Seven Weeks Into Slimming World

My birthday was this week – April 13 to be exact. I went into this week not expecting to lose anything because I wanted to enjoy my birthday, and enjoy my birthday cupcakes, which I did so that is all that matters so I’m more than happy to have maintained this week.

Maintained

Wednesday 12 April:

• Breakfast - n/a
• Lunch - homemade tomato soup (chopped tomatoes, carrot, onion & celery)
• Dinner - macaroni cheese with carrots and salad (lettuce & cucumber)
• Snacks - beef hula hoop pufts
• Healthy Extra A - 1/2 tub Kerry Low Low mature cheddar cheese spread
• Healthy Extra B - 3 slices Kingsmill Wholemeal No Crusts bread
• Total Syns 4.5 = balsamic vinaigrette 2tbsps 1 syn, beef hula hoop pufts 3.5 syns

Thursday 13 April:

• Breakfast - n/a
• Lunch - 2 hi-fi light bars
• Dinner - mozzarella sticks, amatriciana and rosemary focaccia and 2 cocktails 
• Snacks - beef hula hoop pufts
• Healthy Extra A - n/a
• Healthy Extra B - 2 hi-fi light bars: choca mocha, and dark choc mint
• Total Syns ? = beef hula hoop pufts 3.5 syns, mozzarella sticks, rosemary focaccia, amatriciana, 2 cocktails 

Friday 14 April:

• Breakfast - n/a
• Lunch - coffee & salted caramel cupcake
• Dinner - sticky chicken, homemade sweet potato fries and salad (lettuce & cucumber)
• Snacks - 2 hi-fi light bars
• Healthy Extra A - n/a
• Healthy Extra B - 2 hi-fi light bars: choca mocha and dark choc mint
• Total Syns 20.5 = sticky chicken 3 syns, coffee & salted caramel cupcake 17.5 syns

Saturday 15 April:

• Breakfast - n/a
• Lunch - homemade tomato soup (chopped tomatoes, carrot, onion & celery)
• Dinner - pizza wrap (homemade tomato soup reduced to make sauce, bbq chicken, bacon, red pepper & red onion) with homemade sweet potato fries and salad (lettuce & cucumber)
• Snacks - salt & vinegar Snack a Jacks, aldi chicken, coffee & salted caramel cupcake
• Healthy Extra A - 50g grated mozzarella
• Healthy Extra B - 1 BFree wrap
• Total Syns 22 = salt & vinegar Snack a Jacks 4.5 syns, coffee & salted caramel cupcake 17.5 syns

Sunday 16 April:

• Breakfast - n/a
• Lunch - n/a
• Dinner - n/a
• Snacks - n/a
• Healthy Extra A - n/a
• Healthy Extra B - n/a
• Total Syns 0 = n/a

I woke up feeling fine on Sunday but when I went to get some soup for my lunch I started feeling really sick so ended up not having anything to eat. I never even got to have one of the Malteser bunny's that I got for Easter.

Monday 17 April:

• Breakfast - n/a
• Lunch - homemade tomato soup (chopped tomatoes, carrot, onion & celery)
• Dinner - quesadilla (BFree wrap, cajun-spiced chicken, bacon medallions, mozzarella & coriander) and patatas bravas
• Snacks - coffee & salted caramel cupcake 17.5 syns
• Healthy Extra A - 50g grated mozzarella
• Healthy Extra B - 1 BFree wrap
• Total Syns 17.5 = coffee & salted caramel cupcake 17.5 syns

Tuesday 18 April:

• Breakfast - n/a
• Lunch - homemade tomato soup (chopped tomatoes, carrot, onion & celery)
• Dinner - penne arrabbiata
• Snacks - coffee & salted caramel cupcake
• Healthy Extra A - 350ml skimmed milk
• Healthy Extra B - 3 slices Kingsmill Wholemeal No Crusts bread
• Total Syns 25.5 = Malteser bunny 8 syns, coffee & salted caramel cupcake 17.5 syns

There are no more birthday cupcakes left so I should be back on track as far as staying within the 15 syn daily allowance is concerned. I've only got one thing planned for the next week: coffee and a catch-up with my family who are over from Switzerland for the week so I'm hoping for a good on-plan week but we'll have to wait and see!

