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.

I think massive chunk of cheese is exaggerating slightly but I agree with the rest 100%😉

Oh yes, you can definitely eat well on it! As others have said, plan your meals by starting with protein and veg as a base and then you add in the carbs/syns from there.

So this morning I thought of scrambled eggs and mushrooms as the main part of my meal but had toast (from allowance) and some beans too in order to give it flavour.

I avoid the majority of the SW foods although it's good to have a bag of their chips in the freezer, for the nights when you want to throw something in the oven and when chopping a potato feels like hard work! 😂

I don't know where this 'cult' stuff comes from. Once you learn the basics and stick to them you don't need to subscribe to anything, just use common sense really.

I find the people who bang on about cults usually have no idea what the plan is because it's basically balanced, healthy eating which is exactly what the NHS recommends.

Try and plan some free breakfasts. I have fat free yogurt and fruit with a drop of toffee flavouring in when I can get it.

That means late evening I can have a rogue bowl of weetabix, or cheese on toast, or cheese and ryvita/peanuts.

Pickled onions, gherkins, cherry tomatoes, cucumber chunks, apple chunks are all good for random snacking. All speed.

And I’ve never eaten so much beetroot in my life. It’s speed and delicious with cheese (HXA) or hard boiled egg and salt.

Ive been with SW since the beginning of May, Ive now lost two stone, slowly as Im post menopause and I drank like a fish ( just quit for dry January and may be a lifestyle choice moving forward )

I do not use fry lite, I dont buy the bars, I dont buy the frozen meals

What I do is cook from scratch every ruddy day ( PITA but it is what it is )

When I was drinking, I would rarely use a syn on food cos I wanted my evening drink and still lose weight. So all my food intake was from the free/speed/and healthy extras. I ate very well, never went hungry and actually enjoyed my meals. Now I have those 15 syns a day, I still eat as I did, but now I will have the avocado or some nuts or the odd bag of crisps or the odd biscuit - rather partial to a shortbread :)

I dont think of it as a diet, its a healthy eating plan, the programme forces you to make the healthier choices, the high protein, the less dense calorific foods, the foods that will fill you up and stop you reaching for the junk that got you over their doorstep in the first place

What worked for me is learning what food is free, the food you can eat freely from - and thats a huge list. SW website is a great resource for recipes. And Ive tried a couple of them and they arent bad tbf I have to cook for me, DH and mother so I have to think of meals that they enjoy as well and adapt

The biggest changes for me has been retiring the deep fat fryer and learning how to perfect chips in the air fryer nearly oil free ( can be done and they are really good ) and increasing my fruit and veg intake - I am the original F&V dodger.

I have never been a big eater, esp if I was at home all day, it would be 3 or 4 before Id get hungry and then I would reach for the bread - with the butter - and add to that whatever high calorie food was to hand - cheese, coleslaw and salami, along with a bag of crisps. So sure I wasnt hungry for dinner and would pick, then of course 10pm Im back raiding the bread bin, only this time it would be peanut butter and jam. I could easily get through a pound of butter and two loaves of bread by myself in a week

Today was an at home day. Hungry at 3pm, so I had a huge ( to me )fruit salad of pear/apple/grapes/kiwi/satsuma, mixed into HM ff/sf greek yoghurt and a good measure of oat bran. Now of course I didnt want the roast dinner I was cooking so I stuck on a jacket spud and stuffed it with 20g of stilton and topped it with tuna and had a side of tomatoes and cucumbers - not a syn in sight, and Im full.

