SLIMMING WORLD - So Spring is here. It's time for a fresh start. Let's look good for Summer!!

[Sparkler]

Right. It's a fresh start for me. I've joined Slimming World for the 5th time back in August of last year. Didn't do too badly up until Christmas but since then I've been dreadful.
Just had my weigh in tonight and had a huge weight again over two weeks - missed weigh in last week. The small amount of weight I have lost since August last year is very quickly creeping back on again and I have to do something about it now.
Tomorrow is my new start. I have my food diary at the ready.

Hi to all of the newbies

Major temptation point this afternoon - I have to make fairy cakes for the bake sale at schhol and then help the ds & dd ice them (plus themselves & the kitchen).
Question is how do I stop myself from eating them as I make them. Esp when they are warm out of the oven. Raw cake mix is one of my fav things Anyone able to guesstimate the syns in a fairy cake?

nikkid I would not be able to turn that temptation down at all. Raw cake mix, or warm cakes fresh from the oven or lovely little iced cakes are all too much for me to say no to! DD's birthday is a few weeks away and I will face the same temptation when baking for 22 4 yr olds.

Mmmm cake mix, yum. No idea what the syns would be in bun mixture but perhaps could count the eggs as free?
I have been spectacularly good so far (probably setting myself up for a disasterous night now!) - had crispbreads with laughing cow light and a banana for breakfast. Salad for lunch (btw anyone know syns in a tbsp of salad cream?). Just been out for a walk with ds in buggy up steep hill. hopefully that will cancel out last night's wine

Weather is lovely here today, really nice Spring day - sun shining always helps with the dieting I think, makes me think ahead to Summer clothes (very unforgiving after winter layers!)

Could maybe make a batch for yourself using sweetner instead of sugar nikkid and diet margarine? x

Just a quick hello to the newbies!

Busy day today...

Could you promise the kids they can lick the bowl out, not you??

How long do you have to resist for before they are out of temptation's way? Could you...

Cook a chickpea cake at the same time?

"fine" yourself 30 mins exercise for each cake you sneak? (have to make sure you do it though!)

make sure you've got plenty of free nibbley things to hand to distract you?

Syn it and not worry? I think from memory most cakes are listed in the food directory as per 28g - not a clue how much this equates to though! I'd be tempted to guestimate using e.g. cadburys mini rolls or similar, but probably wouldn't be too accurate.

How about making SW maranges (spelling very bad - I mean those white fluffy things!!!) at the same time _ think they work out syn free?

OK ladies a question. About 2 years ago my consultant at the time (I am a serial yo yo SW'er!!) said if somethign has cheese in you can take 6 syns out of its syn value and use a HEa - likewise with meat on green.
So a WW shepherds pie (5.5 I think) would become a HEb and a tin of macaroni cheese would have 6 less syns and be a HEa. Is that still right?? Because a weight watchers individual ham & cheese pizza is 9 syns, but having a HEb and 3 syns feels like cheating, because there's diddly-squat ham on it, and I'm sure the pizza base is more than 3 syns. Do you see what I mean?

I would love to eat one of them with SW chips for a B and 3 syns but am not sure if I'm just conning myself. What do you think?

Not sure SWlurker but surely you must be able to reduce the overall syns value of a dish if one of the ingredients can be used as a HE choice. I s'pose it just depends whether you deduct the full 6 syns value or work out the size of the actual portion of e.g. the cheese or ham (though might be difficult to calculate if it's a pizza topping!) compared to that specified in the HE guides - if that makes sense? I am a total diet cheater sometimes though so may not be best person to advise - have been known to try to "cash in" any unused HE allowances i.e 4 x 6 syns to "pay" for a glass or two of wine so that I can eat my daily syns instead.

'Not sure but surely'...that first sentence of my last post may come across as a tad contradictory!! Obviously just trying to keep your options open

Thanks for all of your suggestions re cakes. I limited myslf to 1 finger scrape around the bowl and the smallest fairy cake. Am going to treat it as 6 syns - can't be more than a curlywurly.

Sw lurker - have you tried putting the nutritional info into the syn calculator on line. The way that I understand it is that you can only count it as a HE + syns if the main (first) ingredient listed is a He.
Hope that makes sense

OOh I got given some w/w carrot cake bars, only 3.5 syns each and they are lovely. Only problem is couldn't stop at one!
Hope everyone is doing okay and counting those syns!!

