Success

After my post about failing to get back on track, and how today was going to be the day, I thought I would update you on how may day went. I am happy to report that I managed to stay on plan! I'v eaten a total of 10.5 Syns today, and for those of you who are intrigued how that breaks down heres a list

BRUNCH

3 scrambled eggs- free
total 0% with blueberries and raspberries- free
tea with milk- 1 syn
(Above is the brunch I managed to scrape together before going food shopping, hence the perhaps slightly random combination.)

DINNER

dit pepsi (yes I drink liquid crack...)- free
Pasta bake with:
dry pasta- free
brocoli- free
cherry tomatoes- free
garlic- free
cottage cheese (light)- free
egg- free (only just realised I had eggs twice, oops!)
42g low fat cheese- Healthy Extra 'A' choice
clementine- free (I bought the ones with the leaves still attatched, they are worth the extra money as they are so sweet and juicy!)

SNACK

tea with milk- 1 syn
2 slices small brown bread- 'B' choice
1 tablespoon nutella- 4 syns
1 tablespoon peanut butter- 4.5 syns
(^^^^  Best. Snack. Ever.)
2 satsumas - free

SYNS- 10.5

Sorry for the lack of photographs, I'm such a bad blogger, I'll try and be better in the future! Now I just have to survive tomorrows weigh in, and keep on track!

A day of eats.

I'v been meaning to write this post for a while, but with Christmas being so hectic, and working extra hours, I'v just not had the chance. So here it is, a day of eats. Note that these photos were taken before Christmas (not sure what differene that makes, just thought you would like to know!) I wouldn't say that this is a typical day cos I think all of my days vary greatly. Maybe once I get into a good routine with work and gym I'll be able to post my daily eats. But, for now, heres a taster (!).

BRUNCH

I got up a bit late and so I decided to make some brunch, otherwise I would have to eat breakfast and lunch within an hour or two of each other, which is not ideal. I decided to make a favourite of mine, scrambled eggs on toast.

I started off with some free range eggs.

I found this one with a feather on it!

I cracked three egss into a bowl, whisked them a bit, and added some white pepper.

I selected my bread. I used Warburtons Wholemeal small 400g loaf.

I really like this bread, cos even though it is 'low calaorie' (aka the tiniest slices in the WORLD!), the slices are still quite springy(yes that is a technical term!) and light, which most other smaller loaves are not.

I then sprayed a small pan with some Fry light, and added the egg mixture, It doesn't look too nice at this point, but once you've stirred it a bit over a medium heat for a few minutes, it will all start coming together!

Once the eggs are ready (ideally I like mine to still be slightly runny, before they reach that almost rubbery stage, but I know people are  a bit scared when it comes to eating undercooked eggs!), you start off with your bread on a plate. I usually toast mine, but I was feeling lazy...

I then topped with the scrambled eggs. (LOOK at that steam!)

And then top with a sliced tomato. Might sound strange, but this is my favourite eggs combo.

How juicy does that tomato look?!

I then added a little bit of coarse sea salt to the tomatoes. I'm not really into salt that much, I'v never really been one to add it to my food, only accasionally when a recipie calls for it. However there are two things I must have salt on: tomato slices and chips. Strange but true.

And then add a dusting of white pepper. And then a bit more. I think white pepper and eggs are a match made in heaven!

A squiggle of light salad cream, and voila, theres breakfast lunch brunch done!

I also had a mug of tea with milk.

SNACK

To tide me over until Dinner time, I snacked on a banana.

DINNER

For dinner I fried a piece of salmon is some Fry Light and some spices. I also had a jacket potato topped with light cottage cheese and 42g of low fat cheese, my 'A' choice for the day. On the side I had a simple salad of lettuce leaves and half a tomato.

After dinner I was craving something sweet so I had this piece of shortbread (I'd already taken a bite before I remembered to take a photograph!).

A little while later I succumbed to one of Mum's home-made Bakewell tarts. Lovely.