Until Next Time,

AJx

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A Letter to Those I've Pushed Away

I’m sorry for pushing you away. I’m sorry I stopped communicating with you. I’m sorry that I’ve let you down. We used to be so close. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.

Whenever something happens to me I retreat into myself. At a time when what I need more than ever is support and friendship and people to talk to, help make sense of things or to take my mind off of things I shut down. Instead of reaching out, I stop going out. I stop talking and messaging people. I stop sharing my thoughts and feelings. I just stop. It’s easier for me to deal this way even though it’s not dealing at all. It’s running. It’s hiding. It’s avoiding.

I’ve done this so much over the last 3 years. I’ve done it through fear of being judged. I’ve done it through fear of being a burden. I’ve done it through fear of being misunderstood and rejected. Deep down I know you don’t think any of these things, you just want to know and learn and try to understand what I’m going through. You’re just happy that I’m here.

I want to get better. I don’t want to just be a shell of a person. I want to be able to share thoughts and feelings and laugh over nothing instead of overanalysing every single little thing that is said or done. I want to be able to stop pushing away the people that I’m closest to and who mean the most to me.

This is just another thing that my illness has taken away from me.

The first steps are putting this out there, apologising to those I’ve pushed away and isolated myself from, trying to explain why I’ve done what I’ve done despite not wanting to do it or not even truly noticing that I’m doing it until I feel like it’s too late to go back.

This is me trying.

AJx

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Week Six At Slimming World

I was back on plan this week and managed to do damage limitation from being off-plan last week. So much so that I actually managed to go and lose weight which I definitely wasn't expecting! I went over my syn allowance a couple of days but in order to limit the damage I used flexible syns the rest of the week so overall, I stayed under my total syn allowance for the week. 

1.5lbs lost 🎉

Wednesday 5 April:

• Breakfast - n/a
• Lunch - homemade tomato soup (chopped tomatoes, carrot, onion & celery) and leftover Chinese
• Dinner - chorizo, rocket and lemon linguine
• Snacks - Walkers Prawn Cocktail crisps, chopped strawberries
• Healthy Extra A - 350ml skimmed milk
• Healthy Extra B - 3 slices Kingsmill Wholemeal No Crusts bread
• Total Syns 27.5 = 40g chopped and skinned chorizo 4 syns, Walkers Prawn Cocktail crisps 8.5 syns, leftover Chinese (Sweet & Sour Chinese) 15 syns

Wednesday was my first time trying rocket. Sadly I won't be having it again because I got my first taste of what a partial blockage feels like and oh boy it wasn't fun! My stoma was extremely unhappy that night. I'll still be having the chorizo, rocket and lemon linguine again though, just without the rocket because it's a delicous dish and a favourite of my mum and dad's. I plan on posting the recipe on my blog for anyone else who wants to try it. It's super and simple and only has 4 ingredients so be sure to keep an eye out for it.

Thursday 6 April:

• Breakfast - n/a
• Lunch - homemade tomato soup (chopped tomatoes, carrot, onion & celery)
• Dinner - cajun chicken and pepper skewers with seasoned wedges, yogurt & chive dip and carrots
• Snacks - Kit Kat, M&S cheese pufts
• Healthy Extra A - 350ml skimmed milk
• Healthy Extra B - 2 hi-fi light bars, choca mocha & dark mint chocolate
• Total Syns 10.5 = Kit Kat 5.5 syns, M&S Cheese Pufts 5 syns

Friday 7 April:

• Breakfast - n/a
• Lunch - homemade tomato soup (chopped tomatoes, carrot, onion & celery)
• Dinner - special prawn fried rice (rice, egg, onion, king prawns, petit pois, soy sauce & oyster sauce)
• Snacks - orange & lotus flower green tea, Kit Kat
• Healthy Extra A - 350ml skimmed milk
• Healthy Extra B - 3 slices Kingsmill Wholemeal No Crusts bread
• Total Syns 5.5 = Kit Kat 5.5 syns

Saturday 8 April:

• Breakfast - n/a
• Lunch - homemade tomato soup (chopped tomatoes, carrot, onion & celery
• Dinner - pizza wrap (tesco bbq chicken & bacon medallions) and salad (lettuce & cucumber) with Caeser salad dressing
• Snacks - lemon half-moon cake
• Healthy Extra A - 50g grated mozzarella
• Healthy Extra B - 1 BFree wrap
• Total Syns 9.5 = Tesco healthy living Caesar salad dresing 2tbsps 1 syn, slice of lemon half-moon 8.5 syns

