Monday food diary

breakfast
banana and green tea

lunch
carrot, coriander and cumin soup. 3 Pogen rolls and 70g Plilli light with grilled peppers
2 slices roast beef

packet fox's moos mini malted biscuits (6 syns)

Dinner
spaghetti bolognaise

treat Galaxy Ripple (9 syns)

After my weight loss yesterday I had my nice treat of a Galaxy ripple in the evening whilst starting on the Blackadder Boxset. Maxed my syns yesterday so the rest of this week has to be pretty good to keep on pace. I don't know why I had the Fox's biscuits, probably just cos the kids had some after their lunch. They were alright but really not worth the syn count....although the Galaxy ripple most definitely was.

Kids are in nursery all day today so I can get my head down and crack on with work which will mean at least that I won't be tempted by their snacky lunch. I absolutely love the Philadelphia Light flavoured cheeses and the  Pogen rolls are something that I've always loved. So 3 Pogen Rolls are a HE B and by chance you get enough Phili on a HE A (71g) to top all 3 generously. 

I've got the sweet chilli flavoured Phili in the fridge although not tried it yet but the Grilled Peppers one is lush. Going to have more of the same today. Taken out the Chicken Jalfrezi from the freezer that I made the other night for dinner and just having a jacket potato with beans for lunch. Hoping for a syn free night...well syn's with a 'Y' rather than a 'I'....it is valentines day after all. 

Sunday food diary

Breakfast
banana and yogurt

Lunch
Sirloin steak, bacon, baked beans, field mushrooms and roasted cherry tomatoes. Bread (HE A)

Evening
Mugshot and apple

Snack 
packet of skips

Milk for HE A

Sunday is a bit of a chilled out day. We get up later, eat later and before you know it it's bed time! That was a bit like last night to be honest. I was planning on doing a load of batch cooking but we had visitors and time just seem to disappear. Lunch was nice though, veritable meat fest. What I was proud about yesterday was that I was going to have a galaxy ripple for my syns last night and then asked myself if I really fancied it when it came down to the crunch and went without.

So the only syns I had last night were my packet of skips (must be about 5 syns if I remember right).

Well, now it's Monday morning and so it's time to hit the scales, and despite a not very good two days mid week where I let myself down a bit (although didn't go as mad as I could have) I have lost a rather impressive 5lb. Of course it's the first week and that first weight loss can always be the one that makes you unrealistic over how much weight you'll lose but as I've been there many times before all I'm aiming for is a good 2lb a week from now on. This would mean comfortably losing my desired goals by the targets I've set with room for error too so I feel good about that.

First day of half term so work will be erratic this week and I won't have acres of time to do much so it's going to be very careful planning to make sure I've got what I need to eat organise. This morning it's just green tea, a banana and an apple. I've got some carrot & coriander soup for lunch with Pogen rolls and phillidephia light. Some yogurt and fruit before I take the girls swimming this afternoon and then I'm going to do spaghetti bolognaise for dinner. Really have to plan for less than 5 syns a day to give a little breathing space for the weekend when it's time to have a few farewell drinks on Saturday. Goal is for 2lb loss next week and hit my half stone.

Day 6 Food diary

It's doubtful that I'm going to be able to fill this in every single day although I'll do most days so will skip my two crappy days where following the chinese I went a bit barking. Friday was rushing from one thing to another and by 7pm after I finished working I hadn't eaten all day so my diet for the day consisted of two bags of crisps and 4 jaffa cakes rammed down my throat before I went to bed! Not ideal.

I was however, an absolute angel yesterday. Almost made a bit of a mistake with adding cheese to my jacket potato when I'd already had my milk allowance as my HE A for breakfast but then switched from doing an Extra Easy day to a green day and then adjusted my portions of dinner. So here's day 6

Breakfast
Bran flakes & Milk (HE A & HE B)

Snack
Strawberries, blueberries, apple and grape fruit salad with fat free vanilla yogurt.

