282: The Cost of Convenience

Introduction

0:00Hello. How are you? I mean, I say that like you're going to respond to me or something. Or usually Anna panics and then you chip in, don't you, and say, hello? Hello? Hello? Do you ever get that when you voicemail, though, and there's that gap and you're like, are they there?

Cost of Convenience

0:30Oh, that's so old school, isn't it? I know. Oh. Now then, this is a subject which STEMI World has done some research around, but both me and Anna were like, hang on a second. We've been here before. The cost of convenience is something that we've talked about with numerous guests, actually, on the podcast who've talked about how for them, when they became STEMI World members, one of the habits they needed to work at, was moving that switch, I guess, from the quick press of an app to food arriving at your

1:04door, or maybe grabbing a meal deal when you're out and about as well, thinking that was the healthy choice, versus that switch in how can you actually swap for home cooking, freshly prepared and advanced kind of food? And perhaps some of the myths that we hold around that. Do we think that actually buying food and cooking from scratch is more expensive? Do we think healthier foods are more expensive versus the convenience grab and go? And the research

1:37that we have to hand from STEMI World is really fascinating because they've been interviewing just over 1,500 STEMI World members to really learn more about what difference that made to them and whether they had also made that shift. I mean, Anna, hit us up. Where were you at with convenience when you came to Slimming World? I was a queen of it. I was a jar girl. I was a takeaway girl, drive-through. Those things that you thought were healthy, like I used to buy new potatoes in butter that you put in the

2:11microwave. I'd buy breaded fish or those pots of seed and veg that had all the butter in it. Right through to just the Chinese rang me when I stopped going. I was that good a customer. They rang to check I was all right. Like I was that woman. If there was a shortcut, a convenient way, I would absolutely do it. Like I didn't know how to cook a pasta sauce, a curry sauce, anything like that. So I put most of the letters in the word convenience. I made it my middle name, really. So yeah, big, big change in my world, joining Slimming World,

2:47learning how to cook properly, understanding how to cook, but understanding it tasted much better, took less time. And actually what it did for my weight loss was a million times more than a jar I'd ever done. Yeah, 100% agree. I have definitely been on a real journey of, I think, just really renegotiating how I see food. And I've often said how, for me, joining Slimming World was a bit like an education really in what food actually can be and is and how to put together a meal, you know,

3:25whether that be following a recipe plan or learning how to kind of out of the random cans and bits of veg in my fridge, how to make a meal with all of those bits that is actually fairly nutritious is the other aspect. I mean, they say, don't they, that many of us are making 20,000 decisions every day. And so I think for me, one of the things when I came to Sunwood, I was already doing shift work. So I was getting up at three in the morning to go to work. I was sleeping all over the shop and I was

3:59tired. So I needed the quick fix, grab and go kind of food options. Food was an afterthought. I think often work came first and then health was way down the list after pleasure, seeing mates, whatever. But I was easily having three or four takeaways a week. I was easily grabbing any meal deal that I could that was left in, you know, a supermarket. I was going out for my lunch break, basically because it was actually a way to leave my desk, if I'm honest. And there was a treat aspect to me. Oh,

4:36I've worked hard this morning. So I'll treat myself to that. I'll have that cake with that coffee that I'm grabbing. So there was a lot tangled in the quickness, the ease. I was also kind of just outsourcing a lot of the decision making. Because I think when you get something like a meal deal or a takeaway, you don't need to then sit down and maybe put the plan and do the shopping list and then the cooking. And for many years when I was starting out doing Sunwood, I lived on my own. You know, I was in my

5:08late 20s. So I definitely put socialising over sitting and doing a shopping list in terms of the priority list. And I have to be honest, it came at a cost, not just the cost financially for me, but also the cost of how I felt physically, emotionally. And if I go a bit hippie-ish, a bit spiritually as well, in just that sense of, you know, I'm not necessarily talking about spiritual in terms of angels, but my spirit felt low and I felt disconnected. And I was ill a lot.

