Cold weather is here

Today it is 3ºC brrrr! I'll have to start wrapping up warm for those little walks :) Only got one in this week, but also did a 2 hour wander around the supermarket. I'm finding being on my feet is less onerous than before, and the joints are definitely less creaky. Still the odd inexplicable annoying and persistent twinge in one or two, but those seem to wear off after 24 hours.

Food news
Indulged in pastries and cheese this week. I did think, when I impulsively picked up that chunk of Edam, that that could possibly be a dam bad idea... Getting the pastries though, was educational for me: next time, I buy just one pastry, and not a box of two or a packet of four. Life lessons come at all times of one's life! Also had some chocolate this week, but actually I think I am really going off very sweet things. They're not as delicious on the tongue as they are in my imagination.

Other good things of this week - I tracked every morsel past my lips, and even counted calories for a few days. The pastry scoffing days were of course quite humungously high. It did give me a realistic view of dealing with portion sizes and where all those 2000 cal recommended quotas ought to go. I can see, that when I eat normally with a little care, I can have quite a satisfying food intake and space for a treat if I remember to watch my portion sizes and measure the high cal stuff. At the moment I am training myself to eat less pasta - am down from 100g dried pasta as my standard measure to 85g now. Next step is to get me down to accepting 75g.

Heh. I feel a bit like a whittler. Whittle this little bit down, have a look, turn it, and whittle another bit down. I'm going to get my food habits all re-worked by the time I'm done whittling myself into my new shape!

Scale news
Swinging between 23 st 7lbs and 23 stone 10 lbs. So perhaps I've lost a pound. Or maybe not. The good thing is, it isn't going straight to ERR! Knees feel good, mostly - still getting the odd dislocatory twinge, I expect that will go eventually as I get lighter, and my knee & leg muscles get stronger.

The road is long...

Yep, this road is long, and wearying, but I am getting better at it as I go along. Soon, perhaps I might be able to see successes instead of just feeling them.

Tracked food intake every day this week again. Made some less than good eating choices, but what is great is that they are all down there, along with the better ones. My new learned behaviour: I am eating with my eyes open. Yay for me!

Scale news

Still hovering between 23 st 8 and 23 st 11. The good news about this - it is a hold :)

Moving more

I got in 2 teeny tiny short walks this week - 5 minutes is all I can manage before back pain & creaking knees start. Both walks were done on sunny days. I'm taking it slow and easy into this mostly because I want to keep mobile. After each of these, my knees hurt terribly, but the upside is, there seem to be less of the wierd knee dislocatory pains. I think my muscles are now doing their job better and saving those brave joints! Also spent a couple of hours wandering around a supermarket. Gold stars to me! Doing stairs is still a bit of a gingerly effort, both coming up and down, but I am doing this at least 3-4 times a day - all good.

I am looking forward to the day I can walk a whole 30 mins again with ease, and walk up or even run up the stairs again. And a swim session can't be far off now that I'm feeling less tired after exertions, yay.

I love it - incremental improvements :) It is making me smile.

...I'm still trackin'...

and that's the truth :)

Between 12-18 November I counted syns most days this week too, even when it reached into the 3 digits! I am pleased to say that despite all the trials & tribulations of last week - urgent work stress, the electricity mysteriously vanishing for a whole day, creaky painful knees, I am still plugging away. Butter, oil & processed foods consumption still low, but have been eating chocolates, a lot. Guess I must be needing the phenlyamines!

Scale news
Still hovering around 23 st 8 - 23st 11. I'm going to count this week as a no gain no loss.

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.

Go me!!

SW seems to be getting better. Have been tracking food intakes for over 5 weeks now. This is my 2nd week of Slimming World principles and 5 days out of 7 ate well within my version of this eating approach.

Here's my syn count. I'm interpreting the SW approach to be a little more liberal for me - 20-25 syns at the top end. Most days I have 2 HEA (calcium healthy Extras) and 2 HEB (fibre Healthy Extras) for optimum nutrition, and I get to eat chocolate...plus I'm taking supplements -
Evening Primrose Oil
Glucosamine sulphate (for my creaky joints)
cod liver oil
a multi-vitamin with iron
co-enzyme for energy boost.

My water drinking is still low, averaging 3/4 a litre, but it is getting better. I drink 2-4 mugs of tea a day too.

