The Great Labyrinth of Weight Loss

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Here is the meeting summary from Saturday, January 21, 2012.

Have you ever been in a labyrinth? You work it from the outside in, making twists and turns to get to the center. Weight loss is a lot like that. We are trying to get to the center, our goal, and we too have twists and turns along the way with ups and downs. Sometimes we hit a dead end, (have a gain/eating binge) and have to have the confidence to work around them and learn from our mistakes.

For us to make it to our goal we have to be willing to make some changes.

There are four levels of change that will help you reach your goals:
1. Environment
2. Beliefs
3. Capabilities
4. Behavior

This week let’s look at just the first level, environment.

When it comes to your environment, it is important for us to identify our danger zones.

Which areas of your life pose the most temptation? Is it the break room at work, the drive home, or maybe your very own kitchen. Identify the places that you’re most likely to engage in unplanned eating.

Now that you know them what needs to happen in order for you to stay in control at these places? Maybe you can declare a certain space a “no eating” zone, or plan to have your own healthy snacks readily available, or maybe even just moving the most tempting foods out of arms reach.

Now let’s focus on specific foods. Which foods are your red light foods, the ones you just cannot stop eating once you start? Remember that you can’t eat it if you never buy it. If it is a food that can be done without then maybe your best bet is to never bring it in the house. Or, maybe you can find a healthy substitute that is lower in PointsPlus values…for example Peter Pan peanut butter replaced with PB2.

Also remember the phrase out of sight out of mind. If it is a food that must be in the house, move it to a place where it won’t be seen very often. Put it in the back of the tallest cabinet for example. If its sitting on the kitchen counter, and that is the first thing you see when you walk in, then 10-1 its going straight into your tummy.

How could power foods help in these types of situations? What can you do to make these foods more assessable? It could help to buy prepackaged bags of baby carrots, buying sliced apples for convenience, or keeping a stash of snacks at home, in the car, and at the office.

Your best bet is to always be prepared with a healthy snack for when hunger strikes!

To help create a healthy work environment getting off to a good start is imperative:
*Give yourself a healthy breakfast that includes protein and fiber to keep you full until lunch so you won’t be roaming for break room goodies.
(A good example might be scrambled eggs with toast and turkey bacon, or oatmeal with milk blueberries and almonds)

*Instead of choosing those high pp lattes, cappuccinos, and coffee with full fat cream, try herbal or green tea instead.

*Bring healthy munchies such as fruit, nuts, popcorn, or snack bars to satisfy the mid-afternoon hunger pains

*Bring your own lunch to work maybe some leftovers from last night or a great homemade sandwich.

*Keep water bottle on hand. Take it everywhere you go! If you feel hungry, have a bottle of water first. You might just be thirsty.

My Chipotle Dinner

Happy Friday Everyone!!

Is it sad that I am already thinking about and planning what I am going to have for dinner? Let me explain.

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Tonight, Jon and I have plans to go out to eat at Chipotle. We are so excited! I cannot put into words how much my husband enjoys Chipotle. The hardest part is that we live in a town with NO Chipotle! Thankfully, Jon is a pilot and when he goes out of town he can eat at Chipotle. To our surprise, a town about 45 minutes away from us just opened a Chipotle before Christmas of this last year! Tonight, is going to be our first night to eat at this Chipotle that is so close to our home! Yes, I am going to bring my camera to document the occasion.

As you might have guessed, over the years, I have learned to really enjoy eating at Chipotle. Even after I joined Weight Watchers, Chipotle was still a great option for me to choose when we would eat out. Chipotle uses organic and local produce when they can. And they use milk from cows raised without the use of synthetic hormones. If you have never been to Chipotle I would highly recommend that you find one in your area and check it out.

I use the Chipotle Nutrition Calculator 2.0, to figure out the nutritional facts for my burrito bowl. I just check what I am going to add to my burrito bowl and it gives me the nutritional facts. I take those facts and put them into my PointsPlus calculator to figure out how many PointsPlus I need to budget for the evening.

Me with my Chipotle burrito bowl in August 2009.

