I have so many things I cant eat

[KillmeNow]

I look at slimming world and think - Yes I can do this. then I look at typical menus /daily allowances and see that I will struggle. i give up before Ive even started. This happens so many times its not funny.

So if I may - can I put down what I CANT have and hopefully some kind people can advise alternatives . Because Im sick of toing and froing and getting nowhere.

I cant have artificial sweeteners of any kind - even saccharin - its makes me feel ill. This cuts out a lot of yoghurt and pudding suggestions.I dont drink anything that isnt full or zero sugar ( water).
I will not eat any Quorn as it also makes me ill - very ill.
I cant eat fruit generally. Im okay with an occasional banana or a pear but not on a daily basis.

I love cheese, eggs,nuts and most veg . I can have oats but not daily. I like milk, yogurt etc. I dont eat much bread but do eat wholemeal pitta bread .I could do without sweets/biscuits etc. I dont eat a lot of meat - usually only chicken in various guises. I do eat white fish and tuna but cant abide prawns ,salmon or shell fish.

I have the books etc from last time I joined but I give up once I find that I cant have a lot of the daily recommendations since i dont do sweetners etc etc

Im probably putting obstacles in the way of starting yet again but I really want help to start properly. I know my diet is quite restricted and need help with that too.

Forgot to say I like pasta and rice in all its forms.

Sorry but I think you are looking for excuses.... And I mean that in a nice way. I never eat Quorn, you really don't need to, just eat your chicken and fish. I don't eat sweeteners because I don't like them - fat free natural yog with fruit is fine, use your syns if you want to add sugar - meringues are great.

Wholemeal pitta is fine for a healthy extra, cheese for your other one. Your likes actually fit really well with the latest plan. You can do this! Good luck!

Ignore any of the suggested menus...I don't even look at them.

Meat is all free if you remove visible fat and skin, fish is free and eggs, veg, pasta, rice, pulses and fruit.

Any zero fat plain yoghurt is free if you want yoghurt, just add fruit, or syn some sugar or honey.

Your b choice can be Wholemeal bread (or pitta) oats or some cereals, or I think nuts? (I'm not a big but eater so you'd need to check that). So you can mix between those.

The a choice is milk or cheese.

It really is a very flexible plan.

On slimming world there is so much choice. You don't need to use sweetner, just use your syns if you want a treat. The full sugar drinks are a waste of syns imo, just stick to water, tea, coffee etc. It might sound impossible now but when I started I used to drink orange juice every morning but decided not waste the syns, I very rarely touch it now. When you say you can't eat fruit is it a dislike or a dietary issue? I would experiment if possible and find things you do like to build up on the superfree options.

When I was doing it properly I followed the extra easy and would typically have:

Breakfast - fat free natural yogurt with mango / strawberries / blueberries or whatever you can eat, or if I had time scrambled egg / omelette with tomatoes / mushrooms / spinach

Lunch - pasta salad with whatever I had in, loads of veg + left over chicken / fish / ham. I'd dress it with just balsamic or more natural yogurt and lemon juice.
I'd stick with a jacket & beans at a push if had to eat out and couldn't be sure of cooking methods etc.
Or I'd make batches of soup, often with lentils for bulk.

Dinner - pretty much anything as long as I'd prepped it from scratch so knew what had gone in. I'd also have both my HE saved so could have say Parmesan on spaghetti bol. The main thing with the evening meal was the 1/3 superfree (might be different now, it's a while since I've done it) so I would use loads of "hidden" veg in sauces and have a salad with it to take up that space on the plate.

As a starting point, look at what you already cook and how you can tweak it to fit in. Crisps & dips are a real weakness for me so I would make my own dips with quark / natural yogurt or hummous by just whizzing up chickpeas & lemon juice and having crudités in fridge ready to go.
I then used all my syns up on wine

coolaschmoola You are right. I do tend to look for excuses .I have a variety of health problems. None of them serious now though but they stop me from benefiting great deal from exercise for example. I am getting a lot of the niggly things under control now I think but I want to have a plan I can stick to. I dont mind having the same thing every day if it helps me not resort to canteen food or packets of Instant pasta .

tabulahrasa Your 'plan' seems really easy to follow and I agree it does fit in with more or less what I already eat/like. If I had something like egg fried rice done without fat would that fit in?

