Starting SW again in the new year (and sticking to it!)....anyone else?

[lorneylou]

I first started SW in 2013, I loved it from the start. Consultant was fab, loved learning to cook new things, food was great and I wasn't hungry!

By October 2013, I'd lost almost 3 stone, felt brilliant, looked great, was very proud of myself.

By this time, I was finding it difficult to get to meetings, they were at an odd time and quite a drive away so I slipped a bit. Then it all went wrong when we went on holiday at the end of October, once in a lifetime kind of thing and I told myself I wouldn't worry about SW while we were away, I would enjoy myself. Well......I did, and I haven't been able to get back on track since.

So a year later I have gained most of the weight back (haven't weighed myself, too scared but fitting back into my stretchy size 16 jeans) and I feel like crap! Tired, spotty and I just can't be arsed!

I felt great from having a much better diet and although it took me a while to realise it!

So....I have found a much closer group that starts at 9.30 on a Tuesday morning, I will be able to get there after I drop DD off to pre-school and stay till the end of the meeting.

I have eaten so much crap at Christmas I am actually craving something healthy and looking forward to something green!

The hurdles for me....

Cost - We are a very low income and I will struggle to afford the meetings every week, but I am willing to give up whatever to ensure I stay motivated. We have had an especially crappy diet in recent months due to money shortages (eating the cheapest of the cheap) so shopping will cost more. I will work this out somehow

New group - I'm shy and not looking forward to a new group but will just have to bite the bullet...I did it before and I'll do it again! I also loved my old consultant and the group was a laugh, hope this one is as nice.

Portion control - I'm greedy, and that's it really. I need to get a grip.

Unsupportive DH - Was talking this through with him and he said he was so glad when I stopped SW, the food was bland, tasteless etc etc. I generally cook the same thing for all of us. Left to his own devices, he would live on burgers and anything that comes from Iceland. If it's not frozen and doesn't have sauce then its not food

Time - I did soooo much cooking when I was doing SW and it was hard to fit it in. I need to be less lazy, batch cook and freeze etc etc

On the upside...DD will eat pretty much everything and my mum and nan are very supportive.

It's my birthday in June and I want to go somewhere nice, looking nice and feeling great...not like this year!

Tuesday 6th January will be the start of me feeling better!!!!!

I'm off to group tonight, feeling positive. I am going to before photos but not in my underwear and I will take measurements. I'm also going to have a glass or two of wine on New Year's Eve but will be straight back on plan.

Good luck tonight Whimsy!

Hi everyone, can I join? I have decided I need to return to SW as it's been v successful for me in the past - lost 3 stone previously.

I'm not sure exactly what I weigh but I reckon it's around 12st 10lbs. It's the heaviest I've ever been (am only 5ft 1) and is making me feel miserable. I am going to claim it's baby weight when I go back to the class as I had DD 7 months ago, but the truth is I was this weight before I got pregnant (loads of comfort eating/wine drinking after a miscarriage) and actually lost weight when I was preg.

I'm going to aim for around 9 1/2 stone ish - that was what I weighed when I got married and I felt good and enjoyed wearing all my lovely size 10/12 clothes that are gathering dust just now... Planning to join a class the week beginning Jan 12th.

Good luck at class whimsy! I've chickened out of doing photos. Home from work now and changed, last thing I want to do
Is force my poor dh to photograph his heifer of a wife from unflattering angles!!

The plans have changed. No green or red anymore.

Have just managed to get my hands on a Woman Magazine for the free joining voucher.......theres also a voucher code for £35 off SW online if joining before 12th January. Not sure if allowed to post on here so message me if you want the code.
Some nice SW friendly recipies in there too, not bad for 97p

Going to do the photo thing later. Can't do bra and pants though. It will have to be gym shorts and t shirt which might be almost as disturbing. How often would you re photograph? Once a month? Or maybe after every half a stone?

I did photos this morning in gym leggings and crop top- really really bad. I did front, back, and from the side. All awful but the side on shot was particularly awful. I literally look pregnant. Also nice was the big rolls of fat on the side of my back that I didn't really know was there. Mehhhh. I think will re do every month ish, and see? Wearing the same gear, hopefully will see a difference soon. Last time my belly went down quite a bit quite quickly, still a bit flabby but lost the massive bloat. Hoping for same again.

Can I join you all? I'm the heaviest I've ever been after having my DCs.
I've really hated being bigger but I guess not enough to actually do something about it, but I hit a new low recently when someone I hadn't seen for ages said congratulations, he'd heard I was having another baby, when was I due? And I had to tell him I had had the baby four months ago Mortifying.
In that moment I swore I would start a new diet in the new year and really stick to it this time. I need to lose 2.5- 3 stone.

