[cherrykissez011]

Does everyone usually eat the same things every day for breakfist and lunch? what does your meal plan usually look like? the last two days i had cereal or toast for breakfist, canned tuna with mayo onions, celery, and pickles for lunch and dinner a sandwhich and a cup of soup.. snacks yogurt and pickles. My daily points range is 26 and i dont wanna use my flex points

xoxo
nadine

[greatchoice]

I tend to vary my menus every day (and I have weird eating times since I work the night shift) but there are "staples" I usually eat: peanut butter on english muffins, eggs & toast, Ceasar salads, stuffed bell peppers, soup, pitas w/laughing cow cheese, a variety of Lean Cuisine & WW frozen meals, Jamba Juice, bagels w/cream cheese, microwave popcorn and usually twice a week I work in a piece of lemon pie!

[Kelly_S]

First off why do you not want to use your FlexPoints. They are an optional part of the program and most of us lose better or at least more consistent when we use them. Also the more you use while losing the more you'll have at maintenance and the less chance you'll feel like you are dieting to maintain. Finally eating them will still be less than what you were eating before in calories.... THe program work it and use them...also don't be afraid to use your ActivityPoints.

Now you should vary your points and what you eat. If you do the same thing day in and day out your body gets used to (this goes for activity too) and becomes very proficient at processing it and you tend to have stalls.

[Lilion]

Hi! With respect to flex points, I believe you lose better if you eat them, whether you spread them out or save them for a splurge.

I have, in the past, tended not to eat my flex points, but I also usually had a "cheat" meal...usually going out to dinner on WI day, where I would not worry about the points for that meal and just start again the next day. So I figure I was getting the flex points in that day. I used to stress out about going over my points that day. But whenever I'd be upset about being "bad", I nearly always had a good loss with the next WI. At the moment the eating out has been severly limited, so I am more willing to eat a few extra points each day.

My menu is varied, although I tend to eat the same things over and over. I often have oatmeal for breakfast, or cereal. I sometimes add a banana to the cereal or pecans to the oatmeal. Sometimes I'll have a egg & cheese sandwich. Yesterday I had a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast.

Lunches are quite often sandwiches or soup, but we (DH and I) are also in the habit of making enough dinner to have lunch the next day. He can't leave his work for lunch and has to brown-bag it. Dinner's tend to vary a lot. We usually try to have at least 10-12 pts left for dinner.

I would lose interest fast if I ate the same thing over and over. We cook a lot of meals using WW recipes. I've gotten a lot from this website and also just off the internet. I think you need to learn to eat a lot of different foods in order to stay on WW and to maintain afterwards.

Some of my favorite, easy low-point meals have been:

a baked potato with 1/2 cup ff cottage cheese and broccoli
chicken soft tacos: two 1 pt tortillas with 4 oz seasoned chicken, lettuce, tomato, ff cheese and salsa.
Chicken taco salad - like the taco, only salad and no tortillas
crab salad: a green salad with crab (or imitation) ff cheese and ff honey mustard or poppyseed dressing

[LissaGirl]

I have just recently started on the flex plan and try to vary my meals everyday. Breakfast for me is usually an english muffin with peanut butter or a bowl of cereal or a low point breakfast sandwich (english muffin, egg with no yolk, deli select ham and cheese slice= 4 pts). For lunch I eat a smart one frozen dinner or have left overs from the night before. My suppers vary between mushroom burgers with oven fries (7pts total), various stir frys, baked chicken and veggies. This week I am on the look out for a low point meatloaf!

