Four steps forward, three steps back...

I lost 4lb last week and was absolutely delighted with that. It's a shame I've undone most of that this week by putting 3lb back on.

It was all going so well until the weekend...

• Friday night: Indian takeaway
• Saturday lunch was jacket potato with beans and salad, but I had a chinese buffet for tea and other than not having deep fried stuff I wasn't that careful about what I had.
• Sunday lunch was a non-SW Sunday roast, then pizza for tea since the kitchen was out of bounds due to my wife baking cakes for charity.
• Monday involved a cake (or 3) from the charity bake sale at work and a fairly synful cheesy pasta.

Of all of those, Friday's takeaway was the one thing that I could excuse myself for not being careful about having been in A&E for over 2 hours due to collapsing, losing consciousness (for over 30 seconds) and not breathing (for 15 seconds). Had I not started breathing again when I did the doctor told me he would've performed CPR. That was a very scary thing to be told, but after a few checks I was given a clean bill of health - something that I had wondered if I would get given that I've been pretty sedentary for a long time.

Tomorrow is the start of another week, and I have already made a lit of low syn/syn free foods to get from the supemarket tomorrow night. Hopefully by planning ahead I can food optimise to the max this week.

Food diary 20/4/12

Breakfast: Fruit

Lunch: Mugshots, loads of melon

Tea: Boiled rice, part of a poppadom (2 syns), onion bhajis (11 syns), bit of naan bread (8 syns), takeaway curry (12 syns), can of pepsi (7 syns)

Drinks: tea, water

Total syns for the day: 40

Total syns for the week to date: 52

Average syns per day: 17.3
I missed out on HEs and overdid the syns today. It wasn't without good reason though - more details to follow in my summary of the week on Tuesday!

Food diary 19/4/2012

Breakfast: fruit

Lunch: Jacket potato with beans, loads of fruit

Tea: Stir fry veg, leek, mushrooms and onions with pasta, noodles, pesto (1 syn) and 2 babybel (HEa). 2 weetabix (HEb), yoghurt and jam (2 syns)

Snacks: Loads of fruit

Drinks: tea, water

Total syns for the day: 3

Total syns for the week to date: 12

Average syns per day: 6

Tomorrow is the start of a tricky time SW wise - takeaway curry tomorrow, out for a meal on sat and away from my kitchen for the weekend. I'll just have to try to not have too much, stick to what's lowest in syns, steer clear of syns whenever I have control and get back to it as soon as possible.

Food diary 18/4/2012

Breakfast: oaty bar (HEb), fruit

Lunch: Crunchy salad, no dressing, 2 babybel (HEa)

Tea: Leek, mushroom and smoked salmon omelette, spaghetti hoops, mini magnum (9 syns)
Snacks: Loads of fruit

Drinks: tea, water

Total syns for the day: 9

Total syns for the week to date: 9

Average syns per day: 9

Problems coming up: possible curry and drinks on Friday, plus a weekend away from home. Will have to minimise my syns for the rest of the week to make up for it and then just hope for the best.

What a difference a diary makes...

Well I lost 4lb this week - despite a massive 90+ syns at the weekend!

I think the thing that went for me most this week was keeping a food diary on here. It sometimes made me think twice about whether to have synful foods, and it helped a lot to keep track of my total syns for the week.

That loss means that I've finally shed my Christmas weight gain and I'm back to below my club 10 weight - 2 pretty significant milestones for me since they were both weighing me down a bit.

With a further 2.5lbs weight loss I will be at 2 stone off altogether - that is my next target. Wish me luck!

I'm planning on keeping the diary going, but have already identified the weekend as potentially pretty synful due to being away from home. I'll just do my best, try to choose sensibly if eating out and let the scales show how I've done next Tuesday.

Food diary 17/4/2012

Breakfast: oaty bar (HEb), fruit

Lunch: Tuna nicoise salad, no dressing (1 syn for the olives), 2 babybel (HEa)

Tea: Special fried rice (chicken, crabsticks, rice, egg and loads of free veg)

Snacks: Loads of fruit

Drinks: tea, water

Total syns for the day: 1

Total syns for the week to date: 118.75

Average syns per day: 16.96 - nearly pulled it back to average of 5-15 having sinned massively at the weekend!

Food diary 16/4/2012

Breakfast: banana and nectarine

Lunch: Fruit salad x 2, crab sticks, chicken mugshots

Tea: Chicken chow mein

Snacks: 2 babybel (HEa), 2 Alpen lights (HEb), loads of fruit, yoghurt

Drinks: water, tea

Total syns for the day: 0
Total syns for the week to date: 117.75

Average syns per day: 19.63

Food diary 15/4/2012

Breakfast: Banana, oatybar (HEb)

Lunch: Prawn crackers (about 7 syns),edamame beans, kimchi chicken yaki ramen (chicken with noodles and spicy sauce - say 5 syns), chips (4 syns), birthday cake (15 syns)

Tea: Philly light (HEa), tomato and basil rice (4 syns)

Snacks: Part of easter egg (15 syns)

