Ruby's Diary: 97lbs the Slimming World way

Roll up, roll up! Come and see the incredible shrinking woman. Maybe.

Hello!

I’m ruby, and after much deliberation, I’ve decided to keep a food diary. I pondered over it for a while because I thought that it’d cause me to obsess about food. Seeing as I’m already an expert at that, I can’t see that a diary is going to make it any worse. So here goes...

As for the basics, I’m 22, I live in West Yorkshire, and I’m an accounting and HR manager at a leisure centre. At my first weigh in on 7th December I was 16st 13lbs, but I’m currently 16st 2.5lbs.

I’m now into my second week of Slimming World, and I’m finding it fairly easy and effective so far. I was encouraged at the first meeting to try the extra easy plan, but in my first week I followed a red and green meal plan in a SW magazine and lost 10.5lbs. I’m sticking with the red and green against the wishes of the consultant- naughty Ruby.

Its not because I just think I know best. Alright it is, but I just can’t seem to get on with the idea of the extra easy plan. Although I like the idea of being able to eat unlimited everything (almost), I just think I need something with a bit more control so I don’t go mental.

Its early days yet, but the original and green choices seem to suit me, because although I can have unlimited amounts of certain food on the different days, I still feel a sense of achievement at the end of each day when I’ve stayed within the limitations.

So, week one was a complete success. I followed the magazine meal plan almost to the letter, and averaged one syn a day. The pounds fell off. Hurray!

This week hasn’t gone quite as swimmingly. For a kick off, I went for the annual GCM (Girly Christmas Meal) with my friends. This was straight after my Tuesday meeting, and following my miraculous weight loss I was feeling quite inspired and was fully prepared to have grilled fish and vegetables.

I fell at the first hurdle. It was my intention to have melon to start, but I caved and had minestrone soup. Not too bad, but by then I’d veered off the plan and after that I just freewheeled through the evening. I had steak in dolcelatte sauce for my main course. It was SMOTHERED in this creamy cheese sauce, which by the way was too delicious for words, but the syn count must have been in the 50s! Luckily no-one had a dessert, but I caved in to a cappuccino too. The good news is that one of the girls I haven’t seen for a while also goes to SW and we seem to have recruited a few new members from around the table too. I hope we’ll be able to help keep each other on track.

I’m hoping that my dolcelatte sauce nightmare wont do too much damage. I’d had such a busy day at work that I didn’t have lunch, so all I’d eaten that day was a few apples and half a mullerlight. We’ll see.

On Tuesday (up until the sauce incident) and Wednesday I was Wonder Woman. Really. Our cook didn’t turn up at work and after much frantic ringing around I couldn’t get a replacement. Because none of the other staff were able to run the cafe, we decided to just do cold sandwiches and make plenty of cakes to tide us over until the prodigal cook returned.

Without blowing my own horn too loudly, I’m pretty good baker, so I was nominated to save the day. I spent all day making brownies, lemon cheeecake, chocolate rocky road cupcakes, mini victoria sponges, snickers flapjacks, coffee and walnut this, frangipane that. Endless treats, and I didn’t so much as lick the spoon! I’m usually very enthusiastic about quality control (read: eating half of them before they’re cool), but I sent them off to the other staff to check that they we’re ok. I don’t think I’ve ever shown such control!

So that brings us to today, a green day. I have eaten:
a Quorn sausage and baked beans,
a pear,
some pineapple,
some fat free cottage cheese,
2 apples,
Quorn chilli and cous cous,
3 shape 0% yoghurts,
2 alpen light bars.

Im also working my way through 350ml of skimmed milk in tea and coffee.

I’ll admit to having a mars bar krispie bun earlier. So gutted about that after my saint-like restraint yesterday. I couldn’t begin to guess how many syns its worth but I haven’t had any others today so hopefully I’ll be within my limit.

Sorry this entry has been so long and rambling. Now that I’m back up to date, I’ll try keep up to it so you’ll have easy, bite-size entries. There I go again, obsessing about food...

Lots of love,
Ruby
xxx

Well done Ruby. Particularly on the star baking turn ! Concentrate on the things that you did well (like avoiding the quality control stuff - although I hope the quality was up to scratch despite that.....!) and try to plan for next time to avoid the pitfalls.

