Syn Free Food Treat

I've got out of the habit of having regular food treats. It's something I used to do years ago when I got to target weight. I'd follow plan weekdays and then eat what I wanted at the weekend, then the weekend crept into Friday, then Thursday....you get the idea? Diets I've followed before had always be so much more restrictive on what and how much you can eat that it's so easy to fall off the wagon as soon as you start eating normal food at normal quantities on the weekend. 

As I've found Slimming World to be so much more like a healthy eating plan where you just tweak normal every day food, in normal portions I don't really feel like I need a treat - other than wine ;-) I'm probably happier with a Slimming World burger than a Whopper from Burger King these days! I also like how they don't ask you to up your Syns once at target, which would just encourage me to slip back into bad habits. 

The easier a plan is to follow the easier it is to stick to and end up as a new normal . The more difficult and time consuming it is to follow the more likely I am to get fed up of it's restrictiveness and go off plan. It's easy to be more laid back around planning meals if all you have to have is a fridge full of normal food. As long as it's there you don't have to plan everything in advance, you can just open the fridge and decide on the spot. It's also nice and easy to have fall back food in the cupboard or freezer for a busy day. Pasta, couscous, tuna, beans, potatoes, Iceland ready meals...I could go on! So it's not the end of the world if you've not had time to spend all day planning your evening meal, then weighing and measuring it all out when you get in before you can even cook and eat it!

Whilst the food optimising plan might seem really complicated when you first read through it, as it begins to make sense and sink in it's surprisingly easy to follow. If you're struggling get help in group, or most Slimming Word groups have online Facebook pages only accessible by the members of their group where you can get help, support and advice.

I digress, now I just need to decide what to have for dinner and which pepper pot to use first!!

Starve Binge Dieting Cycle

This started for me in my late teens early twenties when I first started dieting. I've been on all kinds of diets but my own downfall has been restricting what I eat by eating very small amounts of the wrong foods, especially on days where I want a glass of wine or three in order to stick to plan. It seems so simple now, getting the most amount of food for the least calories by choosing wisely 5% mince instead of just lean, removing fat and having a third of a plate of speed food. But, until that lighbulb moment clicked on and started shining I'd eating small portions of high calorie foods! I got to target, but then what? I'd add more points, calories or drop the shakes choosing treats in order to try to maintain and fell easily back into bad habits. The problem I find is when you've been restricting your food intake and let go of the reigns a bit with treat food the bloody horse takes off and you're galloping back down the road to binge central!



At the time you don't think you are starving yourself, you're genuinely not interested in anything that's not on plan and can easily skip a meal or eat very little because you're focused, your goal is in sight and you're losing weight at the rate of knots! By restricting the food intake you can get the wine in and you hit target!

I initially resisted Slimming World because I thought portion control was my whole issue and thought by giving me free reign to eat as much of certain foods as I wanted would send me spiraling out of control and end up with me being bigger than ever.

For me once the control has gone and I've gone back to eating without counting points or calories the weight starts to pile back on, and it's then really difficult to snap back into "starve" mode to get it back under control. It was at this point I decided I might as well give Slimming World a go! I'd got to target, I'd started putting weight back on and thought the way I'm going it's not going to make any difference.

The first week I went for it with everything, all on plan but let myself eat as much as I wanted, and couldn't believe it when I lost 3 1/2 lb! By about week three the novelty of a cooked breakfast and huge lunch, and a huge dinner had begun to wear off and gradually over the weeks the meal sizes reduced as I settled into the plan and the weight came off.

I had tried a few time in the past that "diet" where you say to yourself I'll just eat what I want and eventually if I'm not restricting myself I'll naturally lose weight as I wont be craving anything. You can probably guess how that worked out for me.....not very well. This is the closest thing I think I'll get to it! If you're realistic and you struggle with your weight you have to restrict some things. It's a simple calories in versus calories out sum at the end of the day, but if you can still enjoy normal everyday foods just tweaking things here and there and watching out for synned food and your HEXA and HEXB, which is't really difficult then it's as close as I think you can get to that ideal.