Lunch
Jacket potato, baked beans and lower fat chedder (HE A) with 1 tsp of Clover Lighter (1 syn)

Dinner
Diet Coke chicken (HE B) with Rice with an apple for after

There are loads of recipes out there for the diet coke chicken and when I made it for the first time a couple weeks back I realised it has a slight sweet n sour taste so this time round I added soy sauce rather than worcestershire and added a load of chinese five spice. I also cooked it for much longer so that it really thickened the sauce. I had to weigh out the chicken for mine to 70g as I'd had 2 'a' choices during the day but to be honest, it was enough for me anyway and I even had left overs.

Felt really good to have a great day on plan yesterday. Whilst I did dinner, the rest of the tribe had a movie night in the front room watching Smurfs 3D and I supplied them with the regulation popcorn, ice cream and hot chocolate and didn't even feel like I was seeing myself off. So I'm passed the 'woe is me' stage and onto the 'I know how shit I feel emotionally and physically when I eat crap til I burst' stage....that's always a help.

I even resisted when the kids made oatmeal cookies and gingerbread men yesterday. Mind you, with the decorations they put on it.....do you blame me?

Pete stayed on plan yesterday too and he's promised to not give in to any lapses of will power. Hope he means that cos tomorrow I tackle the smoking once again. He stopped smoking about 4 months ago now and I'm really proud of him. It's the longest he's ever gone and I really think he's cracked it this time especially as he didn't lapse during the christmas period.

I was going to go back to group tomorrow but finance wise, looks like it won't now be until next week after my payday as I've just paid the balance of our summer holiday. That's the main focus. I want to be at final target weight by then although still haven't decided exactly what that will be. Probably 9 stone but we'll see how I look and feel a little nearer the time.

So, all in all feeling good. Spurs had an emphatic win yesterday. Probably the most comfortable we've looked in a game all season. Everton beat Chelsea so Pete was in a good mood too, plus his result also did me a favour what with Liverpool losing too.

The Suarez saga continues.......yesterdays' refusal of hands just showed what a complete prick the guy is and the after match interview that Dalglish did with Jeff Shreeve yesterday was cringe worthy. I really can't see how any of this debacle can be justified.

So tomorrow is the start of half term. No work meeting to scamper around to luckily, just a conference call at lunch time but as I don't want to work next weekend I'm going to be going some to get enough hours through the week with the kids at home. They're in nursery on Tuesday and Thursday so I guess that's when I'll have to get most of my work done. Got a party to go to next Saturday and drink will be particularly cheap so I'm going to have to be a saint all this week so I can let my hair down next weekend. Vodka and diet coke to keep the syn count down although I don't think I'll be able to entice Pete off the cider. Then again, if we're up to our normal tricks we'll dance off those syns before we pass out so here's hoping for a good night.

Day 4....OOPs

Mmmmm, where do I start. Let's just say not a great day!

Breakfast started well with fruit and yogurt, then a grilled bacon sandwich with a little sweet chilli sauce and then as the day got more manic, I lost my marbles completely.

In fairness, yesterday was one of those days where there was loads to do and all in the space of a few hours and by the time I finished working at 7.30, I walked into the front room and said to Pete 'I fancy a chinese'. Now this is where I need my 'rock' to say 'It's alright, I'll do the ham omlettes with veg we were going to have' or 'but we're having a nice ham omlette with loads of veg and if you had a chinese you'd regret it'. BUT, what he actually said was 'order one then'.........really, that wasn't the encouragement that I needed. So I ordered it!

Now...I DID order noodles instead of fried rice so that was 0 syns. I had that with special foo yung which isn't in my syns book so I can't be sure of that (plus I only ate half...the guilt kicked in by then) but I'm thinking egg, meat....can't be too high if a serving special fried rice is 9.5 syns for 310g, I had less than 150g of foo yung so I'm reckoning it's about 5 syns. But the damage was mainly the sweet & sour pork balls. I know chicken is 17.5 syns for a full portion. I'm thinking pork being fatter would push that to 20 so half a portion would be another 10. So in total about 15 syns....call it 20 to be on the safe side.

I suppose it could have been worse. I did swap what I would normally eat which is duck. The higher syns limit is 15 and using flexible syns I am under my syns over the course of the last two days, however, it's not really where I wanted to be.

