Becca Jane St Clair

Barbecue sauce is a fantastic condiment/sauce that you don’t really think much of when you use it. You just grab a bottle and squirt, or grab a bottle and dump the whole thing in your crock pot with some meat. But bottled barbecue sauce is full of sugar and it can be a detriment to your weight loss. Fortunately, someone has come up with a Syn Free version of barbecue sauce! Below you will find the recipe for the barbecue sauce as well as a few recipe ideas for using it.

[Please note: Syn values are based on my exact ingredients using the online calculator. Your Syn value may vary based on your ingredients and the size of your baking containers and portions, so use this number as a guide only.]

You will need:

500g Passata (one carton)
4 TBS Balsamic Vinegar
1 TBS Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 tsp powdered mustard (Colmans)
3 TBS Splenda
1+ tsp mild chili powder
pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)

All you need to do is combine the ingredients in a pan over a medium heat and cook until it thickens. You can use as much mild chili powder as you want until you get it as hot as you prefer, and you can even add some dried flakes or use hot powder. If you’re balking at the price of Balsamic Vinegar, I found a large bottle for 99p at Lidl.

When it’s cooked, it’s ready to be stored it in the fridge for about a week.

Alternately, if you are going to use in in a recipe, you can put all the ingredients into a bottle and give it a shake.

Total Syns = 0

It goes fantastic with my family’s Kitchen Barbecue recipe, modified for Slimming World!

You will need:
500g lean turkey mince (or Quorn mince)
2 packs Quorn hot dogs, sliced into small rounds*
2 bags Uncle Ben’s boil in bag rice
200g frozen peas (or mixed veg)
1 Knorr Stock pot or stock cube (either chicken or vegetarian)
250ml hot water
one batch of Slimming World barbecue sauce

1. Cook Uncle Ben’s rice for half the time listed on the package (I think it says boil for 10 minutes, so only boil for 5)
2. Spray a wok or large frying pan with fry light and brown turkey mince.
3. Mix stock pot/cube with 250ml hot water and add to the mince along with the half-cooked rice.
4. Stir in the frozen peas or mixed vegetables. Cover, and let cook 5-10 minutes.
5. Stir in the barbecue sauce
6. Add the hot dog pieces, cover, and cook for 10 minutes or until hot dogs are warmed through, the vegetables are cooked, and sauce is bubbling.

Total Syns = 0

Or, you could use the barbecue sauce to make a SW friendly Hunter’s Chicken with chicken breasts, bacon medalions (with the fat cut off), and your HEA cheese option (or Syn the cheese).

Another idea might be to toss the sauce into a crock pot with a piece of pork for shredded pork.

The possibilities are endless as you can use this sauce exactly like you would barbecue sauce from a bottle!

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*If you’re not following Slimming World, you can use regular deli hot dogs (not the tinned ones) or you can Syn the hot dogs.

The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]

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In February 2012, I blogged a Hairy Biker’s recipe for Sausage and Bean Pie. Tim and I both loved it, but the recipe went out of rotation when I started eating low-carb in March 2012, and never made it back into the rotation until today. I was cold and I wanted some good, warm, comfort food. Since beans and potatoes are free with Slimming World, I thought I would try my hand at modifying the recipe.

So, let’s take a look at the original recipe:

You will need:
750g Maris Piper potatoes
3 TBS cooking oil
8 sausages (I used Tesco half-fat)
2 x 415g tins of baked beans

So right away, I see a swap I can make. Instead of cooking oil, I will use Fry Light. And instead of any sausage, I will pick a low-syn or free sausage. Fortunately, there’s this nifty little graphic floating around Pinterest to help:

I chose to use Quorn sausages, which also makes this recipe vegetarian. The ones I had in our freezer were 1/2 Syn per sausage, so that makes the total Syns for the dish so far 4 Syns.

Beans and potatoes are free, so those can stay.

