Slimming World and OS real food dilemma

npsmama

I know there is a dedicated Slimming World thread but I think my post relates more to OS.

I've lost a stone with SW but have also lost the joy I had from making sourdough bread, cheese, homemade gnocchi/pasta etc...

My consultant is really lovely, very supportive and gives us 110% but on her own admission she hates to cook and I doubt she's ever heard of sourdough bread so asking her about the syn values of homemade things or how to enjoy them while on SW would be much use.

SW (and WW I might add) works but it seems designed for people who love Smash, Nimble bread and other instant/processed foods. But I'm more of a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall type of cook.

I know the theory of slimming: eat less, exercise more. But it's not that simple/easy...at least not for me.

I'd like to continue with SW, especially having lost a stone already but I miss authentic food and I've also noticed my depression has got worse - I wonder if it's bc I'm no longer eating nuts and other healthy oils so much...

Does anyone do Slimming World and still have OS homemade stuff like homemade bread, sausages, yogurt etc?

suekjw

I have to disagree, I think SW encourages you to cook from scratch as you have more chance of things being Syn Free! Not sure about your Sourdough bread but I would guess you just need to use the syns online function and calculate the syns of your individual ingredients, then add them together for a whole loaf and divide by the number of portions you get.

I've lost 50lbs in just over 6 months on SW and cook most of my own stuff.

moo2moo

Suekjw - 50lbs. I am in awe!

npsmama

Well done on your fantastic weightloss! :T That's really encouraging.

One problem I find is that say I make homemade pasta: that's white flour, eggs and water. White flour = syns. Eggs and water are free. So my homemade pasta would have syns.
But on a Green day I can eat as much shop-bought dried pasta as I like...yet that is also white flour.

ceridwen

Hi

I know what you mean O.P. When I went on a diet a bit back I only stayed going to the group for long enough to get info to pick up the literature and get the general gist of how-to.

I've had to re-diet a bit back off again subsequently and am now planning a bit of a re-diet again as some has crept back on again (only 7-14 lbs I would think - but my clothes dont fit - so needs must).

I get frustrated by the high proportion of unhealthy food that is touted - I wince visibly at the sweeteners in puddings and whilst using FryLight is a good idea in practice - in theory I seem to recall that soya comes into this somewhere (lecithin? cant remember?) - and we all know these days that soya is contaminated with G.M. (genetically modified) unless its organic - and the word "organic" didnt come up anywhere on it. I do the Green Plan and, for instance, baked beans tend to feature noticeably often (well - theyve got sugar in them - so wheres a quick/easy recipe for making your own healthy equivalent?). Wheres the "how to make your own healthy equivalent of Frylight recipe"?

It is an easy diet to do if one eats conventionally with a high proportion of ready meals. I do see exactly why its planned like that - as a diet like that is exactly the reason why most overweight people are overweight in the first place.

There are others of us who cant quite understand why we sometimes put on weight (eg myself) because we know we are eating pretty healthily - in my case vegetarian, as organic as possible, doing the O.S. watering-down of milk,very few sweet things, etc. I can only think my bit of re-dieting is necessary because of the 2 (small size) glasses of wine I have with dinner say 2-4 times per week (which doesnt feel very "fair" to me - as thats a max of 8 small glasses per week - so I'm still a bit puzzled and guess the rest must be down to stress having the put weight on effect I gather it can have).

So - yes - ideally I would like a healthy version of Slimming World. Right now - I'm going to have to do the very "samey" type diet I've had to do before on this to work within the parameters of the healthy foods they mention.

Somebody somewhere who could think up a healthy version of this diet (complete with exactly equivalent vegetarian version - avoiding the "fobbing-off" that still happens to some extent to veggies) could be on a winner.

It is the best diet I have come across and the only one I personally find feasible if - like me - you refuse to be hungry - but we do need a modern modified version.

ceridwen

npsmama wrote: »

Well done on your fantastic weightloss! :T That's really encouraging.

One problem I find is that say I make homemade pasta: that's white flour, eggs and water. White flour = syns. Eggs and water are free. So my homemade pasta would have syns.
But on a Green day I can eat as much shop-bought dried pasta as I like...yet that is also white flour.

Good point.

ceridwen

One of the ways I find myself having to compromise on healthy eating when on a Slimming World diet is by eating quorn - which I find necessary in order to get any variety at all in my Green Plan one I do. The list of ingredients in that is worrying: mycoprotein (never quite sure about that - and I do know some people react visibly to it. So I wonder if I'm going to find a long-term effect creeping up on me)/dextrose/iron oxides/rapeseed oil (think that means theres some G.M. in it)/breadcrumb (not organic - so probably has G.M. in it)/milk proteins (not organic - so probably antibiotics in it that are fed to cows) - that was quoting some of the ingredients from one quorn product.