endoflevelbaddy Yes the fruit thing is a dietary issue unfortunately. I cant have too much in the way of roughage either which is a pity as I would happily chomp on everything wholemeal if left to myself. But bananas and pears with occasional berries are fine. I would eat eggs at every meal in preference.
[I then used all my syns up on wine :)]
A girl after my own heart

Would you advise using anything from the old books or do I have to start all over again? Or just cobble together a rough menu by using what I can gather from here;

Lean meat,fish,eggs with cheese or yogurt as extras. Jacket potato with beans as a quick meal ( Im not fond of beans but thats only a taste preference) .Pasta with lean meat(tuna in brine?) for lunch. Maybe a banana for snack. Wholemeal pitta for alternative lunch. Tea or water to drink during the day - and wine to use up all the syns :) does that sound right? Its seems such a simple thing

I dont eat breakfast due to time pressures mostly. Is it really necessary ?Should I make something to take with me?

You are supposed to make a third of your daily food, or at least meals, speed foods for the best weight loss, salad vegetables would I think? (Guessing by what you need to avoid) be ok for that... Speed foods are basically non starchy veg and watery non sugary fruits (melons, berries, cherries, apples etc.)

It does still work if you can't manage as much as a third, but they do help.

All the things you've mentioned in your last post would be absolutely fine...if you don't like beans particularly then low fat cottage cheese is free as well on baked potatoes, or light mayonnaise isn't a huge amount of syns for tuna or egg or some people use yoghurt or quark. There are also a couple of soups that are b choices.

There are some mug shots that are free if you eat instant pasta, I don't know off hand which ones as I don't have them often, but they can be handy as an emergency thing.

If you like eggs you should get on fine tbh, my DC told everyone I was on the egg diet for the first month or so, lol.

Breakfast - if you don't eat it, it's not essential ...but I don't naturally eat it and make an effort to because I find that I'm less likely to be hungry enough later on that I want something that I shouldn't be having.

Speed foods! Thats what Ive never really understood. But I can follow a requirement to have a green salad with most things and veg when salad isnt viable. I can do that at least.

Ooohh Melon. I do like melon- and watermelon . I forgot about those.

Ive heard that some mug pastas are okay for slimming world but I suspect that the only one I like - cheese-is not one of those.

I looked for you, the cheese is 1 or 2 syns depending on exactly which cheese one it is...not deadly if you actually like it.

Just because some people live on muller lights and other artificial rubbish on SW doesn't mean it's the only way to follow it. SW always say that the intention is for your diet to be primarily natural free food (lean meat/fish/eggs/veg/salad/fruit etc).

I'm doing slimming world and never have anything with artificial sweeteners in. I even use fever tree light tonic with my tiny gin allowance as it is low cal without artificial sweeteners.

I do eat quorn, but you don't have to, I don't eat much fruit but plenty of veg and salad.

Some brands of low fat sausages are low syn if you like those, of just stick to lean versions of the meat and fish you do like.

If you are happy to do without sweets and biscuits, you could use your syns for nuts, extra cheese or full fat mayo etc. Or alcohol?

You can have egg fried rice without fat, or if you use fat, count it. I find it sticks, so often just have rice with a chopped omelette and spray oil fried mushrooms and onions mixed in.

Sorry to jump in,Onllkley, the trick with the egg in rice is make holes in the COLD rice and pour in bits of egg and heat slowly. It shouldn't stick then.x

SW works for a lot of people. But I found the diet far too restrictive. And I wasn't impressed by their bizarre recipes. I did lose 1 stone but it took me a whole year. And it wasn't worth the effort. That was a few years ago. I've had a bit of success by cutting down on bread a lot. And cutting back on other carbs. Eating more protein. And massively cutting down on the usual stuff like biscuits, cakes, sweets and pastry.

Thats good news on the mug shot front then. I like them enough to have a couple of spares in my drawer at work but prefer pittas really. I have done some very simple pasta with tuna tonight which will also do for tomorrow.

It was while preparing the pasta that I started wondering about the idea behind this diet and whether it is right for me . Now, this is my normal obstructive way of thinking so Im used to it. But anyway, what I usually do is to start cutting out everything and only eat the bits and pieces I can have without adding the extras. I will cut out all snacks and bad-for-me foods( chips ,curry etc) and only have lighter versions of what I usually eat.

I read of other people be stuffed after their meals and meanwhile Im starving, I know its wrong but I cant seem to get my head round it at all. Does this sound like anyone else at the start. If I keep at it will it all become clear eventually?

