Hi Turtles,
Gail, hooray for only one small piece of banana bread. I overindulged on pumpkin bread from Christmas, so I'm very reluctant to make any banana bread right now. love the stuff!

I had a very big weight gain at today's WI and I know why..............this is my first WI in three weeks because of my car not starting and then company so I missed my meetings...........I do like my meetings. I'll let you know what I weigh next week. I am confident I can get this weight off quickly since Freestyle actually works for me. It's the first WW program since Core that I like and can do.

Running out to baby sit, but will chime back in here whenever I can.
: and to all the Turtles!
Judy

Hi turtles

Judy - hope you knock your gain off quickly & good luck with the new Freestyle WW programme - commercials look good with lots of variety for food.

Just going along with the winter up here & temperature goes up/down so quickly. Have my weigh in tonight - was down 2# last week, so was happy with that.
Had some birthday celebrations this past week, so would be happy to have a turtle this week.

Make stuffed chicken breasts with broccoli & cheese last night for tonights dinner & they look really good.

Anyone tried any new recipes lately??

Gail

Sorry I didn't get back here sooner. Gail, glad you lost 2# last week and are also enjoying celebrations. I figure you have got this whole idea working for you. You had a great weight loss last year and when you repeat that this year you'll be that much closer to goal.

I had a setback............and have come to the conclusion that will be my pattern. Ate too much yesterday morning even before the day started..........had 2 slices of banana bread (which was delicious) for 18 points and ended up just fine by eating zero point foods for the rest of the day. Well, nothing I think anyone should emulate, but I do have one good idea. Because my dh and I eat different foods at different times, I am in the kitchen often throughout the day. Now I have set up a "snack bowl" filled with a couple of clementines, mini cuke, and mini peppers to graze on while I am there. It works! before I would hunt for almonds or grab a few pretzels, etc. and that wasn't doing me any good. I still plan all meals in the morning and I include snacks. Also, have you checked out YouTube for meal prep for the week on WW's Freestyle program? I got inspired to make a really good bean chili with lots of veggies....simple...........cannellini beans rinsed and drained, can crushed tomatoes, carrots, green beans, corn, onion all chopped along with turmeric, seasoning..................like the Italian blend........and slow cooked. Makes a ton of chili and it's good. My dh topped his with parm and that worked.

Anyway, : and : I WI in tomorrow and I am hoping for an edge downward.
Best to all!
Judy

Hi turtles

Judy - well, the 2 lbs I lost last weight were regained this week. I tried doing the "official Tops exchange programme" for the week. But I did have grandsons birthday celebrations & 1 dinner out with the ladies. But still felt the programme for me is too many starches and not enough protein, so will be tweaking it this week & go from there.

Your snack bowl is a great idea - already when needed. Your bean chili sounds really good. Tonight I am making stuffed spaghetti squash, so will have that for a couple of meals.

All - hope you are doing well and pop in when you can.

Judy - have a good week!

I hear you. All we can do is tweak the programs as we go along. I have a fellow WWer who has already lost 135# in about a year................and she hasn't had a piece of bread. she knows from past times of trying to lose weight that she really can't eat bread. With a 135# loss, who can argue with her about HER!
I did a WI this morning and am happy to have lost 2.2# which is part of my Christmas gain. ugh...........the up and down is tiring, but I am on track now and have been for the last 4 days including treadmill, so I think things are looking up.

We have a pizzeria nearby that makes a WW pizza...........they pointed it out and the entire 12" pizza (of course very thin crust and small amts. of sauce and cheese) was only 9 SP. I had half the pie, packed up the rest to bring home and wrapped the remaining 4 slices into two bundles of 2.5SP each. Happy I tried it.

right now I'm making a spinach thingy..................spinach cooked with onion and garlic and some tomato product of almost any kind. I serve it on a low point bread and heat it up.........sprinkle some ff mozzarella shreds on it and let that melt. makes a very low point lunch or a good side to chicken or beef for dinner. Thought you'd like that idea.

Things going okay here. Hey Turtles, chime in, let us know what and how you're doing!
All the best :
Judy

by the way, I love stuffed spaghetti squash and bought a huge squash at Trader Joe's today. I have sauce and ff ricotta cheese and some ff mozzarella and some delicious parm..................which will make a lovely dinner. I may even throw in some turkey pepperoni or some sliced chicken sausage.

