Slimming World – Page 11

Days spent in the house

31 July 201831 July 2018 Dee Leave a comment

Two days in a row without leaving the house! I can’t remember the last time that happened.

To be fair, I was meant to go for a run this morning, but I’ve decided to push that to Friday, largely because the jetlag is still ongoing and I had a lot of other things to do today.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve got a lot of work on for the next month. It includes projects for about five different clients, which keeps it nice and interesting. I’m also still trying to work on the house – today I at least got it tidied up, which makes it a much more comfortable space for working in.

SP day today to try and shift that holiday weight before Slimming World weigh-in on Thursday! Doing another one tomorrow. I had all-day breakfast for tea tonight, but I actually found it to be a bit heavy, so I might try something more salad-y tomorrow night.

OOTD 31st July 2018 — OOTD: hoodie Sonar (2006), t-shirt Katharine Hamnett for Help Refugees (2017), trousers Christian Siriano Runway Style (2018), shoes 1st Position (2018).

A day getting back to normal

26 July 201826 July 2018 Dee Leave a comment

I woke up to my alarm at 8am this morning as normal on a Thursday, and had managed to sleep quite well, so I seem (touch wood!) to have nixed my jetlag straight away. We’ll see how I do over the next couple of days.

This morning’s main task was attending my Slimming World group to face the post-holiday music. I’ve put on six pounds during my holiday (ouch) and am out of target range. I know I can lose it again quickly though – just have to be really good this week.

After I got home, I got all my post-holiday laundry done, and then later in the afternoon Geth arrived home sans luggage. His flight turnaround at Heathrow was too tight for the bag to make the connection, so he settled down to wait for news about it and I headed off to Pilates.

It was great to get back to Pilates again – all the stretching was very welcome after a week on holiday. Sadly it was the last class of the course and we’re now on summer break until September – I’m going to have to practise lots at home instead!

After class, I nipped down to Sainsbury’s to pick up my souvenir Now! #100 CD and do my bit for getting it into the album charts tomorrow. Excitingly, Sainsbury’s have a deal on, where you can get Now! #100 for £3 cheaper if you also buy another Now! compilation – so I took the opportunity to grab a copy of Now! #1 as well, which has just had a re-release on CD:

Now! #1 and Now! #100 albums on CD — Rod Stewart (just read his autobiography), Tracey Ullman (checking out her new BBC show at the moment) and Duran Duran (my current favourites) all in a row on an album cover? I call that a favourable omen. It is a cracking compilation, to be fair. As for *Now!* #100, I pretty much only bought it for the updated cute version of the *Now!* pig on the cover. (That was a lie. I also bought it to commemorate doing my *Now!* marathon, and to try and get it into the charts.)

I went home to make healthy food for the first time in a couple of weeks, and Geth had news of his bag – they won’t be delivering it till tomorrow. Hopefully it will arrive sooner rather than later.

OOTD 26th July 2018 — OOTD: typical comfy Thursday outfit for running about to Slimming World and Pilates class. T-shirt H&M (2018, just bought in Toronto last Saturday!), belt H&M (2017), leggings Under Armour (2017).

Recipe Wednesday: all-day breakfast

4 July 20184 July 2018 Dee Leave a comment

As I’ve mentioned previously, in the last few weeks of trying to get to my Slimming World target, I tried doing a few SP days. Since getting to target, I’ve stuck with this habit the day before weigh-in, because I’m still getting to grips with maintaining and the summer has always been my most difficult time SW-wise – there are lots of special events like holidays and festivals going on, afternoons in beer gardens, and cravings for ice cream.

As such, I’ve settled into a pattern of having all-day breakfast for tea on a Wednesday night, because it doesn’t require cheese, which means I can use my Healthy Extra A for milk to go with my bran flakes, which are my additional Healthy Extra B choice on an SP day.

