February 2008 Weight Watchers

[oceanjasper]

I couldn't find a February thread, so I decided to create one! :)

Tonight, I made the Velvet Corn Soup with Shrimp from WW Take-out-tonight. It was fantastic! As suggested in the recipe, I also added canned crab meat. I am already a fan of creamed corn and asian flavoured soups, so this recipe was totally up my alley. One serving is 1.5 cups of soup for 4 points (slightly more with the additional crab).

Tomorrow night, I am making Shrimp Pad Thai. I love this cookbook!

As for my own WW progress, I really don't know! I lost 7.6 pounds in 2 weeks, but I missed my last meeting and will be missing the one this week. Since I have eaten out a few times (without much of a strategy) and will be eating out more this week, chances are I won't be seeing much progress! I can still be hopeful though, right?! :)

How is everyone else doing?

[sararosalie]

Thanks for starting this thread!



I joined last week and lost 3.6 pounds my first week :D

That loss caused me to lose a daily point, but now that I'm in week 2, I can count my activity points.



Thanks for the recomendation of the Velvet Corn Soup with Shrimp.

Have a healthy week!

[klrickrode]

I just started WW too on my own 2 weeks ago. My MIL works for them so she got me the info I needed. So far, I've lost 5 pounds and hope to continue. I had a baby in Sept, so I am anxious to get the rest of the baby weight off. I have WW TOT and love the book too! Last week I made General Tso's chicken which is 4 points per serving with 1/2 cup brown rice (2 points). It is really yummy.

What I really need are some more snack ideas. Any thoughts?

[Alleycat]

You're all having great success!! Congrats :)

I finally laced up my sneakers and started exercising again. I weighed and measured myself last Monday, and have decided to avoid the scale for 4 weeks. I journaled most of last week :o but I've slacked on that this week (:o again)!

I've seen hungrygirl.com mentioned here a few times. Wanted to let you guys know she's got a book coming out in April -- Hungry Girl: Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real World.

DH and I don't do gifts for Valentine's Day, so I'm happy I won't be getting a box of chocolates tomorrow! I think I'm going to make CL's Beef Daube Provencal and the Dark Chocolate Souffle Cake (I don't want a box of chocolates, but that doesn't mean I don't want chocolate!).

[suebear37]

I'm still plugging along... down 11-1/2 since I joined on January 2nd. I was finally able to break my "pound-a-week" pattern with a whopping 3 lbs. last night! I was hoping for 2 & was thrilled to have lost 3.

We leave tomorrow for vacation... 2 days in Florida followed by 2 weeks of cruising. I'm being realistic about it & I'm sure I'll gain weight, but that's ok. I shovel a lot of snow to get to this point in the winter, so a vacation is sorely needed! I've decided I'm not going to deny myself anything I really want, but I'm going to try to stay away from the mindless eating that goes along with the trip. And not so many pina coladas!!! (Notice I said not so many!!!) I plan to take the stairs as much as possible & walk around the deck a little every morning.

Everybody looks like they're having a good month... Keep up the good work!!! :)

[sararosalie]

Sue-Bear---congratulations on the 3 pounds last night and the 11.5 since the beginning of the year!

Have a great vacation!

[oceanjasper]

Congrats, everyone!

Just wanted to say that the Shrimp Pad Thai from WW TOT is definitely a keeper. Did I mention that I love this cookbook? :D

[fudi2000]

I did my first weigh in and lost 4.2 lbs. I am so excited. It was totally worth driving through blizzard like conditions to get to the meeting. I have a question though. How do I figure out the points for things I can't find in the book or without nutritional info? For instance I had meatloaf for dinner last ngiht. How do count that? This can be the confusing part. Hope I can get help
Theresa

[mcgee]

How do I figure out the points for things I can't find in the book or without nutritional info? For instance I had meatloaf for dinner last ngiht. How do count that? Theresa

I don't think you can calculate the points without nutritional info. Points are calculated based on the following formula:

(number of calories/50) + (number of total fat grams/12) - (number of fiber grams/5)

Do you have Mastercook? You could enter the recipe in there to determine your nutritional info and then do the calculation.

I'm starting weight watchers on Tuesday and have been doing a lot of research. I was actually on it a couple of years ago but dropped out. Hope to be successful this go 'round.