I am trying new dishes to help my dh lose some weight. Any more great recipes, please post here.
Oh, and I made the unstuffed cabbage with 93% lean chopped beef and a cole slaw mix of cabbage and carrots......easy way to get a good result.

Okay, I will chat again soon. : to all.
Judy

Good morning, turtles

Judy - great job on your weight loss & wow, for cooking up a storm. All recipes sound delicious & I love that your pizzeria has WW pizza, and that is low in points for the whole thing plus you have more meals from it - great find!

Will be having the squash tonight for my dinner, so looking forward to that. Since I am doing a modified tops plan this week, I can still have some starches - so breakfast today I am having 1 slice of whole wheat toast with 1/2 tomatoe and cheese slice, so alittle different but works with my plans. I also brought a banana (which counts as 2 fruits). For lunch a salad with feta cheese, light dressing and some roast beef. So all on plan for the day.

Hoping my dropping some starch & adding protein will be better results this week (if not, will tweak again)

All - hope you are all doing well.

Lets all drink some extra water today!

Gail

Glad you are tweaking your plan. I feel good about the WW new program Freestyle. YouTube has some interesting videos about the program..................it is fairly controversial since it would be possible to gain weight if you ate zero point foods and filled in with junk for points. Why anyone would purposely do that is beyond me. I am looking for a way to eat healthy and still have little treats here and there. Hopefully when I do that and get on the I will lose weight again and have a : I sliced up and apple, sprinkled it with cinnamon, and a smidge of water. Put it in the microwave............and it's close to a baked apple and smells delish. The good thing about Freestyle is that the food is filling. I had a new chili recipe from Amanda Cypert on YouTube. Crock pot.............chicken, Rotel tomatoes, black beans, corn, and a pointed out amt. of 1/3reduced cream cheese. The chix can be shredded once it is cooked and the whole casserole gets creamy and thick. I really liked it. She spiced it up with cumin, hot sauce, chili powder, Hidden Valley ranch dressing powder...............The cream cheese I cut way back on using only 1/2c. for 12 points total. Since I got 6 healthy servings out of it , the recipe turned out to be 2SP/bowl. Have another portion in fridge and rest in freezer. I like trying new things.................if I find another good one, I'll put the results here.

Have a great day! Chime in when you can. : to all!
Judy

Morning turtles

Judy - recipe sounds good & very low in points which is bonus.

I think we have to keep some treats in our plan but budget for them. I always overdo chips (my favorite) and had some (lots) Friday night so yesterday, was feeling guilty about it, so I weighed out a 50 gram portion (280 cal) and but in baggie & that is a pretty good portion. So will count that in my total when I have them. Instead of just opening the bag and chowing through it, then not really knowing how much I had. It will make me more aware when having chips.

Yesterday I made a cauliflower casserole with cheese, bacon & sour cream & turned out good - so that will be a side dish throughout the week. Also roasted up a pork loin roast.
I like to do some pre-cooking on the weekend since it is too late to cook big things during the week when I get home. Also have some stuffed squash leftover for another meal.

All - keep on with your weight loss journey, sometimes it is hard but also it is harder being uncomfortable in our overweight bodies.

Have good luck at the scale this week!

Hi Turtles,
Gail, that sounds smart to weigh out chips and those things we can have, but are easily overeaten. I do that with almonds for a 2SP serving which is 11 almonds.

I had a disappointing WI today since I got on the treadmill 6X this week and hit the blue dots every day but one this past week which should have resulted in a loss. Instead I gained 1.2# which is not at all fun............especially since I am only working on getting off the Christmas weight that I gained because of stress and food. Well, it is what it is. last week I did lose 2.2# which was a big loss for me and maybe that was an artificial loss. Who knows? So, I will stick to the program and see what the next few WI's turn out to be. I don't see another way to lose weight and this should work. Wish me luck.

In the meantime, anyone looking in, please do your best, drink water, get some movement in and post new recipes as you find them. it all helps to shake up the program and keep a weight loss going!
Judy

Hi Judy - shake off the gain, stick with it and progress will follow. I know though when you work hard & it doesn't show at the scale, it gets you down. But sometimes our hard work plus our over indulgences don't show up until the following week, so you probably have a nice loss next week.

