7 Tips To Stay On Track | Slimming World Sunday

You may have noticed that there was no Slimming World post last week and that’s because I was off gallivanting down to Edinburgh for a few days.  While I was there I did eat off plan as the breakfasts in the hotel consisted of sausages, beans and scrambled eggs.  Lunches involved sandwiches and we also went out for dinner every night.  Even though we walked over 20,000 steps on Tuesday and Wednesday I gained 3lbs at my weigh in last week! 3lbs!!!  To add insult to injury Mr M who doesn’t need to lose weight and isn’t on a diet, did lose weight!

I knew that I would likely put on weight while I was away as who watches what they eat on holiday.  Also as it was just for 3 nights I didn’t think it would amount to much.  Well that proved me wrong! Coming home I was still in holiday mode so we had a takeaway one night.  And well why not drink some wine with that.  Ooooh look I still have some dairy free chocolate in the cupboard, as I stuff it into my face.  You get the picture.  Once I had a taste of eating/drinking nice things again speed foods, syns and weight loss were a distant memory.

Although I’ve been back home over a week now I am still struggling to get back into the Slimming World frame of mind.  I have come this far and probably have around a stone to lose to reach my target.   Now I’m sitting at my dining table and writing up a list of things that I can do to stay on plan while on Slimming World.  Hopefully these 7 tips to stay on track will be useful for you too.

7 Tips To Stay On Track

Meal Planning

It goes without saying that if you know what you will be having for dinner when you get home you will be less inclined to eat ready meals or buy a takeaway.  My freezer is full of chicken, fish and seafood that I can use to cook some tasty meals for the week ahead.

Writing Down What You Eat

When I first started on Slimming World I religiously wrote everything I ate down in a planner.  I also recorded it on my Slimming World app. Then…….I stopped.  Don’t know why, I just did.  When you write everything down you can look back and see what may have led to that weight gain or maintain.  Unless of course you cheat and don’t write it down.  Also if you had a really good loss that week you know what went right and can repeat what you ate that week some other time.

Drink More Water

This is something that I’ve been really slack about lately.  I used to take a bottle of water to work with me and drink it during the day but for some reason have stopped.  When hydrated you will likely eat less as your brain sometimes confuses thirst for hunger, your metabolism will remain increased and your skin won’t feel so dry.  I am going to try and aim for the recommended eight glasses of water a day.

Try New Recipes

It is very easy to just stick to the recipes/foods that you know.  It can get boring after a while and will likely demotivate you and lead you down the path of ‘Diet Destruction’.  Have a look online for some tasty recipes (I have a few on here if you are interested ?) or buy a recipe book to help you out of the same meals rut.  Tonight I’m trying a Prawn Curry recipe for the first time so will see how that one goes.

Eat More Speed Foods

Last week I knew I never ate enough speed foods and that showed with my weight gain.  Although you should have at least a third of your plate filled with speed foods, I notice an increase in weight loss when I fill half of my plate.  So pile on those green leafy salads (forget the fatty dressings though).   Top up your cereal bowl with berries and switch roast potatoes for roasted butternut squash.

Exercise Regularly

Exercising regularly increases metabolism, energy levels and reduces stress and blood pressure.  Along with sticking to the Slimming World plan it will help you in weight loss.  Being away for a few days and working I never managed to make it to my Jazzercise classes for two weeks. I’m putting that down to my weight gain and not the chocolate that I ate last week!

Count Your Syns

There is no point being really good with your food optimising and then blowing 16735 of your syns in a day by downing a bottle of wine, snacking on peanuts and a bar of chocolate in the evening.  Or eating a healthy salad and then ladling on the full fat mayo (guilty!). While that maybe a tiny exaggeration it doesn’t take long for your syns to add up.  We are meant to eat 5-15 syns a day, more if you are a man.  So sticking to that will help us with losing weight.  It can be easy to forget just how many syns we have eaten that day and that’s why my earlier tip of writing everything down should help you stay within your syn limit.

Tomorrow is a new day and the start of a new week so I will be sticking to these tips to help me stay on track.  Meanwhile there is a dairy free Easter egg in my kitchen shouting out my name so I’m off to demolish that before I’m back on plan tomorrow.

Hopefully these 7 tips to stay on track were helpful for you.  What are your tips for staying on track with your diet?  Let me know below.

If you are looking for other Slimming World posts:

Slimming World Sunday | What I Eat In A Day

Slimming World Sunday | Results 12 Weeks In

Slimming World Sunday | Syn Free Kedgeree