Linda,

Don't beat yourself up for the lunch party the other day. Mark it and move on.

Your menu from the other day piqued my interest. I saw you added vinegar to your soup - I need to try that. A week or two ago I made up a big batch of "taco meat mix", which is my own way to stretch out the meat, add vegetables and lower the calories. I happened to throw in some homemade salsa, which had lime juice and vinegar in it... WOW, I thought the mix was so much better! I know I hear a lot of cooks on television talking about balancing the taste of food with acid.

Here's my plan for today:

Breakfast
2 slices thin italian bread - 2 pts
2 oz. Publix sweet ham - 2 pts
1 egg, fried in spray - 2 pts

Lunch
Lean Cuisine - 8 pts (used to be 6!)
roasted zucchini and grape tomatoes - 1 pt (for the oil)
orange - 0 pts
grapes - 0 pts

Dinner
2 slices thin italian bread - 2 pts
Hamburger patty - 4 pts
Light mayonnaise - 1 pt
12 tater tots - 4 pts
Salad w/ dressing - 2 pts
Cauliflower - roasted - 0 pts

Total: 28 pts

Xan, hope you feel better. I hate colds and it's been a long time since I had one. But, they sure can throw you off. I think you may do quite well with this new plan as they do seem to place higher value on protein. I enjoyed fresh scallops last night that I pan seared in 2 tsp EV Olive Oil and 2 tsp butter with lemon juice. Oh my, were they great and I felt like I was cheating, but I wasn't!
Xan, I am going to try to challenge myself and find a lower point meatball for you, maybe something you could bake and make up a double recipe when you have time and freeze? If you know the points of a couple of them, you can have them and work them in.
In the meantime, check out this 4 point per serving Points Plus Fried Rice recipe, I'm going to try it!
http://www.weightwatchers.com/food/r...ecipeId=182921
Spryng, so how did you spend those 2 points? I spent my last few of the day on 1/2 cup for vanilla frozen yogurt. : )
Shcirerf, I find it interesting that you ate the same thing for breakfast as you did for lunch. Do you do that often? I am also surprised when I read other's journals how many people actually eat other foods than what I call "breakfast foods" at the start of the day, but it's OK that people do whatever makes them happy.
Eileen, thanks. I will try to be officially done with beating myself up over that lunch party. But, I have become very fearful that I might not have a loss this week, that I so badly want, if I am not really careful as that one event could have thrown me off. Sour cream cake, quiche, all sorts of things when I actually sat down to figure it out. I got carried away, as well.
But, again, that was ONE day... what truly counts for us all is how we do on average, day in and day out.
How do you roast zucchini with the grape tomatoes? That sounds great.
Oh my, I see 12 tater tots are 4 points on your journal too... might just have to check those out. I figured those were a very bad thing and have never looked. It's something "different" and I like "different".
Will be journaling my stuff later after I eat/figure it out.
I'm really enjoying what you all are writing here!

Ended up stuck at my in-laws for supper,

taco 8? estimating high
3 beers 9

finished the day with 30, 1 pt over, but I slept like a log after those 3 beers. lol.

Today, light brk and lunch, have a Christmas party tonight, but shouldn't be to bad, skipping the potato, just having the steak and salad and only 1 drink.

I had my typical breakfast and lunch yesterday - protein smoothie and a salad but I had an unusual (for me) dinner last night. It was late before we got to dinner so I had a hotdog on a whole wheat bun (8 points) with some leftover chili (4 points). I also was extra hungry yesterday so I had 2 snacks - peanuts (4 points) and cheese crackers (6 points). I ended up going over my points by one.

