Diet Food

....in which I talk about food. Again.

If you're anything like me, your image of diet food is probably something like this:

I don't know about you, but eating that stuff all the time would get pretty boring pretty fast.

Now, here's some pictures of things I have actually made and eaten in the last 6 months:

(From left to right: Penne with rich beef & tomato Ragu, Five-spice chicken with noodles and steak with wedges and garlic mushrooms).

The point is you don't have to eat like a rabbit to lose weight. There is some element of the first set of pictures in what we eat; I do quite often have baked potato for lunch, but I usually cook it as wedges and have it with a mushroom omelette (or whatever other veggies I can find to put in an omelette - cooked with Frylight, omelettes are free), and wedges are much less boring than a jacket potato without butter (you can add herbs and spices to them to keep them interesting).

Of course, if you've gained weight and want to lose it you can't just carry on as you are, assuming that you've gained weight because of your diet; something has to change. In my case, that's meant that we no longer use jars to make any meals (everything is cooked from scratch, and generally nicer for it), we use leaner cuts of meat (more expensive but you need less of it to fill you up) and fat is removed from pretty much all meat when possible. If something is fried we use Frylight, which is a 1-calorie spray that you just spray on the frying pan/wok before cooking.

I have started exercising as well, but that is not a necessary part of being on Slimming World; it certainly helps the weight drop off more quickly, but you will lose weight whether you do or not.

I'm sure there are people that will look at the above and say something along the lines of "you can't possibly lose weight eating like that." I'll remember that next time I get on the scales, since they don't seem to have got that message.

Today we are having a barbecue, so there will be lots of (lean) meat later. Avoiding bread is a bit of an issue when there are burgers out (I will make my own for the 3 of us on Slimming World that will be there - these will be free, and I've also found some frozen ones that are 1 syn per burger), but I'll save my healthy b so I can have a wholemeal roll for one burger. I'll do wedges and pasta salad as well as a vegetable salad, and I may do something in the slow cooker...we shall see.

Right, I need to go and change the strings on my guitar.

Saturday 21st June

Breakfast

Satsuma, nectarine, apple, fat-free Greek style lemon yoghurt

Lunch

Mushroom & red onion omelette with beans and a baked potato.

Dinner

Lean meat (pork/chicken/beef) cooked on the barbecue; pasta salad (pasta with vegetables stir-fried in frylight with garlic & paprika). 1 wholemeal roll (healthy b), potato wedges, salad.
3 Sainsbury's "be good to yourself" burgers (1 syn each)

Snacks/Drinks

Fruit, yoghurt.
Err, okay, this didn't quite go to plan....
750 ml of wine (27 syns)
4 cans of cider (38 syns (9.5 syns per can))

68 syns today...but I'm still under for the week.

Exercise 

30 minutes on exercise bike

Here comes another one

...in which the weekend is almost here again.

It is Friday, and today I have woken up a bit. Tomorrow we are having a barbecue (which will be Slimming World friendly, although possibly a can or 2 of cider may be involved...certainly some singing and jamming with Saira's Very Significant Other will be). I may even post a video of us destroying some poor innocent song...

I am a bit busy again today, thanks to various bits of procrastination over the last couple of days coupled with unplanned work landing in my inbox this morning, so this is another short blog post. I will try to do another update later, possibly on the subject of "diet" food vs Slimming World food.

Friday 20th June

Healthy Extra A: 250 ml semi skimmed milk

Breakfast

Apple, pear, strawberries

Lunch

Bacon on a wholemeal roll (healthy extra b) with lettuce & tomato

Dinner

Pastryless quiche (tomatoes, onions, peppers, mushrooms, bacon in low-fat cottage cheese mixed with 3 eggs. Quick, easy and scrumptious).

Drinks/Snacks

Coffee, fruit
Ok, I caved....2 glasses (~375ml) rosé wine, 13.5 syns.

Exercise

30 minute run
15 minutes exercise bike

Eat First, Check Later

...in which it should be the other way around

General life updates: Still no sign of the stolen scooter, and the police can't do much about it as nobody knows who took it. The bees' nest is still in the soffet. Generally, June has been a slightly rubbish month....let's hope July is a bit better.

One of my father's day presents was an iced biscuit. This morning I decided to eat it but did not check the syns in it first. After eating it I thought I better had.....13 syns (according to Slimming World's syns calculator). I am allowed between 5 and 15 syns a day, so that's pretty much my entire allowance for today gone (although I didn't have any on Tuesday and only had 2 yesterday, so I'm still ahead of the game).

