Joining this week - any staple foods I should ensure I buy in readiness?

[Snozzlemaid]

I have decided to join SW this coming week. I desperately need to lose a lot of weight and my attempts on my own are not working.
I've always been against joining as my mum has yoyo dieted all my life and has been a member on and off for a very long time. But I have to do something and I think the weigh in each week will hopefully be an incentive to really try.

Are there any staple foods I should ensure I buy ready to start the plan after the meeting on Wednesday?
And any other tips of what to expect at my first meeting? I'm a bit daunted by it all to be honest.

[whatsthatbloodycatdonenow]

Here is a shopping list guide for hitting the ground running for days 1 and 2. Recommend making a meal plan for the first week once you’ve got your head round the plan and then creating a shopping list from that.

[Versailles2025]

I’ve been going on and off for years. It’s works when I stick to it 🤣

I have only just discovered how nice frozen berries, O% Greek yoghurt and oats are. They call it overnight oats. I wish I had done this years ago.

[Wilma55]

You can get a free 7 day menu which should give you some ideas.

https://www.slimmingworld.co.uk/seven-day-menus

[Snozzlemaid]

Brilliant. Thanks for the suggestions.
Versailles2025 it does work for my mum too when she goes and sticks to it 😂

[lechatnoir]

I've lost just under 2 stone slow & steady but use it to make better choices rather than sticking to it religiously. I avoid buying anything with sweetners and steer clear of snacks like crisps & biscuits even low syn ones as I don't have an off switch! The basic principles of cook from scratch using lots of fruit & veg, lean meat, beans and pulses, fish and eggs, limit cheese & eggs dairy, limit alcohol & treats and snack on fruit 7 veg if you need something between meals. It can be healthy and sustainable way of eating with the whole family but when you start doing funky 'sw cheats' like adding choc shots to everything and using muller light yogurts to make a cake that I think it falls down long term and becomes a faddy diet.

Anyway, my basic staples are:
Eggs- scrambled/poached eggs for breakfast, omlette and salad for lunch
Skimmed milk for coffee and cereal
Small wholemeal loaf for toast (with eggs - try and avoid plain toast or I want butter!)
Parmesan - use as Heatlhy extra on pasta, chilli etc
Weetabix -2 for a Healthy extra
Frozen berries - added to cereal and with yogurt
Plain fat free yogurt
Beans & pulses - baked beans, and beans and lentils to add to curries, spag bol, soups etc
Pasta
Chicken - skinless for salad, curries etc
Lean mince- spag bol, cottage pie, chilli all free and load up with veg.
Rice - for curries, chilli and fried rice using leftover meat & veg plus condiments
Lots of veg as sides or for making pasta sauces, curries, soup, etc
Lots & lots of salad
Potatoes - jacket with fillings (beans, cottage cheese, chilli) oven chips and mash.


Meal planning is the key and I try and make at least 1 big batch of free pasta and 1 big batch of chunky bean & veg soup each week for those days when I can't be bothered to think.

[BackWednesdays]

I go with lots of veg and fruit you can pick at in the fridge: carrot batons, cucumber sticks, little gem lettuce, cherry tomatoes, blueberries etc and then fat free yoghurt and fat free cottage cheese. Handy to cook some brown rice and have that in the fridge too - dot with soya sauce for a syn-free snack.

[BackWednesdays]

and those tubs you get of cooked skinless chicken - not the cheapest but handy - and cooked prawns

[BackWednesdays]

those cooked lentil pouches are often one syn only and a half porton is really filling. Other fave snax: smoked markerel pate - ie the fish plus fat free yoghurt and lemon juice. Low fat humus: a tin of chickpeas whizzed up with salt, cumin, water from the can, lemon juice, half a teaspoon of tahini.

[BackWednesdays]

I agree with lechatnoir - it's a really good incentive for cooking from scratch

[suki1964]

Yep, thats their ethos, stop the processed and cook from scratch , which is now promoted everywhere yet SW are called a cult :)

Theres nothing ( other then white bread and butter ) thats off my menu, I eat the same food as Ive always eaten, curries and Chinese galore, stews and casseroles, roasts , chops, Bolognese - all those family favourites are in the plan - just cook from scratch . Theres no syns in a tin of tomatoes, a jar of sauce will wipe out your syn allowance

Only now I have veg with everything, or fruit. Even the weekend treat of bacon butties now are BLTs, crammed full of rocket, tomatoes and anything else that takes my fancy - and wholemeal bread

Its my fruit and veg bill thats rocketed. Im in twice a week stocking up. Before when I shopped, I used to fill the trolley with everything else and then back to the veg and pick up what I deemed necessary , now its fill the trolly with the veg and squeeze everything else in alongside :)