Today is my work holiday party and this weekend is my little boy's birthday and party so it may be a little rough. I am going to do my best. :D

Fridays are the day I typically have an extra treat in the evenings, and today, I didn't even have to go into my weekly points to enjoy it! Here's my tracker from today:

Breakfast
8 oz Total 0% nonfat Greek Yogurt
1 cup(s) unsweetened frozen blueberries
1/2 cup(s) Uncle Sam's Cereal
Subtotal 7

Lunch
1 cup(s) Soups Carrot Ginger Soup
2 slice(s) Nature's Own Double fibre wheat bread
1 wedge(s) Light Creamy Swiss Original Flavor
1 small apple(s)
1 cup(s) cantaloupe
Subtotal 6

Supper
1/2 cup(s) cooked mushroom pieces
1 1/2 cup(s) cooked zucchini
1/2 cup(s) cooked onions
4 oz potato, baked
3 oz cooked trimmed beef sirloin
Subtotal 6

Snacks
1 small apple
1 item(s) Smart Ones Desserts Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream
1 bag(s) Healthy Pop® 100 cal butter mini bag
1 bar(s) Kashi Chewy Granola Bar Dark mocha almond

Total P+ 29 :D

My day wasn't great because I had to skip breakfast. Here's how it breaks down:

Breakfast:

Coffee w/cream: 3
Trader Joe's coffee cake bite-sized sample while shopping: counted it as 1 :-)

Lunch:

Chicken breast: 3
Mashed potatoes (splurge since I didn't have time for breakfast): 10
Fruit salad: 0
90 calorie coke: 2

Snack:

2 small bananas: 0

Dinner:

96% lean patty: 3
Sara Lee Dee-Lightful bun: 2
Jarlsberg Light cheese slice: 1
Small tomato: 0
Asparagus: 0
Handful blueberries: 0

Dessert:

Vitatop: 3 (HATE that these aren't 1 pt. anymore!)

Total: 28 points

Tracer and Litchick, I think you both are doing great!
What we have here is real life... we are real people in real situations and we need to find a way to fit a program in our lives that will actually work for us. One of my reasons for repeated failure has been that I have been unable, in the long run, to be disciplined enough to just stick with it. I always felt like I was starving. Free fruit seems to be making a huge difference for me already!!! I hope, with that change, that I can stick with this and make it work.

Yesterday's journal for me:

P+ allowance: 29

Breakfast:
1/2 WW English Muffin = 1.5
1 T peanut butter, Peter Pan creamy = 2.5
Apple = 0
total for breakfast 4, points remaining 25

Lunch:
Had a hard time with one part of it and estimated. My Pocket Guide gives one slice of deli turkey breast as 0 points. Huh? What if you want two? They didn't give you that. I guessed and gave it two points. It might have been only 1 point. Will have to make a note to ask my leader if I can about this.

snack: handful of grapes = 0

Two slices lite wheat bread = 3
Two slices lean deli turkey breast = 2
Swiss Cheese slice = 2
approx. 1 cup cantaloupe = 0
Total for lunch, 7, points remaining 18

Chocolate piece! = 1.5 *old plan this was 1 point, but am willing to take the extra half point for my after lunch beloved piece of chocolate. It was good and it was worth it. Lindt dark...
Points remaining: 16.5
snack: another handful of grapes = 0

Dinner: We went out to Longhorn Steakhouse. I feel that I did very very well.

Wine, Pinot Grigio, one glass = 4 *used to be 3 points, but oh well...still worth it. : )
Salad (asked them to hold the croutons to save 3 points but forgot to ask them to hold the cheese - darn it) = 3
Oil and vinegar = 2 (was very careful about the oil use)
Bread, butter = 6
Sirloin Strip steak = 7
Steamed veggies = 0 (was really hard to skip the baked potato or mashed, but I did and I was OK and was very satisfied when I left)
Total for the meal was 22 points
Used 5.5 Points Plus, rounded up to 6, this is what they are for! We eat out once or twice a week and it's an important thing in our lives and I am happy to work this into my day and use those "flex" points, I still like the name flex for them, but whatever they want to call them, I am happy with. : )

Dessert at home was a banana = 0

Total for the day <6>

st

I just want to point out a few changes I have made in the above journal for the day. I think that is important to discuss.
In the past, WW English muffins were 1 point, I would have had both halves of it. As they are now 3 points, I chose to have only half for breakfast. In the past I could have had 2 T of peanut butter and put it on both halves of the E. Muffin, but I did this with only 1/2 and measured carefully how much peanut butter to have.
I would have still had the apple.

