You may remember me telling you that last month, SlimFast challenged me to take part in the January challenge and sent me through three weeks worth of products to try out.
Slimfast are probably best known for their tubs of powdered shakes that you need to add to milk. They come in several flavours so you can mix them up and avoid boredom - the strawberry and vanilla ones are my favourites - and I found that they are surprisingly tasty, filling and create a smooth drink with no lumps or powdery aftertaste. The ready-to-drink shakes and meal replacement bars are very handy for taking to work. The bottles are very tasty even without a fridge to keep them chilled and the bars are very nice too, although they didn't keep me satisfied until my next meal, unlike the shakes. That's not really a problem though because they also sent through a fabulous selection of snacks.
The Sour Cream & Chive Flavour Pretzels are light and crunchy with a fabulous flavour that had the kids begging me to share with them !
The Cheddar Flavour Bites are also very nice - as you can see in the photo, you get a reasonable amount in each little bag.
The kids also loved the BBQ Flavour Tortillas but I thought they were slightly lacking in spicy kick. There are also a selection of gooey and chewy chocolatey snacks to eat, which seems pretty incredible on a weight-loss programme. You can also opt for fruit as a snack instead.
The 3.2.1 programme devised by SlimFast tells you to eat three snacks, two meal replacements (bars or shakes) and one sensible meal per day (limited to 600 calories). That's actually quite a lot of food and the absolute joy of it is that it doesn't disrupt normal family life - I could have a meal bar or shake for breakfast and lunch at work then sit down to the same meal as the family in the evening. It's ultra convenient and there's no need for weighing, measuring or calorie-counting.
I will be honest - I didn't follow the programme completely. I had a meal replacement bar or shake for lunch and breakfast from Monday to Friday but ate normally at the weekends (going for healthy options). I also didn't eat all of the suggested snacks because I just didn't feel like eating chocolate or savoury snacks every single day and I thought it would be a bad habit to get into. (The kids helped me out there though !) My evening meals were often a bit over the suggested 600 calories but as I wasn't eating all of the allowed snacks (about 100 each), I figured that would be OK.
For the three week period, I lost about 2kg - not a huge amount but definitely a great start and it took absolutely no willpower or effort at all. It's inspired me to crank it up another notch, following the plan at weekends too and reducing the portion sizes in the evenings, and I'm sure the weightloss will be even more impressive. The SlimFast website has lots of recipe suggestions for meals under 600 calories that the whole family will enjoy - fishfinger pie or Mediterranean chicken with tagliatelle, for example.
If you want a simple, no-fuss weight loss programme, the 3.2.1 is ideal because you just have to remember to keep a bottle of skimmed milk in the fridge and a meal bar/shake in your desk drawer and you're sorted. I love the fact that if you know your food options will be limited, you can grab a bar or ready-to-drink shake and not have to rely on mayonnaise-smothered sandwiches or fat-laden takeaway food.
for more information : http://www.slimfast.co.uk/products/default.aspx
Disclosure : I received the products in order to take part in the challenge.
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