Fireworks week

Everything on here makes me happy

This week started off with Guy Fawkes Night, an excuse to let off fireworks and general pretty explody things! I dealt with my own explosion, a bout of emotional eating that evening from dinnertime on. Classic woe-is-me-I'm-on-a-diet-and-I-feel-deprived scenario! Gosh I just have to laugh at this. But yay for me, I tracked. I tracked every single day this week, every single morsel that went into my mouth. :)

I'm still not happy about certain aspects of this eating plan. The use of Fry Light for instance. I know it is supposed to be low cal and save me calories & SYNS, but euwww, it looks gross when I spray it in the pan, food doesn't taste good, and frankly, I'd rather expend the calories and SYNS and feel happy that I'm not ingesting something I'm uncomfortable about. However, since I am now quite happy about eating very low fat fromage frais perhaps I should give this product a go, so this morning I am trying out garlic & rosemary oven roasted potatoes with it.

So, the jury is out on Fry Light for now. It's good to experiment. I may find that eating real oil is my preference and that is okay. Some fat in the daily intake is needed by my body. And if it is healthy unprocessed unadulterated fat, all the better.

Week 5-11 Nov
Success rate 71%. Yay me!

Saturday: SYNS not counting them today
But am very glad I tracked the food :)
Gosh - I ate lots of extra chocolate, a couple of wholemeal rolls & butter and two dinners - ouch! Had a revolt from Slimming World ideas at dinnertime, and made dinner as I used to before starting to measure my fats & food intake. Pork tenderloin roasted in honey olive oil & herbs, yorkshire puddings, gravy...all as much as I liked. Probably feeling sad because I could hear the fireworks outside but I wasn't out there enjoying them!

Sunday: SYNS 27.5 (not inc croissants - 13 syns or almonds - 8.5 syns per oz)
Gave myself foodie treats today - part of why I go scoffing everything is feeling deprived, so this morning I had a couple of small croissants, naked, and just as delicious as they would have been with butter & jam, and an ounce of almonds - posh Marcona ones. I think my subconscious was pleased.

Monday: SYNS 27. HEA 2. HEB 2
Had cheese! Cheese, today! An ounce of grated cheddar is quite a lot really. I never realised that before. Yummy with an ounce of half fat creme fraiche on my quorn bolognaise, which was stuffed with veggies, yum. And I had hummos, reduced fat, which I prefer anyway. Happy for me foods. Head happy, tummy happy. :) High syn count is for a tablespoon of olive oil (healthy), cheese + creme fraiche (yummy) and Ryvita (good for me fibre and lovely crunchy stuff) Heh - I also had olives, yum.

Tuesday: SYNS 17.5.  HEB 2. HEA 1
Wow - bacon & eggs and BUTTER for breakfast. Half an ounce is worth every fat globule. Fabulous celery soup, home made for lunch and chicken, left over bolognaise & veggies for dinner. RESULT! Another tummy happy, head happy day.

Wednesday: SYNS 98.5. HEA 2. HEB 1.
Oh dear. Carb meltdown. Definitely to do with the idea of 'not having'. Run out of milk, so no porridge this morning, or tea...but did have baked beans and polenta with cheese. So much of it that had half at lunch. However since fridge contents were looking very uninspiring, and in a can't be bothered mood, I ended up eating a very strange & unsatisfactory dinner. Ryvita, curried parsnip soup (found in the freezer) and a forgotten package of cold cooked beetroot, with no dressing...gosh. Now I look at it, no wonder my foodie soul revolted. Comfort food attack - heaps of white bread toast, scrambled eggs made with butter... chocolate... felt better emotionally after that. And learned a new thing about myself - feed self properly, and in such a way that I feel like I am getting a good deal food wise, and I'm happy to keep to the spirit of eating more healthily.

