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 :)

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!

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! :) 

15th February '13

Hi Everyone!

Sorry I went a bit AWOL!
Last week was very tough for me. I maintained on the scales and I don't know. I got frustrated with myself after everything. One weigh-in night treat turned into a week of whatever the hell I wanted. Every day I would say to myself that I would get back on track and something would come along and pull me down.
I had my birthday. I was supposed to go out on my birthday with 'my guy' but it turned out that he had other ideas - we broke up. Less said about him and my birthday, the better so I will move on. By this point, I was so upset with myself that I took all my motivation down. Everything. I was lost. Motivation gone. I ate myself into oblivion. I didn't care about the diet, exercising or anything.
So when this weeks weigh-in came around, I was nervous. I imagined that I'd probably put on all the weight that I had took off since starting this journey. I stepped on the scales and found that I'd maintained AGAIN! I felt a slight bit of relief but still unhappy with how things were going. I expect that I will pay for last weeks food binge next week and I will be ready for it.
My consultant gave me some SAS logs to fill out for the week and hopefully I can identify what's going on with what I'm eating. Something isn't right. The exercise hasn't helped. AT ALL! I'm going back to basics this week and taking the exercise a bit easy. See if I can lose anything without it. I never had any of these issues before when I did it. None of them and I was doing much my exercise that I have been doing this time around and less food too. I'm eating all that I should be. I'm not cheating or going over my syns unless I'm doing it flexi. I'm really unmotivated.
I have recommitted myself this week. I've got the logs and eating as much fruit and veg as I can possibly get in me and drinking more water than a waterfall. So fingers crossed that I don't get effected too much by last week.
Yesterday's menu:
Breakfast : 2 wholemeal slices, 2 fried eggs (in frylight) and baked beans
Lunch: Tuna Salad (tomatoes, carrot, cucumber, lettuce, white cabbage and red onion)
Dinner: Lean mince in gravy and mashed potato.

Healthy A: 125ml Semi Skimmed/20g Light Cheddar
Healthy B: 2 Wholemeal slices

Snacks: 2 Mugshots

Syns:
1 - Chicken Mugshot
1 - Tomato Mugshot
4 - 2 tblspns of Heinz Light Salad Cream
1.5 - Gravy Powder
-------
7.5 syns! (7.5 saved)

Today's menu:
Breakfast: 2 weetabix, 250ml Semi Skimmed
Lunch: Tuna Salad (2 eggs, lettuce, tomatoes, onion, potatoes, carrot, pasta, fat free fromage frais)
Dinner: Chicken Stirfry (Yum!)

Healthy A: 250ml Semi Skimmed
Healthy B: 2 Weetabix




                                                                                    Snacks: Vanilla & Choc Muller Light
Veg Pasta Surprise (potato, pasta, carrot, brussel sprouts, green beans and cauliflower in veg stock and herbs, boiled down and mashed up)

Syns so far:
3 - 2 Laughing Cow Light triangles

Wednesday 6th February

Well today wasn't expected at all but it has been BRILLIANT!
After all the trouble with the couriers yesterday and then not turning up, I was supposed to wait in all day again like I had nothing better to do. I had to make a choice. Stay in, mope and do nothing or go to the Zumba class that I mentioned yesterday.. So I thought, SOD IT! I thought about it and decided that if the courier came, I'd run home and deal with it but if he didn't come while I was out, bonus. I want to say a big thanks to my friend, Dave for making me see the light and the silver lining.
At 9.05 this morning, I was running round the flat trying to get myself ready and get a bag together to go to Zumba for a 9.15 start. I got there and felt my nerves bubbling up. I looked around and saw that I wasn't in a room filled with skinny, athletic types and started to relax. As the music started, I felt great. I couldn't help but smile. For my first time, I don't think I did that bad :) I loved it! I mostly kept up and I felt so good afterwards :) Definitely going back for more!
I came out of there, came home having not seen the courier....
I checked my emails and found that I have a job interview! My day went from brilliant to amazing!!! My first interview in a while for a good job :) Looking forward to that!
The courier arrived at 1pm for the parcel so I hadn't missed him this morning :)
So it came to this evening and I thought that because I've upped my exercise that I might gain weight again. I didn't. I maintained and I am happy with that. Next week is going to be my week for a loss! I just know it!
After all the excitement of today, I'm knackered so just a short post tonight. Back to full strength tomorrow!

