Common SW misconceptions put right.

[ACH]

I think it's finding what is right for you. They are there if you need them is what SW tell people. Some days I don't need them. For me if I bought a bag of treat size choc bars with the intent of eating one a day with my daily syns I'd eat them all there and then because I'm just like that. I have to cut chocolate and alcohol and things out completely or I then become like an addict which is why I need to lose weight in the first place.im learning control now due to the fab slimming world diet but I'd rather do that without having all my 15 syns a day but that's just me personally. I'd rather have a couple for mayo, ketchup and an alepn light for example but on some days I may need a chocolate fix an d that's fine my syns are there for me. But personally there is no way I could use them for treats every single day. That's just me and the plan works for me so everyone should just do the same....find what works, stick to the plan and the recommended is 5-15 if you need the not YOU MUST HAVE 15 a day like some people say on this site

xx

 

[notrub1979]

I'm exactly the same ACL if there's something in il scoff the lot till I feel sick, this is the only diet that has worked for me! Lost 3 1/2 st but put nearly all back on because once I decided I didn't hate what was in the mirror all control went! At least I know that WHEN I get there again I will never get like this again x

 

[Pollywotsit]

Thanks Patty. I'm "not so plump" Polly now!
Well I have to say, ALL MY TEETH ARE SWEET!!......not a point of having a sweet tooth.........I will eat anything that's sweet if I have it put in front of me,,,,fighting my willpower would just be a losing battle every time, because once I start, like ACH I wouldn't be able//know when to stop! I had a good talk with my head, and told my brain not to buy things I couldn't/shouldn't have...like cheese......"it's my one weakness".....living on my own (am a widow) and only catering for myself, I got lazy, and would substitute a proper meal for cheese on toast...and ended up having that almost on a daily basis. I could easily get through 2 slabs of Red Leicester every week, no problem. I'd have it on toast, in my mash, on my salads...in fact anywhere I could! I'd rather have cheese on toast than a box of chocolates! The week I joined SW, I decided that cheese had got to go.....and the first time I actually had proper cheese since June 1st, last year.lolol! was yesterday on a "ready made" salad from Asda. What surprised me most, was that I didn't even miss it. I now always have 2 good meals a day, I can't have a big breakfast, never could, so I have half a pink grapefruit and black coffee. When they tell you you have to change your way of eating....TBH I didn't think I could, but not only have I done that, but I enjoy all the trial and error of using things I've never used before. I tried my dinners with an oxo, or a stock cube, and to me they were just tasteless...ok in casseroles etc, but poured over a dinner for me it was a no no...so I can have Bisto using syns, or a treat ...I chose the Bisto, and treated myself to grapes for something sweet. Exactly the same applied to salad, remember I started in June, so nice warm weather (for a change)and salads were high on the list. I bought I think 4 bottles of different dressings...low cal etc...and ended up going back to my salad cream...I took the bottles into group and gave them away.
It showed me over Christmas though, how easy it is to get back on that slippery slope. I reached my LBD target a month before Christmas, so was determined to enjoy everything.....which I did.....but afterwards, I'd got the taste back for a bar of choc. I loaded my daughter up with all my goodies.....except for a few bits I'd kept here for my Grandies.....and then got weak willed and had a Crunchie one night, and then a bar of Cadburys dairy milk the next ! I was SO annoyed with myself after the second night, and that was it, no more. I've proved to myself that I can live without these things quite easily.....but as pre -Christmas, if I really wanted something, I had it, and it made no difference to my weight loss..because I always try my hardest to stick to plan.....over Christmas having everything visible day after day, just proved to me it would be my downfall!
I think we ALL have to find our own "happy medium", none of us are the same, and all of our bodies react differently...we have to do what suits us. As long as everyone gets the nutrition their bodies need, that's the important thing xx
Sorry for the long post....I get carried away...very often!.........

