Between The Meetings

Honking from Behind

2010-08-17T13:15:00.006-04:00

Hello Zionsville Weight Watchers,

Thank you so much! I truly enjoyed my last week leading meetings at the end of July. Your cards, gifts, hugs and kind words meant so much to me. Last weekend I enjoyed my first sleep-in Saturday in quite some time! I wasn't a total slug -- I still got up around 7:30 and went for a nice long walk. This week during the second week of my "retirement" I'm visiting family and enjoying some vacation time from work.

During vacation I am committed to staying on my plan. I even had a blender and a yoga mat shipped here so I could still make Weight Watchers smoothies and keep up with my yoga practice while I'm away from home. And when I was out shopping on Sunday I didn't buy clothes or jewelry, instead I spent my money on a bathroom scale so I could weigh in during vacation too. I may sound a bit extreme, but if these actions help me be successful then I'm all for being considered extreme!

Now that I am taking the time to focus on being a Weight Watchers member, it's been a real eye-opener for me to see how much of a difference it makes to be fully committed to my Weight Watchers program instead of dabbling at it half-heartedly. I've been tracking, working out, attending meetings and consistently staying within my POINTS budget for the past 8 weeks and I feel great.

Join me in committing to weighing in and attending your meeting each week. Recognize that all the seemingly insignificant choices you make each day can add up to significant success. And track, track, track, track, track, track, track...seven days a week. I can do it and you can too!

I'm not sure whether I'll continue blogging in the future or not, but remember that you can always drop me an email and keep in touch. I'd like to know how your journey is going and celebrate your milestones as you succeed along the way. We may not see each other each week, but I'm definitely supporting you 100%!

We've talked in past meetings about geese who are able to fly long distances by taking advantage of the aerodynamics of the "V" formation. That's how I see my Weight Watchers retirement. I'm just stepping back from the point position so somebody else can take the lead. But I'm still flying along with you, honking my support from behind as we continue on this life-long journey!

Honk!

Diane

What if the scale didn't exist?

2010-07-18T20:17:00.005-04:00

If there was no such thing as a scale, how would you know you’re making progress?

When I'm weighing members I'll ask, "How was your week?" and the reply I hear most often is "I'll know in a minute," by which they mean they'll know after they step on the scale.

If you think about it, it’s pretty crazy that we put so much focus on the weekly weigh in when we know darn well that the scale isn’t an accurate reflection of our efforts. Just like me, I bet you have gotten away without gaining a time or two when you’ve “cheated” and not lost anything during some weeks when you know you've been kicking program butt.

Doesn’t that prove that the scale isn’t the best way to judge your progress? Yet we hang our entire week's success or failure on that number. We let it decide if we should feel good or bad or even whether we'll come back next week. But the scale doesn’t measure effort or behavior changes; it only measures our weight at a given moment. That’s it.

A while back when I wanted to really focus on making healthy choices, I decided to put my scale away for a month. When I weighed in each week at Weight Watchers I asked the receptionist not to say anything and didn’t open my progress booklet to see how I’d done. It was really tempting to look, but I was determined not to focus on the scale but on the changes I was making for myself.

Without the scale to tell me if my week was good or bad I had to look elsewhere to measure my success. The best indicator was my weekly tracker. I was following the program, eating smarter, staying within my POINTS budget and exercising more. No matter what the scale might have said, I knew I was doing well.

This week start focusing on something other than the scale to measure your success. Each day in your tracker I want you to write down a non-scale victory (NSV). Focus on what you’re doing right, what makes you feel proud or on what makes you happy. It could be taking extra steps, passing up dessert, planning ahead, using positive self-talking or stopping when you feel satisfied.

As Leader Mary says in this week’s Weight Watchers Weekly, “To me, NSVs are a symbol of our new identity as we become healthier. As we progress, our measure of success becomes more about ourselves and less about the scale. That’s when you know you’ve made a lifelong commitment.”

So the next time you're at the scale and somebody asks, "How was your week?" you can say, "I tracked everything," "I got in an extra workout this week" or "I asked myself whether I was really hungry" and celebrate what you've accomplished!

FRUIT & VEG CHALLENGE: WEEK 2
This week we're going for color! Keep filling half your plate with fruits and veggies. And now choose at least 3 different colors of produce each day!

REGISTRATION ONLY $1 THRU AUG 7
Join Weight Watchers now through August 7 and the $20 registration fee will cost you only $1! Pay only $14 for your first meeting and registration. Or choose the Monthly Pass or 17-week Prepay and registration will be free. Come back now and save!

SNACK SALE: LAST CHANCE!
Stock up on snacks for your summer vacation and travel plans. This is the last week that Weight Watchers 2 POINTS Snack Bars and Baked Snacks (including the new Ranch Crisps) will be on sale for $3.50 per box.

NEXT TIME
Last week we talked about how to keep our heads in the game when the scale slows or stalls. This week for part 2 of “Push Past Plateaus” we’ll take action! What steps can we take to get the scale moving again?

There are just 2 weeks left in my fantastic farewell tour – I hope to see you at our meeting!

Diane

Go Shine Your Sink

2010-07-11T17:25:00.007-04:00

It is better to take many small steps in the right direction than to make a great leap forward only to stumble backward.
~Old Chinese Proverb

Go shine your sink. That’s the first step FlyLady recommends for regaining control of the chaos in your home. I can’t remember how I stumbled upon her website years ago, but I embraced her simple, effective philosophy of making one small change and keeping up with it until it becomes a habit. And one habit leads to another and another.

Marla Cilley, The FlyLady, decided to change one little thing about her life and wrote down a goal to keep her kitchen sink clean and shiny. Because of wanting to keep her sink clean, she unloaded the dishwasher so she could stash the dirty dishes. With the sink clean, she wanted the counter clean too. Then she started cleaning up as she cooked. The following month she added a goal to stop piling dirty clothes on the floor. The next month she added 15 minutes each evening picking up and putting away things that were out of place. Over the course of a year she gradually changed her habits, taking on one thing at a time and building on what was working until she had her entire house under control.

It’s challenging to change a lifetime of habits. With Weight Watchers we’ve committed to tracking, counting, exercising, planning, motivating, and more. It’s no surprise to feel overwhelmed and wonder if we can keep this up for the rest of our lives. But here’s the good news: you don’t have to change everything right now! Just start with one small change that you can stick with. Keep repeating it until you make it a habit. Then add something else.

We're going to focus on one small goal over the next few weeks: eating more fruits and vegetables. They’re good for you and good for weight loss too. So let’s take some small steps to build the habit of eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Ready?

Fill half your plate with veggies and fruits.

That’s our first step. Do your best to make half of what you eat for meals and snacks be fruits or vegetables.

We’ll take another step next week and then another. Before you know it, eating 5 (or more!) servings of fruits and veggies will be a habit! Then we’ll add another small habit, gradually working up to where our healthy lifestyle becomes our routine.

You can check out The FlyLady’s website and watch the Shiny Sink video from YouTube. It’s corny, but it’s also moving to see how one small change can represent commitment to a whole new lifestyle.

$1 REGISTRATION THRU AUG 7
Take a small step towards your new lifestyle by joining Weight Watchers! Now through August 7 the $20 registration fee will cost only one dollar! Pay just $14 for your first meeting and registration (regularly $33). Or pay $0 registration with Monthly Pass or 17-week Prepay.

SNACK SALE: 2 WEEKS LEFT!
Stock up on snacks for your summer vacation and travel plans. Through July 24th Weight Watchers 2 POINTS Snack Bars and Baked Snacks (including the new Ranch Crisps) will be on sale for $3.50 per box.

LAST WEEK: SAVE $5 ON “HEALTHY COOKING BASICS”
Through July 17th the “Healthy Cooking Basics” cookbook will be on sale for $10. I think we only have one copy left so act now!

NEXT TIME
Has the scale stalled? Do you feel like you’re not making progress? We’ll spend the next 2 meetings talking about how to handle slowed, stalled or halted weight loss. Push past plateaus!

There are just 3 weeks left in my fantastical, fun-filled farewell tour. Who knows what will happen in this week's meeting? The only way to find out is to show up!

Diane

Embracing Change

2010-07-03T22:07:00.008-04:00

Social networking sites are all the rage for communicating big news these days. Even 76-year old Larry King broke the story about his retirement this week on Twitter. It’s tough when somebody 30 years my senior is savvier about embracing new media than I am! But since I haven’t learned to tweet, Skype, friend or podcast yet, I’ll just have to announce my Weight Watchers retirement news on my old-fashioned blog.

Yes, I’ve decided to leave my job with Weight Watchers at the end of this month. I will continue to be a Weight Watchers member, but I’ll lead my last meeting on Saturday July 31st.

It’s a totally selfish decision on my part. Between my full-time job and my part-time job at Weight Watchers, I haven’t taken much time for myself. I’m looking forward to working around my house, cooking, gardening, craft projects, seeing my friends and family more often and maybe signing up for a few classes. I will miss seeing everyone and all the fun we have at the meetings. That’s my favorite part and the hardest to give up!

I had planned to wait until the last week (or the last minute) to tell you, hoping to avoid any drama or tears on my part. But good advice from my brother Alan has made me change my mind. Instead of sneaking away quietly, I hope to make our last meetings the most fun, craziest, and best ones we’ve ever had.

I want to go out with a bang this July!

So that’s why I’m using the same title for this 120th message as I did on my very first “Between the Meetings" post. I’m embracing change wholeheartedly and I hope you will too. Your new leader will have stories you’ve never heard and probably won’t do mean things like make you sing in the meeting room or participate in small groups (Oh yeah, I know you guys hated that!) And who knows? Maybe he or she will actually end the meetings on time!

But don’t get too excited because we’re not parting just yet! You’ve still got 4 more weeks with me talking too much, letting the meetings run too long, selling products too awkwardly and bringing up my peanut butter obsession too often. It’ll be like my farewell tour – a “Diane-a-polooza” of sorts.

If you haven’t been to a meeting for a while I’d love to see you before I leave. My brother says we need closure. I think that means that if you can stop by this month it'll save me from hunting you down 12 years from now when I realize all my problems started when we never got to say goodbye.

I've changed a lot since I started my blog in 2008. Although I haven't embraced too many new technological advancements (still no MP3 player or cable TV), I've been "friended" nonetheless: blessed by the friendships I’ve found through this job.

I’ve had a wonderful time and that’s entirely due to you!

Diane

FREE RANCH CRISPS
If my heart-felt plea for you to attend the meetings hasn’t worked, how about free food? We’ll be handing out samples of the new Ranch Multigrain Crisps next week while supplies last!

SNACK SALE
Through July 24th Weight Watchers 2 POINTS Snack Bars and Baked Snacks (including the new Ranch Crisps) will be on sale for $3.50 per box.

JUST ARRIVED
Lemon and Orange Fruities – both citrus flavors in one box for $2.50.

Ginger Snaps Mini Cookies – three pouches, just 2 POINTS each and only $2.50.

NEXT TIME
It was purely coincidence, but Weight Watchers will be introducing a 4-week “Fruit and Vegetable Challenge” at the same time as my last 4 weeks of meetings. It's perfect because I don’t need a going-away gift; I just want you to eat your vegetables (and fruits!)

See you at the meeting!

PS - The 2nd image I picked to accompany this message is one I find hilarious. I pasted my head on a picture of Lauren Tewes' body (Julie the "Love Boat" Cruise Director) and used it for my June 2008 "Sailing Through Summer" post. One of my favorites.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

~Mark Twain

Eating Sad

2010-06-20T13:57:00.004-04:00

Most of the time I skip those annoying "Letters from the Editor" pages in magazines, but for some reason I read the CEO's message in the new July/August Weight Watchers Magazine. One sentence jumped out at me and kept hanging around in my head this week: "Eating healthfully doesn’t mean eating sad.”

When I chose to change my lifestyle and eat healthfully, I was really looking forward to losing weight, but I also felt sad about trading my free and easy relationship with food for one of planning, counting and tracking. How sad for me to trade my food freedom for drudgery and restriction.

But eating without limits wasn’t as wonderful as it seemed to be. Whenever I overate it made me feel miserable, out of control and ashamed of myself. The food would taste good at first, but my post-indulgence feelings of self-loathing and regret outweighed any feelings of enjoyment. I kept turning to food, hoping to feel better. Instead I was literally eating sad!

When I started watching portions and tracking what I ate, I actually felt better about myself. And I enjoyed food more than when I was eating mindlessly. It took more time and planning to eat healthfully but it really did make me feel happier.

Do you sometimes feel sad about the perceived downsides of following a more structured eating plan? Be honest and ask yourself, “Which way of eating truly makes me feel happier?”

Commit to a healthy approach and eat happy!

LAST WEEK: $5 SALE
It’s the final week of the June Mini Bar, Smoothie and Oatmeal sale. A long-awaited case of the Chocolate Pretzel Blast Mini Bars was delivered on Friday, so Judy S. and others who’ve been waiting patiently: buy your bars now and save $2.50 per box!

NEXT TIME
Do you find it challenging to figure out POINTS values and portion sizes when eating away from home? At our next meeting we’ll learn several ways to master the art of estimating portion sizes and POINTS values.

Look Ahead: July’s Meeting Topics:

6/27-7/3: Don’t forget to pack your plan! How to handle disruptions to your schedule.
7/4 – 7/10: Kick off the 4-week Fruit and Vegetable Challenge
7/11 – 7/17: Is this a plateau? Learn strategies to help persevere during plateaus
7/18 – 7/24: How to jump start weight loss when it seems to have stalled
7/25 – 7/31: Snack Savvy: how staying satisfied between meals can help improve weight loss

5K Champs!

2010-06-13T19:32:00.005-04:00

It was a pretty hot afternoon to be exercising but 9 terrific Zionsville Weight Watchers and a couple of their family members joined me this afternoon to complete a 5K walk. We headed out strong, passing the high school and enjoying a few shady spots as we crossed Bloor and went on to Main Street.

Our halfway point was at the historic Potpourri Building. Happily when we turned around we were walking into the breeze on the way back and that helped a lot! I got a chance to walk and talk with everyone -- what a great group! I’m very proud to say that we completed the 3.1 mile distance in well under an hour. Hooray for us!

Thank you and congratulations to all of you who were there today:

Amy D.
Christine & Steph F. (plus Dad on his bike)
Michele S. (and her cute dog!)
Nancy and Mike T.
Lesley and Robin M.
Holly W. and Adrian S.

An extra special congratulations to Pam D. who jog/walked her way through last weekend’s “Outrun the Sun” event.

Did you complete your 5K? Let me know – I’d like to recognize everyone who met their goal for the Weight Watchers Walk-It Challenge.

Now, what's your next activity goal? Set it today and keep moving more!

$5 SALE THROUGH 6/26
Mini Bars, Oatmeal and Smoothies are all on sale for only $5 each. Stock up now!

OPEN HOUSE
Don’t miss out on our 2nd and final Zionsville Weight Watchers Open House event this Tuesday 6/15 from 5:30 to 6:30. We have 2 new speakers who each lost over 100 pounds with Weight Watchers and were featured in the Indy Star. Read the story below!

Allow a little extra time on Tuesday so you can try out a Weight Watchers Food Scale, check your BMI, see the new Weight Watchers exercise kit video and get a chance to win something in our raffle. Marlene will show you her weighted hula hooping skills if you ask nicely. If you bring a friend who joins Weight Watchers, you both get a free box of 2-POINTS bars and a chance to win a 17-week pass worth $194. Plus everyone can try a sample of our newest smoothie flavor, Caramel Latte (we’ll also have vanilla too!)

Saturday’s speakers, Karen and Paul, were (literally) moving and inspiring. Paul was so nervous initially that he was shaking! But he soon got so comfortable that his wife Karen was complaining that he took all their time. They shared how together they’d lost over 200 pounds. They enjoyed all sorts of foods, didn’t beat themselves up over going off plan and both of them emphasized how important exercise has been to their success. They continue to attend meetings and weigh in after reaching Lifetime membership. They even weighed in at their Southside meeting early on Saturday BEFORE coming to Zionsville. That’s dedication!

Get a little extra motivation to start your summer off right: come to the Open House and bring a friend!

I’ll see you there!

Diane

Christmas gift gave her a way to unwrap pounds
Indianapolis Star April 29, 2010
Terri H., 44, Indianapolis, graphic designer, OmniSource Marketing

I always thought I was a healthy person in a fat body. I felt good, and I was active. But my weight struggle has existed all my life. For more than 20 years, I've worn sizes 20 to 22.When I went to my doctor in December 2008, she said I had high blood pressure. I weighed 257 pounds.
I called my boyfriend, Josh Maynard, and told him this was my sign and that we both needed to work on our weight.
For Christmas, he bought us both a membership to Weight Watchers. He was reluctant to do that for Christmas, but I was ecstatic that we were doing this together.
He researched a lot of diets and decided Weight Watchers was more appropriate for us because we ate out and could continue to do that.
We started on Jan. 9, 2009, after eating all we wanted during Christmas. Since then, we've gone to every weekly meeting except one. Each meeting is about a different topic, from working out and shopping to handling holiday stress.
I found that staying at the meetings, after weighing in, has helped. It provides accountability and is like a safety network.
I've learned to eat like my grandparents ate -- lots of fruits, vegetables, lean meat, low amounts of carbs and sugar.
We don't do fast food. If we eat dessert, it's a Weight Watchers treat.
I've cut portion sizes. They were way out of control. We've learned which meats have less fat, and we've changed to some organic and soy products. With Weight Watchers, I can eat more often and keep my metabolism burning.
My goal was to lose 100 pounds, which I did in about 13 months. Now, I've lost 105 pounds. At 5 feet 9 inches tall, I weigh 153 pounds and wear sizes 8 and 10. Josh, who is 6 foot 1 inch tall, was 292 pounds. He has lost 102 and wants to lose about 12 more.
We've learned to look at the nutritional values on food, and as we shop, we mark the Weight Watchers points on the boxes.
On Mondays, we have a "date night." We go to the meeting and usually eat out afterward.
I often ask restaurants to make changes in preparing food, such as not adding butter to steamed vegetables.
I work out at Curves three days a week. Josh, who has a stressful job, was not an exerciser and had joint and knee pain.
We started walking about a year ago for about 15 minutes and worked our way up. We've done 5K walks together, and Josh plans to run one.
We want to stay committed to Weight Watchers because it will help us in the long run. Our self-confidence is enormous now. We feel normal. We're not these fat people walking around anymore.

Open House!

2010-06-05T14:57:00.005-04:00

Saturday June 12, 8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

Tuesday June 15, 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.

Hello! You're invited to attend one of the Zionsville Weight Watchers Open Houses that will be held on Saturday 6/12 and Tuesday 6/15. We’ll have a mini meeting and enjoy hearing successful members share their stories. Plus we’ll have samples of the new Weight Watchers smoothies, a chance to try out the Weight Watchers Food Scale, and more. We’ll raffle off a few prizes too!

Best of all, if you bring somebody to the Open House and they decide to join, you each get a free box of yummy 2 POINTS Bars and a chance to win a 17-week prepay package – a $194 value!

We have 2 speakers confirmed for next Tuesday’s Open House – a couple who will share their Weight Watchers success story. I’m hoping that one of our successful Zionsville graduates will be there Saturday to talk about her journey and her new passion for yoga. I’ve been attending a “Yoga for Stress” class and have found it makes me happier with my body and improves my mood and general sense of well-being. I decided over the Memorial Day weekend to turn one of my spare bedrooms into a yoga room!

Bring family, friends, coworkers -- anyone who wonders what goes on at our secret weekly meetings! Plan to arrive a little early so you have time to check out the displays and sample the smoothies.

TWO NEW FITNESS KITS
Punch! Fitness Kit: a new workout DVD featuring powerful boxing-inspired moves, designed to help you burn calories and tone your body. The workouts – designed specifically for Weight Watchers members – are high-energy but low-impact, so they’re easy on your joints. The fitness kit includes a DVD featuring 3 super-fun workouts (progressing from beginner to advanced), weighted boxing gloves, and a 10-week Exercise Tracker. Punch! Will sell for $25.

Work Your Belly, Butt, and Thighs: A new stability ball workout! A great way to improve your core strength, tighten, tone and stretch. And it’s impact-free for joint safety! The fitness kit includes a DVD featuring 3 separate workouts (beginner, intermediate and advanced), a stabilty ball with pump and stability ring (for extra balance control), and a 10-week Exercise Tracker – all for $30.

$5 MINI BARS, OATMEAL & SMOOTHIES SALE IS BACK!
Now through June 26 (my birthday!) all Weight Watchers Mini Bars, Oatmeal and Smoothies will be on sale for only $5 per box. It’s a great opportunity to try our new Caramel Latte Smoothie or stock up on your favorites (like those Chocolate Pretzel Blast Mini Bars…yum!)

WEIGHT WATCHERS MAGAZINE
The July/August issue has arrived! Pick up a copy for only $3.50 until June 26 (save .50 cents off the regular price).

HEALTHY COOKING BASICS Cookbook is on sale for $10 (regularly $15) until July 17.

HEALTHY OILS
We talked in Saturday's meeting about healthy oils and some of you asked for more tips to incorporate those 2 teaspoons into your meals and snacks. Scroll down to the end of this message for a 25 ideas!

I hope I see you today at “Outrun the Sun” – I’ll be there rain or shine! Or if you can’t make it today, how about next Sunday the 13th for an informal 5k walk leaving the church parking lot at 2 p.m. Or do your own thing, just keep moving more.

Have a good week and I’ll see you at the meeting!

Diane

25 Ideas for Including Healthy Oils (Canola, Flaxseed, Olive, Safflower or Sunflower)

1. Add to your smoothie, oatmeal, etc.

2. Fry an egg sandwich

3. Stir fry veggies

4. Add to pasta while cooking

5. Add to canned green beans (Cracker Barrel does it!)

6. Fried potatoes! Buy frozen hash browns where the ingredients say “potatoes” only

7. Pour a teaspoon of flaxseed oil on a baked potato or other veggies. It has a nutty flavor.

8. Rub a teaspoon of olive oil on chicken or fish before baking. No more dried out chicken.

9. Grill cheese sandwich by putting a teaspoon of olive oil in a skillet, put in your bread & cheese sandwich, grill one side and then add another teaspoon of oil and grill the other side.

10. Mix 2 tsp olive oil, 2 tsp red wine vinegar and package of Splenda-great salad dressing.

11. Blend it into mashed potatoes- it may take a little longer than adding butter.

12. Add the oil to the water when making rice.

13. Drizzle over roasted veggies in the oven

14. Drizzle olive oil over a Smart One Pizza. It tastes like pizza from a restaurant!

15. Drizzle on sliced tomatoes with a little Italian seasoning

16. Mix olive oil, Italian seasoning and garlic salt, then dip your light wheat bread in it.

17. Sauté spinach in olive oil

18. Add 2 tsp to fat free Italian dressing for your salad

19. Spread on bread, sprinkle garlic powder and toast in toaster oven

20. Drizzle it over popcorn

21. Add to a serving of the Garden Vegetable soup

22. Add to plain non-fat yogurt (great for core planners)

23. Cook egg whites in it

24. Another salad dressing: 2 tsp canola oil, vinegar (rice is good), dash of celery salt

25. Spread on corn on the cob

No Reservations Required

2010-05-09T21:08:00.006-04:00

How confident do you feel that you can enjoy yourself while eating out AND stay on plan? Will you?

Many of us have reservations about dining out as Weight Watchers members. It's a real challenge to be informed, manage portions and stay in control. But after nine years of practice I feel pretty sure that I could eat just about anywhere, staying on plan without going hungry. However, I don’t always choose to apply that knowledge as effectively as I could! That will be my goal this week: staying on plan while dining out.

Whether you’ve been a member for more than nine years, nine days or somewhere in between, you can still hone your dining out skills. Some of us may be mastering the basics while others like me just need to stop relaxing quite so much and put our knowledge into practice more consistently. All of us can benefit from reading the booklet from Week 5 “Eat Out or On the Run” and the Weight Watchers Weekly mini-magazine you picked up at the scale. Both have great dining out strategies and tricks.

Here a short menu of tips to keep in mind the next time you dine out:

- Look up nutrition information before you go (use the Dining Out Companion book, eTools, the restaurant’s web site, etc.)
- Plan ahead how many POINTS you are willing to spend
- Use Set POINTS values and select Filling Foods
- Look for terms such as broiled or steamed (instead of crispy or au gratin)
- Eat wisely that day. Cut back a bit but don’t avoid eating altogether
- Order first
- Take half home with you or split an entrée with somebody else
- Earn extra Activity POINTS. Remember you can save them to use any time during the week (but not carry them into the next week).
- Ask for items to be prepared without butter or oil. Ask for condiments on the side.

Just like any skill we want to acquire, dining out on program takes practice. Be prepared to make a few mistakes. Be patient and forgive yourself if things don’t work out the way you planned. You will do better next time and the time after that. Before you know it you’ll be dining out with confidence, staying on program and enjoying yourself!

Check out my previous dining out posts here.

DINING OUT DISCREETLY
During Saturday’s meeting we got into a discussion about how to dine out discreetly – ordering without everyone knowing you’re on a weight-loss plan. Here are a few tips from a WeightWatchers.com article:

When planning, suggest a type of restaurant where you know you can easily get a plan-friendly meal (boiled lobster with fresh lemon juice, steamed Chinese food with garlic sauce on the side, main meal salads with the dressing on the side). Try to find the restaurant's menu online or call ahead and see if the hostess can fax it to you. Then you can plan ahead and figure out what foods fit into your daily POINTS® Allowance.

Tell your waiter what you're looking for up front so you don't end up picking apart every item on the menu. Try, "I've been looking forward to a nice piece of broiled fish with lemon. Do you have anything like that?"

Compliment food items that intrigue you, and then ask a question about them so you can find out about their ingredients without being so direct. Try: "The mushroom appetizer sounds delicious. I love garlic sauce. How is yours prepared?"

Have a rebuttal line ready if someone makes a comment about your special food requests. Say it like you mean it and be upbeat and positive, not defensive. "I feel so much healthier eating this way. My pants are looser and my energy is through the roof."

And remember, a lot depends on your attitude. Be proud of yourself and focus on the positive health benefits you'll reap from losing weight and eating nutritious foods. If you're confident in your actions, others may be more likely to support your efforts as well.

Keep in mind that people make special food requests because of food allergies, health and weight issues, and simple matters of taste. And requests for food modifications are increasingly common as people become more and more health conscious. If you ask politely, you may be surprised how easily restaurants will cater to your requests. Don't be discouraged, though, if a small restaurant at its peak hour cannot accommodate a radical menu change. Instead, ask for easy-to-fill requests such as leaving the cheese off a sandwich, making an omelet with egg whites only or serving a salad with the dressing on the side.

WALK-IT CHALLENGE CHOICES

Head for the Cure: Sat May 15th @ 9 am
There’s still time to sign up for this event which takes place next Saturday! Click here for more information or to sign up.

Outrun the Sun: June 5th @ 7 pm
If you’re looking for a group event for a 5K, why not sign up for Outrun the Sun at Ft. Benjamin Harrison? Already 148 people have signed up with the Weight Watchers team, which currently ranks 4th among the Outrun the Sun teams. Not only will it be fun to walk together, but there will be a Weight Watchers tent set up where you can pick up your packet on the day of the race (no extra trips to pick up your packets before the event…hooray!) In addition there will be door prizes and a few goodies plus a contest for the jazziest, most bedazzled t-shirt! Click here to register and be sure to pick Weight Watchers as your team.

Zionsville Weight Watchers Group Walk: Sunday June 13th @ 2 pm
Meet in the St. Francis parking lot and go for a 3.1 mile walk with the best bunch of Weight Watchers in town! Family and friends are all welcome to come along. This is not an official event, but just a time for interested members to get together and go for a walk. BYOW (bring your own water!)

CONFECTIONS & MEAL SIDES SALE
Are you a Fruities fan? Would you like to try a savory side dish? From now through May 29th the following items are on sale, Buy 2 Get 1 Free!

Cappuccino Cream Melts
Blackberry Fruities
Cherry Fruities
Strawberry Fruities
Chicken Herb Pasta
Wild Mushroom Rice

NEXT TIME
Sometimes the people who we’re closest too are the least supportive of our weight-loss efforts. A lot of our relationships with others may be built around eating and drinking, so when we try to change our habits it can be difficult. We’ll discuss next time how we can build a supportive network and let others know our needs.

By the way, I met my goal from last week of preparing my lunches the night before and it worked great. I took my own Filling Food salads for an entree. Plus a member inspired me when she said she packed the whole week's worth of lunches so she could pick and choose depending upon her appetite or mood. I didn't bring quite that much, but I did bring a few options to choose from and it was nice to have some flexibility instead of feeling like I was stuck eating what I brought. That's what sent me to the grocery store and got me in trouble in the first place!

What's your goal for this week? I'm committing to staying on plan while eating out. I'll raise my ice water to you and toast your good health!

Diane

A Change of Habit

2010-05-02T21:43:00.006-04:00

Bad habits are easier to abandon today than tomorrow.

~Yiddish Proverb

I usually bring my lunch to the office but the other day the frozen entrée I had stashed in the freezer at work just didn’t sound good to me. It was warm outside and I was in the mood for salad so I went to the grocery store and bought my lunch from the carry-out section. They have a lot of healthy choices and I got a small bowl of cut fruit, a mixed green salad and a couple slices of turkey from the deli department. It was a treat!

