to think i can do my own slimming world?

[meladeso]

I was going to start going, as I've about 2 stone to lose. I was thinking I could do with the structure, to keep me on track. But honestly, I just don't really want to join.

I don't find eating healthy that hard, but I eat too much (portions) and snack too much. And definitely drink way too much.
So I'm struggling to be consistent. I do do some exercise, but that's not enough on its own to shift this!

So I wanted to ask whether anyone has successfully managed their weight off their own back, without using a club / programme? And whether you'd share your ideas with me please?

I'm thinking I'll buy some good scales, set myself a weekly reminder for a weigh in, and write things down in some sort of book - calories/fat whatever, and weight lost.

I was planning to use MFP to track myself, and maybe do a sweep of the better healthy chefs to get an assortment of ideas for recipes and snacks.

I'd be very grateful for any more suggestions.

I joined, got all the books and pretty much never went back. Personally for me I can’t stand the weekly weigh ins and chats. I’ve just started again this morning and I think there’s so many online FB groups and info you can find you don’t need to actually attend on a weekly basis. Once you’ve got the tools (which I find very helpful) you’re pretty much sorted anyhow.

They also strongly encourage you to eat very processed "diet" products like Muller Light yoghurts -- heavy on sweetener, additives like gelatin (yuck) and not a lot of protein or things that will actually encourage satiety

That's not how our SW works

Anyway OP, I lost 3 stone by myself a few years ago, I logged food and exercise on my fitness pal and was doing away fine. Then I stopped. And put on 4 stone! Stayed that fat for a good while before joining SW. I lost 3.5 stone so far. I like the weekly weigh in and I liek the people. Often people try and cheat their way to weight loss which is where the SW muller light, curly wurly and dried noodle snack ideas come from, but it is what you make it.

Yesterday I ate

Scrambled egg or omelette with tomato and some grated cheese

Roast beef slices and salad followed by melon

Steamed salmon and broccoli

Also I have a skinny cappuccino most days and snacks which could be a small bar of chocolate, some ice cream, biscuits or nuts.

I don't eat bread often as it irritates my psoriasis (something I discovered after starting SW)

I joined and got all the information packs to read up on. I then stuck to the plan and went weekly to get weighed but never stayed for the actual group. I found that because I was still going to get weighed it was motivation for me to actually stick to the plan.

After a while I stopped going to the weigh in but because I was so used to the way I was eating I found I didn't put any weight on after that. It's so easy to follow and I would definitely recommend it, I lost 2 stone and reached my target weight so much faster than I thought I would

I’m pleased someone else has called out the rubbish spouted about how sw promotes crap food. If you actually read the plan properly you will see it is a calorie controlled eating plan which focuses on preparing lean, fresh food. The whole key to the plan is eating at least a third of each meal of “speed” food (food which is dense but low calorie - most veg and some fruit fall into this calorie). As one PP has stated the advertising of certain products is for those people who find the transition from their previous way of eating to the sw way difficult. I do however think the way in which sw advertises the plan doesn’t exactly help get rid of the stereotypes - they tend to use pictures of fast food style recipes and state you can still eat these things. You can but it’s not cooked the same and doesn’t generally taste the same either (fat is clearly delicious). It would probably help to remember that sw makes money for people going through the door and paying to get weighed, people will not pay £5 per week to be told to eat salad so it needs to seem more attractive than just eating leaves!

I agree that the guff about SW encouraging eating of muller lites and rubbish.

SW encourages you to switch to a lower fat diet high in veg and some fruits. Syns help to teach portion control for unhealthy foods or higher calorie dense food with people encouraged to allocate 100-300 calories per day on these types of food. This stops you feeling denied of favourite foods whilst learning to control portions and establish sensible limits.

I personally don't get on well with carbs so tend to use the SP version which restricts pasta, rice etc. Because I don't do enough exercise.

I always cook fresh and enjoy my food

I've lost over 3 1/2 stone and kept it off for a year so far.

I do think my fitness pal helps greatly if portion control is your issue. I love big portions so laden on the veg. before adding any higher calorie food

gosh well done everyone who's posted about what you've achieved. i have just ordered some scales, and think i will do a twice weekly weigh in starting whatever day they arrive.

i'm going to write my own sort of "recipe book" i think, and make sure i'm stocked up with good stuff for snacks.

anyone got any snack tips please that don't involve tons of prep?
rice cakes get pretty boring

I've never eaten a Muller Light in my life... And as for those foul instant soup things... . To me SW is about cooking fresh food with good ingredients and simply cutting out the fat and processed rubbish. I think it works well for most that follow it properly and doesn't need to involve any crappy "diet" substitutes at all.

SW is great if you don't really eat very healthily and you can get some good tips
but if potion control is your problem you might be better with something like the british heart foundation diet plate it comes with a good leaflet about diet and it helps with portion control. basically you have a bit where your protein goes, a bit where the starch goes and then fill up the rest of the plate with lots of veg.

Just a suggestion, but if you cook from scratch you could look at the Hairy Dieter cook books for some great recipes. Non slimming family members can add extras.