I totally agree with you about the obsessing about food bit but I think I have to in order to plan and therefore stick to plan. So I have just accepted that's how it is (and might always be) but it's under control and not damaging (in fact is probably very beneficial).

Sounds like you have had a good day.

I wouldn't worry about red/green/extra easy though. Do what suits. I have only ever done EE and I love it but that doesn't mean I'm not prepared to try red/green in the future. I know what you mean about feeling that you need some control but it really hasn't affected me. But go with what you feel most comfortable with and be prepared to experiment with other plans if needed.

Hope you have a good rest of your week.

Gail x

Thanks Gail!

I've always been food obsessed so I can't imagine it'll stop any time soon. Takes me hours to get around the supermarket! God help me if I don't take a shopping list, I'm lost in there for days!

I've just noticed your stats. 46lbs off! thats a super achievement! Very inspiring to someone just starting out.


xxx

Acai Berries: Myth or Miracle

Hey guys and gals!

A thread started by Maximus has prompted me to start taking my acai berry capsules again. You can find the thread by clicking here.

I first learned about acai beries, like some others in the thread, by a pop up ad offering a free trial course of the supplement. The ad I saw claimed that people had lost pounds by taking the capsules but without making any other changes to their diet or lifestyle. Although I knew that this would be impossible, I was still curious so I had a look around on the internet to see what I could find out.

It seems that acai plants grow in the Amazon, but the fruits don’t travel well. Thats why we get the extract in powder, juice or capsule form here. When its taken with a colon cleanse tablet people claim to experience weight loss

I decided to give them a go because even if it didn’t turn me into a size 8 beauty, it certainly couldn’t do any harm.

I didn’t want to buy my capsules from the pop up add- it all seemed a bit dubious. I went to Holland and Barrett the next day and bought 2 bottles of acai capsules and one of aloe vera colon cleanse tablets. I cant remember how much I paid for them but I did get them in some sort of offer. Also, the lady in the shop was so impressed that I pronounced the name right (ah-sigh-ee) that she gave me a free magazine and a bag of cashew nuts on the house!

This all happened long before I started Slimming World so I took the supplements as directed but didn’t make any changes to my diet or exercise habits. Needless to say, nothing happened. So to anyone hoping for miracle weight loss using these tablets, don’t bother!

That said, I still have about 2 weeks supply of the acai and colon cleanse so I’m going to take them again now that I’m following the SW plan to see if they boost my weight loss. I’ll report back next week to let you know how I’m getting on.

And so, to yesterday’s eating. I was having a red day and I had:

A mullerlight
pears
grapes
pineapple
quorn chilli (left over from last night)
apples
fillet steak in “diane” sauce with a 226g jacket potato (hexb and 1syn)
options hot chocolate (2 syns)

You can find my recipe for diane sauce by clicking here.

I feel like I had quite a good day, although I forgot to fish the beans out of my chilli. I’m estimating I had about 4 syns worth.

I was really hungry today but kept ploughing through with my superfree fruits. They really weren’t hitting the spot, but I resisted the temptation to pop to the shops for naughty treats. Instead I had a long bath, suggled up with an options hot chocolate and toddled off to bed before I could raid the christmas stash!

Just has a sneaky weight in and I’m 2.5lbs lighter than I was when I had my official WI on tuesday. If i can just shift another pound before tuesday I’ll have my 1 stone sticker. Two shiny stickers in two weeks would make me a very happy girl!

Hi Ruby,

Hope you continue to have a great week. Sounds like it's going well.

I can't tell you how chuffed I am at how well SW is working for me. I wish I could bottle the feelings that I have about what I'm doing at the moment and sell it. I never planned this, I just thought I'd give it a go because I knew a few people that had inspired me - some with relatively small losses (1-2 stone or thereabouts) and others with some really big losses (5-6 stoneish) so I did and I haven't looked back. That's not to say that it's always easy (or that I always stick to plan because I don't always) but it mostly is. I have had to totally change the way I eat, think about food and plan, plan, plan (hence the obsession about food) but I don't particularly feel deprived (occasionally only). I feel on top of the world. I have dropped 3 dress sizes in 4 months. I hope that I can (maybe now but I hope more so in the future) inspire others.

Good luck on your journey and hope I can help

Gail x