Your tips for success with slimming world

Josiecat

Silver Member
Thought I'd start a thread where people can share their tips for success with SW.
There may be tips which seem obvious to you but could really help new starters or longer term dieters who could do with a helping hand!
 
Good idea! I guess mine would be
1) not letting yourself get too hungry - obviously, being hungry before a meal is healthy, but not feeling constantly starving - that leads straight to the biscuit tin. Free food is there for a reason. Eat it.
2) I try not to "waste" my syns on meals apart from maybe 1 or 2 a day. There is so much you can make with free foods, I'd rather save them for treats like a couple of pieces of chocolate, or a glass of wine. But I know everyone is different in this.
3) if you really, really desperately want something high in syns, and it keeps "talking" to you (you know what I mean!) then eat it, enjoy it, count the syns and move on, and don't beat yourself up.
4) don't beat yourself up generally! Everyone has bad days, remember it's a marathon not a sprint.
 
What a great thread hun :)
My top tips are to plan ahead....
I keep a meal planner and always plan out at least 2-3 days worth of meals and a week if I am really motivated. This really helps with budgeting on a food shop too by only buying the foods you need.

Mix around your healthy extra's. We often get stuck in a rut and will only stick to the HEB's that we know and love. Go through your book & sw site & try new ones. I find it always helps with my weight loss.

A big one for me is always check syn values before consuming, I have made big mistakes in the past by thinking "this won't be too high in syns" to then be mortified at them lol!

Keep a food diary, I fill out the sw sheets aswell as fill in a page to a day diary of all the food ive consumed. How often do we forget things and forget you have already had your syns/healthy extras for the day.

Scan bran & lots of water helps speed up weight loss aswell as consuming plenty of super speed foods.

Exercise is always a good help to anyone wanting to lose weight (I am an example, the last few weeks I have not exercised & gained 5 inches around my waist). So here I am back on plan & exercising again.

And never let one bad day ruin your week, okay so you have over indulged on syns for today but don't let it ruin your whole week, tomorrow is a new day. If you had a bunch of roses & one rose died you wouldn't throw the whole bunch away would you?

Keep in plenty of syn free and low syn snacks for when you feel the need for a choccie or crisp fix. I keep a treat tin & have lots of treats in it all under 6 syns!

And don't let healthy eating ruin your social life, you can still go out and have a few bevvies or a nice meal just make it a flexi syn day :) xxx
 
The best one I can think of, that kept me going is to not miss out on any foods you like. I think about what I really fancy and then think about how to 'tweak' it to be SW friendly. If I want pizza, I do wholemeal pitta pizzas as a HEA+B, if I want a burger, I make it myself. If I want cheesecake I substitute the cream cheese for quark and sweetener. Making things that I used to eat and enjoy in a better way stopped me from feeling that I was missing out on anything.
 
1 Don't guess syns. Always check before it goes into your mouth.

2 Read your book. Even after almost 4 years I still have a look through mine to refresh my memory.

3 Vary your foods - variety is the key to stopping us getting bored and phoning for a takeaway

4 Cut out the weigh day treat (if you have one)

5 STICK TO IT. It may sound daft, but this really is my top tip - there's not many who follow 100% (as in A's, B's, superfree & syns)
 
Great thread idea :clap:

I'm still new to this, although I lost 2/3 stone about 6 years ago on SW I'm out of practice and need all the tips I can get.
 
I try to make batches of syn free or low syn meals so I can freeze them. That way, I have meals for days when I'm too busy to cook or the cupboards are running a little bare.
 
The best one I can think of, that kept me going is to not miss out on any foods you like. I think about what I really fancy and then think about how to 'tweak' it to be SW friendly. If I want pizza, I do wholemeal pitta pizzas as a HEA+B, if I want a burger, I make it myself. If I want cheesecake I substitute the cream cheese for quark and sweetener. Making things that I used to eat and enjoy in a better way stopped me from feeling that I was missing out on anything.


