Hi, I'm Melissa (Mel) and I am restarting my sw journey tomorrow. I have been on and off the band waggon more than I care to remember (lol).

I struggle more with willpower and determination. How do you guys stick to plan? What sort of normal meals and snacks do you eat? I like fruit but I get bored of it very quickly, how can I jazz things up? What are your fav low syn snacks too? I love crisps and hard boiled sweets, can I get low syn sooky sweets?

Sorry for all the questions, and thank you in advance!

Hi, Mel! *trundles out the welcome wagon*

I'm just properly starting SW again myself, I'd been telling myself that I was on plan and I reeeeeally wasn't.

This time around, I'm sticking to it by freezer cooking; I spent nearly three hours cooking last Sunday, and I've wound up with over three weeks' worth of low-syn or free meals that are packed with flavour and speed foods. I'm also learning to eat syns as part of my meals, which seems to be working better and making me feel more satisfied than trying to have a free meal and saving my syns for snacks.

However, what works best for me may not work best for you. I've cracked my sweet craving my buying a big bag of starburst (1 syn each) and getting my other half to keep them at his place. He brings me three or four when we see each other, which hits the spot for me AND makes me really enjoy the small amount that I have. The best advice I can give you is learning moderation. Enjoy the "bad" stuff when you have it, but don't have it too often.

There are lots of ways to jazz fruit up as well--one of my favourites at the moment is baked oat waffles with some sweetened quark or yoghurt and strawberries on the side.

Crisps, well, you COULD make your own. Be warned though, they're classed as a "tweak" in SW, which means that technically you should be synning them because they're not the way that potatoes are 'intended' to be eaten. Personally, I think tweaking gets a bad rap--why would it be better for me to eat a whole bar of Dairy Milk than drink a delicious fresh fruit smoothie, for instance? But it really is all about what works for you. If it's savoury crunchy things you're after, I really like the Sunbites popcorn at the moment. They come in multipacks; the lightly salted and sweet/salty 12g bags are 2.5syns each, and the sweet caramel 14g bag is 3syns. They manage to pack a lot in, which makes them pretty satisfying.

Once more, what works for me may not work for you, so just be patient with yourself and be kind to yourself while you're finding your feet again. Best of luck, and I'm impressed if you got this far in my rambles :P

Thanks kaybird! I will have a look at that crisp tweak, I love wotsits, could eat them till I turned into one!! 😂 I have tried the sunbites popcorn sweet and salt, delish! I usually just have an options if I am craving chocolate.
I may try the batch cooking trick too!
I also love the sw "haribo" I've made those a few times!
Thanks for the welcome and the tips! I look forward to trawling through all the posts!

I'm just about to get onto making the haribo sweets myself! Do you have a particular recipe that you stick to? I've found one on the page for my local FB group but I'm always looking for tried and tested ones.

Welcome to social slimmers!

I'm in exactly the same position.
I've been a member for almost 6 years, have reached my target once and gained it all back, plus a little extra, and after being in a bad place for some time I'm now trying to work on feeling better about myself and getting to a place where I'm happy again.

I agree with kaybird on the batch cooking, it's always a life saver!

I don't agree with using tweaks, but that's my personal opinion and I know lots of people do use them and don't have any issues. The tweaks should always be synned because they're easy to over eat on instead of reaching for the speed foods. And smoothies, fruit juice, etc are synned because they aren't as filling as eating the actual fruit that you would use to make them.
As I said some people do still use them, and if you decide to use a tweak, then just keep an eye on your losses. If you are following the plan 100% except for the tweaks and you notice that your losses reduce or stop, then the first thing you should change is removing the tweak from your plan. If it has no effect then it's fine, but I know that for me tweaks can be dangerous because I will overeat on them because some sat they're free. In my mind they have to synned or I end up on that downward spiral and don't lose anything!

I'm always eating fruit, but I rarely get bored of it so never have to jazz it up, but one of my favourite desserts is a meringue nest, and Activia yogurt and berries. A much lower synned version of an Eton Mess!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ooh Sarah, may have to give that Eton Mess a go because it sounds lovely!