Tonight I am going to have a burrito bowl that includes the following:

White Rice

Chicken

Fajita Vegetables

Tomato Salsa

Corn Salsa

Cheese

Lettuce

In total, my burrito bowl is going to be 12 PointsPlus, which is not bad at all. I do not know if I will eat the entire burrito bowl, but I am going to budget for it just in case. I feel confident in my ability to stay on plan today, because I have made a plan! I have added my burrito bowl to my Weight Watchers Plan Manager, so I know how many PointsPlus I have left to use throughout the day.

Are you going out to eat tonight or tomorrow? What kind of plan are you going to make to help you stay on plan?

Triggers

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It is no secret that I struggle with emotional eating. As a result, this Proverbs 31 devotional really hit home with me!

When I first joined Weight Watchers in October 2008, I did not know anything about trigger foods or emotional eating. All I knew was that food made me feel better. Food made me happy and was there for me when no one else was around. I knew that most of the weight I had put on was because I was lonely and depressed. However, I was shocked to learn that I had a problem with emotional eating.

For the last three years, I have been battling my triggers. I have been trying to learn to recognize the things in my life that trigger me to eat. I also began to learn to deal with my emotions in other ways than just eating. Am I perfect? No. I still have days, even now, when I know I am emotionally eating. However, I am proud of myself for being able to recognize that I am emotional eating. This has been a huge step in the right direction!

If you struggle with emotional eating, like me, take some time to think about the triggers in your life that have you running to the pantry. I had to begin to turn my emotions over to God. He really is the only one who can handle them. Begin to pray that God would give you strength and wisdom to recognize your triggers and to resist them when they come along.

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Triggers
January 19, 2012
Lysa TerKeurst

“So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.” Ephesians 3:17-18 (NIV 1984)

I was elated one day when the number on my scale dipped below the plateau weight I’d been stuck at for two weeks. I did a little happy dance and thought, “Finally, I’m making some real progress in this journey. It’s going to be such a great day. I’m super motivated. Bring on the raw veggies. Nothing’s gonna stop me now!”

Too bad things didn’t stay that way. Life, like math, can be unpredictable. I’m no math whiz, but I do remember there being these things called polynomials. Polynomials are algebraic expressions that include real numbers and variables.

That’s the way my food issues are—they contain real numbers and variables. I suspect yours do as well. And while we must pay attention to the real numbers by eating less and moving more, we would do well to consider the variables in our lives as well.

Variables are those daily triggers we didn’t account for but will detour even the best of intentions. Triggers can be as large as the stab of loneliness from a broken relationship or the memory of a childhood trauma. Triggers can be as small as a discipline “chat” with a teen out past curfew or stumbling across fresh doughnuts in the office break room. They can prompt the thought, “Life will be better if I eat that.”

Triggers have nothing to do with physical hunger or the need for legitimate nourishment. They are lies that we’ve thought so routinely they’ve become well-worn paths to careless eating. Life is not made better because we overindulge in an unhealthy choice.

The best thing we can do in these triggered moments is to pause. Pause and ask ourselves, “Do I want to eat this right now because I need nourishment or because I’m feeling empty emotionally or spiritually?”

If I need nourishment, I can choose a healthy option. If I’m just feeling empty, I must realize food can fill my stomach but never my soul.

The only way to negate an emotional eating trigger is to match it with truth. The truth is this: “I’m not physically hungry right now, but I need to be filled in another way.”

The Bible tells us that we can be rooted in love, not emptiness; that we have power to choose truth; and that as we comprehend the love of Christ, we will be filled to the measure of all the fullness—not of that brownie—but of God (Ephesians 3:17-19). And here’s the great thing about truth: it contains no variables! Truth is stable, secure and a surefire way to get me through the unpredictable moments of life.

Take time to pause and use God’s truths to challenge your triggers. And, when you’re truly physically hungry, that pause will give you the moment you need to choose a healthy snack. Then you will be truly full.

