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Weight Watchers Points

It Works If You Work It

by Claire on July 27, 2010

I always thought that was a really stupid saying: “It works if you work it”. Seems a bit like stating the obvious, to me. Honestly, I guess I never really thought much about it but if you dig into it deeper, it really is a helpful reminder saying.

What does working it mean? For me, it means working the Weight Watcher’s program as it was written by the experts – those who know more about successful weight loss than I do. Clearly I didn’t know how to do it, or I wouldn’t have been 100 pounds overweight when I joined in 2008.

Working it also means working it all the way – not dipping my toe in it. It means if I am going to see the results I want, I have to work the program the way they say to, not fudging it to suit my mood.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been only doing part of the program – sorta tracking, sorta not, and sorta not really watching what I eat and only sorta doing activity. As a result, I only sorta lost weight. Out of six weeks, I lost weight only one of those weeks. The others I gained.

So last week, I buckled down and quit playing around. I got back to tracking my food – all of it including the bites, licks, and tastes. I calculated points properly by weighing my food or calculating it off the nutrition panel of the package and measuring the correct servings.

And guess what? This week I lost weight. I lost 1.2 pounds. I can try to blame hormones, water retention, stress, muscle gain, or any number of things for my weight gain, but if I’m truly honest with myself (and I was last week) it really boils down to what I put in my mouth.

So, yep, it works if you work it. And I worked it. Because I’m worth it.

Tagged as: Attitude, weight loss programs, Weight Watchers, Weight Watchers Points

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Thrifty Cooking: Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

by Claire on November 7, 2009

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This is the third dish I made out of a single store-bought roasted chicken, which means I was able to have three meals for $5.99. My first meal used one of the chicken breasts with a salad, the other meal used the other breast chopped up to make chicken salad (on an Oroweat Double Fiber english muffin), and now this.

I took the carcass and boiled it until all the remaining meat separated from the bones. This resulted in about one cup of good meat for the soup, and about four cups of stock. Note that the amount of stock you yield depends on how much water you add in the beginning. I let the homemade stock sit overnight in the refrigerator so that I could separate out the fat. (Grossed me out to think that yellow stuff used to go in my body – ewww.) Next, I added the vegetables and pasta, cooked over a low heat until the noodles were tender, and voila!

Ingredients

  • 4 cups chicken broth (homemade or canned)
  • 1 cup carrots, chopped
  • 1 cup celery, chopped
  • 1 cup zucchini
  • 1 cup roasted, skinless, boneless chicken
  • 2 oz (about 3/4 cup dry) Barilla Whole Grain Rotini pasta
  • Seasonings to taste (I used dried basil, and could have used more flavoring)

Yields: 4 generous 1-1/2 cup servings
Points per serving: 3*

*You’ll want to do your own calculation if you alter the ingredient quantities any.

Tagged as: chicken noodle soup, cooking, Recipes, thrifty cooking, Weight Watchers, Weight Watchers Points

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Break away from boring breakfasts

October 23, 2009

I love my Quaker Oats old-fashioned oatmeal. I love it so much, I have had it every day, just about, for the last year or more. I usually vary it with different nuts or dried cranberries or raisins, but always a small banana and 1/2 cup of fat-free milk. Can we say, “boring”? Not to [...]

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Claire’s Test Kitchen: Filling Creamy Tomato Soup

September 8, 2009

I found this recipe in Prevention magazine and since I absolutely love creamy tomato soup – especially with grilled cheese sandwiches – I had to give it a try. It’s super low in points and very filling because instead of heavy cream you use white beans to thicken the soup. Interesting concept. You get thickness, [...]

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