Weigh Day

I've always been honest about my weigh ins and whether or not I feel they reflect my week.
Last week I got weighed in the morning and lost 1lb, baring that in mind I think an evening loss would have even shown a gain.
Therefore my 4lb gain last night should really have been a whole lot worse going off everything I ate in the past seven days, takeaways, chocolate & alcohol. And a lot of it!

4lb may seem like a lot to some people but believe me it isn't!

Here's a pic of my current weigh in graph in all its glory. Ups and downs throughout but I've never stopped having fun and wouldn't change a thing. 17lbs to go!

Mayflower Curry

4 syns for 28g of mayflower powder.

Mixed with cold water then added chicken and onions. 

Well worth the syns. 

Syn free boiled rice. 

Easter

So this weekend (or more since Friday) has been completely off plan, I've eaten out, drank alcohol, and scoffed my face on chocolate. I am expecting a gain there is no denying that but I have had a lovely weekend and am so glad I didn't deny myself what I wanted. It isn't every weekend that I go out and blow all my syns and more, so I will be completely happy with whatever happens come Thursday. I made these crème egg brownies for my other half, and ended up having FOUR pieces which was probably my weeks worth of syns straight away!!!

Ah well, worth every bite!

Syn Free Pancakes

it's come to my attention that I don't seem to have ever posted the syn free pancake recipe that I use!

Here you go... I've also included some other recipes that seem to be popular!

 I use option one!

Option 1: Syn Free / No Healthy B usage

Recipe:
Makes 2 pancakes

6 tbsp sweetener
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg
Fry Light

Method:
1. Whisk egg and sweetener in a bowl until you see soft peaks forming.
2. Stir in vanilla essence and mix well
3. Spray a pan with frylight
4. Pour half the mixture into a frying pan and fry for about 3 mins each side.
5. Serve with a topping of your choice



Option 2: Syn Free with Hex B usage

Recipe:
Makes 4 pancakes

35g porridge oats (organic are nicer in my opinion)
1/2 muller light yoghurt (vanilla or banana custard are the job!)
2 eggs
2 tbsp sweetener (candarel or such, granulated)
Frylight

1. Mix the porridge oats and frylight and leave in the fridge overnight. They need time to - quite literally - bond :)
2. The following day, whisk two eggs with the sweetener until you are seeing soft peaks forming. add to the oat mixture
3. Spray a pan with frylight, and pour about 1/2 of the mixture into the pan. Fry for 4-5 mins each side.



OPTION 3: 2.5 syns per pancake
Makes 2 pancakes:

1 banana
Pinch of cinnamon
2 eggs
Frylight


1. Mash the banana (5 syns as it is mashed)
2. Whisk two eggs until you are seeing soft peaks forming. Add your pinch of cinnamon
3. Spray a pan with frylight, and pour about 1/2 of the mixture into the pan. Fry for 1-2 mins each side. Repeat!
Anyone have any other tried and tested recipes?

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Low Syn Chocolate Cake

Obviously the one on the right above, I need to take a picture next time I bake it! Would highly recommend!

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 70g sugar substitute (eg. Splenda)
• 60g cocoa powder

 

Method:

• Preheat over to 185°C (fan)
• Spray a little Frylight in a loaf tin and line with greaseproof paper
• Separate the eggs and in one bowl, mix the egg whites until they form soft peaks.
• In another bowl, mix the other ingredients together – the eggs yolks, Splenda, vanilla and cocoa. You may find the mixture a little stiff so it’s OK to add a little splash of water at this stage.
• Fold in the egg whites, a little at a time.
• Pour mixture into your tin.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes.

 

Coconut Macaroons

I made a batch of these for our 'look at our new venue' meeting last night as they always go down well at tasters!

here's the recipe for anyone wanting it...

Ingredients:
4 egg whites
198g sugar
71g coconut

Method:
Beat the egg whites until frothy (Make sure no yolk whatsoever has contaminated the egg whites, otherwise you could be whisking for ever!)
Add the sugar and beat until stiff.
Fold in the coconut, put mixture into a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe 30 macaroons onto a parchment covered baking sheet.
Bake for 30 minutes in a preheated oven (170ºC/150ºC Fan/Gas Mark 3).
Remove from oven, and allow to cool for a few minutes before removing them from the baking sheet.

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Meatball Pasta Bake

Simple to throw together yet super tasty and filling. 

I made it up as I went along and it was really easy to do. 

I used approx 250g passata, paprika, oregano, basil, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper to make the sauce

Cut up 2 red onions and cooked off the meatballs then halved. 

Cooked off the pasta, strained and added to the mix. 

Mixed it all together and chucked it in a large oven dish then cooked for approx 20 mins

Grated half my hex a cheese on top. 

All done! 

Chunky Soup

Lunches tend to be super hard to plan for me, I either bring too much food or not enough theres no inbetween. Although I find bringing a chunky soup fills me a lot more than one that is completely blended.

I've posted this recipe before but I think it's one of my favourites. I tend to mix it up slightly based on what veg and herbs and spices I have in the this is the original recipe:

1 onion, peeled and finely chopped (I got a bag of the precut onions from asda and just chucked the whole packet in)
1 red pepper, diced (I used two this time)
2 large skinless and boneless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
800g canned chopped tomatoes
400ml chicken stock - I used 3 stock cubes to make sure it was relatively thick
1 tbsp chopped rosemary
1 tbsp crushed chillies
2 tbsp. tomato puree
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
I also chucked in a packet of cherry tomatoes (halved and quartered) as they weren't going to get used otherwise.

