Sunday, 06-04-25

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  I have managed to reduce my 'bad' cholesterol by eating according to Mediterranean principles and now I want to maintain this.

What I have eaten today.

A very nice sunny Sunday breakfast.  Sourdough pancakes (same recipe as yesterday's waffles) with yogurt, fruit and, as a nice extra, a tbsp maple syrup.

Half a healthy extra B and two syns

A lasagne, made with the veg chilli from a few days ago, one sheet of lasagne and the cheesy white bean sauce with cheese on top.

Very tasty.

One healthy extra A for the sauce, another A for the cheese on top, one and a half syns for the chilli, two syns for evoo in the salad dressing and most of the other half healthy extra B for seeds in the salad.

Afters was two easy peelers.

Later on I had some carrot as I was prepping the evening vegetables.

It's Sunday so Sunday roast for dinner - turkey thigh, cranberry sauce and some lovely vegetables.  No syns for the cranberry sauce as it was home made using sweetener and I don't syn cooked fruit.

Over yesterday and today, I made sourdough hot cross buns - they took ages as it is a heavy dough and it was a cold night.  I baked late afternoon so I absolutely had to try one (the smallest one) for a dessert.
Absolutely delicious!

 Bought hot cross buns are around none or ten syns and the one I had was small so I am calling it six syns.

The rest are now in the freezer.

Summary

two healthy extra As

one healthy extra B

eleven and a half syns.  That's OK.

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  sourdough crumpet, egg, tomatoes and mushrooms

L:  the other half of the corned beef hash with extra veg added and a cheese topping

D:  cauli macaroni cheese, side salad; fruit

I think my extra healthy extra will be cheese today!

Exercise:   circuits

Just to add that this morning I deleted a couple of comments on yesterday's post that seemed to me to be AI generated and very, very similar in both style and content, derived from what I wrote.
If that is not the case, please accept my apologies.  But I think they were.

Saturday, 05-04-25

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  I have managed to reduce my 'bad' cholesterol by eating according to Mediterranean principles and now I want to maintain this.

What I have eaten today.

I fed my sourdough starters, had some discard to use up so what could be nicer than waffles!  OK, maybe pancakes are, but I fancied waffles.

I use 20g rye discard (which is 50/50 flour and water) and 10g flour, all wholemeal so I am happy to count it as half a healthy B.

Using sourdough discard really works.  I use the amounts above with one medium egg, a couple of tbsps (not huge spoonfuls) of 0% Greek yogurt, a pinch of salt, some sweetener, some vanilla and a splash of water and I use my electric waffle iron, around ten minutes - which is just time to cut the fruit, get the yogurt, add the seeds, etc.  They come out fluffy inside and crunchy around the edges. 

Half a healthy extra B plus one syn for the seeds.

My version of corned beef hash is dead easy.  Fry some onion, open a can new potatoes, dry them and cut them into cubes before browning them off in spray oil in the air fryer, open a can of lean corned beef, mix it all together with seasoning and some garlic granules, top with grated cheese and pop in oven/air fryer/microwave/grill to melt the cheese.

This makes two portions for me.  I'm having the second portion on Monday with some added veg - pepper, tomatoes and mushrooms.

So - one healthy extra A, two syns for corned beef, half a syn for some spray evoo, one syn for seeds in the salad and two syns for the dressing.  Oh, and one syn for 50mls 0% pink gin.  No alcohol, folks!!  :-)

Afters was an apple.

For dinner, I flattened out half a chicken breast, egg and breadcrumbed it and had it, spray fried, with  air fryer chips, some cheesy mushroom and some salad.  And an omelette because there was some egg left from the egg-and-breadcrumbing and I didn't want to waste it so I cooked it.

Half a healthy extra B for the breadcrumbs, a bit of an A for some Seriously Light with the mushrooms and I think that was all.

Summary:

one and a bit healthy extra As

one healthy extra B

seven and a half syns so I will probably have an Adnams 0.5 Ghost Ship pale ale which is six syns, making it thirteen and a half syns.

