<p>Well, I’m back from vacation and hesitantly weighed myself. Up 1.8 lbs. :(</p>
<p>Today I’ll start using MyPlate. I’ve been hesitating because it seems so time consuming and I’m not very good at estimating sizes of things.</p>
<p>Also, today, I will food shop and will be able to plan the week’s meals.</p>
<p>^One of the best things I did for myself was to get a kitchen scale - I now know exactly what 3 or 4 ounces of meat looks like.</p>
<p>Weight Watchers Points Plus seems to be working for me. It’s very slow going…but it helps that I don’t feel anything is completely off limits. </p>
<p>Knowing that carbs are a higher point value makes it easier for me to avoid them - to a certain extent. I have found that there are certain things I can more easily pass up (bread…pass, french fries…no pass) - so I just make those choices.</p>
<p>I am starting my 8th week and have lost 8 pounds - and that was with a weeks vacation where I gained a couple pounds back. </p>
<p>I really have to force myself to go on the computer to track my points…sometimes I am in denial and don’t want to do it because I know I have eaten too much. By the way, I am only doing the online version of WW right now…no meetings.</p>
<p>abasket, how about a Mexican-ish meal? Grill or roast chicken breasts and cut up in small pieces. Cook brown rice and black or pinto beans. Saute some onions/green pepper in olive oil. Chop up some lettuce. Salsa,sour cream,shredded cheese and soft tortilla shells.</p>
<p>The family can eat all of the above. You can leave off the tortilla shell, sour cream and cheese (or maybe just a little) and go easy on the rice. So yours looks like this…a little rice on bottom, then beans, then chicken topped with green peppers/onions, little sprinke of cheese then salsa. It’s really good.</p>
<p>PackMom, that is SO my kind of meal! I’ll book that for one night! True fact though, I’m GONNA put a little sour cream on though!</p>
<p>Forgive me if I missed this part of the thread, but does anyone have a recommendation for an inexpensive easy to purchase scale?</p>
<p>This what I have. <a href=“Google Shopping - Product not found”>Google Shopping - Product not found; I think I picked it up at Bed Bath and Beyond or Target, or maybe just the local grocery store. The only issue with it is that if you have something on a dinner plate, you can’t read it. I just put something like a plastic container under the plate to raise the height. You zero the plate then put food on the plate and weigh it. You can zero out the scale between each thing you add.</p>
<p>Back from more than a week with my family and happy to have only gained 1.5 pounds. This current effort and momentum was too new to maintain going into a stressful week, and I just let it roll, making some better choices than I usually would but allowing for the inevitable as well. Lots of eating out and parties.</p>
<p>Got back on the horse this morning and took the dog for a walk. Came home ready for my regular fave, oatmeal, and we were totally out. That has ticked me off and now I need to work to stay on the straight and narrow. Argh. My mom is calling. Can feel the stress eating coming on!</p>
<p>Just sharing - found this on the “Fattening of America” thread by …quote by XSlacker:</p>
<p>It’s not really that hard when you lose the excuses. It’s a circle. The worse I eat, the worse I feel. The worse I feel, the worse I eat. But it works in reverse to. The BETTER I eat, the better I feel. The better I feel, the better I eat!</p>
<p>Like it! :)</p>
<p>That sounds like a wonderful meal, Packmom! I would suggest adding either avocado or guacamole for some good fat. Trader Joe’s sells guacamole in the refrigerator section, with a good nutritional profile.</p>
<p>I like the comment about the cycle, abasket. That is definitely the way it works for me, except that I would add exercise - if I exercise I want to eat better, if I don’t, I want to eat worse.</p>
<p>abasket- What I have been doing with good success is putting whatever I am making for them into a salad for me. For example-if they are having tacos or burritos I skip the rice but put the refried beans along with the chicken or ground beef, cheese, avocado, cilantro, tomato on top of a pile of lettuce. I confess to using a small amount of ranch dresssing.
I finally weighed myself. Up about 1 1/2 lbs from last week. I am thinking it is mostly water due to my heavy sodium intake.
