What the bleep

[justneedtogetstarted]

So I joined SW last week. Never been a member before. Am very overweight but feel like I have reasonable knowledge of nutrition etc. So week one I didn't really follow the plan to be honest, never got around to properly setting up the app etc. today I weighed in- no change, kick up the backside to download the app and do my research. I have now used the app to track my food intake. It wasn't a great day food wise but honestly I don't know how I will ever stay at 5syns! I am currently on 65!!!! And I am still hungry. Mind blown.

Are you actually following the plan or just eating what you would normally eat and tracking that?! You need to base your meals around Free and Speed foods and choose to use your syns for treats or for cooking with e.g olive oil for salad dressing or instead of Frylite

You can honestly. Find the syns you like and that's your treat. Unfortunately it's is a diet and eating chocolate and Crisps everyday isn't going to work. I did cheat a lot. But no more than two days a week. One week I lost 6lbs so ate a box of 6 Cadbury creams in the car as soon as I got out 😄

You don't need to stay at 5 syns. You have up to 15 syns a day if under 16 stone and female. Have you read the books you were given and understood the basics?

Generally make all your meals syn free or low syn, 1/3 to 1/2 plate of green vegetables plus meat or fish, only very small amount of carbs like potato's. Carefully consider what you spend your syns on and whether they are worth the syn value but they are to allow yourself a bit of a treat.

Basically the idea is to change your eating patterns to bulk up on vegetables and low calorie fruit, lean meat and fish, and a small amount of diary. Nuts and seeds are calorie dense so syns to limit consumption. Treats like chocolate and sweets are all syns to ensure that they are limited - basically 300cals a day max available for treats

Well I gave been sort of trying to amend my eating today but I definitely need more commitment to the cause. It is a wake up call that I eat too much crap to be honest.

Today wasn't great but I've definitely eaten worse!:
Breakfast

• 1 slice of granary toast with half an avocado

Coffee with splash of oat milk Lunch -kind of missed it

• homemade spelt flour large blueberry muffin
• coffee with milk

Dinner One white and wheat wrap Chicken fried with onions and pepper. 26g cheddar. Tomato salsa. Broccoli and carrot. 40g cookie. Snack 3 Ryvita with marmite.

I weigh like 15stone and have walked 20k steps today plus done a gym class and am feeling like this is not that bad a day but I guess that my thinking on this is warped. Most people do not eat cake or chocolate every day!

I mean 65 syns seems a lot. A bad day for me must be like 20k syns! 15 feels a long way off!

When I did it I stuck to the plan. Cooked from the recipe books (too much chicken!! Am now virtually vegan as a reaction !). I stopped drinking entirely and only had syns at the weekend. I also stopped eating bread, finding pasta and potatoes more satisfying (and less likely to be slathered in butter!). I also cut out cheese. My plates were filled with veg. So I did SW but hardcore!
You have stick to the plan. It really does work. And as long as you don't succumb to the stupid bars and crap they sell at meetings it's pretty healthy. Or was the way I did it!
I've also largely maintained my lower weight

A typical on plan day for me is

Breakfast
Cheerios & milk HEb / HEa or overnight oats HEb with a coffee 1 sugar 1 syn

Snack
Melon or banana

Lunch
Subway chicken salad no subway cheese sweet onion dressing / 2 babybel HEa 1.5 syn for dressing

Snack
Fibre one bar 4 syns

Dinner
Chicken fajita pasta
Muller light yoghurt 1/2 syn

Supper
Rich tea fingers (1 syn each)
Tea

Diluting juice, water and Diet Coke / Tesco ginger beer throughout the day

I was shocked when I started SW as I scanned everything I typically ate and came out at 45 syns 🫣 takes a bit of getting your head around but as PP said if under 16 stone then you have 15 syns to play with. I've managed to lose 4.5 stone and keep most of it off - have a stone to lose post pregnancy to get back to my target weight. You got this 💪🏻

Thank you for the ideas. I appreciate them. I just need a bit more planning and to erase the wraps/bread from meals I think. Plus to cook without oil. I made the caramelised onions without the oil or sugar last night and it made surprisingly little difference, so that is a positive sign. For breakfast I often have a fried egg in a wrap with a little cheese and that needs to be completely reworked sadly!

If you are eating that many syns you are not following the plan at all and you are having too little free food.
Avocado, a cookie and a muffin are all high syn and although none of those things is dreadful, they are not all part of a calorie controlled diet. You don't NEED a cookie, you fancied it. Don't miss meals, eat more free food and snack on free stuff only as far as possible.

It's easy to make some swaps
Breakfast

• 1 slice of wholemeal toast (he)with half an avocado (check syns)

Coffee with splash of oat milk - fine, check if it's sweetness though

Lunch -kind of missed it

• homemade spelt flour large blueberry muffin
• coffee with milk

Have a proper lunch next time, soup, salad, stir-fry etc all can be free

Dinner
One white and wheat wrap -swapnfor a ww or find a lower cal version
Chicken fried with onions and pepper. 26g - cheddar. Tomato salsa(check the salsa syns) Broccoli and carrot. -
40g cookie. - have a smaller biscuit or swap for yoghurt or something
Snack
3 Ryvita with marmite. - have fruit.

Drink way more.

There's some great insta accounts with good recipe ideas.

Try boothys sw insta19 she has really good ideas

In the nicest possible way you're clearly not following the plan properly. You need to sit down and read the books and follow what they tell you.

What you are eating is relying on syns, you need to fill up on protein, veg and fruit.

Syns are for treats, mayo, sauces etc. If you follow it 100% for a week you'll see results. Good luck 😊

My homemade spelt muffins come up as 14 syns each so that with a wrap and a slice of roast and avocado in one day is way off and not sticking to plan .

You can eat loads on SW ,just not loads of muffins 😉

Yesterday I ate-

Poached eggs on toast

Carrot and coriander and red lentils soup,a jacket potato and salad.

Apple

Fillet of pork with puy lentils, potato and broccoli and carrots

Fruit salad with chocolate custard (3 syns)

Hot chocolate (2 syns)

Make a food diary and within no time it'll be second nature and won't seem such hard work.

It does work,I've lost over 3.5 stone, you have to stick to plan though if you want to see results and you have to see it as a life long change or you'll be back to square one if you stop.

Good luck !

Thats possibly the easiest meal to replicate. Find a wrap that fits Heb fry egg in spray oil, cheese from Hea. Add in mushrooms tomatoes for speed

There's definitely no reason to be hungry on SW! I found a bit of prep helped. I always had chicken in the fridge to snack on.

Baked potatoes with cheese (HexA) or cottage cheese for lunches. Or tuna mayo (lightest mayo synned).

Chicken, rice / noodles / pasta with veg and a sauce for dinner.

I loved greek yoghurt with raspberries (buy the frozen ones) for dessert / snack in the evening.

Potatoes are free. If I wanted a treat I would make my own wedges with hoards of salt and vinegar.

Make your own hummus with no tahini and lemon juice instead of oil with carrots and peppers to dip. Or a Tzatziki style dip with greek yoghurt.

I would add up how many calories you have eaten, that is what dictates your weight loss.

Ah you’re definitely not following the plan with that eating!!!

Granary bread, avocados, muffins and cookies have all syns and this is what’s bumping the syns up for you.

The majority of your food should be free food so for breakfast instead you could’ve have had 1 wholemeal toast with 2 slices of bacon, 2 poached eggs , mushrooms and tomatoes. How much more filling would that be. Or you could’ve had 2 weetabix, with kiwi and strawberries on top.

For lunch you could have had baked potato with tuna beans and cheese or baked potato with chicken and salad. Or you could have had pasta, chicken, leeks, onions, mushrooms with some cheese over it.

for dinner you could have had noodles, chicken, stir fried veg. Or you have had boiled potatoes, broccoli, carrots, roast beef and gravy (the gravy would have syns)

and for snacks you could have had no fat yogurt and fruit.

You could have used some syns then for a bag of crisps and some chocolate if you like those in the evening

Go over your books again and even write the plan out for yourself

The plan is most food should be free food, at least one third of every meal should be speed food (vegetables / fruit).
You need to have 2 healthy extra A per day (dairy listed in the book) and 1 healthy extra b a day (wholemeal bread or weetabix etc again listed in the book).
Then you have up to 15 syns a day you can use.
Some people use their syns for butter or dressings or sauces or for an extra slice of toast in the evening. Some people use their syns for chocolate or a glass of wine. Every one’s different though.