Now, we’ll look at the instructions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C. Quarter the potatoes and put in a pan of boiling water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes or until soft.
2. Meanwhile, fry the sausages in 1 TBS oil until browned. (or grill them)
3. Put the sausage in the bottom of a shallow casserole dish and cover with beans. Set aside.
4. Drain and roughly cut the potatoes into chunks. Don’t worry about the skins. Some of the skins will fall off after boiling, some won’t.
5 – Fry the potato chunks in the remaining oil for 2-3 minutes. Pour potatoes on top of sausage and beans
6 – Bake at 200C 15-20 minutes until potatoes are crisp on top and the beans are hot.

Right away, I spot the word fry. Instead of frying the sausages, I could grill them as that doesn’t add any syns. And the potatoes that need to be fried can be done with Fry Light, which is free. Or, I could Syn the oil, but I want this dish to be as low Syn as possible. I’m also going to take my advice from my previous post and add poached eggs to the meal to help fill us up more. Other than that, it looks pretty straight forward. So my new and improved Sausage and Bean Casserole now looks like this:

You will need:
750g potatoes
8 low or no Syn sausages
2 x 415g tins of baked beans
Fry Light
2 eggs per person

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C. Quarter the potatoes and put in a pan of boiling water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes or until soft.
2. Meanwhile, grill the sausages as per package instructions,
3. Put the sausage in the bottom of a shallow casserole dish and cover with beans. Set aside.
4. Drain and roughly cut the potatoes into chunks. Don’t worry about the skins. Some of the skins will fall off after boiling, some won’t.
5 – Fry the potato chunks in Fry Light for 2-3 minutes. Pour potatoes on top of sausage and beans.
6 – Bake at 200C 15-20 minutes until potatoes are crisp on top and the beans are hot.
7 – While casserole is cooking, bring a pan of water to the boil. Carefully drop in two eggs per person, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook 2-4 minutes, depending on how soft you want your eggs.

The result? This:

Total Syns for the whole dish? 4. So take the number of portions and divide to get your Syns. We each ate plenty, plus I have some to save for breakfast in the morning, so dinner tonight was 1 1/2 Syns.

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]

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I sometimes struggle to eat my Healthy Extra A and B each day, particularly the B choice, as I got myself out of eating carbs the year I followed a low-carb diet. Fortunately, I found this recipe for Weetabix Muffins on facebook that makes eating my Healthy B easy and spreads it out through the day (or makes a night evening snack). Since I also needed my Healthy A, I frosted the muffins with cream cheese.

[Please note: Syn values are based on my exact ingredients using the online calculator. Your Syn value may vary based on your ingredients and the size of your baking containers and portions, so use this number as a guide only.]

You will need:

for the muffins:
-2 crushed Weetabix biscuits
-2 eggs, beaten
-1/2 of a container of any flavour müllerlight yogurt (I used 3 desertspoonfuls of the Cranberry & Raspberry flavour)
-2 tsp Splenda
-1tsp vanilla essence

Silicone muffin cases

for the “frosting”:
-70g Philadelphia Lightest
-1-2 tsp Splenda
-1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1) Pre-heat the oven to 180C
2) combine Weetabix, eggs, yogurt, Splenda, and vanilla and spoon into muffin cases. you should fill the cups to nearly the top. I made 5 using my heart-shaped cups from Lakeland, but I think it would have made only 4 in regular sized ones. If you don’t have silicone cases, you could use paper liners in a cupcake pan.
3) bake 20-25 minutes, until the edges pull away slightly and they are springy.
4) If making “frosting”, combine cream cheese, vanilla, and 1 tsp Splenda. Give it a quick taste test and if it’s not sweet enough for you, add some more Splenda.
5) Spread on top of slightly cooled muffins for your HEA and HEB in one go!

Since I used a pink coloured yogurt, mine had a slight pink tinge to them and a vague taste of berry. They were slightly on the sweet side, so I might use less Splenda the next time and also try them with just vanilla yogurt.

If you have already had your A and B for the day, you would need to calculate the Syns. Philadelphia Lightest is 1.5 Syns per 25g on all plans, and Weetabix are 6.5 Syns on all plans. I would round up the cream cheese in the frosting to 75g, making the icing 4.5 Syns and the muffins 6.5, or 11 Syns total for all the muffins with frosting. Obviously, you could then divide this into your per muffin Syn value. If you made this into 5 muffins, they would be just over 2 Syns each.

