SW stuff you wouldn't normally touch....

[randomer]

jelly,quark,mugshots Mullers.....any more?

[Clankboing]

Gross. This is why I do weight watchers if I diet. They encourage eating gross food. Mug shots - hate them!

[HelenF35]

Quark is the only one for me. I'd never thought of using it before. Wouldn't eat mug shots or any of that crap. I like to know what is in my food so make things from scratch.

[KaraokeQueenOfTheNorth]

I don't generally eat the stuff like mugshots and low fat noodles etc, I do love muller lights.

SW makes me eat loads more veg which I wouldn't do left to my own devices! I actually bought a cabbage the other day, now there's a good I wouldn't normally touch but I was making SW coleslaw. It was actually ok!

[HarrietSchulenberg]

I did SW a few years ago but stopped, partly because it seemed so geared towards ready meals and packet food, none of which I liked.

The other reason was that I didn't lose much weight despite cooking fresh food (lots of veg) and using very few syns. SW consultant told me "it's probably because you're not eating enough" at about the same time as I realised it was probably because I needed to move around more.

[CwtchesAndCuddles]

You don't have to eat them!!!! I like SW because I cook from scratch, the idea of a mug shot turns my stomach BUT each to their own!!!

[emmaluvseeyore]

SW definitely isn't about ready meals and packet food! 90% of my meals are made from scratch. I don't eat all this rubbish that many people mention. Not had a Muller Light since May last year!

[randomer]

no I don't eat rubbish either....think I once had a mugshot and once was enough! Its a good plan but just a few things like quark I can't imagine grabbing once I am super slim (hopefully)
Or scan bran!!

[Katenka]

I don't get where people get 'they encourage people to eat this shit' from.

I have been to several groups and have never heard it encouraged over healthy food. It's just there if you want them.

I don't eat muller yoghurts, quark etc.

I don't eat ready made meals either. I stick to home cooked healthy meals. With my Syns thrown in.

[randomer]

it was meant to pretty light hearted, like stuff you would not revisit if super slim....i dunno..bovril drinks,grapefruit.snacking on boiled eggs....daft stuff!!

[tabulahrasa]

Quark I'd never had before joining SW, but it's great stuff if you're like me and won't add yoghurt to things because you don't like yoghurt...I'd still use it in some things now I've discovered it no matter what.

I don't eat jelly, rarely do I have mugshots and then it's the big ones that taste like pot noodles and muller lights, see above about yoghurt, lol.

I've tried some pretty odd things, but I'd not revisit them ever no matter how much weight I had to lose, lol.

[calzone]

Making rice pudding with cream soda, Mullerlight and sweetener! Yuck!

I love quark. And jelly.

[KaraokeQueenOfTheNorth]

I agree that people who are being encouraged to eat crap on SW are going to the wrong meeting. A good consultant wouldn't encourage that over decent food! Our meeting is all about what new fruit or veg we have tried, what recipes we have cooked over the week, etc.

But I would also say that for someone who is very unhealthily overweight then surely it is better for them to lose a significant amount of weight and therefore be a healthy weight even if it means eating some "crap" along the way. So eating muller lights, quark, mugshots, sugar free jelly or putting sweetener in porridge, combined with fruit, veg, lean meats etc is surely not a terrible thing if it means a morbidly obese person can achieve a healthy BMI?

I really don't get the SW promotes crap hatred!

But back to the OP, if I weren't trying to lose weight on SW I don't think I would ever eat a banana... Or snack on lettuce wrapped in slices of ham. Or spend so much time obsessing about how to make my favourite take away dishes with SW friendly ingredients...!

[thenewaveragebear1983]

Or the alternative..... I've ditched slimming world after 8 years and gone sugar free/higher fat. I am rediscovering so many foods.....pesto, boursin cheese, rib eye steak, full fat Greek yogurt, mixed nuts. Things I could have had and synned, but would never have wasted syns on in favour of saving them all for wine/chocolate. I'm finding on an average sugar free day I'm eating 800 calories less than on a slimming world day, not feeling hungry, and still coming in under 15 syns. I never ate mugshots, mullers or hi fi etc while doing the sw plan, but my consultant definitely promoted the use of syn free junk food such as this, and also low syn rubbish like pink and whites, highlights cocoa, etc. Not to mention unlimited white carbs. I think you have to be very disciplined for sw to be effective, especially if you have less weight to lose.