Dear Lord, please help me to battle each of my triggers today with truth. Your truth. Moment by moment. I understand that food can fill my stomach but never my soul. Only You can fill my soul and I am thankful for that. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Wordless Wednesday: Stop Giving Up

Planning a Key to Long-term Weight Loss

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As you know, yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which meant that the university was closed and I had a day off! It was so nice to just have a day to myself.

This past week the meeting topic at my Weight Watchers meeting was about planning. I have to be honest and confess that I have not been very good at planning since November! I am so good at planning, but recently I have not made time to do the planning that I know I need to do at the beginning of each month. I am hoping that after this meeting I will be more motivated to get back on track with my planning. Not only does it help me eat healthy, but it also helps my budget!

Here is the meeting summary from Saturday, January 14, 2012.

Planning Healthy Meals
We are all busy. Whether you work full-time, attend college, care for a loved one, run a household or all of the above. You don’t always have time to make nutritious meals. Like many people who want to eat healthy on a budget, you probably rely on those handy frozen entrees to fill the gap. After all, they seem like a bargain compared to going out for lunch every day. But wait, with some planning you can make nutritious lunches and dinners and save money to boot.

Below are some benefits of planning ahead, meal wise:
1. Saves Money. Armed with a plan and a list, you only need to make one trip to the store each week, thus eliminating the opportunities for impulse purchases. You also save money by taking advantage of weekly sales to tailor your menu, avoiding duplicate purchases, and reducing the urge to order take-out.

2. Saves Time. You have to spend about 30 minutes to plan a week’s worth of meals. When you plan your meals, you can efficiently shop for groceries using your list, and you only have to shop once a week. You can spend dinner time preparing and enjoying your meal, instead of standing in front of the refrigerator waiting for a dinner idea to magically pop into your head.

3. Helps You Eat Healthier. By planning three meals a day, seven days a week, you can avoid visiting the drive-thru in the morning, abstain from lunch hour vending machine frenzy, and resist the temptation to order from a pricey take-out dinner menu.

4. Helps Reduce Your Stress. No more worries about what to have for dinner; you now have a plan. You’ll know when to pull food out of the freezer, avoid the mad rush through the grocery store at six o’clock, and most importantly, reduce the amount of money you spend.

Here are some great techniques to help you get started:

*Make a Master List of 10-20 Meals
Ask everyone in your family for a list of their favorite meals. Prioritize the list, highlighting foods that you can quickly prepare and meals that don’t require too many ingredients. Organize this list by category, including beef, chicken, crock-pot dishes, fish, vegetarian meals, side dishes, and soups.
Gather the recipes and keep everything in a handy notebook or store them on your computer for easy access. You will refer to this list often when you plan your meals.

*Write Your Meal Plan on Paper
You can use a blank calendar or even just use a piece of notebook paper. List the days of the week down the left side to log your meals, and use the right side of the paper to make your grocery list. You can then easily bring your plan with you to the grocery store.

*Plan for All Three Meals
When I don’t plan for breakfast and lunch along with dinner, I am more likely to skip meals or visit the drive-thru. You can make quick and easy breakfast foods and with some careful planning you can still head out the door on time in the morning. You can also use leftovers from the previous night’s dinner to prepare lunches. Make an extra serving or several extra servings at dinner time to pack for the next day’s brown bag lunch.

*Review Your Family Calendar
Are you working late this week? Do you have plans to visit the in-laws for Saturday night dinner? Do your kids have a soccer game or a Girl Scout meeting during the week? Take all of these scheduling issues into consideration when planning your meals. Once you know your family’s schedule, you can plan accordingly. For example, eat leftovers for those late nights at the office, take the night off from cooking when you visit your in-laws, and prepare a crock-pot meal for soccer night.

*Plan Your Menu around What You Already Have on Hand
To get started; you need to organize your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer. Group the food in your pantry by category, including baking ingredients, canned goods, condiments, coffee and tea, pasta and rice, sauces, and snacks. Clean your freezer and refrigerator and throw out any expired food.

