Make 2013 a year to remember with Slimming World (Part 2!)

Inazuma

Looking forward to the six week challenge!

Blodwen, Eric - I have MFP app which I really enjoy using, sometimes I come off SW for a break and use MFP just to monitor. I am looking for pedometer app but haven't found any good ones. Good to read your faves.

Am a bit miffed as I usually do red days but last night was offered some shepherds pie for dinner so as I'd only had my HexA as milk, decided to have an EE day and enjoyed my shepherds pie. Allowed 6 syns for fat in mince (although cook said it had been poured off, she knows I am SW). Had nothing else except cup of tea that evening.

1.5 on this morning! How did that happen??

lilian1977

My plan for today (green):

Breakfast (already eaten): 2 egg omelette with mushroom tomato and spring onion on bed of rocket; 35g porridge oats (HEXB) made with water and ff yoghurt, topped with banana and strawberries.

Morning snack (already eaten): Apple, strawberries

Lunch: Tesco minestrone soup - not a HEXB so 7.5 syns (150 cal) - couldn't resist at 15p a portion! Mainly veg and pasta though so probably not too bad.

Afternoon snack: Peach, plum, grapes.

Dinner: trialling the new autumn menu for cafe, having roasted veg and houmous sandwich (bread as HEXB? Please?!) and apple pie. Eek... syns through the roof again.

HEXA - milk for coffees.

Will have to be REALLY good tomorrow - and then at a wedding on Friday so syns will be dreadful again. Might just have to write this week off and start afresh on Monday!

Inazuma

lilian1977 wrote: »

Will have to be REALLY good tomorrow - and then at a wedding on Friday so syns will be dreadful again. Might just have to write this week off and start afresh on Monday!

Lillian, the last bit of your post really struck a note with me as I do this all the time, and as a result am pinging back and forward with the same loss & gain, very frustrating and my own fault, as I tend to think 'Oh I've blown it now, might as well start again on Monday' and then proceed to eat like a thing possessed! Please don't feel I am lecturing but why not try doing the flexi syn thing for the wedding rather than just going 'What the heck?' and losing control for a whole weekend?

Sorry, but I just read your post and thought 'Noooooooooooo..'

TakeItEazy

Skint_Catt wrote: »

TIE - I'm doing a jigsaw at the moment - one of the world's smallest - 1000 pieces & it's a tad larger than my laptop.... :eek:

I use the jigsaw world app and the Facebook app which aren't too big but still take me ages :rotfl:

lilian1977

Inazuma wrote: »

Lillian, the last bit of your post really struck a note with me as I do this all the time, and as a result am pinging back and forward with the same loss & gain, very frustrating and my own fault, as I tend to think 'Oh I've blown it now, might as well start again on Monday' and then proceed to eat like a thing possessed! Please don't feel I am lecturing but why not try doing the flexi syn thing for the wedding rather than just going 'What the heck?' and losing control for a whole weekend?

Sorry, but I just read your post and thought 'Noooooooooooo..'

I know it's wrong - I just know that because my mum and dad are here that weekend and I;m meeting friends for breakfast the morning after the wedding (with a hangv er...) as well it will all go to pot. I can but try I guess!

TakeItEazy

frogga wrote: »

TIE wouldn't be able to see it if it's that small! She's as blind as a bat[/]

Oi you cheeky Frog, it's only reading your posts That I have a Problem with. I'm using this to read them now :rotfl:

Skint_Catt

I think the mag comes out sometime next week for those not in class - I've just skim read back so don't know who asked the question, sorry!

I won't do the 6 week challenge, thanks - I've got my own 'now until Christmas' challenge, but can't really get my head in gear this week. I just don't know why I'm so tired. It takes me until about 10am to wake up in the mornings so that's my morning plans bu&&ered as then DD has lunch at 11.30 & then a 2 hour nap.

B; fruit salad & yoghurt
S; 2 own brand kit-kat style chocs (12 :eek: ) (I'd only had one - 6 syns - until I went to look at what they were called so I could syn them & another jumped into my mouth )
L; jacket potato & 75g soft cheese (HEa)
D; veg sausage, mushrooms, beans, sw chips (& egg if I go & buy some)
Lots of SF squash

This is why I don't usually keep things I can't eat in the house... 12 syns gone in seconds. I wasn't even hungry, just bored & tired & wanting comfort :mad:

I think I need to make speed soup next time I go shopping - I'm a bit sick of salads so I panic when it gets to lunch as I don't fancy what I'd planned.

Anyone want an outgoing, bossy, energetic, beautiful toddler for a few days so I can hear myself think? *sigh*

nessie216

lilian1977 wrote: »

Lunch: Tesco minestrone soup - not a HEXB so 7.5 syns (150 cal) - couldn't resist at 15p a portion! Mainly veg and pasta though so probably not too bad.

I sent emails to SW about soups - extracts below if you are interested! (this was a soup that i got whoopsied at about 9p!)

WARNING: this is a long post!


Original Email

Why when using the syn calculator can you not enter a free food allowance for soup?

