Today is weigh in day again and I’m happy to share that I lost 1.7 pounds this week, for a grand total of 19 pounds so far!
If you’re familiar with Weight Watcher’s you know that with their current program, they assign point values to foods. When you join they give you a daily allowance in points, plus a weekly allowance which allows you to splurge once in a while and still enables you to lose weight.
My current daily points goal is 40 points. (I’m so excited that the value went down by 1 today!) To stay within a healthy range, and to continue losing weight I am supposed to eat between -3 to +7 points per day so I should eat between 37 and 47 points each day. Note that the +7 would use some of my weekly allowance of 42 points.
When I joined 8 weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to make significant, but sustainable changes to the way I eat. Previously when I did Weight Watchers I didn’t really change how I ate, I just chose lower fat options to substitute for the foods which I probably should not have been eating to begin with. As a result I found that I was often hungry, because I wasn’t choosing foods that would keep me full. Yes I lost weight, but when I ended up injured and unable to be active I soon went back to those higher fat foods that I had been eating, and gained back more than I initially lost. This time I want to make lasting changes that I can live with long term without relying on packaged products.
I will admit that I found it a challenge the first week, especially since I cut out bread and most prepackaged foods, but as time goes on I find that I’m missing them less and less. The challenge now is eating enough food each day to meet my points goals!
Part of my problem is that I tend to eat smaller meals early in the day, and then I have a lot of points left to make up in the evening. To combat that, I’ve gone from eating a breakfast of yogurt and a cup of coffee with half and half for a total of 4 to 5 points depending on the type of yogurt, to eating the breakfast pictured below; one large egg and two egg whites with some baby spinach, 15 grams of natural peanut butter, an apple (which I dip in the peanut butter), a yogurt, and coffee with a tablespoon of cream.
Depending on the type of yogurt, that is 9 to 10 points for breakfast so it helps me to get my point count up early in the day and I’m not panicking to find high points foods in the evening to reach my minimum points. An added benefit to eating larger meals during the day is that I’m not hungry between meals, and am able to concentrate better while I’m working.
Do you have suggestions for healthy breakfast and lunch foods? I would love to hear them!
Life, Tea, and Everything 
Congratulations Kate! I like eggs for breakfast too – they really keep me feeling full all morning. I like to throw some lean ham and spinach in for a fluffy omelet! For lunch I really enjoy mixing up some tuna with a little bit of mayo and top a green salad with it. I put some tomatoes, celery, cucumber and some sliced black olives on it – no need for dressing, the tuna salad makes everything moist enough! I love having what I call deconstructed sandwiches – which is basically everything I would put on a sandwich without any bread. 😀
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Great ideas for lunch, especially adding the black olives! Yum! I do something similar but in the past I mixed the tuna in with the salad and added a bit of salad dressing. I may try your way and see how that works for a change.
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