If Geth’s eating with me, he often helps out with cooking this one, because he really likes cooking sausages or thinks he’s better at it or something. You start by frying sausages (I use Linda McCartney regular vegetarian sausages* but obviously if you’re a meat-eater you can use low-syn pork ones) in Fry Light, turning every few minutes. After about ten minutes, you add sliced mushrooms to the pan, and then when everything’s got about five minutes left to cook, you add the halved tomatoes. Finally, while the fried food is finishing up, scramble some plain beaten eggs in a non-stick pan. Dish up and serve with a sprinkling of ground black pepper.

Ratio-wise for SP, I try and match the combined volume of tomatoes and mushrooms to the total volume of eggs in order to stick to the rules. The sausages are synned rather than ‘S’ or ‘P’ so they don’t count towards either half of the plate.

*I have to use regular Linda McCartney sausages (half a syn each) rather than the rosemary and red onion ones I normally have (which are free), because on SP days you can’t have any free food that’s not ‘S’ or ‘P’. This seems a bit counterproductive to me, but them’s the rules. There aren’t any veggie sausages in either the Quorn or Linda McCartney lines that have enough protein to be classed as ‘P’ foods, more’s the pity – Quorn mince and chicken style pieces are both ‘P’, but not the sausages. Hopefully this will change at some point.

Rediscovering jeans

17 June 201817 June 2018 Dee Leave a comment

One of the things on my (very long) list of stuff I wanted to buy when I reached my Slimming World target was a good, well-fitting pair of jeans. In the last two weeks, I have bought four pairs, and have my eye on a few more. I had forgotten how comfortable they are when they fit properly.

I did have a couple of pairs of jeans when I was bigger, but they were always uncomfortable. Because of my endless yo-yo dieting they were rarely the right side for me, and even when they were, they would still dig uncomfortably into my middle whenever I was sitting down, which was most of the time. I think this was largely because up until a couple of years ago, jeans were still uniformly low-rise, and so they hit at a really uncomfortable place for me.

Burgundy jeans — That burgundy pair were cute but super uncomfortable. Yes, I am sitting on a beach ball, and no, I’m not going to explain why. The legs belong to my Thrills-loving mate Gemma.

The return of high-rise waists suits me a lot better, in terms of both comfort and style (they look more ’80s. Everything is better when it looks more ’80s).

Blue jeans — Wearing blue jeans for the first time in about fifteen years. I only had black and burgundy ones when I was bigger. You can see the previous pair of blue jeans I owned, a ridiculous pair of ’00s baggies, in the picture for my review of *Now!* #56 from 2003.

I am now learning about all the different styles you can buy at the moment – skinny, super skinny, slim leg, straight leg, mom jeans, boyfriend jeans, the list goes on. This is an exciting new world! I am not about to let it get to the levels of my shoe obsession, but I am really glad to be done with the phase of my life that involved wearing leggings every single day.

Learning to maintain

15 June 201815 June 2018 Dee Leave a comment

I’ve been at Slimming World target for a couple of weeks now, and after sixteen months it’s been very hard to make the mental transition to the notion that I don’t have to lose weight anymore – that I’m actually at my ideal weight. I don’t think it’s sunk in yet.

Actually, I say sixteen months – but really, before that I had been on a miserable usually-failing diet since my mid-teens. I’d never been happy with my weight, even when I managed to starve myself down to a stone lighter than what I am now at age twenty-two – I wasn’t very well at the time and still thought I needed to lose more. As such, I have actually never been happy with my weight until now. It’s a very strange feeling.

The first week after getting to target, I maintained (and was utterly shocked to do so, given that I’d spent the weekend at UKGE eating all the things I’d been avoiding in my last few weeks of trying to get to target!). The second week, I put on a pound and a half (which is perfectly within my target range – Slimming World allow you to be up to three pounds either side of your target weight once you’re a target member), and I’m finding it quite difficult to get it into my head that that is okay and that I’m meant to be going up and down now and not really losing any more.

Last week, I was experimenting with having one extra Healthy Extra B choice per day, which is a recommended way to maintain once you’re at target. This week, I’m not doing that, ’cause I’d like to lose the pound and a half and be perfectly at target again. I suppose I’m going to be playing this game forever now (I’ll be at Slimming World for life – I’m never putting the weight on again!). It’s just going to take some getting used to.

