Newbie in US, totally confused!

K

Knittingden

Member
Hi everyone,
I'm so happy to find this forum for SW Overseas! I'm originally from England but live in TX now. Just read about the new SW diet in a amg over here this week and am trying to find out more info on it. The more I read the more I'm getting confused!

I have so many questions, but my main one today is what can I eat on a green day that is free? I think the sample menu in the magazine and the iPhone app I downloaded are for Extra Easy days, but I'm confused because the mag says eat unlimited fruit, veg, lean meat, eggs, potatoes, rice, pasta! This is all totally unbelievable to me, but great if it is true. However when I was reading britmuminCanada's food diary (which I find great, btw) she mentions that on her extra easy day an egg had a syn value?

Britmum, can you help me? Anyone ? I so want to try this diet but I can't afford to join o. Line, it's about $160 for just 3 months!!
 
Knittingden said:
Hi everyone,
However when I was reading britmuminCanada's food diary (which I find great, btw) she mentions that on her extra easy day an egg had a syn value?

Britmum, can you help me? Anyone ? I so want to try this diet but I can't afford to join o. Line, it's about $160 for just 3 months!!
Click to expand...

Eggs are defintely free on Extra Easy, Original and Green days. Are you sure it wasn't something else I was synning on that day, like the low fat butter on toast or similar? Can you send me the link to the exact page in my food diary and I will try and clear up the confusion for you. Was it scrambled egg?? the syns would of been for a little bit of milk I used which didnt come from my Healthy Extra allowance, as I prob used it elsewhere in the day for cheese or similar.

and Yes all those foods are FREE on extra easy, but the advice is to make sure a 1/3 of your plate consists of superfree foods (vegetables and fruits, except peas, parsnips, sweetcorn, potatoes ), what the 1/3 superfree does is naturally limits your portions of the other stuff without the need to weigh or count calories. Think of it like this, if your plate is filled with a 1/3 superfree you have less room for the other stuff (unless of course you are eating off a HUGE plate which kinds of defeats the object).

Definately give it a go, the slimming world extra easy plan is fab and feel free to message me should you get stuck with any US foods and I will do what I can to help.

and you are right, Slimming Worlds online price is far too expensive, which is really sad, as it means many people are reluctant to try it. Slimming World really need to review the pricing as the bulk of overseas members will come from online subscriptions, but people just cant afford to pay that price.

You could do just a 3 month subscription to get the hang of the diet and then cancel after that, thats what I originally did as there was no incentive really to keep me paying after that, as they have a very limited list for the US/Canada so I had to find and search for foods myself.

For example weight watchers charge $54.85 dollars for 3 months online membership and Slimming World charge $160
 
Last edited:
Hi BritMum, your diary date was 1st Feb, 2011, Tuesday. It says scrambled egg 0.5 syns. Perhaps you added milk or oil when cooking?

Potatoes are not super free food, but they are still free on Green and EE days, right? I think until I get more info (when info becomes more readily available here in the US) I will watch the amount of pasta and rice and potatoes and have more salads and veg with each meal.
 
Dont make the mistake of eating all fruit ,you need a Balanced diet .we had this discussion in class 5 fruit and veg a day.This came up cause someone put on 2lb and all she ate was fruit ...
 
Knittingden said:
Hi BritMum, your diary date was 1st Feb, 2011, Tuesday. It says scrambled egg 0.5 syns. Perhaps you added milk or oil when cooking?

Potatoes are not super free food, but they are still free on Green and EE days, right? I think until I get more info (when info becomes more readily available here in the US) I will watch the amount of pasta and rice and potatoes and have more salads and veg with each meal.
Click to expand...

yes it was for a dash of milk in the scrambled eggs.

Potatoes are not superfree but they are FREE as is pasta, rice etc, you dont need to limit how many carbs you have, so long as you make sure a 1/3 of your plate is superfree food. Basically it is just the starchy vegetables which are not superfree, but they are still a free food, if that makes sense.

by the way I have edited above in my first reply.

Also I noticed you are in Texas, are you near to any of the meetings there that you could pop along to??
 
I saw your added info BritMum, but $160 is just way too much money to spend right now. There are no groups near me right now, TX is huge and the nearest group is probably hours away from me. I hope more crop up soon, but hope they open up all over the US. SW would give WW some serious competition if they would market themselves a bit more!!

Welsheymamma, I do try to watch the amount of fruit I eat, having been on WW I know that you can't
just stuff your face with it :)

Thank you ladies for taking the time to answer my queries, really do appreciate it.
 
Hi girls,
I think I'm doing this all wrong:-( I wish I had all of the literature and list of free foods, syns etc!

My sister is sending me some leaflets over from England that she has from last time she did SW (she's now doing the new WW pro points) I'm hoping they help some. I have no idea what I'm supposed to have from the HE A list or B list? Or if when I have potatoes or rice I can actually eat them all day, or if I should be just have g 3 meals a day and eating at each meal til I'm full?

I'm more of a grazer and don't like big meals, but is it ok if I have SW fries for dinner (by which I mean tea, for those in england), with Heinz beans, then later at around 9pm finish the fries off cos I was feeling peckish? That's what I just did and I feel like I totally blew it by eating them late at night.

Could anyone shed some light for me please? BritMum? Anyone?
 
HEa - Cheese, Milk (preferably low-fat so you get larger portions i.e. you can have 28g of regular cheese or 42g low-fat cheese or 12oz skim milk or 7oz 2% milk) One serving of HEa (which can be split i.e. 6oz skim milk and 14g shredded cheese)

HEb - Breads, Cereals, Dried Fruits (basically starchy carbs that are not in their natural state; aim for whole grain products which has more fiber). For breads, look for Oroweat 100% Whole Wheat Breads, Sandwich Thins or Sahara's Whole Wheat Pita Breads. For cereals, Kellogg's Mini Wheats, Weetabix (readily available in most major US supermarkets now), Quaker Oatmeal. On Extra Easy, one serving of HEB.

Your aim is to make sure you get all of your needed nutrients while satiating your hunger. I don't see why you can't graze but you have to make sure you are eating your 1/3 Super-Free Foods. For instance, sometimes I just have pasta and bolognese sauce but I will add an extra serving of Super-Free to my next meal. Don't feel obligated and imprisoned to eat a specific way...Just try to eat a good variety of foods and pay attention to how they are prepared.
 
Like clevagirl said

HEa choices are milk OR cheese - 42g of reduced fat or 28g of full fat or if you choose milk it is the measurements as clevagirl said.

HEb choices are breads OR cereals etc. 57g of any wholewheat bread or 28g of a high fibre cereal.

You only get 1 HEa choice and 1 HEb choice on extra easy.

Your meals should aim to include a 1/3 superfree, otherwise you could over eat on the other free foods. By including a 1/3 superfree with your meals you have less room on your plate to pile high with other stuff.

Your first choice in between meals should also be superfree where possible, but you can choose other free foods if you are not satisfied with just superfree Just try to be conscious of eating because you are actually hungry and not because food is free.


Really, it can be hard to get your head around without some of the SW literature and we are limited to what info we can give because of copyright.

Good luck
 
Good morning girls, and thank you so much Clevagirl and BritMum for your replies:). It's 8am here in TX and forecast to be another crazy hot day, over 100! It should make eating salads easy, haha!

For some reason I thought the HE's were a huge list of different things, but if it's mainly dairy for A and breads for B that makes it a lot easier. I'm going to really try today to plan out my food, perhaps I can pist it later and get your opinions. Think I will go look at some food diaries for ideas. Yours are so helpful BritMum.
Hope you both have a great day.
 
Oh and starting a food diary in the diaries section is a good idea as others will be able to tell you if you are doing it right.
 
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