If your starving killme, your doing it wrong.
If you like curry, make a sw recipe - bake some home made potato wedges. There, curry & chips.
Write a list of what you like, post here. People will tell you how to tweek it to sw friendly.
This last week I've had, steak pie, lasagne, curry,chilli, fish & chips roast dinner with gravy & roasties plus wine and crisps, diet food not!!. I lost 1.5lb.
You've got to think outside the box. Glass half full.

The whole point of it is that by restricting yourself to the free ingredients you create a diet that's naturally low in fat and calories...so you adapt recipes slightly, you cut out fat and eat more fruit and veg.

That means that as long as you stick within the guidelines you can eat what you want.

If you want curry, make one, if you want chips, use potatoes and frylight and have them.

I've made this curry a couple of times and it is very nice but I think it needs more spice than she says and last time used 1 tsp of each type, but I still think it could do with a bit more, so next time will add 1.5 tsps of each.

There are loads of other great recipes on that site that are SW friendly. I agree with Vivienne that some of the SW recipes are really odd, with an obsession with artificial sweetener in savoury food, where it really isn't necessary and often bizarre additions, presumably to pack in as many free foods as possible, maybe to accomodate their members who want to eat really massive portions and still lose weight.

I like SW because you can cook from scratch without having to calculate calories etc, as I CBA to add up the calories in home made food for Myfitnesspal for example.

However, I think there is a little too much encouragement of the 'stuff yourself silly' mentality. Half my colleagues are also on SW and their portions must be twice what I eat and I don't eat tiny portions.

Would something like My Fitness Pal be better? Nothing it actually banned, you just have to only eat approx 1200 calories per day and exercise more. You can log it all on the app.

I don't rate many of their recipes either...but, I just adapt my own mostly.

So for curries I just use frylight, add extra veg and if I want a creamier one use quark or zero fat yoghurt for instance.

I don't use artificial sweetener either and miss it out if it's in recipes

I basically make either curry/chilli/spag Bol with masses of tinned tomatoes and veg and eat as much as I want with baked potato/rice/pasta - I have never been hungry since I started.

I hear you can't eat much fruit - in what way does it disagree with you?

In order for me to get my speed food I rely on tomatoes a lot and eat them with lunch and dinner. I do eat a couple of bananas a day.

Please don't be hungry - that's not the point. I don't eat artificial sweeteners in drinks but Waitrose do a 'no added sugar' hi juice (syns) that I drink and it's lovely.

Get apack of fruit teas. Make up a litre with a couple of tea bags and when cooled store in fridge. Have with ice, lemon and sprig of mint.

Cheap as chips too.

I don't use artificial sweetener because I don't like the taste. And I rarely follow the recipe's as, like a pp said, they always seem to have odd combinations and like to use a lot of sweetener!

You can adapt any recipe to be SW friendly with just a few changes. You say that you like eggs and cheese so why not try making the crustless quiche? It's yummy

Can you use stevia or xylitol as a sweetener? They're both plant based.

Quorn makes me vomit violently, so I don't use it. Mostly I try and find ways to turn our favourite meals into slimming world ones. It works pretty well...until you get to nachos or pizza

For pizza you just use a chicken breast sliced through the middle and flattened out. Top with home made fat free tom sauce or just passata or tom puree, cheese (using A choice) and whatever free toppings you like (ham, mushrooms, peppers etc). Bake in the oven at 200 C for about 20 mins and serve with salad.

hi does anyone know the syn value of tropicana orange juice. ..I can't find it anywhere . many thanks

I have a restricted diet and can make SW work.

I do t have anything with sweetner in. I can't eat rice or pasta at all. I don't have yoghurt as I can only have lactofree products and the lactofree yoghurts are synned and, in my opinion, not worth it.

Too much fruit gives me a bad stomach.

I can only eat potatoes occasionally or I get bloated and end up feeling dreadful.

The meats I eat are generally chicken and occasionally pork or fish.

I don't have Muller lights, mug shots etc.

You haven't put down anything that makes me think SW is impossible for you. But (and I mean this in a nice way) if you keep coming up with excuse as to why it won't work. It won't work. You need to be on board with it. If you believe it won't work for you, you will keep falling off the wagon and won't see the losses. Trust me I know.

Why not give it the first four weeks. Write absolutely everything down, that you eat and go from there.

Commit to it, no excuses, for four weeks and then make your mind up.