Slimming World Food Optimizing (Slimming World) - Slimming World""

.../> When I first joined slimming world, I really disliked myself, I felt fat, I have been that way since having my children, and decided that I had to do something about it. So off I went on an hour's journey to the slimming world class. Upon joining I was given a welcome pack, included was the food optimising book, it told me what I could eat etc.

Now before I start on the book itself, I will tell you a little about the diet you ...
...with a warm welcome to slimming world, on the front page it has your consultants name telephone number and email address. Obviously not all books will have this, if you are not actually a member.

The contents of the book consist of:

Welcome
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This is just a short welcome by the founder and chairman of slimming world, Margaret Miles-Bramwell. She gives you a short introduction to what ... more

When I first saw this up for review, I was not entirely sure it was the same book; it's called the same but with a different picture on the front. I do know that not long before I got this book, that they had changed it and changed a lot of the diets, so I assume that it is the same loll.

When I first joined slimming world, I really disliked myself, I felt fat, I have been that way since having my children, and decided that I had to do something about it. So off I went on an hour's journey to the slimming world class. Upon joining I was given a welcome pack, included was the food optimising book, it told me what I could eat etc.

Now before I start on the book itself, I will tell you a little about the diet you need to do. Each day you pick a day that you would like to do, you have 2 choices a red day which is things like, lean meat, fish and poultry, or you have a green day which is things like pasta, rice and grains. You also can have free foods, which are the things that you can eat at anytime of the day, and as much as you want. I will go into more details about this as I run through the book. So now onto the book.

On opening the book, you are greeted with a warm welcome to slimming world, on the front page it has your consultants name telephone number and email address. Obviously not all books will have this, if you are not actually a member.

The contents of the book consist of:

Welcome
---------------

This is just a short welcome by the founder and chairman of slimming world, Margaret Miles-Bramwell. She gives you a short introduction to what slimming world is. The next page goes onto tell you about what you can expect to gain from the diet, and about you can eat normal foods and still lose weight.

The next few pages are just to help you make the right choices and what diets to go for, and to let you know a little more details, about your free foods and syns etc. I will go into more detail on that later.

Healthy extras
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The healthy extras are what you must make sure you eat everyday, as this is what keeps your diet balanced. You have 2 different sections in this, you have you're a choice, which you can choose either one or two of these a day, you're a choice is your dairy foods that are high in calcium. Then you have your b choice, which you must have 2 of these per day, these are the foods that are high in fibre. You have 2 separate sections to choice from in this depending on whether you are on a red day or a green day.

The green day
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This section starts off with a long list of free foods; these are the foods that you can eat any amount of. These include foods such as pasta, beans, lentils, plus many more. You have 7 pages full of all the free foods that can be eaten.

Then you have a full 8 pages of your healthy extras, these are things like fish, meat and poultry. The healthy choices are basically what make up your meal, with any amount of free foods that you would like to eat. Now this may sound a pain, but all your healthy choices must be weighed out, to ensure that you have the correct amount needed to stick to the diet. I did find that it was not that bad having to weigh it all out, some things would be more difficult to weigh out, like your meats, I had to cut pieces off or add a small piece, but if I were to lose weight then it would be worth it.

The red day (also know as the original choice)
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The red day is set out exactly the same as the green day, apart from you have different free foods, which consist of lean meat, fish and seafood, plus some more. It's the same for the measuring out. Both the days are the same apart from the foods that you are allowed to eat.

Syns
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Syns are short for synergy. These are the types of food that most diets will not allow. Using the slimming world diet you are allowed between 5 and 15 syns per day, your advisor will usually recommend how many syns you should have per day, on mine I was allowed 10 per day. In the book you have pages listed of syn foods and how many syns they have in, so that you can check and keep and eye on your daily syn intake. The list is all in alphabetical order to make it easier to find them. Here are a few examples of the foods containing syns and how many.

Chocolate chip cookie = 3.5 syns
Bacardi 35 ml = 4 syns
1 Slice bread = 3.5 syns
Cheeseburger = 15 syns

The list really does go on, you would be surprised at how many syns were in some foods, I always check on my syns to make sure I stay within my zone.

At the end of the book you have your progress record, this will show all your weight losses or gains from when you first started using the diet. If you do not go to a slimming world class you can always do this yourself.

My opinion
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Well when I first read through this book, I thought how could it work. All the foods I always thought were full of fat and bad for you were included in the diet. So now what you all want to know is does it work.

Well yes it does, I have come to realise since having this book, it is not always what you eat, it's getting the balance just right in your diet. This book helped me do this, as long as you stick to the foods and the measurements, and don't go over your syn allowance. I lost a whole 5lbs in one week using this book, I have really found it helped me enjoy the food I love, and lose weight at the same time.

I would recommend this book for anyone, as I said I got this book for free on joining slimming world, which cost me £10 to join, but if you don't want to go to the meetings then the book is available from Amazon at around £7. I would say that with this book you do not really need to go to the group, I stopped going to the group and just stick to this diet and my weight is still coming off gradually. 

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