[Launa]

I think I'm going to jump in and start WW. I have to wait about 3 months before I can try to get pregnant again, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to try to get my weight down a little and get a little healthier....

WW has some great recipes, but I'm thinking real life....Anyway my question is what do you eat for breakfast.....I'm not really into cooking a big breakfast or spending alot of time on it....so I guess cereal, hot or cold....but what kinds are good and what else quick can you all think of?? And what about lunch? Any quick and easy tips? Dinners will be easy, I use E-mealz the online meal planning service....they have a points option so that makes things really easy!

any help would be appreciated!!

[SilverSwanMama]

Hi Launa! I don't do Weight Watchers, but I do a program called The Three Hour Diet. Unfortunately, it's not what it sounds like (lose weight in 3 hours! LOL!) but it's is a similar program to WW in that it is calorie based. Basically, if you are wanting to lose weight you have 1450 calories for the day. 400 for each meal, 100 for 2 snacks, and 50 for a treat at night. I like it better than WW b/c to me counting calories is easier than WW points. The trick is that you eat every 3 hours. Breakfast, Snack, Lunch, Snack, Supper, Treat. Then you're able to eat less calories at each meal because a snack is just around the corner. Also, there are lots of studies that say that when you eat every three hours it jump starts your metabolism to working more efficiently and therefore able to lose weight easier and faster.

Anyway, I know that doesn't answer your question, but I wanted to give you the background, so you would know that the stuff I eat would be pretty equivalent to what you would eat for WW.
These are the things I eat for breakfast which are roughly about 400 calories.
1. English Muffin with a little PB and a drizzle of honey. Banana (whole one)'
2. A couple of scrambled eggs. You can do more than two if you leave out a couple of the yolks. I always do at least one yolk b/c I just don't like scrambled egg whites! With this you could have a piece of toast. I use I Can't Believe it's not Butter spray. A low-cal yogurt. Or a small fruit.
3. Bran muffins (I make the ones on the box of All-Bran cereal) I usually eat two of these and then have a small piece of fruit.
4. Oatmeal is really great for you, you just have to watch the prepackaged ones because they have a lot of sugar. But, Quaker's has instant ones now that are reduced sugar, or weight control w/ artificial sweetener. With oatmeal, again you could have some fruit or yogurt.
5. Veggie omelet. Again you need to leave out some of the yolks. Then throw in whatever leftover veggies might be good in it. A little cheese is ok. You could have a small piece of fruit.

These are basically the breakfasts that I eat. I think the important thing with breakfast to remember is not to overload on the carbs. Which is hard because we are programmed to eat carbs for breakfast. I love my carbs. Some carbs is fine, but you really need some protein. If all you eat is a huge bagel, that is going to turn into sugar really fast. If you're interested, The 3 Hour Diet is a book by Jorge Cruise. He gives you the whole program plus menus and daily logs. He even has a website you could check out. No, I dont' work for him! But, I am living proof that his program works and is doable. I have never been successful at a diet program until the 3 hour diet. After my second child,when I started it, I lost 17 pounds in seven weeks and then lost more, plus I lost about 10% body fat. Now I just had my 3rd, and I need to get back on track. Yikes!

[SilverSwanMama]

Oh! I forgot about lunch. I am a stay at home, homeschooling mama, so I understand about things needing to be quick. As for breakfast, I know that eggs reqire cooking, but they are easy. And the muffins I make at night and then put them in the freezer. Then I take out two in the morning, pop them in the microwave and voila!

Lunch: I'm not as creative on lunch. But, this is what I eat almost every day and I am happy with it. I eat a big salad with whatever kind of lettuce you'd like, any veggies, a little shredded mozzarella cheee, lots of pepper and I use those Wishbone spray dressings. Then I eat a Lean Cuisine. These two things add up to about 400 calories. The lean cuisine meals are really good and most of them are in the neighborhood of 300 cals give or take. On the salad, I'm sure you know you have to be careful on the dressing. That's why I use the spray dressing. One calorie per spray. I like the Balsamic vinagrette the best.

Sometimes I will eat leftovers from supper the night before and I just have to be careful of the portions.

My other go to lunch is salad (of course) and Turkey/Cheese Roll ups. That's a slice of turkey, slice of Mozzarella cheese (or provolone) rolled up and then I dip it in mustard. Kind of like a turkey sandwich, without the bread. I try to leave out bread whenever I can. The more bread I can skip the more weight I can lose! I usually eat 2 turkey rollups with my salad.

HTH!