Think I will have stern words with Mr F tonight and tell him he's supposed to keep me disciplined. I have to go shopping this afternoon and I've planned meals up til next wednesday so have to be extra good now as I'm back going to classes on Monday and staying for Image Therapy after so that will be a kick up the arse.

The plus point is that I'm feeling it this morning. It's not just my conscience that's taken a battering, but my stomach. I feel like it is just laying there in my gut and not moving, like I've swallowed a basketball. So I'm going to hold onto this feeling and remember how eating more sensibly doesn't make me feel like I'm having baby no. 4!

Tomorrow's another day

Day 3 Food diary

Breakfast
Branflakes with milk (HE A & HE B)
Banana

Lunch
Pasta Pot Shot (1 syn)
Grapes
Jaffa Cake (2.5 syns)

Dinner
Teriyaki marinated Alaskan wild Salmon with mangetout, baby sweetcorn, mushrooms, chilli, spring onion, ginger & lemon grass stir fry with dried egg noodles (syns 2)

Snacks
Cottage Cheese and Celery
2 Jaffa Cakes (5 syns)

Not too happy with having 10.5 syns last night. Have to cut out the Jaffa cakes as it's too easy to eat more than one! Loved dinner again tonight. I've done this dish before and it really is delicious. I've not tried it with cheaper Salmon but some really nice Alaskan salmon was on special so I made the most of it. It really does taste so much better than the cheaper Salmon fillets although I wouldn't turn my nose up at those either. The recipe is inspired by one from the Wagamama noodle cookbook which is a favourite of mine but it's normally served with a ramen noodle salad and as I didn't have any I just did a bog standard stir fry.

The longer you can marinate the salmon the better, preferably overnight but for a minimum of 2 hours. For 4 fillets I used 2 tbsp of mirin (1.2 syns per tbsp but only about half of the marinate ends up in the fish) and 2 tbsp of light soy sauce for the marinate and just make sure the fish is well dunked.

Boil your egg noodles and then after draining, rinse in cold water to ensure they don't cook any further. For the stir fry I used chilli, lemongrass, ginger and spring onion fried in wok fry light for a couple mins. I then add whatever veg I'm using. Last night was mushrooms, mange tout and baby sweetcorn. Add a couple dashes of teriyaki marinade (not the sticky sauce but just marinade, same sort of consistency as soy) for 1 syn per tbsp or use soy if you want prefer not to use the syns, although it won't be quite as sweet and glossy. Then add the noodles to heat through. Once warmed through, remove from the heat and turn your attention to the Salmon. Heat a pan with very little fry light until quite hot and put your salmon in skin side down. Cook for about 3-4 mins depending on the thickness of the salmon but do not turn it over too early, you really want a lot of colour on the salmon skin and as it's been marinaded the colour will be quite dark to the point where it will look almost burned but believe me it's not. Don't move the salmon around while it's cooking, you really need that colour as it makes the skin really crispy and gorgeous. Turn it over and cook for a further couple mins, then back on to it's skin to finish it off. Even if you're not a great lover of salmon, do try this as it's delicious.

Day 2 Food diary

Breakfast
Strawberry and Kiwi fruit salad

Lunch
2 Alpen Light bars (HE B)

Dinner
Roast pork (fat removed), carrot batons, honey roasted parsnips (1 syn) and roast potatoes with gravy made with granules (1 syn)

Snack
3 Jaffa cakes (7.5 syns)
Milk (HE A)

Not the greatest of days. I'm realising that I have to be eating a lot more superfree foods with my lunch but as I was working yesterday afternoon it was so difficult so I think I have to plan a lot better for lunch. I'm not one for salads unless they're smothered in a creamy dressing so that's a no go. The way I see it, you only stick to a healthy eating plan if you ENJOY what you're eating. So salad is out the window.

Soup is the perfect one for me and with hindsight, I should have taken out a batch from the freezer as the majority of ingredients in the soups are superfree so I think with a bit more foreward planning that will be better tomorrow. The Alpen bars were more of a 'shit, I haven't had anything to eat and still need to have my Healthy Eating B choice'.

