17-01-25

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  At present, I am working to reduce my 'bad' cholesterol through diet.

Slimming World was buzzing this morning.  Several new members, several returners and some from other groups as well as the usuals.  It was great.

I think Heidi has done a really good job of ensuring a really smooth transition from Jen to herself.

What I ate today:

Breakfast.  Some frozen (thawed!) fruit and some yogurt.  I forgot to put the chia seeds into the yogurt to soak before leaving for Slimming World so I had more mixed seeds instead.

One and a half syns

Lunch was a toasted bagel spread with smashed avocado mixed with a tomatoey sort of paste plus scrambled eggs and a salad.

Afters was an orange.

One healthy extra B, two and a half syns for avo, one syn for salad cream and half a syn for the paste.

Later on, I had some grapes.

In the evening, I had steak and chips and for the veg I gently fried onion, pepper, mushroom and tomato with garlic granules and a few chilli flakes.  Really nice.

However, I didn't have room for all the steak and some of the mixed veg so I can have it tomorrow.  I thinly sliced the steak and plan to reheat it all and serve it with some bulgur wheat or some quinoa
Two syns for some evoo - would have been four but I didn't have all of the veg.

Summary:  

no healthy extra As

one healthy extra B

seven and a half syns

Tomorrow's plans:

B:  fruit, seeds and yogurt as almost always

L:  cheese and chutney toastie, side salad; fruit

D:  leftovers of steak and Med veg (sort of) and I might add some olives, bulgur wheat; fruit

Exercise:  back exercises

16-01-25

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  At present, I am working to reduce my 'bad' cholesterol through diet.

What I ate today:

It was a busy day and, by the time I settled for the night, I was shattered so didn't get this sent.  Let's pretend I did, please.  😉.

Breakfast was a pear.  No time for anything else.

Lunch was at a friend's home and she did quiche and salad followed by crackers and cheese.  Very tasty!

I think you could call dinner 'mess on a plate'.  Half of it was leftovers from yesterday.  To the rice I added some chicken that has been marinated in a tomatoey rub thing and some cashews and the coleslaw was mixed with some mixed salad.  It doesn't look great but it tasted nice.

I have no idea of Slimming World values so we will give them a miss, just for once.

Tomorrow's plans:

B:  fruit, seeds and yogurt

L:  avo bagel with scrambled egg or smoked salmon, salad; fruit

D:  steak, chips, mushrooms, peppers and tomatoes; fruit

Exercise:  back exercises and a walk

15-01-25

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  At present, I am working to reduce my 'Bad' cholesterol through diet.

How can it possibly be half way through January (pretty much)?  Eeeeek!

The post Christmas gain is proving remarkably stubborn and it's beginning to feel very discouraging, to be honest.  Does anyone else find that.  I guess there have been a couple of medical-type issues that aren't helping on the short term and the exercise regime hasn't been great but I am tired of slightly too tight jeans and just wish my body would start responding and get its act together again.
Ho hum!

What I ate today:

Breakfast was the usual.  I did a freezer dive for the fruit and came out with cherries, pineapple and nectarine and peach slices, some of which I saved for lunch.

One syn for chia seeds and one for mixed seeds.  Heart healthy syns there!

A hummus salad wrap for lunch.  The hummus was the real deal, home made and certainly not syn free but full of the good stuff and I added leaves, cucumber and pepper.  I fancied pickles on the side so, as well as what's on the plate, I made some pickled red cabbage by adding apple cider vinegar, salt pepper and a bit of sweetener and it was just what my palate was craving.
I had the rest of the breakfast fruit for afters

One healthy extra B for the wrap and four syns for the hummus (and worth every last syn!)

I blew both healthy extra As on a snack of cheese but that's OK, I wasn't planning to use it for anything else.  

For the rice and beans I drew on my own memories of savoury rice and went for it.  I had the last of the turkey stock to use up which was delicious, and I had stir fry veg in the freezer which wasn't exactly 'proper' but worked fine.  Using up what I already have is what it's all about, for sure.
It came out quite spicy and rather murky because of the brown turkey stock but, when mixed with the coleslaw and with a dollop of yogurt on top, it was delicious, much to my surprise.  The apple went particularly well and I must remember that for another time.
I have a bit of both left over for tomorrow.