Tuesday 5th February

1 day to weigh-in.. I'm so nervous. I have let the gain from last week, really affect me this week. Not in a really bad way, where I've eaten anything I wanted and gone off the rails but in a mental way. I have really worried about what I've eaten, what exercise I should or shouldn't do, amount of fluids I've drank. It's really got under my skin that after working so hard, I put weight on. I understand why and this week, I've taken measures to try and see it not happen again. My brain is still asking the same questions. It won't stop. After tomorrow, it won't be mentioned again. I promise! I need to know if I've done the same this week or I've actually lost some.
Well last night's dinner - syn free chilli con carne and rice! I'm not a big rice fan. I never have been. I'm more of a pasta person. Do you find that? or are you the opposite?
I didn't sleep well again. This is a re-occurring thing. I'm not worried - I've been dealing with it for a long time and still never fails to really royally pee me off. Ugh! On a brighter note, it appears no ill-effects from yesterday's extra exercise. BONUS!
Today is going to be a lazy day. I don't want it to be because the sun is out, looks really nice out like it was yesterday. I have been entrusted with a parcel to be picked up by the couriers at some point between 8am and 6pm.. so I have to wait in like I have nothing else to do til it's been taken. BOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Hoping that it will go soon though as I don't like starting my walk after the primary school next door kicks out at 3pm. I get very embarrassed and all the cars blocking the road like a car park, all the people crowded outside and mums with big pushchairs all blocking the pathways makes it a very hazardous way to walk. I like peace, quiet and calm when I walk so I can concentrate. Although, there is a very small chance that I may go out later in the day before my family gets home if it hasn't been picked up by 3.
As for food today, I started with hot weetabix and milk (both A and B choices) and I also synned a 20g mild cheddar stick (6 syns).. damn that cheese! luckily, there's only one left! once they're gone, they're gone...!!
I decided on an early lunch today because I was peckish. I had 2 eggs (done in frylight), lean bacon, chilli potatoes (coated in frylight and chilli powder and then dry fried) and spaghetti hoops.. omnomnomnomnomnom!! Was lovely!!
I have planned a tuna pasta salad for later on - really looking forward to that :)

More Later!!

Monday 4th February

Monday - everyone hates Mondays lol! Today (so far..) has been pretty awesome! The suns's been out, nice chilled relaxed day. Got everything done that I wanted to get done and have sat down for a bit before the family comes home :)
So I started today quite well, for breakfast I had hot weetabix (2 as HE B choice) and milk (250 semi skimmed as HE A choice). I used all my milk but that's okay because I have been drinking hot squash as a replacement of tea and coffee. I felt a bit naughty so I synned a 20g stick of mild cheddar (6 syns). Was totally worth it!
I didn't sleep well last night. I was tossing and turning all night. Could not get comfortable. So after breakfast, I decided to have a little snooze. Felt soooooooooo much better afterwards.
Only problem was, I didn't feel like going out for my walk. I was just going to stay indoors today and do my DVD and be done with it for today. I was talking to a friend and she said to me "stay indoors then, have a day off..You can always pick it up again tomorrow." That was enough to kick me into line and got myself ready to go out and off I went. Pounding the road :) I got a little tightness in the legs but I've put that down to trying to go faster than my legs want to go. I didn't really jog much today. I don't think I would've got home if I had. (Picture is of part of my walking route)

On my last stretch, I caught up with one of the lovely ladies that goes to my SW group. We were talking about Zumba classes that go on in the same hall as we go to for group. That's on a Wednesday morning or a Friday evening so I'm gearing myself up for that! My weigh in is a Wednesday night as well. Could be good for a little boost before weighing in! :)
When I got home, I was starving and fancied something big so I had fried eggs (in frylight), lean bacon, 2 low fat sausages (2 syns each), beans, and chopped tomatoes :) Was amazing! Enjoyed every last mouthful!

I let that settle and found some spare energy. I don't know where it came from but I was glad of it. I was only going to do 30 mins on Rosemary Conley but I found that I didn't want to stop! Did the whole DVD! 3 sections - all in 1 go! I feel amazing tonight! My body will probably give me plenty of grief when it realises what I've done hehe!
Don't know what we're having for dinner tonight - something yummy I hope!
More later!