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]

For full Copyright and Disclaimer, please read http://www.blog.beccajanestclair.com/copyright/

Thursday to Friday last week I was on the Shuttleworth Ward at the Lincoln County Hospital for what amounted to 24 hours. The care I had in hospital was excellent, and the staff there even waived the visiting hours rule for me since I was brought in as an emergency case and my status was unknown for large parts of Thursday evening and Friday afternoon. But before I get to that, let me explain what was going on with me, in a sort of diary form as that’s the easiest way for me to get everything out.

30 December 2013
I woke up with a very large, very painful lump/bump on my neck. A call to my regular GP yielded no available appointments, so a trip to the Monk’s Road Walk-In Centre was made. At the clinic, the nurse diagnosed me with an Abscess and prescribed Flucloxacillin, with instructions to seek medical help if the pain or swelling got worse.

31 December 2013
I was wheeling around Waitrose and started to feel ill in general. I don’t even remember going through the tills, but I did stop in the cafe for my freebie cup of tea (Peppermint, I thought to calm my stomach) and a sandwich. Well, I wasn’t able to eat my sandwich and only could sip at my tea because the pain was getting worse by the minute and the pain was spiking up into my head and across my shoulders to the point where I was holding in tears. After talking to my husband, it was decided that I needed to get to A&E and my options were waiting for the bus, going home and waiting for Tim to get home, or asking someone to take me. Fortunately, Tim works with someone who was coming on to relieve Tim and he happened to live near to where I was, so he gave me a lift to the hospital.

While there, I was sent straight up to the ENT Clinic and the doctor there diagnosed me with Cellulitis and prescribed a higher dose of Flucloxacillin and some Codeine for the pain. He set me an appointment in two weeks, where it should “be the size of a pea” and he would be able to easily cut it out. Oh, if only we had a crystal ball…..

1 January 2014
I woke up completely disoriented and didn’t even know where I was. A text message full of gibberish went to Tim who was at work, and I eventually got it together enough to ring 111. 111 sent me to the After Hours GP at the hospital, where it was determined that I was having a reaction to the codeine and was prescribed Naproxen (Alieve! Hey, I know that drug!) instead. The after hours GP also told me this wasn’t an abscess or cellulitis, but was a sebaceous cyst.

2 – 4 January 2014
The cyst got bigger.

5 January 2014
Just as we were getting ready to welcome friends to a garden railway party, I started to feel amazing. No pain whatsoever, but…what’s that smell? I went all over the house trying to find the source of this smell before I said to Tim “I think it’s me” and he looked at my neck and sure enough, the cyst had exploded. It wasn’t a burst, so much as an explosion. Friends came to the rescue once again and our local friend Sue took me into A&E so Tim could stay with our guests. At A&E they drained it….which was really painful and told me I “wouldn’t need to be seen again” for this issue. Again, where’s that crystal ball?

6 January 2014
Yep, it got bigger again.

7 January 2014
I noticed hives on my arm and back, and just assumed it was from the dust we kicked up cleaning the workshop earlier in the da, so I took some antihistamine and went to bed.

8 January 2014
I had a routine appointment with my dermatologist and showed her my neck. She was alarmed at the size of it and said I needed to see an ENT urgently (good thing I had the appointment already booked) and made noises about plastic surgery on my neck to remove the “capsule”. Yikes. She also refilled my flucloxacillin, but when I told her about the hives, she advised that it could be the flucloxacillin and to keep an eye on things and if the hives got worse to seek medical attention or come in to see her.

Later that night, the hives came back. I wound up ringing 111 and going into after hours to get my prescription changed to Erythromycin, and the GP there advised that I have my GP office add an allergy to Penicillin to my record.

9 January 2014
Despite being off the flucloxacillin, the hives got WORSE. Painfully worse. My fingers were swelling, my wrist were swelling, and my hands were painful. I rang my GP office as it was still during their open hours and I was told to come straight in. I saw Dr Nellist who took one look at me, measured the abscess (which had grown and started to weep), took my vitals, and said “I’m ringing the hospital and sending you there”. eeek!

