Well, I finally figured out that I can not have sugar and flour. I just can't handle it. I joined weight watchers a couple of weeks ago, and I feel hungry all the time. Having the freedom to eat anything I want is causing me to binge on those kinds of foods. I have been on the beach before and I know it works. SO, I am back.

I noticed a thread of those who has a hundred or so pounds to loose, so add me to those who are in that group.

Just a question for those on the beach...do you plan on the weekends what you are gonna do for the week? Do any of you cook ahead of time? Just trying to get into a routine. Thanks everyone!

I do plan on the weekend for what my dinners will be for the entire week. I then make my grocery list and go shopping. I also make sure I have enough for my snacks and for breakfast but they don't vary too much. I don't cook ahead of time but I often make dinners that will give me leftovers for lunch at work (soups and casseroles etc.)

I was the same way./ WW does not work for me. Maybe the core but not having full range of it all. I do have to plan or I fail. I do need to go back on phase 1 tom and I am dreading it. I do think the south works well for those who react to sugar quickly. Good luck.

I have fallen off the beach...so I too want to re enter Phase 1 for at least a week. My sugar consumption has made me sluggish, upset my stomach and of course, caused a GAIN on the scale. Why do we repeat these patterns??? I feel so much better when my waistbands feel loose and I am mentally in control.
I am driving 7 hours...Chicago to Mpls...my plan is to get breakfast omelette on the road and have a beach friendly dinner at home.

Barb your weight loss is so inspiring. I think I make little mistakes that mess me up...like salad dressings. What dressing have you found work well for you. Also, what are your favorite snacks?
Meg

back, Gina!

I had the exact same experience on WW. I just can't handle the sugar and bad carbs. My friend Mel can do it...it amazes me how little they affect her! Different bodies, I guess.

I plan out my menu in advance. I used to do it on Sunday, but now that I'm a SAH (not a mom yet! ), I do it on Mondays. I sit down and plan out what I'll eat for dinner (and then I have leftovers for lunch the next day) and work it so I'm only eating one starch a day. I use Cooking Light, a couple of cookbooks I have here, recipes from the internet (and our recipe forum!) and cookbooks I get at the library so I'm never bored. The only bad thing is, other than the Taco Bake (which we just can't get enough of!), we rarely eat something twice, even if we like it!

Then I make a shopping list; I do all my shopping for the week on Mondays as well. The only thing I don't plan is my snacks, but I know that I'll have yogurt for my morning snack and have fruit and a protein for my afternoon snack. The freedom to pick which piece of fruit looks good to me at that moment is helpful to me, I think.

Hope this helps!

Welcome back!

Hi Monkey and Welcome. Yes I do plan my weekly meals also. For me planning every week is the only way I can behave myself and eat like I know I should. I come home really tired from work every day and if I had to figure out what I had to cook for dinner each night I know we would eat out instead of cooking.

Barb had a great suggestion this year. She is planning all of her meals in a calendar. I started doing that with a week at a glance calendar and I just love it.

As I do each day's meals and snacks I make a grocery list. I usually do my menu on Friday night or Saturday morning and then we go shopping on Saturday.

On Saturday or Sunday I clean, cut up or chop as many of the veggies as I can for the week. I also bag up the raw cut up veggies that I am taking that week so all we have to do is through them in the lunch bag each morning.

If we are having chicken or some other meat that needs cleaned it gets done on Saturday or Sunday before I though it into the freezer. It sure makes a huge difference during the week when our schedules are insane.

I also look at what is happening during the week and make sure I do simple/easy meals on the days that I know I won't have a lot of time to cook.

The weekends are when I try out new recipes. It shows me how long it will take to make during the week and if we like them or not. If they aren't good when we are eating them on the weekend I will make something else but during the week, I know myself to well, if it isn't good we would just go get fast food somewhere.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Thanks yo so much for the suggestions! I feel so welcomed!

Focused - Thanks for the compliment. I really do love this way of eating. On work days, I usually bring sliced up raw zucchini. I don't normally dip it in anything but I have used hummus in the past with veggies. Lately, I have been wanting an extra snack so I have a plain fatfree yogurt with splenda and cinnamon as well as a fruit flavored artificially sweetened fat free one. This is in place of the milk I was drinking with dinner. I like to make sure I get enough milk or yogurt. Other times I snack on raw cauliflower or red pepper strips. I have also used peanut butter and apple sometimes.

The calendar has worked out really well for me. If we try something and don't like it, then it gets a line through that day so I know not to try it again. I note the page number and abbreviations for the cookbook so it is really easy to find the ingredients. Some recipes come back often and some we just make once.

I plan out my menus every week, but have to admit that I don't always stick to them. Since I cook a lot on weekends, I try to plan out the menu & grocery list on Friday night so that I can hit the store Sat. AM and start cooking. I did a ton of cooking this past weekend, so I don't have to cook again until Thursday.

Something that I hope will be a big help in the future is the cookbook program (MasterCook) I put on my PC. I'm a variety girl, so I'm always looking for new recipes to try. When I find one I like, I enter it into the cookbook program. I have it set up to categorize the recipes by SB phase, so I when I need to go back to phase I for a while, I can look for recipes for that phase. I've only had it for a couple of weeks, so it's not all ready yet, but it should help with menu planning and grocery lists - not to mention finding recipes to use up leftovers. (How does one use up leftover jicama? ) Man, this really makes me sound like a computer geek. Oh well, if the shoe fits...

I have defintely found that planning ahead of time and cooking/preparing ahead of time. This is my second time around with SBD and I think this is an important one for me. I don't do it every single weekend but most weekends I spend a few hours cooking meals and preparing veggies for snacking. Unfortunately my husband and son still love the chips, ice cream, etc. and they can handle it, so I know that I need to have good SBD food at hand. Luckily my mother agreed to buddy up with me, so sometimes we cook together. Like yesterday, I brought over some of the groceries and empty glad containers and we made veggie chili, chicken manhattan, roasted chickpeas, roasted veggies and a brown rice casserole.

I also really like the SBD refrigerated wraps for a quick lunch. I add the contents, beside the wraps, to a small salad and then eat some of it in the wraps and then eat the remainig salad. Good luck!