For me, I was down 1# this week at the scale, so happy I tweaked Tops plan - I knew too many starches would not be good for me. But I dropped it down & added more protein, so here's hoping that will work.

Also, this week another lady did a programme similar to the exchange except it is called "My Plate" which I am sure you are familiar with. It basically is: Half plate veggies, 1/4 plate starch & 1/4 plate protein, then you add 1 Fat (example 1 tab oil, dressings etc) and 1 milk (or yogurt). That would help with eating out, but at home I prefer weighing/measuring.
She gave us a paper plate for sample (which was abit smaller than my dinner plate at home) Something to be aware of. I have a travelling plate with dividers which is same as her sample, so will be using that going forward.

So, calling for more snow up here & the kids are heading to cottage for weekend, so have some "me time" this weekend.
Goal for this week is to get my Simply Fit board out and use it, as well as some walking.

All - have a great week.

Hi Turtles,
Gail, enjoy the quiet me time this weekend.
For once instead of getting furious at the scale : which went up last week in spite of excellent food and I tried being a grownup. I kept to the plan, tweaked it, and ended up losing all I gained and an additional amt. So glad for that. I am 3# away from my lowest December weight and then I'll start a "true loss" number.

Oh, and listen to this..................on the new Weight Watchers you can play with it quite a bit. That's not helpful to me. Eating zero points all day for my meals and then indulging in 23 SP of junk will get me nowhere. So I have decided not to earn the blue dots from the WW app. Instead, I am going to concentrate on zero point foods, have healthy snacks and make this work. Of course I can't eat the way I'd llike (and I wish WW would stop saying you can have anything you want because they never finish the sentence) because if I ate the way I would like to eat, I'd gain tremendous amts. of weight. Aside from okra, I can't think of a food I don't like. I am a volume eater so need lots of food. You know what I am saying, for sure.

Well, off that message. Have you tried making a Shepherd's Pie with 93% lean beef or turkey with mashed cauliflower topping instead of mashed potatoes? It's really good...........not hard to make and makes a ton which also freezes quite well.

Sending : to all. Turtles, chime in. Gail, so grateful for your help.
Judy
getting there.

Morning, turtles

Judy - glad you dropped your gain. I bought lean ground chicken to try and make some meatballs, but after reading your post I will make sheppards pie with it & plus I already have a cauliflower on hand & yes, I have made it before with the cauliflower but used ground beef. So will see how that turns out. I love those kind of 1 pot recipes and to have stuff on hand to just heat up.

I was down another 1# this week, so happy with that & yesterday, started to workout with my dd (she is a personal trainer) so hopefully that helps as well. Food has been really good this week, and using "My Plate" has helped keep me on track.

Yesterday, I took off work as a holiday since we had huge amounts of snow up here. So it was a day well spent on holiday & made some "lower carb soup" Turned out pretty good. Basically a veggie soup with chicken broth, pureed then added chicken and "zoodles" (spiralized zuccinni) instead of regular noodles. So have a pot of that to have on hand for the next few days.

All - Lets all plan to stay on track (as much as possible) over the weekend. That is the tough part for me & also I have a dinner Sat night for my dd birthday celebration.

Gail

Hi Turtles,
Gail, you're doing this! Glad you are going to try the Shepherd's pie. It is so great to have meals prepped and in the fridge or freezer to just warm up. My good WW friend lost over 250# and she preps ahead to have food for the week. I am working on getting some foods ahead so I'll have a variety. When I make a crockpot chili, it makes 6 servings and I don't want chili for every night of the week, so I'll refrigerate some and then freeze the rest. I have also been watching Amanda Cypert on YouTube. She is young, about 24, and does videos on meal prep and even food hauls. She has some really good ideas and I have tried a couple.

Okay, everybody, have a good week. I have a goal in mind and feel like WW's Freestyle can help me achieve it. I have to remember there will be ups and downs and do the best I can. :
Judy

I am a WW member with no smart phone so I am not able to participate fully in the WW site. I was hoping to find support and friends here.
Gailruu