Welcome to another Saturday Swapit, a forum with the common theme of food and dieting success, or failure.
To join in you can either write a post and create a pingback to this one then leave a link in the comments to it below, or just leave a comment for others to read.
Diet is a four letter word, and I can think of a few more to describe failures and disappointments I’ve experienced over the years.
This week’s topic is Mix and Match.
DISCLAIMER:
I am not, nor do I claim to be, a professional dietician, nutritionist or diet programme consultant.
I rejoined SW in May 2019 and have managed to stay within my target parameters since August 2019.
Saturday Swapit is not intended as a diet programme, and anyone who wants or needs to lose serious weight should consult a medical professional or their GP.
Syns, points, calorie counting, whatever tool is used to calculate our daily allowance, is a minefield of contradictions, confusion, and misunderstandings.
For example:
I thought eggs were good for me as they were ‘free food’, however, it would appear that more than 2 or 3 a week is not so good.
Salads are also bad for me because there is little substance to lettuce and I retain the water content.
Seedless grapes were a good standby for nibbles, again considered free food, but have a high natural sugar content, and so not so good for the diabetes.
I also have a horrendous sweet tooth and once the cravings start, they are hard to banish.
We have to remember that what works for some people doesn’t work for everyone so what if we swapped our counting tool once in a while and switched syns to points or calorie counting?
Without the literature from WW for points, I can’t say if this works in a similar way to syns on SW, but there are days, too many at the moment, when my daily 15 syns double because I’ve had an ice cream cornet or crumpet in addition to the stuff that is familiar and easy to record from memory. Would it therefore be easier to calorie count? After all, all that kind of information is usually on the box.
I saw an advert for reducing sugar intake by looking for snack foods that were less than 100 calories. I am sure we are all familiar with the great flashy sticker across the box that says ‘Only 75 calories’ per bar. The box looks pretty big, doesn’t it, but when you empty it of said bars, usually five compared to six in days gone by (metric conversion has a lot to answer for), they are not as wide as the box, nor do they fill out the wrapper.
What is nice is that some cereal bars are allowed as B options with SW, or if taken as extras have only 3 syns each. That’s not very many is it, but when you think a gingernut biscuit only has 2½, as does a single jaffa cake, a plain rich tea biscuit only has 2, and a rich tea finger 1, then you can mix and match your extras, but not your listed B options.
It all comes down to being food aware.
Something else I have noticed recently is that confectionery packets are getting lighter.
I am pleased to say that my liquorice rock craving has come to an end and I polished off my last bag last week. Each ‘roll’ is classed as one syn or 25g equates to 4 syns.
The bags when I originally started to buy them for £1 each were 220g or 225g depending on shop/manufacturer. That has now reduced to 160g for the same money, so my bag now holds about 26 syns compared to 36 for the 225g bag. Good for the dieter, if they go by the bag rather than the allowance.
What are your thoughts?
pensitivity101 
I find it all so very confusing. I’ve tried counting calories, ready made meals, food plans, etc. My sweet tooth is crazy strong. I don’t have a scale at home. I am an emotional eater. Seeing the doc a few weeks ago scared me silly. I weighed more than ever before. I cut out all sweets and happily have lost some weight. I know I can’t have chocolate in the house. I keep trying to make good healthy meals. One day at a time.
That’s all you can do Lauren, one day at a time. Everyone is different and something will click for you. Diets themselves are contradictory.
I am a fan of counting! Recording food intake (even without exact counts) is helpful most of all, since our brains like to trick us into forgetting we had a treat at lunch when we want another after dinner 😀
I’ve been keeping a food diary for years, but as you say, we tend to forget earlier treats, especially if we have been interrupted or had to go out before logging it.
I count calories as it’s consistent. I use an app called Fitness Pal and it remembers everything, so it’s easy and quick to use. Being a diabetic for 40 years, I know what foods trigger me, so I avoid them, but I eat less than a 1000 calories a day, so it’s not too much of a problem
Good for you. My diabetes is controlled by diet and the nurse was very pleased with my last set of numbers.
David and I love having dessert after dinner. I have tried on most occasions to make something myself just because of the fact that so many store-bought sweets have more garbage in them than the sugar and calories you are trying to avoid! I make this awesome Blueberry Cobbler type thing. I use a can of blueberry topping, which has no corn syrup or anything else except a little sugar and blueberries. The topping is simply butter, flour, and sugar. I was looking at the mix for corn bread and there is so much junk in that! So, although we should probably skip the sweets altogether I feel a little better not eating all the additives. We also like to eat frozen fruit mixes after they thaw.
Sounds really nice. I make a crumble mix for the microwave with 50/50 granola and porridge oats. No butter, no sugar and no flour. I just put it on top of the fruit I’m using, and cook in the microwave for about 3 minutes. Lovely with cream or custard which defeats the object a little I suppose, but it is rather nice.
Sounds good! I am not sure what porridge oats are. I will google that!
You might call it oatmeal perhaps?