Sunday 9 April:

• Breakfast - n/a
• Lunch - homemade tomato soup (chopped tomatoes, carrot, onion & celery)
• Dinner - 2 x skinni sweet chilli burger with homemade potato fres, carrots and salad (lettuce & cucumber)
• Snacks - orange & lotus flower green tea, lemon half-moon cake
• Healthy Extra A - 50g grated mozzarella
• Healthy Extra B - 3 slices Kingsmill Wholemeal No Crusts bread
• Total Syns 9.5 = balsamic vinaigrette 2tbsps 1 syn, slice of lemon half-moon cake 8.5 syns

Sunday was my first time trying sweet potato since getting my stoma and was rather nervous because they are more fibrous than normal potatoes. I was so desperate for my stoma to be okay with sweet potato because it's one of my favourite foods and luckily Archie was absolutely fine with it so I can eat all the sweet potato I want - just as long as I remember to chew properly which I've found is the key to being able to eat fibrous foods. 

Monday 10 April:

• Breakfast - n/a
• Lunch - homemade tomato soup (chopped tomatoes, carrot, onion & celery)
• Dinner - chicken parmiagiano (homemade tomato soup reduced to make tomato sauce for the topping) with homemade chips, carrots and salad (lettuce & cucumber)
• Snacks - heef hula hopp pufts, lilt zero, orange & lotus flower green tea
• Healthy Extra A - 50g grated mozzarella
• Healthy Extra B - 3 slices Kingsmill Wholemeal No Crusts bread
• Total Syns 6.5 = balsamic vinaigrette 2tbsps 1 syn, breadcrumbers 2 syns, beef hula hoop pufts 3.5 syns

Tuesday 11 April:

• Breakfast -  n/a
• Lunch - french toast with Sweet Freedom fruit syrup
• Dinner - spaghetti carbonara
• Snacks - beef hula hoop pufts, pukka 3 mint tea
• Healthy Extra A - 250ml semi-skimmed milk
• Healthy Extra B - 3 slices Kingsmill Wholemeal No Crusts bread
• Total Syns 7 = Sweet Freedom fruit syrup 1tbsp 0.5 syns, Schwartz carbonara recipe mix 1 sachet between three 3 syns per portion, beef hula hoop pufts 3.5 syns

Next week is my birthday week so I'm not sure how it's going to go. I'm going to try and stick to plan as much as possible but I'm still going to enjoy myself - my mum is making me coffee flavoured cupcakes with coffee flavoured icing and a salted caramel centre as my 'birthday cake'. I can't wait because I had them last year and they were delicious! We're also going out for a meal on my birthday which we do every year and I'll definitely be indulging in a cocktail or two - it would be rude not too! I'm not entirely sure if I'll lose any weight next week but I don't mind because at least I enjoyed myself and know that I can always pull it back the week after.

Until Next Time,

AJx 

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Fifth Week Back At Slimming World

This week was a bit of a nonstarter as far as sticking to the Slimming World plan was concerned. I had family come to visit and although the meal was completely Slimming World friendly, the prosecco, gin, cocktails and chocolate cake definitely weren’t!

 As I mentioned at the end of my last Slimming World post I had 3 tests this week. The eye test was fine – I still have 20/20 vision so it’s not my eyes that are causing the headaches and I’m still waiting to hear back from my Consultant as to what we’re going to do next. The abdominal ultrasound and scope were a bit different. I had to fast for 6 hours before my ultrasound so I hadn’t eaten much up until 4pm so when I could finally eat again I grabbed for the sugary junk food instead of healthier, speed-filled food. I’m still waiting to hear from my IBD nurse specialist about the results. As for the scope, although it wasn’t as bad as the previous scopes I’ve had the sedation I got definitely knocked me sideways. I’d forgotten how sluggish and blah it makes you feel so that night we ended up ordering Chinese for dinner because it was all that I felt like eating. The scope and sedation took place on Tuesday 4^th April so we decided to take a holiday from Slimming World this week.

I plan on getting back on track next week to try and rectify any damage I may have done to my weight loss this week so fingers crossed!

Until Next Time,

AJx

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