Which I enjoyed with a cup of tea, again with milk. (Please excuse the mess that is my room!)

I felt hungry again an hour or two later and so I made myself a cheese flavoured Mug Shot. Probably doesn't look very appetizing, but it fills a spot.

Shortly afterwards I felt hungry yet again. I feel like I ate quite lightly up until Dinner time, I feel like I then tend to make up for not being hungry in the day time, by then being hungry all evening. I just go with it, and figure that it must even itself out.

As a midnight snack I had a bowl of Fage Total 0% (LOVE IT!) with blueberries, strawberries, clementines, passion fruit, and orange rind. Next time you have any type of natural or greek yogurt, you must add some orange rind! It gives it so much flavour!

This is a good example of what I usually have for breakfast. I suppose I just flipped my day around, and had breakfast to end the day instead of to start!

As usual I then mixed it all together to make sure I get a mix of flavours in each mouthful! SOOO good!

And there you have it. What I ate in one day. For those of you who might be interested, I will now break down how it works out in Syns.

3 eggs- free
fry light- free
tomato- free
2 slices wholemeal bread- Healthy Extra 'B' choice
tea with a splash of semi skimmed milk- 1 syn
1 tablespoon light Salad Cream- 1.5 syns

banana- free

salmon fillet- free
spices- free
jacket potato- free
lettuce leaves- free
tomato -free
light cottage cheese- free
42g low fat cheese- Healthy Extra 'A' choice

1 shortbread finger- 5 syns
bakewell tart- approx 6 syns
tea with milk- 1 syn

Cheese flavoured mug shot- 2 syns

Fage Total 0%- free
all fruit- free

Total syns -  16.5 Syns

As you can see, I went over my daily limit of 15 syns, but I always make sure to make up for it the next day by eating less syns, so it all works out. If you managed to get to the end of this post, then well done, os it is pretty long! Hopefully I'll learn to condense my content as I go along, or if I do a daily eats post on a regular basis, then I might split the day up, and blog 2-3 times a day instead. If I ever get that organised that is!

How were your eats today?

Weigh In Update

I didn't get a chance to update on my weigh in last Thursday, and as my next weigh-in is fast approaching (ARGHH!) I though I would just update you all quickly.

At last weeks weigh in I gained 1.5 pounds, and to be honest I am completely fine with that. That was over a two week period, with numerous meals out, and days off plan, and no exercise(!). To be honest I was just relieved it wasn't more!

Now lets move the conversation on to this weeks weigh-in. I stated at last weeks weigh in that if I put on the same again I would be fine with that. And I was confident that I would be able to keep my weight gain to a minimum if I got right back on track on Monday after the Christmas weekend. However this I did not do! It is so hard to get back on track after a few days (weeks...?) off plan, I'm just used to eating all this good food. The novelty of just being able to grab anything I fancy without planning or analyzing everything, is a hard one to shake off!

I think one of my main problems is that I am not prepared. I have no food in my fridge, and so it has been easier to just steal food from my mum (yes we have seperate fridges in my house... its just easier this way...), and so as soon as I'v rummaged through the fridge for a healthy breakfast tomorrow morning (I must have something edible!) I'm gonna sit and plan my food for the week (looking through all the Slimming World magazines I have for inspiration!), and I will then be off to do a mamoth shop!