Sending positive thoughts to all of you dealing with family members and illness. I know when my Mom was on hospice for her cancer I would stop at the jewish deli on my way to her house. I would buy great rare roast beef and rye bread. I would make great sandwiches with tons of mayo. Add in a few rugellah cookies.</p>
<p>And I am a fan of the make-it-into-a-salad option - and I of course use salad dressing - but find if I put the salad in a container w/lid, add the salad dressing then shake, I use less. Important for me, cause I can def be a salad dressing overuser/abuser.</p>
<p>Lunch was from our cafeteria meditteranian bar - some hommus with some fatoosh and tabbouleh all mixed together with a couple of olives added in. No chips or bread, just the salad items. This is a weird combination I often enjoy.</p>
<p>Is anyone else not a breakfast eater? I really don’t like to eat in the morning and feel fine waiting until 1:00 without eating. I find when I do eat breakfast I am hungrier, earlier than 1:00. It doesn’t matter if the breakfast is a bowl of oatmeal, a bowl of cereal or a big breakfast out; I just get hungry!! I also am not a fan of breakfast foods, so when I do eat breakfast at home, it usually is something leftover in the fridge. </p>
<p>I do love to eat salad, but I am heavy handed on the dressing. I have tried the dipping your fork of food in the dressing on the side; when you dunk, not dip the fork, somehow I think it doesn’t help 
Our favorite pizza place has a very nice salad, but their wonderful house dressing is creamy and delicious! It is not the same salad without the dressing.</p>
<p>Snowball, try the method above . Put your salad in a bowl that can use a lid. Add a measured, reasonable amount of dressing. Put the lid on and shake. Helps to distribute the dressing over the entire salad and ultimately use less.</p>
<p>I think most studies show breakfast eating (no matter if it’s breakfast food or otherwise) to be one of the most beneficial elements to weight loss/maintain and overall health and energy. Do you think you end up “making up” for those calories you didn’t use at breakfast at other times of the day???</p>
<p>I think abasket is on to something. We have a market stand that makes fresh salads and when they toss it with dressing, you really need very, very little. </p>
<p>I also try to make all my own dressings so I have control over the ingredients. I use very little oil, good vinegar, and whatever else inspires me. </p>
<p>I have talked about my morning smoothie before, it is truly an addiction, but that is enough for me. I never have anything else for breakfast, although I will frequently make myself a two egg, one yolk over easy egg in the late morning. </p>
<p>I am swearing by my Teavanna tea. It is more expensive, but I use the leaves a second time. If I load up a tall glass with ice and tea, it really helps to distract me.</p>
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<p>I bought a postal scale and have been using it. I measure everything in grams. I can use Calorieking.com which has an option by which you can use grams instead of ounces or cups to determine calories. (Seriously–how big is a “medium” potato?)</p>
<p>I still need to drink more water…and eating out is more difficult because it isn’t polite to bring the scale into the restaurant and start weighing everything, LOL!</p>
<p>Weight Watcher’s use to say that 3oz. was the size of your fist I believe. I never knew if that was my fist @ 5’2" or my son’s @ 6’2"! I have also read your protein serving can be the size of a deck of card.</p>
<p>When I did WW 20 years ago, I use to weigh everything at home; enough that I drove my family crazy. Eventually I got the hang of an amount and didn’t stress about if I ate an ounce more that I was suppose to. I am trying not to be so anal this time even though I have more to lose.</p>
<p>For salad at home we use a Baggie food storage bags to mix the dressing; I still use too much dressing! Usually I use a fat free balsamic dressing at home; it is when I go out to dinner that I overload.</p>
<p>Sometimes I mix a bit of oil and vinegar or use an italian with the creamy dressing. I figure that way I am using less of the creamy stuff. I also find that smashing up the avocado versus just cutting into pieces gives the salad that creamy texture that I seem to find more appealing. Or a small amount of cheese can sometimes do the same.
I am going to try the shake in a big bag idea for tossing the salad.</p>
<p>When I did WW in 2008 one of the reasons I did the CORE program (they’ve changed it all now) was because I didn’t have to track points as much since there were so many “free” foods. I had to be a little disciplined and not eat past the point of satisfaction (one of my prior flaws), but I had all the “free” foods, which included oatmeal, all the veggies, fruits etc. I only had to worry about portion size and points for the “extras” like alcohol, bread, sweets. It worked really well for me.</p>
<p>3 oz of meat is about a deck of cards. 6 oz of vegetables is about a tennis ball. You can pretty much eat vegetables and salad in infinite quantities if you don’t go overboard on the salad dressing or butter.</p>
<p>workinprogress2- can you give us an example of a good vinegar?</p>