 

[NotsofattyPatty]

I think we're sisters under the skin Polly! I'm a salad cream kind of gal myself. I've got better at having a squeeze of lemon juice on my salad, but tuna has to have salad cream on.
I find it far easier to resist things just once in the shops, which is fairly easily done by not going down certain aisles, than have them in the house constantly having to be resisted. As it is, I still have a lot of Christmas stuff in (I catered for a siege) and I'm finding it harder to resist now than I did over the holidays because I'm feeling a bit stressed at the moment! My biggest achievement is virtually eliminating crisps from my diet! I was a crisp fiend, although they were a rare treat when I was a child.

 

[Pollywotsit]

My biggest downfall, are my Grandies, they're 9 and 11..... they come usually for a sleep-over for a weekend, and Saturday evening, we snuggle up together on the sofa..a good film....a bowl of sweets each, crisps and usually those chocolate covered marshmallow tea cakes! I try to plan for when they come.....and I no longer have the bowl of sweets. or the tea cake thingy...but OH! I do like a nice packet of cheese and onion crisps!...Actually I used to make a nice ham sandwich and stick the crisps in too!... SCRUMPTIOUS! Glad I've got over my cheese addiction, never thought that would happen!
When they're not here, I don't even think about crisps...cakes, sweets or anything else I shouldn't have! Have to also confess my meals are a bit "off the wagon" too! I usually end up having some oven chips! Good job they don't come as often as they used to........I'd not have lost anything! x

 

[Gwella]

Have you tried SW chips instead of the oven chips? Some people even chop and parboil potatoes in advance and stick them in the freezer so you can just pull them out and put them in the oven

 

[Pollywotsit]

No haven't done the SW chips, but we've had a discussion this morning on them at group. A lot of people moaning that they weren't very nice, and the biggest thing was most of them didn't dry them after par-boiling. I'll have a go with them....just don't want to like them TOO much! lol . I've more or less cut potatoes out of my diet. except when I go to my daughters and then I have everything as it comes...especially roasties! If I have chips when mt Grandies come, I just have a small portion of oven chips, and I have them so rarely, they don't affect my diet at all. I don't know what the syn value is even.
They were all talking about making deserts too, but being on my own, apart from making an Eton Mess, I haven't bothered with anything else, and even that, the meringue was so sweet. it was too much for me. I think my taste buds have changed a bit since starting SW x

 

[Gwella]

My first experiment with the chips wasn't great but now I've learnt to cook them to just the right amount, shake them about for a bit of fluffiness, then add paprika and salt before cooking, use PLENTY of frylight, and cook them slowly for a bit before a blast of high heat to crisp them up. My boyfriend doesn't like them as much as normal chips but I prefer them, much more tasty and less greasy. I'll stop thinking about chips now as not sure if this is too off topic for the thread!

 

[Pollywotsit]

I think if you're giving info, it doesn't matter! One of our ladies turns her chips over about 6 times and continually gives a burst of Frylight.......first thing I thought of, was that there were probably more calories at the end than in oven chips! xx

ps I think there is an actual thread on SW chips! lol!

 

[Mlouise1990]

Thanks for this

Sent from my GT-I9300 using MiniMins.com mobile app

 

[MichelleSW14]

Great thread. I often forget to have my 1/3 and that's not great at all. I have bought lots of salad in so I can have a side salad on my plate.

 

[VicsLever]

Its hard to keep the fridge stocked with the free foods as everything is so expensive at the moment. Dies anyone have suggestions on how to keep it affordable? I've just joined a class last week.

 

[ACH]

Frozen berries, frozen veg, batch cook, I get cheap dried pasta in big packs and use tinned toms with garlic and herbs to make own sauces quick easy and cheap

 

[NotsofattyPatty]

Its hard to keep the fridge stocked with the free foods as everything is so expensive at the moment. Dies anyone have suggestions on how to keep it affordable? I've just joined a class last week.

I know the raw ingredients can seem expensive, but you can often make more than one meal from them, e.g a pack of extra lean mince, mixed with onions, carrots and celery will be split between a shepherds pie-type dish and spaghetti bol, just by adding stock to one portion and passata or tinned tomatoes to the other. Each meal gives two generous portions + a serving to take to work for my lunch.