Tomorrow?

30 May 201830 May 2018 Dee Leave a comment

Last week, at Slimming World weigh-in, I was half a pound away from my target weight. So close!

I would kill to get to target at weigh-in tomorrow. This weekend, there will be lots of delicious food opportunities, and Geth has been talking about them all week, and my mouth has been watering like mad. If I get to target tomorrow, I know I can enjoy the weekend safe in the knowledge that I have the freedom to put on a couple of pounds, whereas if I don’t get to target tomorrow, I will have to spend another week trying really really hard, like I have been the last couple of weeks. I’m starting to feel a bit deprived, and so I’m crossing everything that things will go my way.

Thing is, because I had a really big loss last week, I’ve been very nervous about maintaining or gaining back, as has happened a few times over the last month or so.

As such, after carb-loading for the EMF 10k on Saturday, I’ve done four SP days (all veg and protein, no carbs except for fibre-rich Healthy Extras) in a row. I’ve made sure to get out for at least a walk every day. I’ve stuck to under 80 syns for the week. I made sure not to over-celebrate after the 10k and skipped out on the pub lunch Geth was having on Saturday. In short, I’ve done everything I could under the circumstances – if I hadn’t had a race on, I suppose I could have done a complete SP week, but I find SP a struggle as I miss my pasta and I think a full week of it would have made me feel even grumpier!

If I gain or maintain tomorrow, I will be pretty upset, to tell you the truth. But if it happens, I will just have to keep plugging on. I am so determined to get to target now.

But it would be really nice if tomorrow I could have that doughnuts ‘n’ champagne celebratory lunch I’ve been fantasising about for sixteen months.

Recipe Wednesday: cheat’s pizza and chips

9 May 20189 May 2018 Dee Leave a comment

On the Slimming World plan, if I want to order pizza and potato wedges from Dominos, it costs 60 syns. That’s a lot of syns to have to save for one meal (not that I don’t still do it occasionally!), given that I only have 105 syns to spend in a given week. As such, one of the first things I did when I started Slimming World was to work out how I could have a lower-syn alternative. This is the result.

Cheat's pizza and chips — Cheat’s pizza and chips. To make it properly Slimming World friendly, you should also have a side salad to make sure you’re getting your one-third of speed food, but I must confess I don’t always remember to have the salad.

For the wedges: these are standard Slimming World chips/wedges. Chop potatoes into the desired shape, spray a baking tray with Fry Light, arrange the wedges on the tray and spray some more Fry Light on top. Bake at 200°C on the top shelf of the oven for 25 minutes. Free on the Slimming World plan!

For the pizza: for each person, slice two Schar white ciabatta rolls (use one as a Healthy Extra B, 6 syns for the other) in two lengthways, and place on another baking tray. Mix together some passata, tomato puree, dried basil and dried oregano for the sauce and spread over each ciabatta half. Split 50g of grated mozzarella per person (a Healthy Extra A) between the ciabatta halves, then top with chopped tomatoes and chopped olives (1 syn for 8 olives).

Once the wedges have had their 25 minutes in the oven, move them to the bottom shelf, and put the pizzas on the top shelf to bake for another 15 minutes.

Oh yeah, and you should make a side salad to make sure you get your one-third of speed food, of course.

When using all Healthy Extras, this meal is only 7 syns, which is a lot less than 60!

Weight loss update

4 May 20184 May 2018 Dee 1 Comment

I’m so nearly there.

After a few up and down weeks, I had a great loss at Slimming World yesterday – 3lbs off and Slimmer of the Week. I’m now only 2.5lbs away from my target weight.

I don’t expect to achieve it next week, because apart from during the early days when I was losing very fast, I’ve never really had big losses two weeks in a row. I think the following week is a good one to aim for, though, so I’m going to try my very hardest. I desperately want to be at target before all the summer ‘holiday weekends’ start happening, as stuff like that always gets in the way of weight loss, so I’d much rather be in maintenance mode by then. There’s also the fact that once I’m at target, I won’t have to pay my weekly Slimming World fee anymore!