[scout1222]

Here are a couple of ways:

Look things up in the Food Companions - those have a lot more listings than does the week 1 book

Do you have eTools? You can look things up online. You can also build a recipe that will tell you the point value

Did you make the meatloaf yourself? If so, you know exactly what went into it. Find the points values of all the ingredients, add it up (so you get total points for the entire recipe) and divide by the number of servings.

That last way is the biggest pain in the butt in terms of time invested, etc. but it will work if you don't have any of the extra tools.

[fudi2000]

Thanks for the help guys. I think things are getting easier for me now.

[sararosalie]

How is everybody doing?

I had my meeting last night--I lost 1 pound. Initially I was a bit diappointed in such a small loss and then I realized I was being an idiot. It's a loss--not a gain.

Staying for the meeting really helped in that it was about positive self talk and that's something I need to work on.

Hope you all are doing well!

[fudi2000]

Had my meeting on Tuesday. :mad: Gained two pounds. The wiegher inner person said that it was a new scale that replaced the one that went hay wire which is why she thinks it says I lost 4 lbs last week. Even so, come on? I worked my booty off, literally. I worked out until I blew my knee out. But I refuse to give up. I just have to get back on the proverbial horse
but still, argh!!

[oceanjasper]

Hang in there, fudi2000! All that hard work is sure to pay off!

[kimmer99]

Fudi, don't get discouraged. It happens. I've been doing this for years, sometimes I gain, sometimes I lose, sometimes I stay the same. But when I remember how much I've lost and how much my life has changed, it puts it all back into perspective.

I'm having a hard time with my focus (I catch me nibbling during the day). What I really need right now is just a good kick in the pants. :D

[JackieO]

Fudi, don't get discouraged. It happens. I've been doing this for years, sometimes I gain, sometimes I lose, sometimes I stay the same. But when I remember how much I've lost and how much my life has changed, it puts it all back into perspective.

I'm having a hard time with my focus (I catch me nibbling during the day). What I really need right now is just a good kick in the pants. :D

If you've had as lousy winter weather in New Jersey as we've had, you're excused! Blick. It's hard to keep all those balls in the air -- exercise, healthful food, portion control -- when you're freezin' your butt, shoveling snow, or otherwise miserable.

And I totally agree on the arbitrariness of the scale. Thank goodness I set my lifetime goal at about 4 lbs above where I really want to be. Living within that two-lb cushion would be just that much more stress!

I actually signed on tonight to rave about the Velvet Corn Soup w/Shrimp from the TOT cookbook. It's not anything I would have picked on my own, but DS dog-eared the page when I had him look thru the book on Christmas break, and DH gave it a thumbs up when I showed it to him. I'm not a big fan of corn to begin with, and even less-so when it comes to creamed corn (nightmare from about age 3 comes to mind -- and I'm over 50 now!) But it was r-e-a-l-l-y good! I'll make it again next week and take leftovers to DS, who is in college.

[sararosalie]

Fudi--sorry to hear about your troubles with the scale. Hang in there! ;)


Well, I'm 4 weeks in (on Flex) and down 3.6 pounds. Unfortunately, I gained .8 pounds this week. But I'll soldier on.
I'll be traveling out of state for business next week (Monday-Friday) and I'm concerned about what this is going to mean to me in terms of food choices. I won't have a access to a car, nor a refrigerator. I'll eat out for breakfast and dinner. Lunch will be provided to me by the client.

So, I'm thinking about switching to Core for next week. That way I won't have to measure anything nor sit and agonize about how to count points.

I don't think I'll have trouble with breakfast and dinner on core as I can choose Core foods (and Core approved manners of preparation) while at most restaurants. The wild card is going to be lunch.

I could bring some food with me to eat in case the provided lunch doesn't have any core friendly stuff. For example, I could bring along little cans of tuna to put on top of salad (if they have a salad option at lunch) or I could purchase the WW smoothie mix and have that for lunch.
Since lunch will be such a wild card, my plan is to have a big breakfast and to purchase a piece of fruit to have as a snack.

And I guess the final fall back would be to use some of my 35 weekly points if I find myself in a place with no Core options.
and yes, I'm going to work out while I'm at the hotel.


So, any thoughts on this plan? Am I crazy to try Core for the first time while I'm away from my home base? Any other ideas on how I can plan for lunch?

Or is this just nuts and I should stick to Flex?

[scout1222]

I'm not going to tell you whether to switch or not, but I want to comment on the WW smoothie for lunch.

