Slimming World - A Beginners Guide

Hey there.

September 2014

So last week I asked you guys on Snapchat (MyBuzzyBeauty) if you'd like my own take on Slimming World and I got a few snaps saying yes. If this helps even one person make better choices to stay on plan, I will be delighted. Making a conscious decision to do something about your weight is scary. Do you have the will power? Do you have the support of those around you? Will you be happier? I've struggled with my weight my entire life. Since having Eloise I can now admit to myself I was too heavy, and I didn't want to be that way anymore. I'd heard quite a bit about Slimming World from a friend so I said I'd give it a go.

I joined the first week of  May. It was a bit daunting, but I sat down to the New Members talk and knew I had made the right decision. Everyone was so lovely, welcoming and supportive. If you've had a bad week every single person there wants to help pick you back up. And if you've had a great week every single person there is overjoyed for you. There's a real sense of community to the classes.

June 2014

The plan sounds complicated, but it is honestly simple. You have 3 main groups of food:

Free Foods:

• Speed foods- 95% of fruits and veg fall into this category. They help to speed up your metabolism, are filling, and quite a lot can be used instead of Free Foods (Will come back to this below).
• Protein- chicken, fish, eggs, any lean meat under 5% fat all fall into this and are free.
• Free foods- potatoes, dried pasta, couscous, rice, some yoghurts; basically all those filling things you've been told to stay away from.

You can eat your fill of the above, the only golden rule is to fill your plate with a third of each. You can have seconds, but you need to fill your plate with speed foods. They really do make all the difference.

Healthy Extras:

• Heathy Extra A- this is your dairy allowance. You don't need to have your full allowance everyday if you don't want to, but you can't carry it over to the next day. This group breaks down to cheese and milk basically. You can have varying amounts, from 40g of reduced fat cheese to 1 litre of unsweetened almond milk. If I don't want cheese that day I really like 250mls of dark almond milk, split between cereal and coffees for the day.
• Healthy Extra B- your fibre allowance. 35g of porridge or 2 weetabix or 2 slices of wholemeal bread from a 400g loaf or a 60g wholemeal roll. Most breakfast cereals can be used for a healthy extra, and so can some nuts, but I don't eat these so I'm not sure of the exact amounts. Ryvitas and Hi-Fi bars also fall into this category, and are so handy for a Grab-and-Go option.

You need to weigh/measure/count these out, to protect your own weight loss. These are the foods I would find the easiest to overeat. 35g of porridge is not a whole lot. You honestly won't believe how little it is when you measure it out. Once you get used to weighing these out it will become so second nature that it really isn't a hassle.

Syns:
Everything else! Chocolate, alcohol, oils, avocados (yes they're healthy, but they are still very high in fats), crisps, wine, gin, cider- all the good stuff! You get 15 syns a day. I'd generally aim to use 12 a day, just to protect my weight loss if I haven't measured something properly. Syns are there to be used, and are all about being creative. I only go out once a month usually, so the alcohol doesn't really affect me, but I do have a serious sweet tooth. I usually save as many syns as I can for the evenings to facilitate my need to pick.

March 2014

Top Tips:

• I was a major cheese hound, so I completely cut it for the first 4 weeks, until I could trust myself to weigh it out and not cheat. This may seem harsh but it really worked for me.
• Try to do a different HexB every week and assess how you felt after each week. I find that the bars and cereals worked best for me. I felt bloated and sluggish by the end of the wholemeal bread week. 
• Plan, plan, plan! Weeks I've done out a proper shopping list/meal plan have been my best weeks, for losses and staying on plan.
• Stay for the meetings. Slimming World offers amazing support, but only if you put yourself out there and accept the help being offered. 
• Don't be too hard on yourself- so you were 100% on plan and you had a maintain. This happens. It's a dose and makes you feel like a goose. Keep going. 
• Experiment and try the recipes. There are thousands of SW recipes available online. I've done 40 or 50 at this stage, and there's only been 3 or so we haven't liked. 
• Change it up. Use Speed instead of Free foods. Roasted butternut squash is lovely instead of potatoes, or courgetti noodles are amazing instead of anything!
• Always put 1/3 Speed on your plate. Even if you're doing a 100% vegetarian curry, boil/roast/spirialise some veg for your third speed. 
• Snack on whatever you want, but always have some Speed with it. 
• If you go off plan on a Tuesday, that's your Tuesday over, not your week and not your diet. Get back on plan. 
• Stock up your spice press. Dried spices, passata, tinned beans (in water), stock cubes, Lea and Perrins, these are all free, all delicious, and all so easy to use to add flavour. 
• Be proud of every pound you lose. 

Just as an example, I'm going to give you a kind of sampler menu, for some idea of the range of foods I still enjoy on Slimming World.

Breakfast:

• 2 weetabix (HexB), crushed up and mixed with a Toffee Muller Light yogurt (FF), 4 strawberries (SF). A green tea (F), an apple and a mandarin (SF).

Snack:

• A plum and an apple (SF) and a Benefit chocolate fudge bar (3 syns).

Lunch:

• A two egg (P) omelette, with mushrooms and peppers (SF), sweetcorn (FF) and a side salad (SF). Maybe some couscous (FF) too if I was very hungry.

Snack:

• A mandarin (SF) and a Benefit chocolate fudge bar (3 syns).

Dinner:

• Spaghetti Bolognese (Completely Free, with a lot of Speed), whole wheat spaghetti (FF), boiled broccoli (Speed).
• Fruit salad (SF) maybe an hour after dinner.
• Microwave 100 cal popcorn.

Now this isn't set in stone. Some days I'd have half a honey dew melon after my breakfast. And if I'm on my period, or hungover, I'm a ravenous beast and would need a second dinner in place of a lunch. But for the most part this would be what I'd eat.

When I started the first week of May, I weighed 15 stone 4 lbs, and as of last week I weighed 12 stone 5.5 lbs. I've lost almost 3 stone already, and am hoping to lose another stone, just because I figure 11s 4lbs is a healthy weight for my height (5'5"). This could all change as I get closer to my target, but I'm happily working away to that goal for the moment. And in typical me fashion, I an't find any of my Awards! Bloody typical!

January 2016

I'm going to throw up a recipe tomorrow for my Spag Bol tomorrow, so if you have any questions please feel free to ask me here, on Insta, Facebook or Tweet me! Would you like me to upload a recipe here every couple of weeks? Please let me know, because I'd only be too happy to!

Love, 

MyBuzzyBeauty