The website can take a little getting used to! Even I still forget where things are
lol
I may be telling you somethings that you've found, but I figure that's easier than guessing
You can find everything under the headings on the black bar towards the top of the screen (under the SW logo). Once you've clicked on one of these, another set of options will appear underneath the black bar.
Firstly, to find out how the plan works, once you've logged in click on 'My Weight Loss Plan' and you will be taken to the 'getting started with Food Optimising' screen. Here it exaplins the steps that are involved in the plan, with some options to 'find out more' under each step.
Just above Step 2 is a green Find out more button. If you click this, you will be taken to some videos of consultants explaining how the plan works and taking you through the new member talk that every member who attends a class recieves (this is always useful to revisit, after 5 years I still like a new member talk every so often to refresh myself
)
Going back to the first screen, click on the 'find out more' button underneath each step and this will take you to a description of what types of foods are in each category.
Clicking on the find out more under the 4th box (Foos Optimising - how it works) will take you to a deeper description of the types of foods you want to be eating.
From the inital tab you can also find out about Body Magic by clicking on the 'getting active' option.
The 'My Slimming World' tab is where you can record your personal target and losses to keep track of where you are up to.
To access the Weight Loss Planner - which is where you can plan your meals for the day, or the week ahead, select 'My Weight Loss Tools' and it will take you to your food diary.
Click 'Open your Weight Loss Planner here' and it should take you to where you can select which plan you are doing. You will also see a calendar on the right hand side of the screen.
As you are a new member, ignore the Extra Easy SP option and select 'Create your Extra Easy plan now' and you will get more options to choose from.
Select the 'Free Foods' button and this will give you an option to search for free foods. Click where it says 'Please choose' and select a category. For example, if you pick the Fruit category, you will see a long list of the free fruits on the Extra Easy plan. The ones that display and 'S' symbol next to their name are the ones that you should try to include as much as you can. As described in the new member information, they help speed up your losses, this rule applies to the vegetables too.
The one piece of advice I will give you is don't forget that all of the fruit on the free food list has to be fresh or frozen, and eaten as it should be, not pureed, blended, smoothied, crushed, or cooked, or it will be synned. This is nothing to do with the sugars n the fruit, the sugar content will not change, but it is to do with the filling power. Using 6 oranges to make a glass of orange juice won't fill you as much as eating the 6 oranges would (if you can finish them all that is!
lol)
This is the area you will also find your 'P' foods (protein) which are another that you want to try and include as much as you cn in your meals. These help keep you filled up for longer and help stop snacking in between meals.
All things listed on the Free Food section does not need to be measured, you can have as much as you like of these.
Next, select the 'Helathy Extras' tab. You have 2 healthy extra sections - your A choice and your B choice. Your A choice is dairy, and the B choice is fibre. You get one of each of these per day, these are not unlimited, they have to be measured to ensure you will get losses. Not measuring these and sticking to the options that you are given can, and have to other, lead to gains rather than losses. For example, you can't split your milk and cheese. If you want both you will have to syn one of them.
The Syns section allows you to search the SW database for items that you need to syn. For example, if you like a drink at the weekend or something, search for your tipple of choice (or bar of chocolate if you prefer
) and it will give you a measured syn value (e.g. 25ml of vodka is 3 syns, and a Milky Way is 5 syns for the 21.5g bar)
There is also a Journal tab if you want to record any feelings or anything for the day. I use this to record what my meals are as you have to input each item individually - logging the meals in the Journal helps me when I look back to realise what I ate with those ingredients
The Recipes & Menus tab is also one of the most useful things on the website - plenty of meal ideas there
And under the Useful Features tab you will be able to find guides for eating out so you know what types of foods to choose from - just type the name of where you are going into the search box on the right hand side. You will also find more details and actual syn values for a lot of places under the 'Syns Online' option in 'My Weight Loss Tools' - again, type in the name of the place (i.e. Pizza Hut) and a description of what you want to look into (pepperoni pizza) and you'll get the syn value (9.5 syn per slice of a regular pan sliced into 6)
Hopefully all this has heped, if not let me know and I'll try help again