Switching plans
 

Just to keep things lively and interesting, I decided to try Core next week (my weigh-ins are Sunday). I've been maintaining on Flex for almost 2 years but I could sure use a break from tracking.

Where I envision a challenge: I eat cold cereal, whole grain waffles, whole grain toast for bkfst. I can deal with Shredded Wheat (as long as it has some fresh fruit in it) but I can't handle Puffed Wheat.

Would appreciate any and all advice. Thanks in advance.

Elana, I love Core and have been doing it for almost 2 years. I need to lose another 120 pounds but I've not been exercising or I'd probably be darn near there by now.

I eat Post Shredded Wheat and Bran or oatmeal every day for breakfast. I, too, enjoy fresh fruit in my cereal. I'd advise this brand and combination of bran as I've found it to have the best flavor. I like to cook fruit into my oatmeal as well. I use the quick cook (not instant) and make it with milk instead of water since it gives it a creamier texture. If the fruit is fragile, like blueberries, then I stir them in at the end. I cook mine in the microwave. If it's heartier fruit then I put it in near the end of the cooking time when I'm stirring. I heartily recommend a banana cut up in the oatmeal. If you REALLY use your imagination, it tastes like a banana muffin.

We have many, many great recipes here. I have a couple of Core tips. I'd suggest that you try it for a month. Sometimes it seems that it takes folks a while to drop a big amount. Water is WAY more important on Core for some reason. It must be all the fiber we are eating that needs to get washed through. I drink at least 6-8 eight ounce glasses of water daily in addition to other decaf beverages. We have also found that some type of exercise helps. I'm sure this is true on flex as well. I think it's very important to eat 3 small meals and 2 snacks. This helps me to only eat to satisfied as opposed to full if I know that more food is coming around the corner! IMHO, I'd try to stay away from sugar if you can until you detox a bit. You can use your WPA's for sugary things if you want but we've found that a little bit of sugar just makes us want MORE!

Ok....I've babbled all I can think of. I hope some of it helps.

Come hang out with us on our weekly chat thread. We love new people! I'll bet you'll see a quick loss if you just change the kind of food you're eating for a couple of weeks.

Elana, since you're wanting to maintain and not necessarily lose, you could probably go ahead and eat your breakfast. Everyone gets 35 WPAs (flex points to you flexers!) per week but maintainers get another 28. That's 9 points a day in addition to the Core food. I think it would be enough to cover pretty much anything you wanted to have.

As for cereal though, a lot of people eat Cheerios and count them as "Core-enough" ... also, there are some really good WW brand cereals, as you probably know. The WW bread that's 1 pt for 2 slices is better toasted than not (IMO). Spray butter is 0. I don't think your breakfast routine would have to chance much at all.

Hi Elana, I lost my weight and got to goal doing only core. Since reaching my goal in May 2005, I've been pretty sucessful mainting still focusing on core. It is great to not have to weigh and measure and write down-- after all, who lives their lives that way??

As far as breakfast, check out the recipes here. Oatmeal and corn meal are core and there are some snack bread recipes that are very tasty and can make a quick breakfast. For cold cereal - read lables. Grapenuts don't have any non-core ingredients, although they are not on the official core list, I consider them core. There is always oatmeal, eggs with lite bread or lite english muffins if you have a few points to use. Yogurt or a smoothie is another good breakfast idea.

Hope this helps!

Good Points, Kathy and Paula! I'm stuck in losing mode. I'd also consider Cheerios Core enough if I were at my goal.