Thursday, 30-11-23: Christmas challenge minus1

 Good morning, everyone, and welcome to my maintaining on Slimming World blog where I talk about the meals I enjoy while maintaining my target weight and keeping a healthy balanced diet.

Do you remember that for the past two years year I have had a Christmas Challenge where I challenged myself to make something with a festive vibe each day through December until Christmas Eve evening?

It did help, even though things went a bit haywire at the end so I'm going to do it again, working up to the 21st when I start my Festive Jolly.

What constitutes 'festive'? Well, I decided . . .
anything from a Christmas Special magazine
anything categorised as 'Christmas' on recipe sites
anything from a Christmas recipe book
anything 'party-ish' - canapés and the like
anything containing cranberries, chestnuts, turkey, ham, smoked salmon . . .

etc, etc, etc

Oh, you get the idea, I'm sure.  A very wide interpretation!

I'll still be relating everything to Slimming World.  That won't stop until much nearer to Christmas.

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(I'm thinking I might use one of these cute 'special characters' to mark the festive bits)

I've already started using my Festive china, etc.  I mean, what's the point of having anything special if you only use them a couple of times each year.  I do have special tableware and I intend to get value from it all.
December can be very dull, dark, cold and gloomy so anything the brightens things up is a Very Good Thing.  

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Yesterday's meal photos:

Very filling and delicious and the Just Spices scrambled egg and avocado seasonings (separate ones) are both lovely.

You can't beat a plate of cheesy beans on toast, can you?

Dinner didn't work out as planned.  No photo.

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Today's meal plans:

B:  fruit and yogurt

Something quick and simple

SW:  syn free

L:  all-day breakfast - bacon egg, hm hash brown, baked beans, tomatoes and mushrooms - and I might splash out on a sausage too!

I'll need something comforting after going to a funeral, I think.

SW  two syns for the sausage but the rest is, I think, free

D:  steak sandwich, salad; fruit

I defrosted a couple of thing steak sizzler thingies yesterday but never used them.  I can jazz them up with pickles, onion, etc.

SW:  one healthy extra B, one and a half syns for chutney

Exercise:  walking

Summary:

no healthy extra As

one healthy extra B

three and a half syns.

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For information:

The Slimming World structure:

While following the plan, you can have . . .

Any amount of speed and free food - BUT try to have a third of your plate as speed food as a sub for free food, NOT as well as . . .  Eat to satisfaction, not to stuffed-ness!

Two healthy extra As (calcium) and one healthy extra B (fibre) - details in the SW pack and on the SW web site/app.

Between five and fifteen syns-worth of synned food - again, details in the pack, site and app.  They are a limit to stay within, not a target to hit.

As a target member, I can also have . . .

Another two healthy extras each day
Another fifteen syns up to three times each week

BUT - only if I need/want to.  It's a limit, not a target

. . . with the ultimate aim of not needing to count healthy extras, syns, etc at all but just knowing and eating well instinctively.