Slimming world for the absolute novice!

[Mamafy]

Me is the novice me and Mr Atkins are to divorce

I will do my own weigh in but what are the principles? How can I find out what the free foods are? How do you work out syns?

I only know the basics of fry lite, pasta, potatoes, rice, all fruits + veg, lean meats and quorn products, muller lights, pasta n sauces (love these)

Thanks guys x

 

[Mamafy]

Bumpidy bump

 

[Princess81]

I have no idea tiny should know though and they have a website which might help. Also there are always sw books for sale on a well known internet auction site x

 

[Baby Bean]

Are you going to any meetings? I did it a few yrs ago and it worked really well. When u join they give you a book with how it works in it. You have green and red days and your free food depends on which day you decide to have, although some things are always free. It may be worth signing up just to get the book, you can then leave if you don't want the weigh ins but tbh for me that helped me stick to it.

 

[Annie050408]

I'd also love to know this- a shopping list would be useful as would a basic outline of what you can and can't have/ what a menu for a day/ week would look like? X

 

[Mamafy]

Just the thing I'm after Annie come on guys help us out

 

[Butterflykisses]

I'd love to know too. NEARLY went to meeting this evening but kept finding excuses all day not and the excuses won. lol Went to Weight Watchers last year and it really worked until they changed the points systems and I couldn't follow at all. Friends have said Slimming World is easier.

 

[AugustMum]

Its hard to sum up....

Ill go get my book and try sum it up and do some examples for you all

 

[Miss]

how can you divorce Mr Atkins?? He is my fav! Although I follow the 2002 edition not the up to date one! There is the most wonderful forum for 2002 edition which helped me loads!

I tried slimming world and weight watchers but I have no self control what so ever lol the only one I ever stick to is atkins cos it's just easy!

Good luck Mamafy! Xx

 

[Coffeecake]

Basically Slimming World consists of free foods, healthy extras and syns. There are three plans, red or original, green and extra easy. For the purpose of this explanation I'll stick to extra easy, it's really easy peasy!

On extra easy you pick your free foods (which is basically all fruits and veg, meat, fish, poultry, rice, pasta etc) then you choose a healthy extra A which are dairy and a healthy extra B which is your breads and cereal etc. Then you choose your syns which are all foods that are not free foods or healthy extras like chocolate, sugar, butter, wine etc. You can have 10 - 15 syns a day, as a rough guide 20 calories = 1 syn

Examples of some healthy extra A choices
175ml whole milk
250ml semi skimmed milk
350ml skimmed milk
28g hard cheese (like cheddar, parmesan etc)
42g mozzarella
3 babybel light cheese
5 laughing cow cheese triangles

Examples of some healthy extra B choices
28g cereal like bran flakes, muesli, porridge etc (not sugary ones like frosties etc)
2 x weetabix
2 slices wholemeal bread from a small 400g loaf
57g wholemeal roll
4 ryvita crispbreads

There are a lot more but these are just examples off the top of my head.

So a typical day would look like this;

Breakfast
1oz porridge (Healthy extra B)
250ml semi skimmed milk (Healthy extra A)
Loads of chopped banana and blueberries (free)

Lunch
Mixed leaf salad (free)
Grilled chicken breast (free)
Jacket potato (free)
1 tbsp light mayonnaise (2 syns)

Snack
Pot of 2% Greek yogurt (0.5 syn)
2tsp honey (2 syns)
Chopped peach (free)

Dinner
Spaghetti bolognaise made with extra lean mince (free)
Mixed veg salad or steamed veg (free)
Small glass of wine (6 syns)

Total syns for the day 10.5

You should remove all visible skin and fat from all meat before cooking
Make sure your plate is 1/3 full of veg or fruit

 

[Mamafy]

You are a total star hun

That makes sense now, especially the healthy extra bits

Miss, I know; Atkins works for me too but I'm fancying a change (and carbs )

So today has been like this: (tell me if I'm right)

Breakfast:

28g all bran (heb)
200 skimmed milk (hea)
Banana (free)

Muller light yogurt (free)
Grapes (free)

Lunch:

Bachelors pasta n sauce (free)
Salad (free)

Dinner:

Jacket potato (free)
Beans (free)
Salad, no dressing (free)

I'm going to use my sins well some of them now

Is this ok, any tweaking needed?

 

[Coffeecake]

Are you a vegetarian? I noticed you have no meat on your menu. From your menu, it looks like you're on a green day. In which case you need more healthy extras! On green and red days you can have 1 or 2 healthy A choices and 2 B choices. So from your menu you could include snacks or meat or nuts as healthy extras. I'll highlight in red if that's okay.

Do you have any of the books at all? I'll see if I can scan some pages and post them here as a quick reference for everyone. I might have to wait for my husband to do it though, I'm not good at those sorts of things lol.

You are a total star hun

That makes sense now, especially the healthy extra bits

Miss, I know; Atkins works for me too but I'm fancying a change (and carbs )

So today has been like this: (tell me if I'm right)

Breakfast:

28g all bran (heb)
200 skimmed milk (hea) you have another 150ml to drink! I like to make an options hot chocolate to use up my milk allowance. They're only 2 syns per sachet!
Banana (free)

Muller light yogurt (free)
Grapes (free)

Lunch:

Bachelors pasta n sauce (free)
Salad (free)

Dinner:

Jacket potato (free)
Beans (free)
Salad, no dressing (free)

I'm going to use my sins well some of them now

Is this ok, any tweaking needed?

you could add any one of these to your meals as an HEB
28g cheese
113g chicken
113g canned tuna in brine
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 alpen light cereal bars as a snack

 

[Mamafy]

Thanks hun

No not vegetarian so does that mean if I don't have meat I can have an extra portion of bread/ryvita? Or is it cheese? Lost.com

 

[Coffeecake]

You can have either! On a green day you can have cheese as an A choice or a B choice. Generally A choices are calcium rich foods and B choices are protein and/or fibre rich foods. Dairy products contain both calcium (A) and protein (B) so some are classed as both A&B on a green day. There's a huge list of cheeses you can have on a green day as a B choice because they're high in protein but not as an A choice because they don't contain enough calcium to be classed as an A choice. Cheddar cheese and most other hard cheeses have enough calcium and protein to be A&B but a lot of soft cheeses (e.g. 85g ricotta, 85g philly light, 28g brie, 42g feta etc) are only classed as a B choice. Hope that makes sense!

So basically you can have an extra portion of bread OR cheese on a green day as a B choice

 

[AugustMum]

Ok, so Ive been to the meetings, but reading this has made me understand it a bit more. *she types while chowing down on a muller light*

 

[Emmamb]

It all depends what 'day' ur doing. If ur following the extra easy plan then u only get 1 hea and 1 heb.

I follow the 'extra easy'(yellow day) cos it's easier and fits in with family life.