Personally i believe the reason dont 'push' portion control is because part of the rehibilitating of your eating habits is feeling a sence of 'freedom'. SW give's each and every member the choice, and trusts that member to learn when enough is enough- Note, i say Learn.
Learning portion control isnt the most important thing when you embark on the long, long journey that is your weight loss. No matter how many lbs you have to lose, it can seem like a long hard journey at times.
Iv been with slimmingworld two years, and only now am i teaching myself portion control, and this is because i needed to get my head round healthy cooking, spotting hidden fats and oils, keeping my motivation results and most important to me.. feeling FULL.
I genuinly believe the reason they dont push this portion control is because its SO easy to get so caught up in the excitment of the new plan, combined with all the unknowns and trying to understand the differences between plans.. whats 'okay' and whats not etc. It could be so easy to create more problems than what you began with. We have an incredibly emotional journey to go through, it could be very difficult to turn this new way of eating into a negative, rather than a positive.
Even now, learning what portion sizes are best for me is difficult. I approached it with simple rules - only eat when hungry- eat very slowly. .
but then on a few occasions i caught myself feeling guilty for eating my plate full. Despite it being a smaller plate. There was nothing wrong with finishing my plate, i needed to learn how to eat untill i was full, or only when im actually hungry.. not feel guilty incase i leave too much and feel like iv eaten too much, even if it were all syn free, good food.
do you see how easy it is to slip into nasty habits without realising? even now, with all my weight gone and after following the plan so long- had i had not nipped it in the bud there and then upon realising myself, it could have evolved into somthing really horrible. Had i been still in the early stages of my journey i wouldnt have been clear minded enough to see where i was potentially going wrong.
- and arn't we all adults here? Just as we made the decision to fall into bad habits, get big and pile on the weight through bad choices... - slimmingworld give you all the tools you could possibly need to start a healthy new life.. they cant do it all hey!
im not entirely sure what changes could happen in the future, but i would hope they dont make too many changes, because making it stricter would make sw exactly the same as every other 'diet' out there. Flexibility is what sets sw apart from the other eating plans.
just my view x