It was so much fun that I started to make it a habit. But it gradually has become a BAD habit. You probably already spotted the danger -- grocery shopping when hungry! Sure enough, I started adding more stuff to my salad (dried cranberries, nuts, processed chicken strips that I could buy without waiting in the deli line but of which I ate a larger serving) and picking up a few extras like a cookie from the bakery, a bottle of soda, my favorite chips (but they were on sale!). My healthy lunch was gone and I was spending a lot more money too!

So this week while we’re focusing on our helpful habits, I’m getting back into the habit of preparing my own lunch at home. I bought bagged salad, grape tomatoes, cucumber and some fruit. I cooked and diced my own chicken this weekend, freezing it in 3-ounce portions. I can take a bag out of the freezer and by lunchtime it’s thawed and ready to top my salad. Once I finish this blog it’ll be time to my lunch together for Monday.

It’s not as easy as throwing a couple of boxes of frozen stuff in my tote. Now I have to plan a bit more, assemble all the plastic ware, buy and prepare the food and remember to bring it in the morning. No way is that an unconscious habit. But as the joke goes, “only nuns change habits overnight!” It can take 6 to 8 weeks before new behaviors become habits, but with time and practice it’ll get easier and easier.

What habit will you practice this week?

Pick one habit and practice it consistently, whether or not you’re perfect. For example, if your goal is to walk regularly, it's better to start by doing 5 minutes EVERY DAY for a month than by doing 45 minutes for two days and then giving up. After you have been walking consistently for a number of days, you have formed the habit. Now increase the number of minutes gradually from there, all the while striving to do some walking EVERY day.

Back up your actions with your thoughts. Think of these behaviors as lifelong habits rather than changes to adopt “until I lose the weight.” If you find yourself thinking negatively, use the word “but” and point out positive aspects. “I’m tired of tracking everything – but – if I keep at it I will reach my goal and feel so much better than I do right now.”

It’s hard to change habits – but – developing new healthy habits can mean the difference between temporary success or weight loss that's for keeps!

HUGS
It’s Mother’s Day next Sunday and when I think of my Mom I think of hugs. Did you know that hugging somebody actually lowers your blood pressure and reduces stress? Some studies show that hugging reduces cortisol levels. Cortisol increases blood pressure and slows metabolism, which can promote weight gain. So by hugging, you're actually speeding your metabolism. Ultimately, hugs can keep your heart healthier, your body younger, and promote friendship and love. Hugs provide happiness, and who doesn't want to be happy?

If nobody is around for you to hug, then watch the “Free Hugs” video on YouTube for a feel-good, virtual hug.

Or for a good laugh, check out my Mother’s Day post from 2 years ago with the link to the “Mom Song” – a 3-minute compilation of all the things a Mom might say in a single day.

Happy Mother’s Day!

NEXT TIME
Making lunch at home gives me control, but I still want to eat out, don’t you? Restaurants offer a lot of temptations and it’s tricky to make healthy choices and stay on program. We’ll talk about helpful dining out strategies at our next meeting. There’s no need to make reservations, but arrive early and beat the rush. Look for me there -- my name is Diane and I’ll be taking care of you!

Taming Wild Weekends

2010-04-25T21:03:00.004-04:00

Everybody’s working for the weekend, getting things done Monday through Friday so we can take a well-deserved break on Saturday and Sunday. It’s awfully tempting to relax and quit tracking POINTS during the weekend. We don’t have the same routine as we do during the week so it’s easier to go off track or lose control. We may feel we deserve a reward and often the first one that comes to mind is FOOD. And how much could 2 days of being off plan hurt, anyway?

2 days a week = 104 days or 28.5% of the year...ouch!

If Weight Watchers was a course, skipping weekends would result in a C- grade for being on track only 71% of the time. And that 71% doesn’t include other days you might be tempted to ignore the POINTS budget such as holidays, special occasions or after the weekly weigh in. All those no-counting days add up and could be part of the reason you’re not losing as much as you’d like.

How can we tame the temptation to play hooky from Weight Watchers?

Ease up. If you want to take a break from tracking and counting, look for ways you can make it easier on yourself without ditching your POINTS Budget completely. Use the POINTS clicker. Duplicate healthy meal plans you’ve enjoyed before. Choose more Filling Foods – maybe even try the Simply Filling, no-counting option. Write down your weekend meals ahead of time so you’ve already got the tracking done.

Plan for Structure. Plan your weekend meals as much as possible. Think of enjoyable things you can do that don’t revolve around food. Include time during each day to earn Activity POINTS. If your weekend holds challenges, take time to decide how you’ll manage them.

Enjoy treats. Use your 35 POINTS to enjoy a few treats over the weekend. Even better, plan for some non-food ways you can indulge and reward yourself so you can still relax without playing hooky from your healthy lifestyle.

Skipping Saturdays and Sundays will only result in weakened weight-loss efforts. Staying on plan for 7 days a week will help you reach your goal that much faster. Plus instead of being an on-again-off-again, weekday-only Weight Watchers member, you’ll truly be embracing the lifestyle you want to maintain!

Read more about Recovering from Wild Weekends on WeightWatchers.com

TRACKING: TAKE TWO
It’s week 2 for our tracking challenge. Several members asked if we could repeat last week’s contest to bring in a completed tracker with all 7 days completed. You’ll be entered for a prize drawing so bring in those trackers this week to our meeting!

NEXT TIME
How can we beat the “diet” mentality? We’ll talk about how to establish new, lifelong habits that are key to losing and keeping weight off. We’re not just in this for a temporary fix, but for a lifestyle of changes that will last!

UPCOMING TOPICS:
Apr 27 & May 1: Build Helpful Habits
May 4 & 8: Dining Out
May 11 & 15: Building a Foundation of Support
May 18 & 22: It’s What’s for Breakfast
May 25 & 29: Activity Goals to Really Go For
Jun 1 & 5: Mastering the Math of Weight Loss

One-Minute Rule: The Fast Track

2010-04-18T22:42:00.006-04:00

Have you tried the one-minute rule? It basically says if a task takes less than a minute, do it now. I find I’m more likely to get things done when I apply the one-minute rule and it’s surprising how many tasks can be completed in 60 seconds or less.

I have a habit of piling stuff up on my kitchen counter and the one-minute rule has helped me reduce the clutter. Just before I put something down I ask myself, “Would it take me less than a minute to put this where it belongs instead of dropping it here?” And if the answer yes, then I put it away where it belongs. I’ve been far more consistent about keeping the countertop clear this way.

The one-minute rule supports our helpful weight-loss habits too. In a minute I can wash up an apple and tuck it in my bag before I head out the door, print out a restaurant’s nutrition information, decide on my goal for the week, or read an inspiring article from the “Weight Watchers Weekly” mini magazine.

I can even update my tracker in less than a minute.

Many of us struggle with tracking consistently, yet we know it’s one of the most effective skills for weight loss and weight maintenance. We start the week out tracking diligently, but then things get busy or we prefer to ignore a slip up rather than write it down. Soon we’ve quit tracking altogether.

What if instead of skipping tracking we ask ourselves, “Will it take me more than a minute to record this?” Most of the time it won’t take much more than a minute because we’ve gotten to know a lot of our food POINTS values. By applying the one-minute rule, self-monitoring becomes a tiny task that’s done before you know it. You can even face up to a mistake, forgive yourself and move on in less than a minute just by writing it down.

A couple of notes:

New Members: You’re probably not ready for the fast-track yet, and that’s okay. You’re still in the honeymoon stage: learning the basics, calculating or looking up the POINTS and developing your tracking skills. Self-monitoring is still a new habit so the one-minute rule is probably not for you!

Gone in 60 seconds? Just because it might take more than a minute to track a meal, that doesn’t mean you shouldn't record it. Putting tracking off or skipping it just gives your memory time to get fuzzier and fuzzy math doesn't help the numbers on the scale go down. But applying the one-minute rule CAN help you become a more consistent tracker. And frequent self-monitoring is linked to greater weight loss.

Time savers: Look for ways to make tracking quick and simple. Use abbreviations, try the POINTS Clicker, create favorites you can click and drag into your eTools tracker, repeat a past day’s menu when you’re pressed for time, etc. Figure out how to make tracking a good fit with your lifestyle.

When self-monitoring becomes a 7-day-a-week habit you’ll be on the fast track to the weight-loss winner’s circle!

I read about the one-minute rule in Gretchen Rubin’s book “The Happiness Project.” Check out Gretchen’s message about the one-minute rule here: The Happiness Project Blog).

LAST CHANCE FOR $3.50 SNACKS!
This is the last week of the snack sale which includes all the 2-POINTS Bars, Pretzel Thins, Cheddar Twists and Multigrain Crisps. They come cleverly pre-packaged in 2-POINT servings so they definitely qualify for the one-minute tracking rule!

NEXT TIME
Do you ever feel like the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of Weight Watchers members? There’s the well-respected weekday Weight Watchers member who routinely stays within their POINTS budget. Then there’s Weekend Weight Watchers member who can be inconsistent or totally out of control. Let’s talk about how we can bring these split personalities together into one successful Weight Watchers member!

I'll be glad to see you at our meeting this week. Bring your tracker with all 7 days filled out completely and you'll be entered for a prize drawing. The prize may not be the new car the Tuesday night members had suggested, but it'll be something worthwhile. And even if you don't win the drawing, you'll be feeling good about your self-monitoring this week, you track star!

Diane

Walking on Sunshine

2010-04-11T21:06:00.011-04:00

I definitely got some exercise this weekend. First, I finally got around to doing my taxes. Up and down the stairs I went, hunting for receipts and check stubs. Yes, it’s pretty late to be filing, but when you know you owe there’s less incentive to get it done! Then it was opening day for the 2010 lawn mowing season. I pushed the mower up and down, trying to cut off all the dandelion heads that had popped up in the nice weather.

I capped off my weekend by going roller skating for a couple of hours. I know what you want to ask and I’ll just say that I made a respectable showing at the rink. I didn’t fall, but I wasn’t skating backwards or zooming around very fast either!

When will you be exercising next? I joked this week in our meetings that we’re pretty good at knowing when our next meal will be, but not always so sure about our next workout. And we’ll easily skip exercise when the workout buddy wimps out, the weather turns bad or if we’re just feeling too tired to get moving. Would we skip that next meal if our friend cancels, it starts raining, or because we’re too tired to cook? No way!

So how do we get the same motivation and commitment to our exercise that we have for meal planning? It helps if you’re doing exercise you enjoy whether it’s fun, you’re spending time with a friend, you’re watching a favorite TV program or listening to happy music (like "Walking on Sunshine") while you workout.

Having a fitness goal can help to keep you motivated too. So we’re promoting the second annual “Walk-It Challenge” and encouraging all Zionsville Weight Watchers members to move more by training to walk a 5K (3.1 miles).

Read the step-by-step training guide you received at the scale this week. (Did you notice it included a coupon for $5 off the $24 Weight Watchers POINTS Pedometer?) Check out WeightWatchers.com/walkit for all the details and helpful links.

Although you can choose any 5K event on any date, Weight Watchers official Walk-It Day is Sunday June 6th. That gives us about 8 weeks to focus on our exercise goals and get moving more!

Ready to set a motivating fitness goal? Here are 3 events to mark on your calendar:

HEAD FOR THE CURE
9 a.m. Saturday May 15th at West Park in Carmel
Many of you heard Sheri Sapper share her personal connection with this charity 5K Run/Walk event. 100% of the proceeds benefit the American Brain Tumor Association. Read about the event or register on line here: Head for the Cure

OUTRUN THE SUN
7 p.m. Saturday June 5th at Fort Benjamin Harrison State Park
Indianapolis-area Weight Watchers (including me) are planning to participate in the 5K “Outrun the Sun” Run/Walk to benefit melanoma research. There are 3 options: a 1 mile walk, 5K run/walk or a 5 mile run. Find out more at OutrunTheSun.org or click here to register on line: Outrun the Sun Registration

ZIONSVILLE WW 5K SUNDAY JUNE 13 @ 2 pm
We’ll have our own home-grown 5K walk for Zionsville Weight Watchers on Sunday June 13th. We’ll meet in the church parking lot and set out for 3.1 miles. Are you interested in designing a t-shirt? Got some ideas? If you have any suggestions please let me know!

Speaking of t-shirts, if you're still not feeling motivated to exercise then check out this t-shirt design from shirt.woot.com. I'm thankful we can CHOOSE to move more!
Check out shirt woot here

SNACK SALE
$5 boxes of 2-POINTS Bars and $4.50 boxes of Snacks are now on sale for only $3.50 until April 24th. Stock up on Pizza Pretzel Thins (they won’t be available in future now that the new Rosemary & Olive Oil Pretzel Thins have been launched). Enjoy the current favorite, Roasted Almond Bars or the newest flavor, Peanut Butter & Chip Delight. Two weeks to save!

NEXT TIME
We'll share tracking tactics that work. How can we be more consistent with tracking? And what are ways to make it easier?

Remember to apply sunscreen when you’re out walking in sunshine!

Diane

Chutes and Ladders

2010-03-28T11:48:00.011-04:00

“Failure is success if we learn from it.”
~Malcom S. Forbes

Weight loss progress sure has its ups and downs. We start climbing up the ladder towards our goal only to slip and slide back down. Sometimes it’s just a short slide and we can get back on track right away. Sometimes it’s a really, really long slide, falling to where we started or even further back.

Everyone experiences setbacks, even (gasp!) Weight Watchers staff members. You heard some stories about struggling with failed weight-loss attempts from Jan, Marlene and Connie, the Zionsville meetings receptionists, who shared their experiences in our meetings this month.

Success didn’t come easily for any of them; in fact they joined and rejoined several times before each reached their goal and achieved Lifetime membership. Despite experiencing so-called failures, they kept on trying. Learning from the past and avoiding a repeat of the same mistakes allowed them to keep making progress and to finally succeed.

Quitting after a slip-up doesn’t work. What does work?

Here’s a list of some of the things we came up with in our meetings:

Forgive yourself and move on
Talk kindly to yourself (don’t beat yourself up)
Keep coming to meetings
Use your Tracker and count POINTS
Get moving / Exercise
Reach out to a friend and get support
Figure out what went wrong & what to you’ll do next time
Try mentally rehearsing your new behavior

One of many things I’ve figured out by learning from mistakes is that when I’m successful and feeling confident I have a tendency to stock my cabinets with more and more tempting foods. I feel I’ve gained control and am certain I can enjoy these foods in moderation. And that’s true--most of the time. But one bad day can trigger a stress-eating episode and my control is history. That stash of goodies is like a ticking time bomb, an overeating disaster waiting to happen. I’ve learned it’s best for me to keep only 1 or 2 tempting treats in my home at a time. If I slip down the emotional-eating slide I can only go so far without getting in the car and going shopping!

Think back to the last time you slipped up and took a trip down a slippery slide. What caused the slide? How will you change your behavior so you’ll avoid the same slip-up again?

It takes time to learn the best way to play any game. Treat the past as practice. Keep doing the things that work well and learning from the things that don’t.

No matter what happens, stay in the game and keep on playing!

Don’t Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up though the pace seems slow--
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor's cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure
turned inside out--
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

- Author unknown

EASTER CANDY
Check out a previous posting with Easter candy points:

Click here

NEW SNACKS TO TRY
The nice UPS delivery guy brought 2 new Weight Watchers products to my doorstep this week:

Peanut Butter & Chip Delight Snack Bars and Rosemary & Olive Oil Pretzel Thins

Both are quite yummy! Of course you know I like anything with peanut butter and the pretzels had a good savory taste (might even be good to use some crushed as a coating for chicken!).

Both are available for sale right now. Get free samples during the weeks of April 5th (Peanut Butter Chip Bars) and April 12th (the Rosemary and Olive Oil Pretzel Thins).

Note: These new items will be replacing the Chocolate Chip Brownie Snack Bar and Pizza Pretzel Thins. We’ve already sold out the Brownie Bars at Zionsville, but there are still Pizza Pretzels left if you’re a fan and want to stock up before they’re gone.

NEXT TIME
Individually we’re smart, together we’re brilliant. Buddy up for a better chance to succeed with your weight-loss goals!

The April calendar is available for download on my blog site http://betweenthemeetings.blogspot.com/

Use your goal-setting power and make this month a "Wow-er"!

Have a great week!

Diane

Be Wise About Portion Size

2010-03-19T20:50:00.007-04:00

Hello Weight Watchers!

Spring is a great time to tune up our portion estimating skills. We tend to get a little fuzzy after a winter of eating comfort foods and wearing layers of concealing clothing. That half-cup of ice cream morphed into two-thirds, and then into a cup. My tablespoon of peanut butter is mounded a little higher. We start trusting that the restaurant serving is a reasonable portion.

You might find yourself thinking, “Heck, I’ve been a Weight Watchers member for years now – why do I need to bother measuring?” Oh yeah, you know what I’m talking about, don’t you? PORTION DISTORTION! So it’s time to dust off the measuring spoons, dig out that food scale and get reacquainted with what REAL serving sizes look like again!

Here are a few tips for getting portions back into shape again:

Dining In
-------------
* Keep measuring tools handy – use them to hone your estimating skills!
* Eat from a plate (not from the package or pan)
* Use smaller dishes
* Instead of “family style” serve “restaurant style;” put the rest out of sight
* Buy pre-portioned servings (ice cream bars vs. half-gallon)

Dining Out
---------------
* Ask for a “to go” box & pack up half your meal BEFORE you eat
* Order a small portion (appetizer or kids meal)
* Split your entrée with a friend
* Stop, rest and assess: “Am I no longer hungry?”
* Request dressings/sauces on the side; dip your fork

Give Yourself a Hand
------------------------------
* Your fist = 1 cup or 1 medium fruit (tennis ball, baseball)
* Your palm (minus fingers) = 3 ounce portion of meat (deck of cards)
* Your whole thumb = 1 ounce meat or cheese (4 small dice)
* Your cupped palm = ½ cup (half a tennis ball or baseball)

For a fairy-tale finish, ask yourself what would Goldilocks do? We don’t want to finish a meal feeling like we’ve eaten too much (stuffed) or too little (deprived), but JUST RIGHT (comfortably satisfied). That’s the secret to eating healthily ever after!

A NEW TWIST
Do you enjoy Weight Watchers Pretzels or Cheddar Twists snacks? Think outside of the bag: try breaking them up and adding them to salads instead of croutons. Or on top of baked casseroles for a crunchy topping. Or crush them and use the crumbs to coat chicken, fish, or pork.

DIVIDE AND CONQUER
Here’s a sensible way to divide your plate: fill one half with vegetables and/or fruits, one quarter with lean protein, and the other quarter with a grain/starch serving. If you make most of your meals look this way, you’ll follow sound nutrition guidelines and choose appropriate portions—without having to pull out a measuring cup every time. Remember: aim for half or more of each meal to be fruits and veggies!

WHAT’S ON SALE?
It's the last week to save 33% on Weight Watchers Mini Bars and Smoothies! Stock up on Weight Watchers Maple or Vanilla Almond Oatmeal 4-packs. All on sale for just $5!

Join now and pay only $1 Registration Fee!

MEETING TOPICS: WHAT’S AHEAD
Week of 3/28: Creating a supportive weight-loss network
Week of 4/4: The Walk-It Challenge & Staying focused on activity efforts
Week of 4/11: Monitoring Yourself: The Power of Tracking
Week of 4/18: Success, Even on Weekends
Week of 4/25: Build Helpful Habits: Make Changes that Last

NEXT TIME

Going from “Oops!” to “Wow!” You can learn just as much from a mistake as from a success. Next time we’ll talk about evaluating and adjusting our behaviors using the Learn from Experience skill.

If you’ve been AWOL from Weight Watchers (Oops!) take control of your choices this week (Wow!) and plan to attend your meeting. See you there!

Diane

Ready for Something New

2010-03-07T13:26:00.012-05:00

I am done with winter! The excitement of that first snowfall and cozying up by the fireside is long gone and I’m ready for something new and fresh. Day after day of cold, gray weather has finally given way to sunny skies and melting snow piles. Hallelujah!

The sunshine and warmer temps make me feel energized and happy. It’s been so nice to ditch my heavy coat and go walking outdoors without fear of ice patches. I was so fired up about walking outside that I (crazily?) registered for 2 upcoming mini marathons!

I more sanely showed my enthusiasm for spring when I bought daffodils for my kitchen counter, hung a spring wreath on my front door and got a new planter for my desk at work. On my to-do list I made a note to buy seeds and potting soil and to get my lawn mower blade sharpened. I keep checking the spots in my yard where early-flowering crocus and narcissus will soon bloom.

I’m not alone in my hurry to embrace spring. Did you see people wearing shorts, washing their cars and working outside this weekend? We’re all ready for a change!

It’s also a good time to change up our food choices – switch from heavier wintertime comfort foods to lighter, fresher fare. Air out boring menu routines and try something different. Hopefully you got at least 1 idea for a new food find from our meetings this week!

Do you eat the same things day after day? That may feel safe and save time, but can make us more susceptible to temptation. Plus we may not be getting all the nutrition that a wider variety of foods would supply.

All winter long I’ve eaten soup almost every day. It’s one of my favorites, but even a favorite food can become boring after a while. So for the first time in months I bought some of what I consider warmer-weather foods: salad, grape tomatoes and ice cream. A member mentioned Skinny Cow’s new mini ice cream cups at Saturday’s meeting (I have the package for show-and-tell so you won’t miss out, Tuesday members!). I also bought Thomas’ new 1 POINT “Everything” flavor Bagel Thins at Marsh (which aren’t really very bagel-like but that’s one of my favorite flavors!)

How can you spring-clean your food routines? Refresh your meals by trying new foods or including foods you haven’t eaten in a while. Find more ideas about changing up food and activity in your Weight Watchers Weekly handout from the meeting or online at WeightWatchers.com.

I look forward to hearing what new foods, recipes and activities you try this week!

CRUNCHY, MUNCHY SNACK SALE
Hooray! All Weight Watchers Mini Bars, Smoothies and Oatmeal are on sale for just $5 per box for the next 3 weeks. Stock up on your favorites or since we’re focusing on adding new foods, why not try our 3 newest treats?

Chocolate Pretzel Blast Mini Bars: a yummy 1-POINT mix of pretzels, caramel, peanuts and chocolate. Jan and I both bought a box for ourselves, so you know your Zionsville Weight Watchers staff likes ‘em!

Pomegranate Blueberry Smoothie: this fruity smoothie has 10 grams of protein and 60% more calcium than a glass of milk. I get double dairy servings when I blenderize my smoothies with 1 cup of milk and 6 or 8 ice cubes for a milkshake-like treat.

Vanilla Almond Oatmeal: I’ve enjoyed this oatmeal for breakfast twice already! It smells wonderful and the sliced almonds add a nice crunch. For extra protein I stir in a tablespoon of peanut butter with my oatmeal.

BRING A FRIEND
Free Registration ends this week. Don’t wait any longer; join now and you could save $20!

Plus between now and March 13th if you bring a friend to join Zionsville Weight Watchers, you each will be entered in a drawing with a chance to win $50 worth of Weight Watchers products! Get details at our meeting.

ROLE MODEL OF THE YEAR
How has Weight Watchers changed your life and inspired you to make healthy decisions? Celebrate your success and inspire others by sharing your story in the 2010 Weight Watchers Role Model of the Year Contest. Everyone who enters becomes a valuable member of the Success Story database. Entrants in 2009 were featured in Weight Watchers Magazine, Redbook, and People as well as on the Today Show.

* 100 First Prize Winners: Win a $100 gift card to a major retailer
* 6 Grand Prize Finalists: Win a trip for 2 to New York City; $500 spending money; Feature in Weight Watchers Magazine and coverage on WeightWatchers.com
* 1 Grand Prize Winner featured on the cover of Weight Watchers Magazine

You do not have to be at your Goal or a Lifetime member to enter or win the contest. Simply share a little about your weight loss journey and submit “before” and “after” photos along with copies from your attendance records showing a safe rate of weight loss (not more than an average of 2 pounds per week).

Get more information and an entry form at our meeting or download an entry form from WeightWatchers.com.

NEXT TIME
The big finale is here: it’s the last week of our Momentum 2010 Challenge! We’ll look back over the past 10 weeks and celebrate our accomplishments. Success is more than pounds lost; it’s also behaviors changed and skills learned. We’ll share ideas for how to maintain those behavior changes we've made and to master the ones that are still eluding us.

Looking ahead:
3/14-20: Weighing in on Portion Control
3/21-27: Going from “Oops” to Wow!”
3/28-4/2: Buddy Up for Weight Loss

See you at our celebration party this week!

Diane

A Product of Your Environment

2010-02-27T19:00:00.006-05:00

I really like the photo of this kitchen. I feel healthier just looking at it! It’s not a kitchen where I'd be stashing a lot of junk food or downing a sleeve of Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies. In this kitchen I’d be chopping fresh veggies, making my own salad dressings or grabbing an already-washed piece of fruit from the bowl as I head out for my walk.

How well does your kitchen support your healthy lifestyle? In week 8 of our 10-week Momentum 2010 Challenge we’re using the skill of arranging your home environment to support your weight-loss efforts. Does the way your kitchen is organized help you make smart choices?

Tame Temptation: Throw or give away trouble foods that can trigger overeating such as ice cream, cookies, nuts, or potato chips. Hide hard-to-resist foods out of sight. Make a choice not to buy trigger foods at all!

Stock up on Healthy Foods: Buy Filling Foods, low-fat and low-calorie snacks. Keep these foods front and center in the pantry and fridge. If they’re the first things you see you’ll be more likely to choose them.

On the Counter: Keep useful tools out where you'll see them and use them (food scale, tracker and pen, bowl of fruit). Keep tempting treats out of sight!

Make it Easy to be Healthy: Wash and cut fruits and veggies so they're ready to eat. Pack foods in single-serving containers for easy portion control and grab-and-go ease.

This week, take one or more of these steps:

* Throw away 10 of the trigger foods that clutter your environment.
* Buy healthy foods (see the list on page 52 of your Pocket Guide)
* Put a list on the fridge of healthy foods you have on hand

For more ideas and tips, read the article at the end of this message.

Pledge to clean up the environmental hazards in your kitchen this week!

BRING A FRIEND
Free Registration ends in 2 weeks so don’t wait any longer; join now and you could save $20!

Plus between now and March 13th if you bring a friend to join Zionsville Weight Watchers, you each will be entered in a drawing with a chance to win $50 worth of Weight Watchers products! Get details at our meeting.

$5 COUPON DEAL
Visit eatyourbest.com/savings, complete a short survey and print a coupon for $5 off the purchase of 10 Weight Watchers Smart Ones meals!

NEXT TIME
Beat food boredom at our food swap! At our meeting next week we’ll share food finds and tips for mixing things up. What are your favorite foods? How do you dress up basic foods like chicken, salad, or broccoli? Bring labels and packages from new food finds or long-time favorites. Take home ideas for spicing up your meals and snacks!

I’ll see you there!

Diane

P.S. The March motivational calendar is available on my blog. What's your goal for this month? Set one today and then take the first step to make it happen!

8 ways to stock your kitchen for heart health
By Elaine Magee, MPH, RD
WebMD Feature

1. Switch to Heart-Smart Cooking Oils
It makes nutritional sense to choose cooking fats that have the least amount of saturated fat and trans fat, and the most healthful fats (omega-3s and monounsaturated fats). When you do this, you end up with a couple of oils in your kitchen:

Canola oil for most of your cooking. Canola oil contains the lowest amount of saturated fat. Canola oil is the 5th highest oil in monounsaturated fat and it contains the most omega-3 fatty acids.
Olive oil when it works in the recipe. Olive oil contains the most monounsaturated fat, very little saturated fat, and some helpful phytochemicals that are found in olives. Olive oil tastes great, so use this oil when you want to impart flavor.
Other oils such as safflower, sunflower, soybean, or flaxseed oil are additional heart-healthy fats that can also be used.

2. Switch to a Smarter Margarine for Table Use and Some Baking
If a recipe calls for melted margarine or butter, you can usually replace it with canola oil. But there are times when margarine is required: To spread on toast, to make cookie dough, or for the added flavor. To qualify as a smarter margarine that you store in the refrigerator, margarine should have a little less fat than butter or stick margarine (around 8 grams of fat per tablespoon works well), the smallest amount of saturated fat possible (2 grams of saturated fat or less per tablespoon) and no trans fat. Smart margarines should also contain mostly monounsaturated fat or polyunsaturated fat, and for and added bonus, look for ones with omega-3 fats.

3. De-Junk Your Pantry
Two characteristics define junk food -- the absence of nutritional value (fiber, vitamins, minerals, protein, phytochemicals, etc.) and the overabundance of fat, sodium, or sugar. This describes many of the foods Americans know and love: fast food, soda, candy bars, chips, doughnuts, ice cream, and more. One of the keys to making over your kitchen is to de-junk your pantry.

