Slimming World Support thread

tykechick

I dont think its case of no one wants to help you, it is easy to miss a post sometimes or not get the chance to respond.

I have only just started slimming world and I am still getting my head around it myself. I feel another poster may be able to better explain it than I will as I am a newbie.

Skint_Catt

Found on Google;
When you join you receive a Food Optimising Book.Slimming World is based on Green days and Original Days (also known as Red days).
Each day you choose from a list of Free Foods, Healthy Extras and then Syns.

Free Foods;
Free foods are exactly what they sound as - you eat them freely and as much of them as you like. Unlimited foods depending on what day you are having. An example of this on a Green day is you eat unlimited amounts of pasta, rice, potatoes, pulses, fruit, veg and very low fat yogurt and fromage frais. On an Original day you can eat unlimited amounts of lean beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, seafood, fruit, most veg and low fat yogurt and fromage frais.

Healthy Extras;
Healthy extras are foods to keep your vitamin, mineral and fibre amounts healthy. Your healthy extras are split into two secions A and B.
The A list is your milk and cheese - you choose once or twice from the A list each day.
The B differs on the day (i.e. Green or Original). Either day has the following foods on the B list: Bread, crispbreads, cereal, cheeses, dried fruit, soups, cooked fruit, nuts, seeds and oils.
As well as those - on a Green day you would have meats and fish on your B list. On an Original day you would have pasta, pulses, potatoes and parsnips on your B list.
From the list on either day you pick twice.
You must measure your healthy extras accurately.

Syns;
No foods are banned with Slimming World because you dont have to go without the foods that you love. Syns are designed to take the guilt out of the foods we love. Every members is advised to have between 5-15 syns a day. You have an a-z list of syn values in the Food Optimising Book that i mentioned earlier.
The whole explanation, measurements, advise and information on Food Optimising and the eating plan is explained in the Food Optimising book given to you when you join - it will become your bible. What i have explained is the main parts of the plan but the book is full of fantastic information and there are pages of foods you can eat and eat!!!

northernlass_2

And why arnt you a consultant Skint_catt?? you really should be.

Skint_Catt

northernlass wrote: »

And why arnt you a consultant Skint_catt?? you really should be.

Too fat
One of our local (male) consultants got the sack because he put all his weight back on. SW said he was a bad image for them! true I suppose :rotfl:
Anyway, I'm just good at finding things on the internet!

Flat_Eric

broke22 wrote: »

i have bought a couple of slimming world mags now and really wanting to give it a go after weighing myself 2nite and have put on a stone. i cant really afford to go to the group atm so if anyone could explain how it works i would be very grateful

In reply to this post and your post of a few mins ago, I think the problem is that this thread moves very fast and certainly for me, sometimes I only have ten minutes to catch up on posts leaving no time to reply. It is also easy to miss a post i.e. you read one post and think, I can help with that and then a couple of posts later, you get distracted because you can offer a reply to that post as well and the other post suddenly and unintentionally gets forgotton. The other problem I suspect with your question is that it has more than likely been answered before - you arent to know this of course.

On the subject of replying to posts, I prefer to be able to give the best and fullest reply possible and when time doesnt allow for this, I would rather not reply because I dont want to post a half hearted post just because I have to get back to my work!

so please dont feel ignored.

I post below what I typed up for a friend. sorry it is so long and the formatting a bit cranky but I have just pasted it in from word.-

SLIMMING WORLD
The Slimming World plan is a healthy approach to eating for life, not a diet. There are different plans you can follow according to your food preferences i.e. whether you are a meat person or a potato and pasta person.
There are five different plans you can choose from but I will only go into three of the plans here.
Before I go into the different plans, I will explain about how different food items are classified.
FREE FOOD
If something is classed as a FREE FOOD – you can eat as much as you want! i.e. you don’t have to measure or weigh. So if something is FREE FOOD – you can eat unlimited amounts.
Some FREE FOOD is SUPERFREE
This means the FOOD ITEM is free on both days i.e. whether you are following the red or green day plan.
So you can eat as much as you want of these foods with no thought as to whether you are on a red or green day. I.e. if you stuck to superfree all day – you could then decide at teatime whether you wanted a red or green eveningmeal.
Superfree foods include items such as
Mullerlight yogurts, eggs, quark. Most fruit and vegetables. Refer to the SUPERFREE list that I gave you. If you aim to eat at least SIX TO EIGHT items of SUPERFREE food each day, then this will help aid your weight loss.
Food items which are FREE but are not SUPERFREE INCLUDE for example
Peas/sweetcorn/parsnips/ – which you can only eat on a green day freely (i.e. eat as much as you want) BUT would have to be synned if you ate them on a red day.
Some foods are SPEED FOODS. In the Food Optimising book, a SPEED FOOD is denoted by the symbol “S” or “SS”.
Speed Foods are low or extra low in energy density. In English ! this means that you would have to eatLESSof a SPEED FOOD to feel just as full as if you ate a NON SPEED FOOD.
For example Grapes/Bananas are NOT SPEED FOODS so if you ate 50g of raspberries, you would feel just as full as if you ate 100g grapes (i.e. you would be eating more grapes to get the same feeling of fullness).
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Free foods which have the symbols “F” or “FF" are high or extra high in fibre meaning they are filling and good for the digestive system.[/FONT]
Free Foods which have the symbols “H” or HH" are particular nutritious or are vital for good health – you should choose some of these every day.

