Is the SW diet fully explained in the starter pack?

[IfeelFloopy]

For some time I have been wanting to follow the slimming world diet but at the moment I simply can't afford it as an extra expense. If I bought a starter pack on eBay would everything in it provide all of the information I need to understand it?

I have a friend who has done the diet and when she explained how it works it sounded quite complicated but appealing none the less. I cannot be doing with a diet where I would need to starve myself. Slimming world sounds like s diet I can follow with planning, eat well and most importantly not feel hungry.

Any info greatly appreciated.

Can you not look at your friends starter pack?

To be honest, I follow SW food plans when I can, because it really is the only way I lose weight and it helps my indigestion/gastric problems immensely.

You have an allowance for some dairy and fibre every day, free foods which you can have freely and a certain number of 'sins' which you need to regulate daily. Once you get your head around it, it is quite simple as long as you stick to the main principles.

How much is a starter pack on eBay? You could always join your local SW and go for the first week to have the plan explained to you and ask any questions. I think it's £9.95 to join and for your first meeting.

I don't find the plan complicated to follow, it's just the actual following I find hard hence the fact I have put back on all the weight I lost on it and I'm about to re-join in search of that bikini body. Ha!

You could always but the starter pack off eBay and then ask any questions on the SW board on here?

It does, but being a proper member gives you access to the app and SW site, which are helpful for looking up syns and free food.

For example, take a pack of ready cooked BBQ chicken. Most supermarkets do this. Asda's version is Free, so no syns. Lidl's version is 3.5 syns, so that would come out of your syn allowance which is used for treats.

Things like chocolate, sweets, crisps, biscuits, cake, etc, are always synned. 20 calories = 1 syn. Those are easy to work out. It's harder when the food isn't immediately obvious as a treat, like the BBQ chicken I mentioned.

Saying that, if you get the pack and start off with healthy, unprocessed and home cooked food, that's the main point of it and you can definitely do that with the pack alone.

Thanks for replies. Unfortunately I no longer live near this friend so we rarely see each other. I feel like even if I did look at the plan to understand it I need to have something to refer to. Is there a food directory like there was with weight watchers?

Joining for a week might be a good option, wouldn't I have to pay for the first month on joining though? Or do people pay weekly? The starter packs on eBay vary in price. One I am watching at the mo which started out at £5 is this morning upto £15 and ends this evening.

You only pay for the first week up front + joining fee. So £9.95, you get the diet explained to you and the books which do have food guides in yes.

You can be an online member too I don't know how much that costs but its presumably cheaper than going every week?

The syn calculator is a good point, I think I may struggle without that even though we mostly cook homemade food.

I would love to join online ideally but the bronze Membership is £60. I know that is for 3 months but is that taken in one go? I could actually afford it weekly but I don't really want to go to a group.

There's a free membership voucher from Tuesday in Woman. Then it would be only your weekly £5.