Fill your pantry with healthier foods and products that you enjoy eating:

Instead of Pop Tarts, have some low-fat, low-sugar, high-fiber protein or granola bars; whole-grain, low-sugar breakfast cereals; or low-sugar instant oatmeal packets.
Instead of chips or cheese puffs, stock your pantry with low-salt mixed nuts, reduced-fat whole grain crackers (hopefully lower in sodium), whole grain pretzels, or light popcorn, which is also a whole grain.
It's always a great idea to keep your pantry well stocked with products that you tend to use in your healthful cooking. Some examples:

Lower-sodium broth and reduced-fat soups
Whole-grain noodles
Brown rice
Canned tuna packed in water
Sardines
Bottled marinara sauce
Whole-wheat flour
Canned beans
Fat-free refried beans

4. De-junk Your Refrigerator and Freezer
Fill your refrigerator with healthier foods that you enjoy eating and drinking.

Instead of soda, try flavored, sugar-free mineral water, no-calorie iced tea, iced decaf coffee, nonfat or low-fat milk, diet soda (consumed in moderation), or iced water flavored with fresh slices of lemon or lime.
Instead of high-fat frozen foods, consider light frozen entrees that contain lean meat, vegetables, and possibly a grain.
Instead of high-fat corn dogs, stock your freezer with lower-fat franks and whole-grain hot dog buns that you can defrost quickly in a microwave.
Instead of frozen pies or pastries, keep frozen fruit on hand (unsweetened) so you can whip up a smoothie or yogurt/fruit parfait with a moment's notice.
Also stock your refrigerator with products that help you cook and bake heart-smart meals at home:

Egg substitute
Fat-free half-and-half
Reduced-fat cheese
Fat-free sour cream
Nonfat plain yogurt
Light cream cheese
Light bottled vinaigrettes
Assorted mustards and vinegars
Pesto sauce made with olive oil

5. Dial It Down on the Bad-Boy Products
At least 10 ingredients should carry a red flag warning if you are trying to boost nutrition while cutting fat, calories, and cholesterol.

Mayonnaise (regular)
Bacon and bacon grease
Heavy whipping cream
Light whipping cream
Half-and-half cream
Puff pastry
Cheese (full fat)
Sausage, cooked
Coconut oil
Butter
Piecrust dough
Beware of using these ingredients in recipes. They'll load up the meal with fat.

For example, a quarter cup of mayonnaise has 396 calories and 44 grams of fat -- and that's not even counting the fat from other ingredients in the recipe!

And it's not unusual for soup, sauce, and dessert recipes with liquid heavy whipping cream to call for a quarter cup per serving. That's 205 calories and 22 grams of fat per serving! Half-and-half cream brings it down to 79 calories and 7 grams of fat per quarter cup. But if you're making a cream soup, each serving could contain a cup of half-and-half cream, which comes to about 300+ calories and 28+ grams of fat.

6. Fill Your Fridge With Must-Have Heart-Smart Foods
Start with the fresh and frozen vegetables and fruits you like. Then add whole-grain products that you can make into quick entrees (like whole-wheat pita, whole-wheat tortillas, and whole-grain pasta cooked al dente and chilling in the refrigerator). Next, shop for:

Fresh and frozen fish you enjoy
Lean meat and vegetarian meat options like veggie burgers or soy-based meatballs
Low-fat dairy products such as low-fat yogurt, cheese, and cottage cheese
1% or skim milk
Egg substitute
Sugar-free beverages that you like to drink, such as iced green tea, unsweetened, and mineral water

7. Use Your Freezer for Healthy Conveniences
Your freezer is your friend! If you have plenty of fruits and vegetables that you like in your freezer, there will never be a reason not to add them to your meals.

Frozen blueberries and raspberries work well when mixed into muffin and pancake batter and for topping oatmeal or waffles.
Frozen spinach adds color and nutrients to any omelet, pasta dish, pizza, or casserole.
Frozen broccoli florets, baby carrots, or frozen mixed vegetables are there when you need them for a quick side dish or for mixing in with the entree.
Look for frozen dinners that are low in sodium and saturated fat, but high in fiber. Keep them on hand for "every man for himself" meals that inevitably come along on certain weeknights. Also stock healthful frozen products your family enjoys, such as veggie burgers, healthful frozen pizza options, or meatless meatballs.

8. Make Over How You Follow Directions on Packages
You can play around with some mixes and boxed products to lower the fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and calories.

Instead of the 4 tablespoons of butter or stick margarine called for when making macaroni & cheese from the box, add a tablespoon or two of heart-smart margarine and a tablespoon or two of fat-free sour cream to make up the difference.
To keep cholesterol low, Instead of adding three eggs to a dessert mix, beat in 1/4-cup egg substitute or two egg whites for every whole egg called for.
Another trick is looking on the nutrition label to see if the product already has some fat in the dry mix. If it has 3 to 4 grams of fat in the mix per serving, you probably can get away with not adding ANY of the fat they tell you to add. You will need to substitute something liquid or mostly moist to make up the difference though. Depending on the product, you could use:

Fat-free sour cream (for use in a cream pasta product)
Low-sodium broth (for use in a stuffing mix)
Low-fat or light flavored yogurt (for use in a muffin mix)
Strong coffee (for use in a brownie or cake mix)
Applesauce

Enjoy Eating Out on Plan

2010-02-21T12:52:00.008-05:00

I shall shape my future.
Whether I fail or succeed shall be no man's doing but my own.
I am the force; I can clear any obstacle before me.
Or I can be lost in the maze.
My choice. My responsibility.
Win or lose, only I hold the key to my destiny.
~Anonymous

Hello Weight Watchers!

Every day we make a choice to follow Weight Watchers Program or not. We decide to commit to this healthier lifestyle or to just go through the motions. The choices you make today are shaping your future. What will you choose to do today?

For those who’ve been straying off the path, I invite you to return right now! Make your next meal a healthy one. Make your steps ones that will have you moving more. Make your next thoughts positive ones that will encourage you to succeed. Attend a meeting this week. Make the choice to do this for yourself and do it today!

DINING OUT SMARTS
I went to dinner last night with a fellow Weight Watchers staffer that I hadn’t seen for a while. I was busy with housecleaning when I realized it was time to leave so I didn’t have time to check out the menu on line, but I figured I’d be okay anyway. At the restaurant I looked over the menu and everything looked so yummy! I kept changing my mind and at the last minute I switched my order to match the soup and salad my friend ordered.

The salad, garnished with bacon and croutons, arrived without the dressing on the side. The soup had shredded cheese on top and came with a big dinner roll. I dutifully set the roll aside on a napkin and did my best to scrape most of the salad dressing into one corner of the bowl where I could eat around it. The cheese on the soup was delicious, thank you.

My friend and I talked for a long time – long enough that I left an extra tip for the server whose booth we’d monopolized. I finished my soup, then my salad and since our plates hadn’t been cleared I found myself cutting a small piece off the end of the roll. And then a second piece. I had a wonderful time and when we parted in the parking lot I was smiling and enjoying the happy feelings of spending time with a good friend.

Now I’m sitting down this morning to write you an inspiring message about enjoying eating out while still staying on plan. Instead I am writing about being a well-informed Weight Watcher who enjoyed eating out but didn’t make wise choices. Ouch…that smarts! Ah well, it happens sometimes. I just have to laugh, learn from the experience and let it go.

If I could rewind time and do it all over again I would have taken time to look up the nutrition information ahead of time and figured out my order before I got to the restaurant. I would have placed my order first, asking for dressing on the side and no bacon, croutons or roll. I would have paid better attention to how satisfied I was feeling and covered the leftovers with my napkin, pushing them aside until they were removed from the table. And that’s what I’ll choose to do next time!

What will you do this week to sharpen your dining out skills?

* Make a list of 10 delicious, on-plan menu items for your favorite restaurants.
* Read your "Weight Watchers Weekly" for 10 dining out tips.
* Spend $10 for a 2010 Dining Out Companion. I keep it in my car!
* Take 10 minutes to read the Week 5 “Eat Out and On the Run” booklet.

I always enjoy eating out, but it’s even more enjoyable when I choose wisely and put my knowledge into practice.

Restaurant smarts – don’t dine without ‘em!

CHOOSE A GOAL
Many projects are more easily accomplished by breaking them down into small, achievable steps. Weight loss is no different. Do you have a specific goal in mind that you’re focusing on right now? Meet with me and let’s agree on your next small, achievable, short-term goal. We’ll write it in your Pocket Guide, celebrate it when you achieve it and then set another goal to keep you moving ahead.

We can take a minute to talk about your goal this week. It’s usually not too busy on Tuesday before 5:45 pm or Saturday before 8:45 am, so plan to arrive a little early and we'll get goaling!

WALK OFF A KISS
Beth from Tuesday's meeting shared this fun sheet she created for her students. You can calculate how much exercise you'll need to do to burn the calories for one chocolate kiss! Click here to see a copy of Beth's lesson plan.

NEXT TIME
Can you believe that there are only 3 weeks left for our Momentum 2010 Challenge? Week 8 will be all about remodeling your kitchen: ridding it of any "environmental hazards" that lurk in your cabinets and refrigerator! We’ll talk about how to turn your kitchen a weight-loss friendly place that supports your healthy lifestyle.

I’ll leave you with a quote from that famous philosopher and sage, Yoda: “Do or do not. There is no try.” Make the choice to do your best this week and I’ll see (less of) you at our meetings Tuesday and Saturday!

Diane

Make Weight Loss a Priority

2010-02-14T21:16:00.004-05:00

“If you don’t believe in yourself and your goals you’ll be more likely to put everyone and everything before yourself, diminishing the likelihood that you will make choices about how you spend your time that are in your best interest.

“If we don’t care enough about ourselves, or value ourselves and our abilities, there is no way we will manage our time appropriately. We must love ourselves enough to use the discipline necessary to see that we accomplish the things that are expedient for us to accomplish.”

~ From “Work Less, Do More” by Jan Yager

I hope you had a nice Valentine’s Day. It’s great that we have a holiday that reminds us to express how much we care for all those who are our special friends and loved ones. But how many of us remember to include ourselves when it comes to expressing that care?

We spent time this week in our meeting reminding ourselves why it’s important to put ourselves first. Research shows that those who learn to care for themselves--who prioritize their own needs--are better able to achieve weight loss.

Having a healthy lifestyle doesn’t happen without some time and effort. But sometimes the days get so busy we start to neglect the things we need to do for ourselves. Or maybe we don’t even know what we need to do for ourselves!

I found a simple personal goal-setting exercise in a book called “Work Less, Do More” by Jan Yager. It helped me focus my efforts on tasks that move me closer to my goals for what I envision as my ideal life. Here’s how you can do it too:

Take a moment to imagine your ideal weekday and evening. Think about how your day would go in a best-case scenario. Write down all the details. What time would you get up? What would you do in the morning? Will you have your meals planned for the day? Do you have time to exercise? Will you ask others to help with your to-dos? Where will you spend your time? What will you accomplish? Is your day calm and predictable or chaotic? Do you take time for yourself? How will you spend your evening? When will you go to bed?

Now ask yourself, “What am I going to do to make my ideal day an everyday occurrence?”

Switch gears and now imagine your ideal day of leisure in the same way. Will you day off be structured, unstructured or a combination? Will you do chores, go shopping, or go on a family trip? Will you spend time with friends? This is your dream day, so have fun creating an ideal leisure day that could become your goal.

What are you going to do to make this ideal leisure day a regular occurrence?

After I created my ideal day scenarios I realized there were some simple things I could do to move me closer to that ideal: pack my lunch and lay out my workout clothes the night before, get up a little earlier so I can work out first thing in the morning, eat lunch away from my desk, take a couple of breaks from my computer to walk around, prioritize the next day’s tasks before I go home, and set aside some time for myself at home in the evening.

For my “me time” I choose something from my list of activities from my ideal leisure day. For example, I included hobby or craft project on my leisure list. So this week I finally picked up a knitting project that I’d kept putting off, thinking I didn’t have enough time to devote to it. Although I only knitted a row or two each night, I felt happy spending time on something I enjoy!

Ready to give it a try?

Make your own lists of your ideal weekday and ideal leisure day. Keep these lists, use them to set your priorities and keep reviewing your progress towards your ideals. When you make caring for yourself a priority, before you know it that “ideal” will become REAL!

NEXT TIME
Menu Mastery: Dining out and eating healthy don’t have to be mutually exclusive. After our meeting next week you’ll know how to enjoy eating out without feeling guilty!

See you then!

Diane

Stick With It!

2010-02-07T12:29:00.006-05:00

For when the One Great Scorer comes to mark against your name, He writes - not that you won or lost - but how you played the Game.
~Grantland Rice

I was going to draft two versions of this week’s post. Depending on the outcome of the Colts’ Super Bowl trip I’d publish either a celebratory message or offer consolation.

But then I realized that this is exactly the way we react at our weekly weigh-in. If we step on that scale and see a gain, we forget about our long-term commitment to health. We overlook the behaviors we’ve changed, the good choices we made and all the small victories we had during the week and think only of how we've failed. No wonder we can get frustrated and lose our motivation!

Whether the Colts or the Saints win today, they both had an awesome season. One post-season loss, while very disappointing, will not cause either team to become discouraged enough to drop out of the NFL. That sounds silly, but Weight Watchers members may give up on their goals and drop out after a couple of discouraging trips to the scale. Just as the Colts and Saints will have another season and another chance for Super Bowl success, we've always got another chance to succeed as long as we stick with it.

For week 5 of the Momentum 2010 Challenge we talked about knowing the tricks to sticking with it. When motivation wanes we can apply 3 types of “thought power” to re-energize our enthusiasm:

Positive Self-Talking: “I am What I Repeat”
Turn your negative internal talk around; positive messages can have a significant impact on your success. Talk to yourself as you would your best friend. Catch your negative thoughts and rephrase them in a positive way. I am my own role model!

Motivating Strategy: “What’s My Reward?”
What do you look forward to about reaching your goal? Imagine shopping for clothes in your smaller size, being more active, making peace with your body, not worrying about fitting in small seats or feeling self-conscious when meeting new people. Create compelling images that you can recall when you’re challenged. What’s sweeter, the temporary enjoyment of a cookie or the good feelings and benefits you’ll enjoy as a smaller, healthier Lifetime Weight Watchers Member?

Anchoring: “Remember When”
Create a touchstone to trigger thoughts and feelings by linking your past successes to a song, an object, or a phrase. For example, I have a key-shaped necklace that I wear to remind myself of my success in reaching Weight Watchers Lifetime Membership and my continuing goal to be a Lifetime Member who remains at my healthy goal weight.

Reinforce your positive thinking by keeping a “victory log” and record the positive things you do daily for weight loss. Read this list when it feels like you're not making progress and you'll realize how many things you ARE getting right. After all, it isn’t whether you win or lose; it’s how you play (and keep on playing) the game!

For more motivation boosters, pick up the “Tools for Living” worksheets at our meeting and read the Week 4 booklet “Habits of Successful Members.”

SNOW DAYS
Talk about sticking with it -- 15 hearty souls braved the messy roads to attend Saturday morning’s meeting. I applaud their dedication!

Unless there is a snow emergency banning people from being on the roads I will do my best to make it to St. Francis and hold a meeting. Of course I don’t want anyone to put him or herself at risk trying to get to Weight Watchers, but I want you to know that I’ll be there if at all possible. Keep this in mind for the week ahead – more snow is on the way!

SUPER BOWL STATS
When it comes to food-centered events, Super Bowl Sunday is second only to Thanksgiving. There are more parties held this Sunday than on New Year’s Eve! After the 166 million pounds of snacks and 17 million cases of beer are consumed it’s no wonder that 7-Eleven claims 20% of their antacid sales are rung up the day after the Super Bowl. And statistics show that 6% of all working Americans will call in sick the day after the Bowl.

What are your plans for Monday and the rest of this week? It’s okay if you indulged a bit during the game, but make your next choice a healthy one. Step up your exercise, plan your meals ahead and be sure to track your victories. Don’t let one day sack your whole week!

NEXT TIME
Make Your Weight Loss a Priority. What gets in the way of your weight-loss plans? Maybe you’re overwhelmed with to-dos or feel guilty about taking time for the things you need to do to lose weight. We’ll talk about how putting yourself first can make you more successful with not only your weight loss but also the quality of your relationships.

I’m crossing my fingers that we’ll have less snow and more members at our meetings this week. Spring is only 41 days away!

Diane

The Prescription for Hunger

2010-01-31T14:47:00.006-05:00

This week we introduced the 4th skill of the Momentum 2010 Challenge: Know the difference between actual hunger and emotional hunger.

Most of us are not medical professionals, but we have a habit of prescribing FOOD as a cure-all for everything from stress, sadness, happiness and boredom. When used in the appropriate dose, eating can be calming, comforting, celebratory and distracting. But if we exceed the recommended dosage and overeat we may suffer unpleasant side effects including weight gain, health problems and even greater stress.

Let's diagnose our hunger and find the best prescription to feed it. If your symptoms include a gnawing, empty feeling in the stomach and lightheadedness, these are signs of true physical hunger and FOOD is the right prescription!

If instead your hunger stems from emotional symptoms (such as feeling stressed, lonely, angry, tired or bored) a better prescription than FOOD might be to exercise, talk with a friend, write your feelings down, spend time with an activity that is relaxing, or to get enough sleep.

Start practicing your own diagnosis and prescription skills this week:

1) Identify the source of your hunger: Is it physical or emotional?
2) Create a list of 10 things you will do instead of eating.
3) In case of emotional hunger, pledge to do 1 thing from your list before choosing to eat.

While you’re writing your “prescription” list be sure to include things you enjoy and will want to do and not just things you feel you should do instead of eating. Post the list on the fridge or carry it with you so you can break it out and apply it in case of emergency!

ROAR TENSION AWAY
I’m not a doctor, but I played one in our meetings this week! I prescribed and demonstrated my favorite yoga pose called the lion. It’s a great antidote to stress and I guarantee it’ll make you feel silly! Here’s a link to step-by-step instructions for this pose: The Lion

MORE FROM ME ON EMOTIONAL EATING
This is the 8th emotional eating post I’ve written for my “Between the Meetings” blog. Click here to read some of the other messages.

GAIN CONTROL OF EMOTIONAL EATING
Excerpt from a MayoClinic.com article. Read the full article by clicking here

Tame your stress. If stress contributes to your emotional eating, try a stress management technique, such as yoga, meditation or relaxation.

Have a hunger reality check. Is your hunger physical or emotional? If you ate just a few hours ago and don't have a rumbling stomach, you're probably not really hungry. Give the craving a little time to pass.

Keep a food diary. Write down what you eat, how much you eat, when you eat, how you're feeling when you eat and how hungry you are. Over time, you may see patterns emerge that reveal the connection between mood and food.

Get support. You're more likely to give in to emotional eating if you lack a good support network. Lean on family and friends or consider joining a support group.

Fight boredom. Instead of snacking when you're not truly hungry, distract yourself. Take a walk, watch a movie, play with your cat, listen to music, read, surf the Internet or call a friend.

Take away temptation. Don't keep supplies of comfort foods in your home if they're hard for you to resist. And if you feel angry or blue, postpone your trip to the grocery store until you're sure that you have your emotions in check.

Don't deprive yourself. When you're trying to achieve a weight-loss goal, you may limit your calories too much, eat the same foods frequently and banish the treats you enjoy. This may just serve to increase your food cravings, especially in response to emotions. Let yourself enjoy an occasional treat and get plenty of variety to help curb cravings.

Snack healthy. If you feel the urge to eat between meals, choose a low-fat, low-calorie snack, such as fresh fruit, vegetables with fat-free dip, or unbuttered popcorn. Or try low-fat, lower calorie versions of your favorite foods to see if they satisfy your craving.

Get enough sleep. If you're constantly tired, you might snack to try to give yourself an energy boost. Take a nap or go to bed earlier instead.

NEXT TIME
Sticking with it! Do you need a motivation makeover? Some of us may find that the enthusiasm we started with in January is waning. We’ll discuss 3 behavior-boosting tools that can help you tap into your motivation mojo. Plus I'll tell you who my new, inspiring role model is for 2010.

Prescribe a Weight Watchers meeting for yourself this week – it’s good for what derails you!

Diane

P.S. - We'll be wearing our Colts colors at the meeting this week. Go Colts!!

FEBRUARY OPEN HOUSE
Every Saturday during February Weight Watchers centers will be holding Open House events from 1-4 pm. All guests will receive a goody bag and a chance to win raffle prizes each Saturday. Tell your friends to drop by the nearest center locations (but make sure you come back to our meeting in Zionsville after your visit!)

CARMEL-WESTFIELD CENTER
14950 GREYHOUND CT STE 6
CARMEL, IN 46032

WESTSIDE INDY CENTER
4525 LAFAYETTE RD STE E
INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46254

GLENDALE TOWN CENTER
6101 N KEYSTONE STE 1100
INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46220

CASTLETON INDY CENTER
8510 CENTER RUN DR STE B
INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46250

Third and Ten

2010-01-23T21:46:00.005-05:00

“First And Ten: a fresh new opportunity to succeed”
~ GoEnglish.com, Pocket English Idioms

Welcome to the third week of our Momentum 2010 Challenge! This year we have a new opportunity to succeed by mastering 10 key weight-loss strategies. So far we’ve been (1) tracking and (2) adding filling foods to each meal. This week we really get things moving by focusing on being more active throughout our day.

Your challenge is to commit to moving for 10 minutes, every day, in whatever way feels fun to you.

(Maybe by jumping up and down while watching a football game?)

We want to work our way up to where we’re active for at least 30 minutes on most days. Happily, being more active doesn’t have to mean spending time in the gym and you can break activity up into smaller segments of at least 10 minutes. The key to sticking with an exercise program is to make it a good fit for your life, find activities you enjoy and make moving more a priority.

Right now I’m in a good exercise groove: I’ve got an assortment of workout DVD’s with 20- and 30-minute workouts that I can fit in before I leave for work in the morning. I like to rotate them so I don’t get bored and also include walking outdoors whenever I can. I’ve signed up for yoga and strength training classes that I attend during lunchtime at work.

I sit in front of a computer all day at work – not a very active job! But I wear my Weight Watchers pedometer and try to keep bumping up the steps I take each day. Just wearing the pedometer makes me more aware and has me finding ways I can be more active. I still park out in the far parking lot at work each day, no matter the weather. And I often take “the scenic route” to get to the ladies restroom – an extra lap around the hallway and I’m logging a few more steps.

Today I’ve been doing laundry and taking each folded load up the steps separately. I went shopping and logged a lot of steps at the store this morning. I did some cleaning around the house this afternoon and right now I’m at 9,382 steps so I know I’ll hit my 10,000 before bed. And that’s a good feeling!

What are some ways you can make activity fit your life, more fun and a priority?

Start with just 10 minutes every day this week and keep adding more. Just as in football, each yard you complete will get you closer to your goal!

There’s lots more information about exercise and being more active at WeightWatchers.com including an article called How To Make Exercise A Habit -- check it out if you need a little extra inspiration. Then get moving!

FEBRUARY OPEN HOUSE
Every Saturday during February Weight Watchers centers will be holding Open House events from 1-4 pm. All guests will receive a goody bag and a chance to win raffle prizes each Saturday. Tell your friends to drop by the nearest center locations (but make sure you come back to our meeting in Zionsville after your visit!)

CARMEL-WESTFIELD CENTER
14950 GREYHOUND CT STE 6
CARMEL, IN 46032

WESTSIDE INDY CENTER
4525 LAFAYETTE RD STE E
INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46254

GLENDALE TOWN CENTER
6101 N KEYSTONE STE 1100
INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46220

CASTLETON INDY CENTER
8510 CENTER RUN DR STE B
INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46250

NEW ITEMS ARE MOVING FAST
I am a huge fan of the new Roasted Almond Bars. I guess you like them too because we sold all 48 boxes already! But never fear, 2 more cases are due to arrive on my doorstep this Tuesday…whew! We’ll also be getting 8 more Weight Watchers pedometers – the 2010 model for $24 counts your steps and the number of Activity POINTS you earn. Also, 2 new books arrived this week: “Slow Cook It” featuring 165 tasty, low-fat recipes and “The Jean Nidetch Story” about the founder of Weight Watchers and her transformation from a New York housewife to a healthy-living icon. Both books are $10.

NEXT TIME
Momentum 2010 Challenge Week 4: Emotional hunger vs. physical hunger. What emotions make you hungry? We’ll talk about becoming aware of emotional eating and developing strategies to manage it.

Go Colts!

Diane

More Food, Fewer Calories

2010-01-17T14:06:00.007-05:00

Tuesday was Herb’s 4th birthday. I adopted Herb from the Humane Society of Indianapolis last April. He is FIV+, which means he has feline immunodeficiency virus. It’s in the same family as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV, the virus that causes AIDS). FIV is only transmissible to other cats and generally only through bite wounds.

Although Herb carries the virus he has a good chance of living a perfectly normal kitty life. Due to his FIV+ status he’ll be an indoor-only cat and if I adopt other cats they will also need to be FIV+ too. He is a real character – loves to play, very social and yet very laid back. This photo was from Herb’s adoption feature on the Humane Society’s website – you can see why I picked him out!

I used Herb's toys in our meeting to help me illustrate the concept of "Energy Density" as part of this week’s Momentum 2010 Challenge: STAYING SATISFIED.

Herb’s little aluminum foil balls represented foods high in energy density: those that pack a lot of calories in a small portion (crackers, chips, full-fat cheese, chocolate, peanut butter, dried fruit, nuts, etc.). The foam soccer balls represented foods with low energy density (fruits, vegetables, beans, lean protein, broth-based soups, whole grain-cereals, fat-free dairy, etc.) that provide a larger portion size with fewer calories.

You can see how eating mostly high energy density foods means you consume a lot more calories in order to feel satisfied – it takes a lot of those little foil balls to fill up that cup!

We feel “just right” – not too hungry, not too full – when we’ve eaten a certain volume of food. If we choose more fruits, vegetables and other low energy density foods to fill up our stomachs, we’ll need fewer calories to feel satisfied than if we tried to fill up on processed foods, candies and other high energy density foods.

Weight Watchers calls the low energy density foods “Filling Foods” and marks them with a green diamond in the food lists and recipes. Those diamonds truly are a Weight Watchers member’s best friends because they allow us to eat more food with fewer calories!

And when you choose more Filling Foods it makes it possible to enjoy smaller portions of desserts and other treats without feeling deprived. If you’re feeling hungry it’s a lot harder to eat just 1 ounce of chips, a half-cup serving of ice cream, or 3 Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies and feel satisfied.

When it comes to staying satisfied, I also learned from Herb to:

- Have small meals throughout the day
- Eat only enough to feel satisfied
- Don’t worry about cleaning your plate
- Enjoy your meal, wash up, and take a nap

Learn more about staying satisfied with Filling Foods in the Week 1 “Start Eating Smarter” booklet on pages 17-23 and in your Pocket Guide on pages 38-40. You can find ideas for adding filling foods to your menu in the Jan 10-16 issue of Weight Watchers Weekly you picked up at our meeting.

The Week 2 Challenge:

* Include Filling Foods in each meal and a couple of snacks
* Keep tracking.

Remember the 2010 challenge is about behavior change: take real action and you’ll see real results! How will you add more filling foods to your meals and snacks this week?

LAST WEEK: SNACK SALE!
The $3.50 snack sale ends this week – don’t miss out if you want to stock up on your favorite 2-POINTS Bars, Cheddar Twists, Pizza Pretzels or Multigrain Thins before the sale ends!

5 REASONS YOU’RE ALWAYS STARVING
Check out this article on WeightWatchers.com for insights about why you may be feeling hungry and what to do about it!

NEXT TIME
Moving Matters: We all know that physical activity is good for us, but we don’t always want to do it. Is exercise a low-priority item on your to-do list? Do you feel exercise is time-consuming, difficult, demanding or just a drag? Let’s get together to talk about how we can make exercise a good fit with our lives, find activities we (gasp!) enjoy and make moving more a priority.

See you at our meeting!

Diane

Who needs luck when you’ve got skills?

2010-01-10T21:32:00.006-05:00

Where will you be St. Patrick’s Day 2010? Stick with me and our Zionsville Weight Watchers meeting over the next 10 weeks as we focus on 10 different key weight-loss skills. Commit to these behavior changes and by St. Patrick’s Day you’ll be a whole new successful you!

We introduced the first skill of “The Momentum 2010 Challenge” at our meetings this week: TRACKING. Did you know that many people underestimate how much they eat each day by as much as 500 to 1000 calories? Tracking helps us to become aware of how much we eat and to identify realistic portion sizes. Members who track at least 75% of the time are more likely to lose weight and keep it off.

I’ve been tracking on and off ever since I joined Weight Watchers. Like a lot of Lifetime members I got overconfident and thought I didn’t need to track. But I find that I am most successful, eat healthier and feel best about myself when I track. It’s true that when you track consistently you become more skillful at estimating portions and figuring out how much is the right amount for you to eat. But fellow Lifetimers, if your weight starts to creep up, it’s time to start tracking!

Here are my tips about tracking:

1) Write it before you bite it. We’ve all heard this little rhyme, but I truly find tracking is most effective when I write down what I eat before I eat it. It’s like fastening my seatbelt before I put the car in gear – it becomes an automatic response. And I’m less likely to have seconds knowing I’ll have to add them to my tracker.

2) Keep it interesting. I do try to change things up to keep tracking interesting by using different trackers (on line, paper, 3-month journal, POINTS Clicker, a “chore chart” format, etc.)