I got to the hospital around 7PM. We had no idea what was going on, but then Tim saw my name up on their board that shows who is in what bed and we both said “uh-oh”. Tim stayed with me and I was seen by the ENT within an hour who prescribed an IV antibiotic and an IV anti histamine. The plan was to drain the abscess, but at this point they weren’t sure if it would be that night or the following day. They finally decided to wait until morning, and told me I could eat until 3AM. At this point, Tim went home to get me some things for overnight (pyjamas, a blanket, entertainment) and some food. He came back around 11PM and helped me change (hard to do with an IV stuck in your arm!) and I got into bed. The nurse offered to bring me toast and tea around 230 in the morning so I’d have something in my stomach in the morning just in case. They also added an IV drip around 6AM of what they called a “meal in a bag”. You might recall the last time I was in hospital I had to ask for this, so I was happy to not need to ask!

10 January 2014
A very nice trio of doctors came to see me and the consultant wanted it to be drained that morning. However, the junior doctor didn’t feel comfortable doing it since she hadn’t done it before on a neck, so I had to wait for the other doctor to be free. After finding out it wouldn’t happen in the morning, they decided to feed me Lunch, but I was advised to take it easy on the food just in case, so I just had a salad.

The surgeon came past just as I was walking to the loo and told me he was going to do it now, so I hurried back. The whole procedure took maybe 20 minutes under local anesthesia, but it still was really painful. Tim arrived partway through and I told him to stay away because it was really gross! After he was done, the surgeon advised for me to stick around for another hour but he didn’t see any reason why I shouldn’t be able to leave as long as I had no complications and to keep it dry for 48 hours.

Of course, there were complications. They came in the form of a lovely ring of hives on my back and across my chest. Crap. So, more anti histamines and IV antibiotics and I needed to see a doctor to determine if they needed me to stay another night. The anti histamine worked, so the doctor decided to release me into the care of my GP if the hives came back and they gave me prescriptions for Clindamycin and an anti histamine.

10 – 11 January 2014
I was okay, but the dressing came off so Tim had to help me apply a new one. It was bleeding a little, but nothing to be concerned about.

12 January 2014
I decided to take a bath, and Tim and I had a date night, a lovely meal out at Ask! Italian followed by the latest Hobbit film. I only had a small plaster over my neck and all was well, so we went to bed.

13 January 2014
This morning, I woke up with my hair covered in blood. At some point overnight my movement caused it to burst again. A phone call into my GP had me going in to see the nurse, who gave me some dressings with stronger adhesives and took a look at it. She discovered that there is still a core inside my neck several inches long and I would need more antibiotics, so I was given some Erythromycin again, and a follow-up appointment for Thursday. Tomorrow I see the ENT (the original appointment given to me by A&E way back on the 30th), so we will see what happens. Like I said, the dermatologist wants me to see a plastic surgeon, so we shall see what happens.

But let’s sum this up…in the past two weeks I have been to:

-a walk-in clinic
-A & E 2x
-seen an ENT doctor 3x
-After hours appointments 2x
-admitted to hospital for 24 hours
-on-call/emergency GP appointments 2x
-seen my dermatologist

and been prescribed:

-Flucloxacillin 3x
-Codeine
-Naproxen
-Erythromycin 2x
-Clindamycin
-Chlorpheniramine
plus 3x antibiotics via IV and 2x antihistamine via IV

as well as had minor surgery.

Because I have a pre-pay prescription certificate the total cost out of pocket to us for all of this care? about £10 in parking fees.

Who exactly thinks national healthcare is a bad thing again?

PS: Yes, I have photos of my neck day-by-day but they really are too gross to post!

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]

For full Copyright and Disclaimer, please read http://www.blog.beccajanestclair.com/copyright/

Wow. I joined Slimming World 12 weeks ago and bought a Countdown to Success….and well, I’d say it’s been a success! Tonight was my week 12 weigh-in, and not only did I achieve my Club 10, but I also got my 1 1/2 stone award. Yep. 10% lighter than I was at the end of October. I can’t tell you how pleased I am.

I also kept track of my measurements in an excel spreadsheet and I’ve managed to lose 28.5 inches overall in 12 weeks AND my BMI has gone down by more than 4. Even more amazing is I’ve lost over 4 inches from my belly, something that as a PCOS sufferer is really hard to do!