5:42That was also something that I noticed. And the biggest thing that drew me through Sunwin Will's doors was I wanted to finally feel like I had some energy in my life. And that for me, the biggest shift out of everything, the cost of convenience for me was how much this food was actually taking away my energy because of the processing and the not so great nutritiousness of it all. And that my body was constantly having to digest that stuff. That when I switched

6:12to home-cooked food, planned and advanced healthy, and I had a plan of how to do that, wow, that is where the difference. And that's something that you don't see in getting your shiny stickers or certificates. This is life stuff, life-saving, changing stuff. And it's that notion, isn't it, that sometimes where we get a takeaway is we want it to be a quick fix. But I used to spend 40 minutes waiting for the takeaway. And then that would happen. And then I'd eat my way through the cupboards because I was waiting for so long for the takeaway. But it was

6:44almost that I needed that burden to be shifted from me. I needed someone else, like you said, to do the thinking, the prepping, but actually the knock-on effect was it then it had, I would snack more, I then wouldn't sleep better. And I'd be skinned. And I couldn't afford to do that. How much takeaways cost? How much convenience cost? When you work out, if you went and made the meal yourself, you've got the ingredients in, you save a fortune. So it's not only psychologically and physically, but your bank balance is really affected by this convenience food, isn't it?

7:14Yeah. Do you know what? And actually thinking about that, just reading on some of the research which Slimming World has released, they talk about 60%, so that what's that, three in five people typically spend a 50 quid a week on takeaways and high fat, high sugar convenience foods. Almost a third of people spend over £100 a month on frozen items such as nuggets and chips. And I have to say, frozen items were one of those things that if I could just grab it out the freezer and stick it

7:46in the oven, that would go. But I have to be honest, I'd never ever really read a label to see what on earth was in these things. Oh, terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. When you flip the label on some of these things and you can't say the word, you kind of know that that's not something you want in your body, isn't it? But actually, to me, that was, I'm cooking. I've opened that box and I've put it in the oven. So I've cooked myself dinner. I had no idea of the impact of that. For me, like I would eat meals

8:19that were, you know, beige in colour, and then feel so much more hungry half an hour after that. But I, to me, that was a home-cooked meal. I didn't understand, like you said, that education of putting the vegetables on, cooking the meal from scratch actually got an impact. It was having the filling power. But the psychological satisfaction of creating that meal, cooking it, putting it together, being proud of myself, actually, that was a knock-on effect that I had never realised that convenience needed to take away from me. Yeah. Do you know what I also found

8:49refreshing in this research that's come out? Is that one in five people admit they don't feel confident cooking from scratch. I found that really reassuring to read that because I was absolutely one of those people. And you know what? Lifestyles have changed, yeah? You know, we think back to maybe 30, 40 years ago, maybe longer, where the idea of coming home to a home-cooked meal was much more typical. But so many of us are working, maybe you've got kids, maybe you're looking

9:22after family members, you know, then you've got maybe aspects of socialising, you're trying to squeeze in the gym. There's all these things that we feel like we have to do, that it's no wonder that so many of us feel overwhelmed with where to begin, I think, when it comes to making these switches or cooking from scratch. And I think that the biggest help that Slim & Will gave me was sitting in group and hearing from other people who were successful in losing weight. They lived in

9:55my area, they shopped in my supermarkets, they had, they were doing shift work and stressful lives and jobs, managing life around their families as well. Some people had different dietary requirements and health conditions. And it was really inspiring to see these people were finding a way through. And just the little tips that they would share of, I just cooked this meal this week and it was great, here's a link to it on the app, you can cook it too. I got all the ingredients in the same

10:28supermarket that you shop in. It just helps make it actually achievable, I think. And it's knowing all those resources around you. One of my favourite things is our 15-minute hero cookbook. Everything in that can be made or constructed in 15 minutes. There isn't a takeaway that I can get delivered in that kind of time. I've learned how to make myself really quick, easy stir-fry in about five or six minutes. But that knowledge came from other people, that came from group, that understanding that actually what I'd always done didn't have to be

