Yes you can!
If you like meat and carbs, do the EE (Extra Easy) plan.
You can have unlimited lean meat (all visible fat removed), fish, pasta, potatoes, rice, noodles, fruit, vegetables, fat free yogurt/fromage frais, powdered spices stock cubes, fresh and dried herbs, vinegar.
You can have one portion of bread or cereal, and one portion of milk or cheese each day (these need to be weighed, and are referred to as 'Healthy Extras' or 'HexA/B' on this forum.
It's important to remember to have fruit/veg with each meal; a third of the meal ideally. So have steak and chips and a salad ;-)
Syns should cover everything else- oil, sauces, salad dressings, chocolate, crisps, cakes etc. Usually with these kind of foods the rule is 20 calories= 1 syn. So if a chocolate bar is 100 calories, it's 5 syns.
Processed food is where it gets a bit more complicated, as there is often what's called a 'free food allowance'. Take for example a potato salad. The potatoes are 'free' ie. unlimited, but the dressing has syns. If you've bought it, it's harder to work out the syns (though there is a tool for this if you were to join Slimming World online). If you made it at home (boiled potatoes, added a tbsp of mayo) you can work out the syn content of the mayo using the above 20 cals= 1 syn rule.
It's easier to do SW 'clean' if you're doing it at home ie. make the potato salad. This way you can keep track of syns easier.
Also because you're in Oz, product availability/brands will differ, so it might be harder for us to advise you of the syns of a particular product.
Is this making sense so far? Feel free to ask questions! It's a lot to get your head around, especially if you've followed restrictive diets in the past.
