh-in. Mum had her arm twisted as well so it looked like we were having Chinese. My chicken chow mein is only 7 syns so I had nothing to be worried about as I'd only had 3 syns all day. I was only going to eat half and have boiled rice as that would only have been 3.5 syns. It got here and I just gave in and ate the tub of it. I felt so bad and bloated afterwards... I was and still am worried about it affecting what happens on the scales tonight.
Talking of weigh-in tonight, a few of the girls from my club and our consultant had a bit of a chat last week about sweet treats and decided to do an unofficial taster evening, purely sweet stuff. The few of us are all bringing something different. I decided that I would be adventurous and try out a SW mini cake recipe. I haven't tried baking SW-style before as the ingredients baffled me as it didn't seem right to make a cake without the traditional things (flour, marg, sugar etc). I gave it a try. I did as the recipe instructed.. the mixture did seem a little wetter than normal but I think that it could be because of the grated carrot. There seemed to be a lot of juice in the carrots as I was grating them. Anyways, I thought, if it's not going to work, it's not going to work. In the cases the mixture went.. Oven for 20 minutes.. went to check on them and the top was golden and firm so out they came. I have to say I tried one as I didn't want to look like a fool in front of my group if they weren't nice or cooked. I let them cool down for a while as I got on with other things... namely, re-dying my hair. If you know me and you're reading this, please do not laugh at my ridiculously purple traffic cone hair! I'm mortified right now! If you don't know me, thank god you never saw me before.. sigh!!
I went to the shop to get an orange for the frosting on my cakes, got back and thought I had better crack on as my class is at 7.30 (although I get there at 7 as I'm weigh lady) so I didn't have long and I wanted the frosting to have time to hopefully solidify a bit. Anyways, I made the frosting with Quark, sweetener and flavouring (which in this case is juice of an orange and I did a few vanilla as well) and covered the cakes and decided to try some... OMG! The frosting is amazing! Best bit.. SYN FREE!! I never knew sweet, fruity cheese could taste so good! My newest discovery. I think I will be making more cakes in future! :) For one of the cakes with all it's icing is 1 syn each!! just 1 syn for the wholemeal SR flour in it :)
The recipe for anyone wanting to try them:

Carrot & Orange Cakes 
This works out at a little just over 13.5 sins (for the flour)
I made 13 mini cakes, so 1 syn each.

3 eggs
6 tablespoons sweetener
85g wholemeal SR flour
2 teaspoon mixed spice
170g grated carrot

For the topping

Quark
Vanilla essence
Sweetener or any flavouring (I used the juice of an orange)

Whisk eggs and sweetener until thick & frothy (it kind of looks like ice cream)

Sieve flour and mixed spice, add to the mixture with the carrots and fold carefully until all mixed.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees

Spoon into muffin tin and bake for approx 20 - 30 minutes until golden and firm.

When cooked, leave to cool and then mix quark with sweetener and
vanilla essence/or flavouring and decorate (I used the zest of an orange)




So with all the baking done, I'm able to sit and relax before tonight. I have been really good food-wise and I have done quite a bit of walking so have re-started my Body Magic off again but definitely not at the rate that I started at. I'm going for my Silver award. I'm not expecting a huge loss tonight. I did so well last week that I can't expect another decent one this week. I would like 3lb off so that next week I have a chance of getting my 1.5stone award but I won't hold my breath. I need 6lbs to get to it. If I do gain, I won't get disheartened this time because I already know that star week is coming and my body doesn't let me get 2 good results in a row. Fingers crossed though..

Well, I best get off, I will post pics of my cakes tomorrow so you can see what they turned out like :) I also need to go find a hat to hide my hair under for the next year til it grows out hehe!!

If you're weighing today or tonight, good luck :)


Tuesday 19 March 2013

19/03/2013

Morning all!!
Hope that you are all well!
I'm in a happy mood this morning. The last few days I have slept ALL night! wooohoooo!! It has really got me thinking that perhaps my weight is causing the problems that I have been having with insomnia. Perhaps it's all linked in to me losing weight. Lose weight = more sleep!! :)

Also, today is quite a big-ish day for me. I am meeting one of my cousins today that I haven't seen for years. I am so nervous but at the same time excited. We are going shopping.. something that I haven't done with anyone in a long time. Big step! It will be good though. I don't know what we are going to do about food but I know that I have to be super good as tomorrow is weigh in.
Tomorrow's weigh in is an important one. I lost all that weight last week and I am so worried that I have put some of it back on this week. Not that I have been bad or anything but because I feel like I have pigged out. As I said in yesterday's post, I have gone back to 100% basics. I have been filling up on pasta AND potatoes every day. I know it's all free and that I shouldn't worry but I can't help it. My up and down weight loss is really knocking my confidence. I won't let it beat me but if I could get it into some sort of steady pattern, that would be awesome! I don't mind how little I lose as long as it's a loss. So it would show more when I'm bad. I don't ever plan on being bad again!
We are having a little mini taster session tomorrow night with sweet treats. I don't know what I am going to make yet. I did see a recipe for mini muffins that looked gorgeous so possibly those but we'll see. They would have to get to tomorrow night though! ;)
My food diary from yesterday:

