A blank page of a new book

There is something symbolic about the 1st January and new starts. A new year and time to wipe the slate clean. A lot of people make New Years resolutions which I guess I am doing because today I get my slimming world journey under control. I have made this vow with a very close friend to get back on the purple bus today. I saw this picture a few times on Facebook yesterday and it is very appropriate as today I have started my 'book'.

                                       

I haven't done a blog since the 14th December I am a bad blogger. In reality I haven't been on plan fully for the past few weeks and I am lucky that since the 16th December I have only put on 5lbs. I do weigh heavier than this time last year my journey in 2013 was more up than down. 

We have a new consultant in group now and it's the perfect new start, she is lovely and has been successful on her journey so far so looking forward to learning a lot from her. I do feel like I wasted 2013 in terms of weight loss as I could have been at target now but it was a unique year and now it's done this year will be my target mission. 

So what else is new in my world well I started my new job on the 16th December and it's going fab the people I work with are great, the job is interesting and taxing and I definitely come out feeling like I've used my brain. It has taken me a while to adjust to working again my ears are still crap but manageable unless I do anything mad like go on a vibroplate (which I tried on Christmas Day).

Christmas has been and gone now and it was much fun, I was very giddy leading up to Christmas as I love this time of the year. I spent time watching many Christmas movies and feeling festive for many weeks. We all got spoilt with fab presents and gorgeous food (thanks Beccy and Darren for Christmas dinner and Terri for the yummy Boxing Day noms including the yummy Camembert which figs oceans and honey which was divine). 

Today the tree has come down and Christmas has gone away for now and today has been mainly filled with watching TV and reading and generally hanging out with my boys along with drinking much coffee (using 350ml of skimmed milk HEA) I've prepped soup for lunch this week so I can stay safely on plan during work and avoid the many biscuits and chocolates that are In the office. 

Today's on plan food has looked like this.....

                        

Cannot beat a slimming world friendly 'fry up' the sausages are quorn low fat ones which are free and the only syns were for the quorn bacon (1.5). 

                       

Macaroni with a tub of low low (HEB x2) with mushrooms, courgette and onion fried off in fry light.

                       

200g of gnocchi (4 syns) with a tomato and mushroom homemade sauce and 40g of cheese (HEA).

                      

A chocolate muller dessert (5 syns) warmed with fruit taking my total too 11.5 for the day (had 2tspmof honey for a syn earlier when my asthma was flaring up).

I am really chuffed with my first day back on plan and feel better for it. I am also very proud of my lovely friend Donna who joined me today back on the bus.

It won't be long before I head to bed as I'm back in work tomorrow so I'll end my blog here today. Night night everyone x

Friday fun

I am a sleepy girl so this will be a bit of a quick blog. I have been out for a pre Christmas dinner/present exchange with my lovely friend this evening and not long got back. Bed is definitely calling me...I can hear it yelling get inside the duvet and snooze!

          

The lovely girls....we are not 100% sure about Sue in this one maybe she say some monkeys banging drums ;).

Apart from this evenings festivities today has been very quiet I've been mainly sitting and trying to plow through the ridiculous amount of tv I have recorded. 

           

5ive <3 I did enjoy the Christmas big reunion show and have preordered the text Santa single. Apart from this the only other activity today was painting my nails.

                                  

Food wise it was yummy and off plan until dinner when I enjoyed a yummy flexi meal. The beauty of slimming world is you can enjoy occasions like this and work them into your week. 

                     

Magic muffins (pancakes made into muffins) with blueberries banana and a yogurt.

                     

Pasta made using the 321 tomato soup with mushrooms and courgette. I added 45g of feta as my healthy extra. I stirred some in and then popped the rest on top.

      

      

     

I had a large mushroom topped in garlic cheesy sauce, followed by whole wheat pasta in a tomato sauce with some mozzarella and then pudding was called Cookie Dough Lava cake which was scrum my and I enjoyed every mouthful. I will be back to the plan in the morning 

I will leave you now with some pretty Christmas lights and me.

      

      

     

Thursday walkathon and laziness

I can't believe it's Thursday already my final week off is flying by and before I know it my alarm will be going off Monday morning! In preparation for this I managed to get up slightly earlier than normal though only because I had to take the car into the garage to find out why it randomly stops the heating and windows working.

As I was up early enough I decided to get some breakfast inside me as once the car was dropped off I was walking home.

                       

Lacking in superfree but was fab My Little Pony spaghetti on toast (HEB).

Once the car was dropped off me and Doug (who had come along for the ride) headed home enjoying some of the sights of Bristol.

        

Not sure why there is an inflatable camper van.....but it looked pretty cool! Needless to say on we e got home I was feeling a little dead.

                                        

It has been a few weeks since I have walked this far and my little feet are a tad sore now but it was good to be exercising and Doug loved it. He has spent the day either sleeping or resting his eyes.