I love the way that Slimming World educates you about food, I love the way they and their members are so inventive. If there's something you love, and miss you can bet there's a Slimming Worlded version of it somewhere on the internet, and nine times out of ten it's good enough to satisfy! I love you can feed the family the same things as you're eating and how they encourage you to eat normal every day foods and cook from scratch. It doesn't feel like a diet in the traditional sense of the word, but a re-education to learning a new normal way of eating and a normal relationship with food.

I'm sure I'll be in for some up's and downs as I try to stay at target but I feel like I've already made some important changes and am learning a new normal way of eating!

Check out here to see the kinds of things you eat on Slimming World!

Liberation From Be Perfect

Many years ago I went on one of those training courses that you get sent on by work every now and again and found out something about myself that I didn’t know. Usually it’s the same old buff in these things going over things you already know, but I came out of this one with a new insight into myself that I’ve tried to keep a check on ever since. One of the exercises was multiple choice personality questionnaire, I came out at the end of it as a “Neurotic Be Perfect”. I not only want things doing, doing right, and perfectly I want them done my way, or the way I would do them. It was 100% true and I’ve taken that on board ever since and always try to ask myself will the result be the same if it’s done differently, someone else’s way. If the answer is yes then chill out and let them get on with it! 

This overspills in to my personality in general. Whatever I’m doing I like to be as perfect as I can at it, whether that’s dieting, exercising or whatever. That’s why I think when I’ve done any kind of diet before I get veryfocused and rarely have a week where I put on, and have never had a huge gain whilst on my journey to target. Great, you might think, and in a way it is, but it also set me up to fail when the journey is over and target is reached. If I had more gains and struggles along the way it might just help the learning curve and make me better able to cope with the ups and downs when at target. What generally tends to happen is that as soon as I fall off the “Be Perfect” bandwagon I struggle to get back on, once the “Perfect” is broken it’s hard to fix. I need to let go a little and not feel such a failure when gains happen, as they will surely do.

Inspiration On Maintaining - Maintaining Control

A bit like Image Therapy I like to have a good old nose round the internet to find inspiration from other people who have got to target, I came across this post which I really related to.....

A Matter Of Choice - staying in the "safe zone"

Good to know I'm not the only one! It feels a bit lame sometimes moaning about how scary and hard it is when you hit target, when there's people who are still on their journey. The group I go to in Englefield Green has been going for six months now and we have quite a few people hitting target now which is great and it's brilliant to have the support of people who have been there for a few weeks/months and those just getting there, but it is a bit scary!

For me it's all about being in control. When I'm losing and on plan with a target in sight I'm committed, I know what I need to do and I do it. When you get to target a little bit of you wants to be that "normal" person who can go out for dinner, pick the three courses that they really want to eat and enjoy them without losing that element of control and sliding back into bad habits. It's like releasing the control and then being able to grab it back again so you don't go off the rails. I've spent twenty odd years yo-yoing back and forth between a size 8 and 18 (probably verging on a 20 if I'm honest) and now I'm here again back at target the thought of going back and losing that control is scary.

So far I have on some days upped a Healthy Extra B and on others upped the wine intake and so far five weeks in I'm doing OK, but I don't feel like I've had a real test yet, there's been no situation whereby I have had to or want to release the control and have a day or a meal completely off plan. I know this is creeping up and will happen at some point so perhaps I should stop worrying about it now and deal with it when it happens? Maybe I should plan one in and just get the waiting over and done with?

I'm following Fopperholic and Lauren Wallis who both seem to do this really well, they often post about their off plan meals, days or weekends and seem really focused and determined not to let these over run into days and weeks and months so it's great inspiration, and brilliant to see how they get their heads around it, and get straight back on plan.

I guess it all comes with practice. So for now I'm just going along on plan with the combination of extra HEXB's and wine and I'll let you know when the first off plan instance arises....and if I can manage to deal with it successfully! I'm not going to start introducing the "Danger Foods" back in on a regular basis, although I am looking forward to a buttery, coleslawey Christmas with a few chocolate hob nobs.

Five weeks within target so far, I'm not sure how other members balance it but I'm aiming to generally maintain at 8st 12lb giving me room to play for those off plan moments!