I still reach for chip/cheese and curry sauce, only now its air fried chips, mayflower curry sauce mix if I haven't any HM in the freeze, and fine grated parmesan ( for the taste ) - think its one syn for the curry sauce and count the cheese as a HEB. Weekend Chinese of special fried rice and chicken and peppers in black bean sauce - just one syn for the oil used ( six portions made ) Friday night pizza - wholemeal pitta - HEB, tomato sauce, mozzarella, anchovies - free ( huge side salad with that )

I also went along just wanting to lose a stone for a wedding in October, that was my first target which I hit in July, I then chose to set a new target for another 10lb. By the wedding I was down 1 and a half stone off and hit the new target in November . I stayed at that target until last week when I dropped it again by another 7lb. I dont look fat, indeed Im down to a size 12 from an 18, but unfortunately cholesterol and subcutaneous fat readings are still a tad too high. And thats another thing I like, you pick your targets as and when you are ready , no pressure, no being told you have to be this or that weight, the only rule is, you cant go below the accepted minimum weight for your height - which is never going to happen to me :)

So get your head around what foods are classed as free - and plan your menu around them and then use your syns to supplement or to treat. If chocolate is your go to, then save enough syns to cover you. Lass in my group has a 15syn bar every day, which is better then her usual big tub of celebrations everyday :)

@suki1964 that's amazing! Fantastic job, what an effort! Can I ask your start and current weights? I have my weekly weigh in tomorrow and am hoping that I have actually lost this week, as I has been trying and making some significant switches though still with the odd falter most days.
One thing I have noticed is that I am reaching more for fruit. Previously I ate a lot of veg but not so much fruit. Now, I think without other snacks on the table, I am turning to fruit. I know fruit can be high in sugars but I actually think this is a really good thing. To be replacing processed with natural goodness.

You shouldn't ever be hungry with SW. But you do have to be organised.

You have to cook from scratch (which is no bad thing). Nearly all processed food will have a syn value attached to it.

5 syns is really low, go for 15.

Spaghetti bolognaise
Shepherds pie
Roast dinners
Pasta dishes
Stew

Can all be syn free if cooked from scratch's

What I struggled with was breakfast so I started making omelette or bacon and eggs rather than reaching for cereal or toast.

Go for lower sugar fruits like berries if you can 👍👍👍

Nothing wrong with fruit,natural sugars aren't the same as processed sugars and berries are even better 😊

I started at 11.5, Im now today 9.3. My new target is 8.12 and thats only because my body fat percentage is still high, I was happy at 9:5

Re major switches, dont force it as it will become a diet and you will get pissed off and stop, or you will reach target and not be able to maintain and the weight will come back. You have to make the small changes that become habit.

Like with me, bread. I couldn't imagine a meal that wasnt bread based because that was a habit that started in lock down. I rarely look for it 9 months down the road. It took a while to learn how to make a quick satisfying tasty snack meal, finally settling on "open sandwiches" - vast amount of salad on just one slice of bread, then piled high again with a protein, took a while to get from 6 to 8 slices a day to 1 and now two or three a week. But thats a change I can live with moving forward. Now snack meals are usually bean based - chickpea or mixed bean salads, scrambled or poached eggs, a jacket spud.

With fruit, sure its healthier then the crud you were probably snacking on, but fruit is fattening, and its bad for the teeth - hence even the NHS dont recommend too many portions a day. If you are going for fruit choose the SP ones. Healthier snacks for picking at - and believe me, I made these and could not eat them all - weigh out a HEA portion of cheese - I used reduced fat feta style as it was the biggest portion, cut some ham into decent size strips, get silver skin onion or cocktail beets or baby cabochons and make "ploughman's " on cocktail sticks. I think I made 20 with the cheese portion, ham and pickles are free and I sat them beside me and popped them in my mouth as the night went on, I was stuffed before I finished them - ham and cheese is more filling then a couple of satsumas

Be honest with yourself. Decide what foods/snacks you cant do without, syn them and add to your food plan for the day. If you know you have 10 syns earmarked for those bits, then you know you only have five more to play with, and choosing wisely 5 syns can go very very far

For me it really has been small sustainable changes. Meals are cooked from scratch so I know whats in them and I avoid my triggers. I eat a healthy balanced diet 99% of the time. Sure I go off plan at times, I dont sweat it, I draw a line and start again with the next meal or snack. I also walk every day - a couple of miles minimum. I skip, Ive now got a bike and I go to the odd exercise class ( I dont like them, I go with a friend ) I dance whilst vacuuming, do lunges and squats whilst waiting on a pot to boil - just basically getting in as much movement as possible

Give it 3 months , you will be making the changes by then, you will be choosing the healthier options and you will start seeing the changes in your shape

Fruit isn't bad for the teeth unless you're making it into smoothies, eaten whole then fruit is absolutely fine.