3) Record the good, bad and ugly. Even though this can be difficult, write down EVERYTHING you eat. I know if I go “off the record” with my tracking, I’m likely to feel like I’m on a “Free Pass” and keep eating over my POINTS Target. But if I write everything down and face the facts then I’m less likely to continue racking up the POINTS or going AWOL from my program altogether.

4) Plan ahead. When I’m feeling overwhelmed it sometimes helps to write out what I plan to eat the next day. Also, if there’s a treat I really want I sometimes write it on the first line of my tracker so I start the day having already set aside those POINTS and have something to look forward to. Sometimes I’d forget and think I didn’t have enough POINTS in the bank to have my treat, but then I’d see where I’d already accounted for it. Cha-ching! It’s like the surprise of finding money in your coat pocket!

5) Share your tracker with others. When I want to get REALLY serious, I tell somebody else that I will show them my tracker. They may not even really look at the daily details, but just knowing that somebody else could see what I ate can give me the motivation to make better choices.

6) Happy thoughts. I like to draw a smiley face, write “Hooray!” or give myself a star to celebrate good days, times when I've overcome a challenge or have met my goals.

What action will you take to boost your tracking skills this week? The Momentum 2010 Challenge is about changing behaviors. How will you change your behavior this week?

Make your own tracking goal or commit to any or all of these:

-- I write down EVERYTHING I eat and drink
-- I track 7 days a week
-- I write down eating surprises so I can learn more about my relationship with food

We’re off to a great start – keep on tracking!

$3.50 SNACK SALE
All 2-POINT Bars and Baked Snacks are on sale through January 23 for only $3.50. Stock up on your favorites – like the new Roasted Almond Bar or Baked Pizza Pretzels!

GIRL SCOUT COOKIES POINTS
It’s Girl Scout Cookie time again! My boss emailed a message last week that she’s taking orders on behalf of her daughters, so I’m guessing you may be getting similar sales pitches.

Want to help without tempting yourself? You can simply donate to the Girl Scouts of Central Indiana without purchasing cookies (donate here) or choose “Operation Cookie Drop” to send cookies to our troops being deployed overseas from Camp Atterbury.

Here’s a list so we can track POINTS for any cookies we choose to eat:

Do Si Dos (2 cookies = 3 POINTS)
Dulce De Leche (4 cookies = 4 POINTS)
Lemon Chalet Cremes (3 cookies = 4 POINTS)
Samoas (2 cookies = 4 POINTS)
Thank U Berry Much (2 cookies = 3 POINTS)
Tagalongs (2 cookies = 4 POINTS)
Thin Mints (4 cookies = 4 POINTS)
Trefoils (5 cookies = 4 POINTS)

NEXT TIME
Skill #2 of our 2010 Challenge is Staying Satisfied! We’ll explore ways to use Filling Foods and other strategies to stay ahead of hunger.

As Goldilocks might say, "not too hungry, not too full...just right!"

See you there!

Diane

Getting Organized

2010-01-03T16:43:00.003-05:00

If you need a little inspiration, take a look at this photo. It was taken several weeks ago when Judy and Michele each reached their 50-pound weight-loss goals. They brought in 100 pounds of water to share with the meeting members and to provide a great visual of the pounds that they both had shed. What a fun way to celebrate and inspire. Congratulations!

I can’t wait to celebrate more losses in 2010. Whatever your goal might be, we have an awesome group to support and cheer you on all the way to goal and beyond!

Did you enjoy your holidays? I drove to NJ to spend Christmas with family and I absolutely loved having 2 weeks’ vacation to do whatever I wanted. I haven’t worn my watch at all and only used my alarm clock once. It will be a bit of a shock to return to work tomorrow, I’m sure, but at the same time I’m also looking forward a bit to getting back into my normal routines. Like seeing all of you in our weekly meeting!

To kick things off this year let’s focus on getting organized. Did you know that January is National Get Organized month? When we’re more organized we can save ourselves time, plan ahead, feel in control and be more prepared to tackle other goals such as losing weight.

Organize your closet. "I've never met any woman who was motivated by keeping clothes that were too big or too small for her," says Julie Morgenstern, author of Organizing From the Inside Out. "Wearing clothes that fit you is the motivation. It celebrates who you are right now. That way, anything you reach for will fit and be comfortable."

Organize your kitchen cabinets. The contents of your kitchen cabinets should support your eating goals. "You're not always going to reach for the fruit when you have a cookie around," says Jackie Newgent, RD, CDN, a New York City-based nutrition consultant. If you must keep crackers and candy around for your family, put them in their own drawer. You can also transfer tempting snacks into opaque containers. Make sure that what's most visible is most nutritious," says Newgent. When things are organized, they're easier to access and that makes the cooking process easier.

Organize your workout. Set out your workout clothes and gear the night before. I’ve even loaded the DVD player with the workout so it’s ready to go. Set aside one drawer for your workout clothes. I matched up full outfits (top, pants, socks, etc.) so I could just grab the set and go. Schedule the time on your calendar.

Here are a couple of timesaving tips from a WeightWatchers.com article:

Set a coffee timer. Set your coffee pot the night before to start brewing a few minutes before you get up. This way, you won't waste time waiting at home or standing in line for coffee elsewhere. At home, you're also more likely to have a balanced breakfast and not give in to that tempting doughnut the barista is pushing.

Plan for tomorrow. Before bed, look at your to-do schedule for the next day and prioritize the list. This will give you a better sense of control over the day to come, cut out the worrisome tossing and turning and give you better night's sleep.

Read the full article at WeightWatchers.com: ”Time Is On My Side”.

Scroll down to the end of this message for an article about the connection between clutter and weight.

NEXT TIME
What better way to kick off our efforts in 2010 than by focusing on TRACKING? We’ll be giving out samples of our new Roasted Almond Bars while supplies last (so arrive early!) and we’ll talk about why it makes such a difference when we write down what we eat.

See you there!

Diane

CONTROL THE CHAOS
By Peter Walsh from Weight Watchers.com

The connection between clutter and weight didn’t occur to me overnight. About four years ago I became the organizational expert on TLC’s Clean Sweep. The premise was simple: We had two days to help a family dig out from under their overwhelming clutter. As I helped families begin to organize their homes, I discovered an unexpected side effect. The link that I had long suspected but only dimly glimpsed became obvious through their experiences.

I was inundated with real examples of the impact that clutter has on all areas of one’s life — especially weight.

They’re not very different — clutter and fat. I see it. I want it. I’ll have it. In our society, consumption is king.

We spend too much, we buy too much, and we eat too much. In the same way we surround ourselves with so much clutter, we overwhelm our bodies with caloric clutter. Almost all of us are carrying extra pounds that we just can’t seem to shake.

The stuff in our homes becomes too much to deal with, but we keep shopping. Similarly, the increasing weight of our bodies becomes more than we are able to handle, but we keep indulging.

So how do you stop the cycle? You need to recognize that your choices have consequences. Every time you pull out your credit card to buy another pair of shoes, you’re making a choice to add to your clutter. Every time you take a bite, you are choosing to bring that piece of food into your body and adding to your weight problem.

Keep this in mind: Every roll of fat on your body came from something you chose to put into your mouth. And every pound that slips away is the result of a decision you made. Before you take control, you need to understand emotional clutter and physical clutter (see the Decode Your Clutter box below). Most people have at least some of both, and it’s no easy task to get a handle on either. We have broken the task into two phases to show how to clear that clutter from your life. It sounds easy, but it takes forethought and commitment. Here’s how to get started:

Phase 1: Declutter your mind
If you acknowledge your emotional clutter (the unhealthy habits that lead you to overeat) and find ways to deal with it, the weight will fall away. But as soon as you let your emotions — be they depression, anger, or joy — make your eating decisions for you, the weight will creep on. Do some personal spring cleaning to break the habits that steer you in the wrong direction. Use this checklist to get started. Post it on your fridge or carry a copy in your purse.

1. Do a reality check: The fat didn’t appear overnight and won’t disappear overnight.

2. Imagine the life and body you want and hold that idea in your mind; refer to that mental image when you’re swayed by unhealthy foods.

3. Organize where, how, and what you eat—it’s the first step toward achieving your ideal body. Take time to plan out your meals.

4. Determine what your goal is for your body (to fit into your favorite pair of jeans or to be able to run a mile, for example). If a food doesn’t help in your efforts toward achieving that goal, don’t eat it.

5. Live in the present, not the past or the future. If you’re eating for emotional reasons, home in on why. Anger? Despair? Fear?

6. Make mindful eating a way of life. If you don’t, the fat will creep back on. Celebrate every meal; it will remind you of the great things a meal provides, beyond food.

Phase 2: Declutter your kitchen
An organized kitchen leads to less eating out, which in turn means better nutrition, less money spent on food, and more family together time. But a clutter-free kitchen goes far beyond cleaning cabinets. It has to do with how you shop and the decisions you make. Like the boxes of stuff filling your basement, clutter foods waste space. Take care that you’re not falling into these traps when stocking your kitchen:

The identity crisis trap
These are foods that you keep with the hope that you’ll magically turn into a person you’re not. You’ve got tins of cocoa powder, bags of semisweet chocolate chips, and bottles of vanilla extract in your pantry, but you never bake. Or a cupboard full of gourmet spices despite the fact that you’re a frozen-food junkie. I’m all for experimentation, but if you’re never going to canoe down the Rio Grande, there’s no point in storing that boat in your garage.

The hostess trap
You read somewhere that every good hostess has a few key items on hand for spontaneous entertaining. So you went out and bought a jar of olives, several boxes of crackers, and various other obscure pantry items. It felt good to know that if you ran into someone on the street, you could say, “Come on in for a glass of wine.” You were so organized and ready! Well, that was four years ago — and those party snacks are cluttering your cupboards.

The secret stash trap
Do you eat healthy meals but keep junk food in your pantry? “I don’t eat the potato chips — I just like knowing they’re there,” you might say. You rationalize that it makes you feel good to know that the pantry is stocked — on the off-chance that you will suffer a major craving and need a salty snack. But those chips are deceiving you. They’re there to be eaten. And they’ll call your name next time you’re disorganized and in search of an easy fix. Now there’s plenty of room to fill those cupboards with healthy staples. You’ll see — organization is the key to weight-loss success!

Decode Your Clutter
You have physical clutter if ...
Mail, clothes, and books pile up in your home. They can take on a life of their own, suffocating your healthy habits and weight-loss goals. For example, your
• kitchen table is covered with mail, so you don’t eat there
• counters are too messy for meal prep
• closet is full of clothes that don’t fit

You have emotional clutter if ...
Your unhealthy eating habits are often tied to certain emotional triggers. For example, you eat because you want to
• reward yourself for an achievement, such as a promotion
• make yourself feel better after a tough day at work
• get instant gratification

The Silver Lining

2009-12-20T21:16:00.005-05:00

We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand ... and melting like a snowflake. Let us use it before it is too late.
- Marie Beynon Ray

Everyone left this week’s meeting with a little snowflake anchor – a reminder not to let small lapses snowball into relapses of old behaviors or even worse, into a total collapse. We can take those “snowballs” and build something positive – like a snowman or a sturdy snow fort! By learning from our lapses we can find the silver lining that may help us to be more successful in the future.

I have had my share of lapses, relapses and collapses since I joined Weight Watchers. Earlier this year when I was sharing my tracker in the meeting each week I went a bit over the top and was trying to be a shining example of the perfect member. But I was so restrictive that it ended up backfiring. During the 3rd month of my perfect performance I experienced a spectacular lapse (think of the agony of defeat clip from the opening to “Wide World of Sports” and you’ll get an idea of what I mean).

Usually when a slip-up occurs, we think it’s all bad news, but it can be an opportunity for us to learn and be more successful in the future. Thinking about what happened to cause my springtime wipeout I learned that I can get myself into trouble when I’m being TOO good! I wasn’t making allowances for treats and I’d set an unrealistic goal to track perfectly for 12 weeks in a row. Next time when I share my journal I won’t put so much pressure on myself to be a perfect example. I know now that I will be more realistic about my goals in the future when I share my tracker again. Yes, I’ll do it again but I’ll be wiser this time!

What will you do after a slip up? You could waste time beating yourself up, letting the lapse grow into a collapse and maybe quitting altogether. Or you can look objectively at that moment in time when you made some bad choices, learn from your mistake and move on. Take responsibility but be kind to yourself.

Remember: it’s not failure; it’s feedback! Find the silver lining by learning from your lapse. Figure out why it happened and how you’ll prevent a relapse in the future. No good comes from beating yourself up or putting off your recovery. Start with the very next meal. Get back to the behaviors that you know will help you to be successful and get you feeling positive again: tracking, moving more and attending meetings!

Keep that snowflake with you during the holidays as a reminder of what’s important. And also as a reminder to keep attending our weekly meetings: like snowflakes each of us is special and unique. We may not feel so strong on our own; but look what happens when we stick together!

NEW: ROASTED ALMOND BARS
Let me just say, “Yum!” These little gems arrived on my doorstep (2 cases for you, Zionsville!) and I bought a box to share Jan and the others who work at our meetings. I’ve since bought 4 more boxes, some to share and some to keep. These bars remind me of a butter-toffee flavor and are coated with sweet icing on the bottom. We’ll be giving out free samples the first week of January – another good reason to get to your meeting in the New Year!

WHAT’S AHEAD
When is the last time you patted yourself on the back? Well, it’s time! A little recognition helps to keep us inspired, on the right path and feeling great!

In 2 weeks: Resolutions that Work. Design powerful, realistic goals that will yield results in 2010!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you!

Diane

SEVERE WEATHER?
Wondering if Zionsville Weight Watchers is meeting today? Call 1-800-374-9191 and speak with a "live" person. Generally we will not close a meeting unless there's a snow emergency. Any decision to close be made 2 hours before the scheduled meeting time.

If our meeting is canceled, I'll post a note on my blog by 7 am for Saturday's meeting or by 4 pm for Tuesday's meeting. If you're a blog subscriber you'll automatically receive an email announcing any canceled meetings.

Tis the season to feel stressed

2009-12-14T00:06:00.004-05:00

“The way you spend Christmas is far more important than how much.”
~Henry David Thoreau

It’s nearly midnight and I’m just starting on this week’s blog and feeling dissatisfied that I didn’t get as much done today as I wanted. I'm wondering whether to sleep in so I can get at least 7 hours of shut eye or if I'll shortchange sleep to get a workout in first thing. Should I take time to pack a lunch now? Why did I run that last load of laundry that still needs to be folded? Argh! Where did the day go?

Sound familiar? I really need to do a better job of embracing this week’s meeting topic about strategies for coping with stress. So, okay, I will! Instead of my usual thoughtful, well-crafted message that spend too much time editing, I'll write just a quick note with some helpful tips I found online. So there! Now I’m being a better example!

But wait...I’ll just share one more stress-reducing tip: last year I let Christmas cards go and probably will do so again this year. Instead I mail out New Year’s cards and take one item off my overloaded pre-Christmas To-Do list! What can you let go of or where can you take some short cuts this week to help relieve some of your stress?

And we do have stress…

According to the American Psychological Association’s 2009 survey, the top sources of our holiday stress are (in order):

1) Lack of Money
2) Pressures of Gift Giving
3) Lack of Time

The APA found that comfort eating increases 10% during the holidays for women and 6% for men. So we all need to find some non-food coping strategies to combat holiday stress. Some of the strategies that were shared at our meeting this week included: taking time for ourselves, letting things go, asking for help from others, attending Weight Watchers meetings, making time for exercise and getting enough sleep.

During the weeks ahead be sure to take time for your own needs and be gentle with yourself. There are things you CAN control – pay attention to those and make the most of them. Think about what you really want from your holiday. Who would you spend time with? What would you do?

Write down some non-food “gifts” that you can give to yourself and choose nourish yourself with them instead of extra eggnog or cookies!

STRESS, DEPRESSION & THE HOLIDAYS: 10 TIPS FOR COPING
Click here to read the full Mayo Clinic article

1) Acknowledge your feelings. If someone close to you has recently died or you can't be with loved ones, realize that it's normal to feel sadness and grief. It's OK to take time to cry or express your feelings. You can't force yourself to be happy just because it's the holiday season.

2) Reach out. If you feel lonely or isolated, seek out community, religious or other social events. They can offer support and companionship. Volunteering your time to help others also is a good way to lift your spirits and broaden your friendships.

3) Be realistic. The holidays don't have to be perfect or just like last year. As families change and grow, traditions and rituals often change as well. Choose a few to hold on to, and be open to creating new ones. For example, if your adult children can't come to your house, find new ways to celebrate together, such as sharing pictures, emails or videotapes.

4) Set aside differences. Try to accept family members and friends as they are, even if they don't live up to all your expectations. Set aside grievances until a more appropriate time for discussion. And be understanding if others get upset or distressed when something goes awry. Chances are they're feeling the effects of holiday stress and depression too.

5) Stick to a budget. Before you go gift and food shopping, decide how much money you can afford to spend. Then stick to your budget. Don't try to buy happiness with an avalanche of gifts. Try these alternatives: Donate to a charity in someone's name, give homemade gifts or start a family gift exchange.

6) Plan ahead. Set aside specific days for shopping, baking, visiting friends and other activities. Plan your menus and then make your shopping list. That'll help prevent last-minute scrambling to buy forgotten ingredients. And make sure to line up help for party prep and cleanup.

7) Learn to say no. Saying yes when you should say no can leave you feeling resentful and overwhelmed. Friends and colleagues will understand if you can't participate in every project or activity. If it's not possible to say no when your boss asks you to work overtime, try to remove something else from your agenda to make up for the lost time.

8) Don't abandon healthy habits. Don't let the holidays become a free-for-all. Overindulgence only adds to your stress and guilt. Have a healthy snack before holiday parties so that you don't go overboard on sweets, cheese or drinks. Continue to get plenty of sleep and physical activity.

9) Take a breather. Make some time for yourself. Spending just 15 minutes alone, without distractions, may refresh you enough to handle everything you need to do. Take a walk at night and stargaze. Listen to soothing music. Find something that reduces stress by clearing your mind, slowing your breathing and restoring inner calm.

10) Seek professional help if you need it. Despite your best efforts, you may find yourself feeling persistently sad or anxious, plagued by physical complaints, unable to sleep, irritable and hopeless, and unable to face routine chores. If these feelings last for a while, talk to your doctor or a mental health professional.

NEXT TIME
Lapses, relapses and collapses – oh my! A slip-up can derail your progress and turn into a total collapse. Or could a mistake be the feedback that helps you be more successful with weight loss? Let’s talk about how we can prevent holiday collapses and recover and learn from our lapses.

Did you read the “Old Think vs. New Think” article in this week’s Weight Watchers Weekly handout from the meeting? Next week’s issue will focus on how to persevere and stay on course during the holidays.

See you (less stressed) on Tuesday or Saturday, my friends!

Diane

Something New to Try

2009-12-06T21:17:00.006-05:00

A big “thank you” to everyone who shared their food finds at this week’s meetings. It’s great to get food and recipe recommendations and who would know more about smart food choices than another Weight Watcher? I hope you went home with at least one new food to try. Adding different foods, experimenting with recipes and keeping things fresh will make it easier to stick with the Momentum plan through the holidays.

In the spirit of trying something new, I went to my first roller derby bout this weekend, a double header at the state fairgrounds. My friend Megan and I had gone to see Drew Barrymore's movie “Whip It” and enjoyed learning a little about roller derby as depicted in the film. It inspired us to check out the real thing and so Saturday night we watched the Naptown Roller Girls with derby names like Noxious Donna, Maiden America and Dora the Destroyer (“The Gazelle from Hell”) skate to victory over the Burning River Roller Girls from Cleveland.

I thought it was great fun (although the music was a bit loud at times; bring some earplugs if you’ve got sensitive ears like me!) I enjoyed figuring out the rules as we watched the “jams” and deciphering the players’ derby names. The action was fast-paced and it was entertaining to watch both the skaters and the enthusiastic arena crowd.

The next Naptown Roller Girls’ home bout is January 16th so mark it on your calendar if you’re looking for something new to try!

I bet you’re wondering how I’m going to tie this in with Weight Watchers, aren’t you? Well…

The "lead jammer" in roller derby is the first to fight their way through the rest of the skaters and earns the power to choose whether to keep trying for more points or to call things to a halt. YOU are the lead jammer for your holiday. You have to push your way through a lot of obstacles (stress, money worries, busy stores, tempting foods, etc.) and staying on track isn’t easy. But you’re in control of the action. If things get out of hand you can call a halt and start anew. Or if things are going good you can choose to keep rolling along!

Just like the Roller Girls, you’ve got supportive teammates: the other Zionsville Weight Watchers members. They'll help you around those obstacles that might otherwise trip you up. We’ll use our Momentum to “whip” you ahead and keep you going strong. Plus your coaching staff, Jan “Tracker Backer” and Diane “Scale E. Dragon” will be cheering you on all the way.

Stick with us and together we’ll succeed and skate smoothly through the holidays!

FAVORITE NEW FINDS FOR 2009
As promised, I typed up all the food finds mentioned in both meetings and you can read the whole list of Zionsville Food Finds for December 2009. Thanks also to Jolene for sending me this link to Hungry Girl’s list of top 10 food finds of 2009. Click here to check them out!

WEIGHT WATCHERS NEW WEEKLY GIFT
Pick up the first issue of the new 8-page mini magazine designed exclusively for meeting members. "Weight Watchers Weekly" will include feature articles related to the meeting topics, tips, recipes, coupons, suggested action steps and previews of upcoming topics. Get your copy at the scale this week!

TRY A NEW STRATEGY
Do you have a habit of nibbling on food while you’re cooking? Try making yourself a plate of low-POINTS value snacks before you start cooking. Include Filling Foods such as celery, baby carrots, grape tomatoes and sliced bell peppers along with a little fat-free dressing for dip. Or have a couple of high-fiber crackers with fat-free cheese. For sipping, fill your wine glass with sparkling water and a slice of lime.

NEW STUFF!
Looking for a gift that’s packed with ways to make smart food choices and keep track of POINTS values? Treat someone you care about (like yourself) to a new 2010 Member Kit! Both the Basic and Deluxe kits include the 2010 editions of our popular Complete Food Companion and Dining Out Companion reference books, the 2010 Three-Month Journal, “Fast Fixes: 50 Easy Meal Solutions,” and an $11+ coupon booklet. The Deluxe Kit also comes with “Restaurant Smarts,” the “Start Getting Healthy” DVD and a sturdy carrying case for all your Weight Watchers materials.

We also have copies of the new 2010 Program cookbook, “Healthy Cooking Basics,” which includes recipes for basic stocks, salad dressings and sauces as well as 30 recipes for dinners that can be made in 20 minutes or less!

BONUS! All members will get a FREE 2010 Pocket Guide and a plastic protector!

* Deluxe Kit - $40
* Basic Kit - $25
* “Healthy Cooking Basics” cookbook - $15
* Complete Food Companion (book only) - $10
* Dining Out Companion (book only) - $10
* Three-Month Journal - $6
* New 2010 Pocket Guide - FREE to all members!

NEW TOPICS
It’s tough to stay in control of our eating if we’re feeling stressed during the holidays. Let’s talk next time about managing stress without overeating and how we can stay on track during the challenging weeks ahead. And in 2 weeks: Lapses and relapses and collapses, oh my!

YOUR MISSION THIS WEEK: TRY SOMETHING NEW!
Whether it’s trying a new food, checking the library for a different workout DVD, getting to know somebody new at our meeting, tracking online instead of on paper, or testing out a new recipe, keep things interesting by doing something different!

I bundled up and headed out for a walk this afternoon, trying out a new route. When we get together again on Tuesday and Saturday I look forward to hearing what new things YOU tried this week. I’ll see you then!

Diane
(a.k.a., “Scale E. Dragon”)

SEVERE WEATHER?
If the weather outside is frightful, call 1-800-374-9191 and speak with a "live" person. Generally we will not close a meeting unless there's a snow emergency. Any decision to close be made 2 hours before the scheduled meeting time.

If our meeting is canceled, I'll post a note on my blog by 7 am for Saturday's meeting or by 4 pm for Tuesday's meeting.

Holiday Halftime

2009-11-29T21:42:00.006-05:00

It's the halftime of our holiday season. We’ve made it through Halloween, Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Christmas, Hanukah and New Year’s Day are still ahead. So how are you doing so far? Have you been reserving a little time to take care of yourself during all the holiday hustle and bustle?

I’m so proud of all the good choices you’ve made so far. Whether you passed up an extra serving, kept up with your activity or got in your 5 fruit and veggie servings, every healthy choice is a victory at this time of year.

I know it can be tough to stay on track when your schedule changes or when tempting foods are everywhere around you. Even if things didn’t go the absolute best for your Weight Watchers efforts during the first half of the holidays, you can still turn things around during the second half.

I was thinking about this today as we watched the Colts finish their fourth game in a row with a come-from-behind victory in the 4th quarter. It just goes to show that it’s never too late and we should keep trying no matter what happened before.

It’s a new month and a fresh start. There are things you CAN control – pay attention to those and make the most of them. Figure out what you really want from your holiday. Who do you want to spend time with? What do you really want to do? Write these things down and make sure to nourish yourself this holiday with the non-food things that are truly important to you.

LAST CHANCE! 50% OFF COOKBOOKS
This is the last week for the half-price cookbook and book sale. Stock up on gifts for yourself and others at a great price!

NEXT TIME: HOLIDAY FOOD SWAP
Would you like to get recommendations for favorite foods from fellow Weight Watchers? At our next meeting bring labels and packages from foods that other Weight Watchers might want to know about or your favorite recipe ideas. We’ll swap ideas and liven up our eating choices!

IN 2 WEEKS: OUTSMART HOLIDAY STRESS
It’s no surprise that you might be tempted to grab that candy or have an extra cup of eggnog during the whirl of holiday events. Learn how to manage holiday stress without overeating by practicing Reframing and other strategies that can help with handling holiday challenges.

Starting 12/6 we’ll be distributing the new “Weight Watchers Weekly” at all Weight Watchers meetings. It's an 8-page mini magazine for meeting room members only. Plus you’ll get the first look at what’s new for Weight Watchers in 2010!

Happy December! Start the month off right by attending our Weight Watchers meeting. I’ll see you there!

Diane

PS: Here are the links to the December motivational calendars

Dec 09 Word File
Dec 09 PDF

Thanksgiving 101

2009-11-21T14:54:00.005-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving, Zionsville Weight Watchers!

Special meals like Thanksgiving can be challenging but they don't need to be a disaster or an opportunity to abandon your habits. Scroll down for a list of POINTS values for common Thanksgiving foods and follow these strategies:

· Don't sit down overly hungry; eat a decent breakfast and lunch.
· Fill half your plate with vegetables.
· Only go for one round of food (the "one-plate rule").
· Eat the middle of your pie and skip the crust.
· Even if you just take a just a bite of something, count each taste as 1 POINTS value (great rule of thumb for those random BLTs—bites, licks and tastes).

Celebrate the positive things you do this week! Keep up with your water and tracking over the holiday and get in some extra walking or other activity. Rehearse your plan for Thanksgiving Day.

Perhaps even more importantly, decide what you'll be doing AFTER Thanksgiving. Write down your meal plan for Friday and be sure to attend a Weight Watchers meeting so you’ll stay focused. We still have six weeks to go until 2010!

Whatever you do, I hope you enjoy your holiday. Among all your blessings, count your efforts at making healthier choices--look how far you've come!

HAVE A GUILT-FREE THANKSGIVING
Read this article from WeightWatchers.com this week and take these tips with you to the Thanksgiving dinner table. Remember, it’s a holiDAY not a holiWEEK!

7 WAYS TO SAY YOU’RE THANKFUL (WITHOUT EATING)
From WeightWatchers.com: Read the full article here.

Put It in Writing. Each guest gets a notepad to write down the date and 5 or 10 things he or she is thankful for this year. Afterward, the notepads are read aloud or passed around the table. Find a safe keeping place for them, or have everyone bring theirs back next Thanksgiving. Over time, they may become precious mementos to be passed on to the next generation.

Scavenger Hunt. Prepare a list of items to find around the house or neighborhood. The list might include a photo of your great grandmother, a favorite toy, a maple leaf, a shell, something written in a foreign language, and so on. For added fun, pair kids and adults together, or team up family members or guests who seldom see each other.

Family Olympics. Organize relay or bicycle races for the children. Older kids can participate in field events using a football as a shot put and a yardstick as a javelin. Plan ahead: Make gold, silver and bronze medals from construction paper and ribbon.

Night at the Movies. Bring some classic videos or DVDs to the gathering — after the feast, everyone can huddle and watch surefire crowd-pleasers such as When Harry Met Sally, Shrek, or It's a Wonderful Life.

Photo Finish. After dessert, have everyone sift through boxes of old family photographs. Adults can help kids identify who's who and tell stories about them.

Kids at Heart. If your kids don't believe you when you say, "I was young once, too," use Thanksgiving to prove it. Have adults bring a videotape or movie reel of themselves as children to watch before or after dinner. Or, ask couples to bring their wedding videos, and point out significant guests to the kids.

THREE RECIPES
Thank you to Teresa G. who shared these 3 recipes mentioned during Tuesday’s meeting:

Pumpkin Fluff
This recipe was taken off a bulletin board at a W.W. meeting I attended.
I made this with the vanilla pudding at Thanksgiving and it was delicious -
tasted just like Pumpkin Pie!

