Hi Everybody
I am new here and like a few others have been a lurker. I got a lot of good hints and information ,by reading the thoughts of other WW in the sane position I am in. I am a WW of Many Years. I am right in two lb. limit all the time. I would love to get down another 10lbs but can't seem to . I dislike going to meetings. I start good in the a.m. and am not following through all Day. I write down breakfast and sometimes lunch and then "just get lost." See , I know my faults but how about some hints on how to correct them.
Have a wonderful day...I am so glad I fond out how to get on this and other sites.
Joanne D

Joanne,

I just started WW for the second time and can relate to you. The first time I started I was just like you....I looked through my old journal and found several days where I just had ??? for the dinner section!

But see, so you've found your weak spot..the evenings, like me! Since I've started again, I've found it very important to plan out pretty much everything you eat for the whole day. I usually have my meal plans written down before I even eat them. Then, you have to stick to it. I'm not a real breakfast person but I make myself eat something..so I had two slices of diet wheat bread with a few sprays of butter spray and some water. A quick breakfast for 1 point. I always pack healthy snacks for work in-between meals like fruit, carrot sticks or Sugar Free Jello - great snacks for 0-1 pt.

So, anyhow, I think with WW, it's important to plan your meals. If you walk out the door with an empty page in your journal, you're way more likely to slip.

And if I eat out somewhere, I try to choose a place that I have point values for, and decide what to get. If I definitely don't have point values, I save around 20pts, just in case, and follow my good judgement when I eat.

It's an awesome program, but there are many little things that you can do to personalize it for yourself.

Girlie

Hey Girlie-- Thank You for your suggestions. You have a good idea. Would you believe I have joined WW at least 12+ times and have managed to lose nearly 60 lbs this last time -to goal,but now I find myself slipping into bad habits. Now I am trying to lose down at least 8-10 lbs and can't seem to. My primary fear is gaining it all back.
I am retired as is my husband and therefore am right next to the fridge all day. I try to keep busy and do a lot of sewing,I make quilts.Sew for my family.
I got all the chips etc. out of the house this week. That was a plus for me. But I will try to plan my meals better.I walk 3+ miles nearly every day.
I hope you have a great week. Thank You for your response....Joanne

Joanne-

I know another WW member who starts her daily points at 5 pm as she tends to eat a lot at night and very little in the mornings. She can have a nice dinner and a snack for ten points, a five point breakfast, lunch for seven points and several points left. If you use most of your points earlier in the day but are still hungry at night, you'll be more likely to blow it off and eat what you want, going off program for the rest of the day and feeling guilty.
I trick I've been working on is to make a list of all the reasons you'd like to lose weight and when you're frustrated or disappointed with yourself, get out your list and write about one of those things. It helps me get back on track and remember why I signed up for this whole adventure.

Good luck to you.

Hi Slinky-- Thank you for your reply. I am a three meal a day person ,from long ago habits. I have to fix meals for my husband and with the will power of almost O .I fix for myself at the same time. He prefers I sit with him. So I am almost regulated to making two different meals every meal almost.
This morning I wrote out the menu for myself for the day.. Now the trick is for me not to get sidetracted. I am going to try not to eat after six or seven. That is what I did when I was losing the bulk of my weight. I know what I should do. But, I have never been able to keep to the portions I should. I like to eat. I take off the thinking cap too often in that respect.
All the helpful hints are great. Thank You
Joanne

Hi Joanne, DH and I are retired also and I can relate to being home a lot with the refrig calling your name. But I want to know why you have to cook different for DH and yourself? Your DH probably needs to eat healthier at his age and if you don't tell him, he won't know the difference.

I do plan my meals. Pull out a weeks worth of entree recipes and make a list of them and what to go with each like potato and vegetable and/salad. This sure helps with the grocery shopping. I like to eat a light breakfast, and have two homemade bran muffins about 9 am. My DH eats as soon as he is up. I can't do that, I would just continue all day long. I am not hungrey early in the am. DH like sandwiches for lunch, I don't. I like Kashi Go Lean cereal with milk and dried cranberries, or cottage cheese and fruit with half of a Kashi Go Lean Bar, or if I'm running errands I eat a whole Kashi Go Lean Bar, or W W veggie soup. I like a snack betweek 3 and 4 pm. Supper at 6 or sometimes a little later. Desert 8 - 8:30 pm. DH like a bowl of ice cream. I have a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich, a jello type desert or a W W desert.

My DH has lost weight along with my low fat cooking. But being a heart patient he needed to eat healthier. Buy your self a W W cook book. The W W Complete Cook Book and the Simply the Best are both great. (Put one on your Mothers Day wish list. or just treat yourself) Try the new Taste of Home Light and Tasty magazine. If you have old time favorites lighten them up. Eat more chicken and try some Ground Turkey meat loaf recipes. They really are wonderful. I even put Morningstar Soy Crumbies in speghetti sauce and no one notices the difference.

You just have to plan and I do like to read recipes and try new things. Our adult education school offers a Eat for a Healthy Lifestyle Class, that I have taken for the past 9 years. It is great to try new things and sample them. I've gotten some wonderful recipes there and many from the W W related boards I search.

