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

Saturday!

...in which I have woken up early.

Since it's Saturday, my brain has elected to wake me up at 6AM (or it might have been the dawn chorus). It's a beautiful day, there's not a cloud in the sky, and we are off to the beach.

So, a very short blog today with just the food diary (there may be an update when I get home).

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)
Ok, I couldn't resist....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. Probably better not have any more!

Exercise

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

The weekend arrives

...in which I mow the lawn and we are going to the beach.

I am not a natural gardener. I generally have an agreement with plants along of the lines of I won't try to grow them and they won't die; I think I get this from my mother, who was once given an "unkillable" cactus as a joke gift because her workmates knew how many house plants she killed. It was dead within a week. I therefore do my best to avoid any and all activity that might be construed as "gardening".

However, even I have to accept that lawns have to be mowed occasionally (the more occasionally the better), and today has been designated as a day when this must happen (boo) because we are going to the beach tomorrow (yay!) so I won't have time to do it. 

The Elder Teen has not yet decided whether to grace us with his presence, but this is standard. He will probably decide he wants to come with us at 7:30AM, at which point he will make us late because he hasn't got any stuff ready. I'm sure there are people reading this thinking "so make him decide tonight", but that just means you've failed to understand the nature of a teenager; even if he says he's decided tonight to come/not come, in the morning he may change his mind. 

This is apparently part of the unwritten contract you get signed up to automatically when you're a parent and never get to read..."the teenager, once old enough to stay at home alone, may decide whether to attend any family days out without notice, at any point up to and including the car being started. This is the teenager's unassailable right, and any objections on behalf of the parent may be met with any of the statements "oh my god you're so unfair", "I thought you said you wanted me to come", "pardon me for breathing" or any other retort the teenager can think of at the time."

Anyway, food. Going to the beach is obviously fraught with food peril, because there are many shops that sell things that are both deep-fried and delicious, and which the kids will no doubt want to eat. To counter this, I will make a pasta meat salad tonight for the wife and I to share. There are also some good ideas here on the Slimming World site (log on required) for breadless sandwiches.

I will also probably have a fish from the very nice chip shop at the beach and remove all the batter. I wasn't aware of this until recently, but the fish inside the batter is free on slimming world; this is presumably because the batter solidifies extremely quickly and the fish is protected from the oil during cooking, so it just cooks in the heat.

Last night I ran nearly 5 miles again; today my legs are not all that happy about this, but I'm still going to make them pedal the exercise bike after I've mowed the lawn. Come to think of it the Elder Teen is back early from school today because he just has an exam this morning....maybe I can get him to mow the back lawn for me (and pigs'll fly and the price of bacon will go up, as my grandmother used to say).

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