Week 2 - Progress

Just popping on to update on what I've been eating lately :-)

I'm disappointed to report that I haven't been very good at the whole Success Express thing. I usually love that Plan and really get on board but for some reason or other, it slipped away from me this week. I have stuck to Extra Easy though so I'm still hoping for a good result tomorrow night at Weigh In.

For breakfast, I have swapped eggs for Weetabix this week. Not sure why, just fancied cereal (which is weird for me) so I'll only list my lunches and dinners:

Friday
L: Pasta with vegetables (I posted a pic of this in my post below)
D: I ate out. Had a bit of tapas. Naughty. Nuff said.
Syns: Quite a few probably ...
Snacks: -

Saturday
L: Jacket potato w/ tomatoes, lettuce, mushrooms & 42g feta cheese.
D: Gammon steak w/ red onion, tomatoes, mushrooms & broccoli
Syns: 1 tsp butter, 1 x Twix
Snacks: 1 x Muller Light Tangerine, 1 x banana

Sunday
L: Jacket potato w/ baked beans, tomatoes & lettuce
D: 1 x chicken leg (skin removed), broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, peas, parsnips
Syns: 1 tbsp gravy (granules), 1 x Cadburys Twirl
Snacks: Apple

Monday
L: Banana (forgot to have a proper lunch)
D: Pasta w/ Quorn mince, broccoli, mushrooms, peppers, garlic
Syns: Portion of a jar of pasta sauce (I ate at a friend's house)
Snacks: Apple

Tuesday
L: Pasta w/ Quorn Sausages (chopped up) & mushrooms
D: A few slices from a beef joint, roast pototates & a tomato
Syns: 1 tbsp Extra Light Philidelphia, 1 tbsp gravy (granules)
Snacks: -

Wednesday
L: Beef cold cuts, 2 x roast potatoes & baked beans
D: Steak (lean) w/ lettuce, grated carrots, peppers, cucumber & Fry Light Salad Spray (balsamic)
Syns: 1 x small bottle of Premium brand beer
Snacks:Pineapple chunks (fresh), Muller Light Toffee


I have missed chocolate a lot this week, hence why I've had a couple of bars. But I haven't gone over my 15 Syns (apart from the night I went out to eat - couldn't be helped). Otherwise, I'm very happy with my meals; I'm never hungry and I feel so much healthier already. My clothes are less snug (only a bit!) and I can definitely see the difference in my 'back fat', ha ha. That'll be the lack of booze no doubt. I had a small bottle of beer earlier today as a treat (I was painting the kitchen cabinets) and I feel quite uncomfortable and bloated now.

My mom and son are doing great as well - very proud. And they are both still feeling very positive which spurs me on too. Doing this together makes it so much easier. It really makes me happy to see our 'automatic food choices' changing already. For instance, I cooked steak & salad (with grated carrot) tonight and my son actually said he preferred it to steak & chips! I can already see definition in my son's face and my mom is busy buying up summer clothes for her holiday in June - in a smaller size. Happy days!!

Treat night: When my son and I did SW before, Weigh In night was always dubbed 'treat night'. Psychologically, we found that works for us. Basically, if we've had a good result (or maintained) then we 'treat' ourselves afterwards with whatever we want to eat within reason. It keeps us going through the week. When you feel you are about to throw in the towel because you desperately want something 'naughty', you can console yourself and keep going, reminding yourself that you can have it - guilt free - after your Weigh In. Hoorah! Last week, my son had a pizza; my mom & I had spare ribs (me) and duck (mom) from the Chinese. Within the hour, we all felt sick from the grease. Lesson learned. This week, my son has decided that he's having a baguette from Subway, I want a big bowl of Seriously Cinnamon cereal (mmmmm!) and my mom is eyeing up a mini-trifle. Much better I think :-)

Newsflash: My son and I - and his girlfriend - joined a gym this week. I only went because I heard it had a Power Plate (which in case you hadn't heard is the latest celeb craze and I wanted to try and 'jiggle' my fat off) but I ended up having to do an 'induction'. It's run by the British Heart Foundation and is actually really friendly and family orientated. I've always been wary of gyms with their intimidating men pumping weights and making odd noises, but this one was lovely and I really enjoyed the induction actually. Wow. We have been given a 30 minute work out plan using all the machines for 2 minutes each. Baby steps, baby steps. We'll increase our time on the machines as we feel it getting easier.

