Syn Free Food Treat

I've got out of the habit of having regular food treats. It's something I used to do years ago when I got to target weight. I'd follow plan weekdays and then eat what I wanted at the weekend, then the weekend crept into Friday, then Thursday....you get the idea? Diets I've followed before had always be so much more restrictive on what and how much you can eat that it's so easy to fall off the wagon as soon as you start eating normal food at normal quantities on the weekend. 

As I've found Slimming World to be so much more like a healthy eating plan where you just tweak normal every day food, in normal portions I don't really feel like I need a treat - other than wine ;-) I'm probably happier with a Slimming World burger than a Whopper from Burger King these days! I also like how they don't ask you to up your Syns once at target, which would just encourage me to slip back into bad habits. 

The easier a plan is to follow the easier it is to stick to and end up as a new normal . The more difficult and time consuming it is to follow the more likely I am to get fed up of it's restrictiveness and go off plan. It's easy to be more laid back around planning meals if all you have to have is a fridge full of normal food. As long as it's there you don't have to plan everything in advance, you can just open the fridge and decide on the spot. It's also nice and easy to have fall back food in the cupboard or freezer for a busy day. Pasta, couscous, tuna, beans, potatoes, Iceland ready meals...I could go on! So it's not the end of the world if you've not had time to spend all day planning your evening meal, then weighing and measuring it all out when you get in before you can even cook and eat it!

Whilst the food optimising plan might seem really complicated when you first read through it, as it begins to make sense and sink in it's surprisingly easy to follow. If you're struggling get help in group, or most Slimming Word groups have online Facebook pages only accessible by the members of their group where you can get help, support and advice.

I digress, now I just need to decide what to have for dinner and which pepper pot to use first!!

Watermelon and Weigh In

I've been at home today, feeling nibbly, have eaten a lot of this! It's free, and speed and delicious!

Weigh in yesterday was 1/2 below bottom target range, so that means I can  have an extra glass of wine this week doesn't it? 

Starve Binge Dieting Cycle

This started for me in my late teens early twenties when I first started dieting. I've been on all kinds of diets but my own downfall has been restricting what I eat by eating very small amounts of the wrong foods, especially on days where I want a glass of wine or three in order to stick to plan. It seems so simple now, getting the most amount of food for the least calories by choosing wisely 5% mince instead of just lean, removing fat and having a third of a plate of speed food. But, until that lighbulb moment clicked on and started shining I'd eating small portions of high calorie foods! I got to target, but then what? I'd add more points, calories or drop the shakes choosing treats in order to try to maintain and fell easily back into bad habits. The problem I find is when you've been restricting your food intake and let go of the reigns a bit with treat food the bloody horse takes off and you're galloping back down the road to binge central!



At the time you don't think you are starving yourself, you're genuinely not interested in anything that's not on plan and can easily skip a meal or eat very little because you're focused, your goal is in sight and you're losing weight at the rate of knots! By restricting the food intake you can get the wine in and you hit target!

I initially resisted Slimming World because I thought portion control was my whole issue and thought by giving me free reign to eat as much of certain foods as I wanted would send me spiraling out of control and end up with me being bigger than ever.

For me once the control has gone and I've gone back to eating without counting points or calories the weight starts to pile back on, and it's then really difficult to snap back into "starve" mode to get it back under control. It was at this point I decided I might as well give Slimming World a go! I'd got to target, I'd started putting weight back on and thought the way I'm going it's not going to make any difference.

The first week I went for it with everything, all on plan but let myself eat as much as I wanted, and couldn't believe it when I lost 3 1/2 lb! By about week three the novelty of a cooked breakfast and huge lunch, and a huge dinner had begun to wear off and gradually over the weeks the meal sizes reduced as I settled into the plan and the weight came off.

I had tried a few time in the past that "diet" where you say to yourself I'll just eat what I want and eventually if I'm not restricting myself I'll naturally lose weight as I wont be craving anything. You can probably guess how that worked out for me.....not very well. This is the closest thing I think I'll get to it! If you're realistic and you struggle with your weight you have to restrict some things. It's a simple calories in versus calories out sum at the end of the day, but if you can still enjoy normal everyday foods just tweaking things here and there and watching out for synned food and your HEXA and HEXB, which is't really difficult then it's as close as I think you can get to that ideal.

I love the way that Slimming World educates you about food, I love the way they and their members are so inventive. If there's something you love, and miss you can bet there's a Slimming Worlded version of it somewhere on the internet, and nine times out of ten it's good enough to satisfy! I love you can feed the family the same things as you're eating and how they encourage you to eat normal every day foods and cook from scratch. It doesn't feel like a diet in the traditional sense of the word, but a re-education to learning a new normal way of eating and a normal relationship with food.

I'm sure I'll be in for some up's and downs as I try to stay at target but I feel like I've already made some important changes and am learning a new normal way of eating!

Check out here to see the kinds of things you eat on Slimming World!

Moroccan Chicken Skewers, Salad and Slimming World Chips

One for the whole family! Schwartz Moroccan seasoning on diced chicken threaded onto skewers with salad and Slimming World chips with garlic salt and Schwartz Chips Seasoning! Quick, easy and free - apart from the mayonnaise! Had two chicken kebab skewers and one with just the veg on, getting the extra speed food in! I put a couple of potatoes in the microwave for about eight minutes, let cool and then chop into chunks and spray with Frylight, season with Schwartz Garlic Salt and Chips Seasoning and bung in the oven with the kebabs for about 20-25 minutes on 220 degrees.