Total syns for the day: 50
Total syns for the week to date: 117.75

Average syns per day: 23.55

Food diary 14/4/2012

Breakfast: Nothing

Lunch: Potato and egg salad and tub of fruit

Tea: Frankie and Benny's crab salad (say 5 syns for the sweet chilli dressing) and a slice of birthday cake (about 15 syns)

Snacks: Philly light (HEa), weetabix oatybar (HEb). A third of an easter egg (about/at least 20 syns)
Drinks: diet coke

Total syns for the day: 40+

Total syns for the week to date: 67.75+

Average syns per day: 16.9375

Food diary 13/4/2012

Breakfast: A pear

Lunch: chicken tikka sandwich (1 tbsp ASDA low fat chicken tikka sandwich filler at 1.5 syns and 2 slices crusty white bread at around 4 syns per slice), 2 babybel (HEa), mullerlight, apples

Tea: 1/2 pack of tandoori salmon (3.25 syns), noodles, veg. Fromage frais, 2 weetabix (HEb) and frozen blueberries

Snacks: Pears, mild curry pot shots

Drinks: water

Total syns for the day: 12.75

Total syns for the week to date: 27.75

Average syns per day: 9.25

Food diary - 12/4/2012

Here's what I've had today:

Breakfast: a banana and an apple

Snacks: nectarine, pear, apples, jam sandwich [2 slices of crusty white bread (around 4 syns each), 2 teaspoons of jam (1/2 syn per tsp)]

Lunch: mashed potato, porridge oats (HEb), fromage frais, 2 x babybel (HEa) and mixed veg mixed together (a bit like last night's veg and crabstick pie: http://slimmingman.blogspot.com/2012/04/recipe-veg-and-crabstick-pie.html). Apples and grapes

Tea: Chicken fried rice (boiled rice added to stir fry veg, wafer thin chicken, chinese five spice and soy sauce all fried in fry light). Fromage frais, greek yoghurt, frozen blueberries and sweetener.

Drinks: water

Total syns for the day: 9

Total syns for the week to date: 15

Average syns per day: 7.5

Recipe: Veg and crabstick pie

SynsFree on EE if using cheese as HE

Ingredients
1 packet of mashed potato
Frozen veg (I used spinach, brocolli, carrots and peas)
3 eggs, beaten
A handful of crabsticks, chopped
1/2 tub of quark
2 x babybel, grated (HE)
Onion granules
Garlic granules
Salt and pepper

Method

1. Make up the mashed potato according to the instructions.
2. Microwave the veg for 2-3 minutes until cooked
3. Add the veg, quark, crabsticks and egg to the potato and mix well.
4. Add onion and garlic granules, and salt and pepper to season
5. Put the mix into a flan tin (spray with frylight first if not non-stick)
6. Grate the cheese over the top
7. Cook in a preheated oven (200C) for 30 minutes
8. Enjoy!
   

Food diary - 11/4/2012

I'm going to go back to basics and try to record everything I eat in a daily food diary blog entry - let's see how long I can keep this up!

Here's what I've had today:

Breakfast: porridge oats (HEb) with a Mullerlight

Snacks: bananas, nectarines, apples, pear, grapes, melon, 2 x Alpen lights (3 syns each)

Lunch: 2 chicken noodle mugshots

Tea: A veg and crab stick pie type thing, including babybels as HEa - recipe and pics to follow. Mullerlight

Drinks: water

Total syns for day: 6

Total syns for week to date: 6

Average syns per day: 6

Bank holiday blues...

Another 1lb on this week. It was to be expected after consuming at least a pizza, alcohol, a donut, ice cream, 2 Snickers, a Mars bar and an Indian meal. If anything, I got off lightly.

Since before Christmas I have fluctuated around the same weight - I've lost 5lb this year, so I'm still around a stone heavier than I was when I got married.

I am still determined to get to my target weight, or maybe lower, but sometimes it's hard to keep on track. I have therefore decided to stop thinking of my weight in comparison to when I got married, and instead to focus on becoming the lightest I have been this year, then the lightest I've been in the last two years, then the lightest I can remember being. By focussing on a more positive angle I hope to put my past weight behind me and to concentrate on a slimmer future.

On a positive note, I had a sort out of my wardrobe, possibly for the first time since starting on my SW journey.  As a result I filled 4 bags with clothes that are too big for me - some of which looked like tents. I've still got a handful of smaller clothes that I got in readiness for a (slightly) trimmer figure that don't fit me yet, but I'm hoping to fit into them soon.

One thing that might help me get into a smaller, lighter, shape is the 30 day shred - my copy arrived in the post today, so I'm hoping to get started tomorrow. I will try and keep you updated with the results and pain!

Mustn't grumble

I put 1lb on this week. That's less than I expected for the following reasons:

• Takeaway pizza and onion rings after last week's weigh in;
• A planned single drink (diet coke) in the pub that turned into several pints, a few shots of sambuca, a wee dram of whisky, and not a diet coke in sight as we got home 7 hours later. It was well worth the hangover in the morning!
• 2 cupcakes and 4 muffins beautifully baked by my fantastic wife.

Back on it again now - popped into the chippy on the way back from weigh in as a treat for my wife. Once I got there I decided I didn't fancy it, so this is what I had instead: