Losing Weight With Slimming World Week 1

For a while now I have been stop/starting on my losing my baby weight. I make a start with every intention to do well and then seem to fall off the wagon. So I have decided to join Slimming World.

During my pregnancy I had pre-eclampsia which really didn’t help with the amount of weight I put on. I think I have lost around 50lbs since I had Rex (yes, that much!) but I still have quite a long way to go until I am back where I want to be. Quite a few people have said that I don’t look like I need to lose weight – but according to the BMI scale, I most definitely do – plus I feel like I need to. My height means that I disguise it better!

If you follow me over on Instagram, you may have seen that I started Slimming World last Monday evening. Our local group has 3 sessions including two on Mondays at 5pm and 7pm. I have chosen to go to the 5pm group as it fits in with our schedule.

I have decided to blog about my journey to help keep me motivated as well as make sure I am accountable for my actions!

The Introduction

When I arrived last week I was made to feel very welcome. I had an introductory chat from Becs, our group leader, whilst everyone else checked in and got weighed. Everyone was able to help themselves to a cup of tea or coffee, purchase a raffle ticket at 10p each (I got my first week’s set of raffle tickets free) and also some recipe books or Slimming World products.

Once the chat was done, I received my pack and sat next to one of the longstanding members with the rest of the group. Becs went round discussing everyone’s latest results and they all supported each other. She also chatted about the latest news.

At the end I got weighed and we decided on my target weight (see below). I decided to purchase 12 weeks for the price of 10. I knew if I did this then I would really commit. The total cost was £54.50.

How Slimming World works

Slimming World is not as complicated as I thought it might be. There are your free foods which include fruit, vegetables, fish, meat and poultry as well as a few dairy products (including certain fat free yogurts and cottage cheese), eggs, rice, pasta and grains, beans, peas and pulses. Included in the free foods are items which they call speed foods which you can fill up your plate with. Then there are your healthy options and you can choose one from the A list and one from the B list everyday. These include things like wholemeal bread, milk, cheese and cereal.  Finally there are your syns – food from the ‘naughty but nice’ list as I call it. You are allowed 5 to 15 per day (depending on your weight) and these include cakes, chocolate, biscuits, crisps, sugar and alcohol.

What I ate

I didn’t keep a food diary during the first week, but the food I had includes the following:

• Breakfast – things like scrambled egg with bacon medallions, baked beans and tomatoes
• Lunch – a jacket potato has become a firm favourite as it is quick and easy and you can alternate toppings
• Dinner – fish pie, beef casserole, spaghetti bolognese

I have to admit that I was pretty proud of myself at the weekend. Some lovely friends stopped by to see us and brought us some scones and clotted cream. I found out that one scone was 12.5 syns! One level tablespoon of clotted cream was 2 syns so I had that with some SW chocolate cake at 2 syns per slice. It isn’t about depriving yourself, its about moderation.

The second meeting

When I turned up last night, I have to admit that I was rather nervous about my weight loss. Firstly, you queue up to check in, then you queue up to be weighed.

It was lovely to see Becs speaking with two new people. I was no longer the newbie! I stayed for the meeting where we played speed food bingo, went through our results and had the raffle. I gave my feedback and felt really supported.

Weigh-in

Weight at the beginning of my diet: 195.5lbs 

Weight last Monday: 195.5lbs 

Target weight: 156lbs 

Weight this Monday: 192.5lbs

Loss for the week: 3.0lbs

Total Loss so far: 3.0lbs

My thoughts

Well, I am pretty pleased with that start! This week I am going to be adding in some exercise and continuing with the eating plan – and this time I am going to keep a food diary.