Ingredients
1 small pkg. sugar free vanilla or butterscotch instant pudding
1 cup canned pumpkin (not mix)
2 cups skim or 1% milk
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Mix together and refrigerate.
SERVING SIZE: 1 cup
POINTS: 2

Pistachio Pineapple Delight
1 pkg. (4-serving size) jell-o sugar-free pistachio flavor instant pudding
1 can (20 oz.) crushed pineapple, not drained
8 oz. container of fat free cool whip (thawed)

Stir pudding mix, pineapple plus juice, in large bowl until well blended.
Gently fold in cool whip. Refrigerate at least 1 hour prior to serving.

Makes 4 cups. 1 cup=2.5 WW points
Can add mini marshmallows but will need to add the points.

Crustless Pumpkin Pie
Hold the crust, but not the flavor.
Serves 8

1/2 cup Bisquick Reduced Fat Baking Mix
1 (4-serving) package JELL-O sugar-free instant vanilla pudding mix
1 15 oz. can of pumpkin (not mix)
1 12 oz. can Carnation Evaporated Skim Milk
2 eggs
1 tablespoon Brown Sugar Splenda Blend
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray. In a large bowl, combine baking mix and dry pudding mix. Add pumpkin, evaporated skim milk, eggs, Brown Sugar and pumpkin pie spice. Using an electric mixer, bet on HIGH for 2 minutes. Pour pumpkin mixture into prepared pie plate. Bake 50 minutes or until center is puffed up. Place pie plate on a wire rack and allow to cool completely. Cut into 8 pieces.

118 Calories, 2 gm Fat, 6 gm Protein, 19 gm Carbohydrate, 326 mg Sodium, 167 mg Calcium 2 gm Fiber
One Serving=2 points

NEXT TIME
What do you do when somebody says to you, “You don’t need to diet!” or “I made this just for you; aren’t you going to eat any of it?” Our relationships with those closest to us often seem to be centered on food, especially during the holidays. Learn how to manage your feelings and those food-centered relationships without overeating and getting stressed!

IN 2 WEEKS – FOOD FINDS!
Most members LOVE a food finds meeting! Be sure to attend so you won’t miss out as we exchange “gifts” by sharing information about our favorite foods. Save the labels, boxes and packages of your favorites for “show and tell” and you’ll leave the meeting with a whole list of new things to try!

THANKSGIVING: ESTIMATED POINTS LIST

Beverages
Wine (4 oz. Glass) 2
Coffee or Tea 0*

Appetizers/Salads
Mixed Nuts (1 oz.) 4
Salad with 2 tsp. Oil 2*
Fruit Cocktail (1 cup) 2*
Shrimp (2 oz.) & Cocktail Sauce (1/4 cup) 2*

Main Course
Turkey, 1 slice with skin (2 oz.) 3*
Turkey, 1 slice without skin (2 oz.) 2*
Ham, lean (2 oz.) 2*
Ham, glazed with pineapple (2 oz.) 3

Side Dishes
Stuffing/Dressing (1/2 cup) 4
Mashed Potatoes (1/2 cup) 2
Giblet Gravy (1/4 cup) 2
Winter Squash (1 cup) 1*
Cranberry Sauce (1/4 cup) 2
Green Beans 0*
Sweet Potato (1 large) 3*
Candied Yams (1/2 cup) 4
Roll 3
Corn Kernels (1/2 cup) 1*
Corn, Cream-Style (1/2 cup) 1-2
Crescent Roll (1 regular) 3
Crescent Roll (1 Grands!) 6
Crescent Roll (1 Reduced Fat) 2
Macaroni & Cheese (1/2 cup) 4
Peas (1/2 cup) 1

Desserts
Apple or Pumpkin Pie (1/8 of 8-9” pie) 9
Pecan Pie 11
Pie without crust (1/8 of 8-9” pie) subtract 3 points

* Filling Food

Tradition with a Twist

2009-11-15T15:39:00.011-05:00

Hello! How has your week been going? I had a great time last Saturday "wogging" (walk/jogging) in the Monumental Half-Marathon downtown. We couldn’t have asked for better weather and I felt so inspired to see all the participants, particularly those who chose to do the full marathon…wow!

I felt pretty good about finishing the 13.1-mile distance, but along the way we saw a guy who was stopping at each mile marker to do pushups equal to the number of miles completed. Everyone cheered him on at each stop and it just made you smile. By the end of the full marathon he would have completed 351 pushups in addition to 26 miles. What a neat twist to add to a traditional run/walk event!

Hmm. Maybe I could add pushups after every course during the Thanksgiving feast? On second thought, there must be an easier way to add a healthy twist to holiday traditions!

Laura N. shared in our meeting how her family volunteered to fix and serve the Thanksgiving meal for others. They were so busy and enjoyed the experience so much that overeating wasn’t an issue. Other members shared ideas for taking the focus off food by playing family game tournaments, going on walks, planning the “Black Friday” shopping excursion, or participating in a Thanksgiving morning 5K run/walk.

I’ll be hosting 7 of my family members from New Jersey and North Carolina for several days and we’ve already talked about geocaching, hiking, bowling, and enjoying the new Wii as well as playing traditional family favorites like dominoes and cards during their visit.

How about you? How will you add a healthier twist to your holiday traditions?

One tradition to twist this year: Get moving instead of sitting around! Challenge yourself to take at least 1,000 steps (about ½ mile) on Thanksgiving Day!

Many fitness centers will be open Thanksgiving morning so check the hours and get a buddy to go with you. Instead of watching TV, play your own game of football or any other sport. Make a deal with yourself that for every serving over “normal,” you’ll work out for 15 minutes (that might slow you down from going for seconds!) Walk 2 laps around the local high school track. Before doing any last-minute grocery shopping, walk around the perimeter of the store first. If you’re watching TV, use all those commercial breaks to go up and back down a flight of stairs a total of 40 times to equal 1,000 steps.

Get creative and have fun, get to 1,000 before the day is done!

DRUMSTICK DASH AND TURKEY TROT
The Drumstick Dash is a 4.5-mile run/walk that takes place on Thanksgiving Day at 9 a.m. in Broad Ripple. The event also features a 2.3-mile fun run course for those not up to the longer distance. This event benefits Wheeler Mission Ministries. Come move your feet so others can eat! Click here for Drumstick Dash details.

The Turkey Trot takes place at 8 am on Thanksgiving Day at the Cass County Family YMCA in Logansport. This 4-mile race is a great way to get some exercise before you enjoy your holiday feast. Click here for more Turkey Trot details.

Find more area run/walk race information here.

HOLIDAY BUDDIES
For those of you who signed up to be a “holiday buddy,” I’m mailing your buddy’s address to you on Monday so check your mail this week!

COOKBOOKS ARE GOING FAST!
The 50% cookbook and book sale has been a big hit so far and will continue through December 5th or until we run out. Cookbooks are a great holiday gift – buy now for the best selection!

SPLENDA BROWN SUGAR
In a recent meeting I was asked about the nutrition information for Splenda Brown Sugar. Here’s the information I found on their website’s FAQ page:

How many calories are in SPLENDA® Brown Sugar Blend?

Since you need to use only ½ the volume of brown sugar called for in your recipe, SPLENDA® Brown Sugar Blend provides half the calories and carbohydrate of brown sugar. A tablespoon of SPLENDA® Brown Sugar Blend contains 48 calories and is the equivalent in sweetness to two tablespoons of brown sugar, which contains 96 calories.

Go to the Splenda FAQ page for more information.

NEXT TIME
It’s my favorite meeting: Thanksgiving rehearsal dinner! I enjoyed this meeting so much when I joined Weight Watchers that during my 2nd year as a member when my Mom was visiting from New Jersey I made her go along with me. “Forget a movie or the theater, Mom; you’ve got to come to Weight Watchers with me for the Thanksgiving meeting.” Ha!

I had a crazy, funny leader (you may think I’m pretty goofy, but my leader’s meetings were like going to a comedy club!). She taught me so much at this one meeting about how I could be in control at Thanksgiving, enjoy myself and still lose weight that it helped me learn how to handle any special occasion.

So I encourage you to bring a guest* with you to the meeting next week and you too can learn how to leave the table feeling successful, not stuffed!

Diane

* Be our guest! Come experience a Weight Watchers meeting discussion at no cost and no obligation anytime in participating areas. Free meeting visit does not include program materials. If you decide to join, you get the first week's program materials and pay the fees then in effect to join.

Participating locations include U.S. Meetings in all regions except AZ; Imperial County CA; Brevard, Dade and Monroe Counties, FL; Southeastern NV; Western parts of Camden, Burlington and Gloucester Counties, NJ; Franklin, Hamilton, Herkimer, Oneida, Otsego and St. Lawrence Counties, NY; Central OH; Eastern PA; Eastern and Central SC; Middle and East TN except the northeastern counties. Free meeting visit is available all year long.

Trick or Treat?

2009-10-31T16:10:00.006-04:00

We turn our clocks back this weekend and gain an extra hour...hooray! This is the “treat” half of Daylight Savings Time; we get the “trick” in the spring when we lose an hour. Ugh! Although some would say that getting all the clocks changed is definitely not a treat and remembering how to change the clock in my car dash is always tricky!

It’s no trick that the 9 Good Health Guidelines are a great way to treat yourself well. If you’ve imagined having a healthy lifestyle, following these guidelines will help turn that vision into reality. Whether you’re losing weight or maintaining, these guidelines will help you meet some of your body’s health needs and also boost your eating satisfaction:

Fruits & Vegetables (5 servings)
Milk Products (2-3 servings)
Liquids (6 glasses)
Healthy Oil (2 teaspoons)
Lean Protein (1-2 servings)
Multi-Vitamin
Choose Whole Grains
30 Minutes Activity on Most Days
Limit Added Sugar & Alcohol

What strategies will you use to try to fulfill the Good Health Guidelines each day? I created a Good Health Guidelines scorecard to help focus your efforts. Print a copy and track your success. Congratulate yourself for all the guidelines you meet consistently and challenge yourself to improve your score for the ones that need more of your attention.

If you’re consistently achieving the minimum guidelines (see pages 24-25 in the Week 1 “Start Eating Smarter” booklet), hooray for you! You’re already making healthier choices and taking care of yourself. You’re ready to challenge yourself to move beyond the minimum requirements: add extra fruits or veggies, figure out how you can move more each day and keep up the good work!

TREAT YOURSELF TO HEALTHY OILS
If you need some new ideas on adding healthy oils each day, click here for a tip sheet!

A GOOD TRICK
Get in the habit of replacing the smoke detector batteries when changing your clocks at Daylight Savings Time!

A TREAT FOR COOKS & BOOK LOVERS
All of our current cookbooks and motivational books will be on sale for half price starting the week of November 8th through December 5th! Need a gift for the holidays? For only $5 you could pick up “Now & Later,” a cookbook with 160 recipes that turn one meal into two, such as Old-Fashioned Meatloaf and then Italian Wedding Soup. “Hit the Spot” has 140 taste-bud tempting recipes such as Ultimate Onion Rings, Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas, Kick-it-Up Guacamole, or Easy Chocolate Skillet Soufflé. Check out our cookbook assortment – maybe there’s a holiday gift for you!

HOLIDAY BUDDY
Last year I participated in a Weight Watchers Leaders’ “Holiday Buddy” program. It was kind of like a "Secret Santa," but instead of gifts we exchanged notes of support and encouragement or sent a recipe or copy of an article about surviving the holidays.

I thought we’d try it out this year as a way to help keep each other motivated. If you’re interested in getting and giving a little extra encouragement, I’ll match you with another member to exchange postcards or notes starting the week of November 15th through December 31st. Keep it simple – it’s meant to be a low-key, fun way to help each other out a little.

You can fill out a “Buddy” form at the meeting or just take a piece of paper and on it write the following:

1) Your name & address
2) What will be challenging for you about the upcoming holidays?
3) What are your favorite holiday foods?

Turn the paper in to Jan or me at the meeting. You’ll get your buddy’s information mailed to you before November 15th. That’s it!

NEXT TIME
Holiday survival guide: how to stay motivated during the next 60 days and into 2010!

PS: I finally posted the November motiviational calendars today on my blog or you can click the links below:

Nov-09 Calendar (Word)
Nov-09 Calendar (pdf)

A helpful Weight Watchers leader from Nebraska creates these each month (thanks, FrauZee!) and I post them on my blog to share them with you. I've used them to track my exercise (write the number of minutes in a highlighter each day) or to get a motivational thought for the day.

Happy November!

Diane

Me First

2009-10-18T14:17:00.008-04:00

If you think taking care of yourself is selfish, change your mind. If you don’t, you’re simply ducking your responsibilities.
~Ann Richards

Who are the people who mean the most to you? Close your eyes and imagine them all.

When I asked this question of the 61 members staying for the meetings this week, only 1 member included herself when thinking of those who mattered most. When I asked everyone to rate their current level of self-care on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being the lowest, not a single member gave themselves a 5.

Everyone agreed that taking care of ourselves could help us to better care for others. And it would also help us to be more successful with our weight-loss goals. But we feel selfish, we don’t have enough time or we're not sure how to care for ourselves so we keep putting our own needs last.

It’s time to start putting yourself first (at least occasionally!)

Let’s start with your healthy lifestyle. Do you have enough time to meet your weight-loss needs? Enough time to plan, grocery shop, exercise, get inspired, be informed, set goals, and attend your meeting? Figure out how much time you need and where your schedule could be adjusted. Get up earlier, ask for help, set an appointment for your self-care time, or learn to say “no” when you’re already over committed.

I challenged everyone at our meeting to subtract their self-care rating from 5 and come up with that many ideas for taking care of him or herself this week. Since I rated my self-care a “1” I needed to come up with 4 things to do this week and here they are:

1. Planned my meals (and shopping list) for the next 5 days
2. Got to bed earlier so I would get 7-8 hours of rest.
3. Went for a hike in the woods – something that makes me feel recharged
4. Took 10 minutes to read the WeightWatchers.com message boards on at least three days for inspiration and information

What are YOU doing to take better care of yourself this week?

Taking care of yourself isn’t selfish; it’s self-preservation!

BOOK RECOMMENDATION
Cheryl Richardson’s book, “The Art of Extreme Self-Care” includes 12 strategies to transform your life one month at a time. She says, “When you catch yourself saying things such as ‘I never have time to do what I want to do,’ what you’re really saying is: ‘I don’t take time for my needs.’” She offers simple suggestions and helps you let go of the guilt and feelings of selfishness you may have about putting your own needs first.

PUTTING YOURSELF FIRST
Excerpt from “The DailyOm.com” August 26, 2009
We have all heard the instructions of an airline attendant reminding us to put on our own oxygen mask before we help anyone else with theirs. This advice is often cited as a metaphor for self-care because it so accurately expresses why it is important. It seems to say, ironically, that if you can’t take care of yourself for yourself, do it for others. Few situations in our daily lives mimic the wake-up call of an airplane emergency, so it’s easy to keep putting self-care off—easy, that is, until we get sick, overwhelmed, or exhausted, and suddenly don’t have the energy to care for the people who count on us. That’s when we realize we haven’t been getting the oxygen we need to sustain ourselves. We begin to understand that taking care of ourselves is neither selfish nor indulgent; it’s just plain practical.

Putting yourself first means that it may be necessary to say no to someone else in order to say yes to yourself. For many of us, there is always something we feel we could be doing for someone else, and it helps to remember the oxygen metaphor. You can even encourage yourself by saying "I am caring for myself so that I am better able to care for others" or some other mantra that will encourage you. It also helps to remember that self-care doesn’t have to be composed of massively time-consuming acts. In fact, the best prescription for taking care of yourself is probably small, daily rituals; for example, taking one half-hour for yourself at the beginning and end of the day to meditate, journal, or just be. You might also transform the occasional daily shower or bath into a half-hour self-pampering session.

Whatever you decide, making some small gesture where you put yourself first every day will pay off in spades for you and the ones you love. The oxygen you need is all around you; sometimes you just need to be reminded to breathe.

LOSE FOR GOOD: WEEK 6 FINALE
Congratulations Zionsville Weight Watchers! We lost a collective 402.6 pounds during the 6-week Lose For Good campaign. In our head-to-head meeting competition, the Saturday members were the loss leaders with an average of 1.07 pounds per member each week, just six hundredths of a pound ahead of the Tuesday group, whose per-member weekly loss averaged 1.01 pounds. Bravo to everyone who focused on Losing for Good!

The other big winners will be the community residents who will benefit from the 203 food items that were collected for the Zionsville Food Pantry. We’ll extend the collection of money and/or food for just one more week. It’s not too late to participate!

LAST WEEK: $5 SNACK SALE
Stock up on 1-POINT Mini Bars, Smoothies and Oatmeal for just $5.00!

Sale ends Saturday 10/24.

NEXT TIME
What does a healthy lifestyle look like to you? Adopting the Momentum Plan’s 9 Good Health Guidelines can start turning your healthy-lifestyle vision into reality. For the next 2 meetings we’ll focus on each of the Good Health Guidelines and identify ways to live them.

Put yourself first by finding time to attend your meeting this week!

Routine Questions

2009-10-11T22:33:00.017-04:00

Hello! I hope you had a good weekend. It was nice to have the rain finally move out and the sunshine return. The same thing over and over gets pretty boring, especially rain!

Shaking things up a bit now and then makes life interesting. Some of you were surprised to walk into the meeting room and find the chairs facing in a different direction this week. Instead of sitting in your normal spot, you had to think twice and pay attention. The view was a little different and maybe you sat near some new people. Isn’t it funny how a little change can make a big difference?

Making little changes can also help to keep our healthy lifestyle from becoming stale and humdrum. Simple things like going to a different grocery store, trying new foods, using a different pen or stickers when you track, trying a new activity, or challenging a friend to a contest are all great boredom-buster ideas. Have you fallen into a rut with your Weight Watchers routine? What can you do this week to make things interesting and different?

THE GREAT PUMPKIN
Our host church was setting up their "pumpkin patch" this Saturday and when I read this post from the WeightWatchers.com Community message boards I thought it was a fun, seasonal inspiration:

Posted by MERUDEVI 10/9/09 on WeightWatchers.com Community “Bravo Board”

I made a side trip to a produce stand on the way home from the gym this morning, didn't plan it, just kind of stumbled upon it. Big trucks were unloading pumpkins when I arrived and the delivery guys called out to the owner to come see the biggest one of the bunch! It was huge and the owner had them carry it over to the scales to weigh it. He clapped his hands, "57.6 pounds! Let's call it 58! Look at this beauty - just look at it!" I stopped what I was doing at the peppers bin and turned around. "What?? How much does it weigh?" I had just weighed in yesterday at WW with a whopping 57.6 lb loss exactly!

Big cheers all around! The owner sold me the pumpkin at half price with a hearty congratulation and now I have a huge pumpkin memento of my loss! LOL I can't believe I was living for two years with all this extra weight on my body - that pumpkin is so big! When I drove away I felt the car drag and thought, "I used to make the car drag like this!"

It my Great Pumpkin reminder that I'm NEVER going back!

This week as you pass by the St. Francis pumpkin patch on your way into the meeting, imagine your weight-loss "Great Pumpkin" goal and believe in yourself!

Hungry Girl goes in search of Pumpkin Treats

“Q&A”

Thank you to all the members who wrote down questions this week for our Q & A session. I tried to answer them in the meeting but as usual I was running out of time so I’ve included all the questions at the end of this week’s message. Be sure to let me know if you’d like to discuss any of them in more detail. Or if you have a new question, please ask it in our meeting or write it down and we'll talk about it in our meeting or I'll address it on my blog.

LOSE FOR GOOD: WEEK 5
We have lost a total of 336 pounds and my dining room table is nearly covered with the 175 food items that have been donated to date! Next week is the final week and we’re collecting any and all food items you’d like to contribute, but our smooth (or chunky) finale focus is PEANUT BUTTER, jelly or other lunchbox items.

LAST CHANCE FOR BIG SAVINGS
This is the last week of Free Registration (save $20!) as well as the Free Month of Monthly Pass (save $39.95!). If you’ve been thinking about returning to the meeting or if you’d wondered about trying Monthly Pass, step up and save money this week!

NEXT TIME
It’s all about you, or at least it should be! We’ll talk about how taking care of yourself and making your needs a priority can help you feel healthier, happier and more in control. You can't give to others what you don’t have within yourself.

Q&A

1. How much protein do you need a day? What besides lean meat and eggs count as protein?

Weight Watchers recommends 1-2 servings of lean protein per day (approximately 10-35% of your total calories). In addition to lean meats, skinless poultry, fish, beans, soy products and lentils also count as a protein. (Week 1 booklet “Start Eating Smarter, p. 25)

According to the Food Pyramid guidelines, “Most of us eat plenty, if not too much, meat (too little of it lean) and inadequate fish, legumes, nuts and seeds.” Per WeightWatchers.com, low-fat, high-protein foods include lean cuts of meat (cuts that include the words loin, round or leg), skinless poultry, fish, egg whites, low- or nonfat dairy products, and beans and legumes. Try to vary your protein sources and check out Book 8, “Beyond Chicken” for more ways to mix up your food choices.

Hungry Girl’s Protein-packed snack ideas

2. Is it bad that I can’t eat all my POINTS in a day?

Your daily POINTS Target tells you how many POINTS values to eat each day in order to lose weight. It’s how to apply the calories-in, calories-out equation to your efforts, personalized just for you. Don’t eat less than your daily POINTS Target. Your body needs calories and nutrients for good health and your daily POINTS Target has been carefully formulated to make sure you get what you need even as you’re losing weight. (Week 1 booklet, p. 14)

Depriving your body of fuel is a surefire way to slow it down. Food stimulates energy metabolism needed for digestion in a process called “dietary induced thermogenesis.” When you slash calories, the calories burned by eating are greatly diminished and so is your metabolic rate. Restricting calories also signals the body that there is no food available, so it tries to conserve stores of carbohydrate and fat by slowing down its metabolism. The best way to keep your metabolism revved is to eat regular meals with snacks when necessary to give your body a constant supply of healthy fuel. (From MSNBC.com)

3. If you put one item in with 1 POINTS value, why does it go up to 3 when I enter more than one?

Foods that are higher in fiber tend to have a lower POINTS value, but when you double the servings and the nutrition information the fiber grams are capped at 4. So the calories and fat are doubled, but the fiber may not be which results in a higher POINTS value.

100 cal, 1g fat and 4g fiber = 1 POINT
200 cal, 2g fat and 4g fiber = 3 POINTS

4. For WW products, for example 1 POINT Mini Bars, do you make each one 1-POINTS, so if you had 4 bars it would be 4 POINTS or do you calculate out the calories, fat and fiber for multiple bars?

1 mini bar = 70 cal, 2.5 fat, 4 fiber = 1 POINT
4 mini bars = 280 cal, 10 g fat, 4 g fiber = 6 POINTS

The simplest way is to adjust the POINTS value to fit the serving size. For example, if one cup has a POINTS value of 2, then 2 cups will have a POINTS value of 4 and a half a cup will have a POINTS value of 1.

You can also multiply the calories, fat and fiber information by the number of servings and calculate the POINTS value for the total amount consumed (remembering to limit the total fiber grams to 4).

If the mini bars were eaten in a short period of time I'd use the second method and count them as 6 POINTS. But if each serving was consumed at different times during the day you could use the first method and count them as four 1-POINT snacks.

5. How many POINTS in a pluot?

One medium (5 oz.) pluot (a plum-apricot hybrid) has 80 calories, 0 fat and 3g fiber or 1 POINTS value.

6. 3-POINT or under foods that are yummy?

Our awesome receptionist, Jan W. introduced me to the Clif Kid Organic Z Bars. They're 2 POINTS and come in Honey Graham (tastes sorta like Fig Newton to me), chocolate chip, brownie, peanut butter, apple cinnamon and blueberry flavors. On their website they also show a "Spooky S'mores" flavor, but I haven't seen that one yet. I get multi-bar packs at Target but you can also find single bars at Kroger in the health food/power bar section. For more low-POINTS snack ideas, click on these links to several WeightWatchers.com articles:

1 POINTS Value snacks

Hungry Girl’s 1 POINT snacks

More Hungry Girl’s 1 POINT snacks

Hungry Girl’s 2 POINTS Value snacks

2 POINTS snacks

7. How to estimate POINTS for homemade items?

Use the calorie, fat, and fiber per serving provided with the recipe. Or add the POINTS values for all the recipe’s ingredients and then divide by the total number of servings. Weight Watchers eTools subscribers can use the Recipe Builder tool, which will do the math for you! (Week 1 Booklet, p. 36)

8. How to figure out POINTS for food eaten at somebody’s home or at a restaurant when you don’t have the nutrition information?

Try estimating. Can you think of a dish or food similar to the one you ate? If you took note of the portion size and you’re willing to brainstorm about other dishes that would be similar you should be able to get pretty close. (Week 1 Booklet, p. 37)

9. Calculating POINTS: which is most accurate, using the calculator or looking it up online with eTools?

Figuring POINTS from the food’s nutrition label information will give you the most accurate POINTS calculation.

10. What are the best ways to boost metabolism?

Metabolism is the process your body uses to burn calories for energy. Because metabolism naturally slows with age, you may need fewer daily calories as you get older. But your metabolism doesn't dictate your weight. To lose excess weight, include physical activity in your daily routine. The calories you'll burn will help promote weight loss. Second, start a strength-training program. Muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue does, even when you're at rest. Whether you use hand-held weights, resistance tubing or another type of resistance, you'll reduce your body fat, increase your lean muscle mass and burn calories more efficiently. (From MayoClinic.com)

Here are some tips from an article on WebMD: Build lean muscle through exercising more and adding strength training. Add intervals of higher-intensity exercise to your workouts. Get enough sleep. Choose healthy foods. Eat mini-meals every 2-3 hours. Increase your intake of high-fiber foods like fruits and vegetables. Regular periods of movement nudge a sluggish metabolism in to gear. Reduce stress.

The WebMD article

Read "More on Metabolism" from my May 17th blog.

11. What’s the largest weight-loss number of a successful WW member in the U.S.?

I don’t know the answer to this question, but I looked at the “200+ Pounds to Lose” Community Message Board on WeightWatchers.com and found at least two people with stats showing losses of 230+ pounds. We’ve had a couple of Zionsville members who have lost well over 100 pounds!

For me, I’d have to say that even more than pounds lost, the most impressive statistic is the number of years MAINTAINED. No matter how much you lose, when you maintain that loss year after year you are truly a successful member!

12. What are some low-POINTS value ideas for getting your dairy servings (beyond yogurt)?

Dairy is important for many reasons, including strengthening bones, lowering blood pressure and preventing colon cancer. Most people need two servings a day which equals, for example, 1 cup of milk or yogurt, a 12 ounce latte, 2 cups of cottage cheese or 1 1/2 ounces of hard cheese per serving. Dairy protein also helps to keep you feeling satisfied

A simple way to incorporate dairy is to drink low-fat or non-fat milk each day (2 POINTS per 1-cup serving). Another low-POINTS option would be one packet of Weight Watchers Smoothie mix, which counts as a dairy serving and is only 1 POINT. (Use it instead of creamer in your coffee or tea!)

You can sneak more dairy into your day by mixing non-fat dry milk powder into oatmeal, casseroles, smoothies, coffee (for a latte), soups, mashed potatoes, or sauces. 1/3 cup of nonfat dry milk has 80 calories, 8g of protein and 30% of the Daily Value of calcium.

Here’s a recipe I found online for making your own hot chocolate mix using nonfat dry milk powder and cocoa:

Rich Hot Chocolate Mix
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2 cups instant non-fat dry milk powder
1/2 cup cocoa powder, unsweetened
1 cup sugar (or equivalent sugar substitute)
1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix all ingredients and store in airtight container. To make one cup of hot chocolate, mix ¼ cup dry mix with 1 cup boiling water.

Tips for increasing your dairy intake from WeightWatchers.com

12. What is a good oil?

Olive, canola, safflower, sunflower and flaxseed oils count as healthy oils. They contain vitamin E and essential fatty acids. They may help to lower risk for heart disease and stroke. (Week 1 Booklet, p. 24)

13.

- How do I stop thinking about food and using it as a reward?

- Holidays are coming up and there will be all kinds of foods at work—how do I keep in control?

- What are some tips when you have the STRONG urge just to binge and you don’t care about the consequences?
- Willpower – how do I get it?

- How do I deal with bad weather and the doldrums?

These are the questions I love to discuss as a group because we have so many good ideas. Alone we smart, but together we’re brilliant! Weight Watchers message boards are another way to get many minds working to support you, even when you’re by yourself. On the message boards you’ll find support tailored to your interests and needs. For example, there's a message board called “Out of Control” where I found members working to keep each other honest and the “Binge Enders Challenge” where they're working to meet a goal of 21 days in control.

If you would like to seek your own solutions to these types of questions, I’d point you to the Week 3 and Week 4 Booklets, “Stay Ahead of Hunger” and “Habits of Successful Members.” Also, you might grab a couple of worksheets from our “Tools For Living” toolbox. The Reframing, Winning Outcomes, Mental Rehearsing, Storyboarding and Motivating Strategy tools can help you with developing the skills and behaviors you need to tackle these situations.