Dinner was delicious though. The willpower it took to remove and bin the crackling after it came out the oven was very hard. The parsnips were really nice. I just par boiled them and then roasted them after spraying with fry light and drizzling 2 tbsp of honey on them. The roast potatoes were also roasted in fry light and although they took a lot longer to roast and were a bit drier than doing in oil, a free roast spud as opposed to 4 syns for a large potato roasted in oil is just no competition, especially as I would normally have 3 or 4 potatoes with a roast dinner.

We all ate the same last night and the kids enjoyed dinner (apart from Em who decided that she doesn't like parsnips even though she's had them before and liked them, that's kids for you). I think Freya was disappointed that I'd thrown out the crackling and in fairness I would normally give her quite a bit of crackling.

Pete took a salad to work along with a baked potato and a batch of the chilli that he made up on Sunday so he was happy with that.

I'm going back to classes on Monday. It's the same group I was with before so will be nice to see if there are some familiar faces there and see how they're doing. I like that it's on a Monday as I just can't get my head around being weighed on any other day...plus it means I don't go too mad over the weekend.

I've got half an eye on up and coming functions as I've got a couple the end of this month. One is a week on Saturday so I need to be really strict next week and use some flexible syns for a few drinks. If I stick to vodka and diet coke though I'll be fine. I'll go out with the mentality that although it's great to have a night out with a few drinks, I'd much rather be having a night out in a few months time, feeling less conscious of my weight and having a few drinks then!

Day 1 Food diary and comments

Breakfast
Nice fruit salad made with strawberries, grapes, apple, kiwi & blueberries served with fat free yoghurt sprinkled with sweetener. Cup of green tea.

Lunch
Small wholemeal roll with lean roast beef and cucumber

Dinner
Lean gammon steak, large field mushroom griddled, grilled tomato, fried potato cubes and fried egg.

Snacks
packet of bacon rashers

Used semi skimmed from A allowance.

COMMENTS 
Was a typical busy Monday with a work meeting for which I had to go into Plymouth for. It's a pain in the arse as I don't have the car now Pete is based at Raleigh so it means braving public transport and yesterday I seem to find a bus that doubled as one of those machines that vibrates the fat off you! It wasn't pleasant. Breakfast therefore was a quick affair, as was lunch when I came home and grabbed something before the kids came home from school.

I had packed Pete off to work with a large salad of celery, peppers, radishes, leaves, cherry tomatoes and beetroot. He also had fruit and a couple of the tandoori chicken legs I'd done. He used the balsamic Fry Light salad dressing but did say that it didn't taste that strong so may see if I can make up a different dressing. Any suggestions? He also had 2 Alpen Light Bars as his HE B and he always drinks a mountain of coffee at work so he uses his milk allowance in HE A for that.

The kids had swimming lessons last night so once I got back from there I set up for dinner. Some nice gammon chops grilled (cutting the fat off before grilling as I can't be trusted once they are cooked!). I love fried potatoes so I par boiled small potato cubes, drained and then fried using the Butter Fry Light and plenty of seasoning. They do take quite a while to cook but these are delicious, especially when topped with a nice runny fried egg. I do fry my eggs in normal oil as I don't like they way they cook with Fry Light but as long as you drain the oil off afterwards I'm happy to take the 1 syn on the chin. I had some large field mushrooms and sprayed those with the Butter Fry Light and seasoned with black pepper and garlic salt and then griddled them, turning occasionally. They only take about 5 or 6 minutes. I was going to have peas with it but when I realised how far down the chest freezer they were (in a cupboard which desperately needs a clear out) I gave up.

Dinner went down well with me, Pete and Freya ...the little ones had hot dogs after swimming as they had to eat quick to get homework done and be ready for bed.

My only downfall was a packet of bacon rashers crisps. Spurs were on tele last night and I can't watch the football without some sort of nibbles but even syning those (and I've no idea how many syns they were) I'm happy that I'll be within my allowance.

I'm hoping to get back to a class so going to have a look up and see if I've got a local one that suits the hours I'm working and the multitude of social engagements the kids seem to have these day. I worked out that if I get a countdown, it should end not long before our anniversary getaway.

