Well I joined last night and now I do need help.

This isn't like anything I have ever done before and to be honest I'm in a fog.

I have to eat B and L at school so that takes care of my milk, cereal and bread options. Now as I see it that is about the same on green and red days, up to that point but what the **** do I eat tonight!!

I need some suggestions please of things I can take to school which do not use up the options as above so that I have some left for nights.

I need to keep sins for the weekend - what do I do

examples please

I haven't got a clue about red days (I don't do SW) but I have read the booklet and thought how nice the green days would be because I love pasta and rice salads, possibly dressed with some fat free yoghurt with diced veggies in or possibly in a tomato based dressing, once again with veggies chopped in. They might be nice for lunch.

You can have unlimited fat free yoghurt, can't you? Well - one of those for brekkie with banana in is nice - or any other fruit for that matter.

Surely your class leader can give you some ideas? My friend told me that her SW leader recommended spacing out the healthy extras and sins through the day rather than having them all clumped together.

Seeing that you have only got a stone to lose perhaps, rather than saving up sins for the weekend, you could keep to the SW plan during the week and at the weekends when you aren't socialising, but be a bit more relaxed with yourself when you want to socialise. I'm not suggesting that you go mad and eat loads of vastly fattening stuff - but just ease up on yourself a little bit. I think that is pretty much what most of us do anyway. But then again the rest of us have got a very long journey ahead of us and would love to be in your position.

You sound like you are getting yourself very wound up about your weight and the various diets you are trying. Honestly, with only a stone to lose, its not worth it getting so upset.

I'm not getting worked up, I don't think, and last night the scales said more than a stone to go, possibly 2+.

The leader didn't tell us much about the foods at all, she just touched on the rules and that was that.

The losses in the room (the bits we heard as we were having our welcome talk at that time) were c***. 3 girls came for their first weigh in and lost 1/2Lb. I'm afraid I'd be looking for more than that in my first week. So did they do the diet and cheat or perhaps they didn't fully understand because they had not had it explained to them????

I don't know which but I am not too impressed so far.

I think I could do with looking at the sins on line thingy to see what kind of things I can have. I've no idea at all what food costs in relation to sins. I was hoping that would be explained more thorouly last night. Also without getting too technical I wanted to know about the mechanics of the diet. for instance if I have an apple it is free, If I wrap it in foil, add nothing and bake it it is 2.1/2 sins????? because I have changed the consistency of it....... beyond me.

Oh well - good luck!

The fruit thing seems to be right. I am looking at the booklet right now and yes, even pureeing a banana gives it sins. That wouldn't do me - I love baked banana or apple and very low fat fromage frais or Muller Lite.

I was constantly questioning all these things with SW, leader and head office!!! If you cook the fruit it becomes easier to eat, so you would be able to eat much more of it when cooked. that is you could consume 5 times the amount of cooked apple before you felt as full as you would eating a raw apple, if you can see what I mean.
same for bananas, baked they break down and digest quicker, so you would not feel 'full' for so long and you might eat another!!

Honestly I am not kidding, that is why I packed in.

I am not knocking it, I know lots of people who have done well, I don't know anyone personally who has lost a lot of weight with SW but according to the mags etc there are a lot.

All diets work if you stick to them but sw just seemed to give me alicense to be greedy!!

TQ - you have hit the nail right on the head with that - I thought about doing SW but I also thought it would give me a license to be greedy. I can eat an awful lot of those green day free foods, especially pasta, grains and yoghurt.

I know a lot of people say the weight loss is slow if you only have green days (or if you have a much greater number of green days than original days) and speeds up if you have lots more original days - the only problem with that is that the current medical opinion always says restrict meat (even lean meat) to 4-6 ounces each day and then you should only eat that once or twice a week, so if you eat a lot of original days then you stand a risk of raising your cholesterol levels and/or raising your blood pressure.

So, basically to me SW boils down to a choice, eat an low carb-high protein diet and lose weight but risk making myself ill or eat a low fat, high carb/fibre diet and lose it very, very slowly or not at all.

Obviously different diets work for different people. SW works for me because I LOVE pasta and rice, and when on WW and Slimming (e.g.) I found myself going into palpitation weighing out a 'medium' portion of either - which just never looked like enough! I would finish the meal feeling dissatisfied. On SW I eat three hearty meals a day (every day's a green and I'm losing very nicely, about 2 pounds a week) without that gnawing sense of wanting something else. I make big one pot curries and chillies with rice and I've noticed that I'm full for much longer, about 4 hours or more. I too thought it would be a license to be greedy, but it seems, more, to have freed me up from perpetual snacking.
Anna

Anna - welcome - how nice that someone's had a positive experience with SW.

How long have you been with them?? How much weight have you got to lose?? My friends who have given up on SW have have told me that they had good weight loss in the first couple of weeks then it sort of died off - did you lose more the first couple of weeks than in the weeks that have come after??

Perhaps you can help Jano with her meal planning.

Yes please

My weight loss is just slow and steady which is how I like it. I really feel the loss is genuine as well.
I'd be happy to help with meal planning (I do a lot of it). Fire any questions my way Jano...
Anna

Can I jump in here?

I have done the SW plan twice and it never worked for me, I'm glad to see that Anna has had some success with it. I have to say though that DH did it with me and was slimmer of the week every week without fail - weight just seems to fall of men!!!

I too got baffled by baked apples going up to 2.5 sins, I once asked my leader what I could eat for dinner on a red day (it was the dead of winter) and he (yes he) said to have a whole tin of corned beef with a salad - yuk, have you seen the amount of fat in a tin of corned beef? I suppose the big issue for me was that I don't like pasta and I'm not too keen on rice either so I found green days very boring because I was living on baked potatoes and beans - not pleasant for anyone too close to me either!!!

Personally I like to eat a dinner at night which consists of meat and potatoes and lots of steamed veg (I have two small girls and I don't want them knowing Mummy's on a diet, already had a few problems with sprog #1 thinking she's going on a diet at the age of 6) I really think the way to get rid of the 7 stones I have to lose is going to come about because I'm eating healthy and not doing a "diet" as such.

Jano you don't have a great deal to lose (I know 1-2 stones sounds a lot and it's hard no matter how much you have to lose) but you shouldn't be losing any more than 1lb/2lbs per week.

I'm sorry that sounded like a lecture - who am I to speak with 7 stones to lose???? We've all got to find what's right for us.

Good luck everyone whatever plan you're on

Hi

Thanks for agreeing to help me out

Healthy Option B on red day is 2 weetabix. I only have 1 so am I allowed something else ot what?

Hi Ladies...i've been thinking about trying the SW plan..my daughter did it and lost 2 stones..but..it's hard for me to follow as i now live in Canada and all the things listed on the Sins list are not available here..an odd thing is but that's all..Jano..i would think that if you are only having one weetabix you would be allowed something else..from what you have all been saying though it does sound a little weird

Don't see why not; use some other cereal or one slice of WW bread or something.
Anna
PS My dieting friend and I were discussing the plan over tea after the kids' swimming tonight. Conclusion? It will work if you let it.

Thinking about the baked apple question. Orange juice too must count as a 'sin'; this is because a squeezed orange removes some of the nutrients and fibre and hence becomes less full of nutrients. Vegetables and fruit are better raw, so presumably baking an apple removes some of the nutrients, hence giving it a sin value.
Anna