It's a green day

Back on track, day two...

I love carbs, so the green day on Slimming World's eating plan suit me best. Although I do suffer with the healthy extras. On the green day plan you can eat all the fruit, veg, pasta, rice and potatoes you like and must limit your protein intake. This is achieved by having one or two portions of dairy and two portions of protein, bread or cereal.

The main problem is that of all the carbs I love most, bread is my best friend. From simple toast and sandwiches to pizza, there are very few times I haven't found a new friend in a loaf of bread. It's unfortunate that bread is limited on this plan, but if it and I were not such close friends, I'd probably not have quite so much weight to lose.

Green days usually start with fruit and yogurt. Cereals are allowed, but they count as one of the two permitted healthy extra B choices. I usually use at least one B choice for protein and the second is flexible between bread, porridge or a second portion of protein. Snacking on green days is easy, fruit. Vegetable crudities are also an option for veg lovers, served with low fat tzatziki dip made from fat free greek yougurt, grated cucumber (with as much juice squeezed out as possible) 1 tsp olive oil (2 syns) and a clove of crushed garlic.

Lunch will normally be a pasta dish with either a healthy extra choice of protein. An easy favorite is Cheese, leek and ham pasta and sauce (Batchelors 1syn when made up with only water) with an extra 1/2 chopped leek and diced ham or bacon. Another simple lunch is pasta shapes served with a half a pepperami diced (3.5 syns) fried with diced onion, diced sweet red peppers and 200g passata, seasoned with garlic and basil. If all else fails, beans on toast.

Dinner choices are limitless, there is very little you can't do with veg, carbs and a portion of meat or fish, except for pizza. Staples are spaghetti bolognaise, chilli and cottage pie, but as long as your recipe doesn't contain oil and fats (unless synned) then you are covered. With syns you can even indulge in dessert or the odd tipple. Personally I'm happy to steer clear of the booze whilst on the plan, I'd rather spend the syns on making the most of the main meals and adding a little extra to the snacks.

The best part of this eating plan, is there is always food to eat, so you never feel hungry. It does however take willpower to break the junk food cravings in the first week or two. I find until I'm well in to the plan and have gotten the sugar rush / crash cycle out of my system, it's easier to not buy in treats like sweets, chocolate and my nemesis, biscuits. For me one biscuit is too many and a whole packet is not enough, so not buying them for the first month is hard, but it's harder to not sneak a couple or six at 2am. Once I'm firmly on the plan and the cravings have passed I'll start adding treats in occasionally. If you have to have your daily sweet fix, buy small amounts which will limit the damage in a moment of weakness. Better still, only buy enough for one day and take a walk to the shop to buy it. 

Red days explained next time.