May I recommend The Two Chubby Cubs on FB and their web site. They constantly post recipies and write a blog which will have you in stitches. I have done my own plan. Based on SW but using all fresh ingredients. I think if you stick to cooking from fresh then you can’t go far wrong. Good luck x

Evening all. We’ll day one ish (first weigh in day is going to be my proper day 1) has gone ok ish

Smoothie for breakfast, soup and a few rice cakes for lunch, just tea and water to drink.
Then joe wicks prawn bhuna for tea, although I think I ate too big a portion and now feel stuffed
So at least it was low fat but need to get greed down!!
Then ate a tiny cookie which was bad form. But all in all could be worse.

grasspigeons that plate sounds fab.
Yes we always scratch cook, portions are certainly one of the biggest challenges. I love eating too much and don’t feel right if I’m not super full after eating.

Somehow got to train that habit out

I'm going it alone this time. Decided to cut out sugar as much as I can for a month. Stick to 3 meals days no snacks - veg based with some protein and limit carbs

Good luck Allthewaves
I guess sort of similar here
No one plan, just conscious effort and monitoring of weight
It's still snacks I'm struggling with- healthy options that don't need prepping
I can't go with nothing from lunch to dinner

Watch out with the smoothies, they tend to be very high sugar

nevereverever83 what a load of rubbish SW focussed on 600 foods listed in the book almost all unprocessed natural foods

I went from 12 stone to 9st and I have stayed the same weight for over 3 years now. No fad diet. Sustainable way of doing it.

Top tips ...

1. always breakfast. All the experts insist on this.

I hate eating in the morning so I have these shakes instead. They are the perfect nutritional balance (loads of science behind them)

m.facebook.com/mynutritionalplan

2. 80% is what you eat. I made gradual reductions rather than stop cold turkey!

no crisps, or pop (diet is ok) (it's too easy to pick those up every day out of habit)
Limit takeaways (i cut down from every week to once per month)

Reduce "added" sugar.
Cook from scratch.

3. 20 mins cardio every day. Then build up to 30. Start with 10mins if you have to. Whatever you enjoy. I do things like Davina Dvd. Exercise bike. Badminton etc and my own
   Bootcamp to vary it up.

4. eat high protein. Reduce carbs but don't but them completely. Top up meals with veggies instead of too many carbs. (Not root veg though )

Snack on nuts and veg.
Drink lots of water.

I think the number one for me is the breakfast thing.

But don't do just toast... it needs to set you up for the day with the right balance of protein and carbs etc which is why I love the shakes

Good luck

OP I'm doing SW because I really do need the motivation of going to meetings, but you could just do a calorie controlled diet. My Fitness pal apparently works for other people ( not me, I'm too bad at keeping track of my calories!) I was wondering if going by your food diary whether you are eating too little during the day and then are so hungry by the evening that you are overeating? Having a smoothie in the morning means the fruit is processed so its easier to digest and quite high sugar, then rice cakes and soup are very low calorie. I would be starving by dinner time!

Brilliant thread and advice. I have nearly 2 stone to lose which crept on over the last 18 months.

If you have problems with portion sizes, SW isn't the best option. Their idea is to eat as much of the "free" foods as you want. I never had success but did with WW and still do (goal weight and have been for 3 years).

There are plenty of sites online and Facebook groups with people to keep you accountable. I now use th3 Samsung health so to track the food I ear and fitness I do. It's free and tracks so much more than any weight loss club does.

You don’t have to eat breakfast - that’s a massive myth. If you’re not hungry, don’t eat. It doesn’t ‘kick start’ your metabolism or whatever people tell you - it’s a myth perpetuated by Kellogg’s etc. If it’ll stop you eating rubbish at 11am at your desk, that’s fine, eat it - but don’t think you have to eat it if you aren’t hungry.

My husband and I did exactly this starting January 2017. I used the Lose It! App (iOS) and he used My Fitness Pal (Android - he tried Lose it but it kept crashing and losing his data it got annoying).

In the year since we started I’m four and a half stone down and he’s just hit five stone lost. We bought a set of scales and do Saturday morning weigh ins (because if we do loosen the rules a bit it tends to be at weekends ). Calorie counting means we’ve been able to still factor in treats (tonight is our monthly Domino’s and DVD night - perhaps not in the spirit of things but calorie wise we manage it ok and having nights like this makes it feel more sustainable!).

In the last few months weight loss has slowed, I guess because we have less to lose, so we’ve taken up yoga and the gym respectively but we had good results to start with just changing our eating - mostly portion sizes / limiting snacking and switching coffees to skimmed milk etc.

There's a lot more research that shows eating breakfast is good for you (Nothing to do with "kellogs")

And if you exercise in the morning you'll probably need it !! ;- ) just not cereal or toast haha make sure it's got a good balance of protein and carbs

It's down to your willpower I think. You don't need slimming world or weight watchers or anything else for recipes and portions sizes; you can do that yourself online or with a book.

The value of the classes for some people is the routine and pressure of being weighed each week and meeting other people in the same boat. That's right for some people and not for others.

Good luck!

They only include things like muller lights to help the people who are used to eating rubbish transition from high calorie snacks to lower calorie ones.

But wouldn’t Greek yoghurt and berries be healthier or nuts/seeds as a snack? (Genuine question). Those muller lights are full of absolute rubbish.
Surely all the chemicals in them just mean you end up more hungry/unlikely to overeat.

Also, cooking with no fat? Fat helps us to feel full and satisfied. No wonder so many people put weight back on following these types of diets, it’s not teaching a long term healthy relationship with food.

OP, would you not be better looking at WHY you overeat? Is it habit / not stopping when you are full /eating too fast so you don’t recognise you are full / are you eating for comfort / to reward yourself? I don’t mean for you to answer, just some things to think about and I would guess addressing this would have a greater impact long term than any diet plan.