Healthy Extras You supplement your consumption of FREE FOOD by the addition of HEALTHY EXTRAS
The Healthy Extras will vary depending on whether you are following a red, green or extra easy day.
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]your Healthy Extra A choice is your calcium (milk or cheese),[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]your Healthy Extra B choice is your fibre. (bread / cereal etc)[/FONT]
The food optimising book lists the different healthy extras you are allowed according to which day you are following i.e. on a green day, you might have a Healthy Extra portion of ham but if you were following a red day, you might have a healthy extra option of a 227g weighed jacket.
The menus in the magazine that you are following will automatically incorporate the healthy extra choices.
I will go into more detail about the healthy extras when I talk about the plans.
FINALLY WE HAVE SYNS
Your syns give you the opportunity to enjoy the odd treat. As a new member to Slimming World, you would be allowed 15 syns but if you don’t have very much weight to lose, your consultant may ask you to keep to 10 to 12 syns a day. Syns can be used for many things including alcohol/chocolate/your coffee drink/tomato sauce/ crisps etc. Some items for example - pizzas have huge amount of syns.

At your local Slimming World class you would be able to pick up a directory (cost about £8) which lists all the different manufacturers of foods and the syn value.
Syn values can also be checked online.
It is not sensible to save up your syns so that you can binge say if you have a night out. You should instead flexi syn meaning that for the occasion when you say are going out for a meal, you allow yourself “x” amount of syns. You then go out and enjoy yourself, knowing that you are staying in control and then the next day you can get straight back on the plan.
If you go out with no prior planning, it is easy to think the next day, Oh I blew it last night, might as well have toast with lashings of butter, that cream cake for a snack whereas if you can say I allowed myself 40 syns last night, I stuck to that, I kept in control then keeps you better focussed to stay on track for the rest of the week.
Slimming World whilst a healthy eating approach to life isn’t a ball and chain that you must carry round with you meaning that you NEVER EVER AGAIN can enjoy pizza/chocolate fudge cake/ that bottle of wine or two/ that kingsize bar of galaxy, that meal out. Its about sensible eating. Some people who do SW follow it 110%, never waiver. Others like me, take a more relaxed approach to it. If I lose a pound, great, If I put a pound on, oh well – there is always next week and during those weeks when I completely binge and may be put on 3 pounds I know that SW is there for me when I want it. I think my aim with the plan is to stick with the plan Monday to Thursday and relax at the weekend.
RED DAYS
This would suit you if you enjoy eating a lot of meat/fish
I.e.
Steak / gammon/ pork / lamb/ liver / bacon / ham / chicken /
Fish / monkfish / hake / halibut / lemon sole / prawn / skate to name but a few!
so
Roast dinners with lots of meat and very few potatoes
steak and salad
prawn salads
sausages (NB most sausages have to be synned but the Morrisons Eat Smart Pork Sausages (found in the chiller) are free on a red day.
Home made burgers using lean or very low fat mince
chilli using very lean low fat mince.

shepherds pie / cottage pie substituting the topping with swede (as not allowed potatoe on a red day in that quantity)
chillis say but no rice or noodles with it unless synned and a decent amount of rice/noodles would be too many syns.
So on a RED DAY yourmeat will be free. You should always cut all fat away from any meat and buy lean meat where possible I.e lean or low fat mince.
You can supplement your meals with your veggies of course but its important to note that on a RED DAY peas, sweetcorn and parsnips are NOT free. I can't tell you why because I don't know! But you can have 198 parsnips (raw weight) as one of your Healthy Extra B Options
If you had sweetcorn or peas – you would need to syn it. I can find out the syn values if you wish. (let me know)
You can further supplement your meals with healthy extras.
On a red day, you are allowed
2 Healthy A Options
2 Healthy B Options


A options to remind you are dairy – I.e milk cheese
B options are your fibre so bread / cereal / soup.


