Booze on a diet! (Slimming World)

Member Name: bartystix

Product:	Slimming World
Date:	13/09/01 (1173 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You lose weight!!, Easy when you get the knack

Disadvantages: Costs more than you spend normally, can be time consuming

I decided to go on a diet when I saw the photos from a christmas party - the dress I thought I looked so gorgeous in made me look like sack of spuds.

I chose Slimming World by accident - it was the nearest class to my home and I could attend in the evening.

It costs around £6 to join and around £3.25 a week. On joining I got a pack of information - initially it made no sense but it later became my bible. The class leader then explained how it worked. I was weighed and advised on a target weight (I had no idea) and sat down with the rest of the group.

It initially felt like an AA meeting "My name's .... and I'm fat" but everyone was very welcoming.

HOW IT WORKS:
Basically the diet works like a low fat Hay diet but is broken down into simple ideas.

The idea is that there are two types of food groups - red (meat, fish etc and certain vegetables) and green (pasta, rise etc and certain vegetables) and you can eat unlimited amounts of these as long as they're low in fat and you do not mix red and green foods in the same day. These are "sin free".

In addition, there are compulsory (and limited in amount) selections that need to eaten. 1 from the A list (diary products) and 2 from the B list (bran, cereal, bread etc). These options are to ensure that the diet is balanced.

Finally, you can eat between 5-15 sins per day. This can be whatever you like as long as you don't go over. For example a vodka and slimline tonic is 2.5 sins so you can have 2-6 a day if you so wished!!

THE GOOD...

It might sound a little complicated at first and can take a week or so to get your head around but IT REALLY WORKS!!

I lost 3 stone in around 4 months and felt so much better. I was kept interested by the fact that I just kept losing weight and couldn't wait to get to the next session to see how much I'd lost. The class leader (who also lost wei
ght through the Slimming World plan) gave out recipe tips and we shared our experiences in class to keep eachother motivated.

THE BAD...

The down side was that you do tend to spend longer making food as ready made meals and sauces are generally laden with sins. As a result you can end up spending more money on their own recipe books for inspriration. There is one that's worth buying called Food Glorious Food which has a wide range of recipes for all occasions. Otherwise, the rest have tended to gather dust on my bookshelf.

AND THE OUTCOME...

I lost around 3 stone in 4 months - giving me a fantastic excuse to buy a new wardrobe. A year on and I've put just half a stone back on. Even if you don't stick rigidly to the diet, you end up coming away with a sense of what is good and bad for you - the rest is up to your willpower...

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