First up, I don’t want to become a diet bore so I understand if this type of post isn’t your thing. Fear not, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of dire dating stories coming up real soon! But it’s good for me to write about my Slimming World results to try and keep myself on track.
For those that are interested, this is my Week 2 Slimming World update and it’s been a good week. Don’t get me wrong, there are some days where I’d like nothing more than to faceplant a gateaux or five, but generally speaking, I’d say there aren’t many times when I’ve felt hungry.
So the first thing I did in Week 2 was buy a new set of digital scales. I just wasn’t 100% sure that the scales I had for Week 1 were really accurate and if I’m going to lose weight, I want to do it properly. So £15 later, I now have (what I hope to be) scales that don’t lie. Unfortunately. This means that I’m half a bloody stone heavier than I thought which is SO annoying, but at least I know where I stand. Naked, on a set of scales, in the middle of my kitchen, on a cold January morning, that’s where.
Food-wise, I’m still cooking from scratch a lot and I’ll share another recipe or two with you later this week. Knowing exactly what I’m eating is invaluable and means that I’m not eating any of those (delicious) hidden sugars that you can find in everyday foods.
I tend to eat a similar thing for breakfast most days – variations on fry-ups! So I’ll either poach or dry-fry eggs (2 or 3), and have them with grilled tomatoes and/or muschrooms, a rasher or two of fat-less bacon, if I can be bothered to wait that long, and 2 dry Ryvitas. I don’t mind the Ryvitas dry because it’s just the crunch I’m after and I don’t want to waste any of my syns on butter.
Lunch tends to be a Mugshot and fruit. I have had the occasional jacket potato and salad but let’s face it, soup in a cup is a whole lot quicker to make.
I’ve made lots of Slimming World friendly dinners for the boys and I – Bolognese (with hidden grated carrot, mushrooms and extra tomatoes), pulled pork – a real hit, salmon and salad – I’ve just found out I can eat the salmon skin which felt like winning the lottery, and yesterday I made a Sunday roast, with Oxo roast potatoes. Deeeeelicious!
I’m allowed up to 15 syns a day – a certain amount of syns are allocated to treats – for example, a fun-size Milky Way is 3.5 syns, and I save them up for when I’m most likely to want to pick at sweet stuff, ie. When I’m finally in bed watching TV. Probably THE worst time to eat sugar, but that’s just how it is. At least for now. And it means I can get through the day not eating rubbish because I know I’ve got a nice treat to look forward to.
Things I’ve Noticed
Boobs
I’ve always always had big boobs and I’m glad to see they’re reducing in size, but not only that, they’re just not painful anymore. Not matter what time of the month, they were just quite painful to lug around (poor boobs – I love you really), but now they fit in my bras much better, my back aches less and if I am bra-less at the end of the day (aaaaaaahhh ……), I’m not in agony. Result!
Habits
I’m forming good habits. I always have a full fruit bowl in the house so that both boys can help themselves. Dexter is a big fan of smoothies so has one every other day. I’m aware that you have to ‘syn’ pureed fruit but because Dexter isn’t on a diet per se, I’m allowing them and we’ll see if it has an effect on his weight loss. When he comes into my room to chill with me of an evening, we’ll have an apple each whilst watching TV – it’s something he’s asking for and he loves my Weetabix Chocolate Brownies, especially with raspberries on top, so we might have a slice of that each too. I just don’t want him (or me for that matter) to feel like we’re being deprived because as soon as I feel like I’m missing out, I know I’ll cheat.
Money
I won’t lie, I find myself doing top-up shops throughout the week because we seem to run out of food a lot quicker. Having said that a) it’s mostly for fruit, b) I’m not spending any money on takeaways and c) there is definitely much less food wastage because I’m now cooking everything I buy instead of it getting to Thursday, I look in the fridge, can’t be bothered to cook and get a kebab from round the corner. So financially, I don’t think I’m any worse off.
Mood
I can’t believe how much more energy I have these days now I’m fuelling my body with healthy food. I had become so sluggish and was finding it difficult to get off the sofa, so in the last 2 weeks I’ve built ALL the flat-pack furniture, taken myself to Whitstable for a day trip to take photographs, visited friends and family and celebrated my son’s 21st birthday and not once has my back ached or my joints creaked. I’ve wanted to do more things and it’s strange to think I hadn’t really put 2+2 together and realised that because I was eating rubbish, I felt like rubbish.
Meals
Here are a few meals I’ve cooked this week – mostly syn-free:
Dry-fried salmon, Slimming World wedges, salad – also, you can eat the salmon skin!
Slimming World fry-up – 1 square Heck sausage, tomatoes with a drop of balsamic vinegar, poached eggs (gutted I broke 1!)
Slimming World Pulled Pork & Salad
Treated myself to a Nandos and chose the best SW friendly items (I think!)
Shop-bought chicken tikka on a jacket potato with salad
Results
So how much did I lose in Week 2? I lost 5lbs! A great result and I feel great. It’s hard to be exactly accurate about how much I’ve lost in total because of the scales debacle, but I’m just going to go with one stone in total. So 9lbs for Week 1 and 5lbs for Week 2.
