confused!!!

[sprite25]

I went to my 1st SW class last night, got my pack read through the books in it and looked through the website and...I don't get it! I want to do the extra easy plan but don't get all the 2/3 of your plate being the superfree food with 1/3 healthy extra a or b.... It's just confusing me the more I try to understand it, do you have to make every meal (even things like pizza) from scratch? How many syns would that be? The consultant at the class said something about trying to always eat a healthy extra with every free food? urgh is it more complicated then I hoped or am I just being thick???

It's just complicated at the start, after a few weeks it becomes 2nd nature.

Imagine your plate divided into 3rds. 2/3rds of that should be veg from the superfree section of your book. The other 3rd is your main bit. So an example meal could be lasagne and a jacket pot on one third, with 2/3rds of salad.

The one third can be a free item eg. eggs/potato/beans. Or an item with syns eg. slice of shop bought pizza. Or a mix eg. homemade bolognese which is free but you add some red wine (syns).

I don't know about the healthy extra with every free food. I used my a choice for milk in drinks and my b choice was usually a hifi bar for a snack.

Tbh, I never ever have 2/3rds of superfree food with my meal and I've lost 3 stone this way well, 1 pound to go!

Why don't you look at the website for some meal ideas? Or the magazine is even better.

You will quickly develop a small selection of favourite meals which you can prepare with no thought. I can strongly recommend the BBQ pulled pork on the website. I have it with potato wedges and no superfree veg ha ha

Wow they did a rubbish job of explaining it to you !

It's actually pretty straightforward when you get the hang of it

1 healthy A and 1 healthy B per day
1/3 each meal super free
Free foods include eggs lean meat fish seafood fruit veg frylight pasta rice potatoes

You will need to cook must things from scratch. The majority of processed foods have syns (especially pizza!) if you go in the website there is a syns calculator that toucan look specific foods up in

Stick with it, I've been doing it 10 weeks and find it really easy to stick too

Good luck!

I find for it to work you really need to be cooking from scratch using slimming world friendly recipes.

Something like spag Bol made with passata (nothing added
One) add your own herbs garlic and onions serve with dried spaghetti/pasta and the passata counts as your super free.

Other recipes such as the diet coke chicken you need to add lots of veg such as peppers onion mushrooms etched to have the 2/3 count

I lost over 8 stone on slimming world but do find it hard still. Also I restricted on the free foods like muller lights as even though they are free they are still 100 calories a pot and people would eat 5 or 6 in a day as well as the meals and snacks and wonder why they didn't lose weight

I made a mistake - 2/3rds is the main bit of your meal and 1/3 is the superfree veg.

I repeat - 2/3rds actual meal and 1/3 superfree veg.

Sorry, sorry, sorry

What I described originally (2/3rds superfree) is called 'success express' and can be followed if you want to speed up your weight loss or if you want to do some damage limitation after falling off the wagon!

I think I'm starting to understand it (abit) so every meal you have is 1/3 superfree (veg or fruit) and then 2/3 is something you can make from a SW recipe such as a lasagne? Then you use a healthy option a and b throughout the day such as milk on cereal for breakfast (but then I would of thought the lasagne would of taken up both a and b?) and then a syn for after dinner. Plus you can snack on free foods throughout the day such as fruit or yogurt (not 5 or 6 though) ha ha! Is that the jist of it????

Yes

If you use your a choice as milk on cereal then any further dairy has to be counted as syns. However, if you make a lasagne you might only use 60g cheese on top so once you've divided it into portions the syn count is actually quite low.

Remember you have between 5-15 syns per day so using a few on a meal still leaves you enough for treats.

Make your meals big then you don't need to snack so much. That's the beauty of SW, it lets you eat

If you google pinterest then search for slimming world there are lots of recipes/snack ideas.

Oh, and if you don't have 1/3 superfree veg with your meal you can have fruit for pudding which also counts.

you can make lasagne with quark on top instead of béchamel or fat free greek yogurt with a small amount of cheese on top. It tastes funny at first but you soon get used to it. I do roasted veg lasagne as I don't eat mince and am allergic to quorn.
roast off, aubergines, peppers, red onion, and any other veggies you might want o add. I do Mediterranean type veg as think it works better but my sister who's not keen on those does it with carrots, parsnips, beetroot etc. roast it with garlic and rosemary if you like it, a few squirts of fry light olive oil. when is cooked, layer in bottom of a dish, pour over some passatta, layer of lasagne sheet, then veg etc as you would a normal lasagne. top with the sauce in this recipe here or just fat free greek yogurt and a sprinkling of cheese. I use cheddar as prefer the way it melts to parmesan.

I used o try and stick to my meals being as syn free as possible and use my syns for treats such as mall choc bar or packet of crisps, or glass of wine/gin and tonic, so that I didn't feel deprived.

Warmer weather its much easier, as you can grill a piece of meat, adding dried herbs or seasonings and serve with huge salad, or veggies and then a bowl of fruit salad and fat free yogurt for desert. I freeze the yogurt in the summer and blitz with berries and its like ice cream.

I do find ti more expensive to shop for this type of diet though, but the pay of is worth it.

