Homemade taboulé (Syn free)

It has been a very hot day today, reminding me how I miss a good taboulé. In France, it's one of the most popular salad in summer.

So tonight, I decided to try to come with a recipe which would be as close as possible.

 

Taboulé recipe:

400gr couscous

500ml boilingwater

300gr tomato passata 

1/3 of a jar of syn free Colemans concentrated mint sauce 

Cherry tomatoes cut in quarters

Orange pepper bell

Weight your couscous in a plastic container, add your water, cover. Once ready fluff the couscous with a fork. Add the rest of the ingredients in the couscous and mix well. Refrigerate for a few hours. Taboulé is served very chilled.

If the taboulé is too dry for you, more passata and mint sauce can be added.

Holidays

So I had a week holidays and I did not watch what I was eating. Let's face it, I'm not the only one who has done it and probably won't be the last.

What scared me was how easy it was to go back to eating unhealthy. I had ice cream and biscuits. crisps, chocolate, more chocolate ....

I mastered some courage this morning and got on the scales:

1/ felt ashamed

2/ screamed at myself

3/ really really mad at myself

4/ OMG, look I can't do it and I just ruined everything I did the last 2 months

5/ (breathing deeply in) it's ok, managed to do it I can do it again 

And that peeps are the 5 stages of grief Slimming World way 

Week 7 weight in

Loss: 4lbs

Total loss so far: 1st 7lbs

Week 7 has been a better week. I increased my intake in speed vegetables and reduced my speed fruits. It's also my ⭐️ week.

Healthy eating inspector

Meet my new healthy eating supervisor... Cinder.

 

He will be helping with my meal planning and look very closely at my syns 😂.

Struggling

Been struggling a lot with snacking recently. It was not a major problem until last week, but it is one now.

Did some microwave crisps last night. I know it is a tweak but it's still better to have homemade ones than opening a pack of very fatty one. 

I had some salt and pepper mix left over from when I did Chinese. I sprinkled it on top of mandolined protatoes with fry light. 4.5 minutes for each plate in the microwave, checking at 2 minutes to make sure they were not burning.

 

Weight lost visual aid

I'm doing slimming world online, as I'm not going to group and I still need that little push people would get in group, I created a visual aid. Standing proudly on my fridge, my little clouds of weight loss are there when I open the fridge. It has been laminated so I can erase them if needed, I use some white board pens to colour them in.

 

The green dots are my weight ins. As no one at home knows about me and slimming world (my dirty little secret lol), it is not titled.

Knitting club

Every week I go to knitting group. Once every two weeks, the pub we go gives us some free food, usually chips and sandwiches.

Last night was proper torture as on top of our own spread, they served the darts club a creamy curry with naan bread, the smell was divine. It took a lot of effort to no eat anything from both buffets. 

And the worst is that some of the girls brought a box of Roses chocolate and some homemade cheese puff pastry hearts.

#iamsoproudofmyselfasididnottouchanyfoodatthepublastnight..... but jeez did I want to

Reality sucks

Got a shock this morning, kind of a wake up and smell the roses shock.

I dropped my car to the MOT station this morning, yes it is this time of year where I have to have that dreaded  car check done. As I did not really sleep last night, I arrived one hour early, and let's face it I was not ready to wait 2 hours at the garage. So I went to town to find a coffee shop.....need caffeine.....

I managed to find a Sainsbury's, ordered a large americano (no milk, no sugar). I walk towards a sit and  SMACK.... reality gave me a hard check... I was unable to fit my whole butt in the chair!!!! What the plum pudding!!! I managed to fit most of it by wiggling in it but still.

I felt stupid but thankfully nobody noticed what I was doing.

Hopefully I will keep on track and this will never happen to me. 

Thank you Mcvities

So today I got to Tesco to buy the new thins. At work the girls and I had the Oreo thins. We were all surprised than such a small, or more like thin, could pack the same taste as a whole regular size biscuit. At 1.5 syns each they are well worth it. Each packet contains 2 packs which could also limit the damage. Except for the digestive which are coming in one pack....Oh dear, will power required!!

Tesco as a promotion on the Oreo thins at the moment only 54p, the others are sadly a bit more pricey at £1.59.