[randomer]

agree with the last bit there...and I do have a tendency to horde syns and "spend" them on wine. Did you do SW for 8 years?
Just interested. Anyhow it is going well for me with SW. (but slow!)

[thenewaveragebear1983]

Hi randomer yes, 8 years gaining and regaining and losing the same few stone! Two pregnancies where I gained 3-4 stone both times and then lost it (well, still losing it the second time!). I've been at the same local group, as well and I'd estimate that 25% of people in the groups have been going as long as me or longer and are still not at targets, or more likely have done what I've done and kept putting it back on. I'm changing my thinking recently, especially breaking out of the idea that you should never be hungry, and that any food should be unlimited. I think both of these concepts are what keeps people coming back time and again because its not realistic to eat all the time and expect to lose weight. I'm not saying the plan doesn't 'work' , because in principle it does, but you have to be very disciplined, and regardless of what consultants are told to say, it IS a diet.

[katienana]

Different diets work for different people. I used to do Rosemary Conley where stuff like bananas are a major treat...fruit is rationed, portions are small.
Quark is good for getting certain recipes to work but I wouldn't bother if not on slimming world! Fry light I guess as well - it's definitely easier to cook a stir fry with oil.

[randomer]

very interesting bear1983.....unlimited is a bit odd really but doesn't pose any problems for me as I have never been attracted to big piles of food. Quite the oposite I tend to eat many small amounts of the not so good stuff.
I mentioned the D word and was kindly told we weren't dieting. Still not sure.

[thenewaveragebear1983]

I don't want to generalise as I can only speak from my own experience, but the times when I'm most 'on it' and the times when I lose consistently 1-2lb a week, is when my mindset says 'diet' and not 'eating healthily'. Its the same food and the same plan, but I find it very interesting to use a tracker/calorie app and every now and then calculate my calories intake. If I'm eating huge platefuls of spag bol, even with 1/3 veg, snacking on fruit all day, eating 'free' yoghurt, I rarely hit under 1500 cals. Plus, i always had all my syns and possibly a few extra. So realistically I'm not going to lose big amounts of weight. Since stopping sw and going to a calorie counting/ sugar free plan I know I must have been eating double what I am now. If it works for you then that's great, but if it isn't working its a very expensive hobby. Right now i am definitely on a diet. I track what I eat, I weigh everything even fruit and veg, and I'm avoiding certain foods, and exercising every day- and I've lost nearly a stone in 4 weeks.

[randomer]

mmmm congrats but does the on it/off it mentality work long term?

As for it " working" its ok I will stick at it until I get to 10 stone and then lets see!

[tabulahrasa]

"mmmm congrats but does the on it/off it mentality work long term?"

I don't think so, but I also do a bit of that I'm doing it this week and not that week...

But that's because I bring all my mental dieting and weight baggage with me, SW is the only thing I've found that's anything like sustainable long term though - even if sometimes I find it's not, if that makes sense? I can get back on it, where with other things I just couldn't if I stopped doing them.

[thenewaveragebear1983]

I don't know, I do agree that sw is an easy plan to get back on it of you fall off it though, you can also do reasonably well and lose half a pound a week being half on it, which is what I have done previously and slowly chipped away at my weight but never achieving any real weight loss each week. If you consider randomer's original question which was about the foods we eat on sw but would not eat in real life, that probably explains the on/off thing for me; all this 'free' food is too gimmicky long term and when I'm off it, I revert back to eating what I actually like rather than all the quark/cottage cheese/ crustless quiche etc and biscuits, and cake and icecream. Which is why I'm still fat. There's a recipe on our sw group Facebook page for 'cloud bread' which is basically eggs and quark, whisked like a meringue and baked. That's not bread in my book, but I bet lots of people try it because its free and eat it not even though its not nice.

[randomer]

lordy that sounds vile!

[tabulahrasa]

It sounds rank...and it's not even free either because you're misusing the free foods.