The packet itself is only 1 point. I don't know if you're thinking about mixing it with water or milk, but even with milk (nonfat) it would be 3 points. Do you have a blender? Or are you thinking of "shaking" it to mix?

I prefer my smoothies blended, so I wouldn't want to just shake it up - I don't think that would be pleasing to my palate. And will you be satisfied with that for lunch? (or are you thinking about it in conjunction with something else?) It just doesn't seem like enough to me.

[applecrisp]

I would think that it might be a good chance that you probably could wing something with the lunch provided, assuming its not something like fettucine alfredo, lasagna, or something else that is tough to "save", except for the parsley sprig. :D

When I was on WW (ah, got to get back to that). But I digress. :rolleyes: and I had lunches at seminars etc...... often they would have sandwiches, in that case I would eat it likely as an open sandwich. Often there would be fruit salad, so that would work too. Or a sandwich buffet, which I could navigate.

If its a hot plated lunch, which often was chicken, that usually worked ok, unless it was in a cream sauce or soemthing. If it had a saunce, I would sometimes scrape off some if that was way off plan. It tended to come with a salad, so I was good to go --- just ate it sans croutons etc, and no and/or light on the dressing.

It was those darn afternoon breaks with chocolate chip cookies that would test my resolve.

I do like the idea of bringing some WW friendly foods to eat, whether as a snack after dinner etc.

Good luck.

[sararosalie]

I'm not going to tell you whether to switch or not, but I want to comment on the WW smoothie for lunch.

The packet itself is only 1 point. I don't know if you're thinking about mixing it with water or milk, but even with milk (nonfat) it would be 3 points. Do you have a blender? Or are you thinking of "shaking" it to mix?

I prefer my smoothies blended, so I wouldn't want to just shake it up - I don't think that would be pleasing to my palate. And will you be satisfied with that for lunch? (or are you thinking about it in conjunction with something else?) It just doesn't seem like enough to me.

Thanks for the input on the WW smoothie. I won't have a blender nor milk so it'd be shaken with water (I can feel James Bond shuddering). :D

[sararosalie]

I would think that it might be a good chance that you probably could wing something with the lunch provided, assuming its not something like fettucine alfredo, lasagna, or something else that is tough to "save", except for the parsley sprig. :D

When I was on WW (ah, got to get back to that). But I digress. :rolleyes: and I had lunches at seminars etc...... often they would have sandwiches, in that case I would eat it likely as an open sandwich. Often there would be fruit salad, so that would work too. Or a sandwich buffet, which I could navigate.

If its a hot plated lunch, which often was chicken, that usually worked ok, unless it was in a cream sauce or soemthing. If it had a saunce, I would sometimes scrape off some if that was way off plan. It tended to come with a salad, so I was good to go --- just ate it sans croutons etc, and no and/or light on the dressing.

It was those darn afternoon breaks with chocolate chip cookies that would test my resolve.

I do like the idea of bringing some WW friendly foods to eat, whether as a snack after dinner etc.

Good luck.

Yep, I'm really hoping for a salad option that I can put my little can of tuna on.

The last time (pre-WW) I had a meeting with these folks, lunch on day one was cream soup in a bread bowl and a salad. Day two was a sort of taco bar---crisp taco shells, ground beef, refried beans, cheese, olives, sour cream, salsa, tomatoes and lettuce. I guess a core friendly meal from that could have been gotten (a bunch of lettuce, tomatoes and salsa with a bit of the (hopefully) lean beef.

This meeting will be a hotel..so push come to shove I could excuse myself from lunch and go to the restaurant in the hotel and get a salad.

Oh CR@P--I had completely forgotten about the darn afternoon snacks. That will be the time for my WW snack bars!

Thanks for the reply and the good luck wishes!

[fudi2000]

Well, I lost the 2 lbs I gained at last week's meeting, but here's the new dilemma. Okay so Saturday is when my husband and I are going to Canada for bible study. It also happens to be not only his but 4 other peoples birthday. I have already committed to making peppermint chocolate fudge pie (don't even want to know the points on that) but now I have to cook the meal. :eek: There are going to be about 13-15 people and the food has to be Kosher since we celebrate the Jewish traditions. Does anyone have any ideas that I could use that I can actually eat and make it simply?

THanks for the help

PS-Sararosalie I would do the excusing yourself thing and eat somewhere else if get's bad. I've been in that situation and let me tell you it was NOT easy. Of course I have no willpower so that doesn't help either ;)