*Linzerellos Blog

Oh wow, its been a while. Life has been absolutely hectic of late. Since I last blogged 6 weeks ago, I have been to Cornwall for a weekend with friends, Dubai for 5 days, San Fran for a week, Bath for a Hen weekend, The Cotswolds for a wedding & Birmingham  to visit Matt's family - I think that's about it.

As you can imagine, not ever being at home has not been conducive to dropping any pounds, I lost 1.5lbs before heading to Dubai and then after a 3 week hiatus, I hit the scales last week to see a 5lb gain. Not the end of the world given I have literally not stopped, but still not ideal. My February target is now an impossibility, so I just need to try and stay as focused as I can.

Should be easy given I've my Christmas party on Thursday, followed by a meal at Murano on Friday, weekend in London with the boy, my Dads 60th birthday dinner on Sunday and then Christmas, plus then we're off to Berlin for New Year..... Ahem.

Soooooo... what do I do? Try and be good when I can be and worry about it in January? I don't know really, I thought that's what I'd been doing the last few weeks but the scales tell me otherwise.

Anyway. I need to stop stressing, I am still over 2 stone down. I shouldn't do that much damage between now and Jan, should I?? I'm not hopeful for any kind of loss tonight since I had 2 Xmas lunches and a wedding last week, but we shall see.

I'll leave you with some photos of the last few weeks... I can't really complain about the weight loss as I've had an amazing time of late and that's what life is all about, surely?

The past few weeks have been challenging from a social point of view, I need to stop making myself so busy! Every time I plan a quiet weekend at home, we end up making other plans and before I know it, my syns are out the window.

The past 2 weekends have seen big Sunday's - Food with Friends as part of the London restaurant festival and then Champagne Sunday Brunch at the Landmark hotel the following week. Couple that with a few girls nights out (wine tasting no less) and the odd pub trip, well losing weight seems like a flipping impossibility,

Anyway, despite this, I've dropped a pound each week the past 2 weeks, so that's 31 down now in 16 weeks. It's not ground breaking by any means, but I'll take it.

I'm starting to notice differences now, I'm wearing a size smaller in my favourite jeans, clothes all feel a bit looser, people are starting to ask me if I've lost weight (which I do find odd, I mean you'd not comment if you thought someone had put on, would you?).




I'm now 4lbs away from my 10% goal with 2 weigh ins before I can't make class for 2 weeks. I've set myself a mini challenge to get there before we head to Dubai on the 12th November  as I suspect Dubai may be similar to Italy and see me come back with some form of monumental gain. Achievable if really focus.

And just because I can't write a post without numerous photos, here you go....










 





So, 2lbs a week for the next 2 weeks? Let's be having you.

Another pound down at the scales on Monday, it's not exactly stellar but I'll take it considering we spent the weekend in London dining at Story and Dinner by Heston. Neither of which are exactly Slimming World friendly, but bloody amazing!





My social life is not really conducive to weight loss, so that fact that I've now lost 29lbs in 14 weeks is not to be sniffed at. I have to keep telling myself this as I am having a lot of sulks at the slowness of it all, but that's utterly ridiculous. It took me 38 years to get this fat, I can't expect to lose it all over night.

I did, however, have a minor moment of realisation when I tried on a pair of leather trousers (yeah I am back in the 90's) that I bought back in April that were nowhere near to fitting me. I was able to wear them comfortably last week, so at least that's something. Other than that, I'm really struggling to notice any massive difference in myself, but it must be coming off somewhere.


This week has been ok food wise,shocking booze wise. Work has been all manner of stressful so I've had a few glasses of vino of an evening which is not the best use of syns, but hey ho. The scales are looking ok today, but I have the weekend to ruin that!

Tonight we're seeing friends for dinner but I'm driving so that helps and then on Sunday we're off to the Merchants tavern as part of the London Restaurant Festival. Sunday is not an ideal day to be dining out since it's the day before weigh in, but so be it. I can't sit around all day Sunday eating celery so the scales thank me on a Monday, plus I hate celery so that'd be pretty miserable.

Last week I spat my dummy out in spectacular fashion. I gained a pound, no big deal really but I've been back and forth since coming back from holiday and not really making any progress. Anyway, this week was much better, 3.5lbs down. I finally got my 2 stone award which has been within reach for 4 weeks.