Fingers crossed – we’ll see how it goes.

Recipe Wednesday: ‘chicken’ pesto

2 May 20182 May 2018 Dee Leave a comment

Back doing Recipe Wednesdays again – ’cause I’m hungry, and I can’t cook tea until Geth’s done the dishes. Sadly I’m not making ‘chicken’ pesto tonight ’cause I don’t have enough syns left before weigh-in tomorrow, but I thought I’d share this recipe anyway.

It’s another super-simple pasta recipe. Boil some pasta for fifteen minutes, and five minutes in, start boiling another pot of chopped mangetout, chopped green beans and garden peas (make sure there’s plenty of the first two if you’re doing Slimming World). Meanwhile, fry some Quorn chicken style pieces (or you could use real chicken if you’re not veggie) in Fry Light until it’s nice and crispy.

Once everything’s cooked, mix it all together in a giant pan then stir in a jar of supermarket pesto* (12 syns a jar, so 6 syns per person if you’re cooking for two like I am). Shower with parmesan (30g for a Healthy Extra A) and serve.

This is a longtime favourite of Geth’s, so I make it at least once a week if I’ve got the syns going spare!

*I’ve tried making my own syn-free pesto but it never tastes right!

Busy work periods…and how to cope with them

20 April 201820 April 2018 Dee Leave a comment

I’m one week into an extremely busy work period at the moment, with one major project plus multiple smaller ones meaning I’m working twelve-hour days, seven days a week. I have these every so often – it’s just the nature of freelancing – and thankfully it’s never more than a few weeks at a time. Still, a period like this requires some fairly big coping strategies, and these are the ones I’ve developed:

1. Schedule every last minute

The first thing I always do with a major project is sit down and plot out a schedule for the work up to the deadline, so that I know exactly what will get done when – if I don’t have an idea of this, I find it very stressful. Sometimes this means that if things take longer than expected, I have to work a bit longer on that particular day, but having plotted everything out means that this is kept to a minimum.

2. Book in some non-negotiable non-work time

By ‘non-negotiable’, I mean things that I can’t back out of. For this particular project, the busy period happens to coincide with my ongoing mission on this blog to review one Now! compilation a day leading up to 20th July; each review takes me a couple of hours, due to the length of the compilations, so that’s time that I absolutely have to spend doing non-work stuff. During my last busy work period, which was in October to November, I had NaNoWriMo going on during the latter part, so I had a commitment every day to spend a couple of hours writing fiction. Writing is nice and relaxing for me, but a less ‘thinky’ non-negotiable thing might be meeting up with friends, such as for the birthday afternoon tea I’m going to in a couple of weeks’ time, or some ‘me time’, such as the vintage fair I’m going to on Sunday (my first vintage fair trip since the house move! I can’t wait!), or a scheduled class that I pay for every week, such as Slimming World or my Pilates class. I’m also having to make running a non-negotiable during this particular busy work period, otherwise I’ll struggle with the Sunderland 10k in a few weeks’ time!

3. Postpone all non-essentials

When I’m working twelve-hour work days, other than sleeping, eating and keeping myself clean and presentable, I only have time for work and the scheduled non-negotiables I described above. Everything else gets shunted to ‘afterwards’. This generally includes cleaning the house, catching up with TV and the music charts, and, for this particular period, the ongoing project of sorting out the new house. It just means I will be doing all that stuff with a renewed appreciation when the work period is over!

4. Book in cooking and sleeping time

During a busy work period, looking after myself often takes a back seat. It’s simply not possible to get as much sleep as I usually would, as I have to be up at the crack of dawn every day to start work, but I make sure I’m at least getting six hours a night. Similarly, I need to schedule my food preparation time, otherwise I’ll end up just grabbing something unhealthy and feeling worse for it.

These periods are always a bit of a slog, but they are manageable. Obviously it would be nice if they’d balance out a bit better with the weeks where I don’t have any work at all, but the benefits of being a freelancer are absolutely worth it for me!