[oksoitsjen]

Heyyyyy Ladiessss!

I'm sorry I have been so absent! I started classes last week, and another job, so between working 3 jobs and class and normal life stuff, last week was nuts. BUT I think I am in the swing of things!! I still calculated every single things I ate! I am really proud of myself. If I managed to stay on track last week, I can stay on track any time! There are no excuses!!! Anyway, I have missed all of you girls! I am back for good now!

Today was weigh in day. I am down 3 pounds from last week. 14 pounds total so far! I feel great! I have no idea what I will be eating today. I think I am going to have an english muffin for breakfast!!

I hope you all have a fantastic day!!!

[April1985]

Happy Monday morning ladies

I'm April, 27, with an active two year old

Breakfast :

raisin toast 4pts
banana 0pts
pineapple 0pts

Does anyone know the points value for a bowl of pho vietnamese soup?

[smashlers]

Great job Jen! You are one busy bust bee! Congrats on the 3lbs this week!

Anyone interested in a book club? Non-fiction or fiction, I don't care. I am just about finished with "The Beginners Goodbye" by Anne Tyler. I loved it. I love her.

Let me know! If people are interested we can start a new thread.

[SoMuchFattitude]

Good Morning!!!

Wow! What a busy weekend in here!

I also had a busy busy weekend! I gained .02 at my weigh in, but I expected it, so I'm okay with it. This is a new week and I made pretty good food/liquor choices and did NOT go over my weekly allowance of points - and still have 16 left over the weekend!

Saturday I went to my nephews football game and brunch with my family where I made great choices. Onto bowling with the boys and then we did have froyo. I had a little dark chocolate FF froyo w/ kiwi, strawberries, blackberries and maybe 2tbsp of cookie crumbs. It was DELICIOUS. I still had 22 points going into the night with friends for a bday party where I had a few chips w/ queso, but had a big salad minus the cheese for dinner. I used my weekly points for bourbon and was the DD so I didn't drink as much. I was VERY proud of myself. THEN! Yesterday - we had dinner at the InLaws and I planned the night/day in advance since we were having spaghetti and meatballs. I brought one of those dole light Cesar salad kits and then brought a tray of cut up apples to munch on while everyone else ate tortilla chips before dinner. SUCCESS!

Another busy busy week ahead of me and I've committed myself to working out at least 3 days this week after work. Weight Watchers is coming to our work today to field any questions we have, so I'm going to go talk to them about points when I'm training for triathlons and see what they say.

Breakfast
Sandwich thin toasted w/ Boar's Head chicken, 2tbsp light Alouttte spread and tomato slices - 6pts
Grapefruit - 0pts

Snack
Yoplait Light w/ Fiber - 1pt

Lunch
Chicken & Rice Casserole - 8pts
Carrots & Zucchini w/ port cheddar dip - 2pts

Snack
Blueberries & Fiber One Brownie - 2pts

Dinner -
Ham, Potato and Gruyere Gratin - 10pts
Asparagus w/ 1tsp EVOO - 1pt

Total: 30pts
Leftover: 4pts

[MagicEyez]

Good morning ladies ... I hope everyone had an amazing weekend!!!!!

More new faces!! I love it ~ how exciting!!!

Congratulations on all the negative numbers as far as pounds go ~ you guys are awesome!!! I totally think we should tally them all up at the end of the month and see what our grand total is!!! 'That'll give us a number to beat next month!!

My scale finally decided to cooperate with me this week and show -4 ... Which puts me back at 169.5 so I'll take that. Pretty sure I'm about to get hit with that TOM - go figure - but hopefully it won't hinder me as far as my workouts and such ... I'd really like to get in the gym and start doing a little bit of weights ... but, I hate to pay for it!! I'm poor!!! lol ...

Breakfast = oatmeal and coffee ~ 5 pts
Lunch = Salad with a chicken breast I cooked last night ~ 6 pts

[gooch100]

Another newcomer here!

Participates in WW about 6 years ago with some success but left that company and it's WW at Work program. Did Atkins for 3 weeks and lost some weight (about 8 lbs) before realizing that long term that program wasn't going to work for me. I like to joke that my Irish roots were crying out for a darn potato! Switched to WW last Friday and lost another 1.5 lbs. So now have lost 12% of my total weight loss goal. Yay!

It's all about finding the plan that works best, right?

While Atkins wasn't the best plan for me - it did get me used to logging everything I ate, checking the "numbers" of every item, drinking LOTS of water and regularly taking my vitamins. It also got me thinking about what triggers I had related to eating and when/how much I ate. All good stuff...well, except for the no carbs part.

Here is today's plan (and everything but the dinner will be the same/very close every day)

Breakfast:
Coffee w/ 1/2c skim milk - 1 pt
1/2 Cup LF yogurt w/ 1/2 cup blueberries - 3pts
1/2 bagel - 4pts

Morning snack
Coffee w/ 1/2c skim milk - 1 pt

Lunch
Salad with FF ranch, 3 oz chicken, 1 strip bacon crumbled, lots of veggies, lettuce, LF cheddar cheese - 6 pts
String cheese - 1 pt
SF jello - 0 pts
Diet Coke - 0 pts

Afternoon snack
Veggies (carrots, celery, red peppers, cucumbers) - 0 pts
1 oz Pirate Booty - 3 pts
Diet Coke - 0 pts

Dinner
Baked chicken with dijon and lime - 5 pts/serving
(found thee recipe on Skinny Taste)
Brown rice 1/2 cup - 3 pts
green beans - 0 pts
Salad w/ ff ranch dressing - 1 pt

Evening snack
pear - 1 pt
pita chips - 3.5 pts

This still leaves me with lots of points but I figure as long as I am not hungry, I am doing OK.