Some of the Healthy Extras are specific to the day you are following so on a RED DAY these are some of the Healthy Extras you can pick from include
227g baking potato (including skin) raw weight
198g new potatoes with skin
198g parsnips raw weigh
142g baked beans in tomato sauce
100g wholemal pasta, boiled weigh, 35g dried weight
71g garden peas, boiled


HEALTHY EXTRAS applicable to whichever day you are following I.e red or green include 28g Alpen (any variety) and 1 Oat/scan bran (scan bran is sold at SW classes)
Hi fi bar (any flavour) (only available at slimming world class)
28g Nestle Shredded wheat honey nut/triple berry
28g Ready brek original and 1 ryvita dark rye/original/sesame
2 weetabix
1 weetabix and 3 ryvita high fibre crackerbread
5 oat / scan bran (avaialble from slimming world classes)
30g bag ryvita minis – any variety
227g apple baked and 113g blackberries stewed
227g apple, baked and 1 level tbsp mincemeat
71g apricots ready to eat
397g fruit cocktail canned in juice
2 slices nimble malted wholegrain bread
2 slices nimble white bread
3 slices weight watchers sliced brown danish
2 slices allison wholemeal bread (400g loaf)
57g of any wholemeal bread (except pitta bread)
300g serving baxters favourites scotch vegetable soup
400g can heinz spring vegetable soup
295g can weight watchers country vegetable soup

To backtrack your Healthy A Options are your cheese and dairy and include
(and this is applicable to both days)
350ml skimmed milk
250ml semi skimmed milk
175ml whole milk
28g cheddar
28g edam
42g mozzarella
42g reduced fat chedder
You are supposed to have one or two healthy extra a days each day so for example you could have an allowance of 250ml semi skimmed milk and 28g cheddar cheese (my typical healthy a choices).
GREEN
Green days would suit you if you are a pasta / rice / potato person i.e.
You enjoy eating:
Lots of jacket spuds
Pasta based dishes (don’t eat pasta so cant suggest any recipes!)
cous cous
polenta
rice
noodles
Again you can supplement the above with all your veggies. Refer to the superfree food I list I gave you for some suggestions.
To make meals more interesting, when following the green day, you can use your healthy extras to have some meat so for example your healthy extra on a green day would include
85g beef or steak
85g lamb
113g chicken
113g turkey
85g bacon
85g gammon
142g prawns
28g tiger nuts
6 walnut halves
57g houmous
6 brazil nuts shelled and whole
On a green day you can have an extra healthy extra option of cheese (using one of your healthy extra b options) as follows
28g of any of the following
brie
caerphilly
cheddar
cheshire
danish blue
derby
list continues.....
or 42g
camembert
cheese spead
feta full fat soft cheese
mozzarellla

These extra cheese options are NOT APPLICABLE if you are following a red day.
I.e. you can only have an healthy extra b option of cheese if you are following a green day.
Again some of the healthy extras are applicable to both days and I repeat the list from above: -
HEALTHY EXTRAS applicable to whichever day you are following I.e red or green include
28g Alpen (any variety) and 1 Oat/scan bran (scan bran is sold at SW classes)
Hi fi bar (any flavour) (only available at slimming world class)
28g Nestle Shredded wheat honey nut/triple berry
28g Ready brek original and 1 ryvita dark rye/original/sesame
2 weetabix
1 weetabix and 3 ryvita high fibre crackerbread
5 oat / scan bran (avaialble from slimming world classes)
30g bag ryvita minis – any variety
227g apple baked and 113g blackberries stewed
227g apple, baked and 1 level tbsp mincemeat
71g apricots ready to eat
397g fruit cocktail canned in juice
2 slices nimble malted wholegrain bread
2 slices nimble white bread
3 slices weight watchers sliced brown danish
2 slices allison wholemeal bread (400g loaf)
57g of any wholemeal bread (except pitta bread)
300g serving baxters favourites scotch vegetable soup
400g can heinz spring vegetable soup
295g can weight watchers country vegetable soup
IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE that the Healthy Extras change all the time. My book is two years old so for example the soups may no longer be a Healthy Extra B option.
The latest healthy extras can be checked on the Slimming World website and I can show you if you wish.
One superfree food I havent mentioned is QUORN
Most quorn products although not all are SUPERFREE I.e. free whichever day you are following.
Those quorn products which are SUPERFREE include quorn mince and quorn pieces. So for example, if you were having a green day, you could make a chilli/spag bol/ enjoying as much pasta/spagetti as you wanted (which you couldn't do on a red day), substituting quorn mince for (real lean beef mince) and making a home made tomato sauce.
I have never really cooked with QUORN – some people say it is tasteless – other people say it tastes fine and some cook half quorn and half real mince. Some even eat quorn (only) and say that if they hadn't been told, they wouldn't have known it wasn't proper mince!
Slimmer World's best friends include
mullerlight yogurts,
quark
eggs
fry light cooking spray