When it comes down to it, I think it is my mentality that is holding me back this week. Even though I feel like I have no choice but to eat crapppy food, cos I have no good food, it still doesn't stop me from making good food choices. For instance when I came home from work this evening, my mum had cooked a whole chicken, and had some salad leftover, and put a jacket potato in the microwave for me. Sounds like a healthy dinner right? But then I made the choice to add salad cream, stilton, a piece of baguette and houmous, all in unmeasured portions. WHY did I do that?! Probably beause I feel that I haven't been on plan the rest of the day, so I think, why bother now? Plus its just so easy, and has become automatic behavior in the past few days. Its quite scary how fast I have fallen into old habits. It tells me that I am definately not 'cured' of my unhealthy eating habits (will I ever be..?). I'm trying to be calm about all this and think, its ok, because tomorrow, I WILL be on plan. I just need to slow down my thought process. Remember why I am doing this. Remind myself of this when I make food choices, and talk myself through the choices and what consequences they have. Ask myself the big question 'is it worth it?'. I also think it helps to visualize a loss at the next weigh in and how good that will feel, and then visualize a gain and how that will feel. All these little tricks will hopefully get me back on plan! Wish me luck!

Christmas Day

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I know I did! The food was AMAZING! Probably not at all condusice to weight loss, but it sure was good. A lot of vegetables where consumed, but any redeeming factors are cancelled out by the fact that they were smothered in goose fat! Oh well!

Heres the set up we had: we usually put all the food in fancy serving dishes on the main table, but since it was just us four this year, we decided to skip the formalities and just serve ourselves from the kitchen. Whatever meant we got to eat the soonest was fine by us :)

Heres the dinner table. Note the presence of both wine glasses and champagne glasses. Mum had big plans about us all partying hard all through the day, and on to the night. Too bad she needs a snooze after half a glass, and was soon napping under the pretense of 'watching' TV, probably within an hour of eating dinner!

Harry my step dad is already tucking in!

Heres the aerial view of my dinner. We had turkey (obviously...), mashed potatoes, roast potatoes (which where to die for!), runner beans, carrots (which I think had been cooked in honey- it amps up the sweetness), roast parsnips, a bit of broccoli and cauliflower, sausage meat and gravy. When I sat down at the table I did add some cranberry sauce and bread sauce to my plate. I would of taken another photo, but I was just so excited, I just had to tuck in straight away! You understand, right?

Side view:

And the view of the other side.... (seeing those roasties again makes me drool!)

And then there was THE CHRISTMAS PUDDING! (with white sauce).

I don't like Christmas pudding. Neither does my sister. Nor does my step dad. However my mother was a woman on a mission. She made this Christmas Pudding which is supposed to be lighter than normal Christmas Pudding, and I am told that it had Cointreau and cranberries in it. All this information was lost on me. We were all told, that basically we had to try this pudding cos it was supposedly nothing like christmas pudding, and therefore we would like it.

All three of us looked at our bowls apprehensively, but digged in to make mum happy. My feedback was that I liked the nuts (big chunks of brazil!), that the sponge was ok, I could taste the Cointreau (which is a good point in my book!) but I hate sultanas. Hence why my plate looked like this. 

I would  say it was nicer than Christmas pudding, but I wouldn't really choose to have it again. Sorry mam! I'm sure it would of been gorgeous if I could of appreciated it! It entertained us though, all three of us pretending to like it, and trying to think of nice things to say, while clearly lying! It was hilarious, we all has tears in our eyes from laughing so hard! 

My sister and I wore matching outfits, on Christmas day (which we then carried on to boxing day to make sure we got maximum wear!) We get mistaken for twins  a lot, (even mum mixes us up all the time sometimes) so we thought it would be fun to confuse people a bit :)

The rest of our day was spent lazying about, alternating between drinking wine and drinking tea (although I think I only drank about 3-4 glasses of wine over the course of the whole day), in the evening my sister and I visited my dad at his house, where we half watched Avatar while chatting away and drinking even more wine! All in all it was a very merry day!

How was your Christmas? I'd say that mine was quiet, but in a nice way. Gave us all the chance to relax, we are very chilled back when it comes to Christmas, we don't feel the need to do a million and one things as we are busy enough the rest of the year!

Nadolig Llawen!

Merry Christmas! Or Nadolig Llawen as we say in Wales. Lets eat, drink, and be merry :)

Christmas 2008

Leeds Christmas 08

Disqus

One major flaw I have found with blogging in general, and in particular using Blogger and reading other blogs on Blogger is that there's not a direct way of replying to comments, or knowing if I get a reply when I comment on other blogs. It is really annoying! I read so many blogs so it's hard to keep track of where I comment: I just don't have the time!


I rejoiced when I recently read a post over at (never home) maker about switching over to Disqus in order to be able to reply to comments. I was a bit apprehensive when I read that they (initially) lost all of their comments, but with my blog being so new, I figured that I didn't have much to lose, and took the plunge this afternoon. I am happy to report that all comments have been reinstalled. Yipee! We can now have properly, back and forwards conversations with eachother, and we will all be notified when this happens. So simple, but so great! I haven't had much of a chane to play about with it so far, but I have used it to comment on other blogs before, and haven't had any issues. If it works like it is supposed to I am definitely sold! You'll all have to leave lots and lots of comments now, just so that we can test it out! :P


In other news I have finally finished editing all of the tabs at the top of the blog. In all honesty I am still not completely happy with the 'About Ffion' section. Its just so hard to write about yourself, non? I'll most probably edit it every once in a while, when new facts and general trivia about myself comes to mind. I'v probably forgotten to mention something pretty important that is integral to every 'About me' section. Oh well. If there is anything you want to know, just ask!


How about you? Do you enjoy writing about yourself? I swear I take ages writing my CV and filling in application forms (something I have been doing a lot of recently!), just because I find it hard to 'big myself up'! I think its a bit of a cultural thing to, I think us Brits can be a bit reserved, and have a hard time admitting how amazing we are!

Weigh In & Eating Strategies

Here's a list of my weigh in progress so far:

24/7 = -3.5

4/8 =-1

12/8= -0.5

19/8=-3

26/8=-3

2/9=+1.5

9/9=-1.5

23/9=-4

30/9=+2.5

7/10=+1.5

14/10=-5

23/10=maintained weight

29/10=maintained weight

4/11=-3

11/11=-2

18/11=maintained weight

25/11=maintained weight

2/12=-1.5

9/12=-0.5

Total weight loss: 1 stone 9 pounds, or 23 pounds

As you can see, I don't have the fastest weight loss in the world, and this is something that I am trying to come to terms with. My weight loss might be slow, but it allows me to have the lifestyle I want, where I still indulge sometimes, and without having to be super strict, and make myself go crazy over the numbers. Of course there are some weeks when I'v felt I'v been the perfect dieting angel, but have still managed to either gain or maintain. I try and take these times in my stride, and just move on, all the while remembering that there are other times that I havent been as, ahem, virtuous in my eating, and the diet gods have not punished me with a gain. Our bodies are really complex pieces of machinery, and things don't always make sense when it comes to weight loss, all I know is that I have to trust the process, keep on chugging along, and eventually it will come off, as annoying and infuriating as that may be!

I should also note here, that I have definitely not been on my best behavior recently, and have not been to the gym for nearly a month due to no other real reason than laziness, and a bunch of excuses. I know that if I really wanted to go, I could of made it there at least a couple of times by now! Unfortunately with Christmas practically on our doorsteps, I know that it is completely stupid and unrealistic time for me to recommit.

My plans for surviving Christmas are to become more relaxed in my eating habits, and be ok with it, which was already tested when I had an epic Christmas Dinner, and last night my mum had a little Christmas shindig in the house, at which I drank copious amounts of wine! I think before any of these events I have to decide what my game plan is. I can either try and stick completely to my plan, try and do 50/50,  or just go for it, enjoy yourself, and do it without guilt. Its the last option that I have been going with recently. I do think it is easy to go overboard when you tell yourself that you can indulge for a change, so I'v set in some 'rules' to make sure I don't stray too far. Firstly I give myself a time frame, for example a day or a meal, and then know that the next day/meal will be on plan. Secondly I try and specifically pick what I want to indulge in, for example at my mums party last night I tried a little bit of everything from the buffet, and indulged in some cheesecake and (too much...) wine and chose to keep away from the cheese and biscuits and the birthday cake. Additionally when I know that I am going to be off plan, I have to know, and be ok with the fact that I will probably have a gain.  I didn't get to go to weigh in this past week due to work, but I'm sure I had a small gain, and what with the party last night, and general stresses of getting ready for Christmas this week, and then its Christmas next week,  I know that this is three weeks, of maintaining if I'm lucky, but probably a small gain. And I'm ok with that. I know that up till know I have enjoyed myself with family and friends, been able to enjoy good cooking and baking, and I hope to be more committed than ever come the New Year (yes that means sorting out my gym routine!), and hope for a year of big losses!!!