My DH and I are doing this together and are going it alone (i.e., not officially joining WW) so thig group will be a huge help since we won't be doing the meetings.

[MagicEyez]

Welcome gooch100 !!!!!!

Congrats on your progress so far ~ sounds like you've got a pretty good hold on everything!!!!

[gooch100]

Thanks MagicEyez

I swear it was eye opening when I started weighing stuff to see exactly what an ounce is of some of my fav foods. It made me weep on the inside, that is for sure!

I do have a question for the group though. DH and I make/can our own tomato sauce. It is literally tomatoes, water and a 2 T/qt of lemon juice (to prevent spoiling), no oil, garlic or sweetener, etc. How would I figure the points for that? Would it be 0 since it is just boiled down tomatoes?

[SoMuchFattitude]

gooch100 - I make my own 0 point tomato sauce and freeze it instead of canning. My personal recipe has a ton of stuff in it.

It's roughly -

3lbs plum tomatoes chopped
1 can of tomato paste
1 can of water (use the tomato paste can for measuring)
1 can of dry red wine (alcohol cooks out)
3'ish sweet onions
1 chopped green bell pepper
5-7 minced garlic cloves
baking soda (cuts the acidity)
pinch of sugar/splenda
salt/pepper
red pepper flakes (puts a hint of heat on the back end of it)

I spray my stock pot with cooking spray (EVOO Misto) and brown my onion/pepper - add my garlic, chop and throw in my tomatoes, add everything but the baking soda/sugar.

COOK COOK COOK taste taste taste COOK COOK COOK taste taste taste (aprox 3 hours - low and slow)

Add the baking soda - watch and stir - it's like a volcano science experiment when it cuts the acid. Taste till you've got enough and then throw in a pinch of sugar so it's not bitter. Stir and cook, cook and stir.

Then take an emulsion blender to it until it's the consistency you like.

It makes a ton and is very tasty.

[gooch100]

SoMuchFatitude. Thanks! Your recipe sounds great.

We doctor our canned version up once it goes in the pot but with dried herbs and spices (which are 0 points) so I was just wondering about the base point value for the tomato sauce.

We are having our monthly "family dinner" this weekend to celebrate my mom's birthday and she asked for spaghetti and meatballs. So now DH and I are trying to modify our fav meatball recipe from America's Test Kitchen - it isn't Points+ friendly without some tweaking.

Once we get it figured out, I will post the recipe.

[MagicEyez]

One of the ladies I follow on FB ~ who actually came from this board set this up for a February Challenge ... I'm gonna go for it ... Just wanted to share with you guys in case yall wanted in!

There is actually an event page that you can 'join' if you're in!

https://www.facebook.com/events/472911036090697/

(hopefully we can put links like that?!?)

[roxannestags]

That recipe for spaghetti sauce sounds amazing. I think I am going to try that!

Roxanne

[roxannestags]

I had something weird just happen. I went to go check my weight to see how much damage this weekend had done to me and found my scale just missing! Guess I will either have to weight at work or just get a new scale! It's just completely gone though. Talk about weird.

Roxanne

[hedhelix]

Newbie here too!

I've been lurking for a while and was kind of afraid to post, I'm from Brazil and still struggle a bit with my english, so apologies in advance for my mistakes.

I have to say you guys help me so much, just reading about you and seeing people that are in the same situation as me gives me strenght to keep going, I'm in week 3, doing flex on my own.

I need to lose 45lbs, and I tend to get a bit frustrated with the slow loss, but I'm trying to convince myself that it's for the best, I really want to lose and keep this damn weight off of me forever =)

I'm bipolar 2 and have an anxiety disorder too, so that does not help much, I barely ever get out of the house and I am very sedentary, since i sleep so much, I hope the program works regardless of that. I decided at first not to weight myself, this is probably not ideal but I'm really and I mean really afraid of not seeing significant results and giving up (I've always been a slow loser), so I'll give myself a little more time to really get used to the program and then I'll start weighting myself weekly.

I have one question, do you guys eat your weekly points? Do you feel a big difference on the scale when you don't/do eat it?

Oh btw my name is Patricia and I'm 33y/o nice to meet you all, ladies that inspire me!

[roxannestags]

Welcome Patricia,
I have to say that I do eat my points. However, I have only been on the plan a week.... and well, I ate all my points and then some

A board I noticed the other that you might be interested in checking out is the one for dieting with difficulties. I know that they talk about people that diet that have depression or other difficulties and I thought maybe you could also find support there and people that understand how hard it is to diet when you have the special circumstances you do. It's nice sometimes to talk to people that are going through the same challenges you are. I know that I bounce around to several boards....the more help the better!

Nice to meet you as well!