First time SW and I don't know what I'm doing, can anyone help?

[WilburIsSomePig]

I'm slightly overawed by all the information on the website and getting myself a bit confused. (Doing it online)

Can anyone offer any advise on how to start myself off please?

Yes it's easier to do the Amber one.

Am joining on Wed......looks scary to me.

Good luck for your weigh in piggy chops. I was so dubious about whether I'd lost or not because of the amount I've been eating. We had a children's party this afternoon and I didn't bat an eyelid at anything.
Yes wilbur, when your book arrives it doesn't mention the green/red at all, it's all about the Extra Easy!

Has the whole diet changed then?

Can I jump in with some 'advice'
Its confusing when you've not done sw before.
Write down what you usually eat daily.
Take out the crap snacks so you got bare meals.
Are these sw freindly?
Look at each meal then you can see where the free food A's & B's fit in.
Does that make sense? Then you can plan what next.

Extra Easy hasn't changed much, but it's been simplified, so should be easier to understand.

Green and original have been removed, although the website will still have original and green syns for now.

There's a new plan to replace success express, called Extra Easy SP which like success express is there for when you need a boost, best to get the hang of Extra Easy first.

Make sure you replace sugar with sweetener for hot drinks and frylight instead of oil they will make a difference and dont taste different. I started SW again this morning, i had a ham omelette with a bit of cheddar with spring onion and pineapple for breakfast and have got ham pasta with a bit more cheese and mayo with more spring onion and lettuce so i have to syn the mayo and any milk i drink today. I dont drink much tea though so i shpuld be ok. Tonight is steak with the fat chopped off and SW chips with salad

Oh, yes the SW chips.
They are lovely and a firm favourite in our house. I also like the SW roast potatoes made with stock.
I have made some things that I know are called Tweks? such as smash pizza but as they have not affected my weight loss I will carry on doing them.

If I want a treat of some crisps I now have a packet of Walkers POPs as they are only 4 syns instead of a normal packet of crisps.

Enlighten me about SW chips. I made some yesterday, boiled the chips, then spray with frylight and bake....

They were not nice. I dont know if I just didnt spray enough frylight stuff on them, but spraying more would defeat the whole purpose surely? How much of the stuff do you need to use to get crispy chips? Mine certainly didnt look like the ones in the SW books!!

This is all so helpful for a novice like me thank you so much.

For breakfast I had half a toasted English muffin (were quite big, worked it out as 5 syns), scrambled egg and a slice of smoked ham.

Lunch is chicken salad with ff dressing and a curly wurly

Dinner I'm doing a syn free chicken curry from the website with rice.

I think need to add something from the healthy extras but does this sound OK? Drinking plenty of water too.

Also has anyone found any good SW blogs?

Sw chips? Some times depends on the potatoes used they don't crisp up. A good maris piper works.
Make sure the chips are dry before spraying them. I find they work better cool as well.
Don't forget nothing looks like the book - Kate moss is a size 16 really!!!

Wilbur- your food sounds OK. I would think healthy extras before syns in my meals.(the muffin) then you have the syns for niceties.

I dont par boil my pots before I bake them. Just wedge them, frylight and a shake of garlice salt and chuck in the oven.

Mine sw chips go in an airfryer.

I'm restarting SW as I need to lose a couple of stones (my weight has crept up over the last 18months and I now have a BMI of 27.5)

Wilbur I like Slimming Eats, which is a blog with loads of recipes and menus on it, she lists HEs used and syns in her recipes (although she does talk about red and green days as well as Extra Easy)

Fanny I cut my potatoes into chips and then microwave them on kitchen paper until they're almost cooked, but still easy to move onto a baking tray. I found that they took AGES when I boiled them first and although they still take longer than I'd like, I get better results doing them this way than boiling them. SW chips and omelette is a good emergency tea in my house!

Annie so a slice of wholemeal bread as a healthy option would be a better choice?

I worked out that it would be 11 syns today but I hope that's right. I've got my shopping being delivered later so no more muffins then!

That's right Wilbur, unless your using up your muffins.
The wholemeal thing is for fibre health. Long term sw members break the rules (me) weigh 60g of muffin/white and use that as 1 b choice. Its tweaking or cheating ? It depends how you're body drops the weight/ what you have to loose.x

I want to lose 3 stone, pref 3.5. I really desperately want to be less tired and just feel better about myself.

Phew had a wobble there. Raided the fridge and ate some cocktail sausages. Was on the point of having a major binge and though I would check how many Syns the sausages were. Only 6.5 so it's all ok. Having a boiled egg for lunch with salad and will have to tweak dinner a little. But... I DIDN'T BLOW IT COMPLETELY (which is what would have happened before)

Wilbur The tiredness thing was my reason for wanting to lose. I have 2 active boys and a very active husband and I'm holding everyone back whenever we do stuff.

Can someone tell me what the SW oats are please?

My DBro has signed up and I said I would help him via Mumsnet.

Sw oats - magic porrige - overnight oats.
A he b of oats mixed into a mullerlight, soak in the fridge overnight. Eaten cold usually but can warm up slowly or your yogurt may curdle.

I'm an old hand at SW and the best (and only way IMO) to succeed at the plan is to PLAN.

You can eat such a wide range of foods that it can feel really overwhelming to begin with but believe me, you really can eat some amazing, amazing food on SW and lose weight (I sound like a spambot or a consultant now, but I promise I'm not )

OK, so the way I do it is like this. At the beginning of the week (I WI on Fridays so I do my planning for the following weeks on a Thursday) I decide what I'm eating over the course of the week - obviously this can change but if I get the bare bones down I know what I'm shopping for/where my Healthy Extras are going and where I can spend syns. For example the rest of my week looks like this:

Tuesday
B - Baked beans and ham. Coffee (2 syns for milk)
L - Sweet potato soup (0.5 syns), Chicken Sandwich (B)
D - Mexican pasta bake (A for cheese)

Weds
B - Veggie omelette, coffee with almond milk (2)
L - Mexican Pasta (A)
D - White chicken chilli (2 syns) with rice

Thurs
B - Porridge (B) with banana, coffee with almond milk (A)
L - Which chicken chilli (2 syns) with rice
D - Salmon with stir fried veg and soba noodles (2 for oil)

I can then work some snacks in - usually fruit or yogurts, plus extra for a glass of wine or a bar of chocolate or something.

I use a spreadsheet (I shit you not) and it means I use up leftovers (I make extra evening meals and either freeze them or have them for lunch the next day) and save money.

Most, MOST recipes are SWable. It will become second nature - obviously creamy stuff is quite difficult to replicate but most stuff is do-able.

Great blog here for recipes.

You can add some frozen fruit to the overnight oats, I find frozen rather than fresh moisten the oats up a bit more.

im trying out some Free onion rings today, which ive no doubt wont tast as nice as the normal ones but am willing to give them a whirl.