During the past week, I have eaten:
- 1 microwave spaghetti alfredo
- 2 packets Uncle ben's microwaveable rice
- 6 large baked potatoes
- 800g very low far cottage cheese
- half a tub of Quark
- 2 kg of grapes
- 14 large bananas
- half a mandarin
- 12 cups of tea with milk
- 30 cups of herbal/fruit tea
- 700g of cooked chicken pieces
- 2 cups of white coffee
- 3 packets of sliced roast beef
- 250g of cherry tomatoes
- 500g of mircrowaveable vegetable packs
- 750g frozen fruit
- 1 shish kebab
- 1 dozen eggs (9 boiled and 3 poached)
- 2kg of fat free, natural yogurt
- 1 packet of sliced boiled ham
- 2 packets of sliced chicken
- 1 melon
- 5 kiwi fruits
- 500g back bacon
- 1 sweet & sour Quorn meal
- 100g mushrooms
- 2 tins baked beans in tomato sauce
- 1kg very low fat fromage frais
- 4 grilled beefburgers
- 2 Mars bars
- 2 Milky ways
- half a coffee & walnut sponge cake
- 18 Muller light fruit/flavoured yogurts
- 4 oatcakes
- 5 pieces of smoked mackerel
- 4 Alpen cereal bars
- 120g of porridge oats
- 1 litre semi-skimmed milk, approximately
- 2 small slices wholemeal bread
- 5 bits of Ryvita, sesame
- 2 packets of Ryvita minis
- 5 mini babybel light cheeses
- 6 laughing cow extra-light cheese triangles
- 120g smoked salmon
- 110g grilled whiting
- 1 tin tuna steaks in brine
- 1 tbsp houmous
...and I still lost 6lbs in weight!
Truly, I say to you, I don't believe it....!!!!
Wednesday, 30 January 2008
Sunday, 27 January 2008
Watch this space - it may get smaller!
Okay, I know. It is months since I've been here and added anything to this, but my good friend John - who has established a new Sallybloggers thingy, has invited me to join that - so I feel I should make some effort...
Last time I was here I'd just started an employability course. That's probably what took all my attention (and much of my energy) away for a while, hence my long silence. It was really good though, as was the result, as I am now employed for the first time in many years - or at least I will be soon, as there's been the usual hold-up waiting for my enhanced disclosure to appear, and I've not actually started yet. The course was for support workers, and we had guaranteed interviews at the end with employers we applied to; so it won't surprise you too much to know that my job is a support worker! I'll be working with people (most likely with learning disabilities) in their own homes, assisting them with everyday living tasks, so that they might maintain their tenancies and their independence...
For those of you who are Salvationists and wondering who I am and how I know John - well, that's easily answered. I'm at soldier at Gorgie Corps in Edinburgh - I moved here last March from Gosport - where John and Marta used to be the corps officers! I've recently been given the role of halls caretaker - with a seat on the corps council; and I'm also a songster.
As regards my title today - well, it went like this...
Just before Christmas, I overheard half a conversation between Captain Iain Hudson, my corps officer, and Richard, one of our adherents. "You'll come, won't you Paul...?" Iain said - in a kind of rhetorical tone - and before thinking of asking what I was coming to, I answered in the affirmative - as I'm always happy to do whatever I can to help...
Well, it began last Wednesday - the first-ever morning meeting in Edinburgh - of Slimming World! I have to say, this time last week, I was terrified! At over 21 stones I had no argument that I needed to go to such a group - and I have said for some time I might go if I had someone else to go with - but all the same, I'd visions of us having to be constantly on the phone to each other for support, every time we got the munchies...! To me, it was like a life-sentence as I have to say, I do enjoy my food...
Never fear though, for the SW regime is a strange one indeed. Depending on which type of day you've decided upon (basically a meat day or a veggie day), there's lots of stuff you can eat in unlimited quantities. They call that 'free food', and it forms the bulk of your total diet. Then there are 'healthy choices' - they differ slightly for the two types of days - and you choose one or two things from two lists of these. But best of all is the page that says in big letters - Choose your 'syns'! Now there's a sermon title, if ever I saw one...!!! Basically everything else has a 'syn' - short for synergy, apparently - value; and you're normally allowed up to 15 syns a day.
Alas, already Iain and his wife Alison have been having a good laugh at my expense! He just happened to tell me how little he'd eaten on Thursday - and I responded with a list of all I'd had... Apparently, it's the way that I write that had them in stitches as much as the content. Though it must be said, there was a lot of content - and there has been ever since. I'm panic eating you see - just like people panic buy loads of stuff they don't need as soon as there's the slightest suggestion of a shortage - well, I'm doing the same with eating! Well, that's my excuse anyway - and I'm sticking to it...!
Anyway, it is mostly 'free' food. Well - apart from the day I got up and decided I couldn't be bothered to make porridge, and thought myself very self-righteous in having four dry oatcakes instead. Until I discovered that they have a syn value of 2.5 each, that is...
Then it was downhill all the way - I had a little morsel of that coffee cake that was rapidly going out of date in the cupboard, then another; then half a small mars bar - then the other half. Total syns for the day = 22. Still, I assured myself, even if I end up eating six healthy options and 20 syns a day in addition to all the free stuff, I'm not going to beat myself up about it, because that's infinitely better to what I've been eating before - and if Slimming World doesn't like it, tough! I'm more important, after all...
Oh - and have you ever tried Quark? Don't...!! It's 'free' - so I bought two big pots. Maybe its okay when you cook with it - but the creamy, Philidelphia appearance is where the similarity ends - it is absolutely evil in a jacket potato - believe you me. Don't go there - you have been warned!!
