Newbie in need of motivation/advice please!

[K_Lou]

Hi everyone,

Another frustrated newbie here...I've been on the plan (online as I never manage to religiously make meetings) for 5 weeks now and have only lost 4 pounds (week 1 = 1lb, week 2 = 1lb, week 3 = 1lb, week 4 = 2lbs yay, week 5 = 1lb on, boo)
I know for sure I wasn't eating enough super free in the first week, so upped it and still didn't see major results. I am a serial dieter and have tried various plans in the past with some big successes (lost 5 stone) but unfortunately I'm a comfort eater and I ended up putting over half the weight back on! I started SW on the back of a low cal diet, so am used to healthy eating but this is the first diet I've done that I actually feel ok on, so I'm gutted to not be losing much!
I had my birthday this week so had lunch out (Caesar salad) and cake/chocolate, so I wasn't expecting to get away Scot free, but I tried so hard to be low syn for the remaining 3 days of the week. I'm a little OCD so I always weigh/measure my foods out, but I think I must be doing something wrong - any help would be gratefully received as I see so many people are doing brilliantly

Typical day:
Breakfast - pear, mullerlight and an alpen bar (sometimes no alpen and I'll use my hex b on weighed nuts instead)
Coffees usually make up my hex a due to the milk, and I have sugar free vanilla syrup in them (2 or 3 coffees)
Lunch - either a chicken salad with 0.5 syn dressing, or a tuna pasta salad with quark instead of mayo, and 2 clementines (proper sweet tooth here)
Pm snack might be a couple of tbsps houmous and carrot sticks, or a packet of 4 syn crisps/5 syn popcorn
Dinner - SW lasagne/mousaka/chicken supreme with rice/jacket potato and beans with salad - one of those meals is a typical day, not all of them I always have green beans, carrots and baby corn as a minimum veg wise then strawberries and an apple for pudding, sometimes a yoghurt too if I'm particularly snacky that evening!
I also have Diet Coke, or sometimes a Nescafé latte for 3.5 syns
I generally have around 8 syns a day, which is upped at the weekend to nearer 15 as I have a 'bread' day and a sweet day, all planned and counted though.

Can anyone give me any pointers? Feel like a total failure and I've got a night out with friends coming up, which I'm now dreading as I'm terrified of going 'off plan' again.

Thanks in advance for listening to my depressive rant!

 

[Polly Page]

Have you seen just how big a pound of fat is it huge so feel proud for losing it also are you having all your syn's.
If you don't eat enough that can have an effect on loosing your weight.
The other thing is try not to think of it as a "diet" but a new way of eating if your anything like me as soon as that word diet is mentioned I start feeling hungry and guilty for having a syn

 

[K_Lou]

Hi Polly, thank you so much for your reply, I really appreciate it...I am going to try to stop comparing myself to other people and just get on with doing my best! I had a relatively good week, but then went on a big night out with friends last night and drank far too much, so wasn't so surprised to see the scales stuck at the same weight when I had my weekly weigh in this morning!
I try to eat 8-10 syns a day, do you think that's ok? Sometimes I struggle to use them all and it often ends up being used up on something sweet(totally my weakness!)

 

[Destiel]

Hiya!

Are you drinking enough water? If you have a few coffees/cokes a day, the caffeine can add up and dehydrate you (unless they're decaff, lol).

Also, maybe try a few S&P days. A change in routine can help towards a bigger loss. I like SW because there is loads of room within the plan to find an approach that suits you best.

Of course, as a pp said, 1lb loss is still a good loss, and you should be proud of yourself for sticking with it!

 

[Polly Page]

Having something sweets not a bad thing in moderation, I'd got a sweet tooth that was way out of control (having a bar or two of chocolate rather than a proper meal) but then I found a site which unfortunately no longer exists and this site set challenges and you could set your own time frame, one of the challenges was not to have any chocolate etc I set my challenge at 2 weeks I did think "I ain't going to mange this" and I will admit at first my cravings went through the roof but I completed 2 weeks so I set it again for another 2 weeks then another and another until I realised I hadn't even thought about chocolate, sweets,cakes or biscuits but that's not to say I don't have any when I do my shopping I have a bar and enjoy it, I have the odd biscuit but that's it they're not the be all and end all.
I agree with Destiel drink more fluids, Robinsons sugar free juice that's got no syn value so your not just drinking boring plain water.
Ooh just remembered I total my all my syn's for the week that's 105 so some days you can use more and some days less as long as you don't go over 105, it's strange talking about syn's as only this morning in group we were talking about it and how if you don't use enough of them it could have an impact on your weight loss

 

[K_Lou]

Thank you for your posts, it's so great to get advice from everyone! I'm sat sipping at my bottle of water as we speak, and have a big bottle ready to take in to work tomorrow
Syns are a funny old game aren't they, it's a bit 'trial and error' seeing how many work best for people, one of the ladies at my workplace says she loses best when keeping syns low (say 5) while I've read blogs saying that better losses come with more syns. I might try eating a few more and see how I get on!

 

[Destiel]

I've started using a 2 litre bottle to make sure I have enough water every day. I still have coffee but make sure I have to water too.

Syns are deffo tricky. For example, an avocado is just as high in syns as chocolate, although nutritionally they're completely different.

Good luck! I hope you find a balance that works for you

 

[RachLC]

Hi I'm New on here today so was just having a browse when I came across this. Although I have quite a bit of weight to shift (I'm 13.7 stone and targets 9st) I find my loss is always a slow one to. So was just wondering of there were any fail safe go to's that anyone knows of kickstart things and speed it up a notch? I'm hearing drink more water quite a lot but are there any particular foods that are known to be super speedy?

 

[Jhsax]

I find fish and green veg is super speedy for me, 3/4 of a plate of veg always speeds up my weight loss, but as I don't like vegetables that much its hard to keep it going. Also using almost all my 15syns, if I skip meals or have a day or two of 10 or less syns it comes back to bite me.

 

[RachLC]

Thanks for the info Jhsax! I'll stock up on those then. I have such a sweet tooth so i try and have syn free day then a choc treat using most of my syns in the evening but i always feel guilty afterwards