 

Loaded pizza

Did not feel like cooking today, so I did a loaded pizza.

I used my healthy B and A which means that it was syn free.

Yummy

1 Bfree Foods whole grain wrap healthy extra b

40gr of reduced fat cheddar healthy extra a

1x Yellow pepper

Half an onion

1Tbspoon sweet corn

A few mushroom sliced

Tomato purée for the base

And some ham

I cooked it in the oven at 180 between 5-10 minutes

My life saver this week

My diet saving food this week is definitely Kingsmill whole meal no crust bread. 3 slices for healthy b!!!!

I usually use two, toasted, for a sandwich and the third one for a sweet toast, used it with PB2 chocolate peanut powder and banana.

 

I'm crazy

That's what I told myself today.... and you may ask why?

Well with all the good intentions in the world I started Slimming World again very close to my birthday. I know I am now wondering if on top I do not have a bit of a sadistic touch in me too. But I told myself it's ok, I can do it. Turned out that NO... I can't do it.

And then December was around the corner, and once again I told myself easy peasy... it will be a walk in the park haha Not. I was counted on me not being that popular but recently I started taking part in different craft groups around my area and I took a new job in August. So I ended up going to a lot more Christmas party than before. 2015: 0- 2016: 4  and still a few more to go to. 

And even if I started with all the good will in the world, I did not plan properly and that folks is my bigggest downfall. That and working for the NHS where chocolate and biscuits are available all the time.... 

Quote of the week

Trying to stay motivated.... went to bed last night quite full and woke up early (way too early, I mean 5:00 am kind of early) due to my stomach complaining it was hungry. Could literally eat a horse... ok a small one but still. I'm keeping busy by posting here and after that I will do some crochet (keeps my hands busy).

Good start

I know it's only Tuesday but I had a good start to the week, even my snacking while cooking has improved, I still snack but instead of eating high syns food (i.e: crisps, chocolate etc...) i use seafood sticks.
My dinners since Sunday have been healthy and I have upped my intake of speed food. Need to work on my syns tho as I'm in the high scale of it.
Still I'm proud of myself

I'm back ...

So after almost a year away, I'm back. I lost my mojo big time and let's face it, it is still not back but I have to do something. I did have health issue with my eyes this year more problem but my check up on Thursday went ok and I'm responding to treatment alright. So that's the good news, on the minus side my condition is a life time condition and no matter what, I will have treatment for it the rest of my life.

Arrghhh

I just realised it has been a few weeks since I last blogged. It has been a few hard weeks for me. The exhaustion and crying all the time is back. It feels like I'm always empty and don't have any energy. Which can only mean one thing and it's that the thyroid meds are not working as good as before. Even my close friends can see that I have deteriorated lately. Eventually I have taken the decision to go back to the doctors to sort it out.
I know it sounds silly but it is difficult for people to understand as it does not look like anything is wrong with me from the outside but people who suffer from the condition do know how much of a struggle it can be (particularly when it has been diagnosed recently). For the other people, the only way I can describe it is as being in a state of deep depression, which is one of the symptom and if often confused for it. It also affects weight loss and even if I managed to loose 7 pounds in the first two weeks the weight is back even if I'm still eating healthy.

Where is the chocolate

Arghhh, that is it I've done it. After being good all week, I ate 2 bars of chocolate at work. So ok my blood sugar was low and it's mainly to avoid passing out again, but it's no reason really.
Part of me hate myself and part of me is too tired to care anymore. The major test was tonight tho. After all eating some chocolate at work for a good reason is alright, but when it usually happens I end up going home and munching on everything sugary in the house. Let's not forget that my better half has got no problem with his weight and loves chocolate (Ay.... I know life is cruel).
To my big surprise, I just got some salmon for supper and did get my hands in the chocolate jar but did not eat them, instead I contemplated them (don't ask, apparently my brain is finding the shining chocolate wrappings fascinating tonight).
So all in all I'm happy because yes I had some chocolate today but I did not pig out when I came back home. Might seem like a small step for you but in fact it's a huge victory for me Today, you never know what challenges tomorrow will bring.