Thinking of joining- everything homemade?

[Pigeonpies]

Hi
Seriously considering joining SW but I don't always cook from scratch and often 'grab' what's available
I'm willing to change those habits and cook more but everything I've seen on the website and other people's stories shown cooked from scratch meals
I can't always do that as I travel every other week and not always in control of dinner!

When you sign up, is there a way to work out Syns from a pre cooked meal or say a packet of crisps etc?

Thank you :)

I've also heard that although there is a list of free food that you can eat unlimited amounts of, if you eat loads of pasta then you'll put on weight? Just wondering what your experience of doing this is? I

Iceland do a range of SW meals.

I do tend to cook from scratch and when I started I didn't get home until 4.30pm but found recipes that took 20/30 minutes to cook.

I’ve only been doing SW for a week but am in a similar position to you regarding eating out.
On the app you can enter a food or a recipe so, for example, when I had curry in a restaurant, I could put in Chicken Tandoori, then naan etc. and a syn value estimate is given for each element.TBH I use all my syns in a breakfast out and a glass of fizz everyday. I am pretty unsure as to wether it will be sustainable with my lifestyle but I lost 6lbs on the first week so something must be working!

Could you batch cook at the weekend? To make it easier in the week? They say pasta etc is free and unlimited but you need to have a minimum of 1/3 of your plate as speed food. So you can’t just eat a massive bowl of pasta without eating a lot of veg. The idea is to fill up on speed food.

It’s really working for me but I am cooking from scratch and you have to be organised and plan your meals. If you decide just before you start cooking (ie when you’re hungry) you can start making poor decisions.

@Tractorgirlz so tonight I'm making sw carbonara, do I have to fill my plate with veg or salad too?

Yes, at least 1/3 should be low calorie veg and salad (so not parsnips, peas, sweet corn, sweet potato, avocado etc.) To be honest, you could sign up for one week to get all the books then not bother going again. At least you’ll have all the material to hand.

Why don't you buy the Slimming World magazine to investigate? It explains the programme, has recipes plus advertises foods which are ready made

You'll find it easier to lose weight - whatever the plan / diet you're doing - if you cook from scratch. There's a lot of hidden sugar and fat in ready meals. It'll give you hints on what is the best thing to eat when you're out and it is mostly common sense - grilled lean meat (e.g. steak) with no sauce, veg without butter, baked potato, that kind of thing. Or pasta with a tomato sauce.

Being able to eat carbs makes it much easier. I've lost 18lbs eating pasta pretty much every day