So how is everyone else doing? What have you been eating? Have you increased your physical activity? Talk to me! :-)

Extra Easy? Extra confusing!

So I am now only on Day 2 of my return to Slimming World and, in all honesty, I'm finding it a bit 'odd'. I am - by nature - a creature of habit. Hence why I put on weight in the first place. Bad habits I can hopefully correct on this journey - but the habit of previously choosing a Green day or a Red day on SW ... well that's quite tricky to get my thought process to re-programme. For those who know absolutely nothing about SW, the 'old plan' was roughly this:

Every day choose:
2 x Healthy A's, such as your cheese (28g chedder, or 42g mozzerella) and semi-skimmed milk (250ml)
1 x Healthy B choice, such as oatmeal (28g) or wholemeal bread (2 slices of Nimble)

Then choose whether you are having a Green day or a Red day, i.e:

Green - All veg was FREE, as was pasta, potatoes and rice. Eggs and beans were free too. Eat as much as you like, fill your plate. Enjoy! If you fancied meat that day, you had to either use it as your Healthy B choice and weigh it (75g of tinned tuna for instance) or you could Syn it.

Red - Basically the opposite of Green but all veg is still FREE (except peas for some reason), as were eggs. Now though, you can have as much meat and fish as you like, but you need to measure your carbs and use them as a Healthy B or a Syn.

Then it got a bit more complicated and went into SuperFree foods and Speed Foods etc. They were fun when you got the hang of them and really boosted your weight loss. 'Success Express' anyone? Hell yeah!

So .... does that all make sense? Probably not, but then it didn't to most people until they actually attended a Group meeting and then - click! - it all fell into place.

But moving on. Now there is this thing called 'Extra Easy' and from what I can gather so far - and I am struggling a bit as I said so don't take this as gospel yet - almost all of your veg is SuperFree, your meat, pasta/rice/potatoes etc are Free (pasta on the same day as meat?! Has SW gone MAD???), and you now only get 1 x Healthy A and 1 x Healthy B per day. Boooo! Syns are (unfortunately) the same. The key thing also seems to be the fact that 1/3 of your meal is meant to be SuperFree - every time? I'm not sure but it seems so. But that to me is just SuperConfusing and SuperImpractical and A SuperWasteOfTime when the 'old plan' worked just brilliantly thank-you-very-much.

Now, the other thing I'm struggling with is putting Green and Red food on my plate. I just can't stop seeing my food in categories and it's freeeeeaking me out that it's changed. See - creature of habit! So now I am eating meals which I *think* and *hope* are Extra Easy (if I'm doing it right) and feeling ... well, a bit guilty I suppose. Which isn't a great feeling when you're trying to tuck into a nice meal.

An example of the food I've had so far:-

SuperFree (SF), Free (F), Syn (S), Healthy A (A), Healthy B (B)

BREAKFAST - Omelette made with 1 x egg (F), spinach (SF), chopped deli ham (not processed rubbish)(F), tomatoes (SF) and 42g mozzerella cheese (A).

LUNCH - Steak (F), peas (F), tomatoes (SF), onion (SF), 1 tbsp low fat natural yoghurt (F) .... today was gammon steak (F), beans (F), 2 x eggs (F).

DINNER - Homemade chicken kebabs (F), pineapple chunks (SF), corn on the cob (F), 2 tbsp low fat natural yoghurt (F) .... today was pasta (F), brocolli (SF), tomatoes (SF), onion (SF), spinach (SF), 1 tbsp low fat natural yoghurt, herbs (F).

SNACKS - 1 x banana (SF) sliced up on top of 2 x slices wholemeal Nimble bread (B), 1 tsp butter (S) and/or MullerLight yoghurt (F)

So that's a small window into the first two days of my journey. Oh! I also spent some Syns on a 440ml can of Stella and a Cadburys Cream Egg. I'm within my limit for both days though.

Hmmmmm. I'm just Blogging to work it all out in my mind really :-) Has it helped me? Ummm, no. I guess I am just nervous as I don't really understand the new plan properly yet. It took me about 3 weeks to 'get it' last time so I know I just have to patient. But I'm scared of making a mistake and putting ON insteading of losing. Eeeeep! All will be revealed at Group next week ...