As for grabbing a few grapes as my in between meal snack, I certainly would have had a few of those 100 calorie packs of cookies or something of that nature. If I had to count points for the fruit in the past, I would have chose the easy to grab packs. Certainly this is a healthier choice for me.

Dinner would have been with a baked potato and I would have put sour cream AND butter over top of it. I'm not saying I wont have a baked potato in the future but I really wanted the bread and I made a conscious choice to have bread instead of potato and not both at one meal. I can and do have baked potatoes at home, they are not as spacial a treat for me when I go out to dinner as bread is, so I made a choice to have only one.
The steamed veggies were excellent, fresh and crisp and I really enjoyed them.

In the past, I would have chosen a WW chocolate ice cream cone that is now 4 points (yikes!) or 1/2 cup frozen lowfat yogurt for 4 points (and I might not measure it and it would probably have been about 6 points in the end. But, I chose a banana and it was 0 points.

I felt I wanted to review the changes I have made as a result of this new program. I think we all should review those choices. There are truly going to be days when I indulge myself.

Gosh, here it is Saturday and I started this program on Tuesday. I have only used 15 of flex points. I still have enough to enjoy a glass of wine this evening and some butter. We plan to have lobster as it's on sale at our local fish market. I'll probably have salad with EVOO along with it and might skip the carb that everyone else will have with the meal. Perhaps I'll have something else that is different? A citrus type of salad might balance the seafood well? We shall see.
I hope many restaurant chains get with the program and offer fruit as dessert or appetizer choices more. That would be great. : )

ok my menu yesterday looked like this:

29 p+

breakfast: 2 eggs over medium
2 slices of bread
total: 6 pts

lunch- roast beef sandwich
1 oz baked doritos (yum!)
total: 8 pts

snack: sf jello with whipped topping
total: 1 pt for the topping

dinner- 3 oz baked chicken breast
steamed brocolli
1 1/2 cups of mac n cheese
1 hot roll
total: 14 pts

I finally got all my pts in! LOL!! and I just have to say, that dinner yesterday felt like a cheat even though it was 100% OP!! YUM!!! I usually use my weekly pts on saturdays so I plan on enjoying something good today, maybe go out for lunch or something and yes I normally use them ALL so 49 is exciting to me! I peeked at the scale this morning and my weight is continually moving down, I'm so excited for wi on tuesday! course I gained 1.8 last week due to thanksgiving but according to my scale I've lost that and then some so we'll see on tuesday what they say!!! anyway, have a great weekend all!!! and let's stay OP and enjoy those points!!!!!!

Spryng, I have to say that I'm proud of you for staying in your points range, but I have a big "but" to mention to you. I would not be a good supporter of you if I didn't point out a couple of things. If I were your WW leader and read that journal, I'd be proud that you were well within your points range and I would be happy for you and happy if you had losses, and I am sure not perfect either, but here I go..... said with love and a smile, though as things on line are hard to "get" at times......

Where are your healthy oils?
I see no fruits (and here they are free!!!!) in that journal
I see only one serving of vegetables for the entire day
I don't see much milk/dairy in your diet either? I know you had mac 'n cheese, but that might equal one serving of dairy.

Just a thought or two about what you could have done instead:

At breakfast, why not have one piece of toast instead of 2 and then have fruit of some kind.

At lunch, why not eliminate those Doritos (I love them too, of course) or at least add an orange or something like that to the meal?

Instead of the sf jello and 1 point whipped topping, you could have had a whole banana for two points.
Milk products are hard to get in. I've been buying Calorie Countdown dairy beverage, which is only one point for one cup and has a full day's recommended serving size of calcium in it. Hood makes it and it is in a green carton near your milk in most stores nowadays.
At any rate, just some thoughts.... hugs to you.

http://www.hood.com/Products/prodListColl.aspx?id=851

Here is a link to the Calorie Countdown dairy beverage. One cup = 1 point plus.
This is pretty good opposed to one cup of 1% milk now at 3 points plus. Ouch!!!!
Works for me.