11:00something that I continued to do. And actually, as easy it is to open a jar of sauce, and if you make your own pasta sauce in about three minutes, but actually here's how. And that's what was key for me to have everything put together. Because my mind was so addled with, I've got to lose weight, now I've got to cut out all the things that have made life easier, how am I going to do this? But I think it's not putting too much pressure on yourself. It's starting slow, building that repertoire, finding shortcuts that are easy. Like, for me, frozen vegetables

11:33are a lifesaver. Ready chopped vegetables are a lifesaver for me. They're good convenience that actually I can work in, you know. Think about the range of Iceland or Dunn's stores is something I can work in that actually is not going to really affect my bank balance in the way that ordering a 50 pound takeaway is, you know. I can't afford to do that, eat two or three times a week as a family, 50 pounds for a takeaway. Like, that's my food budget gone for the week. So what I had to bring into my mind was actually what I was doing. And when I looked at, I was eating a lot of takeaways

12:07before we had apps, that's how long I've been a member. But when you look at your bank balance, and you realise, and you see, you know, the coffee shops, the drive-thrus, and you realise how much of your hard-earned cash you spent on that. And then you realise actually, if I went to the supermarket, found fine, easy recipes, how much I could save, how much better I feel, it really brings it into the forefront of your mind. Yeah, yeah. And it shows you how. Yeah, that is so true. That is so important, because we're so, a lot of us have got so many pulls on our time,

12:38that actually, the reason we love convenience is because it takes something off our list. So to understand that you can do things quickly and easily with something I needed. Here you go, Anna, get a tin of tomatoes, some passata, some fresh basil or dried basil, some Italian herbs, and a stock cube, and you've got a beautiful tomato sauce. Actually, that was easy for me to do. Whereas, you know, actually, if someone had said you need 25 minutes in the kitchen, you need four saucepons and 18 different ingredients, I would have gone, no. So actually, it's breaking it down into things that you need that is going to make it something that you can

13:11factor into your lifestyle. I suppose we should also point out, like you say, the Slimmer World food range is so helpful in that if you are transitioning from that, I don't have a lot of time, and I need to make this switch. The Slimmer World range and the range range, is that what I call it? It's in the range, so it's in done stores in Iceland. Yeah, it's the Slimming World range at those stores, but yes. But that is helpful where if you are switching to, and you want those grab

13:45and go things in your freezer, you know that they are 100% food optimised. They don't have all of these oils, high fat, high sugar, processed kind of, you know, there's stuff in the ingredients that you're like, I don't even know what that is. And then that's what it really gets you, doesn't it? And for me, they are my absolute lifesavers, knowing that I can go out, pull out my pancakes, pull out my naan bread, get a curry, get a mac and cheese, and I'm absolutely safe. That stops the temptation of,

14:16oh, we've got nothing for dinner, let's just go to a drive-through, because that's my fail-save. So things like the Slimming World kitchen, for me, have been such a game changer in terms of not having to think. So the convenience of that little, or quite big in my case, red box landing on my doorstep and knowing that I've got those meals that are food optimised, all I've got to do is follow that recipe is easy. Also another thing that that's given me is joy, the joy of cooking, the joy of doing it as a family. And actually, what convenience had almost starved me of,

14:49if that, the irony of that word, was that enjoyment of the cooking it, the processing it, the watching other people enjoy it. It was like, do you know what, carrying a paper bag in a box, and it was a bit soggy, and it was a bit substandard. You have very few takeaways, and this is no disrespect, but in my life, I have very few takeaways that have stood out, they were just all right. And actually, I can make a better meal than just all right. So that then gave me the confidence to kind of want to go away and do that even more.