In general, to keep your head in the right place it pays to keep your body in a state of relative satisfaction – never too hungry, never too full. And be sure to find ways to nurture yourself without food. What else can you do to get the feelings that food gives you? How can you take care of yourself in a non-food way?

Next time we get together we’ll be talking about taking care of yourself, so I want you to put yourself first by attending this week’s meeting!

See you there!

Diane

Feel Your Feelings

2009-10-04T19:00:00.014-04:00

"Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge."
- Audre Lorde

Hello and happy October! Can you believe it’s only 7 weeks until Thanksgiving and just 12 weeks until 2010? Yikes! But as usual I’m getting ahead of myself! I have a habit of thinking more about the past and the future than the present. Take a moment to focus on what we can do right NOW to get grounded in our healthy habits. The one thing that always pays off for me is tracking so I’m filling out the shared meeting tracker this week. What one thing can you do? Take action NOW and don’t put it off until tomorrow. Establish a routine NOW and it will help you through not only the upcoming holidays but for the rest of our long, healthy lives!

FEEL YOUR FEELINGS
Driving home after a bad day I caught myself planning all the things I wanted to eat that evening. Realizing my “need to feed” wasn’t due to real hunger, I asked myself, “What’s really going on here? What am I feeling right now?” I thought about my day and what had upset me. Out loud, I said to myself, “I am feeling sad and upset because my presentation didn’t go well and I felt foolish when I didn’t know the answer to the question I was asked. Now I want to eat to feel better because I’m unhappy and embarrassed.”

Just by saying this out loud I felt better. As I continued on my way home I thought, “What else can I do instead of eating that would make me feel better?” I decided I would call a caring friend who would listen to my sad story and take my side. If I couldn’t reach her then I would go for a walk or write in my journal.

We all eat for emotional reasons sometimes. But if food is your main coping mechanism then long-term weight control will be very difficult. You need to learn to feel those feelings instead of feeding them.

When I’ve felt particularly upset or unhappy I’ve found that writing down my thoughts and feelings can be very helpful. I don’t worry about penmanship, grammar or even making sense. I just write down whatever comes to my mind. Later I can shred the paper or tear it up and throw it away. That’s also cathartic!

I’ve typed emails, saying all the things I wish I could say, venting all my angry or unhappy thoughts. I address the message to myself and wait a day before doing anything else. Later, reading my message with a cooler head I often have a better perspective and can see solutions. Somehow writing down all that stuff and pressing the “Send” button allows me to release some of the tension I’m feeling at the time.

My most effective emotional eating defense is to share my feelings with a trusted friend who I know will respond with empathy and kindness. The more I write, speak and share my feelings, the less power they have to drive me to eat. And the more power I have to deal with them in a constructive way.

Food is the easy choice. It’s simple, readily available and always comforting, at least for a little while. It’s much harder to choose a different path, but it’s so worth it! In the long run you’ll feel better when you feel your feelings and face the situation.

THREE-MINUTE WARNING
Excerpt from “Why am I Eating This?” by Geneen Roth
The next time you want to succumb to binge eating, tell yourself that you're going to take 3 minutes--only 3--to be with yourself before you eat. Then, sit down, breathe a few times, and with as much kindness as you can muster, ask yourself gently what is going on. What do you need? Whom do you need it from? What would be the kindest thing you could do for yourself now?

If you still want to eat after you've done this, notice how the food tastes in your mouth. Notice how you feel after you've eaten. Ask yourself if eating felt kind.

EMOTIONAL HOSTAGE
Article by Annette Colby, PhD, RD

Holding down emotions is usually an attempt to protect ourselves from feeling pain. It is coping strategy designed to keep us safe. Somewhere along the line an unconscious decision was made to avoid conflict, deny our feelings, and be strong by handling things ourselves. Eventually, it became such a way of life, that there is now fear associated with letting feelings flow.

Even though suppressing emotions was once an effective coping mechanism, it comes with a price. Unfelt and unexpressed emotions do not simply go away. It's actually the resistance to feeling emotions when they arise that causes difficulty. As M. Kathleen Casey once wrote, "Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional." Pain is something we all experience. Suffering is caused when we attempt to suppress the discomfort we feel.

Feeling isn't fatal. But it's tough to convince emotional eaters of that. One of the greatest obstacles to working with emotions is fear of the unknown and fear of the unexpected. When beginning to work with emotions it is natural to feel afraid. Much effort was formerly spent treating emotions as if they were deadly. As a result, all that emotion has been locked up and kept under control. It's scary to think what would happen if all those suppressed emotions were release.

The process of opening up to hidden feelings often takes time. At first, it may feel like a flood of emotion, but as the pressure of unexpressed emotions releases, you will feel lighter. You will not cry forever. The anger will not keep on exploding forever. The pain will not go on forever. Learning to gently and compassionately be with what you are feeling allows healing to occur.

Emotional Rescue

1. The first question to ask yourself is "What am I feeling?" Identifying emotions can be difficult if you habitually minimize or deny what you feel. If you're not used to acknowledging your feelings, the answer might well be, "I don't know."

2. There is always a cause for our feelings. The problem may be that we've hidden our emotions from ourselves and others for so long. You might try locating the specific area in your body where the emotion is coming from. Check your head, shoulder, throat, chest, heart, or stomach. Notice the areas that are and are not feeling the emotion.

3. Try asking yourself, "What feelings am I not expressing?" If that still draws a blank, then ask yourself, "If I knew what I was feeling, what would it be?" Feelings are by their very nature unclear, vague, and foggy. Allow yourself to be with what is still unknown. A starting place might be to state, "I feel an uncomfortable feeling in my (example) stomach area."

4. Decide which general category the 'uncomfortable' feeling falls into. Is it sad, angry, or fearful? Once you have the category, refine the description until you find the emotion or feeling that most closely resonates with the feeling in your body.

5. Having uncovered the emotions that had formerly been stored or repressed, take a look at them. No need to analyze and criticize. No need to judge yourself, blame yourself, or tell yourself that you "shouldn't" feel that way. Only look at them objectively, and tell them (the feelings) and tell yourself that it is okay to feel this way.

6. Remind yourself that what you resist, persists. Realize that no matter how severe the emotions seem, feeling them is not dangerous. Identify the feeling with your head, acknowledge them with your heart, and let them flow through you.

7. Let yourself feel your anger, your sadness, your fear. Really feel it! Go ahead and cry, or beat your pillow ... whatever you feel you need (just don't hurt anyone). Feel them. Experience them. Feeling them will allow space inside to feel other, more positive, experiences.

8. When you focus on a feeling, it may become larger and stronger. This can be scary and we may think we can't stand it. If you begin to get overwhelmed by the emotion, redirect your awareness. Notice again the areas of your body that don't feel the emotion. Find some distance from the place in your body where the emotion dwells.

9. Remember to make the distinction that you are not your emotions. You are a person having an experience. If you are currently experiencing hopelessness, it is not the same as you - you are not hopelessness. You are a person experiencing hopelessness because of the thoughts you are thinking. Ask yourself, "What would I have to be thinking in order to create a feeling of hopelessness?"

10. If you feel like you will be bowled over with a flood of emotions, find someone to work with. You do not need to cope with painful feelings alone. A supportive friend, trained counselor, or nutrition therapist can offer support, guidance, and a safe environment.

10 WAYS TO AVOID EMOTIONAL EATING
Susan Albers’ tips from an article by January Payne:

1. Try blogging or signing up for Facebook or MySpace. Blogging is a modern form of journaling, long recognized as a constructive outlet for emotions in turmoil, says Albers. Also, since blogging and social networking sites are, by their nature, interactive, "you really have to think about how your readers are going to respond to what you're writing," she says. "It makes you feel like you're not alone."

2. Squeeze bubble wrap. Sometimes, a mindless repetitive action really is what your nerves need. This is one that Albers calls one of the "simple pleasures of life." It's guilt free, cathartic, and "it's kind of fun."

3. Volunteer. Working on projects for the good of other people "helps you to get out of your own mind and experience" and can put your own troubles into perspective. "When you're focusing on someone else's experiences, it distracts from what you're feeling," Albers says. And it often provides a natural high.

4. Be a realist instead of a perfectionist. "When we set unrealistic expectations, we feel unhappy," Albers says. Instead, set realistic expectations and enjoy a sense of accomplishment as those goals are achieved.

5. Build up a regular sweat. "Exercise is a wonderful way to calm and soothe our bodies," Albers says.

6. Be your own masseuse. Try using a tennis ball to soothe the bottom of your foot while you're sitting at your desk, for instance, or rub your temples and scalp.

7. Head for the mall. The act of going shopping is distracting, and getting an errand accomplished or buying a little something can provide gratification that might otherwise come from emotional eating. (A cautionary note: Some people may be at risk of developing a shopping addiction.)

8. Make a "bucket list." The idea of making a list of things to do before you die was popularized by the 2007 movie starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Doing this "takes your focus away from food and makes you think about what is it that really is going to make you happy," Albers says.

9. Explore cyberspace. It's easy to lose lots of time while searching online. In this case, that's beneficial, Albers says. "People talk about how they're Googling something and then all of the sudden an hour has gone by," she says. Luckily, "it's hard to type and eat at the same time."

10. Let your furry friend give you unconditional love. When the humans in your life are stressing you out, get away from the fridge and accept some attention from your pet.

MORE INFO ON EMOTIONAL EATING

* I’ve posted several messages in the past about emotional eating – see them all by clicking here.

* Here are two articles from WeightWatchers.com:

How to Stop Mindless Eating

Habit Guide: Manage Your Feelings

* Geneen Roth’s article for Prevention Magazine: Why am I eating this?

* Confident Kids “Feeling Faces” items are a fun way to name and embrace your feelings! One of my coworkers has the feelings magnet in her office…cute!

LOSE FOR GOOD: WEEK 4 RECAP
Thank you to everyone who has been dropping off their donations each week for the Zionsville Food Pantry. My dining room table is getting pretty full! To date we have collected 137 food items and lost a total of 280.6 pounds since Lose For Good started four weeks ago! In our head-to-head match up of weight loss, Tuesday has lost an average of 1.05 pounds per week while Saturday has lost 1.08 pounds. Only two weeks to go...it’s time to kick it in gear for our big finish!

This week’s suggested donation items: Cooking oil, catsup, mayo, pickles and other basic condiments.

$5 SMOOTHIES, MINI BARS & OATMEAL SALE
Save $2.50 off the regular price of Smoothies and 1-POINT Mini Bars as well as $1 off Oatmeal. Stock up on your favorites for only $5 while supplies last!

“Feelings are everywhere -

be gentle.”

~ J. Masai

Ready, Set…Goal!

2009-09-28T22:32:00.008-04:00

Five frogs sit on a log. One frog decides to jump off. How many frogs are left? You might think the answer is four, but it’s five. Just deciding to do something doesn’t mean it gets done.

If you’re not seeing the results you want to see at the scale, I recommend setting achievable goals. “I just need to follow the program” or “I’ll make better choices next week” are not effective goals. They’re missing the specifics: What? Where? When? How? Just like the frog that decided to leap, you need details and to take action in order to make something happen.

While you’re crafting an effective goal, make sure that it’s reasonable and achievable. I recently switched my workout goal to 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening instead of 30 minutes per day. Shaving 10 minutes has made working out seem more doable, especially in the morning when I always seem to be running late! Or when I’m tired at the end of the day I’m more likely to squeeze in a 20-minute walk. So I’m actually working out 10 minutes longer per day, but it seems easier.

It’s tempting to set goals around numbers on the scale. But you have more direct control over your eating, exercise, and behavior than you do over how much the scale changes from one week to the next. Focusing solely on the number on the scale can actually undermine your progress:

- If you know you’ve overeaten but it doesn’t show up on the scale, you might think you can continue overeating and “get away with it” again.

- If you’ve been following the food plan and the guidelines and expect to lose weight but do not, you might feel disappointed or angry and choose to eat as a result.

- If you’re expecting a gain and decide to skip weighing in, this helps you avoid facing the results of your actions. If you don’t have to weigh, you don’t have to know and don’t have to deal with the feedback that tells you to correct your course.

In the long run, weight loss depends upon your behavior so it makes sense to set goals related to behavior change. Change your behaviors and the weight loss will follow.

What goals will you set this week? Come on and jump off that log!

LOSE FOR GOOD: WEEK 3 RESULTS
Between our two meetings we lost 64 pounds last week and collected 53 more food items. We’re half way through the 6-week campaign and have lost over 200 pounds and collected 107 food items to donate to the Zionsville Food Pantry!

Next week’s suggested donation: rice, pasta, meal “helpers” & macaroni & cheese

NEXT TIME
How often do you eat in response to emotions – even when you weren’t truly hungry? Emotional eating is common and feels impossible to overcome. But we’ll talk about how to put yourself in control rather than letting the food and feelings take control!

READY, SET…GO TO YOUR MEETING!
Who: YOU & ME
What: Attend a meeting
When: Tuesday 9/29 @ 6 pm or Saturday 10/3 @ 9 am
Where: St. Francis Episcopal Church in Zionsville
How: Drive, bike, walk, skate, jog – however you can get there.
Why: To have fun, share inspiration and get psyched for another week of success.

One choice at a time, one week at a time we will reach our goals!

Diane

Don’t Even Go There…

2009-09-20T12:18:00.017-04:00

"A trigger food is a specific food that sets off a course of overeating where control is lost and excessive amounts are consumed. With a true food trigger it is the food, not an emotion or situation, that triggers the out-of-control eating. For example, open the bag of potato chips and it will be gone, regardless of mood, time of day or place.”
~From WeightWatchers.com ”Eating Triggers” article

I was walking around the campus at my office on Friday with my friend Joan, enjoying the beautiful day, when we came upon yellow CAUTION tape strung across our path. We looked around and didn’t see any obvious danger, so we went around the barrier and proceeded on our way. I was laughing later about how easily we ignored all the warning signs. Luckily nothing happened to us!

So this morning I’m thinking about the trigger food discussion from our meeting and this seemed like a perfect analogy. Even if ice cream, cookies and potato chips came wrapped in yellow CAUTION tape, I’d still imagine that I could be exempt from those warnings. As an experienced Weight Watcher, wouldn’t I have the control to eat just one serving? But with some foods, once I get started I am not satisfied with just one serving. So I have another. Or three. Or finish the whole package.

Experience has showed me that I’m better off just not bringing certain foods into my house at all. But if I buy that food from a restaurant or fast-food place, I can eat and enjoy one portion without losing control and overeating. Buying single-serving packages or finding low-calorie substitutes can be effective strategies as well.

Which foods can trigger overeating for you? Proceed with caution and develop the strategies that will help you take control and stay out of danger. Next time you’re shopping and you see a trigger food, heed the caution signs. Keep pushing your cart along and don’t even go there!

12 WAYS TO STOP OVEREATING
From WeightWatchers.com

1. Take it slow. Crash dieting is more likely to end in losing control than a slow, steady loss of a pound or two each week.

2. Don't cheat yourself! Eat a sensible amount of food each day.

3. Allow occasional treats. If you don't totally cut out "forbidden" foods (such as those donuts that you love), you're more likely to stay on track, because deprivation often leads to overeating. Opt for low-fat versions of favorite foods.

4. Reward yourself for every win — how about a bath or a walk just to enjoy a sunset rather than a reward consisting of junk food.

5. Plan ahead to stay in control. Facing a big test or other ordeal that you fear will send you straight to the cookie jar? Try to keep healthy snacks around to nibble on instead, and exercise to offset your munching — and calm you down, too!

6. Share your feelings — sad, bad or otherwise — with family or friends.

7. Seek support from others trying to lose weight — family, friends or online buddies. They're there to help, and want to see you succeed.

8. Look to calming alternatives if stress is your trigger. Anything from deep breathing to yoga to arts and crafts could help. And don't forget: Exercise is a great tranquillizer. (It also reduces your appetite!)

9. Count to ten. Is overeating your way of coping with anger? Consider other ways of dealing with negative emotions, such as learning assertiveness techniques.

10. Find other ways to fill the void. If you typically overeat when you're looking for emotional nourishment; stop. Feed your spirit by caring for yourself as well as you can during times when you feel unloved, under-appreciated or unworthy. Be your own biggest fan and try to focus on your successes, not to the occasional lapse.

11. Be patient and forgiving of yourself. Long-established complex habits won't change overnight.

12. Avoid all-or-nothing thinking, such as "I've already blown my weight loss plan, I might as well finish off the box." Accept that you may go off the rails from time to time. So you've lost six pounds and regained three? It's important to congratulate yourself for the pounds that you lost. You're doing a great job!

HALLOWEEN CANDY CAUTION
Now that Halloween candy is everywhere, don’t fall into the trap of thinking you’ll save money buying candy on sale weeks in advance in order to save money. You’ll only end up spending more because you’ll have to replace candy that is consumed before Halloween arrives. Don’t even go there!

LOOK FOR POSTS ABOUT...
To read past messages I've posted about Halloween and to see a list of candy POINTS, check out the new "Look for posts about..." feature on the right side of the blog page. Click on a label and find all the posts that I've tagged for that topic. What are the most frequently tagged topics? Motivation, goals, positive thinking, tracking and weight-loss tips.

LOSE FOR GOOD: WEEK 2 RESULTS
Zionsville Weight Watchers have been posting some serious numbers: we lost 88 pounds at the scale this week and collected 29 more items for the Zionsville Food Pantry.

Tuesday’s meeting averaged 1.28 pounds lost per member this week, while Saturday was right on their heels with 1.14 pounds. So close!! Best of all, we’re on track for our goal of 1 pound per week average loss: 2.04 pounds lost per member so far. Yee haw!

I’m collecting all our donations on my dining room table. I’ll keep taking pictures each week so you can see how much good we’re doing for our community!

Next week’s featured donation items:
Canned veggies & fruits, dried fruits and tuna

Wondering what all this Lose For Good talk is about? Read my post from the first week by clicking here.

ABOUT THE ZIONSVILLE FOOD PANTRY
The Zionsville Presbyterian Church’s food pantry provides food for Boone County and surrounding area residents in need. It also serves Marion County residents north of 38th Street and West of Meridian Street. The church is located at 116th and Michigan Road and the food pantry is open on Fridays from noon to 2:00pm.

If you’d like to donate a little time along with your food items, they could use help serving their clients during that time. They also rely on volunteers to help behind the scenes. Love to shop? Willing to give a few hours to unload donations or organize the pantry? Interested in packing groceries? Maybe you have a group or team looking for a one-time service project. If you have a willing heart and compassionate spirit, join in! Contact Nancy Thompson for more information at 317-873-6171.

PIZZA PRETZEL SAMPLES
Have you tried Weight Watchers new Pizza Pretzels? I love pizza and these are a great 2-POINT snack option. The first 30 members at each meeting this week will receive a free sample. Mamma Mia – that’s good!

NEXT TIME
At our next meeting we’re all going to SAG! That doesn’t mean we’re going to be drooping, but instead it means we’ll “Set Achievable Goals.” Setting and achieving realistic short-term goals gives us the motivation to achieve more aggressive, longer-term goals.

Make it your achievable goal this week to attend your meeting. DO go there! And take one step closer to your weight-loss goal. I look forward to seeing you!

Diane

The Right Fork

2009-09-13T18:47:00.009-04:00

“When I was little, my mother taught me how to use a fork and knife. The trouble is that Mother forget to teach me how to stop using them!”
~Hattie McDaniel

Hello my friends! Did you miss me? What happened in your life while I was away? I missed our chats but now I’m back after taking a month-long virtual vacation from my blog. The grand finale of my break was a week spent on Martha’s Vineyard (after the Obama family had left the island). In addition to beach time, sightseeing and an impromptu biplane ride, we enjoyed a LOT of restaurant meals! We didn’t go to fancy places so I wasn’t worried about picking the right fork to eat my salad, but eating out poses other challenges when you’re trying to be healthier, doesn’t it?

Whenever you eat out, the first “fork in the road” is when you decide whether you’re going to be “on program” or not. It takes extra effort but if we’re truly choosing a healthy lifestyle we know we can enjoy favorites in moderation without feeling deprived. Instead of finishing a dining-out experience feeling stuffed and regretful, wouldn’t you rather leave the restaurant feeling comfortably satisfied and proud of yourself for making smart choices? (And being thrifty, bringing home a delicious meal of leftovers for tomorrow!)

The best choice to make is to PREPARE. Look up the nutrition information and plan what you’ll order ahead of time. Decide how many POINTS you’re willing to spend and then order first so you won’t be swayed by what others are getting. Enjoy your food, but also focus on the conversation and enjoy the atmosphere. If you are always the first one finished, try switching your fork to your non-dominant hand (or putting it down more frequently!)

Here are 8 top tips for dining out and losing weight from WeightWatchers.com:

1. Don't go on an empty stomach.
Have a satisfying snack, such as vegetable soup, before you leave the house. You'll make better menu choices if you don't feel ravenous.

2. Alternate wine with water.
Avoid spending your entire weekly POINTS Allowance on alcohol and sodas by alternating with water or diet sodas. Or ask for sparkling water with a spritz of lime.

3. Request sauces and salad dressings on the side.
That way you can control how much you use.

4. Share!
Go family style and request one dessert with lots of spoons, so you can spread the calories around!

5. Remember your portion sizes.
Restaurant servings are notoriously large, but you don't have to eat everything on the plate. Stick to reasonable portion sizes and try packing up your leftovers in a doggy bag before you eat.

6. Be assertive.
If the grilled chicken you requested comes out deep-fried, don't be afraid to send it back.

7. Make special requests.
Most restaurants today gladly accommodate special requests and will often adjust any dish to your needs. So be sure to let the server know how you like it.

8. Eat slowly.
Put your knife and fork down between bites, savor some good dinner conversation, and most of all enjoy the meal!

Need more ideas? Check out Hungry Girl's guilt-free restaurant finds at the end of this message.

When dining out, remember it’s better to prepare and prevent than to repair and repent!

LOSE FOR GOOD: WEEK ONE
September is Hunger Action Month and Weight Watchers is sponsoring their 2nd annual “Lose For Good” campaign. Pounds lost by members between 8/30 and 10/17 will result in up to $1 million dollars donated to Share Our Strength and Action Against Hunger to help feed children and families who are at risk of hunger.

Do you want to take part in losing for good? Commit to making a lifestyle change by following the Weight Watchers Momentum Plan. During last year's campaign Zionsville members lost an average of nearly 6 pounds each. Set your own weight-loss goal and celebrate your success, making a difference for others by donating food or money for the Zionsville Food Pantry. We’ll be collecting donations each week at the meetings. Please feel free to bring any food items or you can follow the calendar of suggested food donations. If each member brings just one item each week, we could end up with over 300 food items to help restock the food pantry's shelves!

This Week (9/15 & 19): Cereal and Oatmeal
Week 3 (9/22 & 26): Canned fruit, vegetables, tuna or dried fruit
Week 4 (9/29 & 10/3): Pasta, rice, meal “helpers”, mac & cheese
Week 5 (10/6 & 10): Cooking oil, condiments (ketchup, mayo, pickles, etc.)
Week 6 (10/13 & 17): Peanut butter and jelly

WEEK 1 RESULTS: Zionsville members lost 46.6 pounds last week with an average loss per member of .78 pounds on Tuesday and .85 pounds on Saturday. We collected 25 cans of soup for the Zionsville Food Pantry. Thanks to all of you for your thoughtful donations.

Bring your best efforts and a box of cereal to next week’s meeting. We can increase both our weight losses and our donations and make a world of difference -- both for us and for those in need!

GREAT AMERICAN DINE OUT SEP 20-26
Here’s a great way to wield your fork for a higher purpose. You can hone your dining out skills and help fight hunger too. Share Our Strength’s “Great American Dine Out” is a weeklong program that raises money to help feed the more than 12 million children at risk of hunger in U.S. communities.

Thousands of restaurants across the country are registered to participate by donating a portion of proceeds from the week, creating special menu items or selling promotional coupons to generate extra sales. Patrick’s Kitchen and Drinks in Boone Village, Ted’s Montana Grill and McAlister’s are some of the local participants. You can search for more restaurants on the Great American Dine Out site.

FREE MONTH OF MONTHLY PASS!
Joining and current members who purchase a Monthly Pass will pay $39.95 for their first month and get the second month FREE! That’s an average payment of only $4.61 per week for the first two months!

Even if you don’t wish to buy a Monthly Pass you can still join with Free Registration, a savings of $20, and pay only the $13 weekly fee. Have you been missing meetings? Your meeting has been missing you!

NEXT TIME
When is the last time you promised yourself you were only going to eat one cookie or handful of chips and you ended up finishing off the bag? Next week we’ll share strategies for handling high-risk foods.

Bonus: By request we’ll take a few minutes to figure popcorn POINTS. Bring a nutrition label from your favorite brand of microwave popcorn and we’ll demystify how to calculate the POINTS value.

See you there!

Diane

Hungry Girl Goes... In Search of New Guilt-Free Restaurant Finds!
(From WeightWatchers.com)

Starbucks Farmer's Market Salad
One of those eateries jumping on the “better food” bandwagon is Starbucks. A new item that I really like is the Farmer’s Market Salad. It’s loaded with blue cheese, almonds, dried cranberries, apples and carrots, and is served over (my favorite!) Romaine lettuce with a side of balsamic vinaigrette. Really yummy and satisfying. And even with dressing, the salad clocks in at 300 calories.

Each salad without the dressing has 220 calories, 12g fat, 4g fiber, and a POINTS® value of 5. A salad with dressing has 300 calories, 20g fat, 4g fiber, and a POINTS value of 7.

Romano’s Macaroni Grill Jumbo Shrimp Spiedini
People, the Macaroni Grill has gotten a makeover. Not quite "extreme," but definitely notable. First of all, they have a bunch of new, lighter menu items that have debuted in California and should be rolling out across the US any day now. And they reformulated a bunch of their recipes to make them more reasonable, like the often-mocked Scallops & Spinach Salad, which shed 880 calories! This shrimp skewer dinner is at the top of my list — high in flavor and low in the bad stuff.
Each serving has 230 calories, 5g fat, and a POINTS value of around 4 - 5. (Fiber count not available.)

California Pizza Kitchen Pesto Chicken Thin Crust Pizza
CPK has recently gone public with their calorie counts, which makes me very happy. While some of the salads are downright atrocious (1,372 calories for the Field Greens Salad??!), I was actually pleasantly surprised by some of the pizza stats. This is still pizza, so the stats aren’t great, but it sure beats Domino’s on creativity and taste. Pesto Chicken pizza with sun-dried tomatoes and pine nuts? Yes, please!

Each slice of pizza (1/6th of the pie) has 155 calories, and a POINTS value of around 4. (Fat and fiber counts not available.)

Red Lobster Garden Salad with Petite Shrimp Topping and Red Wine Vinaigrette Dressing, Live Maine Lobster, and Baked Potato with Pico de Gallo
This isn’t exactly new, but it’s great info that everyone should know. Listen up! It is possible to eat smart at Red Lobster and still have a delicious dinner. I pieced together this combo (hooray for a la carte menu items!) and would eat it for dinner any day of the week. Just be sure to stay away from the melted butter (squeeze lemon juice on your lobster) and the Cheddar Bay Biscuits (because no one can eat just one).

A dinner of one shrimp-topped salad with dressing, a serving of lobster, and a baked potato with pico de gallo has 410 calories, <10g>

Olive Garden
Venetian Apricot Chicken
Olive Garden recently went public with the stats for its ENTIRE menu. Some good news, some bad there, but I still love this fruity little chicken entrée. Served up with broccoli, asparagus, and diced tomatoes instead of pasta or potatoes, it's a solid choice.

One dinner portion has 380 calories, 4g fat, 8g fiber and a POINTS® value of 7.

Chili’s
Guiltless Grilled Salmon
Pretty much as simple as you can get, the meal comes with a nice fillet, black beans, and steamed vegetables with Parmesan cheese. Most of the fat in this dish comes from the salmon (yay Omega-3s!), but if you want to try to cut some of the other fat out, ask for your veggies to be served Parm-free.

One order has 395 calories, 20g fat, 3g fiber and a POINTS value of 9.

Red Lobster
Fresh Wood-Grilled Sole with Broccoli
Don’t abandon hope at RL and start inhaling the Cheddar Bay Biscuits the second you sit down. The “Crimson Crustacean” (my fancy pet name for this place) has a bunch of options you can piece together into a guilt-free (and delicious) meal. Check out its long list of fresh fish and pick out your fave (sole is very low in fat and calories). If you feel REALLY crazy, add a Maine lobster tail to your meal for only 60 calories and 0.5g fat. Then top it with lemon juice instead of butter.
Pssst...In case you were wondering, those Cheddar Bay Biscuits have 150 calories, 8g fat and are 3–4 POINTS values EACH! Yikes!

One “full portion” has 245 calories, 3.5g fat, an uncertain amount of fiber and a POINTS value of 4 - 5.

Denny’s
Grilled Chicken Sandwich, no sauce, with a side of applesauce
People who work off-hours (or just stay up late) are well aware that 24-hour eateries can be hard to locate. It’s often Denny’s or nothing. Luckily, this late-night haunt has been kind enough to give “Fit Fare” tips for diners to skinny-up a few menu items (no, there’s no way to save the Moons Over My Hammy). Order the grilled chicken sandwich, ditch the honey mustard sauce and swap out the fries for applesauce. That’ll save you 930 calories and 74g fat! And if you’re hardcore, pop off the top bun and cut down the bread calories.