*Make a Double Batch of Your Favorite Meals
One for dinner and one for the freezer. The more home-cooked, prepared food that you have stored in your freezer, the less stress you feel when planning your menu. For instance, if you plan to have grilled chicken one night, grill a few extra chicken breasts and shred them after they have cooled. The cooked chicken stores well in the freezer and you can use it for a chili recipe, quesadillas, salads, and soups.

*Plan Your Meals around Your Grocery Store’s Sales Circular
Most grocery stores run their weekly sales circular on Sundays. The Sunday paper costs around $2 and by planning menus around the sales, the paper more than pays for itself.

Once you’ve organized the food in your home, and thrown away anything that’s expired, take inventory of what you have on hand. Plan meals around the food you already have. In addition to reducing your grocery bill, this helps to eliminate duplicate purchases.

Take it week by week at first, and before you know it, you’ll never have to break out into a cold sweat again when someone in the house charges through the front door and asks, “What’s for dinner?”

Recipe Review: Microwave Popcorn in a Paper Bag

I cannot believe that I did not do any recipe reviews in the month of December! That just shows how busy I was leading up to Christmas.

To kick off recipe reviews for the New Year, I decided to do something fun! This is actually a recipe that I learned about in a Weight Watchers meeting several years ago, but I forgot about it. A few months ago, I found this recipe on Pinterest and I did not want to forget it again. I pinned it to my board and was determined to try it this time.

Please take a moment to read the warning, before you attempt to make this recipe.

*Warning*

The first time I tried to make this recipe it did not go well. I burned the popcorn and filled our house with smoke. It was awful. However, I gave it another shot. I only used 1/3 cup of popcorn kernels and only cooked my popcorn for about 2 minutes. Yes, I had lots of kernels leftover, but at least my popcorn was not burnt. Like me, you might have to try making this recipe a few times, before you figure out what works for you and your microwave. Don't be discouraged just open a window and keep trying.

You will need a brown paper bag.

Add a 1/2 cup scoop of bulk popcorn kernels to your brown paper bag.

Fold the bag over twice. Don’t use staples to secure the bag — this might spark in your microwave.

Stick the popcorn bag into your microwave. I set mine for 3 minutes on high.

*Popping Tip: Stop the microwave when the popping slows to one to two pops per second. You don’t want to burn your tasty snack.

I sprayed my popcorn with butter flavored cooking spray. Next, I sprinkled Kernel Season's Popcorn Seasoning on top.

This is so much healthier than some other microwave options.

I enjoyed every bite!

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Microwave Popcorn in a Paper Bag
Source: Squawkfox

Ingredients
1/2 cup popcorn kernels
brown paper bag

Instructions
Step One: Get a brown paper bag

Step Two: Bag your popcorn. Add a 1/2 cup scoop of bulk popcorn kernels to your brown paper bag. Fold the bag over twice. Don’t use staples to secure the bag — this might spark in your microwave.

Step Three: Pop in microwave. Stick the popcorn bag into your microwave. I set mine for 3 minutes on high.

*Popping Tip: Stop the microwave when the popping slows to one to two pops per second. You don’t want to burn your tasty snack.
Step Four: Add gourmet topping

Try these toppings for fun:
* Mexican: Add chili powder, hot sauce, and salt.
* Kiss My Breath: Shake in onion powder and garlic powder — hold the kiss.
* Cheese Please: Mix in Parmesan cheese with a little salt.
* Sweet Tooth: A dash of cinnamon, a sprinkle of sugar, and a topper of honey. Now that’s money.
* Classic: A shake of salt with a pat of butter.

Servings: 3 cups; 3 PointsPlus (for plain popcorn, adjust PointsPlus values based on toppings)

2012 the Year to Believe

Great news!! If you've joined Weight Watchers you have picked the best weight loss program out there!!

Weight Watchers tops the 2012 U.S. News and World Report in 3 rankings!!

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In addition to earning the distinctions of “Best Commercial Diets” and “Best Weight-Loss Diets” for the second year running, Weight Watchers has just snagged the No. 1 spot in a new category, “Easiest Diet to Follow”, in the U.S. News and World Report’s Best Diets rankings.