What To Expect From a Slimming World Group

I can remember putting off joining for quite a long time. My friend who is now my consultant too, was doing really well and I wasn't to be honest. I'd been using My Fitness Pal to log calories and was losing weight but didn't have the nutritional knowledge to make the most from my calories, so was sometimes hungry or using ingredients which I could have tweaked a bit and got more out of. Everything was weighed and measured making it hard work.

After months of trying to persuade me to give it a go I gave in, and now wished I'd done it so much sooner.

When you first come to group you will be given a talk by your consultant which lasts about half an hour, they will go through the basics of the plan, tell you all about Food Optimising and get you to fill out a registration form. Consultants will tell you about their journey and then you will be invited to stay to group, or Image Therapy. At the end of this you will go and pay and register and then your consultant will weigh you and answer any questions. You will be given a PIN code to log onto Lifeline Online which is the Slimming World website full of recipes, articles and helpful advice. There sill be a shop where you can buy the latest magazine, recipe books, HiFi bars etc and we have tea and coffee which is free. This is paid for by the weekly raffle which is drawn at the end of Image Therapy. The raffle prize might be the ingredients to make a recipe, or something useful like a lunch box or cool bag. The consultant will also award Slimmer of the Week which is the person who has lost the most weight, and has lost the previous week. Everyone brings something free or low syn to put in the Slimmer of the Week basket for the winner to take home.

If you can always try and stay for Image Therapy as it's so helpful. It can be a bit daunting at first. The consultant will give a little talk about any events coming up, ours tells us what is featured on Lifeline Online. They then go round the room and speak to everyone about how they have done that week. Your weight will always remain private and confidential but the consultant will talk about whether you had a loss, gain or stayed the same that week. I used to dread it to be honest, I'm not great at speaking in front of a crowd and even less so if it's not been a good week and there's been a gain. However, stick with it as it is something you get used to and overcome as the weeks go by. As you get to know people in your group it becomes much easier. I've seen new members join who quite obviously find it uncomfortable at first really come out of their shell and open up over the weeks. If you've had a good week it's great to be able to share any tips on how you did it, and if you've had a bad week or a struggle with something there is always someone there who can give you some helpful advice and support. Our Image therapy is great as it's opened up a lot to the group so everyone gets as involved as they want to. You will never be forced to join in but from what I've seen most people join in at their own pace, and remember everyone is there for the same reason.

I read this article recently which really made me think about how I view Image Therapy.

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” 

This is one of the lines in the article and I thought if I view Group as one of those five the I can really make a difference. The other thing that struck me was this part.....

"I would talk about them [choices] with my new friends; they would ask me about how I was doing; and I could see how well these healthier choices were working for them. It was like I was cheating, but it was just self-efficacy. It was just learning a “new normal.”

Old habits are so hard to break and it's so easy to slip back into them but I've found that even the year or so between Slimming World groups where I didn't go some of the Food Optimising habits stuck. I used frylight, I still bought 5% mince and removed the fat from meat. Yes I ate too much bread, and synned foods but the basics stuck and became a new normal.

If you are thinking of joining but are feeling nervous about joining a group then take a deep breath and give it a go, what's the worst that could happen?

Feeders

A topic that came up at Image Therapy recently was people who, without asking, plonk a bit of cake
etc. down with your cup of tea. You’re then faced with a really difficult situation and could end up
eating something you don’t really want using valuable Syns on something just because you don’t
want to appear rude. I always remember the advice of a friend about twenty years ago who said
they used a tactic when faced with something that had the prospect of taking them off plan and
that’s “I will have it, just not now” I can clearly remember using it at Easter once, years ago, when the boss
brought in Cadburys Crème Eggs for everyone. I didn’t really want use my points (Weight Watchers
at the time) on it but didn’t want to appear rude so said Thank you I’ll have that later! It sat in my
drawer for weeks until I really wanted it. I wasn’t denying myself it, just choosing not to eat it there
and then and sabotage my weight loss. When I eventually ate it I really enjoyed it! Similarly recently I
had two Cadbury’s Crunchies in my top cupboard I’d been given about four months ago, which I’d
saved for when I got to target, they were delicious when I eventually ate them.

