Extra Easy Online - attempting to maintain!

Hi everyone!

I've been on SW for 2 weeks and MM since yesterday so Hi!!! :wave_cry:

I posted on the "weight loss diary forum" but I am after some advice about my food diary so I thought this is probably the best place to go!

I'm doing the Extra Easy plan online and so I don't have the support and advice of a group. My main concerns are that I'm not eating enough Super Free foods and that my syn level is too high - I normally average between 10-15 syns a day. It's amazing how quickly they add up!

I'm not working at the moment so I'm getting up later than I'd like and breaking up most days with the gym so my eating times seem to be all over the place. Therefore, I'm going to try to include times too!

So today's food diary:

Breakfast - 12pm - 2 Nimble wholemeal slices (HEXb), 2 tsp Flora light (2 syns), 2 boiled eggs, Mullerlight vanilla

Met the girls for lunch so made sure I ate before I went and just had tea w/ skimmed milk

Lunch - 3pm - 2 Dark Rye Ryvitas (3 syns), quark, 6 slices cucumber, smoked salmon

Snack - 2 maltesers (no idea how many syns... 1!?)

Dinner - 7pm - Mum's chilli (syns from lean minced beef, bisto, sugar, oil - guess at around 4 syns!?) (SF mushrooms, peppers and onions) with rice

Snack - 1 ferrero rocher (3.5 syns) 1 banana, grapes

Drinks - 3 tea w/ skimmed milk (HEXa)
Sparkling water (finding it a fantastic subsitute for wine )

Total Syns = 13.5

I normally eat more veg but today was a low veg day for some reason.

I lost 4.5lbs in my first week but only 1.5 this week. I did have a couple of meals out (was good with the food choices) and these included a couple of drinks - and I had a boozy night with the girls Saturday so I'm sure this has a lot to do with it

Any advice would be amazing as I'm finding doing this on my own a bit stressful as I have no idea if I'm doing it right!?

Thanks in advance!!!

Hi! Wow congrats on your losses so far you're doing great! I lost 6lbs in my first fortnight on Slimming World and then slowed right down to 1lb / 0.5lbs loss each week ~ and then randomly some weeks I'd have a loss of 3 or 4lbs! You will definitely surprise yourself and all the small losses add up !

I know what you mean about the syns, they do add up! I found that hard at the start as well but I got into a routine whereby I saved my syns for evening time ~ I usually fill myself up at meal times with plenty of superfree foods and if I'm craving sugar I'll have a diet coke/diet 7up. I find melon really good for my sweet tooth too! And splenda is fab. I also sometimes snack on ham or cooked chicken if I have it in the fridge for times when I get really hungry. I almost always use my syns on chocolate and I find it better to leave it til last thing at night, as if I have chocolate during the day I crave it for the rest of the day; at least when I have it at night I'm going straight to bed!

I do find it difficult with alcohol, I love my red wine and there's plenty of syns in that! It's hard to stop at the one glass There is a low syn wine called First Cape, apparently it's 12 syns for the bottle. The red isn't to my taste but the white isn't bad.

Best of luck with it and I'm looking forward to reading your entries!

Menus sound good.
Just word of advice, when you cook fruit you have syn it (never understood why though someat to do with the density changes when you cook it) so as your grilling your banana (ie cooking it) you have to syn it = 4 syns

Is there anything online that I could read about fruit as there doesn't seem to be much you can do with it apart from eat it raw (i.e. can't cook it or liquify it)? I want to make sure I don't make any other mistakes like this!

Thanks for your help!

Question on the fruit debate...

I've just read this article on the SW website. It states that cooked fruit is a syn, as like liquifying fruit, its broken down so you consume more of it without filling up like you were if you were to eat it whole/raw.

Quote from the site...
"The fruit in a crumble isn’t a Free Food. Fruit in its natural form is bulky, filling and often time-consuming to eat. Fruit that is cooked or stewed (and breaks down into a pulpy consistency) is a very effective way of adding a lot of extra energy (calories) in a non-bulky and non-filling way.
If you were to eat an apple it’s quite a lengthy process to munch your way down to the core. If you were to make a portion of apple puree you’d need a lot more than one apple and it’s much easier to consume. It’s all about getting the most (optimum) satisfaction from your foods with Food Optimising. We count juiced and cooked fruit as Syns to protect your weight losses."

As I grilled the banana lightly for a couple of minutes and the density didn't change, it was just warm, do you guys think that this would still be considered cooked (like in a fruit crumble) or warmed and so therefore technically free?

Interested to hear your opinions....

I'll keep all my ramblings up here as others may find it useful. I had a discussion with others on the SW facebook page and here is the best answer...

"I phoned syn hotline abt this and discussed it in class as I warm my fruit salad in a micro before adding yog, warmed fruit is not syns as the sugars have not broken down, it gets warm and breaks down wen ie chewing anyway, ur not consuming more than u were going to! So basically if it's warm and not cooked thru to release more sugars or become a pulp it's free! Make sense ? "

So I'm going to continue to eat a grilled banana as a treat, and consider it free. I just won't eat it everyday!

Hi! Oh your carbonara looks amazing! Haven't had that in ages. I'd say your grilled banana is fine if you're basically just warming it. As long as you're not having it everyday. If you find that your weight loss is slowing down then perhaps it would be something to consider. Your indian meal sounds fab, I love trying new things so will be giving this a go sometime soon!

Thanks for the advice! I'll keep it to when I'm really craving sugar and try to limit my intake. I only really have it once (twice at the most) a week so it should be ok! The carbonara is great - it feels so indulgent having 30g parmesan with it though! I tried out the sticky chicken after seeing it on your thread and it was amazing... yum!

Food Diary...

Brunch - (slept in again :sigh 2 slices Nimble wholemeal (HEXb), half a tin of baked beans, mullerlight vanilla with grapes

Dinner - SW Egg Fried Rice with SW Sticky Chicken... :drool:! (2.5 syns)

Snack planned for later - Mullerlight coconut with mixed berries

2 tea w/ skimmed milk (HEXa)
Sparkling water
1 valerian root tea
1 glass champagne (4 syns)
Soda water

Gym - bike, treadmill, crosstrainer, rowing machine = 1 hour

Total Syns = 6.5

I'm meeting my friends (on a school night!) as we're celebrating her handing in her notice from a horrible job (the same one I left - hence my current unemployed status). I decided I'll have a glass of champagne and then it will be soda water. I can't afford it even if I could drink so should be easy to abstain!

Dinner...

Your dinner sounds delicious. I love sweet potato! Mmmm enjoy!!

Hi there,, your food looks lovely . if you find that the garlic clove is too much why not try garlic salt as an alternative?? i use it in my garlic and herb dip and you add as much or as little as you like