That's why you're supposed to check the syns in stuff before you eat it if you're not sure about it. Sweet food is often particularly bad, as even just a little bit can have a lot of syns (e.g. half a Twix is 6 syns; 1 segment of chocolate orange is 2.5 syns).

The biscuit was nice enough, but for 13 syns I'd rather have had 2 packets of crisps or half a bottle of wine..(not that I drink wine at this time of the morning).

Thursday 19th June

Healthy A: 250 ml Semi Skimmed milk for coffee. As always.

Breakfast

Iced biscuit (13 syns), apple, pear, strawberries

Lunch

Bacon, lettuce & tomato on a wholemeal roll (healthy extra b) - all fat removed from bacon, fried in frylight

Dinner

Penne pasta with rich beef Ragu. (can't find this online, but it's from the "Extra Easy Cookbook"). Unfortuantely I couldn't get 5% fat mince so had to use 10% fat (I did drain it after frying it), so 2 syns per portion).

Snacks/Drinks

Coffee, Fruit, lean cooked meat (chicken) with pasta

Exercise

30 minute run
15 minutes exercise bike

Tired

...in which I am, well...tired.

Today I feel as if I have been fed anti-caffeine. This probably has something to do with staying up to watch the football last night. I don't even like football, so I have no idea why I bothered to stay up to watch it.

Anyway, today I am trying to work but I have the attention span of...oh, look, squirrels! As a result, this post may jump around a bit because I can't focus. Did I say that already?

This is a problem, because my work requires me to concentrate quite a lot (code does in fact require quite a lot of concentration to write properly), so I've given up for now and am typing this instead.

There has been no result from the various posters and social media stuff about the scooter theft/loss. The Elder Teen has, as expected, gone back to being horrible to his brother (entirely reciprocated), 

Right, food, that's what the blog is about at the moment. This week I am trying to make it through with as few syns as possible because a) I'm really, really close to target and b) I'm having a race to target with another member of the group who is about the same weight from target, and I'm horribly competitive. This means that I will probably be eating a lot of fruit...

Wednesday 18th June

Healthy A: 250 ml Milk (can we just take this as read? I always have milk)

Breakfast

Strawberries, grapes, satsuma

Lunch

Bacon (fat removed) with lettuce & tomato on a wholemeal roll (healthy b)
Fat-free greek style coconut & vanilla yoghurt (much nicer than it sounds)!

Dinner

Five spice chicken (recipe here for Slimming World members - logon required) with noodles. 1.5 syns per portion, but we shared it between 3 of us since the Younger Teen claims he doesn't like it now so 2 syns.

Snacks/Drinks

Coffee, fruit, yoghurt

Busy!

...in which I don't have much time.

Busy busy today with work stuff, so just a quick update. Sorry about that. Back to your regularly scheduled nonsense tomorrow.

Here's what I ate today:

Tuesday 17th June

Healthy A: 250 ml semi skimmed milk

Breakfast

Nectarine, apple

Lunch

Jacket wedges, baked beans, red onion & mushroom omelette

Dinner

Baked bean & bacon lasagne, slimming world chips, sweetcorn, broccoli

Snacks/Drinks

Coffe, Fruit, Aldi Fat Free Greek Style Yoghurt, 
Bacon, lettuce & tomate on a wholemeal roll (healthy extra b)

Bottle of Hobgoblin (11 syns), packet of Worcester sauce flavour crisps (6 syns)  - these were actually eaten/drunk last night but I've included them here as after weigh-in they need to go on this week's syns.

Exercise

15 minute run (1.5 miles)

The results are in!

...in which things are good.

I have been weighed, and I have lost...

...wait (or weight?) for it....

...drum roll please...

3 pounds! 

I am now 2lbs from losing 3 stone, and 6lbs from target (for people who use metric: 0.9kg from 3 stone, 2.72kg to target).

Feeling good. Woop!

For convenience, here are all this week's menus:

Tuesday, 10th June

Healthy A: 250 ml semi-skimmed milk.

Breakfast

Pear, grapes, strawberries (see? sometimes I have different fruit).

Lunch

Batchelor's super rice

(Most savoury rice of is 1.5 syns per packet, but all flavours of Batchelor's are free).

Dinner

SW style chicken nuggets from the Fakeaways book (recipe here for Slimming World members), with jacket wedges, sweetcorn, green beans and broccoli.

(using the wholemeal roll as a healthy b - the recipe says there's 1.5 syns per portion, but I assume that using the roll for breadcrumbs means they're effectively free as long as you don't eat more than 4 portions to yourself, as the other ingredients are all free).