I do that too. It's fab. We tend to make sw takeout friendly meals at the weekend so we dont feel we are missing out on our usual saturday takeaway lol! xxx
 
Wow I've just been reading through and all the tips are an excellent help.
Something that's working for me is having weekly syns rather than daily ones and counting down through the week. Lets me be naughty at weekends where as during the week I'm likely to come in below 15 syns a day. So it balances out and stops me having a binge and quitting.
 
Brilliant thread Josiecat!

My tip would be if you're buying cheese or nuts or sweets and they don't come individually wrapped devide up into managable packs (ie HEa/b or known syn values) as soon as it comes in the house then you won't be tempted to have a handfull and guess at the syns. A bit extra faff I know but works for me.

ie. whole pack of almonds - devide into 10 per sandwich bag and don't stop until the pack is empty. Same with cheese, you can bag up 28g grated cheese in advance (not the whole packet if you don't live alone) and keep in container in fridge. Makes HEa&b and syns so much easier to grab and go. I usually reuse bags that have had 'dry' ingredients. x
 
My top tips would be.....

Stick to and trust the plan(s)

Variety (your meals, plans if neccessary, snacks, exercise, syns, hex's)

Plan (meals, exercise, shopping lists)

To take pictures, measurements, keep clothing etc so you can measure your progress other than on the scales

Be kind to yourself (allow yourself flexisyn days for special occasions and if you don't have a great day or week get back on track)
 
Great thread.

My tips would be:

Drink your water, 2ltrs a day really does seem to help me from bloating up.

Plan ahead, have lots of fruit to snack on when you just need something to nibble on.

Stay for image therapy, other peoples ideas and opinions really do help.
 
Great thread!

My top tip would be to put your Super Free foods on your plate before putting the rest of your meal on there - it's the easiest way of reducing portion size without feeling deprived.
 
Some great tips for the newbies.

Mine are (similar to many already posted !)

1. Plan, plan, plan. Don't go anywhere there will be food/at mealtimes without having thought about how you're going to manage the situation/what you will eat (as far as possible but don't be paranoid !)

2. Drink plenty

3. Keeping a food diary is really helpful. I often don't (one of those 'do as I say, not as I do' pieces of advice !!!) and generally think I'm keeping to the lower end of the syns range, but when I keep a diary it often shows that I'm on the upper end of that range.

4. When you are beginning of this, eat what you want to eat rather than what you think you should be eating. When I started, I didn't want to eat salad I wanted to eat rice, sauces etc so I did. Now I don't mind eating salad but if I had done that to start with, I think I would have fallen off track

5. Use your syns. They are there to make life more 'normal', varied and interesting. They allow me to think of this less as a 'diet' and more of a plan. People ask me 'are you allowed this ?' and the answer is always 'yes' ! I can have anything that I want as long as it is counted and within my syns allowance.

6. Don't think of this as a diet, this is a way of life. For me I feel that coming off the plan is not an option. If I stop, I will regain, so the only way to either stay where I am now or continue losing towards my eventual target is to stay on plan.

Good thread though. Good luck everyone.

Gail x
 
I do that too. It's fab. We tend to make sw takeout friendly meals at the weekend so we dont feel we are missing out on our usual saturday takeaway lol! xxx

We do that too, so far we've done sweet and sour chicken with fried rice, lemon chicken, chow mein, tikka, salt and pepper chicken wings, prawn toasts, KFC chicken, cheeseburgers etc... It used to be our 'X Factor treat' on a saturday night, I think now it will be our 'Dancing on Ice treat' on a sunday. Feels naughty without actually 'being' naughty!
 
Mine would be:

Use a smaller plate. I had a couple of biggggg plates that I used for the bf and I's dinner, have now swapped for a regular sized plate and as a result my portion size is a lot smaller. Because I have less on the plate I'm eating less and not feeling stuffed. When I used the big plate I would always feel ill after a meal cos I wouldn't stop when I was full.
 
This is an excellent thread!
I really agree with eating what you want rather than what you think you should have.
 
My tip would be; EAT!! do not starve yourself, there is no need on this plan. Enjoy your food!
 
I definitely agree with eating, it's when you let yourself get hungry that you're tempted to binge! Have made that mistake so many times...
 
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