15:17Yeah, exactly. And you know, I mean, here it's talking about

15:23when people do cook at home, the research shows the benefits are clear. 46% say they save money, 40% feel healthier, 33% enjoy cooking more, 29% say their family eats better, and 17% have more energy. Wow. And money is an interesting one, isn't it? Because I do think that there can be that conversation. We know food inflation is continuing to rise and affect people across the country. And I

15:55think there can be that myth that healthy eating is more expensive. And I think that was something that I definitely held that in mind. But we're definitely learning, I suppose, one of the things I really gain out of being part of an active group and going regularly, I think is the key thing is that you almost learn this knowledge bit by bit, rather than just expect to know everything straight away. And it never continues stopping that learning and sharing, even just having some frozen chopped

16:30vegetables in the freezer. If you haven't got time to go to the to the supermarket, then learning, I think, these little kind of helpful things of how can we find a way to lose weight, but also maintain a healthy, active lifestyle on an ongoing basis, these little tips and hacks and switches and swaps that we can make that just make having a nutritionist, nutritional health, healthy life. I can't even

17:00say it because I'm so excited. I know exactly what you mean. But you know, I've learned the tips and the hints. So, you know, looking at things that are in season, looking for things that are, you know, in tins, looking for reduced things, there's no specialised foods, there's no shakes or anything that you need to buy. This is just normal food. And actually, you know, you can feed your family, your friends and do this on a budget. And I guarantee for the price of one takeaway for, you know, three or four people,

17:31you could feed yourself so many different meals that are so nutrient dense, so filling, so good for you. So it's almost rethinking and rethinking that value of money, because we think about things like takeaways and convenience, they do more than the food that's on the plate, we feel at the time, it's the emotion they ease, it's the stress they take off, it's that treat mentality. So it's that

Rethinking Food Choices

17:56reshaping of behaviours, isn't it? To say, actually, you know, I'm worried about the money, but actually, is it more than that? What do I need to look at in terms of my reward system, how my life is set up, and a few simple treats can really make it work? Like, for us, we're big fans of a fake away. So actually, if you want a pizza, actually not going and spending 40 pounds or three pizzas from a delivery, making our own pizzas out of like flour for my healthy fibre choice, or using a wrap, so that we can still have that same feeling. But for, oh my god, it's so little in comparison,

18:29you know, I can make four pizzas out of a packet of wraps, some fresh tomatoes, some cheese, some ham and Slimming World chips and a salad. We've got a beautiful meal for less than 10 pounds that feeds all of us. So it's just reframing for a lot of us, I think. Yeah. And what's really helpful is the Slimming World app actually has a food search and a barcode search that you can find out. OK, let's think about wraps, for instance, you said. Not all wraps are necessarily covered under the, or recommended under the healthy fibre choices under Slimming World,

19:00but learning kind of to know, OK, well, what's actually in these ingredients and how many of, you know, Swips is what Slimming World calls their kind of balanced part of the plan. How many will that cost me? And understanding, yeah, this calcium choices, fibre choices, healthy fats choices, this language of stuff that often how many of us have just literally bought something, forgot about it, eaten it, just, you know, got rid of the guilt, I think, of hiding evidence

19:31of takeaway boxes, hiding evidence of like my secret eating going through drive-throughs in my car. And actually, you don't need to have any of that if you find this new way and you are open to learn new habits of how to make these swaps. And that's where Slimming World can hold your hand, I think, in helping you, guide you. And the cool thing is, I think there's so many different food plans out there which will tell you, if you do this, if you eat this, you will get, you know, X becomes Y. But part of the way of, I think, making these swaps and making these changes that

20:06work with your lifestyle is finding that flexibility and finding what you like. I mean, our favourite meals for tea are probably going to be quite different. I'd be intrigued. What's your, okay, right. Favourite meal, Phil's got the candles out, Daisy's going to play like waitress, and you're going to sit down, come home from a long day at work, Anna, and your favourite meal's on the table. What is it? I'm probably going with king prawns and garlic to start, and then a nice lasagna and a big salad

