Newbie needing help in the USA!

AnnieJ

New Member
Hi,
I'm a Londoner who now lives in Seattle, USA and found my way to SW via my best friend who lost over 3 stone. I joined online and got together all the info, then figured I could do it all by myself ... FAIL! I just found this website and love the support you guys give everyone - just what I need, and it also gives some kind of accountability.

My main problem is "translation" - I'm envious of your trips to Tesco and Morrisons, and all the goodies you buy there. I kind of have to go and forage for my own goodies and hope I get the Syns right. Even the baked beans have more calories and sugar here, and no Mullerlight yoghurts or ready-made currys!

I'm planning a trip back home to London in September and want to surprise my family and friends.

Tonight I'm going to work out a week's menu, go shopping and get everything ready to start on Monday. I'll cook and freeze some things so that I always have healthy food to hand, and figure out the grab and go snacks.

I CAN do this.
 
welcome to sw amd minimins.

I'm sure you can do this to if you want it bad enough.

Good luck :D
 
Welcome and good luck, I'll look forward to seeing how you get on.

Don't worry about not getting Mullers, I, for one, don't like them anyway so I have other low fat/fat free yogurts instead. I'm sure you'll adapt the foods to fit xx
 
Hiya Annie! Welcome to SW and minimins :) Lots of luck for your weight loss journey. From looking at your stats you have a similar start weight to me, and the same goal weight - it seems daunting doesn't it, but I'm sure that we'll both get there! :D This site is invaluable for advice, and for those of us going it alone, it's fantastic! :)

Anyways, best of luck hun!

Sian xxx
 
Welcome to the site and good luck with the weight loss. Re the baked beans - can you get low sugar versions over there? I always think of the US as having loads more food choices than we have! You get Nestle Lucky Stars over there (favourite cereal here & unobtainable in the shops. Mind you, probably not Slimming World friendly!)

In the recipe section there's a recipe for pea and tomato curry, using tinned veg. It's dead easy, syn free & would make a good basis for a quick curry.
 
annie i dont go to class either. I do Sw online and use this forum for support-better thsn any class I've been to.
 
Hi Annie and welcome :D

I'm another go-it-aloner, found it very confusing at first and was really pleased when I found this site, it's a great help. Good luck, plenty of time to lose some weight before your trip home, it'll be brilliant to give your family and friends a surprise. ;)
 
Hi AnnieJ, I'm a Londoner too and I lived north of Seattle in Bellingham from 2002-2006, practically neighbours by US standards!!
We have been back to US every year since we returned to UK and I know it is definitely hard to find SW friendly food.

If I remember rightly the supermarkets sell Cascade brand fat free yoghurt and they are pretty low syn, they have lovely flavours like key lime and orange cream, yum.

I'm trying to remember some other low syn options I buy when we are visiting but my mind has gone blank!!

Good luck with your weightloss journey :)
 
Thanks for the support! I went to the shops today to check everything out and yes, I can find things that are SW-worthy, but (surprisingly) I think you have more variety of everything in the UK. There are far fewer "grab-and-go" foods and prepared meals ... but that just means I have to prepare them myself. I've looked through the recipes on this site and have a whole bunch of curries, etc. planned!

It's good to know that there are others here who don't go to the meetings etc. and it still works for them. Thanks.

One question (since I can't always find the syn value for things) is 20 cals per Syn a pretty good rough estimate?

Mumoftwo - I live on the other side of Puget Sound, in Bremerton. I love this area, but still miss home.
 
Just wanted to say hello and welcome.

Yep 20 calories per syn is a good guideline, it's what I use when am out shopping and have checked when I get back and is usually pretty accurate.
 
Hello and welcome! There are a couple of lovely peeps who are on these boards and living in the USA - keep an eye out and you may be able to help each other with the USA specifics (yogurts etc.) xxx
 
Hi,
I'm a Londoner who now lives in Seattle, USA and found my way to SW via my best friend who lost over 3 stone. I joined online and got together all the info, then figured I could do it all by myself ... FAIL! I just found this website and love the support you guys give everyone - just what I need, and it also gives some kind of accountability.

My main problem is "translation" - I'm envious of your trips to Tesco and Morrisons, and all the goodies you buy there. I kind of have to go and forage for my own goodies and hope I get the Syns right. Even the baked beans have more calories and sugar here, and no Mullerlight yoghurts or ready-made currys!

I'm planning a trip back home to London in September and want to surprise my family and friends.

Tonight I'm going to work out a week's menu, go shopping and get everything ready to start on Monday. I'll cook and freeze some things so that I always have healthy food to hand, and figure out the grab and go snacks.

I CAN do this.

Annie I have the same thing, most of the products are different here (in the Netherlands), and they have much less choice than in the UK supermarkets, so you've got to work it out for yourself.
At the moment I'm sticking to the basics but a little later on I might want to venture out a little.
However They do have a very nice tomato, onion, roasted red peppers and hot pepper soup (free of fat and no added sugar) here, which my mum couldn't find in the UK, so it's not all bad :)
 
Hi Annie,

I am in Canada and have been doing Slimming World through the body optimise website. So far I have lost almost 3 stone. I have the inlaws visiting at the moment, so havent been on the boards much. But can help you with a few things, if you let me know the kind of things you are looking for.

One bit of advice is to be very careful with the fat free yoghurts, as unfortunately most work out at about 2.5 syns each, there are not many syn free choice ones.

Also as you are already aware there are not really any low syn or syn free prepared meal type things, but if you do some weekly meal planning it is pretty easy to prepare things than you can then store in your fridge or freezer for ease.
 
Hi Annie i am also doing it alone, from Africa ,where you cant get anything!!!! It can be done and there is loads of support from all these lovely people.
good luck with your plan xx
 
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