For example, the New Covent Garden Soup of the Month is Butternut Squash, black turtle bean with Jalapenos

Why am I not allowed to put butternut squash as a free food?

If I made this soup myself, surely I can count the butternut squash as a free food and it would be virtually syn free (only counting any oil used as syns). So why then if I input the same in the syn calculator for a soup that someone else made would it contain syns?

I do not understand this logic

Especially when the soup contains all free food apart from a small amount of wheatflour (less than 3%) and oil (in a stock cube which are now class as syn free, are they not?).

I am amazed that for the whole package the syn calculator states this as 8 syns if no free food allowance is used - but free if butternut squash is taken as a free food allowance

Surely Soup is a filling meal and not empty calories - this soup could be a complete meal - but for the same calories/syns I could have a packet of doritos which would not fill me up as much and would want to have something else instead

To quote this website syns are 'Slimming World's effective alternative to calorie or fat counting, designed to make sure you can enjoy your favourite treats every day, from chocolate and cake to ice cream and alcohol. All food that isn't Free has a Syn value - you simply choose how to spend your Syn allowance each day'

I wouldn't say soup is a treat!

Response from SW

I wanted to let you know that any branded soup is counted as Syns (and doesn't get a Free Food Allowance). This is because branded varieties contain ingredients that aren't Free, like wheat/corn flour, sugar or oil. So the Syn value of 8 for the 600g carton is correct.

'Some random chatting about making it yourself & some are healthy extras - not really answering my query- blah blah blah'

My response

I understand that I can make soup myself and freeze it and I have already purchased the 'little book of soups' book

However, I still do not understand why soups do not get a free food allowance

To make the point more clearly, I have listed the ingredients below and coloured each ingredient up in either red for superfree food, green for free food on green days (and extra easy) and blue for free store cupboard ingredients and for those with syns I have left black.

Water,Butternut Squash (20%) ,Carrots ,Onions ,Red Peppers ,Black Turtle Beans (3%) ,Celery ,Tomato Paste ,Lime Juice ,Wheatflour ,Vegetable Stock ,Salt ,Garlic ,Jalapeño Peppers (0.18%) ,Red Chillies ,Coriander ,Cumin Seeds ,Ground Black Pepper
Vegetable Stock contains: Sugar, Concentrated Vegetable Juices (Onions, Carrots, Leeks, Celery, Garlic), Salt, Cornflour, Sunflower Oil, Nutmeg Oil
Take the Wheatflour for example; as all the ingredients are listed in % order - the wheatflour would have to make up less than 3% of the soup - lets say that the soup consists of 2% wheatflour - from the syns online we can see that 25g of flour, wheat is 4 syns. 2% of 600ml is 12ml - let say for arguments sake that this is equivalent of 12g - it would mean that the soup contains 2 syns worth of flour

Apart from the flour (and possibly the tomato paste (which I assume is the same as tomato puree and is syn free)) I cannot see what else could contain syns and increase the syn value of the soup to 8 syns

If I were to make this soup with exactly the same ingredients I would allow 2 syns for 600ml not 8!

I know this is only an example and other soups may vary - but can you not see where I am coming from? Surely because butternut squash is 20% of the soup and a superfree food this should be counted as a free food?

I know that slimming world encourages members to create their own dishes, but sometimes we all need a break from cooking or cannot make a meal at that time and want to find an alternative dish that is not high in syns!

P.S. Just as a side I do understand that a bowl of Heinz cream of tomato soup would be closer to the syn values stated online (9syns for 300g) as nearly 16% of the ingredients are cream, sugar or oil!

SW Response

I've asked our Foods Co-ordination team to look into this for you, and they have let me know that with brands of soups like the New Covent Garden range that contain virtually all Free Food, they are going to take a look at how the Syns are calculated in the future, and if the Free Food allowance could be applied.

They have checked through the ingredients and calculated it from the nutritional information you provided, using the butternut squash allowance and the 600g carton works out at 1½ Syns.


Interestingly - they haven't changed the syn values on the website!


Personally i wouldn't take the online syns values for soups - but would work it out myself as the majority is free foods!

Just thought you might be interested! (sorry if i have sent you to sleep! :rotfl:)

lilian1977

nessie216 wrote: »

Personally i wouldn't take the online syns values for soups - but would work it out myself as the majority is free foods!

Just thought you might be interested! (sorry if i have sent you to sleep! :rotfl:)

Wow - thank you so much! I am going to calculate my soup as 1.5 syns then too.

Vegetable Stock,Tomato ,Potato ,Carrot ,Tomato Pur!e ,Red Pepper ,Cannellini Beans (5%) ,Onion ,Green Bean ,Cooked Pasta (4%) ,Tomato Juice ,Sugar ,Vegetable Oil ,Garlic Pur!e ,Potato Starch ,Balsamic Vinegar ,Oregano ,Basil ,Salt ,Parsley ,Black Pepper

Skint_Catt

Thats brilliant nessie, well done!! Might take them a while to adjust the syn values on the website if they do, but yay, victory to you! That's brillint to have a ready made soup that is so low in syns