How do you survive the Christmas season?

Worth it

Last  weekend I went on an adventure of epic proportions. My mission was to get from the little island at the top of Wales, Anglesey, to Leeds, a city 'Oop North' in the heart of Yorkshire. It involved a twelve hour round trip, mostly on train, plus an impromptu rail replacement service (aka a bus) between Chester and Warrington. All this while suffering from man-flu (read: a cold).

I went through all this hardship (I kid, I kid...) in order to keep the tradition going, of having Christmas Dinner with my Leeds family/ old flat-mates/ really good friends. Was it worth it? I'll let the pictures do the talking (err writing?).

And just so that you fully appreciate how epic this meal was, here's a list of what is on show: broccoli, carrots, mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, stuffing balls, chicken, pigs in blankets, cabbage, and lashings of gravy! If you can stop yourself from licking your computer screen, you have more willpower than I have!

Slimming World

As I mentioned, the diet I am following is Slimming World. Slimming World is the largest diet orgainsation in the UK. Their food programme is called Food Optimising and there are three different versions of the plan: Red, Green and Extra Easy. I have no experience with Red and Green as I follow 'Extra Easy' (which is a mix of red and Green), and so I shall do my best to explain to you what this food plan entails.

First of all, no food is off limits, how amazing is that! I think that its this mindset of, if you want something, you can have it, really helps you stay on plan, as you don't feel like you are depriving yourself, its all about balance! No food is off limits, but all food fall into two categories: its either Free (i.e you can eat as much of it as you like!), or it needs to be measured and counted as Syns. Free foods include nearly all fruit except for cooked or smoothied fruit (due to the lowered fiber count and therefore lower satiety). The only other fruit I'm aware of which isn't free is avocados. I LOOVVE avocados, but understand why they are not free. However at 7 Syns for half an avocado, if I feel like having avocado, I'm damn well going to have that avocado! All vegetables are free. Nom nom :)

Eggs are also free, as are most low fat dairy products such as Quark and Fage 0% Total. Meat and fish cooked without oil is free. Rice and Dry pasta is also free, but it is recommended to pay close attention to portion sizes when eating these. Its only common sense really. Just because a food is 'free', doesn't mean you won't put weight on if you eat, say, fifteen jacket potatoes in a day. Its all about balance. As Slimming World does not say that any food is off limits, I believe that it is best to embrace this, and eat a variety of all of the different yummy things that you can! Foods are deemed free if they have a high satiety value, and will therefore help keep you fuller for longer, which in turn will mean that you eat less, even though, shock, horror, you are able to eat things such as pasta, rice, bananas and meat with no guilt.   Who wants to be guilty about eating a damn banana? It is this psychology of no guilt tied to eating that also helps, 'cos lets face it, being overweight is more mental than physical in most cases.

Every day I am allowed two 'Healthy Extras, knows as an 'A' choice, and a 'B' choice. An 'A' choice is calcium and B choice is fiber, both which are important component of weight loss and overall health. The 'A' could be taken as either Cheese or Milk. The 'B' choice is Fiber and is taken as wholemeal bread, high fiber cereal bars, oil, cooked or dried fruit, cereals or fruit.

