Welcome!

I've been following the Slimming World plan since March 2017 and found it really works for me (2 stone 7 lbs to date - whoo!). As time has progressed I wanted to boost my weight loss further by trying some of the 'SP' (speed & protein) days suggested by my consultant. As with some of the other features of the SW plan I found it took me a while to understand the terminology surrounding the SP idea. My husband seems pretty convinced I've joined a cult given that I seem to be speaking in code half the time, talking about 'body magic', 'speed foods' and 'syns'.

SP - WTF?

Basically, the concept of the SP part of the 'Extra Easy' Slimming World plan is that by focusing on foods that fit into the 'speed' category (low calorie fruits and vegetables) or protein rich foods you can lose weight more rapidly than on the main plan. If this all makes no sense at all, or you are brand new to Slimming World all together, I'd recommend reading up more on what the SW plan is all about - official site is here.

An SP day is defined in the Slimming World handbook carefully, and I would advise you use that as your key guide as to what you can and can't eat to take advantage of this feature of the plan.

Protein for Veggies 

The SP plan is fairly straight forward but if you, like me, follow a ovo-lacto vegetarian diet this can be a bit trickier. The 'P' protein foods that are suitable for vegetarians such as fat free cottage cheese, quark, tofu, eggs, quorn pieces, soya mince, beans and pulses are all helpful for this.

The main selling point for SW when I first joined was the offer of unlimited rice, pasta and potatoes - brilliant! However, when first attempting SP days to be without these seemed a little daunting. However, over time I've found what I think are some tasty solutions and I'm sharing with you here on this blog. When it comes to the finer points of what counts as a protein source, I've found it hard to get definitive answers on some foods. For example, the difference between dried and frozen textured soya protein products, seems unclear with the official guidance being a little vague. Therefore, I've carefully examined the protein, fat and calorie content of all the ingredients I've used within my recipes, have been including them on my SP days and have continued to see regular losses. I therefore, personally think they are all OK to be counted as 'P' but again, if you feel that you are uncomfortable with this, do refer to your consultant for reassurance.

SP Synning 

I terms of using syns, I have always been of the mind that I would rather spend some of my syn allowance on low-syn ingredients to make my meals more nutritious and tasty, rather than focus on just using them for convenience, snack foods or sweet treats. Therefore, the recipes here are not always syn-free, but rather low-syn, whilst suitable for vegetarian and SP restrictions. I've tried to give suggestions of how to avoid / replace synned ingredients where possible if that is how you want to play it.

Sarah's SP

2 st 6 lbs down in July 2017!

When I decided to give SP days a go I could find lots of guidance on ideas for SP meals for meat-eaters online and on the SW app, but I found it harder to find ideas and recipes to suit vegetarians. Therefore, I've been researching and experimenting with recipes and meal plans and thought I'd share them with you all here.

I've highlighted the amount of syns per portion for each recipe and have used a system of labelling to identify where your protein, speed and syns have come from. I have highlighted the protein sources (P foods) in red, the speed (S) foods in green, healthy extra allowances in blue and syns, with syn values in brackets in orange. 

I hope all this is helpful to people. It is certainly helping me stay on track and experiment further as I want to keep generating new things to share here. Please let me know if you try anything or have any feedback or thoughts on my suggestions!