Be Prepared

Shopping is here! Lots of lovely on plan food to choose from!

Love these Slimming World friendly Princes Mackerel fillets the Moroccan ones are free, half a Syn for the Mustard ones!

Fruit bowl brimming with apples, clementines a water melon...and trying flat (or doughnut) peaches which.....

....are rather nice, not the same as a normal peach, the flesh is lighter and the taste milder, but they are lovely an SO SO SO much easier to eat!

So now all I have to do is decide what's for dinner?????

Monthly Goals - July 2015

Been inspired by Instagram to set myself some monthly goals! Here's my three goals for July! Let's see how I go!

Away in July and August so want some extra lbs in the bank to cover the additional wine that will be consumed! Need to get the exercise levels back up too as I've been slacking a bit so cycling to work will help that and save some money on petrol! Need a push to try something new as well as I can sometimes play it safe and eat the same things over and over! 

It will do the control freak in me good to have new targets lol 

Monday Weigh Day

So that could have been a lot worse! A pound on taking me back to target exactly! Back on plan now looking to get a couple of pounds off to be five below target! We have a couple of short breaks coming up over the next couple of months so I'll be needing the leeway!

Liberation From Be Perfect

Many years ago I went on one of those training courses that you get sent on by work every now and again and found out something about myself that I didn’t know. Usually it’s the same old buff in these things going over things you already know, but I came out of this one with a new insight into myself that I’ve tried to keep a check on ever since. One of the exercises was multiple choice personality questionnaire, I came out at the end of it as a “Neurotic Be Perfect”. I not only want things doing, doing right, and perfectly I want them done my way, or the way I would do them. It was 100% true and I’ve taken that on board ever since and always try to ask myself will the result be the same if it’s done differently, someone else’s way. If the answer is yes then chill out and let them get on with it! 

This overspills in to my personality in general. Whatever I’m doing I like to be as perfect as I can at it, whether that’s dieting, exercising or whatever. That’s why I think when I’ve done any kind of diet before I get veryfocused and rarely have a week where I put on, and have never had a huge gain whilst on my journey to target. Great, you might think, and in a way it is, but it also set me up to fail when the journey is over and target is reached. If I had more gains and struggles along the way it might just help the learning curve and make me better able to cope with the ups and downs when at target. What generally tends to happen is that as soon as I fall off the “Be Perfect” bandwagon I struggle to get back on, once the “Perfect” is broken it’s hard to fix. I need to let go a little and not feel such a failure when gains happen, as they will surely do.

6 Months Untill Christmas ......

Which means party frock season! I was reminded yesterday on our group Facebook page that it was 6 months until Christmas Eve! Although I spoke about the butter & coleslaw fest I will be having, that is planned for the day, and boxing day....and however long it lasts till it goes off or gets chucked out after that..... before Christmas means parties, work do's dressing up and going out all poshed up! I'm determined this year to be at target still and be able to splash out on something new and glam to wear! I know we are six months away but keeping these things in mind can help me to focus and try not to go off plan between now and then!

 

Inspiration On Maintaining - Maintaining Control

A bit like Image Therapy I like to have a good old nose round the internet to find inspiration from other people who have got to target, I came across this post which I really related to.....

A Matter Of Choice - staying in the "safe zone"

Good to know I'm not the only one! It feels a bit lame sometimes moaning about how scary and hard it is when you hit target, when there's people who are still on their journey. The group I go to in Englefield Green has been going for six months now and we have quite a few people hitting target now which is great and it's brilliant to have the support of people who have been there for a few weeks/months and those just getting there, but it is a bit scary!

For me it's all about being in control. When I'm losing and on plan with a target in sight I'm committed, I know what I need to do and I do it. When you get to target a little bit of you wants to be that "normal" person who can go out for dinner, pick the three courses that they really want to eat and enjoy them without losing that element of control and sliding back into bad habits. It's like releasing the control and then being able to grab it back again so you don't go off the rails. I've spent twenty odd years yo-yoing back and forth between a size 8 and 18 (probably verging on a 20 if I'm honest) and now I'm here again back at target the thought of going back and losing that control is scary.

So far I have on some days upped a Healthy Extra B and on others upped the wine intake and so far five weeks in I'm doing OK, but I don't feel like I've had a real test yet, there's been no situation whereby I have had to or want to release the control and have a day or a meal completely off plan. I know this is creeping up and will happen at some point so perhaps I should stop worrying about it now and deal with it when it happens? Maybe I should plan one in and just get the waiting over and done with?

I'm following Fopperholic and Lauren Wallis who both seem to do this really well, they often post about their off plan meals, days or weekends and seem really focused and determined not to let these over run into days and weeks and months so it's great inspiration, and brilliant to see how they get their heads around it, and get straight back on plan.

I guess it all comes with practice. So for now I'm just going along on plan with the combination of extra HEXB's and wine and I'll let you know when the first off plan instance arises....and if I can manage to deal with it successfully! I'm not going to start introducing the "Danger Foods" back in on a regular basis, although I am looking forward to a buttery, coleslawey Christmas with a few chocolate hob nobs.

Five weeks within target so far, I'm not sure how other members balance it but I'm aiming to generally maintain at 8st 12lb giving me room to play for those off plan moments!

No Wardrobe Stress - Check!

First Thing To Tick Off


Being able to look in the wardrobe and just have to decide what to wear, not have to go through what's too small, too big, feels comfortable etc etc.

Check out the link above, and in the sidebar to read some inspirational and honest stuff from Fopperholic.