Another thing is that butter is the healthy thing to spread on ones bread (organic of course - so as to avoid the antibiotics fed to cows producing conventional milk). Butter is very calorific and also problematic to spread. So I get Lurpak - I have to choose between Lurpak Lighter or Lurpak Organic - I cant find a version that is both Lighter AND organic - and I am barred from the lowest-calorie bread spreads as they are just so unhealthy. I would like to see S.W. telling us what we can use on our bread that is both slimming and healthy.

MrsE_2

I've tried SW, I agree about it being heavily based around eating huge quantities of ready made stuff.
Think, those Batchlors pasta sauces & the rice packets, ect.
I just couldn't get my head around that & found it weird, silly & unhealthy.

With WW you can eat very healthily. With WW the more back-to-basics you go, the more you can eat.
You can eat some of anything on WW, but if you want to rely on ready stuff, you won't be eating much.

WW also do great cook books. Have a look at WW, their recipes are just fab for OS.

ceridwen

Hi Mrs E

Note your point re W.W. - but, as I recall (correct me if I am wrong) one is forever having to work out points on things and there doesnt seem to be a list of "free" filling type foods.

I know that is why I picked Slimming World myself - because I dont have to feel hungry - as I can eat what I want of potatoes/pasta/bananas/rice. Boring - but at least my stomach isnt giving me a hard time thinking its throat has been slit.:D

seraphina

Congratulations on your amazing weight loss!

I never did SW - it looked far too complicated for me - but I did weight watchers a few years ago and lost 2 stone, all of which has stayed off. I don't think I ate a ready meal before or since, so it is possible to do it OS!

WW does seem to have a more flexible approach to home cooking.

The key to everything is moderation. Check your portion sizes - to this day I weigh out pasta and rice, or if it's fresh, I have a bowl that I know a "normal" size serving will look in it.

It's not a problem with OS, or the OS way of doing things, unfortunately. Lets face it, a lot of OS stuff isn't good for you to eat on a day -to-day basis (OS cakes, biscuits anyone:rotfl:). Just because it's home made, additive free, organic this or locally sourced that won't make food contain less calories, or less fat. Cheese is cheese whether it's processed cheese strings or a nice bit of extra mature cheddar.

But I'm a master at getting around the rules, so here's what I did that made a difference:

1) Weigh everything - see above.

2) Bin the frylight - get an oil mister instead. You can get these from Lakeland, fill them with the oil of your choice and off you go.

3) Bread - eat with something else, like a bowl of soup, or a salad. That way I find it easier to have less.

4) I put on less weight if I drink gin and tonic than wine:rotfl:Wine is a real killer calorifically -we worked it out once that half a bottle of wine is about 2 mars bars.

I do sympathise. Unfortunately it's a constant process - once you get to where you want to be, you have to stay there! And if one more person extolls the virtues of Muller Lights I'll do something unspeakable with one:mad:

thriftlady_2

npsmama wrote: »

SW (and WW I might add) works but it seems designed for people who love Smash, Nimble bread and other instant/processed foods. But I'm more of a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall type of cook.
?

I agree completely. I've done WWs and found ecxactly the same problem. I too am more of a HFW cook and I don't agree that SW and WW Core (very similar to SW) are about real food.

Re your problem with hm pasta -I had the same with hm yogurt. WW Core say you can have low-fat and very-low-fat yogurt. I assume low-fat is made with semi-skimmed milk and very-low-fat with skimmed. I make it with semi-skimmed (I prefer whole) so I asked online if that was OK , but no because I made it with semi-skimmed milk which is not allowed I couldn't have it -unless I bought it:rolleyes: I don't think these organisations really like food or appreciate that real food is what we should be eating (like whole milk -the fat in it helps with calcium absorbtion).

I really got fed up of working out the points in my hm bread, yogurt, jam etc

The thing that really annoys me about WWs is that they go on about it allowing you to cook from scratch and use real ingredients yet they include artificial sweetener as one of their 'free' ingredients. I will not put that stuff in my body, and I don't care if sugar-free jelly is 'free' I'm not eating it.

I recently bought a diet plate, which is supposed to allow you to eat whatever you like provided you keep to the measurements on the plate. However it only really works for meat and 2 veg meals. It does allow you to measure pasta and sauce meals or curry and rice, but the amount of rice I measured out the other day on it was so miniscule (and I don't eat huge portions by any means) that I just gave up and used a normal plate. Also it is impossible to measure hash-type meals like the delicious chorizo, potato and pea hash I made the other day. Big waste of money.

It really is as simple as 'eat less, move more' BUT I just don't seem to be able to get my head round it:rolleyes:

Sorry I'm not much help, but I do sympathise and you aren't the only one who feels like this.

Just noticed Seraphina's post -she seems to have got her head round it. And completely agree with her about muller lights :rotfl: