Sunday, February 6, 2022

Here we go then

 So, I am finally sorting this post out on Sunday 6th Feb morning. It's been in drafts. Once published I will try and add the follower button etc. I am also trying to add labels on this blog. Next week I should be posting daily - I was way to ambitious to promise 2 posts a day - so I think I will post after tea the day's news. But when I can and in the mood, I may post more often. 

I might try a key to save explaining throughout. SW members will recognise terms and conditions! Fast 800ers might recognise some things. Please ask me if I say something you don't understand. 

Trying To Be Less Fat .....or TTBLF KEY!

Healthy Extra A or B ....or HEXa or HEXb ( SW plan includes a measurable amount of fibre rich foods 1 x B and calcium rich foods 2 x A that you should have each day, every day, in order to keep healthy but they are EXTRAS so it's not too worrying if you miss here and there )

FAST 800 ............................F8 

TRE ..................... Time Restricted Eating -  where you eat your meals in a window of hours. In the olden days this was just called a normal daily diet!!! ie Sleep all night - fasting. Eating breakfast, dinner tea before bed ! Time Restricted Eating!!! 

 According to Dr Mosely all sorts of good things happen in your body when you eat zero sugar and regularly fast, When I first learned about this it blew my mind a little as I'd long gone along with the theory if you don't eat within an hour of waking, your metabolism is not kick started and runs low, making weight loss difficult.  But I found it was quite manageable for me and it is better when I can have my lunch break 12-1 but that's not what my timetable is right now so I am having to adapt.  ( Nuture supervision of the children at lunch is do able to eat my lunch but it's if I am prepared which is something I need to work on. 

Slimming World ..................SW

Hunger Scale.......................... HS I might record this on a scale of  1  to starving! eg HS 10 - could eat a scabby horse, HS 1 - could wait a little to eat something -  not fully decided on this but it might be a useful record over time to see what, if anything, affects my appetite.) 

CBA.....................Cannot/Could not be arsed!

First meals....

ONLY JOKING🙈

However, this is what greeted me when I walked in on Friday 4th Feb after work! Mr 24 baking a very delicious smelling and looking cake but no idea what it tastes like because I have not partaken! I have had cake before, I will have cake again, just not right now!

So I went to class Monday night and had a good catch up with my friend. Feeling renewed I posted on here, ready to start.

Tuesday 1st Feb
Fasted  -  only black coffee and tea until 1pm. HS 0
Syns - 2 ( butter )
Hex A x 2 milk in coffee
Hex B 0 

So first lunch of the TTBLF regime was 2 boiled eggs with some tenderstem broccoli that I coated in one level teaspoon of real butter. Worth every syn. I am yet to log on online to SW to get the up to date syn values on things but as one is allowed up to 15 a day and I'm not eating any other synnable things the butter is well included in my daily allowance. 

It is more tasty than you might think! This is a F8 type recipe  

Tea was  left over roast chicken from Sunday tea,  some swede and turnip mash, veg and some roasted celeriac which is what the pale looking thing is next to the chicken. First try - I’m not a fan but then I tried one of the bits that I’d left in the oven too long and it was very well done - and yes, I will do it again! It's a very low sugar alternative to potatoes. 




Wednesday 2nd Feb
Fasted 7pm - 1pm - HS 0
Syns 1/2 - Greek Yog, 2 - olive oil
I made some Swamp soup. Normally I call my soup Manky Veg Soup but this was MVS in a class of it's own.  That’s because it looks like a swamp and it smells like one!
This soup was so good!!!  You wouldn’t think so given what’s in it!  If you'd like to try it for yourself. You will need 

1 x mushroom stock cube ( my favourite - I use KALLO stock cubes where possible and they are on offer)
1 x veggie stock cube
A whole manky cauliflower with bad bits cut off 
See above for prep re 
 2 x Leek,  4  turnips, 3/4 head broccoli plus the stalk, 18 sprouts, 1 x courgette. 
 1 x In date perfectly good shallot 
Boiling water  for the stock - I make it in a jug before tackling the veg. 
Chop all the veg. 
Put in a large pan.
Add the stock so it just covers. 
Bring to boil and simmer until all the veg is soft 
Blitzed with a stick blender and season to taste. 
Makes 4 hefty portions.
Stinks to high heaven, looks like a swamp 
Bloody beautiful!!!


First serving was for my lunch with the addition of some cubed ham and a tablespoon of full fat greek yogurt - 4 syns per 100g so 1 tablespoon is 15g so I will call it 1/2 a syn. It was really filling and I didn't feel hungry until tea time. 

Tea on Wednesday was an adaptation of the Pinch of Nom Cajun dirty rice recipe.
I used chicken breast instead of beef mince. I used olive oil ( 1 tablespoon = 2 syn ) instead of Frylight - I need to buy some of the spray oil that is just oil. I once bought a reusable bottle but don't know where that is. The spray oils reckon it's 2 calories for one spray. SW syns are based on 20 calories = 1 syn so I would use 10 sprays of oil for 1 syn. The spray oils are good for coating veg you want to roast in the oven etc. 

 I was getting help from Mr 24 who likes this too but he likes to follow a recipe to the letter, so when he came to me panic stricken when he had discovered I. Had. No. Carrots. I nearly tipped him over the edge when I said, nonchalantly, oh there's a bag of frozen mixed veg with carrots in it, use a dish full of that. He went pale.  He gulped and did as he was told because he knows better than to argue! so basically you fry off onions, garlic, chicken, add cajun seasoning - I prefer BARTS over any others - to taste. Then add veg - peppers and carrots and whatever else is in the bag of frozen veg mix hahah then stock and simmer for a bit. At the same time cook a pan of basmati rice in a stock cube and a bay leaf. In fact I get the rice on before I start with the meat prep. Once done, drain and stand and take out the bay leaf. 
When meat is cooked, you add the drained cooked rice to the meat mix, stir all together with some chopped spring onions. Its so good, filling and makes loads. It made 5 hefty portions.  We had one each for tea. I had one for the next day and froze two for next week. 
Usually,  according to the principles, a  SW meal is served with at least 1/3 speed on the plate - this is all non starchy veg. However as my lunchtime soup was 100% speed and this had plenty in it, I just had the bowlful you see.  I had planned on having some berries and yogurt for pudding but I was too full! So chose not to. 

Thursday 3rd Feb
Fasted  -  until 10 am
Syns - 0
Hex A x 2 60g grated cheese
Hex B x 0
HS - 5 I'm not sure if it was the earlier breaking of fast, or the high sugar of the banana - and it was only a teeny tiny one that the children at school have for their free fruit, but I definitely was feeling hunger pangs and it was hard to resist snacking before I had my lunch. 


I had a banana at snack time with the children at 10am breaking  no my snacking rules but as it was the first thijng I ate it was my breakfast. Bananas are a big fat NO on FAST 800 but I'm doing FastSW or SW800 or  whatever I called it last post, and a banana is good nutritious food, better than processed junk.  I had a portion of the cajun rice at lunchtime and then the soup again at tea time but with 60g grated cheese in it. So good!



Friday 4th Feb
Fasted  -  until 10am
Syns - 27 !!! 50g grated mozarella, oven fries, ketchup
Hex A x 2 30g grated cheese , 250ml semi skimmed milk hot, in coffee
Hex B x 1 - branflakes

Breakfast was with the children -  I chose branflakes and had them crunchy ( we are trying to encourage different foods and textures so it is important I do particiapte and model what we want but I am finding that when I eat before noon it does increase my appetite and I feel myslef looking forlornly at the cupboard where I know the snacky type things are! ) 
Lunch was soup with double cheese! It was more cheese than soup! The other two soups are in the freezer for next week. 

