I was still thrilled about my 3-pound weight loss yesterday, so I started to plan what we would eat for today and the rest of the week. Saturday is always a food shopping day, so meal planning becomes even more critical. Before I joined Slimming World, I never really planned my meals, but since joining SlimmingWorld, it has become second nature. We will have a roast on Sunday, so most of the ingredients will be purchased today. As I like fresh vegetables, I always buy them weekly. Meat is from Aldi as they seem to have a better quality meat. Potatoes can be a bit hit-and-miss. I usually get them from Aldi unless Tesco has an offer on them. Other vegetables are purchased from Aldi, Asda and Waitrose. This is also a good time to think about and plan the Slimming World Raffle.

Saturday is also FakeAway night. This is where we select a nationality for our meal; sometimes it’s a homemade MacDonalds, sometimes a Chinese, but tonight it’s Italian. Pasta, bacon and mushrooms with a thick mushroom sauce. It was wonderful, I loved it, and there was enough to save for lunch on Monday.

I made soup

For lunch, I made a homemade leek and potato soup. I’m not sure what I did, but I had some success there. It was my first time making leek and potato soup, and I will make it again.

If you are interested, this is what I did:

I’m not a ‘follow a recipe’ type of person, so it’s a case of putting everything in a pan and seeing what happens. Even when I plan a meal, it’s just the basics that I plan and then see what happens. Except for a roast, you don’t mess with a roast.

Back to my leek and potato soup, everything went in a pan, boiled until the potatoes were soft and blended together, using a hand whisk, until nice and smooth. I’m not too fond of lumpy soup. I also added two dairy lea triangle cheeses. We had two slices of bread and a little butter.

Free Food in more ways than one

I am not sure if you have heard of Olio. It’s an app where you can get free fruit and vegetables about to go out of date. Local supermarkets don’t want to put edible food in the bin, so they give it to Olio representatives. These representatives then offer the food for free to anyone who would like it. I have been a member of Olio for some time and have gotten a lot of fruit and vegetables. The leek and potato soup all came from Olio, which means it was free on Slimming World and free financially. A bargain. There are a lot of other apps doing the same thing. You will need to check your local area.

Slimming World Raffle

I wanted to tell you about the Slimming World raffle at any Slimming World Meeting. Whenever you go to a meeting, there will always be a raffle. This is for two reasons firstly it helps to promote healthy eating. Most prizes will be in fruit and vegetables, often with a recipe attached. Other times, it could be a gadget to help you cook better meals. I have also seen raffles of various drinks to indicate what you can drink and how you can make drinks a little more exciting (even without alcohol).

The raffle is a vital part of the meeting as it’s from this pot of money, the consultant will purchase further raffle prizes, and all of the tea, coffee and milk members drink during meetings.

Often, a group will have a taster evening where members bring in their favourite slimming world meal. The fund will also help purchase cutlery, crockery, napkins and cups. Although the raffle is a form of gambling, all Slimming World groups can run the fund up to £50. The fund is the property of the group and not the consultant. To be clear, the group owns the money, and the consultant manages it.

Slimming World Raffle Prizes

Finding prizes can be difficult. My friend, the Slimming World Consultant, is always looking for prizes. She has to find the right balance of spending. Just enough money to make the award substantial so that members want to buy a ticket and cheap enough that the Social Fund has enough money to purchase other items for the group that may be needed.

Out of this fund, the consultant will also purchase additional food diaries and weight loss certificates. All of these things have to be bought from Slimming World. Having said that, Slimming World does provide the stickers members receive.

This little pot of money has a big responsibility and has to be managed carefully. The pot for my group runs typically at about £25.00. However, the post owes me £65.00, so I am subsidising all the teas, coffees, certificates and raffle prizes. I don’t think members realise how important it is. This week, our group took a total of £5.00 because many members were away on holiday. Prizes, milk, and coffee came in at £8.96. If there is no money in the pot, she will have to cover it.

You may also be interested in

• Waiver Day on Slimming World
• What is Slimming World, Fresh start, rebrand new me
• It Slimming World Weigh Day