I am now one of those people who are blogging about a slimming journey.  I’m sure you’re thrilled!

Yes, you read that right, I joined another weight loss group.  However, this one is nothing like anything I’ve seen before, so I’m hoping that this is something different.  What I’m about to say, I’m not proud of, in fact, I’m quite ashamed of myself.  However, I know many of you have been through your own slimming journey and won’t judge, so I don’t mind sharing with y’all.

18st 9lbs (261lbs) the scales said when I stepped on them.  I almost cried.  My heart sank and I felt sick.  That couldn’t be right.  I’m officially at my highest ever.  The new meds the doctor has put me on, has ‘helped’ me gain a whopping 16lbs in the last couple of months.  My head spun.  I was pissed!

Yuck!

I just kept repeating, “Almost 19 stone”, Rowan turned to me and said,

“You sound surprised, like you didn’t expect it to be that much” and, I he wasn’t trying to be rude, but I guess he was right, I shouldn’t have been that surprised, but since we work in lbs in the US, I guess the ‘stone’ value, has totally passed me by.

I immediately became headstrong.  I was shifting this lard.  Starting NOW.

I picked up three of the SW cook books (Curry Heaven, Extra Easy Cookbook, Little Book of soups) and went home with a strong resolve.

The following morning, after a trip to the chiropractor and a ‘small fry’ in the Silver Lounge in Larne, I started flicking through the cookbooks, using the online website recipes, the Slimming World Magazines that my sister had given me, and started putting together a menu plan.

When that was done, I jumped in the car for my first solo voyage since I came back from the USA and headed round the corner to Asda to do my first ever SW shop.

I spent in the region of £135, and, had I been in my kitchen in the USA, I’d have spent less, I have a lot of the necessary herbs and spices at home, here, I didn’t.  The shop took me a long time, I had a list, separated in to different areas of the store, dairy, fruit, vegetables, spices and herbs, meat, canned goods, dry goods and ‘misc’.  I walked slowly up and down the aisles, trying to learn and pick out the things I’d seen last night at my SW meeting.

I got to the butchers counter, and, having been told that meat is getting cheaper to buy over the counter, than in the fridge cabinets, I decided to get some good meat.

I ordered some extra lean mince, some beef pieces, chicken fillets, boneless pork chops and asked them if they had any SW sausages.  They said they didn’t have a license (and SW has stopped any new butchers from getting licenses) but the places that had licenses to begin with, have kept them.

He told me that the best place in the North to get SW sausages, is a place on Bow St Mall in Lisburn (he couldn’t remember the name of it) he said they do five or six varieties of Slimming World Sausages – if you know the name of the butcher, please share!

Here’s a few pictures of various things I picked up for my Slimming World journey, most of them are ‘free’, and by that, I mean I can eat as much of them as I like, without having to count or weigh.

Just an FYI, diet Pepsi and Sprite zero/7up free are £1 a piece this week in Asda 🙂

For dinner, I made my first SW recipe, Spaghetti Carbonara (1 syn).  True to my ‘form’, I didn’t take the recipe ‘as is’ and I made some changes.

Spaghetti Carbonara (1 syn)

Ingredients

4 rashers bacon, all visible fat removed (or Quorn bacon-style pieces)
3 eggs
salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp fat free natural fromage frais
2 level tbsp grated parmesan cheese
small bunch of chives (I didn’t use these)
397g/14oz boiled spaghetti (I used pasta twists)

Things I added:

3 small chicken breasts
1 onion
Mangetout
2 cloves of garlic finely sliced (cause I’ve never had a carbonara without garlic)

Method:

1. Roughly chop the bacon (and garlic, chicken, onions) and dry fry in a non-stick pan for 2-3 minutes. Set aside.

2. Lightly beat the eggs, season to taste and add the fromage frais and 1 tablespoon of parmesan. Chop the chives and add to the mixture, reserving some for garnish.

3. Add the spaghetti and egg mixture to the bacon in the pan and stir gently over a low heat until the egg starts to set.

4. Serve immediately sprinkled with the remaining parmesan and chives.

Tip: To make a vegetarian Carbonara, swap the bacon for Quorn bacon-style pieces (which are Free), this makes the recipe just 1 Syn on all choices!

This recipe is not suitable for home freezing.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, I knew that without the garlic etc, the dish would be pretty bland, but I just wasn’t sure if I’d added enough by way of flavour.  This dish was divvied up between 3 of us, me and two men and we got pretty healthy-sized portions.

The dish itself was tastier than I expected it to be and both of the boys devoured it like they’d never been fed.  Both said they’d happily eat it again (and again, and again).