I get by with a little help from my friends...

OK, so last week I put on 1lb over two weeks of not being totally good. This week I have some great food, refuse loads of very synful food and end up putting on 1/2lb. I wasn't a happy bunny at all last night.

A few tantrums (about how I am never ever going to be able to eat anything that I haven't prepared myself so I know exactly what's gone into it), half a tub of Ben and Jerry's Phish food, a good night's sleep, and a lot of supportive comments later, and I'm back in the food optimising zone.

I've had a few bits of assorted fruit for breakfast/snacks, a couple of mugshots for lunch in preparation for a possibly syn laden tea - I'm off to a quiz tonight where food (BBQ) is provided. I shall be doing my utmost to minimise my syn intake - I'm thinking kebabs and salad rather than burger and bun. Wish me luck.

I won't be at weigh in for a couple of weeks now since I'm away for work next week (so there's another challenge to my food optimising ability!). I hope that I can continue eating in the way that I did last week - I'm still clinging to the possibility that the gain was a carry forward from the previous week. I can but dream!

In an effort to keep myself motivated, I'd like to put a bit more effort into this blog and my SW journey with a bit of help from my readers (both of you!):

• Slim, slim a song... I have had some thoughts of rewriting song lyrics to fit with SW - here's my first effort. Let me know if you have any suggestions for the next attempt.
• That's the way to do it... I've decided to try and inspire myself by putting together some tips to make cooking on SW easier and more varied (i.e. the way I was doing it in the early days of my journey). This is a post I'd planned a while ago, but felt that given I wasn't actually losing any weight that I wasn't in the best place to give others any advice. Let me know if you have any suggestions for tips to include/tell me what really helps you.
• Ready, steady, cook!... I've not put any recipes up for a while because I've not come up with anything new. I want to get back into the creative swing of things, so I'm happy to have any suggestions on meals that you've always wanted to be SWised, but haven't known where to start.

Tumshrinking...

(We'll be singing, when we're slimming, we'll be singing)
I lose some weight, then I put on again;
I really want to lose more weight.
I lose some weight, then I put on again;
I really want to lose more weight.
I lose some weight, then I put on again;
I really want to lose more weight.
I lose some weight, then I put on again;
I really want to lose more weight.

(Slimming the weight away, slimming the weight away)
He eats an HEa, he eats an HEb
He eats some superspeed, he eats some superfree
He syns the food that he ate before he lost weight
He stays to group because he thinks it is great
(Oh Slimming World, Slimming World, Slimming World)

I lose some weight, then I put on again;
I really want to lose more weight.
I lose some weight, then I put on again;
I really want to lose more weight.
I lose some weight, then I put on again;
I really want to lose more weight.
I lose some weight, then I put on again;
I really want to lose more weight.

(Slimming the weight away, slimming the weight away)
He eats an HEa, he eats an HEb
He eats some superfree, he eats some superspeed
He syns the food that he ate before he lost weight
He stays to group because he thinks it is great
(Don't fry with oil, use some Frylite)
I lose some weight, then I put on again;
I really want to lose more weight.
I lose some weight, then I put on again;
I really want to lose more weight.
I lose some weight, then I put on again;
I really want to lose more weight.
I lose some weight, then I put on again;
I really want to lose more weight.

The boy needs (image) therapy...

Last night I put on 1lb over 2 weeks. I'd expected a bigger gain than that since a lot of that time I'd been off plan. I had got the fortnight off to a decent start SW wise and that's helped to manage the gain.
Last night was the first time I've stayed to group (other than taster nights) for quite some time (the last time was probably towards the end of last year) and will definitely not be the last time. I'm hoping/planning to stay to group more often since I picked up some great tips and realised that although there are a number of members of the group storming ahead with their weight loss and approaching target, there are also others like me - people who are yo-yoing and haven't lost much (if any) weight compared to the start of this year. The support and advice that people were giving was fantastic - we've got a really good group and I now have renewed determination to get my head in gear and shift this weight.

I got back from group and made a keema curry, a chicken and courgette curry and (kind of) sweetcorn pakora - all dead simple, but really tasty. Hopefully my inspiration will continue and I can start coming up with some new creations to share with you all on here.

Here's to a week of positivity followed by a loss on Tuesday. When my consultant asked how much I was aiming to lose I said 2lb. Most others in the group are aiming for 3lb so it's very tempting to decide to aim for that too. I think I'll play it safe though - with a goal of 2lb if I manage 3lb I'll be delighted since it's more than expected and if I only manage a small loss then it's still not far off what I was aiming for. At the moment any loss is good!

We'll see...

I lost 3.5lbs on Tuesday - made up for the 3lb gain the previous week and went a little way towards the 4.5lb gain before that.

Having been a bit inspired by taster night, I came home and made some fishcakes (fish, smash and thai cous cous mixed together and fried in fry light), then followed that up with traffic light curry (fish and tomato, sweet potato and chick peas, and spinach and potato) on Wednesday then chilli on Thursday. All low syn/syn free, and there were leftovers of the curry and chilli for work - yum!!

Friday night was less good (got a chinese takeaway) and today is going to be off plan too (BBQ for the jubilee). Hoping that I'll have done enough the rest of the week to get a second loss in a row, but we'll see.