SWlurker - the thing with the Healthy extras, you can do it if the food in question has the amount of whatever HE food that you would normally take as a healthy extra. For example, if you bought a sandwich from a shop, as long as the bread was wholemeal, you can deduct 6 syns and have the bread as a HE.
Or if you bought one of those chicken breast in sauce things you could count one chicken breast as a HE on a green day, because they are typically 227g.
But I would be wary of doing this with foods like Pizza - the chances are there isn't 28g cheddar on it, unless you make it yourself! And it is easy to be confused. Same with ready meals - there may not be enough meat in to count as a HE. The whole point of HE is to ensure you get enough fibre, vitamins etc. in your diet every day.

morning - just reporting my 3lb loss this week!

I did work hard for that though and it was my first week. I've done another meal plan for the week so hopefully I can stick to it. But ATM I'm focused, especially with the glorious sunshine yesterday although looks like we're due snow tomorrow.......but summer is round the corner.

ahhh that makes more sense bouncingturtle! thanks everybody for your help.

Lol Toadette I'm a serial cheater too - really need to take the rules seriously!

In truth not sure I can be bothered to work out all the quantities in ready meals etc, but will be "sizing up" portions mentally against HE quantity. Its very rare that I ever have something like that anyway, I tend to be quite good about cooking from scratch.

Thinking about ready meals I find it sad that some people say they don't have time to cook when they actually mean they'd rather spend 3 hours in front of the telly of a night than 2 1/2 hrs and 30 mins cooking. I can cook and earwig in to the telly! I was sneaking a peak on the money saving expert forum and they have a Sw thread, and somebody was complaining that SW was all about pre-prepared food - blimey its not at all! Yes you can have some of them but my consultant has always stressed you will lose better if you use "ingredients" rather than e.g. a pasta n sauce all the time.

(Sorry rant over!!)

SW I totally agree! I think I really learned to cook by doing SW - I found I could have low syn or free from syns versions of my favourite foods by making them from scratch - like curry, shepherd's pie, spag bol etc. Pasta n sauce and savoury rice I tend to save for lunches or when I'm in a rush, even then I like to add extras such as veg or Quorn to them.

Furball - congrats!!!!

Have been good so far today, just veg soup and some fruit. We are heading out for dinner tonight so saving all my HE's and syns for that. I really hope I can get a loss this week, even a half pound would start me moving in the right direction again.

Been very busy with housework, and been pretty good today, making Quorn sausage quiche for my tea. Have fun tonight Toadette.
Hope everyone is ready for the weekend!

Hey toadette/laloop

I haven't got posting for the last 2 days!

Yesterday was good I think. Had fruit for brekkie, poached eggs & 2 w/meal bread for lunch, potatoes, cabbage, carrot & parsnip with bacon for dinner.

Had no syns but that was because I had a bath & went to bed early.

Today: Woke with a sore throat, had fruit for brekkie, then went to work.. had another banana with a cup of coffee around 11am & then came home at 1pm. Didn't really fancy anything for lunch, so had a bowl of porridge Then for dinner I had beans & toast..... I sound so lazy...

What's wrong with porridge? that was a great choice for lunch
I've just had some for breakfast!

well ive managed 3 days on fast forward but im completely starving and bunged up !

Good news is that I'm excited (yes-excited) to get back on the food optimising plan. I'm gonna have a green day today so I can have a mountain of slimming chips!!!! yummy

What's the food like for the FF plan?

Do you have to limit it?

Throat still sore today & I am trying to work on my dissertation... I feel pants.

Hopefully will make SW chips for dinner, with beans & a friend egg Yum!

Didn't have any syns yesterday either, well, I have an ice-lolly but I think there's just 2 syns in one of those.

How's everyone going today?

We are having a chinese take away tonight... I have 1 HEB left & all my syns from the past 2 days (well apart from 2 I used on the ice lolly)....any ideas of what I should have with boiled rice??

hmm tricky one. I used to just have a bbq or sweet n sour sauce if i was having boiled rice from the takeaway....

Forgot to post. I lost 2.5lb at weigh in last Thursday. Very pleased as I had tried very hard last week. Weekend hasn't been very good - we've had a lot of things going on so it's been hard to stick to. I shall be back on tomorrow.

I must not fall off the wagon on a weekend
I must nto fall off the wagon on a weekend
I must not fall off the wagon on a weekend