Refer to your superfree list for the drinks you can have and which you can consume freely. They include
coffee (using milk from your healthy extra a allowance)
tea (using milk from your healthy extra a allowance)
still mineral water / tap water
herbal teas
diet coke/diet lemonade
diet tonic – slimline tonic
avoid sugar and instead use artificial sweeteners either in tablet form or drop form. To add flavour to your food – use (and these are all super free)
soy sauce
tabasco
vinegar (all varieties)
worcestershire sauce

EVERYTHING other than free food and your healthy extras needs to be synned so for example your coffee drinks (3 syns per satchet)
kit kat 2 finger 5.5 syns
30g ready brek 5.5 syns
red wine 142ml 5.0 syns
red wine 175 ml 6.0 syns
25ml of spirits (such as vodka,gin, bacardi, whisky) 2.5 syns
275ml bottle becks 5 syns
jumbo cornish pasty 240g each 32.0 syns
doughnut jam average each 12.5 syns
bourbon biscuit 3.5 syns
lemon puff 3.5 syns
coleslaw 100g (standard coleslaw) 6.5 syns
golden wonder nik naks 34g bag 9.5 sns
monster munch 25g bag 6 syns
Some items have a different syn value according to whether you are following a red or green day for example 28g frozen peas would be 1 syn on a red day but free on green. Your food op book will detail all of this.


Similarly lasagne sheets, dried, each 2.5 syns on red but free on green.
Do you see where I am coming from?


FINALLY just to confuse things further you have the extra easy plan. Now this is a new plan only very recently introduced so I am still learning about it!
To summarise


Healthy Extra A Options Allowed
Healthy Extra B Options allowed
Advantages
Disadvantages
Comments (formating gone nuts here!)


Red
Two A options allowed
Two B options allowed
Can eat as much meat as you want
have two healthy extras
Limited/not allowed rice, pasta unless you syn it




potato allowed but one potatoe (227g baked jacket) is one healthy extra b option


Green
Two A options allowed
Two B options allowed
Can munch as much potato as you want / pasta / noodles / rice etc


can have quorn as a meat substitute
Cant have much meat – have to count it as an healthy extra option


Extra Easy
One A option allowed only
One B option allowed only
Can mix both red and green foods I.e. potatoes and lean meat in the same meal
Limited on your healthy extras.




SO SIMPLY
if you are following EXTRA EASY


then eat as many foods as you wish from the free food list for RED and the free food list for GREEN and allow yourself one dairy option I.e. either 250ml milk or 28g cheese I.e. one Hi fi bar or perhaps 28g of cereal or 2 slices of nimble bread.


I will find some more menus for you....
hope the above makes sense
any questions, let me know.
Also if you want me to share my daily menus with you, let me know

Skint_Catt

Wow, nice one Flat Eric - very comprehensive! :T

broke22

thanks thats really helpfull can you tell me exactly what books i need and i will order them off ebay?

broke22

WOW thanks so much!!

Skint_Catt

Pretty much just the Food Optimising book (show us the link if you want to check) - all the others are receipe books but won't explain SW to you. The Food Directory (syn directory) is useful, but will go out of date fairly quickly and also may not apply to brands you get in Spain.

If you need a syn value just post on here and someone will look it up for you and post back.

Flat_Eric

sparky40 wrote: »

Hey guys,

Wondering if you can shed some light on the following.

My sister has recently join SW as well and goes to a diff class than me as we live about 30 miles appart. My consultant has always said with your syns, if you dont use them you loose them and that they can not and should not be carried over from one day to the next. My sisters consultant however tells her class that rather than looking at it as 15 syns per day you should look at it being 105 per week running from tues - tues (as their class is on a Tues).

She advises that by doing this you can use all you unused syns and 'treat' yourself at the weekend, however on monday night whatever syns you havent used for that week are then lost.

Would appreciate your views, what does your consultant say?

Thanks x x

I have been going to SW since August 07. It is only very recently that my consultant has mentioned the option of saving some syns for that weekend treat (whatever that might be). She doesnt advocate that we do it week in, week out but offers it as an option available to us.

I think if we do have a night out planned, we are encouraged to flexi syn i.e. allow "x" amount of syns for that particular evening. The thought process behind this is that you set yourself a higher limit, you stick within that (higher) limit and then the next day, you look in the mirror and can say to yourself "I KEPT IN CONTROL". Not "I BLEW IT LAST NIGHT" might as well have that ......... (and thus fall off the SW wagon).

I dont think there is any right or wrong answer as to what one should do with their syns, i.e. bank them or use them (or risk losing them if they aren't used that day), I think it depends on what works for you.

The syns are there to be used, to add variety and treats to your menus and thus if you try to be too good, it can have the opposite effect i.e. you will feel deprived and not want to bother with it at all.

As I posted recently, our consultant said to a new member that it was fine for her to save her syns for that weekend bottle of wine if she wished but six months down the line, when the weight loss has slowed down, she might not be so motivated to be so restrictive with her syns.

does that help?