Tonight is roast pork with plenty of veg. Got a long work day today and the girls are at after school club til 6. So just a fruit and yogurt breakfast, a portion of the carrot & coriander soup that I made the other day for lunch with a wholemeal roll.

Start of a new week

...and feel in my bones it will be a good one, or at least much better than last week. Jumped on scales to find no change so that's good and it means I can start brightly today. I suppose it's difficult to post what I've eaten each day on the day so I guess I'll be updating a day behind.

Very organised today though and that helps. I spent last night batch cooking loads to freeze for the next couple weeks and even got Pete (who balks at the strength of my chilli as more like mince in gravy) in on the act. So he made up a syn free pot of hot chilli which gave about 10 portions. I also made up 4 portions of Chicken Jalfrezi, 4 large portions of the carrot & coriander soup I made a couple days ago (with added cumin for a bit more of a kick) and cooked up a load of tandoori chicken legs.

Pete doesn't like food that tastes like it's diet food and as we're both partial to an Indian take away, my favourite slimming world recipe book has to be Curry Heaven. Food that is nicely spiced and flavoursome without the calories. You know when you get that takeaway delivered.......open the lid.....and there settled on the top is a layer of grease?! Well imagine all the flavour and none of the grease.

A lot of the dishes in the book can be frozen making them perfect if you're busy and if you stock up on your spices right in the beginning you'll also find that the recipes aren't that expensive. My particular favourites are the pilau rice (the tastiest rice ever and zero syns, also freezable) and the chicken Jalfrezi (tip: tastes even better the day after, just like real curry!).

I have my sister and her tribe over for a get together every couple of months and tend to cook. The last time they came over whilst I was on slimming world I did a massive indian feast from this book. I had made about 8 different dishes all of which contained absolutely no syns. The chicken vindaloo really worked for the blokes as well and they had no idea that it was all syn free.

The tandoori chicken legs are great to cook up and then leave in the fridge for packed lunches or just nibbles although the recipe in the book has them hot served with a lime pepper salad.

One thing I am missing at the moment though is a decent supply of fresh herbs. The herb garden is dead for another year and buying fresh isn't cheap so looking forward to spring arriving.

So I'll update tomorrow with what I've had today. But if you like your curry....GET THAT BOOK!

Best laid plans.....

Started not feeling too good on Wednesday night, hence the lack of updates. Had a really bad stomach with indigestion meaning that the only thing i could eat was plain white bread with a bit of butter on just so it wasn't dry. Anything else I tried, including fruit just made me worse so it was milk and bread. Not idea but as haven't eaten much else since them I'm hoping to at least be the same on Monday as I was on Wednesday.

I'm actually switching weigh in day to Monday as it's far easier for me to get my head around. So hoping not to have put on at least on Monday. I'm sat now writing my list for shopping in a bit. Going to brave the weather anyway as have to pick up the eldest from a Kaiser Chiefs concert tonight. I was supposed to be going but as I was going with a load of 'couples' I felt a bit of a gooseberry so gave it a miss. Hope the rest of them enjoy it though and I'm playing taxi home.

I did forget to mention anything about drinks on day 1. I don't tend to drink hot drinks and rely mostly on no added sugar squashes or diet coke. But one thing I did want to share is Green Tea. I read on a forum about a couple members having a better weight loss whilst drinking green tea. It's certainly an aquired taste (at least for me) but once you've been drinking it a week or so it's fine. The advice I had was to have a cup of green tea and an apple with every meal. Although I'm not one to eat that many apples, I did take the green tea advice and did find that weight loss was better. Would be interested to know anyone else's thoughts on the subject.

I also learnt something else. If, like me, you have a habit of breaking bits of bread and putting it in your soup....don't do it with a wholemeal roll! The bloody thing disintegrated into the soup and made it really cloggy. Wasn't that pleasant to be honest. So from now on I think it's a dunk like a biscuit! On the plus side, the whole litre and half of the soup I made on Day 1 was consumed by my eldest and Pete so that's a definite thumbs up. Going to do another batch tomorrow with cumin added to it.

New Slimming World magazine arrived through the post this morning and only had time to have a brief flick through but looks some nice recipes in there. So now off to plan for the rest of the week.