I’ve also used this at work, although if I’m honest my colleagues (mostly) are great and don't try and
force cakes and biscuits on me. They have learnt over time if I say no I mean no. They will often now suggest I take a cake home for my son, which I have done in the past.

It can be difficult, I think you can sometimes end up feeling apologetic and embarrassed even by
refusing treats from family, friend and colleagues. If someone who is just a healthy eater refuses
chocolate goodies they are rarely cajoled or pestered to have one but the fact you’re on a “diet”
sometimes makes some people think they have the right to try and pressure you into eating something
you’d rather not. Slimming World doesn’t have banned food, so if you’re offered a treat and you want
it, then  Syn it and enjoy. If, however, you’d rather not then don’t feel embarrassed to say no, to ask
people not to automatically plonk cake down with your cuppa, or not to bang on relentlessly that
one chocolate chip muffin wont hurt! I find when my head is in the right place I don’t even want
those things really. I could have one, but that would be in place of a nice glass of wine with dinner,
or the Syns I’d planned into that evenings meal. It’s all about choices, and I’d chose wine over
chocolate cake just about 99% of the time.

So if you feel awkward about saying no, or asking people not to just give you stuff without asking
give the “I will have it, just not now.” method a go! “Thanks, I’ll have that later” means there’s no
immediate moaning at you for not eating it, you can save it for later. If it’s perishable you can always
take it home for someone in the family who might enjoy it! “I’ll really enjoy that after my dinner
tonight when I’ve got a sweet tooth, thanks” I’ve even just taken things home in the past and binned
them rather than just say no. The first few times it happens can be difficult and you feel like you have to explain or justify yourself. The more you do it the more of a natural response it becomes and people will offer you treats but not pester you if you refuse. Have the confidence in yourself to say no if you don't want it, or Syn it in if you do. It's your choice.

Never be afraid to stand up for yourself, they soon get the message if you stand firm! It’s your choice, your body and your weight loss! xxx

Should you weigh yourself every day?

I found this interesting article following a discussion a few weeks ago before Image Therapy on weighing in at home between official group weigh in. Give it a read and make up your own mind!

Guardian Article - Clicky Clicky

I’m firmly in the “Every Day” camp and have been for some years…….when I’ve not been off plan and avoiding the scales completely! I’m very much an all or nothing type of person. In the past I’ve been either strictly dieting or face down in a plate of burger and fries! Slimming World is changing that for me, at least in the healthy eating area of my life!

Firstly back to the scales, and the weighing in daily thing. I think it’s again a bit of an all or nothing thing. As I weigh in every day I know how my home scales compare to group scales so there’s no big surprises on the night! I’ve also got used to weight fluctuations the differences between morning and evening, before and after the weekend. The conversation we were having at group was about having a sneaky weigh in before the official one and being gutted to find the home scales are screaming a gain at you when you’ve been 100% on plan and are expecting a loss! It’s so disappointing and disheartening but I think  if you’re just hopping on the home scales every once in a while you don’t have the same comparisons as you do when weighing daily. The key, I think, is consistency, either do, or don’t nothing in between LOL .

Which brings me to my all or nothing personality. I’m pretty much like this in all things, however having first started Slimming World back in 2013 and getting to target I started going to group just once a month and not sticking around for Image Therapy which eventually turned into not going at all. Slowly the weight crept back on, but much slower that it has done in the past when I’ve stopped whatever diet plan I’d been doing. What I realised when I re-started was that although I’d been off plan a lot of the principles of Food Optimising had stuck and started to become part of my normal eating habits. Using Frylight, buying 5% mince and removing all the fat from meat, skin from fish etc. So whilst I was eating far too much bread (I love a sandwich) and not keeping a check on Synned food I was still following the basic principles. It’s all a learning curve, learning new habits and making them become your normal. I’m getting there, it’s not going to happen overnight.

One of the things I’ve also found is that getting the right group for you is also key. Check out your local groups, we also have some people who don’t live locally but who work locally and come straight from work to weigh in. My old group was great, the consultant was brilliant, but the timings just didn’t really work for me, which is one of the reasons I lapsed. Stay to Image Therapy, make that part of your normal. It’s an hour a week to get that little bit of extra help. Make friends, swap tips, get support when you’re struggling and give support when you’re doing well!

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