[NS_Scrapper]

My DH started the WW at work program almost three weeks ago so we have been tracking carefully and making some adjustments to our menus. One of favorite breakfasts is always smoothies and they work great with the program -- I use a vareity of combinations - fruit, juice, milk, yogurt, wheat germ, cinnamon, vanilla.... We've started adding a tablespoon of flaxseed oil to get an essential oil. Filling, fast and nutritious - and so tasty it almost seems decadent.

DH made some delicious zero point vegetable soup from a WW recipe (and using all our garden harvest). It's delicious and great way to add something hot to the lunch. I love wraps for lunch. We've also been making extra servings of supper meals and packaging them with the exact amount for lunch so they can go in his lunch bag if he has to go to down or pop in the micro if working at home.

I love salads with fruit vinigrettes and I sometimes add a little cheese or chopped chicken for the protein.

Good luck. We're not having much trouble adjusting to the WW plan. The biggest change for me is when I am eating and ensuring enough balance.

[trishy]

Here are a few breakfast and lunch options that I like.

Breakfast
• 1 serving of Frosted Mini Wheats Maple and Brown Sugar = 3pts w/a half cup milk = 4pts
• Coffee w/milk & sug sub = .5pts
• 1 C Applesauce = 2pts
• Orowheat Health Nut bread, 1 slice w/mar = 2.5pts
• Yoplait Light Yogurt = 2pts
• Cantaloupe or Honeydew Melon, 1 C = 1pt
• 1 C Milk or OJ = 2pts

Lunch
• Melba toast crackers, Laughing Cow Lt cheese = 3-4pts (cheese: http://www.thelaughingcow.com/)
I love this cheese and I can get it in bulk at Costco
• Med. Apple = 1pt
• Orowheat Light bread, 2 slices, with lowfat ham or turkey & mustard sandwich = 3pts
• Sun Chips, 1 serving = 3pts
• Campbells Garden Vegetable soup = 1pt for the can!
I am a huge soup fan and the broth variety is normally low in points.
• Variety of Lean Cuisine entrees = 4-7pts
I buy these when our Fred Meyer/Kroger store has a sale. Can't beat 5 of them for $10.
• Salad greens with lowfat Feta cheese, sliced almonds & Craisins with balsamic dressing = 3pts for 2-3 cups


Thats about it for now, hopefully some of that will help! LOL

[ScrappingForever]

You've gotten some great ideas here, Launa!

I also eat 5 or 6 small meals a day, eating every 2 to 3 hours. It is definitely the way to go, for your metabolism and more. I count calories, too, not points, so I can't help you with WW points. I try to keep my caloric intake to around 1350-1450 calories a day.

I workout every morning. After my workout, I have a fruit protein shake, which is just a protein powder, 8 oz. of milk and fruit. Oh, and cinnamon! Love cinnamon! You can add just about any fruit to this. For a quick afternoon snack, I might have a blueberry one, or strawberry, using frozen fruit. Yummy!

For breakfast, we have found this really good organic granola cereal by Nature's Harvest called Flax Plus. They have different flavors. We like the Pumpkin. I usually put some golden raisins in it, or a banana, and have a hard-boiled egg white with it.
We have also found an organic Multi-grain pancake mix by Arrowhead Mills. Mike likes to make up a batch and then we have those to eat for breakfast during the week. We use Olivio margarine, a margarine made with Olive Oil and sugar free syrup. Chop some strawberries on top, and it's yummy in the tummy!

For lunch I'll either have leftovers from dinner, or a chicken wrap. About once a week, we grill up a bunch of chicken. During the week, then, I slice it up, use either Mission Multi-grain wraps or Lavash bread and add some reduced-fat feta cheese, cucumbers, romaine lettuce and it's yummy and easy too. I also have some fruit with this as well.

I always keep a bowl of hard-boiled eggs in the fridge. I only eat the whites, and they are a great, no-fat source of protein. Also, we found some absolutely wonderful chicken sausages at BJs in flavors such as Feta cheese and Spinach, Roasted Red Pepper, Sun-dried tomato and Parmesan - they are really, really good. Again, about once a week we grill a bunch of those up and keep them in the fridge for a quick snack or lunch. I always have fruit with one of these as well.

If you get some natural peanut butter, you can have 2 tablespoons of that with an apple, or with whole wheat graham crackers. Also salsa and whole grain tortilla chips are a great snack.

Hope this gives you some ideas, too! Good luck!

[Launa]

Wow!! You all really came through for me! This looks great! What great ideas and quick easy ones too....that's what I like. No special ingredients!! We'll I'll probably get started Monday...Yea! I've always wished I didn't have to be one of those people who had to worry about their weight and what they ate all the time, but unfortunately I am. It's in my genes! LOL!! Anyway thanks for all the tips...and if you think of anymore....Keep em comin' !!