I’m getting there.

Slowly, but steadily. I had a few wobbles in the past 12 weeks (gained 1 lb at our wedding anniversary week, gained 1 pound over Christmas), but overall the trend has been down. I might only be dropping a pound or two per week, but it’s all going in the right direction.

And honestly? I don’t miss the junk food. With 5-15 Syns per day, I’ve still been having “junk”, just in moderation. A Lindt truffle is 4 Syns, so when I have one I get to savor the flavour and enjoy it instead of just shovelling it into my mouth. Or biting into a crumpet with a little bit of Flora light spread on it. Even drinking an Options hot chocolate becomes a taste event as the hot chocolate is 2 Syns per 11g (one sachet). Sometimes I save my Healthy Extra A and use it to make a milky Options hot chocolate before bed. Most of the time my HEA is cheese. If you put milk in your tea, you can either take it out of your HEA or you can count it as .5 syn for a splash, so I tend to spend my syns on milk and go for the cheese. Our consultant said she doesn’t like having cheese because of measuring it out, but when you start to shred it, it really becomes quite a lot of cheese! I got a hand crank grater from Wilkos for less than £2 and that makes it super easy to grate. Or I’ll stir Philadelphia Lightest into some pasta for a take on macaroni cheese.

When it comes to my Healthy Extra B, I sometimes struggle. Especially when crackerbread got removed from the options! But 2 Alpen Light bars or 2 Hifi Light bars count as the HEB, and that includes some chocolate variations. A couple of Ryvita topped with cream cheese is both my HEA and HEB at the same time. Lately, I’ve been eating 2 slices of wholegrain bread from a small loaf for toast. The most important part is carefully measuring out your As and Bs. Argos sells a cheap digital scal for a fiver, and most measuring jugs, cups, and spoons can be had for less than £1 for a set at Wilkos.

And the free and superfree food! Some of the things that are free are Amazing! Baked beans, Mullerlight yougurts, rice, pasta…..all unlimited. All free. Fresh/raw fruit….superfree. Veggies? Do whatever you want to them and they’re superfree. And don’t forget your lean meats, bacon with the rind cut off, quorn mince (and some other products, like quorn hot dogs!), mince with less than 5% fat…..All unlimited. I have made so many meals totally free, which saves up my Syns for treats later.

So what has a typical day looked like in the past 12 weeks?

Breakfast – Baked beans and scrambled eggs done with fry light (sometimes on Toast as my HEB), sometimes an omelette with my HEA cheese), mullerlight yogurt, an apple, a banana. On days that we have extra time, I do a Slimming World “grill up” – grilled tomatoes and mushrooms, bacon without the rind, and eggs. I’ve made breakfast sandwiches combining my HEA & HEB with eggs and bacon. And always a cup of coffee with a splash of milk (.5 syns) and a cup of tea with milk (.5 syns). Sometimes I’ll enjoy a glass of Innocent Orange Juice (2 syn per 100ml), though I haven’t had juice in ages. Usually if I want orange juice, I’ll mix up some orange sugar free squash (FREE).

AM snack – a cup of green tea (milkless) and an Alpen bar or Hifi Light bar (3 Syns or half my HEB). Usually another piece of fruit or a handful of cherry tomatoes.

Lunch – Salad, a jacket potato topped with Tuna and lightest mayo (1 syn per TBS), a grilled gammon steak (no rind) with fresh pineapple and a fried egg, If I haven’t had my HEA and HEB yet, sometimes I’ll do Ryvita with lightest Philadelphia topped with some chopped veggies. For a dressing for my salad, I’ll take some fat free fromage frais or Total 100% greek yogurt with some dill and other herbs in it (free) or a 1/2 Tablespoon of some imported Hidden Valley Ranch dressing (.5 Syn). I usually round out the meal with a mullerlight and an apple, banana, some grapes, or strawberries.

Afternoon Snack – A cup of green tea, and some veggie sticks. for a dip, I make one out of greek yogurt or fromage frais and some dill and other herbs.