After a not particularly stellar week, I saw a drop of 9lbs on Monday night. Of course I am very happy with this, but somewhat frustrated all the same.

How on earth did I register an 11lb gain? Between Matt & my parents, who ate and drank with abandon, they managed a collective increase of 10lbs. Sulks. You ladies were right when you said about this post holiday bloat thing, I shall bear this in mind in future (and will probably still sulk).

Anyway, no point dwelling, it's almost back off and if I continue with a decent week, I can possibly get the last 2lbs off with another 0.5 on top to get to my 2 stone?

This weekend poses some challenges, tomorrow we have lunch at Helene Darroze, Saturday we're attending the Masterchef Pop up restaurant and Sunday we're off to Spurs to see West Brom, all of this whilst staying in London because we're too lazy to take the 25 minute train journey each way every day!!!.... None of this is particularly SW friendly so fingers crossed I don't blow it again. The scales this morning were promising, but I've plenty of time to bugger that up.

I'll leave you with some tasty morsels I've been consuming in an attempt to stay on track. Hopefully Monday will see me on my merry way to getting that 4 stone off by February.

Well I had a plan. I honestly believed I'd done everything I could to mitigate a mammoth weight gain over my 10 days in Italy. How wrong can you be??

I was pretty pleased with myself as the seat belt on the plane did up for the first time in an age.... I should have known when I really struggled with it coming back that all had not gone according to plan.

I ate only twice a day. I stuck to Slimming World friendly foods for the most part. I ate pizza once (in Italy! once!) and had a delicious gorgonzola pasta dish on another evening, but other than that it was meat, fish, salads, pasta and tomato sauce. I ate my body weight in parma ham (carefully removing all traces of fat) and cherry tomatoes for breakfast with the odd bit of wholemeal bread. I walked 3 times as far on a daily basis as I do when I am at work (I have a step counter on my phone) and I limited my booze (no drinking before 6pm).

So, imagine my horror when I stepped on the scales on Monday night and I had gained back a whopping 11lbs..... This seems mostly unfair, but clearly I went wrong somewhere. Too much booze I suspect...

However, it's not all doom and gloom....  I had a really lovely time. I am still 16.5lbs lighter than I would have been had I not started on this journey and I can't imagine the damage I would have done if I hadn't attempted to be good.

I'm back at it (although my syns have been higher this week than I would have liked - post holiday come down I guess) so fingers crossed I can shift some of it this week.

I am, however, now wishing I'd consumed more pizza.

Thank you all for your lovely comments on my last post, it's good to be blogging again regularly.

Last night was weigh in number 8. I was convinced it was going to be bad. I had a very 'meh' week last week. It was the Reading Festival, which means I end up locking myself in the flat and don't even attempt to drive anywhere (total gridlock). By Thursday night (after only 48 hours of my self imposed house arrest) I was stir crazy so we went out for dinner, Friday I was out with the girls and Saturday we went to the football. SW was on my mind but not exactly my main focus.


Anyway, I digress. I somehow lost another 3.5lbs this week. That takes me to 27.5lbs in total (damn that 0.5lbs) and once again I was Slimmer of the Month. I am actually really surprised by how well this is going. The last time I managed to lose weight was with WW and I got to 52lbs but that took me almost a year. I know this level of weight loss is going to be impossible to sustain, but hell knows I will take it for now.

So, this is where it all has the potential to go wrong... we're flying off to Italy on Friday morning for 10 days. I am formulating a plan of action, but I am really determined to try and enjoy my holiday, but not come back with a massive gain. I guess I just have to employ the rules of SW as best I can and see how we go. If I can maintain, that would be awesome... I'll take a small gain, but anything of large proportions will be met with some annoyance. I think I will attempt to stick to the plan every other day. Does that sound risky??

I'll be celebrating my 2nd wedding anniversary back in Sorrento where we got married, so I'll try not to stress too much over my eating, but I need to not completely lose focus!

So all that documenting what I ate seems to have done the trick, I lost another 5.5lbs this week (despite the alcohol) that with the 1lb I lost last week takes me to 24lbs lost in 7 weeks. It feels like some kind of revelation, I've never really gotten on with Slimming World before, but it seems fairly easy this time around. Perhaps my head is just in the right place for once. I'll not over analyse and just keep on doing whatever it is that I am doing.