Thursday: SYNS 18. HEA 0. HEB 2.
I was so stuffed from yesterday's carbfest, and so occupied with work that I missed out breakfast. Had yummy Batchelor's savory Rice for lunch with broccoli & a couple of boiled baby potatoes - a big, filling, plate. Next time I will put more Worcester sauce in it, or try one of the other varieties. Yes, I know this is going away from my principles of unadulterated food, but sometimes principles can be bent for convenience. Give and take, flexibility, plus, unlike Fry Light, packet savory rice doesn't offend my sensibilities!

Am also trying out very low fat flavoured yoghurts, MullerLight. So far am not impressed. But as a snacky filling option it makes a change from fruit or ryvita & low fat cheese spread.

Happy head & happy tummy today because I am allowing myself 2 1/2 ounces of taramasalata and reduced fat hummous plus a pita with my crudites at dinnertime. My reward? feeling good about self, and resisting the urge to blow out on something, anything. Yay! Only had two meals today. Passed on having third meal, because...I WASN'T HUNGRY! Gosh. All I had was a fresh fig and a cup of tea...

Friday: SYNS 26. HEA 1 1/2. HEB 2.
FRUIT 3.  VEG 9
End of the week!
Another cooked breakfast - lots of boiled potatoes, chopped and fried in Fry Light with mushrooms and tomatoes. Flavoured with worcester sauce. Taste was a bit suspect, so will test with real oil next time. Happy lunch too, I made the most delicious carrot soup (recipe below), and had taramasalata (16 SYNS for 70g or 4 level tablespooons - yes I did measure it!), hummous and wholemeal pita bread. I have decided to interpret the bread HEB to my likes. I don't like ordinary sliced bread that much, plus whenever I eat it, I have the urge to eat more of it with loads of butter, so best to keep away from it. Pita on the other hand, with all those greek/med dips, feels good, and has happy associations for me. And I'm finding with all the veggies, that one is fine. So, I figure win for me.

Pasta for dinner with quorn bolognaise, this time with more olive oil and mushrooms. I think less olive oil will work fine for next time. I found it a little too greasy! Goodness! Also, I had leftovers...of both pasta and parmesan. Wow.

Today's Mullerlight: Toffee. Finally! One I like :) Still think the texture is too runny. I remember it as a much creamier, thicker yoghurt. Maybe that is the ordinary version. I miss fat in my food :(  However I do think eating so much less of it than I normally do is doing my body heaps of good.

THING I LEARNED TODAY
I'm happier eating a controlled and measured portion of exactly what I fancy. It helps fend off raids into less healthy for me foodstuffs!

SUBLIME CARROTY GOODNESS!

Carrot, ginger + orange soup
1/3 portion is 2 syns

1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 large white onion, chopped small
1 garlic clove, sliced not crushed
2 sticks celery, chopped small
1 inch grated ginger
1 1/2 lbs carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
approx 1 pint boiling water
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon Cornish Sea Salt
1/2 teaspoon Tesco's Fines Herbs ( a mix of parsley, chives, chervil & tarragon)
Zest and juice of 1 orange

Put oil in a pan, then on a medium heat, add onion, then garlic, celery, ginger and black pepper. Sweat until vegetables are soft, and onion transparent - about 8 mins. It will smell lovely and fragrant.
Now add chopped carrots and boiling water
Bring to boil, turn down heat, and semi-cover pan. Simmer on low heat for 30 mins, until carrots are very tender.
Take off heat.
Add salt, fines herbs, zest and juice 1 orange.
Blitz until smooth. If too thick, add a little water. Aim for a runny cream texture.
Check seasoning, add more salt if liked.

This soup is so good on so many levels - it looks gorgeous, a beautiful orange, smells heavenly, and tastes so good, sharp, sweet, savoury.

Scale news

Those lovely bathroom scales didn't leap to ERR! I hopped on and off a few times, and the range was from 23st 8 - 23 st 12. I'm going with the higher one for now, which is a pound down from last week I think.
Physical self - knees are improving. I feel much less 'draggy' this week. Have spent some time today also writing out a walking plan for myself. Lets see how I do, will record this as well.