The main thing for me doing slimming world is I can eat a lot more food and have way more choice than if I was counting calories. And I don’t be hungry sticking to the plan.

Thank you all. Very useful tips and some straight talk definitely needed! I must actually stick to the plan if I want the plan to work!! I'm doing much better today so far- only 1 syn. I had coffee, an energy drink sugar free (I know but up very early for the gym and wanted some caffeine) and all bran with milk. The syn was actually from the cereal as I accidentally went 10g over the hepb allowance. I need to add some fruit or veg in really but have been rushing around!

Very impressed with 3.5 stones of weight loss- that is what I want!!

Great start to the day and all on plan!

To add, I lost 2.5 stone in around 8 months. So slow and steady. But (and I know this isn't SW orthodoxy) I really recommend having days where you have no syns, and try for as many free food meals as possible. The SW cookbooks are really helpful, albeit a little too meat focused for my liking. Never once did I let myself go hungry - so by cutting out syns I felt I could shovel in free foods to keep my full. The reality with syned food is that it's not filling. you want to always feel satisfied
Oh and I really would cut out alcohol. It's such an easy win.
And shop sensibly. really plan it
Good luck!

I need my syns for any wee treats otherwise I feel deprived and can’t stick it and have a binge and lose the plot!

Not having syns is ok for a week here or there very short term but long term they are recommended to have at least 5 a day

I have to say that I am very impressed with everyone who has stuck to this plan and am inspired by those who lost weight.

I am on board to get there but still not actually there! I need to plan to have meals without any syns and then it is withstanding temptation. Having started the day well I have ended the day at 37 syns! Oh well knocked 30 off yesterday. Today I had:

Breakfast
All bran and milk
Coffee
No syns

Snack
Two eggs
Potato wedges
Salad
No syn

Lunch
White rice
Spicy chicken breast - stir fried in veg oil
Scriracha sauce
Courgette, carrot, cabbage, kimchi, mushroom
Sesame seeds
Radish
3 syns

Snack
Coconut latte 5 syns

Dinner
Goats cheese 70g
Rocket
Walnuts 20g
French dressing 30g
Cucumber
Piece of kids homemade sourdough pizza
27.5 syns waaaaaah!

I sort of thought the salad would be ok but when I added it in to the app it wasn't at all! Then the pizza I shouldn't have had and put it right over!

Tomorrow is another day. If I half again then I'll be nearly at 15!! I am hoping that my sugar cravings will start to go down.

You need to read through all of your books and start effectively from scratch. Look at what is free and base your meals around that. You need to erase everything you've been taught about dieting in the past. You need to accept that you're going to be doing a lot of cooking from scratch. You also need to pretty much give up on bread.

I'm on my third week now and lost half a stone so far. So it does work.
For breakfast I have scrambled eggs or beans on nimble toast. I might have porridge or eggs with bacon on the weekend.

For lunch in the week I have a 'MN massive salad' with something like chicken, cous cous, pasta or tuna. At weekends I have something like beans or eggs on toast if I haven't had my B or a jacket potato. Something quick and easy.

Tea is really easy - it can literally be anything as long as you make most of it yourself. Things like roast dinner, spaghetti bolognese and chilli are good basics to start with. I do things like feta tomato pasta with chicken or Salmon that's really easy. It uses an A. Meatball pasta bake is another really easy one. Any meat or fish with rice/pasta/potatoes and some veg on the side. One of the best meals my kids loved this week was pasta with chive philadelphia stirred in (this is about 13 syns for the whole tub, so about 4.5 when divided by 3)

I use my syns on things like sauces to have with meat or fish with my tea. I also love the arla protein yogurts that are 2.5 sync each and they keep me full.

Plan your meals BEFORE you eat them, don't eat and then count up the syns. Plan a whole week's menu, you will feel more in control of things when you do. Lots of protein and speed, lots of water. You'll get there but read the book and plan.