OP how did you get on at weigh in this week?

Fruit is a million times better than other junk. It’s the last thing to wean off, imo. If you’re on a super healthy diet than fruit may indeed be your worst food. For most of us, probably not.

@Sletty I am so excited as I lost 4.5lb this week! So it actually worked!! Even though I was still over the syns most days, I feel like I did make a real change this week. SW has basically removed most bakery items bread, wraps, cakes, breadsticks etc etc and junk food- crisps, crackers, chocolate, sweets from my diet. And given me awareness of the amount of these types of food I should be eating regularly- ie. A single muffin or slice of cake is probably over the syn allowance for a whole day, so really should be an occasional treat, not a regular one. 5 starburst sweets =5 syns, a good chunk of allowance. Whereas prior to starting, I could have easily eaten 6 sweets, a pudding, 50g breadsticks and 2 wraps in a day without thinking that I had over eaten junk food. So calories (and esp, calories from addictive foods) are removed by stealth!

Now I just need to continue with strong resolve and up my planning.

Oh brilliant,well done ,so happy for you 👏

Be aware you are unlikely to lose another 4.5lbs next week,it'll be slow and steady probably from now on and weight loss isn't linear,one week you might not lose but the next it suddenly drops off. Don't be disappointed,it's a journey.

Well done! It’s really important to recognise those changes, that you don’t have to be 100% perfect- just better than you were.

Thank you and thanks too for the words of warning. I will try not to get hung up on the weigh ins too much. Thanks for all the tips too. I love the idea of the little cocktail sticks of cheese, ham and gherkins as treats 😋.

Is anyone else here on the journey and still going to meetings etc?

Yes the weight loss will be 0 - 2 lbs a week now, so don't get disheartened if you don't see such a big drop. Although you might get another week of 'high' loss.

Also, in a few months when you find that the loss is slowing/plateauing. That's the time to check the actual amount of food you're eating.

Like, right now, you might be having 2 booked eggs and a slice of toast and some yoghurt and berries for brekkie. i might have to adjust to one egg etc. that's where a lot of people struggle

@justneedtogetstarted there is another thread where we some of us are still going to group and on the sw plan
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/slimming_world/4972780-syncronize-watches-countdown-to-2024-with-slimming-world?page=7

I’m still going. I lost 5.5stone initially.
Put one back on. I couldn’t shift it so moved my target to my new weight while I gathered my mojo.
I go to meetings most weeks.

Oh brilliant! Well done!
I’m going to group and keeping a tracker. Last few weeks have been -3.5, -2.5 and this week-1.
I am loving life and totally in love with food at the minute. Gorgeous fresh healthy lovely yummy food! Have made a few meals from the recipes in the magazines and they’ve been unreal ❤

Wow well done everyone! I am going to try out a few recipes from the magazine too. I need to get better at planning. We use hello fresh but then recipes have things like full fat creme fraiche that then send my syns sky high! Ate out at sticks and sushi this lunch- it's pretty pricey but quite a good option for a meal out, as you can get plain rice, meat or fish kebabs and veg with a sauce. Not too off plan.

Sounds like you have got the hang of it now OP and doing well . Just to add in that when I've done slimming world I've found the magazine and the articles and recipes on the website to be really helpful . It might be worth getting a couple of the Iceland ready meals in too - for when you're short of time they may save you getting a takeaway.

I have realised that when you don’t have certain foods often, it’s easy to say ‘that will be a few syns’ without realising just how high they are.

I just made a mousse with tofu and chocolate (cocoa and sweetener). I thought that 150g of chocolate and 3tbs of cocoa would be fine, divided in 3.
ha! No such luck. A day’s syns gone in one go. It’s lovely, but shocking what 50g of chocolate is!

—2 this week 😀

How’d you get on OP?