Snacks

Fruit, pickled onions, Jacob's Crinklys (6.5 syns).

Exercise

30 minutes exercise bike

30 minutes running

Wednesday 11th June

Healthy A: 250 ml semi-skimmed milk (used in coffee).

Breakfast

Grapes, apple, pear

Lunch

Bacon pasta salad; bacon, yellow pepper, onion, red onion, garlic, mushrooms, pasta.

Dinner

Beer breaded cod with slimming world chips, peas, sweetcorn & green beans

Snacks/drinks

Jacob's Crinklys (6.5 syns), Coffee, 1/2 bottle Bumble Bee honey ale (5.5 syns)

1/2 a jar of pickled onions, 3 apples, 2 pears, 2/3rds of a punnet of strawberries, 1/2 a punnet of grapes, 120g couscous with crushed chillies

Exercise

Rest day.

Thursday 12th June

Healthy extra A: 250 ml semi-skimmed milk

Breakfast

Bacon, lettuce & tomato on a wholemeal roll (healthy extra B)

Lunch

Mushroom omelette with Jacket wedges & trimmed green beans.

Dinner

Chilli with boiled rice & green beans (2 syns because it was made with 10% fat mince).

Snacks/Drinks

Coffee, fruit (strawberries, nectarines), Jacob's Crinklys (6.5 syns)

Exercise

30 minute run

30 minutes on exercise bike

Friday 13th June

Healthy Extra A: 250 ml milk

Breakfast

Orange, apple, nectarine

Lunch

Batchelor's super rice with baked beans

Dinner

Slimming World Quiche (onions/mushrooms/peppers/tomatoes cooked in low fat onion & chive cottage cheese mixed with eggs, without pastry) with wedges & lettuce (this appears to be free - I was expecting the cottage cheese to have syns but it seems I was wrong).

Update: A described this as "delicious" so it seems I got something right! I also added bacon that I'd cut the fat off and fried in frylight about halfway through cooking - it was deliciously crispy.  A recipe for the quiche can be found here for slimming world members - the vegetables can be whatever superfree veg you like).

Snacks/Drinks

Fruit, coffee, 4 crispbreads (healthy extra b) with Marmite.
375 ml red wine (13.5 syns)

Exercise

Mowing the lawn (it counts, right?!)

30 minute walk

Saturday 14th June

Breakfast

Bacon, mushrooms, fried egg with tomato (all done in Frylight) 

Lunch

Pasta & chicken tikka salad 

Dinner

Breadless sandwiches (cooked chicken slices wrapped around shredded lettuce & cherry tomatoes)

Fish from fish & chip shop (batter removed)

Snacks/drinks

Fruit, lean meat 
375 ml red wine (13.5 syns)
125 ml rosé wine (5 syns)
Fresh strawberry sundae (approx 20 syns)
Cheese & onion puff (about half the size of a pasty): 10 syns.

Total Syns so far this week: 88.5

Exercise

Lots of walking around, playing cricket etc. on the beach with the Younger Teen and Daughter.

Sunday 15th June

Breakfast

Grapes, apple, satsuma

Lunch

Roast pork with boiled potatoes, carrots, broccoli,green beans, sweetcorn & gravy (1.5 syns for the gravy + 1.5 for stuffing - 3 syns total)

Dinner

Chicken Salad (lettuce, cherry tomatoes, red onions, cucumber, roast chicken)

Snacks/Drinks etc.

Coffee, fruit, chicken breast with salad stuff, 1 finger of Twix (6 syns...I should have checked that first!)

Exercise

15 minute run (1.5 miles)

15 minutes exercise bike

Monday 16th June

Breakfast

Banana, apple, satsuma

Lunch

Bacon & tomato on a wholemeal roll (healthy b) with salad (lettuce, tomato, red onion, cucumber, spring onions).

Dinner

Slimming World chicken nuggets with jacket wedges, green beans, broccoli & sweetcorn (1.5 syns for the chicken nuggets because of bread)

Snacks/drinks etc.

Coffee, fruit, Muller light

Exercise

30 minutes exercise bike

30 minutes Just Dance (with the curtains closed because it makes me look exceedingly silly. I do get 5 stars on Time Warp every time though).

Another week...

...in which another weigh in will occur.

Quick scooter update first (see yesterday's blog): the local paper has called about it today and will run a small article about it in the next few days. We will offer a small reward and stick posters up. The Elder Teen is still extremely contrite about the whole situation, and has actually stopped winding his brother up, such is the depth of his contrition. I don't expect this to last long...