So if I was to use recipes from other healthy eating books how do I know if what I'm putting in adds up to a 1/3 of what I need? And am due to go for a girl's takeaway night in in a couple of weeks, how do I work that out? Oh I'm getting confused again

takeaways you need to syn. The book should have average syns of takeaway food in the back. I find its not worth synning and to stick to no syns for breakfast and lunch and then eat what I want within reason for the meal out/takeaway and then back on plan and no slipping for the rest of the week.

with regards to using other recipes, you need to look at the ingredients and see what is free what's synned, and then work it out. Usually add a side salad or helping of veg, or a couple of pieces of fruit for desert if you think it hasn't got 1/3 superfree.

it has to be a lifestyle change to, or you'll only put the weight back on. You need to get used to eating so much veg/salad/fruit again and cooking most meals from scratch.

use your online code for the forums and the website for meal planning. you can also use the food diary online to keep track of what you are eating and to check syns of pre packaged food if out and about.

Thanks Vicki like someone said I don't think the consultant explained it too clearly and as most of the other newbies had done it before I think she assumed we all knew how it works. I don't mind making things from scratch as long as I can do it in bulk and freeze it (I have a rather demanding 12 week old who hardly lets me go to the loo never mind cook!) I think I'll try reading through the books again and see if it all clicks into place

give her a ring and ask to see her. does she do any other groups? Ours usually keeps new members behind afterwards and goes through the book with you. Although often its when you go away you realise you need an answer to something. Call/text her and ask her to explain it all again. She shouldn't mind. Good luck

I've lost almost 2 stone doing extra easy. I'm finding the key is to be really organised about it. Meal plan for each meal. I shop at aldi which is amazing for fruit and veg. If I go out for the day I take lunch with me otherwise the temptation of sausage rolls is too great!
I prefer to use my syns on snacks and treats rather than meals.
If you want a specific recipe you can generally Google with the words slimming world in the search and one will come up.
Good luck. I love how much I can eat - just a little greedy piggy me!- on it.

If you buy the magazine it does a 7 day eating plan which does all the thinking for you! Might be a good start until you get your head around it.

I'm glad it's not just me! I started 3 weeks ago, and can't get ny head round stuff like 'syns' (and how sodding twee is that?!) and when I have to count stuf as a sun and when I needn't, and why I can have an apple, or even a grated apple, and it's 'sun-free', but the minute I whizz it in a smoothie it drags me cackling down to the very bowels of Hell! The explanations on here have been much more helpful.

And I can't be arced with this "Minique has lost 2 oz this week, let's all give her a big clap and Monique how have you been so successful?" and etc and it has never yet started on time and the rabbit on and wasted time is driving me bananas. (Syn free? Who knows?). Of course I am an anti-social misanthrope, so that could be it.

U', just going to go in, get weighed and come out, I;ll try the online recipes though.

Bah! Humbug! (God alone knows how many 'syns' are in a bag of Barr's Humbugs . . . . )

Attempted to sit down with DH yesterday to write out meal plan for the week, look up receipes and buy ingredients. It was a disaster! DH is neither use nor ornament and basically left it to me to try and work out. I can properly look up recepies as only have internet on my phone, no pc or laptop, and ended up coming back from the shop £20 poorer and nothing to show for it we don't even have anything for dinner tonight! It's actually really stressing me out already and I only did it one day!

Buy a slimming world magazine and use the 7 day menu plan. Start simple and add to it as you go along. Baked potato with a filling ie cottage cheese or tuna and salad. Pasta with a tomato and vegetable sauce, mushroom or vegetable risotto, omelette etc. make soups with veg and stock cubes. I do lentil or leek and potato. You can make any sort of sauce with tinned tomatoes, add vegetables and herbs or spices to make pasta sauce, curries, spaghetti bolognaise etc and just add whatever meat (remove all visible fat and use extra lean minced beef) you desire.
It will soon become second nature.

Get the sample menu off the sw website and start with that. Don't stress too much about 1/3 of this or that just focus on syn free meals and snacks, and sticking to the 15 syn maximum. Once you get the hang of that you can think about the thirds. I grill stuff or use fry light. Bolognese is easy and the tikka masala is lovely!

Oh and mug shots are handy for speedy meals to fit around baby - in my case twin toddlers who don't give me a second :)

I tend to have fruit and fat free yogurt for breakfast, or maybe scrambled egg with mushrooms and tomatoes at the weekend.

Lunch is either tuna/chicken/egg sandwich (2 x small slices wholemeal bread = healthy b), with salad, or I make a huge veg soup at the weekend (stock + onion, leek, carrot, swede, butternut squash, courgettes, boil with herbs then blend) and reheat for lunch.

Evening meal favourites are jacket spuds, mince dishes (extra lean) bolognese, Shep pie, chicken breast and roast veg with wedges (cut potato into wedges, spray with frylight, bake in oven for 30-40 minutes), roasts, curry ( worth investing in the budget family meal book IMO), paella (without chorizo if I want syns for chocolate).

Freeze portions of bolognese, curry etc for syn free ready meals.

Would it be easier to adapt things you already make rather than looking up recipes?

Tomato based things like Bolognaise and chilli are really easy to make syn free, soups are good...then add in new recipes gradually as you get into the swing of it.

With the third superfree - the easiest way is to add salad or a side portion of veg...you can add veg to things but I find it rarely makes up a third.

It's much easier is you buy SW recipe books. Extra Easy Express is brilliant. You'll get on much better if you get the book, honestly

Hi everyone,

I went to my first slimming world meeting on Thursday, I havnt started it yet I will be starting tomorrow, I feel like I need to meal plan first.

Can anyone recommend completely syn free yogurts? I'm thinking I could have fruit and yogurt for breakfast as I'm always rushing in the mornings and want something quick.

Also I don't want to waste my healthy b option of toast as I want it for lunch.

Muller light are syn free, Turkish delight is gorgeous xx