Trying again, a Weight Watchers thread

Keep in mind, though: they do differentiate.

“Zero Points” is NOT the same thing as “Free” or “Eat all you want.”

Basically, everything but water has calories. Eat 7 pounds of carrots, and you’ve eaten 7 pounds of food, even though carrots are zero points.

Also, the fact that eggs are zero points doesn’t negate the cholesterol issues. I have some friends on WW who have to watch their cholesterol, so those zero point eggs aren’t a particularly good choice for them.

Thanks for the chicken tortilla soup recipe up thread! It was a saver for tonight’s 0 points attempt. And I had everything in the house. I used the instapot, dumped everything in except the olive oil and set it for 15 minutes. Put in whole boneless chicken breasts and including taking them out and shredding them, it took 45 minutes start to finish. Tasty and a winner!

These are the Zero Points foods that I eat on the regular (not all in each day):
I carry an apple, banana, and two mandarin oranges to work each day for snack cravings. The banana is eaten around 9 am and the apple and oranges usually the afternoon (sometimes on my commute home to avoid those late day munchies)
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast or Shrimp (usually in my salad at lunch - also Zero points)
Tofu (if I am having soup)
Fat Free Greek Yogurt w/ a couple of teaspoons of Sugar Free Instant Pudding mix stirred in (Pistachio is my favorite)
Pineapple (in my Cottage Cheese which is not zero points)
One egg (about twice a week for breakfast)
Green vegetable or squash for dinner

Hardly the pig out on zero point foods that most people assume will happen with these foods. Even days when I have eaten all of the fruits above along with the rest of my menu (which usually includes avocado toast on Ezekiel bread in the mornings) I don’t get to 1200 calories so the idea of zero points foods is valid as they keep me from eating other things that would add carbs, fat, calories etc.

I do have a question though - I like to prep some chicken breasts ahead on Sundays. I do them in my air fryer with a spritz of Olive Oil, garlic salt, pepper, and paprika. When they come out they are so tender and juicy (I start them off with a salt water brine). However, despite storing the sliced chicken in an airtight container they are extremely rubbery within a day or two. Any ideas what I could be doing wrong? I am talking rubbery to the point of being like gristle.

I’d like to know the answer to that question also. My D meals preps and by the end of the week, the chicken is so rubbery and slimy, she has a hard time eating it.

Any ideas for meal prep would be appreciated also. She’s only one so meal prepping is getting really hard. And finding alternatives to chicken is hard also.

YAY!! Down a size in jeans!

Rubbery chicken could be a combination of the chicken continuing to cook when packaging it and the seasoning working on them too long. How about using the freezer? Freeze in serving sizes. It does not take long to thaw. Freeze spread out on a tray and then package.

@Singersmom07 I had wondered if maybe putting it in the container when it was still warm was the issue. I bet that is it. I will try to cool it completely next time and see if I have the same problem. I always make a couple of extra ones for my DS13 and I assume his have the same problem but he never complains. Maybe he just doesn’t care?

Small successes today as I try to get back to this healthier way of eating. I found out in the new system my favorite Strawberry Blintz omelet was ony 2 points, I measured out the TBL of light cream cheese and the 1 tsp of brown sugar to make sure i’ had it right. Had that great soup for lunch. Got some really sweet Halos for snack. Also went shoppping for some things for salads. Any other favorite, easy recipes welcome.

If you can find it, Josephs Flax seed Pita bread is only one point-- fill it with some Boars Head Ovengold turkey, a bit of mustard and some lettuce, and you have a big filling sandwich for one point. Throw in a Halo and a Jello sugar free chocolate pudding, and you have an incredibly filling lunch for 3 points. That’s pretty much my go-to lunch to bring to school.

I also bring half a Fiber One English muffin and some Smuckers Sugar Free Raspberry preserves-- so my second period snack is a single point.

That food gets me from my 6 am breakfast till dinner, and I’m not hungry at all.

Just checking in - I’m fully on track. As some may recall I had “only” 11 pounds to drop, and to date (since late February) I’m down just under 9 pounds. I’ve decided to go down an additional 3 pounds for a 14 pound total. At almost 60 I do find the gym a bit more challenging than it used to be ( :-* ) - but I really am enjoying how much better I feel altogether.

Congrats @JustaMom! Thanks @bjkmom. I tend to think I can’t have the sandwiches I am used to for lunch without blowing all my points, but with a litte adjustment they can work.

I’m starting again tomorrow thru a Waw @ Work program - si following with interest and looking for any tips to get me off salty carbs!