I've tried calorie counting in the past but always cheat or get bored. I think I need the structure of SW in order to stick to it.

I'm all set to start in the next few days and have a list of meetings, so need to choose one to go to. I have a question for those in the know though - I've read I can have between 5-15 syns per day, should I be aiming for closer to 5 as I begin my diet? And can I 'save up' syns each day for a weekly treat or is that not advised? (Sorry, that was two questions!)

voilet - yes you can save syns, most people I know who do SW do this, usually they are saved for a few drinks at the weekend or a meal out. It does make things alot easier.

I was always told that the less syns you have, the faster your weight loss will be. If you follow the rules, and have your full 15 syns everyday, you should still lose, just not as fast.

It's easy though not to have any, just takes a bit of planning I find.

When I was doing SW, I rarely had syns. I didn't have any in my main meals anyway, and planned snacks were always free too. I square of chocolate or something like that may have slipped in now and again (stolen from DD!).

However, every Friday night, we always had a takeaway which was for me Chicken Dupiaza, Pilau Rice, Popadoms, Mint Sauce and Bombay potatoes followed by a glass of wine . Despite this, I always lost at least 1.5lb a week! I was amazed!!!! I have no idea how many syns are in that by the way, but judging by the amount of oil left on my plate, I figured I'd better go easy on the syns for the rest of the week.

Thanks lorney, I was hoping someone would say that! I'm sure I will find it easier to 'be good' all week if I know I can have a bit of a treat one night over the weekend with DH

Day 4 and it feels like Day 40. In all honesty, it hasn't been too bad but my sister visited yesterday with a packet of milk chocolate puddles from Hotel Chocolat and I ate quite a few......But that has been my only downfall after a new year's eve of no booze, chocolate etc and very few syns so hopefully over the week, it will balance out. I haven't managed as much exercise as intended but went for a 10k walk last night so waz happy with that. I am really glad I started this a week before I return to work as feel some of the Christmas bloat has gone. Aiming to go for a run this evening.
What's everyone aiming for their first weigh-in? Hope everyone else is doing ok.

Well done Iggity, it's always hard to get started and more so after Christmas when there's so many lovely things around!

I also hate the feeling of saying 'no thanks' all the time when someone offers you a chocolate or something else thats totally packed with syns. I found that feeling passed though when the weight started coming off, I was happy to say no!

You did so well over New Years and a 10k walk is not to be sniffed at! Only 3 more days to go and you will see the scales going down!

I was having a look through my old book and I lost 6lbs in the first week last time around, I've found myself expecting that again but have dragged myself beck to reality....I'd be happy with 2!

I will be re-joining on Wednesday and am half looking forward to it and half dreading it. This week we have been eating up everything in the freezer and the cupboards to get rid of all the junk....I'm not really enjoying it as I know it's only adding to the problem but I'm determined to be rid of it all by next week or it will be too tempting!

I'm in :) Starting from Monday I think depending on what's left in the cupboards because we have a wedding this weekend.

I like SW but find it hard to manage when I am travelling with work. I need to plan better to avoid the bread.

I'm also following SW, I started back in September and had lost 22lbs by Christmas, I managed to put 2.5lbs back on over the Christmas break and really need to get back to 100%.

I weighed in at 12st 12lbs which is the heaviest I've ever been, I'm 5ft 2in, previously I'd joined WW and got down to 10st2lb before giving up. At that point I didn't realise just how much better i looked and felt and put all the weight back on, plus a little extra for good measure, fairly quickly.

My Target weight is 8st12lbs so Four stone lower than my starting weight, I'd love to lose another stone by Easter as my Dad and his partner will be visiting us, they live overseas and we last saw them a week before I started SW, I'd love to have dropped all that weight.

Hopefully I can get my mind back on the right track and start the ball rolling again.

Good luck to all the new starters :)

Lorney, same as me. I lost 6 pounds also in the first week earlier this year. Would be happy with 3 I think this time around! Our house is well and truly empty except for some truffles but they are nasty and even I'm not craving them! Will be going in bin tomorrow in case I get tempted.

5.5 pounds off for first week. Bit disappointed I didn't get slimmer of the week. Went to someone who didn't stay to group but she must have lost 6 pounds plus! Hoping to get my 1/2 stone award next week.

Iggity, thats brilliant! You seem to have done really well this week, I'm sure you will get the 1/2 award next time if you keep doing what you're doing
So what kind of things have you been eating? Are you still finding it a bit of a grind?
Slimmer of the week is a weird thing....I once won it twice in a row both for 2lb! It was in the middle of the summer when everyone was off on hoildays, I don't think the were very focused!

