Poss starting SW but v confused!

[pticouk]

Hi

I'm on Cambridge but will probably switch to SW as it seems more doable in terms of having a normal life and with stress of move and new job.

But I'm really confused by it all, my mum is on it and was talking to her last night and she was trying to explain it to me. As i understand it there's most things that you can have then you have syns on top to a max of 15 a day. So does that mean that I could have 3 massive bowls of pasta a day, crisps and chocolate and still lose weight? I know that's an extreme example but I really don't get it, I've looked through a lot of posts on here and see stuff like Hex A, hex B, green, red syns, original, food optimising and am really confused!

Can someone give me a kind of SW for dummies synopsis!?

Thanks

Confused Helen

 

[xnatalie81x]

Read the first page here:

MoneySavingExpert.com Forums

 

[sanicholl]

Hi

Yes you can eat all that and loose weight!! To start with you have red and green days (they now do Extra easy but not so sure on that).
Bascially on both days you can eat as much veg, fruit, very low fat dairy - mullerlight (my saviour), eggs and quorn.

On green days you are limited to a small amount of meat but eat as much rice, pasta and potatoes. On red you are allowed any amount of lean meat but limited rice, pasta and potatoes.

On a Green day you can have for example:
Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs (eggs are free so can eat as many as you like)
with 1 slice of brown bread from 800g loaf (or 2 from 400g loaf) this is a healthy extra B
Lunch: Vegetable soup or Jacket potato with beans and 28g cheese, cheese is a healthy extra a
Dinner: Quorn sausages (free), Mash potato (free) and loads of veg (also free)
Snacks: Mullerlight yogart (free you can eat as many as you like)
Fruit - fresh or frozen
On top of this you could have say a chunky mint aero (12g) for 3 syn or a blueberry muffin for 5.5 syns. You can have 15 syns a day so there is no reason be hungry or deprive yourself.

Other healthy extras on a include:
Milk, Cheese
You can have 1 or 2 of these

Healthy extras on b include:
Cereal, porrage, cheese, meat etc. Obviously these are limited and you have to weight them but it is really easy. You can have two of these.

I hope that this helps a little. It takes a while to get your head round it but it definately works I went on it on the run up to christmas and lost 1 stone in 3 weeks without trying and eating 2 blueberry muffins a day! Since Christmas I have put it back on thanks to chocolate and alchol but am back on track again and sticking with it. Good luck if you do try I would certinally recommend it and you and your mum can do it together

 

[*Fallen Angel*]

The post above me is very helpful. When I first started I was so confused but it does become easier.

 

[pticouk]

thanks that's great, a couple of things, this is goignt o sound v strange but I have a phobia of baked beans (I'm not joking!)! what else can I have on jacket potatoes if I have tuna and coleslaw does that change the diet and I restrict elsewhere?

Also Sanicholl when you say helathy extra on A and on B what are A and B is that referring to the red and green?

Sorry, I just find it so confusing!!

the MSE site is good, for the meal plans is good to see how much people can eat!!

H

 

[bettylollypop]

You can have tuna and mix with fat free natural yoghurt / fromage frais and it is still free or you can use a couple of syns for low fat mayo. You can use low fat cheese as a topping but that is a healthy extra. There is a tub of egg mayo in sainsburys that is free, you could have pasta n sauce in your jacket, chillie etc. There is loads of stuff you can have hun x

 

[sanicholl]

thanks that's great, a couple of things, this is goignt o sound v strange but I have a phobia of baked beans (I'm not joking!)! what else can I have on jacket potatoes if I have tuna and coleslaw does that change the diet and I restrict elsewhere?

Also Sanicholl when you say helathy extra on A and on B what are A and B is that referring to the red and green?

Sorry, I just find it so confusing!!

the MSE site is good, for the meal plans is good to see how much people can eat!!

H

Healthy extra a and b are used on both days and are nearly the same on both days. The main difference is on a green day your hex b incorporates meat whereas on a red day it incorporates potatoe etc. So on a Red Day you can have a 228g (I think - best check) potato with lots and lots of lean meat and the potato would be taken from your hexb list.

On a green day you could have 100g of chicken with potatoes or SW chips and the chicken would be taken from your heb list.

I hope this makes it more clear. Best thing would be to borrow your mums book and write down in simple terms what you would eat most from the lists for both red and green day (2 seperate pages would be best) ie.
what is free,
what is hea that you would eat a lot
what is heb that you would eat a lot
and then make a menu for a few days until you get the hang of it.

It really isn't that hard and once you get your head round it its really easy.