[susie_sunshine]

For breakfast I to am an english muffin and peanut butter girl! It's quick and easy and I can eat in in the car on the way to work if I have to. For lunch in the winter I usually have soup. We make homemade soup every sunday and freeze it in small containers that i can grab on my way out the door. For supper we have somehting different every day! Seriously - lol I subsribe to a lot of magazines (it's an addiction) and we use one per week to pick recipes from. I make menu plans two weeks at a time so we know exactly what is for supper every day and have all the groceies on hand for those meals. They are not necessarily "diet food" but i've found that if you respect the suggested portion size, it's well within my point range every time. The trick is not to SUPERSIZE IT by having seconds! Another thing we dont do is buy food that is pre-made. DH makes stock from scratch, I make our bread, and we don't use any canned things (except veggies in the winter time)or frozen pre-made foods. We make sure we use really good quality ingredients in our meals and that makes them taste so much better and I find I need to eat much less of it to feel satisfied! I stay away from anything with artificial sweeteners- I'd rather eat the real thing and just eat less of it!

[BunnyChick]

I'm allergic to peanuts so big raspberry to all of you that eat peanut butter!! I really miss it terribly. (but I still love you all anyway)

I'm a horrible binger, but I've found that if I eat the new Quaker Weight Loss oatmeal for breakfast (3pts) with a lite string cheese (1pt) and fruit (1pt) I have a better chance of not binging that day. Only one day that I've had that breakfast, have I binged that day... so.... I say, if it works, don't fix it!

If I could eat subway everyday for lunch, I would... but on the days that I can't, I have a can of healthy choice soup (3-5 pts) and a can of green beans (ZERO)...

So,to answer your question, yes, I eat the same thing most days, and it works for me. Most people like to vary their menu.. I just eat the same thing until I get tired of it, then switch to something else I like until I get tired of it.

Good luck!

[mauvaisroux]

I try not to use my flexpoints until the weekend - I do try to eat any activity points I have earned.

A typical day for me (I get 22 points):

Breakfast:
3/4 cup bran flakes
1 small banana, sliced
1/2 cup 2% milk
1 coffee with cream and sugar

Snack:
Herbal tea or Crystal light
1 fat free/sugar free yogurt

Lunch:
Salad with Romaine and leaf lettuce, raw broccoli, tomato, 1 oz chopped cheese, 1 oz chopped lean ham, 1 tbsp Newman's own Italian dressing.
1 cup cucumber coins marinated in balsamic or white wine vinegar
1 pear
Water or Crystal light

Snack around 3:30 or 4:00 p.m.:
Herbal or decaf tea
1 cup sliced strawberries and kiwi

Dinner:
3oz grilled steak with Montreal Steak spice
1 cup steamed cauliflower
1 cup steamed broccoli
1 tsp butter

Snack:
2 cups air popped popcorn with butter spray and nacho seasoning
1 bottled water

[ChibiSam]

I tend to eat the same thing on the weekdays and then mix it up on the weekends.

A typical breakfast is some kind of 2pt bar or cereal and a cup of skim milk.
Mid moring snack of carrots and hummus
Lunch is a frozen dinner with some kind of zero point veggie
Afternoon is usually a cup of skim milk and if I am really hungry another 2pt bar.
Dinner is either a frozen dinner with zero point veggie or a salad.
If I have points left I might also have an WW desert or a bag of popcorn.

I do admit that I am not always good about getting in my 5 fruites and veggies. Looking at mauvaisroux's eating plan has given me some ideas. When I was a kid my mom use to slice up cucumbers and soak them in vinegar and I would eat them like crazy.

I made my points week from Friday-Thursday. So if I need my flex points for the weekend I always have them. If I don't need them, then I use them to boost the other days. It never occured to me not to eat my flex points. I figured WW would not have them if they would hinder me. I really think they are the key to sticking with the program.

[Kelly_S]

Originally Posted by cherrykissez011

...My daily points range is 26 and i dont wanna use my flex points...

Again (since I responded earlier and will add) why? They are part of the plan and the more you use the more you'll have when you reach maintenance. W/W devised the program so that you'd lose with a bare minimum (Daily/Target Points) and a max for the week (Flex/Weekly Points). They also realized that you need more on days you are more active thus you can eat more with exercise (Activity Points).