Now, I have 1 more weight in before we head to Italy for 10 days to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary. Hopefully it's not possible to put 24lbs back on in 10 days. That would be fairly pants.

Day 2

2 x Waitrose 50% less fat sausages (3 syns) with 2 eggs scrambled with a dollop of fat free yoghurt and dry fried mushrooms and ketchup (1 syn)

Left over chill, jacket potato, 30g Cheddar (HEa) and salad. Dollop of extra light salad cream (1 syn)

'Eton Mess' - Plums & strawberries with fat free yoghurt with a dash of vanilla extra, 1 meringue nest (2.5 syns) and a crumbled Salted Caramel Hifi bar (HEb)

Beef stir fry with rice - loosely based on this recipe but without oil or chilli sauce.


Day 3

Breakfast muffins and potato & onion tortilla.

Curried chicken and rice salad (as above)

Keema curry with squash served with cauliflower flatbread (1 syn) - check out the Slimming Eats website for those recipes. Cauliflower flat bread is amazing - I made this version without the parmesan.


Day 4 

Breakfast muffins and cauliflower flatbread (1 syn)

Sausage and tomato pasta (3 syns). Onions, mushrooms, garlic, passata & sausages with pasta. 2 slices of Cauliflower flat bread (1.5 syns) with 30g Cheddar (HEa).

Pulled pork rolls (1syn & 1 HEb) with 'sautéed' potatoes, salad and corn on the cob (Slimming eats recipe again)  1.5 syns for the butter on the corn.


Day 5 

Potato & Onion tortilla & 20g Cheddar (2/3 HEa)

2 pieces of KFC & tomato ketchup (heaven). 12 syns for the chicken, 1 for the ketchup. My colleague goes to KFC every Friday. This is my first one for 6 weeks. Previously I'd have had 3 pieces of chicken, fries and a gravy (32.5 syns!!!)

Frozen Yoghurt (0.5 syns)

Beef & mushroom pie (3 syns) with chips and mushy peas.

• Dry fry mushrooms, onions, carrot, cabbage & stewing beef. Add in a tsp of celery salt, tsp garlic salt, tsp thyme, 2 tbsp of worcestershire sauce and then add beef stock (I used 2 tbsps of bovril and some water). Put in the oven on low heat and allow to reduce down. Stir in a tsp of gravy granules to thicken and then put a sheet of filo pastry on top - I smash it up when frozen and overlap the bits to make it a bit thicker). Brush with egg and pop back in oven. This is amazing! If you omit the pastry it's still a pretty amazing stew. 

Not pictured - a lot of alcohol. Approx 50 syns??


Day 6 - Rewind Festival in Henley

'Southern fried chicken goujons' with savoury rice, salad and fat free cottage cheese (1/2 HEb)

• 1 wholemeal roll blitzed into breadcrumbs mixed with cayenne pepper, paprika & garlic salt. Dip chicken pieces in egg and then into the breadcrumbs and then bake in the oven

Another 2.5lbs down at weigh in on Monday. 17.5lbs lost in 5 weeks. I am pretty smug, I can tell you (although smugness leads to disappointment so I should probably get a grip).

I've  been meaning to post all week but I have been soooo busy. I am seriously exhausted.

4 weeks into Slimming World and I have lost 15lbs. I really don't know how this has happened given I've had 4 of the busiest weeks of the summer. Still, I'll clearly take it.

The girlie weekend was a challenge, but very lovely. I managed to drop 0.5lb that week, although insignificant, it proved to me I could do it. Trying to convince myself that my Beetroot salad was as satisfying as my friends Fish and Chips, was impossible but I did it.

Last week proved slightly less ridiculous, although I did have a night out with the girls from work on Friday which began at 1630 and saw me roll home at 0330am. A lot of alcohol was consumed (and very little food) so imagine my surprise when I dropped 4.5lbs this week. I was duly awarded Slimmer of the week and of the Month. Somewhat mortifying, I can tell you.

This week is not without it's challenges. We're away on Saturday night with friends so drinking/meals out to navigate, but I am hopeful  that my stellar work for the rest of the week will keep me right.

So I'll stop tying to catch up at break neck speed and leave you with the last few weeks in photos.