Whilst waiting for news on the car I busied myself catching up on The Gilmore Girls and Masterchef and watching The Heat which was pretty funny. Lunch was similar to yesterday...

                      

This soup is very versatile as I used it as the tomato sauce for dinner and will be using it for a pasta lunch tomorrow. After this I was still peckish so grabbed some more snacks.

                      

This afternoon I enjoyed another one of my favourite festive films The Holiday.....got to love a good chrisromcom 

                      

Luckily the car call came confirming it was all okay and they had tightened something to make it better so I went to pick it up and stopped via Tesco on the way home resisting the yummy food including a huge Brie and various other cheesy goodies and coming out with the required spinach for dinner.

                     

Spinach and mushroom cannelloni with garlic bread (HEA and HEB plus 4.5 syns for the garlic bread). I haven't made this in a while as it can be a bit of a faff stuffing the tubes but it was worth it tonight. 

                    

Pudding was another old favourite warmed muller dessert (5) with fruit and my advent chocolate (1) taking the total to 10.5 for the day.

I'm out tomorrow night with my lovely friends for dinner and a movie if we can fit it in. I'm not sure where we are going but I will ensure I make the right choices food wise. 

That's it for me today night night all xoxo 

On the bus

Today has been a good day...why you ask? Well I managed to spend the whole day on plan and I managed to finish my essay and submit it! 

                          

I have been faffing around with this essay for too long so it's nice to have it in and waiting to be marked. I am having a break tomorrow unless I have any urges to study but plan to start the notes for my next one on Friday. 

Apart from studying today has not been overly interesting the shopping came from Asda and there was only one sub for once and i took Doug out for a walk. This evening has been filled with this man

        

and watching Arsenal. 

Food wise I have been firmly on plan today 

                       

1.5 syns for the quorn bacon and 1 for the 2 tbsp of tomato sauce. The rest was free.

                        

321 tomato soup using 3 tins of chopped tomatoes, 2 tins of baked beans and 1 tin of carrots along with 3 little pickled onions. I had a cheese toastie too (HEA and HEB) and it was fab.

                         

Afterwards I had some mango and melon with a weight watchers dessert yogurt.

                         

Chinese style curry sauce made with cauliflower sw chips and egg fried rice. The sauce was a great success I added boiling water to the cauliflower along with a chicken stock pot, 3 tbsp of curry powder and 3 tbsp of soy sauce. It made tons so I have some for the freezer now. I had courgette, onion and mushrooms with mine and Rich had chicken. 

                         

I ended the day on 9.5 syns (3 for the danio 3 for the bubbly bite and 1 for the advent chocolate) along with my final HEB.

Day one done and dusted tomorrow brings much walking (stupid electrics on the car) and Christmas movies I think. 

Give up or keep on going

Yet again it's weigh in day and yet again I've fallen off the wagon....then got run over...and made lots of excuses. I'm tired from the MRI I don't feel well because of my asthma the sofa has kidnapped me all the reasons I have used to justify badly following the slimming world plan instead following the Karen is a lazy moo plan which involved eating whatever i fancy. 

So where do I go from here....approaching my two year anniversary of being back on slimming world I have lost just over 2 stone this year has been an epic fail I have managed to gain weight not lose it. Do I make the decision to stop attending slimming world and give up....well no that would be stupid because firstly I'd gain even more and secondly I'm not going to quit. I just need to get back on the bus and stop being a self sabotager. 

I do think this has been a special year in the sense of the upheaval and health issues so at least starting next week normality will resume and 2014 is promising to be much better. I will be back to work on Monday which fills me with a mixture of excitement and dread. Luckily my Sunday is so busy I won't have time to get too nervous. 

I have spent some time today planning my food for the week I find that having a plan helps a lot. After today I have two weigh it's until Christmas so will aim to stay on plan and see what happens. I will be flexible synning from Christmas Eve night until Boxing Day but hopefully not going to insane. 

2014 will be the year I am less flubbery I have wasted this year but no more. I also need to do my blog more often as it is not happy when I neglect it. Food pictures and my usual stuff will resume tomorrow so for now here's Doug.

       

Weigh in day

Well Tuesdays mean weigh in day and I went to group expecting a gain after only being properly on plan some Sunday but I managed to pull it back and stayed the same. I am happy about this and next week I am looking forward to a loss. 

Apart from weigh in today has been an odd day, I woke up feeling a bit groggy so coffee and breakfast was required. 

                        

Simple breakfast off beans and cheese on toast (HEA and HEB) with mushrooms and low fat quorn sausages.

Once this was nommed, Hollyoaks caught up on and coffee drunk I headed to Sainsburys as they had a special offer on Kahlua so we stocked up for Christmas as we do like it a lot. I also got a few essentials and headed home. I took Doug out on a walk which took longer than normal as he had lots of sniffs. 

