Slimming World - Week Four

Result: 1.5lb loss.

This week was a momentous week in my Slimming World journey. This week, I achieved my first award, granting me a precidicious certificate and a shiny sticker on the back of my book. 

 

It was a close call, for the longest time I didn't think I was going to manage it, even though I only had a pound and a half to lose to achieve my half a stone. The start of the week hadn't gone well. Wagamamas on Friday followed by two nights of pasta bake rocketed my syns, and if I hadn't done a few days of speed foods only over the Monday and the Tuesday, there wouldn't have been a chance in hell. I did feel a little bit cheated as we decided to try a Wednesday class as opposed to our normal Thursday, so lost a whole day of potential weight loss, but never mind. 

Again, this weeks group was a world apart from every other one we had tried. For a start, it was crazy busy. Like huge. Normally, there is the consultant and maybe one or two helpers. This group had the consultant and at least 6 helpers. Two people logging you in and taking payment, two people weighing, and two people on the shop. The line was constant and the seats for group filled, even though many weigh in and leave. The consultant said something along the lines of that in that one session, we had cumulatively lost about 300lbs. Due to the group being so much larger, we did spend a good hour and a half there, and while that was fine at 9am during the Easter holidays, there is no way we can devote that much time a week every week, especially when we normally go in the evening and Rachey has to get home to see her son before his bedtime. None the less, we learned a lot of tips and the group itself was much less click-y and very welcoming. The consultant could tell straight away that we were visiting, and was clearly very knowledgable. We're still sampling groups but I certainly won't mind going back to this group again. 

We've both booked a week off next week, so I have a week and a half to get myself back on track after Easter. I also quite want to try and train myself off needing to starve myself with speed free foods only in the preceding 48 hours to weigh in. Staying on plan and making up my own are two very different things. I'm going to try and cut down my fruit intake, and really work on upping my vegetables, as well as drinking more. 

Easter weekend isn't going to go well, and I'm not going to sacrifice my Easter eggs for the sake of being good, but I'm fully planning to be 100% on plan from Monday onwards.

Fingers crossed I can achieve my stone off sticker within another 4 weeks! Then I'll be half way to target! 

Slimming World - Week Three

Result: 1lb loss.

So this post is a little late. My weigh in day is a Thursday and it's currently Monday. This is partly because I'm lazy, but also because I was super naughty last week. 

I supposed I was partly spurred on by my excellent result of week 2. I had told myself that I would treat myself to a pizza if I achieved over a 2lb loss, and seeing as I did, I upheld my promise. I was good, I didn't order anything else, but still, strike one. Then Friday started well but I just didn't follow the plan past lunch time. Neither did I for most of the rest of the week, including another load of pizza on Monday. Tuesday wasn't too bad but it wasn't exactly great either, with lemon tart, a load of goats cheese and probably 20 syns worth of chocolate tofu mousse. It was only on Wednesday and Thursday that I really kicked my arse into gear and tried to undo the damage. 

Breakfast on Wednesday consisted of fruit tea and some watermelon. Lunch was an apple and a pear. Dinner was speed veg in passatta. Thursday consisted of half an apple and garcinia tablets to try to stave off the hunger. 

Needless to say, I was pretty darn grumpy. I love fruit, and it definitely helps shift some weight quickly, but a healthy diet it does not make. Sure, I lost my pound, and saw that as a huge achievement, but now im struggling to get back to that, let alone lose my target of another one and a half pound. 

In other news, we tried out a different group this week, and boy, was it different. The weigh in was a lot busier, with a constant queue of people even though we were early to begin with. The group was about the same size as our original group, but everyone seemed a lot more familiar together, laughing and joking. The consultant was lovely (also clearly well educated in SW judging by all her awards) and played a game of setting the two sides of the room against each other to win the most points, based on feedback and losses at the scales. It was a whole different world and I much preferred it. I felt like I came away with more tips and motivation than I have done in three groups worth at the last place. We're going to another one this week just due to timing, so we'll see how this one measures up. 