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Our slogan for 2012 is to Believe! This is the year that you can reach your weight loss goals, but in order to do that we have to stop telling ourselves the LIES!
“But I am just big boned.”
“But I just don’t have time to plan or exercise.”
“But I’m going to be hungry, right?”
“But everyone is heavy in my family. I can't lose weight.”
“But I always give up the moment I don’t lose or have a gain.”
“But I always lose slower than other people.”
“But diet food is expensive.”

We all joined Weight Watchers because we know that it works as long as we follow the program. Take advantage of the wonderful tools that weight Watchers gives you to help you be even more successful!

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The Weight-Loss Plot in the Weight Record

The fill-in-as-you-go weight-loss graph in the Weight Record is valuable because over time it will help you see a visual representation of your weight loss. It will help for another reason, too: Because a safe and healthy rate of weight loss is shaded on the graph, so you will have—even from your start date—realistic expectations about what a safe and healthy rate of weight loss will look like for you!

Talk about keeping perspective: If you have a gain one week but are still well within the grey range, that gain may not sting as much. If you’re losing too fast, you can spot it. (The language to the left of the Plot tells you how to troubleshoot losses that are outside of the safe range.) If you’re losing more slowly than the potential rate of weight loss, you’ll know to talk to staff about it. I encourage you to plot your weight loss with each weigh-in.

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The Weekly Activity PointsPlus Goal

We’ve always advised members to aim for a certain amount of exercise per the guidelines of the American College of Sports Medicine. Now we’re putting that recommendation at the forefront of the program by offering members who are ready to exercise a weekly activity PointsPlus goal. The starting goal is 14 activity PointsPlus values per week—that’s an average of just 2 per day.

This goal is explained on page 82 of Meet PointsPlus. You’ll also see it referenced in the paper Trackers: Where you track earned and used activity PointsPlus values, there is now a reminder for you to circle your goal. (There is also a reference to the weekly activity PointsPlus goal in the regular and PowerPlans Trackers, in My Weekly Planner.)

As always, we want to encourage members to work up gradually to 4 to 6 activity PointsPlus values per day; that’s the amount that studies have shown helps with successful weight maintenance. Of course, if members are ready for more than 14 activity PointsPlus values per week right when they start losing weight with us, they should go for it.

Members who are eTools subscribers can get a more targeted weekly activity PointsPlus goal with the Activity Assessment. They can find it by clicking on the Fitness tab. You’ll indicate your current level and most recent activities to find a goal that’s custom-fit. And if you’re not exercising regularly? You’ll find some great advice on how to get started.

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What we know is that tracking works!

How you track is up to you but Weight Watchers gives you flexibility by offering different means:
*paper tracker that you can pick up each week at the receptionist desk
*exclusive colored tracker you can only get by staying for the powerstart sessions- there is orange, blue, and green….make an effort to collect them all
*with our new PointsPlus 2012 calculator you can track directly from the calculator
*3 month journal, a handy spiral that holds 3 months worth of tracking and gives great tips and recipes
*pointsplus clicker, Quickly and simply track your PointsPlus values each day with the click of a button. It stores your daily PointsPlus Target so you can subtract PointsPlus values as you use them
*you can track using etools if you are a monthly pass subscriber, that means straight from your computer or using your smart phone! We offer 2 separate apps weight watchers mobile, and ww barcode scanner.
With the barcode scanner you simply scan the barcode of a food/drink and it will pop up with a picture, nutrition facts/serving size, and points plus value. It offers you the option to track that food and then it automatically gets sent over to your etools account! Pretty groovy huh?

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Meet PointsPlus 2012

Remember that the thick Meet PointsPlus 2012 book that you received with your enrollment material is meant to be a great reference guide to you. Inside that book you can find detailed information about all of the aspects of our PointsPlus program. Be sure you read through that book cover to cover for a good review or to give you guidance.

Remember it is a new year, and there are no more reasons to lie to yourself. In 2012 you can accomplish your goals, but you must believe in yourself. Stop throwing stones and dragging yourself down. If you have a slip up, pick yourself right back up and start over fresh the next day!