One grilled chicken sandwich (sans honey mustard) with applesauce has 490 calories, 7g fat, 5g fiber and a POINTS value of 10.

Applebee’s
Grilled Chili-Lime Chicken Salad
Despite the fact that Applebee’s is no longer offering up the actual calories/fat/fiber for its Weight Watchers approved items, this salad is still really good. Just be smart and get the dressing on the side and dip (don't pour).

One salad has a POINTS value of 5.

Double Back for Yourself

2009-08-15T22:30:00.005-04:00

"Something great is going to happen today…
and I can’t wait to see what it is!"
~Brook Noel

A few weeks ago I posted about positive ways to start your day (see my June 21st blog message) and I mentioned that I would let you know what I thought about a book I’d seen called “Good Morning: 365 Positive Ways to Start Your Day.” Well, almost every morning since I picked this book up from the library I’ve consumed a daily entry as my “emotional breakfast” right along with my cereal or yogurt. I’ve enjoyed her thought-provoking messages. They’re short, easy to digest and stick with me throughout the day. Here’s an example:

Don’t Forget to Double Back For Yourself
While working on two books, establishing a business and raising my daughter (who was a toddler then), my days were always too short, and my stress level was at its peak. The demands on my time were great and the first thing to go, to make room for these demands, was my daily walk.

The second thing to go was my attempt at home-cooked meal. I say “attempt” because I’m the world’s worst cook.

The third thing I shaved from my day was two hours of sleep.

For a month or two this worked well, but then the hectic pace and lack of balance caught up with me. But I felt I had no choice. To meet the demands that were bombarding my life, I had to make more time and that meant less time for myself. Didn’t it?

As I relayed this frustration to a friend, he questioned my priorities and the lack of “me time” in my schedule. I informed him that I simply had no choice. I had taken on these commitments and had to make the time for them.

Yet he noticed my voice was monotone, and my typical excitement toward my endeavors was evaporating. He offered suggestion after suggestion, and I countered each with the same reason:
I would feel guilt doing so much for myself when there was so much else that needed tending. Finally, he offered the following anecdote.

“Your house is on fire. You’re on the way to an important presentation. You’re late, and the deadline is one that could cost you great consequence. But you look back, and there is that house burning. Everything you treasured in your life succumbing to flames. The fire is moving slowly enough that you could get out some of your most prized possessions - of course, this will only make you later for your presentation. What do you do?”

I rolled my eyes. This seemed like an obvious choice. “I’d go back,” I replied. “I’m not crazy enough to let all that go over some meeting.”

“Would you feel guilty for doubling back?”

“No,” I said immediately.

“Well, trust me then; your house is on fire. Double back for yourself.” I hung up the phone and realize he was right. It was up to me to find the extinguisher to put out the fire. It was up to me to make the time to live.

Your Turn:
Often when we get busy or overwhelmed the first area we neglect is our own needs. Contemplate what needs you have been neglecting in your life. Begin devoting time to yourself on a regular basis.

Create a list of 10 simple ways to devote 5 or 10 minutes to “you” each day. Write these on a calendar and then each day choose one idea from the list to refuel.

http://www.maketodaymatter.net/newsletters.htm

BLOG BREAK
I’ve decided to “double back for myself” and take an end-of-summer blog break. I won’t be posting messages for a few weeks but instead will be taking a little time to do some “life planning” and a little soul searching for the things I’ve been neglecting in my own life. I encourage you to do the same!

SNACKS ON SALE
Now through 8/29 you can buy your favorite 2-POINTS Bars and Baked Snacks for only $3.50 per box!

NEXT TIME
Are your weight-loss efforts feeling off-kilter lately? Have you lost a sense of control? Or are you stalled on a weight-loss plateau? The next 2 weeks will focus on recovering and getting back on track. If you haven’t been to a meeting for a while, this is a great time to get back into the groove again!

Diane

Shaken AND Stirred!

2009-08-09T15:25:00.005-04:00

Hello, Weight Watcher friends! How is your day going today? I hope you’ve had time to get out and pick up some new foods this week. We had a lot of interesting and delicious food ideas exchanged, thanks to all of you who shared food finds at this week’s meetings. As promised, I compiled a list of all the items mentioned in both the Tuesday and Saturday meetings and you can see it here:

List of Zionsville Weight Watchers food finds

They say variety is the spice of life. Variety is the spice of your Weight Watchers program too! Since we choose to eat healthy and stay active for the rest of our lives, let’s make interesting choices!

Shake up your menu! Eat a variety of interesting, delicious foods. You’ll feel more satisfied, less deprived.

Stir up your exercise! Try a different routine or type of activity this week. Look for ways to move more.

Wake up your mind! Read something inspiring and thought-provoking. Right now I’m listening to the audio book of “This Year I Will…” by M.J. Ryan and enjoying her insights on how to make changes that stick.

Perk up your plan! Keep your commitment alive and renew your will to reach your goal. Remind yourself of why this is important and how good it feels to succeed.

Don’t settle for a boring approach to a healthy life—make yours shaken and stirred!

HUNGRY GIRL’S 8 SECRET FOOD FINDS
From Weight Watchers.com

1. Vivi’s Original Sauce
Classic Carnival Mustard

This salsa meets mustard meets cocktail sauce is the ultimate condiment. It's so good you'll start mixing it into tuna, spreading it on veggie burgers and dipping your shrimp in it! I am obsessed with this stuff! Find it at vivisoriginalsauce.com.

1 Tbsp has 15 calories, 0 grams of fat, 0 grams of fiber, for a POINTS® value of 0.

2. Justin’s Nut Butter 100-Calorie Squeeze Packs
Maple Almond Butter and Honey Peanut Butter flavors

You'll never again need to guess how many calories and POINTS values worth of PB you're consuming—woo hoo! These little pouches contain 100 calories of nut butter goodness—the perfect amount for topping off celery, apples and more! To order, visit justinsnutbutter.com.

1 packet has 100 calories, 8 grams of fat and 1 to 2 grams of fiber for a POINTS value of 2.

3. Popchips
Nine delicious “popped” chip flavors in potato, corn or rice varieties. Potato: original, barbecue, salt & pepper, sea salt & vinegar and parmesan-garlic. Corn: cheddar, sea salt and salsa. Rice: wasabi.

These chips are great for crunchy snack cravers. They're all-natural and are not baked or fried—they're POPPED. Find them at select markets or at popchips.com.

1 ounce (about 18-23 chips) has 120 calories, 4 to 5 grams of fat and 1 to 2 grams of fiber for POINTS value of 2 or 3.

4. Almond Breeze
Unsweetened Vanilla and Chocolate flavors

How can you not fall head over heels in love with a delicious milk swap that has half the calories of skim milk and a bazillion times the flavor? This product is the key ingredient to making low-cal, creamy smoothies and coffee drinks. It's also perfect in cereal and oatmeal. Find it in the shelf-stable boxed milk section of select markets.

8 ounces (1 cup) has 40 to 45 calories, 3 to 3.5 grams of fat and 1 gram of fiber for a POINTS value of 1.

5. FRS Low Calorie Concentrate (Orange)

I start every single day with an FRS beverage. I take the low-cal concentrate, add Splenda, water, tons of crushed ice and sip away. FRS helps me feel energized and awake...and it's packed with vitamins! Buy this stuff online at frs.com.

2 ounces of concentrate (makes an 8-ounce beverage with water) has 20 calories, 0 grams of fat and 1 gram of fiber for a POINTS value of 0.

6. House Foods Tofu Shirataki
Spaghetti, Fettuccine and Angel Hair shapes

Simply put, these "noodles" will change your life. You can eat an entire bag for just 40 calories and a POINTS value of 0. It's the best pasta swap ever! These work best in stir-frys, soups and with creamy low-fat cheese sauces. Find them in the refrigerated section near the tofu at select markets.

One serving (1/2 bag) has 20 calories, 0.5 grams of fat and 2 grams of fiber for a POINTS value of 0.

7. Vitalicious VitaTops
Chocolate flavors

I can hardly believe these can still be considered a "secret" food find in any way, but believe it or not they are. And they are, hands down, my favorite way to kick a craving for chocolate, cookies, brownies or even candy. I love, love, love them! Order them from vitalicious.com.

1 top has 100 calories, 0.5 to 1.5 grams of fat and 5 to 6 grams of fiber for a POINTS value of 1.

8. Crispy Green Freeze-Dried Fruit
Apples, Apricots, Peaches, Pears and Pineapples
1 bag has 36 to 39 calories, 0 grams of fat and 1 gram of fiber for a POINTS value of 1.

Freeze-dried fruit is brilliant. These snacks are full of nutrients, and have no additives or preservatives. They're an awesome on-the-go snack, and they're fantastic mixed with cereal or yogurt, or as a topping for frozen yogurt. Mmmmmmmm! Order 'em online at crispygreen.com.

AN ONLINE COMMUNITY FOR YOU
WW Message Boards

Have you taken a look at the community message boards on WeightWatchers.com? You don’t need to subscribe or even participate, but just reading some of the messages can be helpful and inspiring. It’s like a virtual Weight Watchers meeting takes place whenever you log on.

Here are all the different message boards you can browse. I’m sure you’ll find something that interests you!

20-year olds
30-year olds
40-year olds
50-year olds
All About You
Beyond Beer and Burgers
Dietary Restrictions
En Español
Entertaining
Family Man
Feeding the Family
Fitness Gear and Gadgets
Food Finds and Gadget Reviews
Local Restaurants
Maintenance
Make Connections
Meeting Members
Men's Fitness Challenge
Men's Fitness Ideas
Men's Health
Military Families
Motivate Me
Neighbors
New Moms
Newbies Welcome!
On the Job
Out of Control
Over 60s
Polling Station
Recipe Review
Special Occasions
Spiritual Space
The Fitness Challenge
The Weight Loss Challenge
Vegetarian
Website Help
Weight Watchers Challenges
Weight Watchers Online
Weight Watchers On-the-Go
What I Ate Today
Women's Fitness Ideas
Women's Health

And if you liked this week’s meeting when we exchanged favorite foods and recipe ideas, you’ll enjoy reading the “Food Finds and Gadgets” message board. Today as I scrolled through I found messages about on-the-go snacks that won’t melt or squish, how to get the most out of a mango, tips for cooking spaghetti squash and people’s favorite food finds at Trader Joes, Costco, and Whole Foods.

Check out a few “food finds” below and try some new foods this week!

Favorite and Least Favorite WW Foods?

What do you snack on?

5 New foods you are going to try

SNACKS ON SALE
Now through 8/29 you can buy your favorite 2-POINTS Bars and Baked Snacks for only $3.50 per box!

NEXT TIME
Do you ever have an overpowering desire for very specific foods? Me too! So let's get together next week and learn how to take control and manage our food cravings!

Diane

No More Dieting

2009-08-02T21:54:00.007-04:00

We need to get our our thoughts and actions shifted into "lifestyle mode” in order to be successful with weight loss and maintenance. Unfortunately, many people lose weight but aren’t successful with keeping those pounds away permanently. It’s critical that we lose weight in a way that we can live with long-term. The same skills that help us lose weight are also the skills that help sustain weight loss.

Take a look at your habits and ask yourself if you’re doing things you’d be willing to do for the rest of your life. If keeping on track is feeling difficult, figure out what ways you can make it fit better with your life and make it easier to follow.

- Eat filling foods to stay satisfied
- Use your extra 35 POINTS for cravings, weekends, to have a treat, etc.
- Follow the Good Health Guidelines
- Find fun, new ways to stay active
- Celebrate non-scale victories – behavior changes are signs of success!
- Make time for your meeting

How can you make your plan more satisfying and sustainable? Choose one “Lifestyle Lee” strategy and put it into practice this week!

SUMMER CHALLENGE WINNERS
Congratulations to all of you who participated in the “Summertime Stay and Succeed Challenge! Whether you attended just a few meetings or made it to all 8, I’m proud of you for putting yourself first and taking the time for our meeting. Good for you!

4 WEEKS TO 5 SERVINGS
We’re in the last week of the Fruits-and-Veggies Challenge! Over the past three weeks we’ve added color, filled half our plates and tried something new. Now we’re ready to meet the Good Health Guideline requirement for 5 servings of fruits and vegetables (or more!) per day, every day. You can do it!

STATE FAIR FOODS
The Indiana State Fair is back and now stretches over 3 weekends, August 7 through 23. If you’re looking for fair food strategies, check out last year’s blog entry by clicking here.

SNACK SALE
Now until the end of the month all $4.50 and $5 snacks are on sale for just $3.50! The sale includes Cheddar Twists, Multigrain Crisps, Pretzel Thins and all 2-POINTS value Snack Bars.

NEXT TIME
Have you been in a rut lately with your food choices? Don’t miss out on next week’s meeting when we’ll share favorite foods that help us stay on plan. Bring in your list of foods (or the labels and packages) and get ready to take home some new ideas that will make eating more satisfying and help with your long-term weight-loss success!

I'll be there on Tuesday and Saturday -- will you?

Diane

Don't Get Burned

2009-07-26T11:21:00.008-04:00

Growing up I experienced at least one major sunburn each summer. My Mom was an early adopter of sunscreen lotion and made sure we used the Sea & Ski but I wasn’t always quite so careful. Typically I’d spend the first day of vacation enjoying the beach and playing in the sand and surf. The next day I’d be out of commission, suffering painful sunburn. Too much of a good thing!

Now with the “wisdom” of age, I’m much more careful about slathering on the sun block and avoiding the peak hours of sun exposure between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. I go to the dermatologist for skin cancer screening (have you had your skin checked lately?) and have had some spots removed. I still enjoy the sun, but in moderation and I plan ahead to bring sunscreen and a hat and avoid painful sunburn or skin damage.

Too much of a good thing can have painful consequences. Even following your Weight Watchers program too strictly can backfire and send you off track. Weight Watchers is all about moderation – learning to enjoy delicious foods in reasonable portions, incorporating exercise into your daily routine and fostering supportive habits to change behaviors.

Enjoy treats in moderation and boost your “SPF” -- Smart Portions Factor – by tracking and eating mindfully. By taking a few simple precautions you can enjoy yourself this summer without getting burned!

FUN IN THE SUN
Excerpt from a Mayo Clinic article

To keep it cool during hot-weather exercise, keep these basic precautions in mind:

Take it slow. If you're used to exercising indoors or in cooler weather, take it easy at first. As your body adapts to the heat, gradually increase the length and intensity of your workouts. If you have a chronic medical condition or take medication, ask your doctor if you need to take additional precautions.

Drink plenty of fluids. Your body's ability to sweat and cool down depends on adequate rehydration. Drink plenty of water while you're working out — even if you don't feel thirsty. If you're planning to exercise intensely or for longer than one hour, consider sports drinks instead. These drinks can replace the sodium, chloride and potassium you lose through sweating. Avoid drinks that contain caffeine or alcohol, which actually promote fluid loss.

Dress appropriately. Lightweight, loose fitting clothing promotes sweat evaporation and cooling by letting more air pass over your body. Avoid dark colors, which can absorb the heat. A light-colored hat can limit your exposure to the sun.

Avoid midday sun. Exercise in the morning or evening — when it's likely to be cooler outdoors — rather than the middle of the day. If possible, exercise in the shade or in a pool.

Wear sunscreen. Sunburn decreases your body's ability to cool itself.

Have a backup plan. If you're concerned about the heat or humidity, stay indoors. Work out at the gym, walk laps inside the mall or climb stairs inside an air-conditioned building.

Know when to call it quits
During hot-weather exercise, be on the lookout for heat-related illness. Signs and symptoms may include: weakness, headache, dizziness, muscle cramps, nausea or vomiting, rapid heartbeat.

If you suspect a heat-related illness, stop exercising and get out of the heat. Drink water, and wet and fan your skin. If you don't feel better within 60 minutes, contact your doctor. If you develop a fever higher than 102 F (38.9 C) or become faint or confused, seek immediate medical help.

Regular physical activity is important — but don't let hot-weather workouts put your health at risk.

101 SIMPLE SALADS FOR THE SEASON
By Mark Bittman (7/22/09 NY Times)
A Tuesday night member recommended adding a chopped baked potato to salad and said it made the salad more satisfying. If you’re looking for more salad suggestions, this NY Times article includes enough to tide you over until the weather cools down. Whether you’re in the mood for a vegan, vegetarian, seafood, meat, noodle or grain salad, you’ll find something here.

There are many unusual combinations of fruits and veggies that tie in nicely with this week’s “4 Weeks to 5 Servings” Challenge to try a new fruit or vegetable this week!

Read the whole article by clicking on the link above or get a taste by checking out 8 of the 101 salads right here:

1) Grate carrots, toast some sunflower seeds, and toss with blueberries, olive oil, lemon juice and plenty of black pepper. Sweet, sour, crunchy, soft.

2) Mix wedges of tomatoes and peaches, add slivers of red onion, a few red-pepper flakes and cilantro. Dress with olive oil and lime or lemon juice. Astonishing.

3) Chop or slice radishes (or jicama, or the ever-surprising kohlrabi) and combine with chopped or sliced unripe (i.e., still crunchy) mango, lime juice and mint or cilantro.

4) A red salad: Combine tomato wedges with halved strawberries, basil leaves, shaved Parmesan and balsamic vinegar.

5) Pit and halve cherries (or halve and pit cherries), then cook gently with olive oil and a little balsamic vinegar until they break down. Toss with chopped radicchio, endive, escarole or a combination, some toasted hazelnuts and more oil and vinegar, if necessary.

6) Make a crisp grilled cheese sandwich, with good bread and not too much good cheese. Let it cool, then cut into croutons. Put them on anything, but especially tomato and basil salad. This you will do forever.

7) What happens when your Chicago hot dog falls apart: Toss together tomato wedges, chopped pickles, hot peppers, shredded lettuce and a few slices of broiled or grilled hot dog. Dress with vinaigrette made with mustard and celery salt. (You could throw in freshly made croutons; inauthentic, but better than a hot dog bun.)

8) Cook and cool quinoa. Toss with olive oil, loads of lemon juice, tons of parsley, some chopped tomatoes and, if you like, toasted pine nuts. Call it quinoa tabbouleh.

BECOME A WEIGHT WATCHERS STAFF MEMBER
Weight Watchers has launched a new career site. Learn more about working as a Receptionist or Leader and apply for a position. I have met some of the best people working for Weight Watchers and it’s helped me to maintain my weight loss too!

NEXT TIME
No more dieting! How to lose weight in a way you can live with, long term. We’ll talk about ways to make weight loss feel less difficult and more sustainable.

IN 2 WEEKS
Food Swap – what are your favorite food products and recipes? Let’s swap and share suggestions for the foods that help keep us on our plan. Bring the box, label or wrapping to share at our food “show & tell!”

Veggies on Vacation

2009-07-19T18:43:00.008-04:00

It’s week two of our “4 Weeks to 5 Servings Challenge.” Did you enjoy the visual variety of adding 3 or more colors of fruits and vegetables last week? I had blueberries with breakfast; grape tomatoes and carrot sticks at lunch; a snack of cantaloupe and red grapes; and whole-wheat pasta with tri-colored bell peppers, broccoli and mushrooms for dinner. This is my kind of challenge!

This week your mission is to aim to fill half your plate with vegetables and fruits. Use the other half for protein and starches (1/4 of the plate for each). Filling up on low-POINTS veggies and fruits will add satisfaction and stretch your POINTS budget further. I’m looking forward to hearing how this makes a difference in your week.

Vegging out on vacation might actually help to boost weight loss. I don't mean "vegging-out" by forgetting your healthy habits, but choosing instead to imagine you're on a spa vacation, treating yourself well with lots of healthy choices including fresh fruits and veggies. In our meeting we came up with several healthy vacation strategies that I was going to recap here but then I found a blog posting by “Lynn RD” that said pretty much everything and wrapped up the details so nicely that I couldn’t have typed it any better, including her recommendation to "pile on the produce." Here's her article:

5 WAYS TO LOSE WEIGHT WHILE ON VACATION
Posted by LynnRD
http://www.peoplejam.com/blogs/5-ways-lose-weight-while-vacation

Just because you're on vacation doesn't mean you have to gain weight. You can even lose weight while you're relaxing in a far-away vacation hot spot if you use these five simple tips. You've worked hard to lose weight; why give all that up just because you're not going to work every day?

Think about your day. One of my clients eats a smaller breakfast and lunch, and then enjoys a bit larger dinner when she's on vacation. Dinner is her favorite meal, so it makes sense to balance out her calorie intake by eating less during the day. If you love breakfast, do the opposite: choose a smaller lunch and dinner, and enjoy a favorite food first thing in the morning.

Ration alcohol. Part of the fun of going on vacation is sampling the local beverages. The operative word here is sample. Share one of the vat-sized tropical drinks with a friend. Drink lower calorie lite beer at least part of the time. If you want to blend in with the rest of the vacationers, drink sparkling water and lime juice. It looks like an alcoholic beverage, but without the calories!

Pile on the produce. Whenever I travel, I adore sampling the local fruit and vegetables. Even if I don't know their names, it's fun - and delicious - to try as many new salads, cooked vegetables, and fresh fruit as possible. These foods aren't just low in calories; they're also high in fiber. Fiber helps fill us up, so we feel full sooner and stay full longer. Aim for half of your plate - at every meal - to be covered in fruits and veggies.

Vacation is not a non-stop eating marathon. Just because there's food around all day doesn't mean you have to eat it. Schedule your meals and snacks, just like you do at home. That doesn't mean you have to get up at the crack of dawn to eat breakfast, but make it a vacation habit to eat that first meal of the day. Then eat every 2-4 hours - on a schedule - throughout the day. This tactic accomplishes two things: it keeps you from getting ravenous and more likely to overeat; and it eliminates random eating.

Plan your meals. You probably have a plan for your meals at home when you're trying to lose weight. Follow that same plan while you're on vacation, substituting in vacation-type foods. If lunch is usually a sandwich and a piece of fruit, stick with the same thing on vacation. Try a different type of sandwich, or a new kind of fruit, but keep the basic meal the same. Used to dinner of a palm-sized portion of meat, chicken or fish with a bunch of veggies? Enjoy the local fish, skip the rice or potato, and pile on the salad for your vacation dinner.

Have fun, get some rest, and come back a few pounds lighter. That's what I call a successful vacation!

RECOVERING FROM VACATIONS
From WeightWatchers.com
Article By: Amanda Genge

No matter how you strayed, don't wait to return to your healthy eating plan, say our Community Users — every day you put it off makes it harder to get back on track. Here are their tips for making the transition a successful one.

Don't avoid the scale
Go straight back to weighing in, say our Community Users — even go to a meeting earlier in the week than your normal one to get right back in the groove.

"I think it's much better to know what the damage is and acknowledge it than to assume the worst," says PLAID11. "Maybe it won't be as bad as you think!"

"In the past, I avoided the scale whenever I knew it would go up because that, to me, meant I failed," says LEANJEAN50. "I wanted my weigh-in card to be perfect. Ironically, my avoiding the scale and the meeting always led to me quitting! So I decided to weigh in each week and accept whatever the scale says."

Commit, plan and track
Make the promise to yourself before you even take the first steps. Then make grocery lists, prepare healthy snacks and meals, and write down every bite of food that passes your lips.

"In the past, when I found the scale numbers creeping up, I'd get out my Week One book and read it as if I were new to Weight Watchers," says BLESSEDMOM99. "It's pretty motivational and inspiring."

"I think planning the meals for the day I [return] helps me a lot," says JODEAJOHNSON. "I post them on the fridge so that I can get right back on plan when I hit home base."

"Try to get back on track by doing one thing you stopped, like weighing and measuring food or journaling," suggests REGINAARTS. "Most importantly, plan your meals every morning before you even think about eating."

"I find bringing my lunch to work instead of buying is crucial," reports BRIDEOFCHUCKY2006. "If I already have my lunch with me, I'm not really tempted to eat anything else."

Get up and move
Exercise is not only a way to speed up the loss of pounds put back on, but it will also improve your mental outlook.

"The thing that helped me the most was exercise," says AMYLIZA. "The more I got out of the house to run, the better I felt — mentally and physically — about being back on plan."

"I find that after a day (or, let's be honest, a week or more!) of being out of control, it's important to try to exercise first thing in the morning," suggests LNELLW. "If I just make myself get out and take a 20-, or even a 15-minute walk up and down the hills around my home, I am more motivated almost instantly. Early morning exercise heightens my awareness of my body and makes me feel like being healthier all day."

Think about the big picture
Weight gain over a vacation will not undo every bit of success you've had, so look at the big picture and move forward.

"My focus has shifted from losing the weight to learning how to maintain," says LEANJEAN50. "And that means accepting the various ups and downs along the way. There will always be vacations and parties and holidays. We all need to learn how to enjoy these (without the guilt) and to get right back on plan ASAP to prevent the inevitable downward spiral that happens when we give up on ourselves and our goals."

"A gain over one week is not going to set you back," says LORBUS2. "Learn from it and move on. That's the biggest lesson I'm learning on Weight Watchers. There will always be these setbacks but it's nipping the behavior in the bud sooner than later that will make all the difference."

Prepare for next time
The best advice, many posters agree, is to not stray in the first place.

"Next vacation, plan ahead," says RPERTHEL. "I love to go on vacations that include a lot of exercise and good eating. Now vacations are not an excuse to overeat and stop exercising – in fact, they're quite the opposite."

"Exercise works on vacation, too!" agrees LJSMITH2004. "You can add exercise by renting bicycles, attending local Pilates or yoga classes, and walking, walking, walking — I tried this for the first time on a recent beach trip to California and it made me feel so much more in control while on the trip. I made healthier food choices and when I wanted to splurge, I didn't feel out of control, because I was still earning activity POINTS® values."

NEXT TIME
“Move More – Whatever the Weather.” Are you bored with your workout? Do you exercise excuses more than muscles? Next time we’ll talk about overcoming exercise inertia, plan for indoor and outdoor fun, and share tips for working out safely during summer’s sizzling heat.

We all have full plates these days, don't we? When life gets hectic and stressful we often "make" time by giving up exercise or other good-for-you habits. Put yourself back at the top of the list and think how good you'll feel when you take care of yourself.

Make time to attend your Weight Watchers meeting this week and I'll see you there!

Diane

I'll Be Seeing You

2009-07-12T17:49:00.010-04:00

Lately I've been running into members a lot. I was jogging Tuesday (or "wogging" as I call it), and stopped for a car backing down a driveway. The driver's window rolled down and a Zionsville member leaned out, greeted me and confessed to missing several meetings. Having her Weight Watchers leader appear in her driveway must have been an effective motivator: She showed up at the very next meeting!

I saw another member at the movie theater. She greeted me and guiltily hid her popcorn bucket. At the grocery store members look scared that I've shown up to inspect their carts. At restaurants members fear that I'm there to grade their orders. Can you imagine having the ability to inspire so much guilt?

So Saturday when I stopped by the Zionsville farmer’s market I wasn't surprised when I met a couple of members who were quick to show me their shopping bags. They may have bought a treat or two, but they wanted me to know that they'd bought healthy foods too.

I decided to stalk members, uh, I mean go shopping at the farmer's market this week because of the Weight Watchers “4 Weeks to 5 Servings” challenge. By the end of July, the goal is to feel that it’s doable to eat at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. If you’re already accomplishing that goal -- hooray for you! Use the challenge to try new foods and new ways of incorporating fruits and veggies into your meals and snacks.

Of course you know that fruits and veggies are a Weight Watchers friend because they can fill us up without emptying our POINTS bank. They’re low in calories and high in fiber and water, not to mention all sorts of good-for-you nutrients.

This week’s challenge:
Go for color! Every day this week aim to incorporate at least 3 different colors of fruits and veggies in the foods you eat.

You never know when I might show up to check on your progress, so maybe you should be prepared with a list of fruits and vegetables sorted by color. Download a copy here and take it with you to the grocery store to stock up (display the vegetables and fruits on the top layer of your cart just in case I stroll by).

Or check out the “Fruits and Veggies Matter” website sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). There you can find out how many cups of fruits and veggies the CDC recommends you should eat; search recipes by keyword, ingredient or meal; see pictures of what counts as a ½-cup or 1-cup serving; and read tips about how to add extra fruits and vegetables every day.

Here are 3 simple recipes from the CDC website. I look forward to seeing your grocery cart, shopping bag and plate full of colorful choices this week!

Strawberry Yogurt Shake
1/2 cup unsweetened pineapple juice
3/4 cup plain low fat yogurt
1-1/2 cups frozen, unsweetened strawberries
Add ingredients, in order listed, to blender container. Puree at medium speed, until thick and smooth.

Vegetable Primavera
1. Choose a combination of different vegetables, such as mushrooms, tomatoes, cauliflower, and bell peppers. Chop the vegetables into bite-size pieces.
2. Sauté in a skillet with a small amount of cooking oil or non-stick cooking spray until the vegetables are tender, but still crisp.
3. Toss with your favorite pasta and add garlic and basil to taste.
4. Top with low-fat or fat-free Parmesan cheese.

Sweet Potato Fries
1. Preheat oven to 425° F.
2. Cut uncooked sweet potatoes into thin slices.
3. Dip slices in a mixture of egg substitute and nutmeg.
4. Spray a baking pan lightly with a non-stick cooking spray. Arrange the slices in a single layer on the baking pan.
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until slices are tender.

