8 weeks in

Thank you all for your lovely comments on my last post, it's good to be blogging again regularly.

Last night was weigh in number 8. I was convinced it was going to be bad. I had a very 'meh' week last week. It was the Reading Festival, which means I end up locking myself in the flat and don't even attempt to drive anywhere (total gridlock). By Thursday night (after only 48 hours of my self imposed house arrest) I was stir crazy so we went out for dinner, Friday I was out with the girls and Saturday we went to the football. SW was on my mind but not exactly my main focus.

 Some food and some posing.

Lovely Saturday, miserable Monday.

Anyway, I digress. I somehow lost another 3.5lbs this week. That takes me to 27.5lbs in total (damn that 0.5lbs) and once again I was Slimmer of the Month. I am actually really surprised by how well this is going. The last time I managed to lose weight was with WW and I got to 52lbs but that took me almost a year. I know this level of weight loss is going to be impossible to sustain, but hell knows I will take it for now.

So, this is where it all has the potential to go wrong... we're flying off to Italy on Friday morning for 10 days. I am formulating a plan of action, but I am really determined to try and enjoy my holiday, but not come back with a massive gain. I guess I just have to employ the rules of SW as best I can and see how we go. If I can maintain, that would be awesome... I'll take a small gain, but anything of large proportions will be met with some annoyance. I think I will attempt to stick to the plan every other day. Does that sound risky??

I'll be celebrating my 2nd wedding anniversary back in Sorrento where we got married, so I'll try not to stress too much over my eating, but I need to not completely lose focus!

Weighing in

So all that documenting what I ate seems to have done the trick, I lost another 5.5lbs this week (despite the alcohol) that with the 1lb I lost last week takes me to 24lbs lost in 7 weeks. It feels like some kind of revelation, I've never really gotten on with Slimming World before, but it seems fairly easy this time around. Perhaps my head is just in the right place for once. I'll not over analyse and just keep on doing whatever it is that I am doing.

Now, I have 1 more weight in before we head to Italy for 10 days to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary. Hopefully it's not possible to put 24lbs back on in 10 days. That would be fairly pants.

A week of food delights

One of the biggest problems for me when I attempt any form of diet change is boredom. I mean salad is fundamentally dull, right? So since joining Slimming World, I've made a concerted effort to be more prepared and cook some really tasty meals. I thought I'd document these here as I have a tendency to end up eating the same things over and over again, thus boredom sets in and I go off the rails..

The first thing is, being prepared. I now have a spice cupboard to rival any isle in Tesco. I make sure I include fat free yoghurt, quark, fat free cottage cheese and eggs in every shop that I do and I stock up on pasta and rice whenever it is on offer. We get a weekly fruit and veg box so I always have those supplies and we do a big shop at our local butchers once a month to fill the freezer. 

Now, I am not a fan of massive plates of vegetables. Something to do with being forced to eat peas as youngster (I swallowed them whole like tablets, such was my hatred of them), I've moved on these days and can consume peas in a normal fashion, but I still try and incorporate veg into my dishes instead of serving them up on the side mostly.

Day 1 - Clockwise starting top left:

Breakfast 'muffins' - dry fried mushrooms, onions and bacon medallions, mixed with a tub of fat free onion & chive cottage cheese, 3 eggs and salt & pepper. Popped into a muffin tin and baked until golden. I love these. I make a massive batch on a Sunday to see me through most of the week.. 

Curried chicken and rice salad - chicken marinated in fat free yoghurt and curry powder and then baked in the oven. Mixed with salad (lettuce, red onion, cucumber, cherry toms), cooked rice and fat free yoghurt with fresh mint and seasoning.

Lamb chilli served with 'garlic bread' (post weigh in, I lost another 1lb) - 7 syns for the garlic bread - 1 sandwich thin spread with tsp lurpak light mix with garlic and parsley. Chilli contains, mushrooms, onions, broad beans, tomatoes, carrot, cabbage, pinch of cinnamon, garlic & chilli powder. 

Scan bran carrot cake - 1 syn per slice - or you can count the scan bran towards your HEb. 

HEa was 350ml Skimmed Milk. 

Day 2

2 x Waitrose 50% less fat sausages (3 syns) with 2 eggs scrambled with a dollop of fat free yoghurt and dry fried mushrooms and ketchup (1 syn)

Left over chill, jacket potato, 30g Cheddar (HEa) and salad. Dollop of extra light salad cream (1 syn)

'Eton Mess' - Plums & strawberries with fat free yoghurt with a dash of vanilla extra, 1 meringue nest (2.5 syns) and a crumbled Salted Caramel Hifi bar (HEb)

Beef stir fry with rice - loosely based on this recipe but without oil or chilli sauce.

Day 3

Breakfast muffins and potato & onion tortilla.

Curried chicken and rice salad (as above)

Keema curry with squash served with cauliflower flatbread (1 syn) - check out the Slimming Eats website for those recipes. Cauliflower flat bread is amazing - I made this version without the parmesan.