@threeofthree, the point system will help you there. Give it a week and you’ll be going to work every day with a bag full of clementines and a banana for snacks. Potato chips and the like are just too “expensive” in terms of points to be more than an occasional treat (but if you do have them, buy a single-serving bag from a vending machine, not a big family-sized bag – portion control is key).

I love Cuties and Sprouts has been selling quartz of ripe (I mean really ripe, not chemical ripe) sweet strawberries for 99 cents a quart!

Week 1 weigh in - down 6 lbs!!! I guess it works because I was never hungry and felt like all I did was eat.

I’m feeling discouraged. I lost 5 lbs after the first two weeks but then stalled. Almost done with week 4 and the scale hasn’t budged is n nearly two weeks. I feel like I’m doing everything right, eating my daily points, all healthy foods, drinking plenty of water, extra using when I can, not overdoing zero points, using only some weeklies, mostly as a cushion for restaurant meals where my estimate of points might be too low. Is this common? I know people plateau sometimes, but so soon? :frowning:

@IBviolamom - couple of thoughts…are you tracking your points as you prepare your meals? How is your daily (or thereabouts) activity (exercise)? Can you shake up your food (different combinations, different recipes, etc.)? At my meetings several people have said they eat too much fruit now that it’s a zero point food. How is your fruit intake? Are you taking time daily for stress relief (meditation, etc.)? And finally…patience. The weight didn’t hop on in a month and it certainly won’t drop off in a month. A pound a week is considered healthy for long-term results. So taking the 5 pounds loss to date, that’s pretty good for a month. Don’t give up, instead shake up your routine. The weight will come off. Really.

I agree-- shake things up. Try to cut down on those restaurant meals if they’re pushing your point quotas-- instead put that money towards a particular summer goal-- maybe a dinner cruise or a particular night out.

@JustaMom @bjkmom Thanks for the advice. I do calculate points for any recipes/meals I make as I prepare them. I was already using recipes from Skinnytaste for many of our dinners, so the main change there is smaller portions and choosing the less cheesy recipes (she uses a lot of cheese!). Sometimes I even calculate the SP myself in the recipe builder to check her point values.

I don’t believe I’m eating too much fruit; in fact, before WW I had a banana every morning and now, even though they’re 0 points, i have them rarely because I know they’re very high in sugar and calories. I eat an apple or clementine most days, some days I have berries at breakfast.

I try to not eat too many carbs. Yesterday was not great for carbs because I had a sandwich at lunch and rice at dinner (still within points though). I’m not sure how to shake things up. Maybe more salads? I’m not a huge salad fan. I do love veggies, raw as snacks sometimes with hummus, and steamed or roasted with dinner. Or I’ll throw some leftover veg into scrambled eggs. My omelets always fail, lol.

The restaurant meals aren’t too frequent, but we do eat out maybe twice on weekends. They’re not chain restaurants so I can’t count calories exactly, but I order carefully and and eat less than what they serve (mostly. Saturday night I was starving and had the whole plate, but it was salmon and grilled vegetables). I’ll order salads with grilled chicken, dressing on the side. Or fish with veggies and rice but eat very little if the rice. I pretend the bread basket isn’t there (as my THIN husband chows down, grrrrr!). I’m actually finding it quite easy to resist temptation. I don’t know if giving up the restaurant meals is an option for me. I do all the cooking, all the time, so on the weekends I really like to take a break. Plus my husband and I enjoy going out on weekends, either by ourselves or with another couple.

I have a treadmill at home and I try to do 30 minutes 3-5 days a week. When I can have company, there’s a great 1.5 hour walk I do with plenty of hills in my neighborhood. Unfortunately I live in the suburbs so I have to drive to everything, plus I’m a therapist so I sit at work all day.

It’s so frustrating because my history with any type of weight loss attempt mirrors this: i lose a few pounds, get excited, and then NOTHING. WW worked for me 20 years ago but I was only 28 years old at the time. I do hope the weight will start to come off again if I stick to this. It’s not terribly hard to stick to, most days. I hope I don’t become the one person this doesn’t work for!

@IBviolamom , you don’t have divulge numbers but I’m wondering how much weight you have to lose? Someone who needs to lose 50 pounds AND is following the nutrition/exercise rules is probably going to lose weight faster and for more weeks before plateauing. Someone who has 10 pounds to lose will lose slower and plateau faster.

Always take this into consideration when you are reading online about anyone’s weight loss. You don’t know for sure what the other people are faced with. So you can’t necessarily compare yourself to them! :slight_smile:

Also remember that you are still doing your body a favor by just simply eating better. And the goal should really be not to eat to lose weight but to change your eating habits more permanently for lasting health AND lasting weight loss!

Keep at it!!