When I first joined Slimming World I remember feeling really sad about it. I was joining because I felt I had to for my health but I did see it as the end of me enjoying food. I waved goodbye to weekends of eating out and ordering takeaway. It felt like the beginning of a new life focused on weight loss and lacking in a bit of... joy.
When I first joined Slimming World I remember feeling really sad about it. I was joining because I felt I had to for my health but I did see it as the end of me enjoying food. I waved goodbye to weekends of eating out and ordering takeaway. It felt like the beginning of a new life focused on weight loss and lacking in a bit of... joy.
Oh, how wrong I was. Slimming World is so liveable and I believe this is why hundreds and thousands of people around the world are having such amazing weight loss success with it. It is not a short-term fad or a quick-fix. It really is changing your eating habits but still leaving room for treats and the things you love. You just might have to re-jig things a little bit to fit them all in.
Slimming World is not the end of your social life. From day one I would recommend making this plan work for you and your life rather than changing your life for the plan. If you can enjoy living with the plan rather than for the plan it will be a long-term fixture that will change your life in so many ways.
I love eating out and as a Slimming World member, I still do it every single week. I love the treat of not having to cook. I love the social element of being in a restaurant. I love the family outing and the memories we create together. I also love not having to clean up afterwards. Finding a way to eat out and still lose weight was always really important to me.
Here are my top tips for eating out when on the Slimming World plan:
- Free Foods First. Every restaurant will offer menu options that have free foods in them so start there. Is there a dish on the menu that lists quite a few free foods? Chances are it can be tweaked a little when you order to make it even more Slimming World friendly. Free Foods will always be the ones that fill you and satisfy you the most while still giving you a weight loss.
- Ask for what you want. I will regularly ask for baby boiled potatoes instead of chips or salad instead of buttery vegetables and I am never refused. The restaurant wants you to come back and are usually more than happy to make a few changes. A few tweaks can make a huge difference so don’t be afraid to ask them to take the bread basket away or to use very little oil when cooking your meal.
- Sauces can carry the most syns in your meal. Asking for them on the side helps you control the amount that you eat. You could use half the amount if you are the person pouring it on to your food. When it comes to pasta dishes steer away from ones described as “creamy” and pick a tomato based sauce to keep the syns as low as possible.
- It’s not a syn (get it?) to have a few sneaky supplies in your handbag. I’m not talking about whipping out a chicken fillet but I’ll always have my favourite fat free salad dressing in my bag as well as my coffee sweetener. Nobody notices as I add them and I enjoy the food so much more knowing it won’t get in between me and my weight loss that week. It also means that I can pick up a take away salad and reduce the syns by not using the dressing they provided.
- Remember that alcohol really does make a difference. There is a reason why alcohol has a syn value so think of it as liquid cream cakes. It would be a shame to make great food choices and find yourself disappointed at the weigh-in due to the alcohol you chose. Make sure to syn every beverage accordingly (the syn values will be in the back of your Slimming World book or on the app’s food search tab). You might also think about making some tweaks to your drink of choice. Choosing diet drinks as mixers and going for a light beer can make a difference for example.
- If you are going to be using extra syns in the restaurant remember to make every other meal count even more. One off plan meal is not an off plan day remember. Having a big filling breakfast and lunch before a restaurant dinner will also mean you are less ravenous. This is the zone where I tend to make quick decisions that I regret later on. In that moment I am so hungry that I don’t care what I choose.
- Don’t be ashamed to tell your friends that you are following the Slimming World plan. Chances are they’ll be happy to go to Nandos or for a nice Chicken and Blackbean in the local Asian restaurant. They might even tell you they are following it too...
Written by Tracey Quinn staff writer at FFHQ who also blogs at www.loveofliving.ie.