So if you are already on slimming world then you about sp days. If your not then I will explain what it is.SP stands for speed free food and protein-rich free food. SP is just another way to boost your weight loss. There are just 3 ways that I do this to boost my SP days and they are.
1. Free foods
2. Healthy extras
3. Syns
Free foods
Firstly I don’t always do this but I at least try and do it, is fill half of my plate of speed food that I know free and I try and pile it up as much as possible. With that been said I try and eat as much throughout the day is fruit such as apples, melons, grapefruits, blueberries, blackcurrants. Although I do put in bananas here and there, sadly they are not a speed food even though they are a free food and really tasty by themselves.
Also I try and get my Vegetables in as much as possible. With that been said I don’t really think about getting them in as much as I should. But when I do remember to get them in I try to at least get in mushrooms, lettuce, broccoli, asparagus rocket, spring onions and watercress or as much as I possibly can in different ways.
Secondly I go though my protein-rich free foods in my household every day, to see what I can cook with and take it from there. With protein rich free foods I tend to eat is fish such as Fish or shell fish. When it comes to meat, then I try and think what I could do with the meat that I would like to eat. So may that be bacon, chicken, duck, turkey or even ham.
Finally when it comes to drinks I try and have a syn free drink where ever possible I can. I know when I am out it is hard for me to do but I think having the app on my phone does help me out a lot when having food and drinks. Water I know is free including if it’s sparkling or even if it is still, but when it comes to flavoured water then do check the value of syns in the water. If you are a coffee lover like me then you can have an espresso or an americano as they are both free without any milk and sugar and check the syn value when you got to coffee shops such as starbucks and costa coffee or even cafe nero. When you go and get food from coffee shops do and try and check the syns as much as possible.
Fizzy Drinks taste amazing and probably one of my favourite drinks to drink. Bu when looking to buy fizzy drinks I make sure that they are sugar-free or even diet version. If your buying cordial drinks just make sure that they are sugar free or at least if can’t get any sugar free cordial drinks from the supermarket then get low as possible in my eyes. By all means I think that the most of the population of the world love a brew, tea in out system.
Healthy Extras
If you are doing an SP day or if not then you can still do these and they are healthy extras and on an extra easy SP day then you can choose:
- two healthy extra ‘a’ choices
and
- one health extra ‘b’ choices
Healthy Extra A choice
So when it comes to making my choices for my Healthy Extra a choices I go though my food optimising book and have a read though that book to see what I could have for my a choices. Like most people I think we all love a good cup of tea or even coffee and we most of us put milk in. With the milk you are allowed 175ml of whole milk, now to me that is not enough for me and I wish it could be more. if it is skimmed milk then its 350ml. Which i think it is a little bit better and that amount of milk is per day.
For me my down fall is cheese and bread. Now when it comes to cheese I am allowed so many grams of cheese. It does vary from cheese to cheese. Not all cheeses counts as your healthy extra a choice so I would recommend that you do check the slimming world app to see if it does count and if not how many syns that is allocated to the cheese that you are picking up. When it comes just to just normal cheddar cheese then I am allowed 30grams of cheese. Now I don’t have that much cheese so for me that is enough for me.
Healthy Extra B choice
When it comes to making my choices for my Healthy Extra B choices. The foods that I pick are from a list which include high in fibre or important nutrients for a healthy balance diet. The choices that I can pick from include:
- Wholemeal bread
When it comes to bread I do try and limit myself to 2 slices per day of bread that I have chosen may that be wholemeal or whole grain bread. If I have to have more then two slices of bread a day then I do syn the bread and I check on the app or with my group via facebook.
If I have already had my 2 slices of bread for the day, then I try and get creative when it comes to my lunches or even dinners as sometimes I am wanting to have bread at different times of the day. Sometimes I might just have my breakfast without the bread or try and have something else that is equally tempting.
- Wholegrain cereals
For me it is tricky having cereals as a kid I loved having cereals and any that really took my fancy and when I was eating them I would have large bowls at a time as well. But what I have come to realise that I don’t eat as much cereal now that I am older. When I do have cereal it is now weighed out depending on my cereal, if it does go over from what is the recommended then that for me is ok because I can just do a speed day(sp day).
I weigh out what is recommended for me (it is different for every cereal so do check out how much you are allowed to have) to have if I am having a wholegrain cereal, which I might add is not that often for me.
- Some (not all) cereal bars
Sometimes for my breakfast I do like to have cereal bars especially when I am in a rush which is most of the time. I usually use for my cereal bars as I don’t really buy the hifi bars is the alpen light bars or even special k bars if I can find them in the supermarket.
- Cooked and dried fruits
When it comes to cooked and dried fruits I don’t really have and when I do, I always check if the cooked or even dried fruits have any syns attached to them for if they are either my healthy extra a or b or even check the syn value either with my group or on the app.
When it comes to cooked fruit I am allowed so many grams of cooked fruit and it does depend on the fruit that I am wanting to eat as to how many grams I am allowed. For example if I was to have cooked blueberries then I would only be entitled to 300grams of those cooked blueberries.
If I wanted dried apricots then I would be entitled to 60grams of dried apricots as my healthy extra. But if I wanted caned pears then I would be entitled to 350grams included the juice but if it does come in syrup then I would be checking if it would count as a healthy extra.
When it comes to nuts and seeds then depending on the nuts or the seeds you are allowed a certain amount, such as brazil nuts I am only allowed 14 of those.
syns
When it comes to using my syns that I am allowed to have which is 15 in total and that is for each day that I am allowed to use my syns for. I can use my syns on anything food wise but once my 15 syns are up then I try and not use anymore. With me I try and save some of my syns for the weekend as I know I am most likely to have a gin or two or go out for the weekend and see friends.
Lucys 