[brandiev]

I'm loving all these ideas too, I'm glad Launa asked the question. I haven't made the move to WW yet, but it's still something I'm thinking I need to do. This 3-hour diet idea sounds good too.

[debubbie]

I'm doing a cross between WW and clean eating (more detailed and a lot harder as I can't eat crap!!!). Breakfast I like the following options:

cereal such as kashi with a banana and v8 fusion juice
v8 fusion juice with my kashi cereal, banana sliced up in it and yogurt mixed in it instead of the milk.
kashi oatmeal nuked in the microwave while it is cooling I like to add frozen blueberries to it so they can warm up. Delicious!
Smoothies are awesome and make a great snack. Throw in any frozen fruit, some yogurt, milk or juice and protein powder and you are good to go.

For lunch, the campbell's select or the progresso soups are really good and they already have the points counted for you.
THe flat out wraps that you can get at wal-mart are good too. I make some with fish, chicken, shrimp, steak, etc. add some veggies a touch of ranch dressing and yummy. they are so quick and easy and you can experiment to find your own flavor that you like best. My sister likes them with mesquite chicken cucumbers and honey dijon spicy mustard and some lettuce. Sometimes my husband will put a few slices of lunch meat and then will roll up the "sandwich" it is so quick and easy for lunch. all-bran crackers taste good added to the soup! Plus, to satisfy my sweet tooth the jello puddings or bliss chocolate squares are pretty yummy and don't wreck your points for the day.

Also, you may want to check out the fish section at wal-mart they have several varieties of fish that are frozen in individual vacuum packs and you can heat one up at a time. Throw on some seasoning bake for about 15 minutes then you can add it to brown rice or the steamfresh vegetables for a quick meal. HTH

[ScrappingForever]

Yep, clean eating is what we do, too. I think it actually makes it pretty simple to eat, and has really got me reading ingredients. If I can't pronounce something that's on the label, I don't get it! Also, I look for things with the fewest ingredients on the label. Most of our shopping is done on the outside perimeter of the store, because that's where the natural/whole food products are.

Clean eating meals consist of a complex carb and protein at every meal. Only whole/natural foods and eating the small, 5-6 meals a day. Tosca Reno has some great cookbooks with great recipes and a diet book explaining what clean eating means. To us, tho, it's not a diet. It's our way of eating from here on out. It just makes sense to give your body the fuel it needs, and make sure it's the stuff that's good for it. And even more important, feeding my kids the things that are best for them, instead of all of the processed junk that people call food these days. This is my soapbox, and I'll step down now.

Have another one for you, Launa. Tuna Salad. I don't get fancy with my tuna salad. Just white chunk tuna in water and low-fat mayo. Mix together and put it on a whole grain wrap. Throw on some lettuce, or cukes, maybe some grated carrots. Some low-fat cheese if you like, and you've got a great lunch. Add some fruit and you're set.

[debubbie]

Jan, I am trying to make the switch to clean eating but my DH isn't cooperating! He has this belief that clean eating means tofu and soy milk! So I am trying to slowly sneak clean eating meals in for dinner and hoping that he will finally come around! Reno has some great books and recipes that can be made quickly and are good for you. I am trying to change bad habits for good food habits. What are some clean eating recipes that you like?

[trishy]

If there is one brand to remember when eating better, I think Kashi has hit a homerun with their products. They taste great and are made from all good stuff.

[ScrappingForever]

In Reno's latest cookbook, for Families and Kids, there's a great Baked Ziti recipe. We just had that for dinner last night. I also made the Chicken Soup from that cookbook. Of course, the Chicken Soup one isn't all that quick, but it sure was yummy!

Let's see, I believe the Ginger Spice Cookie recipe we like is from that same cookbook, and she has a great Oatmeal cookie one in....I think it's in her Diet book. We do a LOT of just grilling chicken or chicken sausages. We pretty much only use Ground turkey now instead of ground beef. So we also make Turkey burgers on the grill. There's an absolutely fantastic Sweet and Sour Meatballs recipe - that's in one of my Beachbody books. I'll type that up tomorrow for you. It uses crushed pineapple in it and brown rice. We make a lot of just good ol' spaghetti with whole wheat noodles and organic spaghetti sauce. We use ground turkey in that, usually. Let's see, we try to do fish at least once a week. Usually sauteing it in olive oil and spices. I've also been saving the heels of our whole grain/whole wheat bread and crushing them into bread crumbs for breading. Add some garlic or whatever spices you like, and use it to bread chicken or fish. These are great for the kids.