No room for dessert

Three syns for some evoo and one syn for salad cream in some coleslaw

Summary:

two healthy extra As

one healthy extra B

ten syns.  Perfick!

Tomorrow's plans:

B:  fruit

L:  at a friend's for lunch

D:  it depends on what lunch is but I'll probably finish off the rice and beans, side salad; fruit

(Later edit:  Yes, I will do that and add half a chicken breast, cooked, for a bit more protein and filling power)

Exercise:  something online

14-01-25 - and using up unwanted frozen fruit

 Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  At present, I am working to reduce my 'bad' cholesterol through diet.

It's not always sensible to get the very cheapest, is it?  Ages ago, I bought a large bag of frozen wonky fruits of the forest. 
I'm not even sure why I bought it, to be honest, except that it was really cheap because it's loaded with very seedy fruit - particularly black and red currants and I hate too many seeds.  I can cope with blackberries and raspberries fresh but not in jam unless seedless and as for currant seeds - no thank you.

For three-ish years, opened and used once, most of the contents lurked in the freezer until yesterday when, inspired by my current drive to use what I have, I got the lot out, tipped it all into my slow cooker that was still hot from making stock, and let it all juice out before pushing it through a sieve.

I could reduce it down but I'm not going to, I will add chia seeds to whatever I need each time and that will compensate just a little bit for removing the seeds as far as fibre is concerned.  I'm not going to fuss about syns - I'm not sure I can work them out anyway.

What I ate today:

Today's fruit was apple and plum, gently softened and wish sweetener added.
The yogurt was the usual 0% with half a tsp chia seeds and some of the forest fruits stuff.  It was really delicious and very filling - warm food often seems more filling, doesn't it?

Half a syn for the chia seeds.

I had a portion of the ham and yellow split pea soup I made last week with some shreds of turkey and some hm croutons.  It was tasty and warming.

Afters was an orange.

One healthy extra B for the croutons.  I just cubed the bread, gave it a quick spray and air fried in Nellie for five minutes or so, shaking the tray now and again.

I already had some bean mix in the freezer (onion, pepper, mushrooms, tomatoes and mixed beans, basically) so I just added to that the last of the turkey (apart from two frozen portions) and a little bit of cooked pasta (30g dry weight), some tomato puree, Henderson's, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar, plus half a tsp chia seeds because why not?, topped it with cheese and baked in Nellie until piping hot with melty cheese.  I know it looks loads but I promise you most of it is speed vegetables.

Afters was an apple.

One and a half healthy extra As, half a syn for the bean mixture, half a syn for chia seeds and, as my syns were low, four syns to cover evoo in my dressing and one syn for a tsp mixed seeds.

Summary:

one and a half healthy extra As

one healthy extra B

six and a half syn

Tomorrow's plans:

B:  fruit, yogurt and seeds

L:  hummus salad wrap

D:  beans and rice (or something - a one pot, anyway)

Exercise:  personal training 

13-01-25 and reverse meal planning

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  At present, I am working to reduce my 'Bad' cholesterol through diet.

Over the last little while, I have noticed that the term 'reverse meal planning' coming up in some of the vlogs I watch, usually but not exclusively the 'frugal' vlogs.

Is this a New Thing, this latest frugal trend?  Well - no, not exactly!  I Googled the term and it said:

Reverse menu planning, also known as backward menu planning, is when you take an inventory of what you have on hand and then plan a menu around those items. This is the opposite of how regular menu planning works, where you plan your menu and then shop for all the ingredients.

So there you go - story of my life!  For once, I am bang on trend without realising it.  It just goes to show that everything goes round in circles, doesn't it?  Reverse planning indeed!  I just call it using your common sense and not wasting food/money!

What I ate today:

The usual fruit, seeds and yogurt.

One and a half syns for chia seeds and mixed seeds.

What I should have had last night, had I not been diverted into Christmas cake.
Dessert was an orange.

One healthy extra A and one B, one syn for the cranberry sauce and two syns for the salad dressing.

This was dinner.  It was originally going to be a pasta bake but if I had added pasta it would have made two portions.

I softened onion, pepper, mushroom and shredded sprouts in some evoo before adding some passata made with home grown tomatoes and some tomato puree plus seasonings and half a tbsp bulgur wheat.
When that was all cooked I topped it with some cheese and baked it in Nellie until the  cheese had melted and browned.

It was loads without any other veg.