B: 2 weetabix, 250ml semi skimmed and a cup of tea (with milk from allowance)
S: 2 hard-boiled eggs and 3 milk choc covered rich tea (9 syns)
L: Jacket potato with spaghetti hoops with a little chili powder in them and cottage cheese
S: Pasta, baked beans, chopped toms, 2 sainsburys good for you sausages (2 syns), courgette, sweet potato, onion, pepper and cottage cheese.
D: Chicken with cajun seasoning, jacket potato, baked beans and light salad cream (2 syns)

13 syns total

I was definitely stuffed most of yesterday! I felt like a pig and a windy pig at that hehehe!
Well, I need to be off as I have to get ready for today..
Hope you all have a fabulous day and if you're weighing today, think light and believe in yourself!



Monday 18 March 2013

The return... 18/03/2013

Hey girls.. (and guys if there's any out there)

I know long time, no post but things have been rocky and I almost gave up on SW and myself. I had 2 good weeks where I lost weight and then unexpectedly, I put on 2lbs when I needed it off for my stone award. I was very upset and didn't know what to do with myself. I was ready to quit. I wasn't getting the weight losses that I wanted and felt like enough was enough. 
My SW class members gee'd me up and told me not to give up. So, instead of feeling sorry for myself and eating like a pig, I went back to absolute basics. Food diary came out, a talk with my mum about food happened and I refocused and hard. 
I stopped exercising a few weeks ago due to the weight that it seemed to put on me and never leave. It was the best decision I ever made. I didn't expect that it would change anything but I thought I would give the plan a try without actual exercise. I still walked but no Rosemary Conely or Zumba or anything like that. Funnily enough, it worked! I lost weight.. no exercise helped me lose weight!!!!!
So, I did as I had been doing, no exercise teamed with a refocused me and a food diary and I went for it...
Last week, I lost 5lbs!! and got that stone award that I have been so longing for!! I actually cried. I couldn't stop myself. It had been a hard journey to that first stone. I hope that the next one isn't going to be as hard. No doubt it will be but very worth it. 
This week so far, I have been brilliant. Eaten lots of free foods and limited my syns as much as I could but not lower than 5. I have found that although I'm not having all of my syns that I am full and not in need of anything else by the end of the day. I'd say for me that was a plus and not a minus. 

Mum and I are trying out new recipes and foods.. some were amazing and others weren't but at least we tried them out. We had a paella, fish in sauce and a new way of doing lasagna... the paella was nice and would have been nicer for me with normal size prawns and not king prawns. I just kept imagining them with heads and they seemed slightly crunchy to me.. yuck!!! The fish in sauce was disgusting.... I never want to put anything like that near my mouth again. It was smoked haddock in a cheese sauce from Morrisons. Gross!! I'm not a huge fish person.. the smell is enough to put me off usually. I thought that I would give it a try though. If it wasn't for the fact that I was hungry by the time we ate, I would've left it. I ate it ALL and swore never to eat it again. The lasagna topping separated and went everywhere. I think it may have been the fact the cheese is light and therefore, lacks substance that sticks to the top of the pasta or something. 
This week has been pasta and potato-ful and lots of cottage cheese, that I have only started eating since starting up again because it's free and it's the only cheese I can eat without ruining my whole day by scoffing it like there's no tomorrow hehe!! I'd be a mouse if I could!! hehehe!! I used to eat it when I was much younger and stopped because I didn't like the taste... now I can't get enough hehe!! 

Tried making SW rice pudding... TWICE!! HUGE FAIL!! The first attempt boiled dry and couldn't rescue it... second attempt, I got it to the right consistency but the rice wasn't 100% cooked... added more water and let it do its thing... the rice was better so took it off the heat... what I didn't know was that it continued cooking..even off the heat and it boiled dry!!! AGAIN!! I have given up on making that for now until I have a bit more patience and lots more pudding rice hehe!! 
All pics are of food that I have had over the last week or 2.. :)
 




I would like to stick a little bit of a mention and a thank you in to a group of SW goers (The 2 Karens, Claire, Nat, Dawn and Rachel), my SW group and my consultant, Kelley that have all really been a big help recently. Without all of you, I wouldn't still be going. YOU ALL INSPIRE ME!! 
So that's me up to date and signing off for now. I PROMISE more regular posts!! I just need to get my arse in gear hehehe!! 
Hope everyone has a good week and your losses are good! :)