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  sourdough pancakes, fruit and yogurt

L:  roast turkey dinner; fruit

The last of my frozen roast portions so I will get another of the frozen joints out next week and do similar - it is nice to have the portions ready - makes for a very easy roast dinner.  I've asked Alex if he would like to come round and share.

D:  vegetable chilli pasta bake or lasagne, salad if needed; fruit

Exercise:   rest day

Friday, 04-04-25

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  I have managed to reduce my 'bad' cholesterol by eating according to Mediterranean principles and now I want to maintain this.

Today's big news (big for me) is that at weigh in this morning I had lost two pounds and I'm back in my happy zone again.  Just in but that's OK.

I want to lose more though - being at the top of your range means that a slightly salty meal the day before can push you up and out of it again so it's not much of a buffer.

So - I will be taking advantage of the extra healthy extra when I want to but I won't be upping my syns just yet.  My next  aim is to get right back to actual target by May, another three pounds off.  It is good to have a target, something to aim for.

I'm very happy!

What I have eaten today.

The breakfast fruit was grapes, blueberries and strawberries plus yogurt and some seeds.

One syn for the seeds

I used the second wholemeal pizza base to make a calzone.  It was still quite stodgy and I overfilled the calzone (lesson learned) but it was edible and tasty so no complaints.

I'm calling it two healthy extra Bs for the dough, one and a half As for cheese, four syns for pepperoni, one syn for the coleslaw and one syn for a small drizzle of salad dressing.

Afters was some strawberries and some grapes and I had some more grapes later on.  You may have noticed that grapes are a Friday treat.

Now, I know I have been quite rude about Slimming World ready meals in the past and, to be fair, I don't find some of them all that nice.  Too much spinach, for a start.

However, this evening I had two meals -  chicken in black bean sauce and sweet and sour chicken (I love chicken) -and they were both really tasty.

Have I had tastier from the take away Chinese?  Yes, of course I have, but this was all syn free and, at two meals for £8, loads and loads cheaper.  And loads of chicken.  And the wrapper gives the recipe for another time.  

Of course, I didn't have all of both portions - half of each is now in a container, cooling quickly, and due for the freezer for another fake-away another time.

With it I reheated some wholegrain rice from the freezer and a bit of bulgur wheat from yesterday and, truly, it was really very nice indeed.

No room for any dessert.

Half a syn for the rice.

Summary

one and a half healthy extra As

two healthy extra Bs

seven and a half syns

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  discard waffles, fruit, yogurt

L:  corned beef hash, salad; fruit

D:  chicken escalope, chips, fruit; salad

Exercise:   SET online

Thursday, 03-04-25

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  I have managed to reduce my 'bad' cholesterol by eating according to Mediterranean principles and now I want to maintain this.

What I have eaten today.

Meals have been out of sync today - I was out so breakfast was late, I was out again so lunch was late.  Saved me wanting a fruit snack around four o'clock.

Egg on toast.  The bread is my own sourdough wholemeal and it does have a very pronounced sourdough flavour which is rather nice - I'm quickly getting used to it.  People pay a fortune for it, don't they?

I decided to have raw sides rather than cooked.

I overcooked egg but it was still very nice.

One healthy extra B

My version of a Caesar salad.

Cos lettuce underneath, topped with feta, chicken, olives and seeds with Caesar dressing, followed by an easy peeler.

One healthy extra A, one syn for seeds, two and a half syns for the dressing and one and a half for the olives.

Really filling but in a satisfying way rather than a feeling-stuffed way.

Unless you live alone or cook for one, it's hard to imagine how impossible to make a single portion of a chilli.  By the time you've added enough stuff to make it interesting, however small the quantities, you have two portions or more.

Also, I didn't want lots of stuff leftover out of cans and packets - beans, chopped tomatoes, etc.
So I made a batch.