Tea went a bit awry! The HG was having summat and oven chips. I could have cobbled something together but I was tired out after a very challenging week, I had managed at last to complete an epic referral form that had been ongoing and needed to be finished. But the brain effort and time effort it took was hideous. Work is relentless with no time for a wee break!  So  I definitely had a CBA tea was two handfuls of Iceland's skin on fries and a dollop of tomato ketchup. In the book, it says 5.5syns for 100g of skinny fries. These are skin on ones from Iceland and are not as skinny as French fries. Once I log in online I can scan items and look them up so I know that my two handfuls were probably more than 200g and then I had ketchup ( 1syn per tblspoon )so have put syns at 20 to cover it. I did not snack in between and did not eat after I had them. 
SW allows for flexi syns - where some people count the full week's allowances and knock them down each day -  I suppose what keeps people on plan is best. What kept me on plan was I am glad I had them. They were oven baked. Skin on! Processed but were just potatoes and oil on the ingredient list. I could have chosen to not eat anything for tea and then snack the night away. I didn't. 
Saturday 5th Feb
Fasted  -  until 12.30pm am
Syns - will need to look up but had a tiny Turkish delight mini bar that I found when I went into DANGEROUS TERRITORIES
Hex A x 1 250 mls semi skimmed milk in coffee
Hex B x 25 hazelnuts - grazed on them as made lunch so they were like my starter!

We had my Ma in law over for the day. She has mixed dementia and my Sis in law who does majority of care plus carers x 2 a day couldnt go as my bro in law has covid, so eeven though the rules say everyone else can go about their business, much like the HG did when I had covid ( before he tested positive ) , they stayed away to protect her as much they can. 

Anyway we went into DANGEROUS TERRITORIES before we collected her from home. We needed some coal and I like to have a couple of the cheap firelogs in stock as they are handy for a little fire after work when we don't need a full hog one! I challemge anyone to go into HOME BARGAINS and come out with what they had on their list! 
Up and down the aisles we went. I bought what we went in for, firelogs, coal, lettuce, cucumber and milk. 




And plenty of stuff we didn't go in for. I bought the HG some sweeties, he is a fiend for wine gums, sour pastils etc. I got some biscuits and some chocolate for the HG and Mr 24 and for myself I spied two things. 


 A bag of graze salt and vinegar snack crunchy stuff and some mini turkish delights. YUM YUM 
Now then, I KNOW I said I am not snacking BUT I am human! 
Anyway I tried the crunchy thing and I would describe it as 'Bombay Mix for Wimps.' Its the same kind of dry crunch. I will NOT have it as snacking fodder BUT once I've worked out the syns it says 25g is 115 cals so maybe 6 syns per serve , I think it will be delicious sprinkled on salad or mixed into cottage cheese.  The Turkish delights are 55 calories each so would be 3 syns I'd say. 
Lunch was SW pea and ham soup. Two pots served 3 of us perfectly. 



It is delicious. It tastes homemade with lovely chunks of gammon in it. 
For tea I made minced beef pie at the request of the HG. I made the pastry.
Theirs... 


Mine - I had my mince naked and pastry free hahah served theirs with mashed potatoes and veg. Now then, I didn't peel the potatoes - I have a ricer, and the skins that were left, I drizzled a dribble of oil onto them and some seasoning and shoved them in the oven for 5 minutes whilst it was on. They were delicious! Probably technically counted as a TWEAK on SW - where if you use an  free food alternative to make a synned product/substitute  so they should be synned.  In theory I made crisps didn't I? But I've not counted them except to record it here! 
I had one of the little turkish delights after tea. And fasted from about 7pm again. It's now Sunday morning 9am ish and I was up early to do this and have only had some water and black coffee to drink so far. 

We are having Roast Gammon for tea. I've salad for lunch and I am now going to go download the SW App and see if I can get online. Sometimes there's issues if you have previously been a member and need to reset passwords. 
So thank you for bearing with, if you are still with me! I will publish then go look see if I can add followers buttons etc! 

FCIABLFTLW! 

( Fingers crossed, I'm a bit less fat than last week )



















1 comment:

  1. I chuckled my way through this. Thanks for sorting out the Follow button - I now am!
    Maybe you could put a list of the acronyms at the side - I had to keep scrolling up to check. LOL
    xx

    ReplyDelete

Trying to be less fat, but with Covid

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