My Slimming World Survival Guide

In July this year I started attending Slimming World, and over the course of the next few months, I lost a total of 23lb. I cannot recommend Slimming World enough - it was exactly what I needed to reach the goal I'd had for years, and then another extra 1/2 stone once I got there (I figured I might as well keep going once I was "in the zone").

I just thought I'd share some of my favourite recipes, tips and general advice for anyone else currently doing it, or thinking of starting.

Getting Started
Some of my work colleagues had been talking about Slimming World, and how you could still have treats here and there, plus Muller Lights were totally legit, and you could have cheese, bread, pasta, rice etc (some of those limited to certain amounts), and so I thought - Hell yes, count me in! Now there is the £5 per week charge, and I had always been a bit reserved about spending money on something I could just do at home, but nothing else had actually worked long term, so I figured - why not, just give it a go.
I met Kerry (my SW rep) and she talked me through the whole process - after the last proper diet that I'd done being the crazy South Beach (see my post here about my previous attempts), Slimming World "food optimisation" sounded like no problem. Plus I loved the idea of occasional treats being on plan and allowed! I was all for it - I signed up, weighed in at 11 stone (what??! - that was a shock), and started the journey.

Favourite Recipes
I'm a big one for trawling Pinterest for ideas, and luckily it did not disappoint with loads of Slimming World oriented ones. Here are some of my frequently used ones (click on the underlined part for the recipe):

Actually honest to goodness Pizza (none of that cauliflower, or egg nonsense - proper pizza!! - just make sure you don't eat too much)

(this is my version of it - my son loves olives, so I just picked mine out - you could just syn them though)
I use passata as the tomato base, and then just go wild on toppings! It does mean you need to save your HexA and HexB for one meal, but it is sooooo worth it!!

Like a Sunday roast? How about 1.5 syn Yorkshire Puddings?

(photo not mine - used from recipe website)
They use barely any of your HexA, and are really very tasty, and unlike most yorkshire puds that need a very high heat, these ones cook just fine at 190C, so it means you can cook a syn free chicken at the same time! (that's the heat my chicken cooks at anyway!)

Talking of roast dinners, how about a Syn free gravy ?

Not 100% like normal gravy, but still very nice - especially if you're saving your syns for an after dinner treat 😉

I love a nice takeaway, and early on, I discovered this really great Chinese Beef Noodles recipe:

Plus - slow cooker! Bonus! Stick it in in the morning, and you're all set! (I don't use the corn flour, and I use dried noodles - it cooks in the sauce at the end, so it's syn free as the sweetener is very minimal). I serve with eggy rice and green veg.

One recipe that we have pretty much every week is the Slimming World Carbonara
We LOVE it, also, I just use cheddar - you're allowed more, plus I never get around to buying Parmesan!

There are a few different curry recipes that I use (did you know KoKo coconut milk is allowed as your HexA - made an awesome Korma using that), but to go along with it when we had some friends over, I made some syn free Onion Bhajis

They were really quite tasty - and gave you even more of an impression that you're having a cheeky take-away.

Breakfast? There are a couple Oaty recipes I love - get yourself some frozen forest fruits and make some Overnight Oats or Baked Oats - with the overnight ones, I always use a muller light type yogurt to give it some flavour, and then top it up with natural yogurt - mix those together first, then add the fruit - it defrosts overnight and adds a delicious juice to the oaty yumminess.
With the baked oats, I don't add the fruit until after the oats cook (defrost the fruit first), then I slice a banana to add, and top with another yogurt - really tasty, almost like a fruity crumble - pudding for breakfast? Yes please!

**I'll add more recipes to this blog as and when I think of them!**

Extra Tips
DON'T make these Curly Wurly Brownies - they are genuinely vile... they're alright hot, but just awful cold, like really really bad!

If you want a treat - just syn it! There are very few "low syn" or "syn free" versions of treats that are any good... just eat the proper thing in moderation - eat it slowly to enjoy it and feel like you're really having a treat.

My go-to treat was a single finger twirl with a Muller light (or most of the Aldi versions are syn free), I literally dip it into the yogurt and it's only 6 syns. Nom nom nom...

Don't get discouraged if you have a bad week - there were a couple weeks where I gained a pound, and was gutted! But... I just kept to it, and the following week I'd lose it and more!

Now I just need to keep to it and survive Christmas 😄