As has already been said, use frozen veg and fruit where you can - Sainsbury's usually has a 3 for 2 offer on these and they do a finely diced onion/carrots/celery mix which is a real time saver - and keep an eye on the 'where the bargains are' thread. If buying fresh fruit and veg buy seasonal ones, not air-freighted strawberries and trimmed beans for example.

Planning your meals will also help and you may well find after a couple of weeks, once you've got some stock in, that it's not more expensive than the way you were eating before.

 

[VicsLever]

Some great ideas, thanks. Organised shopping is the key!!

 

[Pollywotsit]

Well I can only tell you what I do. I shop for most of my stuff at Aldis (check out the Aldi thread)I buy my veg for the week, and blanch it, then bag it up for my individual portions.....I always do my 1/3rd first onto my plate...sometimes it's more than that. I make chunkieveggie soup, almost like a stew really...then add either chicken which I dice or turkey mince...no fat in either so the whole meal is free. I make a big pot and get 6-7 meals out of that. I freeze each portion in the take-away tubs. I make the same size pot of SW curry, and usually get 6-7 meals from that too. Always have a fridge full of salad stuff, but this time of the year it's soups,,,really chunky and filling, hot pots, casseroles etc etc. I only have me to feed, so if you're cooking for a family, obviously you have to take that into account. By going to Aldi, I must save at least £20-£25 every week. The fruit and veg is excellent, and so is all the meat. If you've joined a group, you can get the Food Directory, which gives you all the values of all the supermarkets. HTH xx
Yes I endorse what Patty has said too, plan ahead...if you freeze some meals you'll never run short of something to have .

 

[NotsofattyPatty]

Its hard to keep the fridge stocked with the free foods as everything is so expensive at the moment. Dies anyone have suggestions on how to keep it affordable? I've just joined a class last week.

As a further thought - I assume you're a newbie? If so, you're probably doing what I did when I started and making all sorts of different SW recipes which involve using Quark, frommage frais or cottage cheese for sauces and toppings? I got fed up with lugging these home, trying to find space in the fridge for them and didn't really like the results anyway! Instead, I decided to make sauces eg cheese sauce as I'd always done but Synning the cornflour etc. With a bit of careful planing you can use your HExA instead.

I love cauliflower cheese and chips, for example. So I'll have a green day and that gives me ample milk and cheese for a really good cheesy sauce, provided I choose my other meals carefully. And speaking of green days reminds me that lentils are cheap and easy to use.

I think the suggested weekly menus (in the magazine, for example) are quite expensive - and time-consuming too. With a bit of practice, you'll soon learn to make adjustments to your favourite recipes to make them SW friendly AND adjustments to SW recipes to make them either budget friendly and/or lifestyle friendly!

 

[NotsofattyPatty]

I've been having a look at the Aldi website. For the sort of savings quoted it sounds as though it's worth the 30 mile round trip to my nearest one. We have a Lidl in the next town, but I don't really like it as you don't seem to be able to rely on getting particular things there.

 

[Gwella]

I've found that my spending on SW has more or less balanced out, though probably slightly more expensive overall as I'm a bit picky about fruit. I have a lot more fruit and veg (and I do like expensive exotic fruit) and fish but am spending less on cheese, alcohol and snacks.
Some of the cheapest veg I've found is carrots and frozen broccoli.
Canned beans are an excellent way to get some filling protein in on a budget, and value canned tomatoes are much the same as the expensive ones to me.
Jack Monro's blog 'A Girl Called Jack' has lots of tips on cooking on a budget.

 

[Pollywotsit]

Patty if you look at the ALDI thread, some ladies did their weekly shop at Tescos(or one of the other big 3) one week and Aldi the next buying the same items and they put piccies on of their receipts. they couldn't believe the savings they made. Every week they have a "special 6" in the fruit and veg part......and it's well worth buying and freezing these because you get such a big saving. No wonder they've been voted "The peoples supermarket," I think 3 years on the trot!
Thanks for that Gwella, it's great to read about buys and tips that perhaps we never thought of. xx