Afters was a pear.

One healthy extra A and three syns for cheese and three syns for evoo.  I also had another nibble of cheese to three more syns.

Summary:

two healthy extra As

one healthy extra B

thirteen and a half syns - bit high!  Oh, well.

Tomorrow's plans:

B:  fruit, yogurt and seeds

L:  soup with croutons and turkey shreds; fruit

D:  turkey and bean pasta bake or stir fry, side salad; fruit

Exercise:  none

12-01-25

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  At present, I am working to reduce my 'bad' cholesterol through diet.

What I ate today:

A pear, two plums and an orange with mixed seeds; the yogurt and chia seeds are under the fruit.

One syn for chia seeds and one syn for mixed seeds.

Turkey thigh is a brown meat, of course, and I heated it up in the gravy.  Absolutely delicious and I have loads left for several other meals.

One syn for the gravy and I am saying half for the cranberry sauce as it used sweetener.

And that's where it ends because I fell for some Christmas cake and then didn't want anything else.  So not on plan and not healthy but I reckon the calories are pretty OK, given that I had nearly all the syns as well as my healthy extras.

Could have been a lot worse.

Tomorrow's plans:  

Plenty of left over turkey thigh for tomorrow.

B:  fruit, seeds and yogurt

L:  hummus, turkey and salad wrap, side salad; fruit

D:  turkey and veg pasta bake, side salad; fruit

Exercise:  probably just at home, no circuits

11-01-25 and eat-your-syns-Saturday?

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys - (blood pressure - now normal) and borderline 'bad' cholesterol.

I weighed unofficially (not with my card) to do something about the scales - calibrating them or something (Heidi did explain but it went over my head) and oh, dear.  But I have to remember that between the bad back and the various meds, I was bunged up and holding on to a lot of fluid, etc.  To my relief, things have - er - started moving again today.  Phew.

  
As of yesterday I no longer have access to the SW app for a few weeks (until I weigh again) but that's OK because I have the book and I can always ask, if needed.

I totally forgot yesterday was eat-your-syns-Friday but as there's always the proviso of 'if I want to' and, honestly, I was very satisfied with what I had, no worries.  Today, everything fitted in fine so I won't be eating all the syns this week.

What I ate today:

Loads of seeds today in an effort to get my gut back to normal as quickly as possible.  

The fruit was a mix of speed and free - pineapple, peach, nectarine and mango from the freezer (free) plus apple and orange (fresh and speed).

One syn for mixed seeds and one syn for chia seeds - but I used them as part of a B.

A bit later I wasn't hungry but I wanted to eat something.  Odd.  So I just put together a simple crunchy salad with some baby beetroot and some salad cream and it was most satisfying for very few calories and one syn.

Leftover roast lamb makes such a delicious pasta bake with a crunchy choppy salad and some home made dressing.

I had a pear for afters.

The pasta bake was one healthy extra A and three syns and the dressing was also three syns for the evoo.

To make the stuffed pepper, I used some bean and mince beef chilli from the freezer, defrosted it, added some bulgur wheat and boiled it up for a few minutes while I softened two halves of a pepper in Nellie.  I spooned the chilli into the pepper halves, topped it with grated cheese and baked it in Nellie again for a short while until it was all piping hot and the cheese had melted.  It was so lovely with a very simple salad and so filling that I could only manage one half.  The other half is now cooling to go into the freezer - the chilli was re-cooked so there's no real issues with that.

The chilli was one syn (for evoo) and one A for cheese.  I also used one more tsp mixed seeds on the salad to make my seed intake up to half a healthy B

Summary:

two healthy extra As

half a healthy extra B

eight syns - so hardly an eat your syns day

Tomorrow's plans:

B:  fruit, seeds and yogurt

L: a sort of Christmas dinner - I am using a turkey thigh joint from the freezer and slow roasting it in the oven, sadly, as it is too big for my little slow cooker - or maybe I could use the air fryer? - and them using the leftovers in sundry meals though the week.  I probably won't fuss with pigs in blankets or stuffing but I have hm cranberry sauce to use up and some nice turkey gravy in the freezer to go with the usual roasted veg (potatoes, carrots and parsnips) with sprouts and broccoli.  It'll be a good Sunday dinner!

D:  turkey, cheese and cranberry toastie, salad; fruit

Exercise:  None

The Extra Bit: