Slimming World Diary & Review

I've always wanted to lose weight, it's just always been in the back of my mind, even when I was a size 8. I know most women will likely feel the same, regardless of whether they're a size 8 or a size 18 because we're conditioned to think this way by media every single day - even Wonder Woman would find it difficult to be completely body positive 24/7 in this day and age.

My lovely boyfriend Ben and I have just gotten back from our first holiday together, and looking back at some of the pictures I look lumpy and frumpy and to be honest, a bit wide. When I first met Ben, I weighed in the region of 9st 5lbs but fast forward a year and a half, and after some serious abuse of the Boro parmo, I weighed in at 10st 6lbs, just over a stone heavier!

In October last year I finally decided to move my arse and shift the stone I'd put on during the first year of being with Ben, so for the past 9 months I've dieted on and off, at one point losing 10lbs all by myself and then gradually putting 1 or 2 on again, until I reached the weight I am now: 10st 3lbs (I was 10st 1lb before I went on holiday). I'm finally feeling motivated again the way I was before I lost the 10lbs, and I've decided I'm sick of my weight yo-yoing, so Slimming World here we go!

If I'm honest, I've had mixed feelings about attending. I can't see how the diet will work for me, I've been doing a load of research but I just can't get my head around it. These are the basic food groups:

      - Free Food - Things that you can supposedly eat as much of as you wish.
      (Surprising examples: rice, potato, bacon, pasta.)

      - Speed Food - One third of each meal must consist of these.
      (Basically just fruit and veg, I found a list here.)

      - Healthy Extras - You must eat one thing from list A and list B per day.
      (A is calcium rich foods, such as milk/cheese and B is fibre rich, such as bread/cereal)

      - Syns - Treats, basically.
      (You're entitled from 5-15 Syns per day.)

Although I understand that there are limitations, such as not adding butter to potatoes and not putting a mountain of cheese on your pasta, I don't understand how it's possible to eat jacket potatoes, mash, rice and/or pasta at every meal without having to do an insane amount of exercise just to maintain my weight - I haven't seen anything to suggest that SW requires participants to take part in any substantial exercise for the diet to work, and the following is actually stated on their website:

"Food Optimising without exercise will result in weight loss – it’s guaranteed!" * 

*You can find this quote here:

At this point, it just seems too good to be true and I don't think it will work for me. Regardless of my opinions, I've heard a bunch of people ranting and raving about SW and how much weight they've lost on it and listen, I ain't got anything to lose except weight!


Starting Weight: 10st 3lbs         
Target Weight: 9st


Going into my first meeting, I was absolutely rearing to go. I eagerly rode my little bike there and back, I even missed the England v Columbia match which I was dead excited for cause I've got Columbia in the sweepstakes at work. I was so excited to meet my mentor, Adele, and ask her all the burning questions I had. How much pasta can you really eat? Does the SW diet really require barely any exercise? And how on earth does it work?!

Adele was really lovely and she explained everything to me, it seemed dead simple. She asked me to keep a food diary for the first four weeks and submit one each week so she can see how I'm taking to the plan and can text me with suggestions on what to try doing more or less of - this seems like a very helpful SW feature. Usually there's a group session where members recommend recipes they've tried, but there wasn't one to stay for this time because of the footy, so I got on my bike and rode home to read my starter pack. I hit a lamppost on the way home lol oops.

I may have started this at a bad time... I'm at a Hen Do on Saturday, so I'm going to try and keep my Syns down all week, and then I can have a few gins! They're 3 Syns per 25ml (Slimline tonic is free), and if I just use up 5 Syns each day until Saturday I'll have saved up 30 Syns... I'm not sure that's how it works, but stuff it, I ain't being sober on a Hen Do! I'm also going away to Plymouth with work Monday/Tuesday, and although I should be back in time for my weigh in, I'll be eating out for my breakfast, lunch and dinner each day so whether or not I'll be able to find food in line with SW only time will tell!

Generally I think I'm going to struggle with my milk limit (250ml Semi Skimmed/300ml Skimmed)... Maybe I'll try almond milk in my coffee instead? (Sweetened 500ml/Unsweetened 1l).

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End of Week 1
Weigh-In:  10st 2lbs
Weight Lost: 1lb (Bare in mind the Hen-Do and my work trip away)

So in hindsight, last week was not the best week to join, but I guess my being good Tuesday-Friday and Sunday worked, as I got a little loss which I wasn't expecting at all. I was eating out for breakfast, lunch and dinner Monday & Tuesday, and it was really difficult to find food that was SW friendly. (I had a banging curry on Monday night... and lots of gin too, oops).

I've been really surprised with how full I've been feeling through the week, speed foods such as watermelon are really substantial! I'm also pretty pleased that my 'Healthy Extra B' can be 40g Weetabix Minis - even the chocolate chip one! I save those for when I'm sat watching Love Island, it satisfies my sweet tooth and my unquenchable need to have snacks.


Favourite Meal: Tonight I'm making Country Vegetable Soup which I'm going to have for my lunch at work - it's full of speed foods and as far as SW are concerned, the more of those you eat the better.

Exercise: I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't do any exercise last week, I just couldn't find the time. I have an app on my phone which logs my daily activities and on average it estimates that I actively burn around 250 kcal per day from my walk to and from work, and my lunch breaks. Aim for this week is to do 4 sessions either on the crosstrainer, out for a run or on my bike... we'll see what happens.

Notes: I've sussed out why you're allowed a full litre of unsweetened almond milk per day - you have to use almost 1/4 of a carton to make a coffee! It's starting to make me feel bad for vegans who work in an office too, all week my colleagues have been asking me if I want a cuppa made and I'm too scared to say yes in case they use regular milk... just have to wait for 10 minutes and then slyly sneak off to make one myself.
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End of Week 2
Weigh-In:  10st 0.5lbs
Weight Lost: 1.5lbs

Not going to lie, I'm proper gutted that I only lost half a pound more than the previous week despite being really good and sticking fully to plan. Think I got my hopes up last week that despite eating rubbish for 3 days I still lost so was expecting something a bit better this time! I submitted my past 2 weeks of food diaries for my consultant to look over so hopefully she'll text me with some advice on what I can do differently.

I bought some Rocky Road and Salted Caramel Hi-Fi bars (cereal bars made by Slimming World) at my group as I forgot to have my Healthy Extra B twice this past week - ran out of Weetabix minis, oops. I can eat 2 of these each day to fulfil my H.E B, and they're really yummy, though the Salted Caramel ones are a bit on the small side... as in, half the size of the box small.


Favourite Meal: I live for fried rice from the Chinese takeaway, so I made a banging SW friendly fried rice with chicken strips, sweetcorn, mushrooms, broccoli, celery, baby sweetcorn, asparagus, and garlic and seasoned it with paprika, salt and pepper. It was lush, and I even made it a second time with brown rice for extra health points. (It wasn't bad but definitely not as nice.)

Exercise: Managed 2 decent bike rides this week, and I rode my little bike to my meeting yesterday too, so exercise levels are still a bit pathetic but I will up them! We're sorting out our spare room this week (it's been a tip since we got back from holiday) so I'll have access to my crosstrainer again.

Notes: Feeling a bit deflated, but I know my downfall when it comes to weight loss is patience, so I'm not going to self-sabotage by weighing myself every morning and I'm going to look at every loss, no matter how small, as a positive.
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End of Week 3
Weigh-In:  10st 1lb
Weight Lost: Bloody gained 0.5lb didn't I... damn you chocolate chip cookie dough with melted white chocolate and nutella, damn you.

After browsing my fridge on Wednesday night, I decided to dip my toe into the 'try-new-things' waters with Bacon-wrapped Asparagus (which turned out amazing), and then dived right in at the deep end with Crème Brulee (which didn't go well at all). On Thursday I made Ratatouille (100% speed food! How good is that!), Friday and Saturday I ate out at the new shipping containers on Gateshead Quayside as I was seeing friends (very naughty but it's bloody lush there), Sunday obviously calls for a Roast Dinner, but on Monday night I tried another new thing and made Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Soup, which was way nicer than I was expecting!


Favourite Meal: Tough one to call this week with having tried so many new things, but if I had to pick one, I definitely think I'll be making the Butternut Squash & Sweet Potato Soup again.

Exercise: I didn't do anything this week other than my 40 minutes of walking to and from work each day, but in this weather are you really expecting me to go out for a run?

Notes: It might be worth noting that I didn't actually go to the class to get weighed this week, I just used my own scales - I don't know how good these are in comparison to the SW professional scales, I just bought mine from Aldi when they appeared in that random aisle. It was one of those weeks when a girl just wants to get home from work, put her comfiest pyjamas on, lay on the sofa with a hot water bottle and not move. You know the drill. The wishful thinkers among us may conclude that the 0.5lb gained could have something to do with these factors, but who knows, I'm sure we'll find out next week.
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End of Week 4 - One month in and £25 down, where are we at?
Weigh-In:  9st 12lbs
Weight Lost: 2.5lbs (3lbs if you want to count the 0.5lb gain from the week previous)
Total Loss: 5lbs

So I really, really was not looking forward to my weigh-in this week - I was determined that I was going to have lost no weight and that I may as well have thrown £25 down the drain. I dragged my little feet all the way there and *drumroll* 2 and a half off! Mint, absolutely buzzing. Rode my bike back home with all of my pearly whites on show, muttering "2 and a half, get in lass" to myself several times on the 5 minute journey. Got a few dodgy looks but who cares, there's 2 and a half pounds less of me to receive dodgy looks!


Favourite Meal: I haven't tried any new recipes this week, in fact I had Ben drive us to Iceland as I was dying to try out some of the Slimming World ready meals - I'd heard good things! I bought the Chicken & Chorizo Style Sausage Paella which was okay, but the frozen Pork Sausages in my opinion were awful (could have been made of cardboard) and the Ham & Mushroom Farfalle was just a bit minging really. I've got a Chicken Tikka Masala and a Sweetcorn Chowder in the freezer which I'll probably try this week, but I won't be re-buying any of them - especially not for £3 a pop!

Exercise: I ran for the metro one morning. Does that count?

Notes: I'm really glad I don't have a Click remote, I would absolutely just keep fast forwarding a month to see if I look any different, I have so little patience.

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End of Week 5

Weigh-In:  9st 11.5lbs I didn't go to class, this is a reading from my home scales.
Weight Lost: 0.5lbs

I ate pretty well this week, generally a lot of salads and homemade soup, but I was at a leaving do on Friday night for my bestie pal who's moving to Canada this month. Naturally I drank a buttload of gin to drown my sorrows. On Sunday we went to visit Benjamin's family in Middlesbrough and I totally resisted the urge to get a parmo for tea, can you believe it? Cause I can't! My lovely Ben took me instead for a meal at Frankie and Bennys where we had burgers stuffed with Chilli Con Carne and Monterey Jack Cheese *drool*. Worth the syns, however many it was.


Favourite Meal: I ate this banging Broccoli & Parmesan Spaghetti 4 times this week because I couldn't be arsed to cook  I was really trying to test out the 'you can eat as much pasta as you want' rumour. A good friend of mine introduced me to this and I know it sounds kinda gross, but trust me, it tastes bloody lush.  I don't add any oil, although I recommend you do if you're not on Slimming World, as it is nicer with a drizzle. I use 2-3 lvl tbsp of Parmigiano Reggiano per portion which makes the dish 2-3 syns, or you can use 30g as your healthy extra A! It's so quick, so easy, and super gentle on the washing up too with it being a one-pot dish.

Exercise: No.

Notes: I didn't go to weigh in this week as Tuesday night was the last time I could see Ellie before she left but I did weigh myself on my own scales on Wednesday night.

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End of Week 6
Weigh-In:  9st 11.5lbs
Weight Lost: Maintain

I wasn't looking forward to my weigh- in this week because I'd been really rubbish. I ate fairly well during the work week, but I didn't limit my milk so overdid my Healthy Extra A every day and I kept forgetting to eat my Healthy Extra B cause I'm annoying. Over the weekend was my sister's birthday, so on Saturday night I ate pizza and fajitas and cake, and on Sunday I had a bacon sarnie and more cake and then, because Ben and I were slightly hungover, a big fat greasy Chinese. So, to have eaten like such a piggy and not put on any weight, I'm pretty pleased!


Favourite Meal: The Chinese, obviously. I don't have a Slimming World friendly meal to recommend this week. Soz.

Exercise: I may as well just get rid of this bit, I'm lazy.

Notes: Me and my friend Rachel have made a pact that if we're really good for the next 3 weeks we'll go out for lunch somewhere really nice, so I'm feeling back on it and motivated! (Although I forgot to bring my Almond Milk to work with me again today, grrrrr).