It is weigh in day again! I will update later with the result (I go to the 5:30pm group), which I'm hoping will be a loss this week (despite the extra syns I've sneaked in over the last couple of days. It's amazing how they build up. A single-finger Twix here, a portion of stuffing there and suddenly you're on 9 syns). I'm still inside my limit for the week (plus exercise helps) so I'm hopeful, but we shall see!

This week I think I will go for an alcohol free week. I have not done this since the very first week of Slimming World, and this possibly isn't the best time what with the world cup being on, but I think that I need a big push towards my target now, as I've been hovering half a stone or so above it for 3 weeks. I don't actually care too much about football (unless the Younger Teen is playing), but the elder and younger teens like to watch it and that's often an excuse for a glass of wine or a beer while watching.

Last time I had no alcohol for a week I lost 9lb (yes, in a week, and I ate a LOT and it was all Slimming World friendly), but that was my first week just after Christmas and I think my body was adjusting itself back to what it thought of as "normal" weight back then...little did it know what was coming next!

Our friend Saira has joined Slimming World a couple of weeks ago and is also blogging about it (rather more entertainingly than me, and without the long boring lists of food!). 

You can find Saira's blog here - we quite often get together for barbecues and jamming (her Very Significant Other* also plays the guitar and we like to bash some chords out and "sing"**), so we often share food and wine/cider; our next barbecue will no doubt be a Slimming World friendly one, although that's not difficult since lean meat is free and making your own sauces/marinades can cut a lot of syns out; bread is more problematic, but there are alternatives like wrapping the meat in lettuce etc. (which is surprisingly nice).

Saira is trying not to lose too much weight at once as they are getting married soon and the dress is already chosen and bought - as she put it in conversation "flashing on my wedding day wasn't what I had in mind!", but she is doing well and managing to control the weight loss so far - knowing Saira, once the wedding day is past the weight will fly off as she's very determined!

*blatantly pinched from Saira's blog.
**make a noise like cats being neutered without anaesthetic. No actual cats were harmed in discovering this, although a few ears were.

Monday 16th June

Breakfast

Banana, apple, satsuma

Lunch

Bacon & tomato on a wholemeal roll (healthy b) with salad (lettuce, tomato, red onion, cucumber, spring onions).

Dinner

Slimming World chicken nuggets with jacket wedges, green beans, broccoli & sweetcorn (1.5 syns for the chicken nuggets because of bread)

Snacks/drinks etc.

Coffee, fruit, Muller light

Exercise

30 minutes exercise bike

30 minutes Just Dance (with the curtains closed because it makes me look exceedingly silly. I do get 5 stars on Time Warp every time though).

Father's Day

...in which things are not exactly brilliant

Oh, not the weight loss thing. That's all going to plan, I think. Here's a before/after picture of me and the wife (yesterday vs 2011, before either of us started Slimming World):

Hopefully it's obvious which is which. A is at target (and has been for nearly 12 months), I am 9lbs or so off (soooo close)!

No, the problem right now is that while we were at the beach yesterday the Elder Teen (who is old enough to be left home alone) took the Younger Teen's scooter out (without permission) to help someone look for their dog (I don't know why this required a scooter, but I'm glad that he was willing to help - it turned out the dog was at home all along).

Unfortunately he forgot that he'd taken it and left it in the park while playing football. When he realised (about 2 hours later) and went back, it had (somewhat unsurprisingly) gone. If you're a parent, you'll know just how horrifyingly expensive these things are - we have called the police, been up and talked to some lads at the local skate park and asked them to keep a lookout and shared on facebook/twitter etc. but I can't say we're that hopeful. Still, you never know...

Anyway, until he called us to impart this news at around 7:30PM yesterday we were having a lovely time at the beach. The pasta salad with chicken tikka was what I believe the youngsters call "lush"; I did have to cave in on the ice cream sundae though (but it had lots of fresh strawberries with it, so that's OK, right? (I am, in fact, still within my Syns limit so it is OK)).

Breakfast

Grapes, apple, satsuma

Lunch

Roast pork with boiled potatoes, carrots, broccoli,green beans, sweetcorn & gravy (1.5 syns for the gravy + 1.5 for stuffing - 3 syns total)

Dinner

Chicken Salad (lettuce, cherry tomatoes, red onions, cucumber, roast chicken)

Snacks/Drinks etc.

Coffee, fruit, chicken breast with salad stuff, 1 finger of Twix (6 syns...I should have checked that first!)

Exercise

15 minute run (1.5 miles)

15 minutes exercise bike