I can only endorse what everyone has said here.
Slimming World is brilliant!
I have tried numerous ways to reverse the weight gain that has been slowly building up over the past five years - about three stone in that time. Nothing has worked and I was so depressed and down about my weight. I couldn't bear the thought of another Summer wearing tents. A leaflet through the door was what made me pick up the phone and speak to the consultant whose number was on there. I went along to the next meeting ... and after four weeks I was 7lb lighter and am still going strong - next weigh in tomorrow. This is the first time my weight had 'gone down' since 2006.
To begin with I found it difficult to believe I could eat so much and lose weight ... but the scales said differently. I can honestly say I am eating more, and better than I did before I joined SW .. and as a vegetarian who loved salads and fruit, with not too much of a sweet tooth, and a dislike of fatty things like pastry etc - I ate a pretty good diet before - just too much of certain foods like cheeses, wine, rich, oily sauces etc. I guess - obviously something wasn't right for me to have gotten so porky in the first place. I've always loved cooking ... and I honestly didn't think SW could teach me much in that regard - but I couldn't have been more wrong.
After a couple of not so nice attempts at the beginning - I've perfected my recipe for SW coleslaw, which is genuinely nicer than any of the high fat, calorie laden versions you can buy, and nicer than any homemade coleslaw made with great dollops of mayo as I would once have made it. I grate Granny Smith apples into it to make it sweeter and have a huge tupperware box of it in my fridge at all times and a 'side' goes on every meal I eat. Likewise couscous - with herbs and chopped vegetables - another big box in the fridge at all times. I prefer my 'fry light' method of cooking veg now to the way I used to cook it, dripping in oil - sweet peppers, mushrooms, chunks of onion, mini corn on the cobs - a few sprays and under the grill. Delicious! Likewise I do my SW chips/wedges and sweet potato chips/wedges under the grill rather than in the oven - but only because my oven temperature is a bit erratic and I can just keep an eye on things better using the grill. They come out crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside and taste a dream!
I have learned to make some fantastic recipes with quorn products (which I used before, but in nowhere near such imaginative ways as I do now). I have also discovered products I wouldn't have looked twice at before - like some of the delicious fat free yoghurts, frozen berries and fruits (especially frozen raspberries which are absolutely fantastic and so versatile) and the wondrous choccy philly, don't be silly (as Jennifer Saunders would say
) - a teaspoonful of which, will cure any sweet craving ... as a dip with fruit (just melt it a little in the microwave first) or stirred into natural yoghurt to make a slightly decadent choccie yoghurt - delicious with sliced banana.
Every day I sit and think about what I'm going to eat whereas before I'd just have shovelled it in without even thinking. Take my SW cheese ration as I call it - 42g per day of reduced fat cheddar. When I buy a block now I cut it up into portion sizes, and just take one out a day. I swear I would have once eaten more than that ... while I was making a cheese sandwich, and had twice as much again in the sandwich itself lol! But it's amazing what you can do with 42g of cheese and really enjoy it! Fruit and vegwise I am constantly trying different things (never realised how stuck I was buying the same things all the time). I bought an aubergine last week and have used that in a veggie pasta dish, and in mixed 'roast' veg. I bought plums which I 'stew' in no added sugar fruit squash and serve with fat free vanilla yoghurt - absolutely delicious - not particularly exotic either of them, but it would be a rare occasion that I would buy plums or aubergine before I joined SW.
My dinner tonight was a enormous jacket spud which I scooped out and mashed with some natural yoghurt, salt and pepper, and my cheese ration grated into it. Piled it back into the skins and popped under the grill to crisp and brown. I had two Quorn sausages with 'fried' onions, three tomatoes, halved and grilled in fry light with fresh basil, and some mushy peas on the side (another SW discovery which I absolutely love). Not only did it look delicious on the plate it tasted delicious.
As someone else said ... what SW offers is a completely different way of eating that once you've mastered it, becomes second nature. I can't ever imagine me going back to my old ways - the thought of some of the things I used to eat - or rather, the way I prepared my food (I'd start a pasta sauce with a huge glug of olive oil), I'd always make my garlic bread with thickly spread butter. I'd eat bread all day long sometimes - every time I wanted a snack it would be bread or toast - now I'll eat two small slices of nimble wholemeal occasionally as a healthy extra, but that's it.
I can honestly say SW is the best thing I personally have ever done in regards to tackling my weight, and indeed tackling my whole relationship with food. I can't praise it enough.