Day 4 

Breakfast muffins and cauliflower flatbread (1 syn)

Sausage and tomato pasta (3 syns). Onions, mushrooms, garlic, passata & sausages with pasta. 2 slices of Cauliflower flat bread (1.5 syns) with 30g Cheddar (HEa).

Pulled pork rolls (1syn & 1 HEb) with 'sautéed' potatoes, salad and corn on the cob (Slimming eats recipe again)  1.5 syns for the butter on the corn.

Day 5 

Potato & Onion tortilla & 20g Cheddar (2/3 HEa)

2 pieces of KFC & tomato ketchup (heaven). 12 syns for the chicken, 1 for the ketchup. My colleague goes to KFC every Friday. This is my first one for 6 weeks. Previously I'd have had 3 pieces of chicken, fries and a gravy (32.5 syns!!!)

Frozen Yoghurt (0.5 syns)

Beef & mushroom pie (3 syns) with chips and mushy peas.

• Dry fry mushrooms, onions, carrot, cabbage & stewing beef. Add in a tsp of celery salt, tsp garlic salt, tsp thyme, 2 tbsp of worcestershire sauce and then add beef stock (I used 2 tbsps of bovril and some water). Put in the oven on low heat and allow to reduce down. Stir in a tsp of gravy granules to thicken and then put a sheet of filo pastry on top - I smash it up when frozen and overlap the bits to make it a bit thicker). Brush with egg and pop back in oven. This is amazing! If you omit the pastry it's still a pretty amazing stew. 

Not pictured - a lot of alcohol. Approx 50 syns??

Day 6 - Rewind Festival in Henley

'Southern fried chicken goujons' with savoury rice, salad and fat free cottage cheese (1/2 HEb)

• 1 wholemeal roll blitzed into breadcrumbs mixed with cayenne pepper, paprika & garlic salt. Dip chicken pieces in egg and then into the breadcrumbs and then bake in the oven

Tikka Wrap from Wham Bam tikka ( approx 12 syns?) - you can't take your own food into the festival, I tried and it was confiscated :(

Not pictured - 1 bottle of Koppaberg cider (11.5 syns), 1 light hifi bar (1/2 HEb), Skinny latte (HEa). 

Day 7 

1 English muffin (7 syns) with 1 piece of bacon including fat (2 syns)

Pork chop (I didn't eat the fat as much as I wanted to) with dry fried potatoes and onions, mixed greens, flat beans and bisto (1.5 syns), tsp mustard (0.5 syns). 

Fruit Salad - Pears, peaches, strawberries & raspberries. 

Pastitsio (1 HEa) - another Slimming Eats recipe. I used spaghetti and replaced the cottage cheese with quark. Served with salad. 

So, a fairly decent week for me. I tend not to eat my daily syn allowance (I can have up to 25 a day) as I don't generally need them and I know I'll usually go over at the weekend. It's kind of the flexible syns approach and it seems to be working ok so far.I think this week came in at about 120 syns (give or take a couple). Obviously if my weight loss comes to a grinding halt, I may need to rethink this approach, but for now it's working fine. We'll see what the scales have to say tomorrow!

Week 5

Another 2.5lbs down at weigh in on Monday. 17.5lbs lost in 5 weeks. I am pretty smug, I can tell you (although smugness leads to disappointment so I should probably get a grip).

Monday is now officially the worst day ever. I mean Monday's are pretty hideous as it is, it's the start of the working week and no one likes that, I have a limited team at work due to shifts and twice as much work and now I am nil by mouth from lunch time onwards so as not to impact my weight loss. Throw a SW class in the mix where we all sit around and clap like loons at a 2lb gain and empathise over water retention, well it's a living hell.

However, as much as attending the classes is not my idea of fun, it's definitely keeping me on the straight and narrow (although I did catch myself weighing 2 pairs of trousers last week to see which weighed the least, these ones weigh less than these in case you're interested). I feel like it's a penance for my years of gluttony. Monday is a good night for a weigh in, it keeps me focussed on a weekend and it's the one night I rarely have any plans so I have no excuses not to attend. 

I'm quite enjoying this plan because it doesn't massively feel like a struggle. Yes, you have to get creative and be prepared, but it's all good. I can still eat out and have the odd drink (or half a bottle of gin like I did on Wednesday - navy strength at that) and lose weight. 

Last week saw me get totally trollied on Friday lunchtime (bad times, I was meant to be working) and then we were away on Saturday and enjoyed a 7 course meal with matching wines. To still be able to live my life in the manner I enjoy and lose weight, well I cannot complain. 

Despite weighing  the equivalent of twins, I am not too fussed about losing half my body weight. I don't care about being fat, but I care about being out of control, uncomfortable & in pain. I want to lose around 4 stone by the time we go to Australia in Feb. I'm hopeful, but I won't beat myself up if it doesn't happen. This has to be a lifestyle change, not a quick fix. I'm always going to want to eat out and drink booze and to socialise, it's what makes me happy. I won't give that up and it appears that SW is the answer for that very reason. 

We're off to Birmingham tonight for the weekend which will be a challenge, but I'll do my best and we'll see what Monday holds. I might end up getting weighed in a bikini if my trousers feel a bit heavy....