So that's it for now. I think any other week I would have been really disappointed in my 1lb loss, but this week, it was a bloody miracle to lose anything. 

What's more, I'm only one and a half pounds off my half a stone award! 

Slimming World - Week Two

Result: 3lb loss.

At today's weigh in, I was so super nervous. As I stood on the scales, my brain went blank and I couldn't even work out whether I'd lost or gained. 

I had weighed myself last night before bed and after converting the kilos into stone and pounds, concluded that I should expect a 3lb loss. Then I spent the rest of today talking myself out of it. I told myself to not expect anything, that any loss is a success, that eating anything more than salad on weigh in day was a foolish thing to do. 

Basically, my point here is even though I knew that I was likely to have met my 2lb loss target, and probably even exceeded it, the idea of the public weigh in still made my anxiety levels soar and my head go to dark places. You find yourself wondering how heavy your clothes are, whether your glasses will be significantly heavier than your lenses, whether a fart will help you loose weight, and feel guilty over eating a bloody babybel the day before because you know cheese doesn't digest as quickly as fruit and veg.

Having said all of this, I am thrilled with my week two results. If I loose the same next week, I'll achieve my half a stone award in just three weeks. I think that's pretty good going to be honest. 

What did I do differently this week to achieve double the loss of my first week? Other than two cheat meals early on in the week, I managed to stick to the plan 100%. I ate loads of free foods, especially the speed foods, made sure to measure out my healthy extras and be super strict with my syns. I have aimed at between 11-15 syns a day and on only one day did I go over and even then it was only by half a syn. I think one thing I didn't wrong last week was to use oat so simple as my Healthy B, when really I should have synned it. This week, I've been using porridge oats and oat milk, and then using the remainder of my Healthy A allowance on something else, which I didn't do before, probably leaving me with over half my Healthy A left over each day. 

Protein is still an issue for me. I don't really know how to change that. I'm taking iron supplements so fingers crossed my iron intake is okay at least. 

On the day before and the day of weigh in, I decided to only eat free fruit and veg that are also speed foods. So no pasta, potatoes, bananas and the like. I think it worked, I'll try it again next week and see how it works the second week around. I'm not going to do it for more than a day  and a half though, life's too short to only eat salad for days on end. 

Slimming World - Week One

Result: 1.5lb loss

So, first week of slimming world done and dusted. And no, it wasn't so bad. But did I stay on plan and follow it to the letter? God no. I'd had half a Pizza Hut cheesy bites pizza a little over 24 hours after joining up. 

To be honest, that really sums up my experience of my first week of slimming world, I either was very good or very bad. There was no in between, no just going a little over my syns, it was either be right on target or majorly over. 

For the most part, once you get your head around the complexities of the plan, it's easy enough to follow. Eat the free food freely, measure out your healthy extras and count everything else as syns. 

However, as a vegetarian who can't eat quorn, I feel like the plan severely limits my protein intake. Protein is important, both nutritionally but also to aid weight loss. But on this plan, my syn free protein is very much limited to fat free dairy products such as cottage cheese, eggs and pulses. I have to syn the meat substitutes I can eat, namely the Linda McCartney products. I asked my consultant if I could have protein powder as a supplement, and she informed me that just one scoop of soy protein would cost me a massive 6 syns. When you factor in that I should be having a least two a day, it gets ridiculous. Sure, meat eaters can eat as much bacon as they want, but I am forced to limit my main source of protein.

Having said this, I still have faith in the plan. I intend to do much better this week, especially over the weekend and during the week. I'm not too worried about being 100% slimming world goddess right after the weigh in day, which for me is a Thursday, so I went out for dinner on Thursday and Friday evening and didn't worry about staying on plan. But from now on, I'm going to try much harder. I'm even contemplating trying the SP plan from Monday, along with going to the gym to help boost my results.

 I guess we'll see how it goes.