Secondly even eating your Flex you are still taking in less calories than when you weren't on W/W so again why wouldn't you?

BTW I didn't drop points as my weight went down and at 149 I was still eating 24 points as Target with all my FPs and 3-5 APs a day and still losing becuase I ate all my points.

Finally the majority of people lose better or at the minimum more consistently eating all their points.

My days are normally like this:

Breakfast: Cereal and Milk or a smoothie --- 4 points

Mid morning snack: fruit or popcorn --- 1-2 points

Lunch: Salad w/homemade dressing and 1 tsp of olive oil --- 2 points
Sandwich (low cal bread, lunchmeat, cheese, lettuce, tomato) --- 3 points
Fruit --- 1 point
Yogurt --- 2 points

Mid afternoon snack: fruit or popcorn --- 1-2 points

Dinner: 3-6 oz lean meat --- 3-6 points
starch (rice, potatoes, or pasta) --- 3-4 points
veggies (2-3 cups) --- 0-3 points
healthy oil (1 tsp) --- 1 point

Evening Snack: 0-12 points depending on APs, hunger level and how many points I have left

[susie_sunshine]

sometimes I use my flex points sometimes I don't. Actualy, most times I don't because i find my daily point range is more food than I can eat comfortably anyway. I haven't noticed any correlation between eating them and losing weight faster. If I want a glass of wine, I dip into my flex points... stuff like that! To me it's like overdraft in your checking account!

[Kelly_S]

Originally Posted by susie_sunshine

...I haven't noticed any correlation between eating them and losing weight faster.

Not faster...more consistent and less plateaus

Originally Posted by susie_sunshine

...If I want a glass of wine, I dip into my flex points... stuff like that! To me it's like overdraft in your checking account!

This is where you thinking is wrong in a sense. They are option and no one is trying to force youbut they are an OVERDRAFT! They are part of the program.

If you think about it W/W program used to be a range of points for the day. For example 22-25 points every day you could eat between 22 and 25 and if you didn't eat all 25 then you could 'bank' those points for later in the week. Well many people started doing a 'reverse bank' where they needed more points towards the beginning of the week and thus took away from their points toward the end of the week. IE, Flex points came around. W/W went to a minimum a day which they now call DAILY or TARGET and gave us all our banked points (5 a day x 7 days a week = 35) up front for us to divide how we saw fit.

So you see they aren't EXTRA or an overdraft or just in case. They are to make the program as flexible as it can be.

W/W wouldn't give you points on purpose if they would not let you lose with them and/or gain. Because they are in this to make money off our weight losses and if we don't lose we quit and they lose money.

Some people truly cannot use the FP/WPA but those are really the minority.

Again I am not trying to change your mind but keep in mind your DAILY aka TARGET points are a BARE MINIMUM.

(WINK) BTW the more you use while you are losing the more you'll have at maintenance and the less chance you'll feel like you are dieting to maintain.

[ChibiSam]

I have to say I love the flex points. I have been craving M&Ms for a few days. I haven't really used many of my flex points this week, so I decided that 5 points for a sweet little bag of plain M&Ms was worth the splurge. It was so nice to have what I craved, but not feel guilty for cheating.

My original intent was not to use my activity points, but from what I am reading on the forum it may be better for me to use them.

[kATIECANDOTHIS]

yeah, i love flex points too. i have to have chocolate and dominoes thin crust pizza!

[morrigan]

I try to have oatmeal with frozen berries everyday for breakfast = 3 points. If I have a big breakfast it messes up my points for the whole day and I always go over.

BF: Oatmeal with berries = 3 points
Snack: 12 oz nonfat latte = 2 points
Lunch: salad with some kind of meat or Soup = 4 to 6 points
Snack: Apple = 1 point

This leaves me with about 14 points for the evening. If I don't leave myself at least 8 points for dinner, I go into extra points.