A Helping Hand (Slimming World)

Name: llamalove

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Product:	Slimming World
Date:	29/08/04 (8405 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: lots of recipes, lots of real life stories, inspirational

Disadvantages: only 6 issues a year

Diets! Aaggh? I hate that word?I?ve been on a constant ?diet? since I was about 14 so now I just think of it as a way of life. I?m not obsessive and I don?t crash diet and starve myself for weeks on end then eat everything I can find. I just follow the eating plan from Slimming World, plan what I?m going to eat before I eat it and just be careful. I allow myself a few treats during the week and a couple of times a month I go a little (controlled) crazy and have a good night where I don?t worry too much about what I?m eating or drinking. As long as I get straight back on my plan the next day I find everything works out well.

I?ve been going to Slimming World classes on and off for a while now and while I?m there, I always pick up a copy of Slimming World Magazine. It costs £1.50 if you go to classes and buy it from there and you can buy it in newsagents, supermarkets etc. for £2.35.

Now, before I start, my only negative point about the magazine is that it only comes out once every 2 months (ie, 6 issues a year) so it?s a long old wait till the next one.

Slimming World Magazine is usually, very brightly covered with a gorgeous girl on the front. These beautiful slim girls are not just any model hired for the purpose but women that were or are the ?Woman of the Year? ? people who have lost a substantial amount of weight, reached their target and have been nominated by their group to go forward to enter the national Woman of the Year competition. The overall winner is used in promotional work in magazines, television adverts and such like.

On the first page of the magazine, like in many other magazines, you will find a letter from the editor Christine Michael, containing words of wisdom for many slimmers. On the next pages, you?ll see the contents.


Like every magazine, Slimming World has it?s ?regular features?. These include:-

*Welcome (Letter from the editor as mentioned)

*Your World (Letters from readers)

*Brilliant Book Buys (a recommended list and details of books (mainly recipe books)
that Slimming World magazine produce)

*Join us Today (a bit of advertising about what happens at Slimming World classes, what you will get when you join and what to expect)

*Recipe Index (An easy way to find all the recipes featured in the issue including their Syn values (?Syns? = the value give to some (not all ? many are ?free?) food items so you know how much to eat)

*From the Heart (Inspiration from the founder of Slimming World, Margaret Miles-Bramwell.)

*Tell us your Slimming Success Story (An area that you can use to tell your successful weight loss story to Slimming World magazine and possibly be featured in a forthcoming issue).

*Our World (more inspirational short stories and photos to show you how successful Slimming World can be and what members do in their classes around the country)

In addition to the ?Regulars? there are a few other sub-categories. In each category are a number or stories, recipes, tips and advice to help give you ideas so your ?diet? (horrible word again) never becomes boring.

**Recipes for Success
These include recipes for main meals, sweet and savoury puddings, drinks, party food, snacks etc. Recipes change each week and are usually influenced by the season of the year for example, Christmas & the party season, Easter, Summer & the barbeque season, Winter soups etc. Under this category but throughout the magazine, you will also find notes and details about new food product
s on the market that are low or free of Syn values and tips and advice on how to include them in your cooking.

**Real ? Life Success
This is my favourite section. It includes a number of full length real life stories with photographs depicting the success of Slimming World members and are really great to read ? especially at times when you?re feeling like you are not doing as well as you should be.

**Slim-spiration
This section includes fashion ideas, background into why you may have gained weight in the first place, ideas on health clubs, inspiration to include a variety of food types into your diet, using your senses to help make choices, competitions to win luxury holidays?and lots lots more.

**Body Magic
?Body Magic? is quite a new thing to Slimming World. It encourages members to include exercise each day. By ?exercise?, Slimming World do not mean climbing mountains or working out in the gym for several hours a day. For people that are not used to exercise, Slimming World is there to encourage you to start by doing small things like walking the dog or cleaning the house with a bit more enthusiasm and energy, eventually building up into a more regular routine. If you join Slimming World classes, you will get rewarded for each stage of Body Magic that you complete (Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum levels).


Overall, Slimming World is a great magazine to use in conjunction with their food plan. You don?t need to go to classes to follow it and the magazine clearly tells you how the plan works and what you should and shouldn?t do. There is a lot of flexibility within the plan and there is a huge amount of food you can eat without feeling guilty. It is the only diet I have tried where I can always eat something when I want to and not be hungry. T
here is always ?free food? available so you don?t run out of things to eat half way through the day. Slimming World magazine will give you so many ideas on things you can eat and different ways of making your food interesting. If you do not have time to read through all the recipes and plan what you are going to eat before you eat it, there are also several pages of set menus that you can just pick up and follow.

The magazine also includes a number of contacts to help support you on your weight loss journey. The most important ones I consider to be the Syns enquiry hotline on 09068 518518, group enquiries on 08700 754666 and of course the website which you can visit at http://www.slimming-world.com.

So there we go. A great magazine that I really look forward to getting. It?s full of really useful stuff and whenever I pick one up I find interesting and helpful articles that will just give me the little boost I need to keep going.

Capital letters courtesy of: http://www.chuckleweb.co.uk/fixit.php

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