20:38with some chips. Oh my goodness, guess what mine is? What? Not king prawns. It's not king prawns. A vegan lasagna. It's got everything you need in it, isn't it? There's one particular recipe on Slim World app, and it's jackfruit enchilada lasagna. It's very rare that I can find jackfruit, but we can swap in some of the kind of protein bean, butter beans we tried the other week. I love the spices, the flavour, I love any kind of pastory stuff with cheese, and then a nice colourful

21:10salad. I want maximum colour on my plate, which is so funny, isn't it? Because those years of eating convenience foods, of how lacking colour a lot of those foods have. Lots of beige boxes. I should also say, though, we're not saying takeaways are bad. We still get takeaways. The choices I make are very different, so we might get a Japanese takeaway now or a Turkish takeaway, something that's not fast, deep-fried, high-fat food. So it's not demonising that kind

21:42of takeaway culture, because there's definitely a place for that still in my life. There really is, but for me it was knowledge of what was in it, knowledge that it wasn't saving me money, and the time that it saved actually really probably wasn't very much. It was just the pleasurable experience of just wanting to shift that burden of another stress. So it's fascinating when you go and look back, because when I realised what I spent on alcohol and takeaways in a year was, you know, a five percent deposit on a flat, it soon made me realise, shape up. You know what I mean? So when you put

22:15it in that context, it can be perfect on it. Yeah, and you know, that was one of the things I was going to pull out here, because it highlights in this research how it did some research how

22:27before joining Slim World, 88 percent of people surveyed were spending up to a hundred pounds a week on takeaways, wow, and convenience foods. And so by changing these purchases, either changing them or cutting them out all together, you could save more than five thousand pounds a year while supporting healthier eating habits. And I agree. That was the first thing. I lost four stone in a year. I hadn't had a car for eight years, and I'd saved every single month for the first time in

23:01my life. I saved enough money that I could finally, at the end of that year, go and buy my first car in eight years. I remember when we were getting our first mortgage at the mortgage device and it's through my husband's bank statements. It was like, Mr. Mangan, I think the Costa might be something that needs to be dropped. They're coffee shops and what you're spending every day, a fiver on a coffee, you know, a couple of pounds on a flapjack and actually cut that out and you can pay your mortgage, love. Oh my goodness, Phil's been outed. I know, literally. He was like, okay, it was every other entry in my bank statement, but you don't realize how many of us do go and buy

23:37or did go and buy a coffee and a croissant in the morning going, it's quick. Yeah, it's quick, but actually how much have you spent? That's interesting because I think one of the things of like buying everything on a card, for instance, you just kind of tap and go, don't you? And more recently, I've actually started kind of going through my bank account and I have a bank where you can categorize each spending. So I can actually really see how much am I spending on groceries every month? How much am I spending eating out? How much am I spending on entertainment, shall we say?

24:10As in having a cheeky beer, you know, in the pub or going to watch a gig or something. So I think actually just seeing and observing things for where are you at right now, regardless of, you know, whether you're further along your weight loss journey, or maybe you haven't even began and you're just like opening your eyes to, I need to make a start somewhere, but I don't know where to begin. I think the first part of the process is let's just take a snapshot of where you're at

24:41and really capture what is happening. You know, small stuff like when I first began, I measured my inches just to kind of see where I was at. I took those photos of me. I looked at my, maybe my habits of, okay, if I took a photo of what was in my fridge before I joined Slimming World, versus maybe what, 10 years in, how does that fridge look quite different? And I think that is all part of like this progress. And this is what I mean about this is the stuff where

25:11you don't necessarily get stickers and certificates for, but it's these are the lifestyle habits that ultimately make life more enjoyable. Exactly. And imagine now, just this thought for you, imagine now you cut out your takeaway once or twice a week. You could pay for yourself to go on a beautiful holiday. You could buy that new garden furniture, all those things that perhaps you don't think you've got the money for, you could go in and save. So just a little thought. Do you know, um, uh, a geeky little thing that I occasionally like to do is if you go to a yellow