Thanks Linda, I appreciate you noticing those little things, I guess I should be more specific in my menu, I just put the gist down with pts to give ya'll an idea of what I eat each day but I do get alot of the healthy guidelines in there, I just didn't mention them, lol.. my baked chicken had the healthy oils on it (a little olive oil roasted into it) I also drink a ton of water each day so I always get my water in. And veggies yesterday my roast beef sandwich was piled high with lettuce and tomato etc and a big serving of brocolli with dinner. As far as fruits, I don't actually care much for fruit (free or not, lol) so you'll hardly ever see them on my menus, probably more so in the summer when I like lighter sweeter things but when it's cold I stay away from salads and fruits for some reason, just don't like them much.
What I really like about ww is that you can take or leave the healthy guidelines, I've never been a dairy person so I take a calcium supplement, trace minerals, omega 3,6,9's, multivitamin and a couple other herbal supplements to make up for anything I may miss in my foods. I am trying to eat cleaner with more protein and less processed stuff which is more pts anyway and I'm loving that aspect of all this. So all in all yeah I could probably always improve on my menu and I'm sure as time goes on I will but for now I'm more interested in just sticking to my pts and fitting what I can in with items I actually enjoy eating :) I did ww about 6 years ago and lost 70 lbs without ever eating much veggies and NO fruit (because I hated using pts for them and didn't like them much anyway) and I rarely had milk because I didn't have many pts to use for it and the plan was a success. This time around I am experimenting with more cooked veggies and eating cheese for dairy etc when I can so it's a work in progress for sure :) But I sure appreciate your feedback, I love the motivation and advice I get from you all so keep it coming! :) thats why I'm here!! :)

I hope you all don't mind me joining in. I have not started the program yet.... but I am going to sign up online tomorrow. Does anyone here do it online? I have to..... I am working 2 jobs now and I need to be able to do what works for me.

A brief history. I have been on WW I think a million times, and it works. But, I have issues with sugar, the more I eat-- the more I want. I have been reading about Clean eating and I really like what it does for the body..... but some things I just cannot deal with is a "free rein" of food.... I need (not want) portion control. AND, I need equal in my black coffee! I can deal with giving up a lot but I need something sweet in my coffee. AND, I need to be able to buy what I eat at a WM or something.... not specialty food store. I live in Arkansas--- and I don't want to have to specialty shop. However, I think this new WW program is the best of both worlds combined.... if I am understanding it correctly. Anyway, the 2 job thing has thrown my body for a loop.... I am not exercising like I did and I am not eating like I should. I know from experience if I don't catch it now with the 15-20 pound gain.... I will end up with it ALL back on.... and I do NOT want that.

I loved the "taco junk" recipie. I think I will try it today.

Sorry....I was so wrapped up in me..... I forgot to tell you my name is Tammy and I am married and I have one grown son who serves in the military, he is in Kosovo right now... he is 20 and will be 21 in a few weeks (celebrating his bday over there), and my other son is 17.... and he is giving me a run for my money in the teen attitude department. Lol.

It is good to have found you all. I look forward to hearing from you.

Welcome Tammy!!!! Great to have you. I'll love reading what you have to say and your food journal.
Spryng, glad you did have some of the other things. : )
Also, I made an error when I was typing suggestions to you, I said a banana was 2 points!!! It's 0 points!!!!
I'm hungry, didn't have enough at lunch and now I shall have fruit with no guilt. I love this.

I had a banana this morning and it was so relaxing. It was the first time I didn't have to worry about eating a banana in a looong time! I am a fruit lover, so this plan change is huge for me.

I'm also down almost four pounds on my home scale since starting P+ Tuesday morning.