Dinner – We might use some syn free barbecue sauce (recipe coming soon), a HEA worth of cheese, bacon, and some chicken breast to make hunter’s chicken served with lots of steamed veggies. Or I might put some salmon with lemon pepper and dill in the steamer along with some potatoes and other veggies. If I haven’t used my HEB for the day, I might blitz some wholemeal bread and make breadcrumbs for fish and chips or chicken nuggets. Occasionally we’ll have a pasta based dish, since pasta is free, but I’m still on the low-ish carb thing and I’d rather eat potatoes than pasta for a carb! On Sundays, I do a full roast with potatoes, carrots, parsnips, etc.

Bedtime snack – Options hot chocolate (2 Syns) with a splash of milk to make it creamy (.5 syns) and a pink and white wafer biscuit (2.5 syns)

At this point, I usually tally up my syns for the day to see if I can have anything else. If I eat everything listed here, that’s 12.5 syns for the day so I usually will end it at that especially if I had any other cups of regular tea with milk, but if I had less than 10 syns, I might break into the chocolate and have an Lindt truffle.

I still sometimes keep a food diary. My cousin suggested a journal to track things, and Slimming World encourages you to track your first four weeks. I very religiously tracked for my first 4 weeks and continued on until around week 8. Then, I only tracked things when I felt like I needed to keep track, like if we ate a meal out. But I find tracking my food a very good tool and while I don’t want to track food for the rest of my life, if it works, it works.

And next week? Another Countdown to Success. 12 more weeks. If I can lose another stone and a half, that will bring me within a few pounds of my first target!

Are you interested in joining Slimming World? Check their website for your local group’s information! Their website also has some great taster menus for you to try out before you join, and several women’s magazines have been running coupons this month to get your first week for free!

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]

For full Copyright and Disclaimer, please read http://www.blog.beccajanestclair.com/copyright/

When you join Slimming World, you are given a booklet with all the information you need and the back of the book has your weight loss log. Your consultant also gives you 4 weeks worth of food diary pages. I decided that I needed to have my own little journal to use as I saw fit, and I thought I would share my journal with all of you so you can work out how to make your own.

First, I needed a really nice notebook. Fortunately, I had a Cath Kidston notebook I received for free back in March, and I decided to use that one.

As you can see, I added a red ribbon to the inside and back cover to tie it shut, and I made a pen loop from some Union flag ribbon on the back. I also used some post-it tabs to tab off the weeks as they happen so I can easily go back and look at other weeks.

The inside front cover is peppered with things I printed off Pinterest. Some are silly/sarcastic, some are motivational…basically, anything that would keep me going and bring a smile to my face. I also glued in the post-it tabs so they would be handy. I use the smaller purple ones to mark important things I want to be sure to be able to find again.

This was my very first day on Slimming World. My week goes from Thursday to Wednesday since we have our group meeting on Wednesdays.

When I got my first 1/2 stone off, I pasted it into my notebook and marked the spot with a purple tab to find later.

And when I reached personal milestones, I wrote them down in my book, too.

One stone gone, and an inspirational quote I needed to see that week.

I also cut things out of other weight loss magazines that offered some encouragement, like this woman who was around the same age, weight, and height as me.

Lastly, on the back cover, I pasted in some syn value charts I found online and kept a running list of the synned items I had frequently. During the first four weeks of dedicated daily food tracking I found this list invaluable as it meant I didn’t have to keep flipping through books, checking an app, or going online. This is particularly useful if I’ve had to put the nutritional information of something into the calculator on my own, so I don’t have to check it again.

Today is the start of Week 12 for me, and my notebook is about halfway full. I might get 12 more weeks into the book, I might get as many as 20, it just depends on what I feel I need to put in the book each week. Some weeks have a page for every day (if I was tracking everything daily), some weeks I squeezed a whole week onto 2 pages, some weeks I only needed one page. It all depends on what I want to put in my book to remember. And when I fill up this notebook, I’ll start a new one. For me, this is helping to keep me on track!

Want to print out some of the inspirational phrases for your own book? I saved many of them to my hard drive and will put them below. I’m afraid I can’t give credit to the original creators because I don’t know where they came from, they were just gathered off of Pinterest.

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