25:45label corner of a supermarket and, uh, you see whatever's there. And then, I don't know, let's just say like last week I went and it was on, oh, it was like a round of bank holiday time. It was a good time to go. Oh, I went, yeah. And there was swede and there was a massive swede for eight pence. Eight pence. And I was like, swede, what could I do with swede? So I open up my Sunward app, go to recipes and type swede and all of these recipes. In the end, what I did was I made a

26:19massive batch cook of like a shepherd's pie with swede in the mash. Exactly. And you know, I used pretty much the whole of this swede for eight pence. But that was one of those days where old me, you get those reminders, don't you? A Friday at 5pm or a bank holiday Monday, the emails from certain places and they time, it's like they know, oh, she's going to be tired right now. They lure you in. We fall into these marketing traps and actually, you know, just by stepping away

26:56and having some space from that. But knowing what to do, knowing how to make these swaps, knowing what your options are, just allows you to make better choices. Exactly. And better choices that are only ever going to make you feel better physically and mentally, which is a really big and important buy in, isn't it? Because no takeaway if I ever lay back on the sofa, if it's been a really like, you know, high fat one and gone, oh, brilliant. I feel like you need to lie down, don't you? So actually, it's recognising it might give you instant gratification, but not long term joy. Yeah, that is true. I think it's like,

27:28it's about like taking back like control, I think, taking that choice power and really losing more weight than you ever thought was possible. Like this can be done. You can make these changes. Slimming wool will support you. We'll hold your hand along the way. You don't have to do it all in the next week. Just take that time, take that first step, get to a group or check out the online digital experience that Slim Ward offers. That is the one thing that we would just say, just lean in and be open minded

Taking Control of Food Choices

28:00to just try something different. Exactly. Who knows, you could buy your first car at the end of the week or go on a luxury holiday. I feel like that's like a game show kind of moment, isn't it? It's so true though, isn't it? Or buy a cuddly toy. Yeah. I've got 187 of them in my child's bedroom if anybody wants one. Oh, right. That's 187 members sorted. Yeah, they don't talk in image therapy, those ones. Yeah. I think this is an interesting subject because so many of us, I think, can be locked

28:33in this habit of convenience in potentially quite a shameful, addicted, kind of guilt-ridden way that when we peer under the carpet, we're not really sure where to begin. And I think by talking about this stuff, it kind of just opens up that door for people to say, there is another way, and this is possible. And if we can do it, you know, if you could see how Claire and I used to previously eat to how we are now, it's like incomparable. So slow and steady wins the race, one change at a time.

29:08Yeah. Like that. Yeah. Quote of the day. Everybody thinks I was a Slimming World consultant for a living. She knows what she's doing. If you are not a Slimming World member, what I will do in the episode description on our public feed is I'll put a link into the website where it talks about Slimming World kitchen and also some of the food range. So if you want to explore that and see if that might possibly be just those first changes that you make, even if you're not necessarily ready

29:39to join a Slimming World group, that could just be where you begin. So any ways that we can help. If you are someone who has found a way through of this switch of convenience, I mean, we've spoken to people before, haven't we? Rachel and Craig, consultants in the North East, talked about how they went and bought all the foil little tins and they create their own fake away Friday night experience by cooking it from scratch, but serving it in the foil tins to trick themselves and their family that they're having a takeaway.

30:12Brilliant. Daisy said to me, though, the other night, she said, look, I don't like real pizza. I like your pizza, which is a pizza made of a wrap. So yeah. She's a cheap date. She is. She's a cheap date. She's got her headphones on. She can't hear you. But she doesn't know any different now because that's what her lifestyle has been. So that's a really important thing for me is that she eats well as well. Yeah, exactly. Right. Whatever you get up to, hope you have a great week. Eat some amazing food and we'll be back with another episode very soon. Take care.

30:46Bye for now.

30:53Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.