It contained onion, carrot, red pepper, broccoli, broccoli stem, mixed beans, chopped tomato, half a pouch of puy lentils and something - can't remember what, peas, corn, mushrooms and various seasonings and spices.
It was delicious.

It also made five portions which cut the syns considerably.

I served it with bulgur wheat, some grated parmesan and some Greek yogurt.  Very filling and very healthy too.

One portion contained one syn for olive oil and half a syn for the lentil stuff plus around half a healthy extra A for the cheese.  And that was it.

No dessert - it was nicely satisfying.

And four more portions are currently chilling down in the fridge, ready for the freezer tomorrow morning.

Summary:

one and a half healthy extra As

one healthy extra B

six and a half syns

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  fruit and yogurt

L:  calzone, salad; fruit

D:  Chinese meal

No, not a take-away, I went to Iceland and bought a couple of SW Chinese meals.  The idea is to cook both of them and re-freeze them in my sized portions, keeping one portion of each for my meal to which I will add a portion of rice.
We will see - it's a bit of an experiment and, if it works and I like the meals, I will have the recipes for another time as they are on the wrapper.  If I don't, no worries

Exercise:   Rest day

Wednesday, 02-04-25

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  I have managed to reduce my 'bad' cholesterol by eating according to Mediterranean principles and now I want to maintain this.

What I have eaten today.

Not the best photo in the world but not to worry.   Peach and nectarine slices from the freezer, kiwi and strawberries with some yogurt with chia seeds mixed in.

One syn for the chia seeds.

This was scrummy - I haven't had filled pitta for ages.

I  shredded some leaves, thinly sliced some cucumber, chopped up a tomato and mixed it all up with a tsp mixed seeds and a quarter of a cooked chicken breast fillet. I always halve chicken fillets before freezing and this was half of a half - the other half is for tomorrow.  I mixed it all up with a level tbsp of M&S lighter fat creamy Caesar dressing.  With coleslaw, tomato and carrot on the side, it was lovely and really filling too.

One healthy extra B, two and a half syns for the Caesar dressing, half a syn for the coleslaw and one syn for the mixed seeds.

I was out at dinner time so to avoid tum rumbles, I had a small banana and a coiupleof easy peelers at around five.

A nice, simple dinner of jazzed up baked beans, more of the coleslaw and some cheesy jacket potato.  Afters was an apple.  Two healthy extra As and one syn for the salad cream in the coleslaw.

Afters was an apple.

Summary:

two healthy extra As

one healthy extra B

six syns

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  fried egg on toast, tomatoes and mushrooms

L:  chicken Caesar salad; fruit

 - using up the rest of the chicken cooked today.

D:  veggie chilli, rice; fruit

Exercise:   Groove

Tuesday, 01-04-25

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  I have managed to reduce my 'bad' cholesterol by eating according to Mediterranean principles and now I want to maintain this.

What I have eaten today.

I am absolutely loving these sourdough discard crumpets; they are so delicious.

One healthy extra B, one syn for mixed seeds, two syns for evoo on the leaves and tomatoes - must get my heart healthy oils and fats in.

Lunch was more of the soup with a lovely little bowl of tasty salad stuff, lots of pickle-taste.  Afters was a couple of easy peelers and later on I had an orange.

One and a half syns for some olives.

For dinner, I cooked one sheet of lasagne and sort of wrapped it around some beany veg mix and cheesy white bean sauce, baked it, topped it with cheese . . . etc.  
I dearly love the whole tomato/cheese/ pasta vibe.

One healthy extra A and three syns for cheese.

Summary:

two healthy extra As

one healthy extra B

seven and a half syns

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  fruit, seeds and yogurt

L:  fish finger pitta, salad; fruit

D:  jacket potato, jazzed up baked beans, salad; fruit

Exercise:   personal training

Monday, 31-03-25

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  I have managed to reduce my 'bad' cholesterol by eating according to Mediterranean principles and now I want to maintain this.