Method:-


Place the onion and pepper in a large non-stick saucepan and stir-fry for 4-5 minutes.
Add the chicken, tomatoes, stock, rosemary and lemon zest, chillies and juice.
Bring to the boil, stir, then cover and simmer on a medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Season to taste and serve

This recipe is completely syn free and so filling!

Body Magic

So on Saturday night I ended up venturing up to somewhere near Lancaster with a friend for the evening, stayed in a caravan and then got up bright and early and headed out for a lovely walk Sunday! it's amazing what you can find right on your doorstep if you look. Glasson Dock is only about 45 mins from my house, where I've lived for 26 years, and I've never been!

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Chicken & Spinach Lasagne

Took this recipe from the latest issue of the Slimming World magazine. Theres a few tweaks I'd make, more for personal taste really, but it was lovely and a big change from stuff I normally have. Full of speed food I probably wouldn't normally have aswell.

Serves 4 and is 3 syns per portion, although I'd happily divide into 8 at 1.5 syns each and then make my plate up with other bits and bobs. Personal choice really.

Party Food

So we had a little gathering at my house last night, a girly night if you will. There was plenty wine and vodka jelly shots but at least the snacks were Slimming World friendly.

Lemon Loaf, Chocolate Cake, Syn Free Cake and a Syn Free Quiche, also had Shredded BBQ Chicken but I didn't get a photo before it was scoffed!
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Progress

Timehop is a great little tool for showing you those horrific photos from those nights out youd rather forget, I don't even recognise the girl on the left anymore. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't happy, because I was. I went out all the time, had an amazing group of friends and had no care in the world. But realistically what I was doing to myself sickens me. I was 3.5 stone heavier than where I'm at, boozing daily and just about fiting into a size 18.
Fast forward a good few years and I'm happy, have an amazing partner who has supported me so much on this journey, drink on occasion and eat amazing food all the time. Who said a diet had to be boring?

One Year Statistics

March 12th 2016 marked my 1 year since joining slimming world. Decided to sit down and look at my stats today after not being well for the last week. Super happy with where I'm at, and the fact that I've kept it off. I've got 10lbs left to go to reach my target weight now. I'm the lightest I've been in about 10 years of not more! Massive thanks to you lovely lot for the support, tips, ideas and the friendships formed along the way! And a massive thanks to my other half for listening to me moan, being there to celebrate the losses and for helping me keep my head held high even when the scales aren't my friend ❤️ honestly never thought I'd find a 'diet' that I actually enjoyed!

I've still gone out, enjoyed birthdays, parties, nights out and everything else in between but food optimised during the week to make sure my gain wasn't massive. My biggest gain was 4.5 in two week and that was after 10 days on holiday in Javea, so I could live with that!

I've gone from a size 16 to a size 12, sometimes 10, which is something I never thought I'd ever do!

I couldn't be happier, there's so much to choose from with SW, you can make virtually any meal SW friendly it just depends on the preparation!
I'd recommend it to anyone, whole heartedly.

 

2.5 Stone Award!

Finally got this at group tonight! 3lb loss, 8lb loss in two weeks!

Slow Cooker Chilli

Slimming world, slow cooker chilli for tea last night. So easy and so yummy and full of speed veg and completely Syn free. Woo!

So easy to do, I just added 5% mince, onions, peppers, passata, chopped tomatoes, garlic, cumin, chilli powder, paprika, 1 beef stock cube, 1 tin of baked beans

Will most likely get a minimum of 4 BIG portions out of this, or 6 smaller ones for using with a jacket etc

ALMOST a year apart...

So close to hitting my year at Slimming World. Amazed at how different I look in nearly a year. 2st 4lb down, 13lbs to go. Couldn't be happier, so proud that I've kept it off!

Face to face Friday

Timehop likes showing me some lovely photos from my time at uni, when I went out every night and ate what I wanted and generally just didn't care. Nice to see such a difference! So proud of myself for sticking to Slimming World, would recommend it to anyone!

Weigh Day

I am over the moon with this! After a rough few weeks of maintains and gains and being all over the show I finally feel like I'm back on it and my heads in the right place!

 

Hoping for 3lb next week to get my 2.5 stone award!

Low Syn Treats!

Love getting to late at night and realising I've only had 1.5 syns! Indulged in an Options Caramel (1.5), Jam Hifi Bar (3) and a Goodies Muller Yog (2.5) whilst we watched some Person Of Interest last night ❤️

Consultants support!

The last few weeks, or maybe I should say since November! I seem to have been stuck at the same weight and for one reason or another haven't been able to get past it. I've filled in a million and one SAS logs and will admit that some weeks were more off than on plan. Well last week I drew a line, and I'm feeling a lot more positive about this week. It makes it a 100 times better when you get home and your consultant has taken the time to write you a little card about your journey and tell you you'll get there ❤️ definately what I needed to spur me on! 

Sunday Dinner for 5.5 syns!

1.5 syns for a little yorkshire pud, 2 syns for the roasties as couldn't be bothered making the SW roasties as well as these, and then 2 syns for gravy. Love it! Feeling a lot more positive this week just hoping I see it on the scales on Thursday!