All other foods have a Syns value. Every day everyone on the plan is allocated 15 Syns. Syns can be carried over from one day to the next, but not from one week to the next. Syns stands for Synergy, as Food Synergy which is what Slimming Worlds method of figuring out how many Syns to allocate a product.

Basically this plan is all about learning balance. Want a piece of chocolate? Fine have it, but fill up on free foods for the rest of the day. Starving? Rather than having a plate of pasta with a cream based sauce and sausage for possibly a bazillion Syns (slight exaggeration...), have a plate of pasta with vegetables and a tomato based sauce, which would then be considered free, and then go one step further and choose wholemeal over white.  Its the kind of obvious stuff you already know, its just been formatted in an easy to stick to plan.

I personally am a huge fan of Slimming World (obviously, otherwise I wouldn't be doing it!) and I would recommend it to anyone! I hope I've managed to explain it properly, but as I tend to go on a bit, I hope I haven't confused you too much (feel free to ask questions!) My advice is to go to their website here to find out more, or go along to a local meeting where a consultant will explain it all for you! I'm sure it will start making more sense once I start posting my food, its just like any other 'diet' whether you'd be counting calories, or points or Syns, its just the way you count is slightly different!

Just Do It

Hello!Welcome to my little corner of the blog world!

I have been working on ­that opening sentence for ages! Not original enough? Definitely. Too cheesy? Maybe. However if I agonise over it any longer, I'll never get around to actually blogging, which is the whole point of me being here! And you know what they say, the hardest part is starting something, so hopefully no writers block from now on! I have been agonising quite a bit about little details of starting a blog, such as getting the perfect name, the perfect layout, trying to think of some content, and I came to the point where I decided that I had to (to quote Nike) ' JUST DO IT!

I feel a bit like being new in school. Hi. My names Ffion. Nice to meet you.smiles nervously Be nice to me. Like me. Be my friend. Please?!!

Now that introductions are over and done with, lets get down to some business: why I'm here and the purpose of my blog. My intentions with this blog is for it to be a food/diet/health blog. I'm not an expert. In fact I'm just flailing about in this vast world that is 'health and fitness' trying to figure out what the hell is going on. So while I might not be no expert, I guess I'm trying to be, and while I may never become super woman, watching me fail try will hopefully be a good read, and will also help myself in gaining knowledge. So why not stick around for the ride?

So here's the basic info on me: I'm twenty-three years old. I'm a recent graduate. I'm part of the thousands of graduates that cannot find a decent job due to the recession, and so I currently spend my time sitting behind a till, serving the locals their grub. I live in a a very beautiful part of the world called North Wales (and more specifically, Anglesey. Its the island at the top of Wales. Yes I live on an Island. But don't we all technically? Sorry I've gotten distracted as usual, lets resume normal conversation...) The reason I am here is that I need to lose weight, and have been chipping away away with an icepick at the iceberg that is weight loss for about twenty weeks, and in that time have managed to lose 1 stone 8 1/2 pounds (aka 22 1/2 pounds). I love food (obviously), and like experimenting when cooking and baking all sorts, (possibly the reason why I need to lose weight in the first place!), so I hope to document my cooking disasters creations!

I am currently following the Slimming World diet (which I shall explain what it entails in another blog soon), and so far, it seems to work well for me. I have also recently joined a gym, and even though its taken me a while to get into the habit of going (I've never really been that into exercise, again, obviously!), I have been attempting the C25K programme. This week for the first time I managed to complete the full set of intervals for W1D1 and have also done today W1D2, and seriously, the feeling of finally being able to complete it was AMAZING! I kinda get where the whole 'runners high' thing comes from! Almost as good as stuffing your face with a cream cake! Almost. It came pretty close anyway.

I think its this 'JUST DO IT' attitude that I need to fully grasp in my journey to losing weight and getting fit. Make good food choices. Go to the gym. Just do it. Sounds simple enough right? ...if only...!