Well done Iggity, you can't win slimmer of the week in your first week, that's probably why someone else got the award. Keep up the good work. First weigh in tonight, there is no way I will have anywhere near that much.

good luck whimsy!

I didn't realise you couldn't get it in the first week. Oh well, I don't think I will be equalling it again and prbably wouldn't want to as not sustainable. Good luck for your weigh in whimsy.

Lorney, it hasnt been too bad but I struggle at the weekends. I pretty much ignored NYE although I did eat chocolate the next day. Apart from that I haven't really used my syns very much. They have generally gone on adding pesto sauce to pasta or oil (before I bought spraylight).

Meals have been lots of SW chips, chicken, baked potatoes, pasta. Grapes, pears, apples have been snacks as well as small packets of m&s chicken. Like the piri piri and mexican chicken. Am back at work this week so this has been yesterday and today:

B: 2 weetabix with semi skimmed milk and berries
L: salad with puy lentils and packet of piri piri chicken
D: pasta with red pesto sauce, more chicken and tomatoes and red pepper
Snack: grapes, pear and apple

Today has been much the same as yesterday and trying to decide what to do with a packet of prawns! Am making sw chips for my son and might pinch a few.

I haven't been consulting the books too much as I have been cooking a lot from scratch and have a good idea of what's what. My chicken may well have syns but hopefully not too many and not planning to check!

I am moving to a new job at beginning of March as well as turning 40 at same time and determined to have lost a stone by then and to keep going to the meetings. I got into very bad habits earlier this year by missing meetings when I'd been over eating and eventually stopping going. As well there is a new leader at my meeting who is at target and quite inspirng to hear someone talking about all the things you do such as eating in the car, hiding wrappers at bottom of bin etc. identified with all of them. I want to lose about 1 stone 10 pounds in total and had lost about 12 pounds last time and then it all just seemed too hard. Hoping that starting over winter will make it easier as at least I can hide under woolly jumpers! How are you finding it Lorney?

Anyone tried the speedy plan? I love my carbs too much but might give it a go one day.

Im starting tomorrow. Ekk.

Hi
Can I join in too?
I did slimming world in 2012 and lost a stone, dropped to 10st 13 and I was happy with this. Put it all back on again the year after and then got pregnant, had my baby July 2014 and I've been piling more weight on since being pregnant than when I was pregnant! Been comfort eating due to a colicky baby and weighed in at 14 stone today :(
Any tips for fast, easy meals would be great.... as mentioned in the original thread it takes so long to prepare some SW meals and I guess we could all benefit from super fast meal ideas. Need to zap all this Christmas chocolate away somehow too...

Iggity - I'm starting tomorrow morning and it can't come soon enough!
Been eating up all the bad foods left in the house, freezer is almost empty....my digestion is suffering because of it!
Not due to go shopping till Saturday but I will nip out after SW meeting and get some healthy food that will tide me over until then.
Can't wait to see what the new group will be like, from what I can see it's a pretty big one and there have been some huge success stories so there should be plenty of inspiration!

Like you....I have to keep going to group. I get quite competitive and last time, I didn't dare eat rubbish because I knew I would be weighed, and if I'd gained I would have to sit there and explain where I thought I went wrong. I couldn't face saying to people 'actually, I just stuffed myself' or 'I couldn't be bothered this week'. It was the best thing for me really. I skipped a few weeks too when I thought I might have gained and didn't go back until I knew I had lost it again. Of course, this is the worst thing you can do.

The worst part of it for me will be giving up the sugar in my tea and coffee....I get through a lot!!
When you add the syns up.....it's shocking!

I tried sweetner last time but thought it tasted really odd so just went cold turkey in the end, had a massive headache for days and was a grumpy sod! I'm going to have to do it again now.....so stupid for going back to it in the first place.

sugar - That's one thing I found with SW, the cooking does take a long time, not easy with a young DC.

I found batch cooking was handy, I would make enough spag bol or similar for 4, 2 portions would feed me, DH and DD and throw the other 2 portions in the freezer. Then just take it out the night before we wanted to eat it again to defrost and it was just a matter of heating it through and cooking some spaghetti.
Or, if I was making something for myself, I would make a bit extra and have it for a main meal, and then split the rest into 2 portions and put in fridge. Then that would make me lunches for the next 2 days with added salad or jacket or something like that.
Theres lots of quick foods that you can buy that are syn free or low syn but I found them to be quite pricey TBH. I cook every day from scratch anyway for DD so it wasn't really that much more effort to cook something for myself really, planning is the key.
There is a little book you can buy from your group with all the syn values of popular supermarket meals and quick stuff.
Looking back, Morrisons seemed to be a king of SW friendly supermarket for low syn pop in the oven kind of things.