It's the end of the month so I had a good go through one of the bags in the freezer, the one with all the odds and ends, leftovers, batch things, etc.  I listed everything and then worked out meals I could cook to use them up.  

The list is:

chicken, veg and lentil curry (made today!)

two cannelloni meals

jacket potato with jazzed up beans

savoury mince (this will be a batch cook, not a meal, using things like garden passata and beef stock)

roast turkey dinner

macaroni cheese

calzone

pizza x 2

lasagne

leek and butterbean soup

They might be dinner or then might be lunch, it really doesn't matter, and I will need to add things like salad or veg, of course, or carbs, maybe.  Some are now planned in for this week and some will be for next week.

What I have eaten today.

Breakfast was so nice.  I chopped some strawberry, kiwi and plum, mixed some mixed seeds, vanilla and sweetener into yogurt and whisked two eggs with some sweetener.

I cooked the egg in my pancake pan, spread the yogurt over it and rolled it up and served it with the rest of the yogurt and the fruit on the side with a sprinkle of sweetener.
It was so filling and absolutely delicious.

One syn for the mixed seeds.

I made the soup yesterday (three portions out of one leek, a can of butterbeans, carrot, onion, chicken stock, garlic and seasonings and a grated some nutmeg over today's serving.  The bread is buckwheat soda bread and it toasted beautifully.

Dessert was an apple.

One healthy extra B for the bread.

I had some odds and ends to use up so I made a curry with onion, pepper, sweet potato, chicken, puy lentils, broad beans, peas, sweet corn, mushrooms and some Sharwood's korma paste, 30% lighter (in other words much less oil).  It made enough for two portions so one is back in the freezer and on the list of Meals to Make/Use.

With it I had some mango chutney and some Greek yogurt plus some wholegrain rice.

It was absolutely delicious!

Afters was an orange

One and a half syns for some evoo, one syn for the korma paste, one and a half syns for the chutney and half a syn for the rice (from a pouch)

Summary:

no healthy extra As today

one healthy extra B

five and a half syns, I think

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  sourdough crumpet, egg, leaves

L:  leek and butterbean soup, grated cheese; fruit

D:  pricy bean and veg cannelloni, side salad; fruit

Exercise:   Groove plus the walk there and back.

Sunday, 30-03-25

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  I have managed to reduce my 'bad' cholesterol by eating according to Mediterranean principles and now I want to maintain this.

What I have eaten today.

This was nice.  Sourdough started discard makes lovely waffles.

Three syns.

I had a go at a 100% wholemeal sourdough and, obviously, had to taste it.  Six syns.

Gotta love a cheese and chutney toastie!!

One healthy extra A for cheese, one healthy extra B for bread, half a syn for coleslaw, one syn for mixed seeds and two syns for evoo in the salad dressing.

Afters was a couple of easy peelers.

Dinner was a simple 'roast' using some turkey thigh meat from the freezer.

Two syns for the gravy but I'm not counting the cranberry sauce because it was home made with sweetener, not sugar

Atfers was an apple.

Summary:

one healthy extra A

one healthy extra B

fourteen and a half syns

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  sweet omelette with fruit and yogurt

L:  leek and butterbean soup; fruit

D:  chicken curry and rice; fruit

Exercise:   Circuits class

Saturday, 29-03-25

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  I have managed to reduce my 'bad' cholesterol by eating according to Mediterranean principles and now I want to maintain this.

Apologies for yesterday.  I just took a day off photo-ing, etc.  No, I wasn't sulking after gaining one pound at Slimming World, I was just really weary, kept falling asleep and just - well - couldn't be bothered.  So sorry.

I did photo dinner - hm pizza and coleslaw.  NOT on plan and the base is definitely a Work in Progress but it was really nice.  A shame about the indigestion.

Back now, back on it, back to basics of SW and Mediterranean principles and on we go!

What I have eaten today.