Hi Lighter- Some things I cook for myself ,I do cook for my husband- But he likes a sandwich usually at lunch and on the days I eat fish he won't. I don't use too much ground turkey for myself but do for his pasta. I like it well enough but it does have a lot of fat in it. A butcher told me that it sometimes has more fat than hamburger. My Hubby likes meat in his pasta,so I feel the turkey is better than the red meat, because of the colesterol. I usually eat Kashi cereal with half banana and skim milk for breakfast and a yogart and fruit or salad for lunch. I try to only eat chicken or fish one time a day.I try not to eat between meal,I have been cheating on Fat Free chips but now no longer keep them in the house as of last week.I want to lose about 10 more lbs. That will put me around 142-143.
I'll look for those books-- I have a WW cook book that is at least 20 yrs old. I Think things have changed, Don't You?I too like a lot of the recipes I find on the many wt. loss sites. Thank You for your great ideas.Joanne
Have A Great Day

Hi again Joanne, The last 10 lbs are the hardest to get off. My last 10 came off at the rate of 1/2 lb. per month average. Don't give up, they will come off. As we get older the harder it is. I had changed my goal weight over the years from the 70's. I tried to make it where I knew I could maintain and still enjoy life. I'm 5'6" and 155 lb and trying to hold it. I can wear most clothes in a size 14. I really never in my life wore below a size 12. I did not do maintainance this time when I reached goal because I found 27 pts were about all I can eat to stay at 155. I follow the 123 Success Plan.

I had a lot of cook books from the 70's but got rid of them. They probably are collectors items now. The new ones are so much tastier. No more liver, mashed cauliflower etc etc. I too had high cholesterol. That was what got me back to W W. I pretty much cut out the fat as much as I possibly could. I am off chol. medication and hope by my next blood check the liver functions are back to normal. If it's not one thing, it's something else.

Try some dried cranberries (Craisins) with your cereal some time. They are so good. All the new products in the markets now make this healthier eating so much easier.

Hello, ladies.

It's tough being on WW this time...last time I was on, I still lived with my parents. It's funny because you both are older and cooking using recipies...Since I bought my house, I've still refrained from using cookbooks, making up things as I go along. But yes, it's much harder now because before, I just had a few things that I bought for myself. Now I have a whole kitchen full of food...I know the points for all of it, but it's so hard to resist. And like you, Joanne, my Luvy isn't in to eating like I am...for example, I eat a lot of soy product instead of meat, and he likes his meat...so it gets hard to compromise.

I'm still learning a lot though...Now that I'm home doing homework and such, the fridge calls and calls my name! I'm sure to keep sugar free Jell-O and carrot sticks around, but why would I want those when i have a whole package of Skinny Cows around!

Arrgh..anyway, you both have done so wonderful. I'm still sort of just starting...so I'll take my time and learn about my eating habits...

Girlie

This is from www.dottisweightlosszone.com

Strawberry Fluff

1 sm. pkg. sugar free Vanilla Pudding that has to be cooked.
2 cups water
1 tsp. lemon juice
Boil to gether and Add:

1 pkg. sugar free strawberry jello
Cool

Fold in 8 oz fat free Cool Whip, thawed
1 1/2 cup fresh sliced strawberries

About 1 pt per cup

Now I did not have sugar free pudding that had to be cooked so I used Cook and Serve that did have sugar in it. I total up the calories and points and the most it comes to is 6 servings at 2 pts each. Very good.

Hi Girls--- I had a pretty good day yesterday- I am making my menu plan for the day and trying to stick with it... It seems that even though I have reached WW goal I am still in the mind set of bad habits. Portion control is a sticky area for me. I have no junk food in the house now.
I am a sorta cook book non cookbook user. I mean I have a tendency to improvise to my fancy.
It took me 30 yrs(yes 30yrs) to get down to the wt. I am now. All the charts say I should lose 20 more lbs. I think for my age(36 and holding) 10 should do it. I have such a fear of creeping back over 200.
It is good to know that we are not alone in this struggle with the monster wt. I will always try to get healther. Thank You for your response
Have A Great Day

Hey all you Great People-- I am down 3lbs today... Lets hope it is not water balance.. Or if it is it stays there. Check out Eleni on the TOPS site sometime. She has some good thoughts...Oh yes...She is my sister.
Here goes for another (hopeful)good day for myself and all of you.
Have A Great Day! Joanne

lighter,

that recipie sounds GREAT! I'm going to have to try it out. So if I'm not mistaken, you take the vanilla and add the lemon and water and let it boil, then add the strawberry powder, cook and cool, then add the berries and cool whip? Wow...that sounds great! I'm sure I could use different flavors, right? I'll make sure the nutrition facts are the same..but chocolate and vanilla sound good together...I'm a stickler for chocolate.

Joanne, congratulations! That's really great of you! My first weigh-in is on Thursday morning...I hope I lose at least 2lbs. I'm like you...I hate being in the 200's!