Hmm....that's all I can think of right now. We usually keep it pretty simple, tho. Except on those days I feel like a domestic goddess and do some cooking or baking.

[ScrappingForever]

I haven't tried any Kashi products yet, but I've seen a lot of them in the stores. They seem to be branching out into more and more areas. Gotta try some soon!

[trishy]

These are my favorite Kashi products:

Cherry Dark Chocolate Chewy Granola Bar 2pts
Trail Mix Chewy Granola Bar 2pts
Oatmeal Raisin Flax Cookies 2pts per serving
TLC Crackers Original 7 Grain 2pts per serving
TLC Crackers Country Cheddar 3pts per serving
TLC Party Crackers Stoneground 7 Grain 2pts per serving
GO LEAN Hot Cereal Hearty Honey Cinnamon 2pts
GOLEAN Cereal 2pts per serving- I like to add fruit, vanilla yogurt or a little honey to this one.


Or check them all out! www.kashi.com

[MelJohnson]

One of my favorite breakfast meals is cottage cheese, pineapple (or mandarin oranges), and almonds. I discovered it when attempting the Zone diet way back when I lived in Seattle. I don't remember exactly how much of each thing they recommended, but you could google it if it sounds good to you. I sometimes eat that for a snack in the afternoon, too.

[Tina M]

The new Quaker Fiber One bars are awesome! and they are only 1 point!!! got a craving for chocolate they sure satisfy

a piece of fruit, veggie eggwhite omelet 1 slice american cheese 3pts

[Burnsie]

This is probably considered plain and gross, but it's clean and brainless!

Breakfast: 6 egg whites and small baked potato.

Lunch: 1 can tuna, medium baked potato, and 1-2 cups veggies

[ChristyVW]

Made this last night for this morning and it is super yummy! (we skipped the bananas and I did not peel the apples, just chopped and Regan added frozen blueberries.)

Crockpot Oatmeal Recipe

* 2 cups steel cut oats (not instant or rolled oats)
* 6-8 cups water, depending on how long the oatmeal will cook
* 1 tsp. cinnamon
* 1/2 cup brown sugar
* 1 tsp. vanilla
* 2 apples, peeled and diced
* 1 cup raisins
* 1 cup sliced bananas
* 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Spray crockpot with nonstick cooking spray. If you're planning to cook the oatmeal 8 hours or longer, use 8 cups of water. If you want to cook it less than 8 hours, use 6 cups of water. Put first seven ingredients (through raisins) in slow cooker and cook on low. Just before serving, Stir in bananas and walnuts. Sprinkle with additional brown sugar if desired.

Serves 8.

Per serving: 256 calories, 6 g fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 49 g carbohydrate, 4 g fiber, 4 g protein, 1% Vitamin A, 6% Vitamin C, 5% calcium, 8% iron

If you have picky eaters that don't care for oatmeal, one site suggested making this plain, then having little bowls of 'mix-ins' available for each person to customize their own. Ideas included dried fruit, chopped fresh fruit or frozen, marshmallows, chocolate chips, sprinkles, nuts, etc.

Some recipes also substitute milk for some of the water.

mmmmm.....delicious and hot and ready when you wake up!!

[Arizona Girl]

I know this blog is getting older but we just started ww and I thought I'd share some of the things we are doing for real life:

Breakfast-
I love cereal. Most, if you keep to their serving size, aren't that bad 3-4 points. I am also a huge fan of instant maple and brown sugar oatmeal (3 points with no added milk)

Lunch-
Chicken Salad (1 serving)
2 points of chicken (whenever I purchase chicken, we grill up a whole back and chop them up into about a point of chicken, keep them in the fridge, all ready to put into a sandwich or salad, cooked 1oz=1pt)
1 TBS light Miracle Whip
1/2 stick celery
*a bit of chopped onion
*finger full of Alfalfa (I don't like Alfalfa but I love it here)
*3 Almonds chopped small (can use Walnuts or Pecans but I'm allergic)
mix well (I like to chop everything really well with my pampered chef chopper)
salad is 3 points (actually only 2.6 points, do it twice and you have 5 points or use 5 points of chicken when making it for two) plus add whatever your bread is. We love the Orowheat Sandwich Thins= 1pt per bun

Tuna Salad (2 servings)
1 small can Tuna (packed in water)
1 TBS light miracle whip (less cal than light mayo, but I'm not sure what the diff is)
1 TBS dill
1/2 celery stick
mix well -4 points total, 2 pts per serving plus your bread

[Arizona Girl]

Oh for dinner meals I've started a blog where I post recipes I've found or made

http://wwptcooking.blogspot.com