29 Oct - 4 Nov
SAT - 20.5
SUN - 18
MON - TUES  hmm - scads of emotional eating going on here, plus I went food shopping and bought lots of nice things which I 'HAD' to eat immediately. Must look into this phenomenon and find think about the 'WHY' of it, to LEARN from it and make better choices in future. I am really pleased with myself that I documented every thing I ate all the same. Yay me!
WEDS - 15
THUR - 9.5
FRI - 10.5

Success rate this week 71% !!!
Yay!!

I am SO PROUD OF MYSELF. Way to go, ME!!! I am doing SO WELL!!

Still creaky, and slow, but am feeling lots better. I made it into the garden this week, it is being taken over by triffid nasturtiums. They are such cheerful flowers. Hope they self-seed for next year.

weighty variables

I got weighed at the doctor's on Friday and that was an unpleasant surprise initially - 24 st 8 lbs!! - until I realised I was comparing a weight with all my outer clothes and shoes on with one I'd done without them. Phew! For a serious minute there I thought all my hard work at keeping to the SW plan was not working :o

So I measured the weight of all my clothes I'd worn and they came to just under 6 lbs. So doc's machine has a plus bias of about 2 lbs to the one I have at home. I am chortling at myself for all this - how obsessive can one get??!!

Bathroom scales today - 23 st 13 lb.
:)

Happy hop!

Hopped onto the bathroom scales this morning, and bless its little cotton socks, the little darlin' blinked out 24st 1 lb! I do hope this is a truthful figure. Will find out for sure next week. In the meantime I'm going to use this to keep me motivated on enjoying low-fat dairy and keeping my fats intake low low low.

Yesterday I went out to lunch and ordered an antipasto platter. It arrived on a plank of wood! All meat except for a bundle of rocket (arugula as Barefoot Contessa calls it) with some very light dressing on it. The meats were a couple of slices of Parma ham, thin salami & a blob of mackerel pate with a palm size piece of crunchy flatbread, plus a couple of olives, garlic cloves, pickled onions & a little pickled hot pepper, the kind that's usually sold stuffed with cheese in Greek delis, but this one was empty - all very yummy. I also had a Peroni beer, not quite all of the 330 ml bottle, and I think the coffee came with full-fat milk, but hey, it was just one meal, and I had a lovely time catching up with girlfriends I hadn't seen in quite a while. :)

Today's lunch is definitely within the Slimming World guidelines. I had a baked potato, not too large, about 250g/9 oz. Opened & seasoned with salt & pepper, then topped with about 85g/3 oz king prawns, 3 heaped tablespoons cottage cheese and a handful of chopped watercress with a few very ripe cherry tomatoes. It was tasty & filing, and honestly? I didn't miss the butter, grated cheddar or full fat creme fraiche I might normally have slathered it in. And my tummy is full. FULL. That's the signal I am getting from it right now. And to think that when I was preparing it I thought shall I have the second baked potato as well. It would have been far too much.

I do believe the key here to me is to make sure the plate is filled with lots of low cal foods. That way I can have more, my eye is appeased, and if I eat it slowly enough, my stomach has time to send me its 'I'm full' signal. Yesterday's dinner was just this. A bowl of veg soup, followed by half a 3 egg, spinach, mushroom & ham frittata plus a heap of sliced radishes, red pepper & cherry tomatoes with a blob of red pepper reduced fat hommos. A banana. And I also got to have chocolate - a couple of treat size cadbury's caramel. Plus because the frittata is 'free' on SW original days, I got to eat the second half too. No hunger pangs for me!

And I've been shopping for the low cal fromage frais. There's a tub of it in my fridge. On the one hand my head is saying well done for making this healthy choice, but the spoilt teenager inside is saying, urgh, yukky - I want my tasty fat imbued creme fraiche! Looks like the battle of the tastebuds will need convincing this week! Well, I think there is hope - I found the 0% fat Total Greek Yoghurt really nice last week. I had it in my mashed potatoes, with fruit, and on its own with a dab of honey. Yum.

It is so important I re-educate my tastebuds and my eating habit inclinations. I've come another few steps from where I was in my eating habits that were piling on the pounds, hurray :) And now I know I can go out and socialize and still feel that I am treating my body well. Next time I post a weight, I want it to say 23st something!