Day 1

Feeling really ready for this today. Had a chinese  take away late last night which left me bloated and knowing exactly WHY I want to be doing this. Had some time this morning to get stuff ready for the day so once the kids were packed off to school that's what I did.

Breakfast
Kick started with a nice fruit salad made with strawberries, kiwi, apple and grapes. Having with a Muller Light, but one of the Vanilla ones with the chocolate sprinkles with Black Cherry underlayer. I know these aren't the free ones but they were on offer and at only 1.5 syns I'm happy with that.

I do like fruit salad as it's nice and light. I don't however, eat it straight away after I prepare it. I prefer to sprinkle with a little sweetner and let it sit out for an hour or so til it's at room temperature and the juices from the berries start to ooze out into the rest of the bowl. Tastes much better.

Lunch
I do like a nice soup. One I can make and freeze preferably and when you can make one that tastes lush, freezes well AND is simple and cheap to make then all the better. So this morning I've made this Carrot & Fresh Coriander Soup which is bloody delicious. I made a double size batch to freeze some but to be honest, I don't think it'll last that long. In fact, I'm thinking of making another batch tonight but adding a little ground cumin to it to give it a bit of a kick.

So this is my pan with just over a litre and half of soup! I'll reheat it for lunch and have a little fresh coriander on top and team it with a wholemeal roll. Obviously the recipe says to use vegetable oil, just swap for Fry Light. Mine doesn't look quite as thick as the one in the recipes photo but if you want it thicker I'm sure it would reduce more if you let it boil a bit longer with the lid off to reduce the stock some more.

Dinner
I've done all my prep for dinner as I'm working late tonight so stir fry for me is perfect as it only takes a few minutes. I'm going to have a Chicken stir fry. This is where it's easy to get plenty of vegetables into the plan to ensure you're eating enough speed foods.

I'll be using the Fry Light Wok spray with spring onions, red chilli, lemon grass and ginger. Then add thinly sliced chicken (or whatever you prefer). Once the chicken is seared add your veg. I've got mixed mushrooms, pak choi, mangetout, baby sweetcorn, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and red peppers. I'll use light soy sauce and a bit of fish sauce so that it's syn free but you'll be surprised at how low some of the stir fry sauces can be with regards to syns. Teriyaki is full of flavour and not as high in syns as you may think.

So how does it feel?
To be back on this today feels pretty good. I had actually got to the stage where I was feeling so lethargic and couldn't wait to stop feeling so shit. I'm not a big syn eater. I tend to try NOT to snack on the naughty stuff for my syns as for me personally, it's a slippery slope. Until I can start feeling results, it would be too easy for one packet of quavers to turn into four so for the time being, it's not something I want to use for snacks. I prefer to use syns wisely to make my normal meals not feel like diet food. So I'll use them on a little mayo, or low fat spread, honey, oil or stir fry sauces. For the moment, deserts are off the eating plan for me.

Erm....now we're REALLY off!

One thing about me and diets is that it takes me a while to get back on board. If I can resist the crap food, the picking, the excuse of not having time to organise it then I'm fine. But when the excuses start after a couple of days then I know I'm not in the right frame of mind to start with.

Finally today I'm there. In the right head space where I know all I have to do is take a deep breath, plan this week, get through to the first weigh in, see the results and then be encouraged enough to keep on going. The thing with Slimming World is that it IS an easy eating plan, it DOESN'T cut out loads of food and it is maintainable...it's just that thing your brain does right in the beginning when it tells you that you're going to be miserable if you do it.....much like giving up the dreaded smoking, but more on that later.

So this blog will now officially become my motivation in lieu of not being able to get to SW meetings. Armed with my recipe books, some know how, the support from my family and hopefully some online motivation I'm hoping to crack this for good.

So this is day one. Officially day one. Have almost frozen from the cold this morning jumping onto the scales for that first weigh in (always have to be naked!!) and although I haven't gained ALL the weight I lost 18 months ago, I'm at 12 stone 8. My heaviest was 13 stone exactly and I managed to get to 11 before falling off the wagon. I'm just proud to be honest that I've actually put my weight there for all to see. It's the first time I've ever done it, only my hubby knows what I weigh.