I’m a member of a few SW Facebook groups which I find real encouraging and if you’re following this diet, I’d encourage you to follow some too. There are recipe swaps, motivation chat and before and after photos. In fact, one lady was looking for some before and after photos to motivate her and she was inundated, so I thought I’d post one of my own. The ‘before’ photo is of me the week before Christmas. It’s hard to see my body clearly but I think you can see a lot of weight on my face. The ‘after’ photo is one stone down and was taken yesterday – in the disabled toilet of a lazer rush party in Whitstable. So it’s not great quality but it’s the best I could do I’m afraid!
Keep an eye out for some recipes later in the week because home cooking is key to this diet and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.
Have a great week!
You’re doing really well. I’m on a healthy eating thing for January but the diet proper will start in Feb – hope I do as well as you.
Thank you Christine, and best of luck with your journey too. Keep me posted!
Woah! What a huge difference already!It’s not that many lbs when you say it quickly but you can really see a huge difference, I always think “oh I’ve got such a long way to go…” and get put off, maybe I need to take weekly snaps?? That’s amazing, keep it up! x
Thank you V! I’ve just added some photos of the food I’m eating too and you’re right, documenting it and doing weekly updates should hopefully keep me on track. I have SUCH a long way to go but need to take it one week at a time x
Well done you! You brilliant. I’m doing weight watchers and have lost 4.1lbs this week so 7.9lbs in two weeks we I am really happy with. I have just been diagnosed with diabetes so I can’t even save me points for sweet treats!I can see the difference already, my stomach looks less bloated and my face looks a little slimmer. Keep up the good work!
Thanks Carol and well done to you! I just didn’t get on with the old WW because I ended up thinking about food ALL the time because you had to be really quite strict with quantities, which is why SW suits me better. Well done on your loss – will you be blogging about it? Would like to see some before and after pics of you too x
You always look great but I do think you can tell a difference between the two pictures!
Looking forward to following your journey!
Thanks Donna! I think the most important thing for me (which I should really add to this post) is that I just FEEL so much better!
I can finally eat this week after suffering tonsillitis last week so I will be making those weetabix brownies to keep me going 🙂
Oh you poor thing! Was it a case of Mugshots all day every day? Lol! I’ve got a new chocolate cake recipe to try out this week too! 🙂
Well done! I’m on a slimdown this year too – wishing you all the luck in the world!
Thanks Claire – and to you!
You’re doing so well Kate! Well done- food looks lush. Surprising how much you can eat on plan isn’t it!?x
Aww thank you Katy! x
Awesome job! And you look amazing (not that you didn’t before of course!) I used to make a scan bran chocolate cake, which while tasting nothing like chocolate cake was pretty good with fat free yoghurt of and loads of fruit and of course help shift the lb’s!
Keep going lovely! x x
Oh thanks Mary! You are lovely! x
Bloody amazing!! I need to get back to Slimming World – that’s how I lost two stone.
Thanks! You haven’t put any on though by the looks of it?
Thanks! It doesn’t look like you’ve put any weight on though?
Welol done lady that’s amazing results and you sound so positive xx
Thanks Kara 🙂 x
Well done to you! Those meals look so good will def keep an eye out for them on here. Keep it up x
Thank you! I’ll try and do a weekly update to keep myself motivated if nothing else lol! x
wow Kate that is amazing. Keep going girl – i have weigh in number two tomorrow and I’m sat here drinking gin!!
Thank you and good luck! With the weigh-in, not the gin 🙂
Well done on your weight loss! I’m glad you are enjoying SW and making lots of nice foods. If I don’t recognise you when I next see you – do grab me won’t you?! 😉
xx
Thanks Nadine! It’s good to be cooking again – pulled pork on again as we speak! x
Your recipes are great and i found them so much easier with teh actually pictures you take . I am a working mum , but these recipes are quick and simple , once you have all the bits n bobs ( spices and things ) its easy just to pick up meat and fresh veg . Love it Love it LOVE IT xx thank you for sharing Kate
Oh thank you Tracy! So glad to hear you’re enjoying the recipes. I know how time poor us Mums can be so I’m only uploading simple and easy to follow recipes. Keep an eye out for more to come 🙂
Massive well done Kate, I’m on the same journey but not quite to the level you are at the moment. You can be my inspiration! Mich x
Thanks Michelle! How much have you lost so far? x
Just came across your blog as was looking for Ida’s to go with leftover syn free wedges! Well done you are doing amazingly I am restarting SW fir the third Ruhr son that i can slim down for my wedding in august! Looking forward to your blog keeping me company along the way!!
Thanks Helen! You’ve got 8 months, and a lot can be achieved in that amount of time, trust me! Wish you the best of luck x
Hi Kate just read your post and wondered how much weight you have lost now as I noticed the post was from a year ago! I’m on week 2 and hoping lost more this week! Lost 6lbs on week 1!
Hi Elaine. I’ve now lost 3 stones and 6lbs. I’ve moved away from SW now as I plateaued for 2 months – I go to the gym a lot which had an effect on my weight loss. I still use a lot of SW recipes though. I write about my weight loss journey every Sunday if you want to catch up 🙂
I’ve just started slimming world 3 days in and scales not budged bit disheartened.
Tina, stick with it. I don’t follow SW now, but it does work. Could you speak to your leader? And maybe look at the amount of free foods you’re eating – even though they’re ‘free’, I think you still need to use your common sense … it’s very easy to overeat. Good luck!