Big breath and away I go...

[melanielh]

Hi guys, I'm starting my plan day 1 tommorrow. I've planned most of my lunches and a few dinner for the coming week but just wondered if any veterans had any last minute advice! It does seem like I'm going to be eating the same things *sigh* I just don't know how creative I can be with celery and cumcumber. I guess necessity is the mother of invention so I suppose I will think of some new ideas PDQ.

Any ho - wish me luck girls as I embark on this new and hopefully life long adventure. Have a good weekend and well done to all of the week one ladies on their fanatstic weight losses!

[sasley]

Good luck for tomorrow - you'll be amazed at how inventive you get. Celery is much better (in my opinion) cooked and served as a hot vegetable. You can also make a good celery and watercress soup - recipe on here somewhere. If you can have gourds in your free foods - Tesco carry them in the asian frozen section - avoid bitter melon gourds (the clue is in the name) buy Ivy gourd is OK. Thre are plenty of good recipes in the food section - search on the name echinaclaire for some real inspirational ones!! Course Cucumber, celery and salad leaves are your free veg - eat a variety of restricted veg so you don't get bored.

Keep us posted - best tip - organisation is the key - never run out of 'your' food - always know what you are going to have at the next meal and prepare in advance - oh and drink the water.

[stimlin]

Best of luck! I'm new, but there is lots of support on the forum

[angiem]

Hi Melanie,
Good luck with your plan. As Sasley said as long as you plan ahead you should be fine. I survived my first few weeks on mountain bread pizza and chicken sausage rolls - they are both lovely. Now I make full use of the free soup - celery, watercress and corriander - I find it helps warm and fill me up! Lots of luck this week x

[Suze P]

good luck,

make full use of your free foods, i ued to hate Celery now i have it daily in Celery and Watercress Soup which gives me a 3 course meal ... i didn't at the start and now i wonder how i ever managed without it, and i am now on Maintenance.

plan and prepare is the key so you are not panicking when meal times are due, along with the 5 hours gap and your water.

look forward to hearing on your progress.

[melanielh]

Well it's two meals in and I'm doing ok so far! In fact I was suprised at how much food I have actually eaten. I've just had a massive tuna sald and I'm stuffed. Pleasingly it tasted fantastic and several work colleagues commented on how nice it looked. Bonus! I think I may fall down at dinenr times as I'm used to quite large portions and I always snack after my evening meal - though to be honest if I'm as full at dinner as I am now I don't think that will be a problem. I'm planning on having a mountain bread quiche for dinner so I'm off to trawl the site for good quichey recipes!

Thanks everyone for your support xx

[Smedley]

Well done on joining, and good luck with the first week, there are lots of recipes out there, so it is possible to add the variety to your meals

Stir fries for dinner are good, protein allowance (I use salmon or tuna usually) weighed veg in peppers, mushrooms, mange tout (about half of allowance) and then the other half in spring greens. Then I add chopped celery and a big handful of watercress to that. Heat up some chinese five spice in wok, add salmon for a couple of minutes, then add veg, throw in some tamari sauce and cook for another couple of mins then serve. Makes a big plate of food

Oh and then I have my cherry mountain bread parcel for dessert

[melanielh]

Ooh smedley whats the cherry parcel? Sounds yummy!

[sapphire]

Good luck with your weight loss!

The longer you stick with it the easier it gets.

I practically live on SS Pizza - my fave food of all the SS foods!

This is the BEST weight loss system on the planet, bar none! I can't lose on any other plan, and I've tried dozens of plans, but on SS I've already lost nearly 20 lbs in 2 months - so I'm in love with SS!

[Smedley]

Melanie, I buy the frozen cherries from Asda, microwave my allowance of cherries with a little cinnamon and splenda for about a minute or so. I then pour this into the centre of a mountain bread, fold it into a parcel and bake in the oven for 5-10 mins, love it!