Setting a final target is a bit too big to go for yet. At only 5 foot 1" it should be around 8st 7 but having not been that weight possibly since my teens, it's not something I feel comfortable setting. So my initial target is to get to 11st before enjoying a long weekend away with Pete for our wedding anniversary on the 19th April and then to hit 9st by our holiday at the end of August. At 2lb a week loss (which is generally what I average) both of these are achievable with weeks to spare as the weight often comes off much more slowly towards the end.

With regards being more active. That's a little more difficult at the moment but I'm hoping to get on the wii fit in a couple weeks time when work calms down a bit. I'm not a gym bunny by any means. In fact, I hate it with a passion. So for me it's probably going to be more walking, Wii Active and as I like dancing, think I'll look into Zumba which looks more up my street.

Well, it all starts with being organised and I've sat down and figured out what I want to cook this week, listed all my ingredients and been shopping. I'm not on a great budget (let's face it, who is at the moment) so nice cheap meals appeal. But I do tend to stick to the Extra Easy plan as it's one that generally fits in around the whole family. My first couple weeks, whilst I get back into it can be a bit boring but once I'm enjoying myself again I do experiment a lot.

I'd love for people to share recipes, tips and motivation and feel free to lead me to blogs and other websites which might help. So I guess it's up to me now......................

And we're off....

Jumped on the scales yesterday to view the damage and although it wasn't great, it certainly could have been worse. 50lb in 30 weeks. Sounds rather huge when you look at it that way so I've set a little target of losing 21lb by our wedding anniversary in April. 

I always take a couple weeks to get back into the healthy way of eating, maybe I shouldn't deviate so much when I decide to go mad really. Money being what it is for the moment, I'm not in a SW class so I'm doing it at home with my mountain of books and the Slimming World magazine. 

Being back at the start means I'm sticking with basics for a while so that I can get stable before starting to experiment a bit more. 

Today's breakfast was a SW classic. Bacon, grilled tomato, mushrooms and scrambled eggs. I do love having this when I've got time in the mornings as it's all free food if you're on red or extra easy. I never do green days as I'm pretty controlled when it comes to carbs (well, the healthier ones anyway). 

For lunch I'm having a ham and cheese sandwich with fruit and a yogurt so pretty basic. 

Then for evening meal it's Stew. Everyone loves stew and it's so healthy, especially now that stock cubes are free. Bearing in mind that I first did Slimming World about 18 years ago, it's funny to see some of the things that have become free over the years. 

So anyway, Stew. Easy to do and all syn free. Get some lean casserole or braising steak cubes and fry them in a heavy saucepan with seasoning. Obviously you're going to use fry light or some other low fat oil spray to do that adding salt and pepper. Once the meat is browned, remove it with a slotted spoon and put to one side. I chop leek, onion, carrots, and parsnips. These I then add to the pan to pick up the flavour of the beef, just fry the veg for about 10 minutes, fully coating it in all the pan juices from the meat. 

I then add a couple of dried bay leaves, pop the meat back in and add as much beef stock as need to completely cover the ingredients. Let this simmer away whilst you peel and chop some potatoes. Don't cut them too small or they'll break up completely with the slow cooking. I'd say I cut mine so that each one is half the size of a (woman's) fist. Once the pan has been on simmer for about half an hour, add the potatoes and if neccessary, more stock. 

I then leave mine as long as possible. Normally a couple of hours with the lid on. I'll taste it after an hour and then add stuff to taste. It could be a little soy sauce (yup that's right!) some mixed herbs, some more seasoning, 

Most people have their own preferences for stew so just add little bits, stir and taste. Just remember that dumplings aren't really an option this time!

So long since I blogged I don't know where to begin to be honest. Had inspiration over the weekend to start again as I'm back on Slimming World and thought it may be motivation to keep going. Also stopped smoking so this could be the kind of blog that is very depressing for a while LOL! Lets see if I can keep this up. Right off to do first weigh in because just dipped a toe in the water this weekend and stayed off the bad stuff. Going to weigh in today but shopping coming tomorrow so that's when I properly get back into it.