The postie arrived with some goodies today and I got to work on one of them that I'd brought for Rich.

                       

It's amazing how tricky it is to make one of these but even if it does look like a little child has been let loose I'm happy with my effort.

                        

Unfortunately about a minute later it looked like this

                                      

Oops it kinda fell apart but still Rich got to see it all together and it's definitely the thought that counts ;)  I will sample a bit after weigh in.

Lunch was simple and light as I don't like to eat heavy at lunch on weigh in day.

                           

I love that Babybels are now Christmas themed :D the last of the Halloween ones have gone and the plain ones are just boring! 

The afternoon was spent relaxing on the sofa watching Pet Cemetary and the new Dawn of the dead. I will be rolling out the Christmas movies at the weekend when I start the wrapping and decorating fun!

Dinner was a bit of a weigh in night treat mushroom tortellini in a tomato and mascarpone sauce and garlic bread. Naughty but nice! 

                            

I'm off to London tomorrow so there won't be a blog but I will be on plan even taking a little packed lunch with me. Night night all xoxo 

Is it Monday

Being off work at the moment is certainly making me lose track of days. I actually had to check it was Monday and not a bank holiday though I think this is because Rich is off for the next two weeks on his ps4liday i.e two weeks to play his new console.

My aim for the day was to do some studying as I still have an essay to write....I managed to write another 300 words which isn't spectacular but it was still progress.

                         

I find it hard to study without background noise so I put on one of my favourite shows to keep me entertained.

                         

I adore the Gilmore Girls and I have watched it so many times.

Apart from my poor attempts at studying I tried for read some more of my book today but Doug had other ideas.

                         

Food wise it has been a good day on plan and heavy on the superfree side which was kind of accidental but was satisfying.

                         

A mushroom courgette and onion omelette with my HEA of cheese.

                         

Cauliflower pizza topped with tomato purée mushrooms and courgette. I made the pizza base by wizzing the cauli in the food processor then adding an egg and 40g of cheese. I shaped the base then baked it for 15 minutes until it has hardened. I then added the toppings and a further 40g of cheese so two HEB's used and baked for a further 15 minutes. 

                          

A roast dinner with a lot of superfree. The only syns were for the gravy (1.5) it was so yummy and I am lucky I do love my veg.

                           

Pudding danio (2.5) persimmon two bubbly bites (6) and advent chocolate (1) taking the total too 11.

I am going to settle downw nd watch an old vampire show now night night all xoxo

Zombies and Vampires oh my.....aka lazy Sunday

I have been a bad blogger and bad bus girl recently. I have been struggling a bit since last weigh in to stay on track i am good during the day and then by nighttime the CBA's hit and i fancy eating junk food. I had a chat with a lovely friend last night and we both decided today we would get right back on the wagon so I did.

It's been a pretty lazy day today I had originally planned to get up early and take Doug to the big park but when I woke up in the middle of the night and struggled to get back to sleep I turned my alarm off. I managed to wake up at a semi decent time and seeing as it's the 1st December I opened my Christmas coffees and sampled their yumminess. I got some breakfast on whilst I caught up with last nights xfactor and match of the day.

Good old sw fry up with 1.5 syns for the quorn bacon and 1 syn for the 2tbsp of tomato sauce.

Once this was done I decided to take Doug out for a walk around the block and by doing so it achieved my silver body magic award after many false starts. Will have to make sure I get my shiny for this Tuesday.

We had the fun of advent calendars today, it's a tradition I love and makes me feel all Christmassy. Rich has a malteser one and even Doug got one this year.

Most of today has been taken up with movies, it has been a proper lazy Sunday and has been great. 

Proper zombie flick day and now I'm settling down to Interview with a vampire love this film. I do love movie Sundays.

Other food wise I had three tin soup and babybels for lunch 

Dinner was epic tonight I made sw KFC mine with quorn fillets Rich had his with chicken.

It was so tasty The BBQ beans were made with regular beans, to them I added 1tsp chilli powder, 1tbsp of Worcestershire sauce and 3tbsp of balsamic vinegar along with some sweetener and tomato purée. Then just cooked as normal.

The chicken (actually quorn fillets cut into goujons for me and other half had chicken). First I soaked the pieces in very thick stock for a while (the chicken stock pots are good for this) The breadcrumbs were made from 60g of whole meal bread to this i added 1tbsp of garlic powder and mixed herbs then 1tsp of chilli, paprika and onion granules. I dipped the goujons into egg then into the breadcrumbs and cooked for 15 minutes. I sprayed them I'm frylight before cooking 

During the evening I have grazed on this array of synnage taking my total to 12.5 for the day.

The hifi bar was my final HEB and the danio was one syn. I have calculated the truffles at 4 each based on the average for them as the were made by a friend. 

I will endeavour to try and blog daily now and stay on the bus. I know it's too late for weigh in this week but at least I can get into the right frame of mind. Night night all xoxo