Friday wasn't so bad - only 5 healthy choices and 12 syns all day; and Saturday even better - and even despite the provision of a buffet at Edinburgh City Corps where our songster brigade joined forces with theirs - the Northern Ireland Youth Band, and the ISS bass, Ian French - for an evening festival. I took my own mixture of free foods for a green day - wholegrain rice, flaked fish, boiled eggs - bound together with a spoonful of Quark, which actually, wasn't too bad; plus a banana and a packet of Ryvita minis.
And best of all, I had a lovely letter in the post from June, the SW consultant, welcomiong me to the group. "By the way," she added on the end, "your syn allowance is 5-25 per day." Alleluia! God's good - even when you exceed your 'syns' he organises it so that the goalpost moves in your favour!! Ha ha! So forgive me if I leave you for now with that nice little analogy - but never fear, I'll be back before another six months, as I have every confidence I'll soon be looking for things to distract me from yet more guzzling....
Last time I was here I'd just started an employability course. That's probably what took all my attention (and much of my energy) away for a while, hence my long silence. It was really good though, as was the result, as I am now employed for the first time in many years - or at least I will be soon, as there's been the usual hold-up waiting for my enhanced disclosure to appear, and I've not actually started yet. The course was for support workers, and we had guaranteed interviews at the end with employers we applied to; so it won't surprise you too much to know that my job is a support worker! I'll be working with people (most likely with learning disabilities) in their own homes, assisting them with everyday living tasks, so that they might maintain their tenancies and their independence...
For those of you who are Salvationists and wondering who I am and how I know John - well, that's easily answered. I'm at soldier at Gorgie Corps in Edinburgh - I moved here last March from Gosport - where John and Marta used to be the corps officers! I've recently been given the role of halls caretaker - with a seat on the corps council; and I'm also a songster.
As regards my title today - well, it went like this...
Just before Christmas, I overheard half a conversation between Captain Iain Hudson, my corps officer, and Richard, one of our adherents. "You'll come, won't you Paul...?" Iain said - in a kind of rhetorical tone - and before thinking of asking what I was coming to, I answered in the affirmative - as I'm always happy to do whatever I can to help...
Well, it began last Wednesday - the first-ever morning meeting in Edinburgh - of Slimming World! I have to say, this time last week, I was terrified! At over 21 stones I had no argument that I needed to go to such a group - and I have said for some time I might go if I had someone else to go with - but all the same, I'd visions of us having to be constantly on the phone to each other for support, every time we got the munchies...! To me, it was like a life-sentence as I have to say, I do enjoy my food...
Never fear though, for the SW regime is a strange one indeed. Depending on which type of day you've decided upon (basically a meat day or a veggie day), there's lots of stuff you can eat in unlimited quantities. They call that 'free food', and it forms the bulk of your total diet. Then there are 'healthy choices' - they differ slightly for the two types of days - and you choose one or two things from two lists of these. But best of all is the page that says in big letters - Choose your 'syns'! Now there's a sermon title, if ever I saw one...!!! Basically everything else has a 'syn' - short for synergy, apparently - value; and you're normally allowed up to 15 syns a day.
Alas, already Iain and his wife Alison have been having a good laugh at my expense! He just happened to tell me how little he'd eaten on Thursday - and I responded with a list of all I'd had... Apparently, it's the way that I write that had them in stitches as much as the content. Though it must be said, there was a lot of content - and there has been ever since. I'm panic eating you see - just like people panic buy loads of stuff they don't need as soon as there's the slightest suggestion of a shortage - well, I'm doing the same with eating! Well, that's my excuse anyway - and I'm sticking to it...!
Anyway, it is mostly 'free' food. Well - apart from the day I got up and decided I couldn't be bothered to make porridge, and thought myself very self-righteous in having four dry oatcakes instead. Until I discovered that they have a syn value of 2.5 each, that is...
Then it was downhill all the way - I had a little morsel of that coffee cake that was rapidly going out of date in the cupboard, then another; then half a small mars bar - then the other half. Total syns for the day = 22. Still, I assured myself, even if I end up eating six healthy options and 20 syns a day in addition to all the free stuff, I'm not going to beat myself up about it, because that's infinitely better to what I've been eating before - and if Slimming World doesn't like it, tough! I'm more important, after all...
Oh - and have you ever tried Quark? Don't...!! It's 'free' - so I bought two big pots. Maybe its okay when you cook with it - but the creamy, Philidelphia appearance is where the similarity ends - it is absolutely evil in a jacket potato - believe you me. Don't go there - you have been warned!!
Friday wasn't so bad - only 5 healthy choices and 12 syns all day; and Saturday even better - and even despite the provision of a buffet at Edinburgh City Corps where our songster brigade joined forces with theirs - the Northern Ireland Youth Band, and the ISS bass, Ian French - for an evening festival. I took my own mixture of free foods for a green day - wholegrain rice, flaked fish, boiled eggs - bound together with a spoonful of Quark, which actually, wasn't too bad; plus a banana and a packet of Ryvita minis.
And best of all, I had a lovely letter in the post from June, the SW consultant, welcomiong me to the group. "By the way," she added on the end, "your syn allowance is 5-25 per day." Alleluia! God's good - even when you exceed your 'syns' he organises it so that the goalpost moves in your favour!! Ha ha! So forgive me if I leave you for now with that nice little analogy - but never fear, I'll be back before another six months, as I have every confidence I'll soon be looking for things to distract me from yet more guzzling....
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