For breakfast, I had scrambled egg on a wholemeal crumpet with tomatoes and mushrooms on the side - really tasty.

One healthy extra B

For lunch, as I had some baked beans left over, I baked a potato, scooped out the potato and mashed it with seasoning and two cheese triangles, loaded it back in and tried to brown the top - not terribly successfully, as   you can see.  I had this with a salad and the left over beans.  Very simple and filling.

Afters was an apple and later on I had an orange.

Half a healthy extra A for the cheese triangles, one syn for mixed seeds and two syns for evoo in the salad dressing.

For dinner, I made my favourite chicken penne arrabbiata.  There was some coleslaw left over from yesterday so I had that on the side.

Three syns for half a tsp olive oil, one and a half syns for olives and half a healthy extra A for some grated parmesan.

Summary:

one healthy extra A

one healthy extra B

seven and a half syns

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  Sourdough waffles, fruit and yogurt

L:  roast turkey dinner; fruit

I have some turkey thigh meat in stock so can use that.

D:  toastie and salad

Exercise:   rest day

Thursday, 27-03-25

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  I have managed to reduce my 'bad' cholesterol by eating according to Mediterranean principles and now I want to maintain this.

What I have eaten today.

I changed my mind and had baked beans in the breakfast omelette instead.   It was delicious.

Half a syn for a squirt of Crucials brown sauce.

Lunch was the last of the ham and yellow split pea soup with a sourdough roll for dunking.  Very flavoursome.

I had an orange and an apple for afters.

One healthy extra B and a bit of an A for the cheese triangle I stirred in.

I didn't know what I fancied for dinner but I thawed half a chicken breast fillet so I cooked that with some Montreal steak seasoning (peppery/spicy and very tasty) and then broke it into bits.  I fried some onion, pepper, mushroom and tomatoes, added garlic and seasoning, tipped in the chicken and then some of a pouch of wholegrain rice.  Dead easy and surprisingly tasty.
The rest of the rice is now in the freezer.

Dessert was a pear.

One syn for a quarter of the pouch of rice and three syns for some evoo.

Summary:

part of a healthy extra A

one healthy extra B

four and a half syns

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  discard waffles, fruit and yogurt

L:  jacket potato with beans, side salad; fruit

D:  home made pizza, coleslaw, salad; fruit

Exercise:   rest day

Wednesday, 26-03-25

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  I have managed to reduce my 'bad' cholesterol by eating according to Mediterranean principles and now I want to maintain this.

Slight confession - after I had posted yesterday, I had some cashews.  Very heart healthy and good but they sent the syns rocketing.  I'm not that fussed.  If I gain on Friday, I gain, but I have been eating good, healthy stuff since the weekend and that's the most important thing.  

What I have eaten today.

Breakfast - and very nice too.  Syn free.

I'm doing the rest a bit differently because I made  'elements' that contributed to both lunch and dinner.

The bulger wheat had olives for one syn, sundried tomato for one syn, feta for one healthy A and seeds for part of a healthy B plus tuna, lime juice and so on.

The coleslaw  had one syn for salad cream and seeds for part of my B

The jacket potato had one syn for a cheese triangle and one syn for salad cream as well as the tuna and one A for grated cheese.

The mixed salad had more of my healthy B in seeds plus three syns for evoo in the dressing.

Phew!

So - super delicious lunch, absolutely packed with healthy stuff that was also great to eat.  Filling too, so, so filling.

And ditto for dinner.  I so enjoyed the tuna cheese stuffed jacket and I was looking forward to finishing off the salads.

Summary:

two healthy extra As

one healthy extra B

eight syns

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  omelette with mushrooms, tomatoes and leaves

L:  soup, croutons; fruit

The last, I think, from the freezer.

D:  chicken escalope and salad; fruit

Exercise:   SET in the morning and Groove in the afternoon, both online.  The Groove class is because I missed the Monday circuits and when you miss a class, you can have another one to make up, providing it is in the same block - and this week is the last week of this block.