4 WEEKS TO 5 SERVINGS: 13 QUICK IDEAS
* Keep cleaned fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator -- ready to eat.
* Have vegetables with low-fat dip for a snack.
* Try commercial prepackaged salads and stir-fry mixes to save prep time.
* Add vegetables to casseroles, stews and soups.
* Drink 100% fruit juice instead of fruit-flavored drinks or soda pop.
* Have fruit for dessert.
* Keep a bowl of apples, bananas and/or oranges on the table.
* Choose a side salad made with a variety of leafy greens.
* Bake with raisin, date or prune puree to reduce fat and increase fiber.
* Add lettuce, onions, peppers and/or tomatoes to sandwiches.
* Order veggie toppings on your pizza.
* Enjoy fruit smoothies for breakfast or snacks.
* Pack fresh or dried fruits for quick snacks.

COLORFUL MENU DOWNLOAD
As requested by a member, I scanned copies of a discontinued Weight Watchers handout I nicknamed “The Chinese Menu.” It offers two 20-POINT menu plans, one for a higher-carbohydrate day and the other for higher-protein day. The color-coded chart encourages you to select items from each column as directed throughout the day. Use the menus to help find new fruits and veggies for the “4 Weeks to 5 Servings” challenge. Or follow the plan as a short-term “boot camp” to help you get back on track. Or just use it to shake up your program. Add additional servings as needed to reach your personal daily POINTS target. Note that Core Foods are now called Filling Foods. (Original document size: 8 1/2 x 14")

Higher Carb Menu

Higher Protein Menu

NEXT TIME
Is it possible to stay on track while on summer vacation? We’ll discuss ways that vacation travel might actually boost weight loss. Plus we’ll divulge a new task for the “4 Weeks to 5 Servings” challenge!

I’ll be seeing you at the meeting, in the grocery store, at the farmer’s market, or even in your driveway. You never know...

Make good choices!

Diane

Happy Birthday!

2009-06-27T20:35:00.019-04:00

America and I are both celebrating our birthdays! The USA will turn 233 next Saturday and I celebrated my own (significantly younger) birthday this week. If there's a celebration in your future, whether it's cake and ice cream or a big barbecue cookout, don't let the party go on too long. The best way I've found to get back on track is to write down tonight what I plan to eat tomorrow.

Nighttime is when I feel remorse and disappointment about not following my program and I’ll promise to do better the next day. I’m about 50% successful with keeping that kind of vague promise. But if I take time to plan the next day’s meals, then I’m much likelier to succeed at getting myself back on track, staying within my POINTS budget, and feeling in control and happy with myself. Just one good day can make all the difference. Are you moving in the right direction? If not, plan tonight what you will do tomorrow – put it in writing and make it real!

"The best way to predict the future is to create it."
- Peter Drucker

HAPPY, HEALTHY 4TH!
All Weight Watchers meetings (including Zionsville) will be closed next Saturday for Independence Day so I hope to see Saturday members on Tuesday night. Or make time to attend a meeting at another location. Click here for a list of other meetings you can attend.

Just because we won't be getting together on Saturday doesn't mean you won't be planning for success at the cookout or BBQ, right? So Click here for a list of BBQ favorites, take a little time to plan your meal so you can have fun and not feel guilty for going overboard. Enjoy the fireworks and we’ll celebrate at the scale!

SMOOTH IDEAS
Thanks for making the Mini Bar and Smoothie Sale a big success! Tuesday’s meeting will be the end of the $5-dollar Mini Bars and Smoothies sale in Zionsville, but if you stop at another location you can still get the sale price through Friday July 3rd.

Even at the regular price of $7.50 for seven packets, Weight Watchers Smoothies are still a deal – both financially and nutritionally! Here are some fun smoothie recipes to try using the French Vanilla or Creamy Chocolate flavors:

· Root Beer Float: 1 packet French Vanilla, 8 ounces diet root beer, ice (2 POINTS)
· Mocha: 1 packet Chocolate, 1 tsp instant coffee, 8 oz water/ice (1 POINT)
· Peanut Butter Cup: 1 packet Chocolate, 1 Tbsp peanut butter, 8 oz. water/ice (3 POINTS)
· Peppermint Patty: 1 packet Chocolate, 3-4 drops peppermint extract, 1 cup skim milk, 4 ice cubes (3 POINTS)

PSSST!
We’ll be giving out samples of a new Weight Watchers product at the meetings on 6/30 and 7/11. There are a limited number of samples so be sure to get there early!

STOP & THINK: IS IT WORTH IT?
It may take 45 minutes of brisk walking to burn off the calories consumed in the 30 seconds it takes to eat two cookies! Ask yourself, “If I had to walk 45 minutes BEFORE eating this, would it be worth it to me?” Before you take that bite, think first!

MAKE JULY 4TH KABOOM WITH KABOBS!
· Grill fruits or vegetables. When grilling, wrap vegetables in aluminum foil, or use skewers of pineapple, yellow squash, eggplant, nectarines, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, onions, or mushrooms. Place over medium-hot coals for a fun-to-eat and flavorful BBQ treat.
· Looking for a fun appetizer when you entertain? Try making spears of fruit by attaching strawberries, grapes, melon slices, or pineapple chunks onto small skewers. Use low-fat or non-fat yogurt for a dip.
· Make frozen fruit kabobs using pineapple chunks, bananas, grapes and berries. A tasty and nutritious fruity Popsicle!

JUST DO IT
I’m passing along a message from Zig M.’s weekly email to her members that I found very MOVING… Great advice when you’re stuck: do something!

When life has gotten crazy and the scale starts to head north, you KNOW what to DO for your health. As my friend Carolyn says, reading one more thing from me or anyone else will not be nearly as refreshing as DOING some little thing. Finish reading this then QUICK! DO one or two little things:

*Get a big drink of water!
*Take a brisk walk around the office or your home or up and down the stairs a few times is even better!
*Jot down a grocery list of things you need -- or plan a meal or two.
*Pick up the phone and make a phone call you've been procrastinating. Tell someone you appreciate them.
*Do some crunches if you're alone, or some isometric tushie squeezies if you're not.

We have choices. We can choose behaviors that will take us closer to our goals or not.

As Carolyn says, there is no explanation other than God's will for why we're each born with a different lot and a different set of cards to play the game of life with ... or for why some seem "lucky," even as others seem "unlucky." Whether we're got part of the deck that requires special medical treatment or not, all of us have some bad luck and some good luck with our health, body type and genetic tendencies.

Those of us who understand and persist through our own less than ideal aspects (you know what I'm talking about! The hips we've inherited from Grandma, or the lack of height that runs in my family...) and accept them as "nature's call", are those of us who will make the most of our own lots, take care of it to the best of our abilities, and move on to more important things.

When we're feeling "cheated" or "poor-me" that we need to limit our food intake and manage our weight, here's a simple mantra for acceptance and change:

L - Life's success is
U - Up to me -- for
C - Change is a choice and that is the
K - Key

Read it out loud now, then memorize it quick to have with you always for changing bad habits to good ones, and changing fat to fit!

NEXT TIME
This week we’ll talk about grilling and barbecuing techniques that can help save time and POINTS values. The week after that I’m going to introduce a special 4-week challenge that will inspire you to try new fruits and vegetables this summer.

Since we’re all about planning this week, I thought I’d remind you about the monthly Weight Watchers motivational calendar that WW Leader Zig M. (who I copied the “Just Do It” message from -- thanks, FrauZee!) puts together each month. I post links to her calendars on my blog site, but you can download a copy of either the July Word calendar or July PDF calendar right now and start planning for a successful month.

Enjoy your holiday as we declare our THIN-dependence!

Diane

Start the Day Off Right

2009-06-21T20:29:00.013-04:00

Monday morning. The alarm goes off. Ugh. I’d like to go back to sleep but I have to get up and get ready for work. The weekend went by so fast! There were so many things I should have accomplished but I didn’t get half of them done. And there’s a virtual pile of work waiting on my office computer. Double ugh. The car is due for an oil change and my driver’s license is expiring Friday so I need to get to the BMV. I’m stressed out already just thinking about all of my to do’s and I’m not even out of bed yet!

Hmm...what else do I need to do on Mondays? Oh yeah, I need to pack my workout bag for yoga today...hey, wait a minute. That's right, it's yoga class day! Hooray! That’s something good to look forward to. Okay, I think I can get up now that I have a bright spot to focus on and Monday morning doesn’t seem quite as gloomy any more. Whew!

Do you notice that when you start your morning on a positive note that it can flavor the whole day? This week we talked about the importance of eating a good breakfast to fuel your body and help with weight loss. It’s equally important to start your morning off with a good “emotional breakfast” and by that I mean feeding your spirit or soul with some positive thoughts or actions.

Sometimes I put some pretty flowers on my bedside table or the bathroom vanity. It cheers me up to see them first thing in the morning. I have stuck notes on the bathroom mirror with positive quotes, affirmations or just a smiley face to greet me. Writing down 5 things I’m grateful for almost always puts me in a positive frame of mind. Just taking a couple of minutes to enjoy a cup of tea and look out my back door at the plants and birds can be calming. Saying to myself, “Today will be a great day” can set the ball rolling in a positive direction.

Searching for more "start the day off right" information on the web, I found a book called “Good Morning: 365 Positive Ways to Start Your Day” by Brook Noel. I have requested it from the library. From what I read on Amazon, it contains short, daily readings designed to start the day in a positive way. I'll let you know after I check it out whether it looks good or not. In the meantime I continue to enjoy my page-a-day "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" calendar. I listened to the audio book version of "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" during my commute last year. I was feeling overwhelmed at work and that CD helped me to keep things in perspective and feel more positive.

Listening to the news on my way into work can put me in a funk, what with all the economic woes, world crises and political shenanigans. So if I need an emotional lift I will switch to music instead. Maybe you have a song that makes you smile. Play it in the morning and see how it affects your mood throughout the day. One peppy song I really like is “Mr. Blue Sky” by ELO – I dare you not to feel happier after listening to it!

Try an experiment and commit to a week of serving yourself a positive “emotional breakfast.” Whether you stretch, write in a journal, breathe deeply, repeat a positive affirmation, take a walk, listen to music or meditate...it's all good "soul food."

Imagine how different it might be if the first thing you said each day was Brook Noel’s slogan:

“Something great is going to happen today…I can’t wait to see what it is!”

SATURDAY JULY 4: WEIGHT WATCHERS CLOSED
All Weight Watchers locations including Zionsville will be closed on Saturday July 4th for the Independence Day holiday. Plan to attend the Tuesday night Zionsville meeting (5:30 pm weigh-in; 6 pm meeting) or check out a meeting at one of the following nearby locations:

New Life Community Church—Thursday 6 p.m. weigh-in; 6:30 p.m. meeting. Located on 86th Street just west of Ditch Road, across the street from Half-Price Books and Marsh.

Faith Apostolic Church—Monday 5:30 p.m. weigh-in; 6 p.m. meeting. Located on 116th Street, 2 miles east of Meridian. The church is on the north (left) side of the road.

Connection Pointe Church—Wednesday 9 a.m. weigh-in; 9:30 a.m. meeting. Located in Brownsburg; take I-74 west to 267 (Green St) then north 1 mile.

Westside Center— Thirteen different meeting times including Sunday 12:30 p.m. weigh-in; 1 p.m. meeting. Located in the Wal-Mart Plaza near Lafayette Square Mall.

Carmel-Westfield Center—Nine different meeting times including Sunday 12:30 p.m. weigh-in; 1 p.m. meeting. Located north of Meridian and 146th, between Target and Barnes & Noble (behind Wendy’s).

For more information on meeting dates, times and directions, please call 1-800-651-6000 or go to WeightWatchers.com and click on “Find a Meeting.”

SHOULD I EAT BREAKFAST?
Leslie Fink, MS, RD
WeightWatchers.com nutritionist and food editor Leslie Fink, MS, RD, answers readers' questions about food, nutrition and weight loss.

Q: Do I have to eat breakfast even if I'm not hungry? Because when I do have cereal, I seem to be hungrier for the rest of the day.

A: Cereal may not be the best way for everyone to fuel up. In fact, a meal containing mostly carbohydrates might leave some people's stomachs feeling empty. In that case, eating a little protein in addition to your bowl of flakes (a yogurt, for example) or moving away from cereal altogether (try grilled cheese, an egg sandwich or PB&J) may tide you over better until lunch. Why? Dietary protein takes longer to digest than carbohydrates, making you feel fuller for longer.

But do you need to eat even if you're not hungry? Maria Walls, RD, senior nutritionist at Weight Watchers International, offers this advice: You can skip breakfast and lose weight successfully. "What's most important," says Walls, "is the total number of POINTS® eaten over the course of the day."

However, some research suggests that breakfast skippers may be more prone to overeating later in the day. And research from the National Weight Control Registry has shown that weight-loss maintainers are more likely to eat breakfast than not. The bottom line? "Use your weight loss as a guide," says Walls. If you don't eat breakfast and you're losing weight, leave everything as is. But if skipping breakfast leads to afternoon munchies and extra large dinners, consider other tactics:

1. Plan for some healthy mid-morning snacks to help you ride out the hunger wave better until lunch. Try hummus and pita, some fruit and yogurt, or vegetables and a wedge of light cheese. Or eat your breakfast at "brunch time." After all, breakfast is a morning meal, not necessarily a pre-dawn one. No one says you need to eat the moment you wake up.

2. Assess your nighttime eating habits. Are you consuming a lot of food after dark (especially higher fat foods), and as a result feeling too full to eat in the morning? If so, recheck those dinner portion sizes and try upping the carbs while minimizing the fat—pasta with marinara sauce and beans coupled with a salad strikes a nice balance—and see if that helps wake your morning appetite.

More Breakfast Articles from WeightWatchers.com:

Breakfast on the Run

Breakfast: A Dieter’s Secret Weapon

Hungry Girl Goes ... in Search of Heat ‘n Eat Frozen Breakfasts

COOL STUFF AND A HOT SALE
Just Arrived: Ginger Snap Cookies ($2.50) and Baked Apple ‘n Cinnamon 2 POINTS Bars ($5)!
Big Discount: Mini Bars and Smoothies are on sale for only $5 (regularly $7.50) through July 4th!

NEXT TIME
Do you feel like there’s never enough time in your day to get everything done AND follow your Weight Watchers program too? Time passes no matter whether we use it to our advantage or not. Next week we’ll talk about how we can challenge ourselves to make the moments matter by organizing and planning for success.

Part of that success taking time to stay for the meeting! So I’ll see you there – with not just one, but EIGHT door prize winners for week #4 of our “Stay and Succeed” Summer Challenge.

Enjoy your emotional breakfast, champions, and I’ll see you at the meeting!

Diane

Get Fit for Free

2009-06-14T10:56:00.009-04:00

Working out doesn’t have to mean spending money for gym memberships or investing in expensive fitness equipment. There are lots of ways you can burn more calories without burning a hole in your bank account! I count the Activity POINTS I earn for mowing my lawn each week and I’m going to be burning more calories today as I tackle some desperately needed housecleaning chores…ugh! But my favorite no-cost exercise is when I go walking with my friends. Not only is it a great workout, but it boosts my spirits and reduces my stress too!

I searched for “get fit for free” online and found many free exercise videos (try ExerciseTV at http://www.exercisetv.tv/), suggestions and articles including one from wikiHow that I’ll include at the end of this email. I liked their idea about meeting friends over exercise instead of over a meal or coffee. Even if you pay to go bowling, roller skating or swimming it’ll probably be cheaper than dinner! There are also links to other articles for exercising while watching TV, while sitting at your computer or even while on a plane. I’m still waiting on the “How to Exercise While Sleeping” article…

SATURDAY JULY 4: WEIGHT WATCHERS CLOSED
All Weight Watchers locations including Zionsville will be closed on Saturday July 4th for the Independence Day holiday. Plan to attend the Tuesday night Zionsville meeting (5:30 pm weigh-in; 6 pm meeting) or check out a meeting at one of the following nearby locations:

New Life Community Church—Thursday 6 p.m. weigh-in; 6:30 p.m. meeting. Located on 86th Street just west of Ditch Road, across the street from Half-Price Books and Marsh.

Faith Apostolic Church—Monday 5:30 p.m. weigh-in; 6 p.m. meeting. Located on 116th Street, 2 miles east of Meridian. The church is on the north (left) side of the road.

Connection Pointe Church—Wednesday 9 a.m. weigh-in; 9:30 a.m. meeting. Located in Brownsburg; take I-74 west to 267 (Green St) then north 1 mile.

Westside Center— Thirteen different meeting times including Sunday 12:30 p.m. weigh-in; 1 p.m. meeting. Located in the Wal-Mart Plaza near Lafayette Square Mall.

Carmel-Westfield Center—Nine different meeting times including Sunday 12:30 p.m. weigh-in; 1 p.m. meeting. Located north of Meridian and 146th, between Target and Barnes & Noble (behind Wendy’s).

For more information on meeting dates, times and directions, please call 1-800-651-6000 or go to WeightWatchers.com and click on “Find a Meeting.”

$5 SMOOTHIES AND MINI BARS!
It’s time to stock up on your favorite flavors of Weight Watchers Smoothies and Mini Bars. Buy now and save 33% off the $7.50 regular price. My favorites are the Vanilla Chai Smoothies and Mint Crisp Mini Bars (although the Chocolate Caramel and Peanut Butter Bliss Bars are pretty good too!)

MONTHLY PASS SALE!
Save $20 off your first month when you buy a Monthly Pass by July 11th! It’s only $19.95 to enroll for your first month and then $39.95 each month after.

NEW 17-WEEK PASS ARRIVES SOON!
The last week of June brings a new payment option for Weight Watchers Members: a 17-week pass for $194 ($11.41 per week). The 17-week pass will be replacing the 10-week prepay coupon, which sold for $119 ($11.90 per week). If you prefer the coupons, purchase a set by June 27th before they’re no longer available!

NEXT TIME
Are you a breakfast skipper? Or are you bored with your breakfast choices? At next week’s meeting we’ll share strategies for maximizing breakfast satisfaction and explore how eating breakfast can help you lose weight!

Stay for the meeting and you might win a Weight Watchers breakfast gift pack (a $16 value!) as part of our 8-Week summertime “Stay and Succeed” challenge!

See you then!

Diane

How to Get Fit for Free

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

If you’d love to get fit but don’t have any funds just now to join a gym or buy the latest fitness equipment, don’t despair - you can still get fit without spending money at all.

Steps

Socialize over exercise. Although not exactly free, it’s often cheaper (and therefore free in a way) than meeting a friend for a coffee or a meal. Why not meet up and go swimming or ice skating instead? Or take a class together such as belly dancing or tai-chi?
Take advantage of Student Gyms. Many schools have excellent recreation facilities, and since these types of gyms are typically funded by student fees, you may have an automatic membership once you enrol and pay these fees - take advantage of it!
Ask around. Some local authorities offer free classes and program to help promote health in the local community. Try one!
Take advantage of open days at local gyms - as long as you’re strong willed enough (or poor enough) to avoid signing up for membership.
Scour the web. You will often get a free selection of exercises of every type at membership sites which provide online fitness guidance. You could build up a whole routine with a little searching. Also check out government advice.[1] Though the information is generally targeted at beginners, you might find a suitable routine.
Watch TV. You’ll find many exercise programs on TV these days - find a few that suit your schedule in the listings - or record for later use. If you can't find any exercise programs, learn How to Exercise While Watching TV!
Exercise for a good cause. Charities often use fun activities (and sometimes really tough ones) as fund-raisers. Although it normally costs money to join, you may be able persuade a whole lot of people to sponsor you and cover your entry fee for a good cause. Plus, there's added motivation, since you don't want to let down the people or cause that you're helping.
Freecycle. If you ask or keep an eye out, you may find exercise equipment or a set of weights that someone is glad to get rid of on Freecycle.org - they are the kind of things which people buy with high hopes and then the the equipment lies around gathering dust, ready for you to happily take it off their hands.
Become an Opportunist. Find opportunities for exercise throughout your day. Use the stairs instead of the elevator Park a little further away than you normally would. Stretch at your desk. Hold your tummy in when waiting in line. It all counts. Do whatever you can to be more active wherever you are. It costs nothing.
- How to Exercise While Sitting at Your Computer
- How to Do an In Flight Fitness Workout

Cardio Fitness

Walk everywhere within a reasonable distance. You save money on gas, and also save wear and tear on your vehicle. And you might save parking charges and/or cab, bus or subway fares. All you need are comfortable shoes (take your dressier shoes with you if necessary) and walk, walk, walk. Pick up the pace as you get fitter to make those short journeys even quicker and smile at all the traffic traveling bumper to bumper in the rush hour. If there’s nowhere suitable to walk in your area try mall walking (but don’t get tempted to buy stuff!)
- Make use of what you can find locally and save travel costs too. You can walk in local beauty spots such as hills and beaches - you’ll often find nature trails already marked out for you.
Cycle. If you have a little further to go and access to a bike, try cycling - it’s a great way to get about - just make sure you have all the safety gear you need and take care on the road. Of course, if you have to buy a bike and safety gear, this one isn’t free for you, but how many of us have these things at home and rarely use them? If you use a bike instead of forking out for transport costs, then you might find this way of getting fit actually works out as better than free - it will save you money.
- Worth considering: How to Commute By Bicycle
- If you ride your bike to the grocery store: How to Build a Bicycle Cargo Trailer
Run. If you already have good running shoes you can start a running program, train for a race or marathon. If you don’t have (or can’t afford) good shoes, give this one a miss as you’ll damage your joints running without them.
Play. Take the kids to run around in the park (or a game of football or baseball) and JOIN IN instead of watching them. If you don’t have any kids, then you probably know a parent or two who would welcome a break while you take their kids to run off steam. Flying a kite is great fun too and good exercise especially if you climb a hill to reach the best spot. Then there are obstacle courses, den building, apple bobbing, leap frog, puddle jumping, treasure hunts and welly wanging.
Hang out with man’s (and woman’s) best friend. Take the dog out for exercise twice a day and run about too, instead of just throwing a ball to fetch. If you don’t have a dog, offer to walk your neighbor’s dog for free. Who knew Fido could offer all these opportunities for exercise?
Step it up. Use the bottom stair of a flight of stairs in your house as a step and step up and down to music. Or run up and down the whole flight. You can try this in an apartment or office building too (as long as your neighbors/coworkers don’t mind).
Borrow a selection of fitness DVDs from you local library or a friend and follow them at home (or get out those you have lurking in the closet, basement or garage from the days when leg warmers were in fashion for the first time). If you’re already a member of a subscription DVD club, you can always choose a fitness DVD as one of your selections and change it each month when you get bored with it.
Jump rope in your garage, living room or back yard using an old piece of rope or clothesline (if you don't already have a jump rope).
Dance. Play music and dance the night (or day) away. You can try out your best moves with nobody watching and pretend you’re Madonna. Look up instructional videos on the web for various, upbeat ballroom dances like salsa and swing.
Clean up. Clean your place from top to bottom once a week for a vigorous workout. In fact, you can burn 50,000 calories a year (that’s 14lbs of fat) just from cleaning up![2]
Dig for victory. If you have a yard, get your garden in shape while you get in shape yourself.
Get fit while making a contribution - you’ll feel great in more ways than one. Join a conservation project where there are usually plenty of activities to get involved in such as cleaning beaches, clearing overgrown beauty spots, planting trees, building walls, etc. Or join a volunteer project for a disadvantaged group where there’s always something to be done. It's a great way of making friends, too.
Exercise in the bedroom. Sex burns about 4 calories a minute and promotes health[3] if you do it safely.

Strength Training

Isometric Exercises. You can tone up and build strength without any equipment at all - just using the weight of your body. Isometrics exercises involve contracting your muscles without actually moving. For example, you can stand right in front of a wall with your back against it and with your arms straight. Push your arms against the wall behind you.[4] You'll feel your muscles contracting, but your arm itself won't have actually moved because the wall is in the way.
Callanetics. Callanetics has been around a long time though it is not that well known. It tones up your muscles at a very deep level using tiny ultra-slow motion pulsing movements without using equipment (other than a chair or makeshift barre).[5] Look Callenetics videos online or see if you can borrow a Callanetics book or DVD from your local library.
Pilates is another great exercise system which you can do without equipment to tone and strengthen your muscles and which is highly respected.
Look for free weights in your kitchen. Use the equipment you already have at home as small hand-weights. You can use soup cans (still with contents intact!) or water bottles (filled with water or sand). You can use these for any exercises where you would usually use small hand weights. If you use water bottles, start with water and then as you get stronger, you can progress to sand and then maybe to small pebbles or coins. Another alternative for kitchen hand-weights are those plastic milk or orange juice jugs filled with water. They are great because they have a handle to hold.
Do push-ups. It'll help you build muscles in your arms and chest when done properly.
Improve your grip. Don’t buy an expensive hand grip trainer - squeeze a rubber ball or tennis ball as hard as you can instead.

Flexibility

Yoga. Borrow a yoga DVD from your library or use information available for free online and practice the movements every day. You’ll build strength along with becoming more flexible.
Simple stretching. Stretching correctly will increase your flexibility, and reduce the risk of injuries caused by lesions of the connective tissues (such as the periosteum) and other nasty things.

Warnings

It's always a good idea to consult a doctor before taking on an ambitious fitness program.

Related wikiHows

Sources and Citations

SimplyFitnessGear.com - Original source of content, shared with permission.

↑ E.g. http://www.healthierus.gov/

↑ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-491797/Housework-help-burn-50-000-calories-year.html

↑ http://www.newsweek.com/id/74575

↑ http://www.asmi.org/sportsmed/exercise/IsometricEx1.html

↑ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,960806,00.html

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Get Fit for Free. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Penny Wise, Pound Foolish

2009-06-07T10:48:00.005-04:00

A miracle cure has been invented that promises to remove excess weight permanently. How much would a magic cure like that be worth to you? I paid $690 for weekly Weight Watchers meeting fees during the time it took me to reach my goal and complete the 6 weeks of Maintenance to qualify for Lifetime Membership. That $690 was some of the best money I ever spent. I attended the weekly meetings and achieved my “happily ever after” without surgery, without deprivation, and without tricks. Not only did I lose 95 pounds, but also I learned to use the tools that have helped me maintain my weight loss as a Lifetime Member. Talk about a great return on my investment!

A weekly Weight Watchers fee might seem to be an expendable luxury in these cost-conscious times, but what will it cost you if you stop attending? We know for a fact that people are more successful when they attend Weight Watchers meetings, dropping 3 times as much weight compared to those who go it alone. So by committing to the food plan and attending a weekly meeting, it’s likely that you’ll lose weight more quickly than if you try to go solo. Plus the sooner you get healthier, the sooner you will be less susceptible to certain diseases which could result in sky-high medical costs.

Get more for your money by weighing and then staying for the weekly meeting. You’ve already paid the weekly fee, why not sit in the meeting room and soak up some ideas and inspiration from your fellow Weight Watchers? At no additional cost (other than your time) you can pick up ideas for new foods to try, answers to your questions, or ways to stay motivated and stick to your program for another week. Plus for the next 8 weeks of our “Summertime Stay and Succeed Challenge” we’ll be holding drawings for free stuff. Stay for the meeting, boost your weight loss and maybe win a door prize too!

To really leverage your investment, commit to following the Weight Watchers Momentum Plan wholeheartedly so you can reach your Goal that much sooner. You’re wasting your weekly meeting fee if you’re only half-heartedly following your program. Get the results you deserve and the best bang for your buck by giving 100% to your efforts each week.

When you get to goal, be sure you complete the 6 weeks of Maintenance required to achieve Weight Watchers Lifetime Membership. It costs a little more to stick it out those extra weeks, but once you become a Lifetime Member you’ll never again pay registration or missed meeting fees (which could be a significant savings in the future when prices will probably be higher!)

Nobody likes to waste money, but think twice before you decide to cut Weight Watchers from your budget. You might save a few pennies but end up accumulating costly pounds instead. Choose to invest in yourself and get a healthy return from your Weight Watchers meeting attendance!

YOU’VE GOT OPTIONS
Save money by switching to a cheaper payment option. I would pick the Monthly Pass because I always took the cheapest attendance fee available when I had to pay weekly member fees! To see the difference in cost, take a look at how much you’d spend to attend meetings from now through December with each payment plan:

FOR 6-MONTHS’ ATTENDANCE:
$338 with $13/Wk
$309 with 10-Wk Prepay for $119 (no longer available after 6/27–buy now if you like this option!)
$297 with NEW 17-Wk Pass for $194 available 6/28 (save $41 versus $13/wk)
$243 with Monthly Pass ($39.95 for 30 days; save $95 versus $13/wk – that’s 28% cheaper!)

EXTRA SAVINGS: MONTHLY PASS SALE!
Save $20 off your first month if you buy a Monthly Pass by 7/11! Pay only $19.95 to enroll for your first month and then $39.95 each month after. Final cost for 6 months = $223 (only $8.58/wk)

Top 5 Ways to Lose Weight, Save Money and Green Your Diet: The Trifecta of Recession Bliss
By Susan Seliger

1. Use what you’ve got in the cupboard — don’t go shopping again until the fridge is bare.
It’s amazing how much you can do with all those cans of food that you probably just keep pushing to the back when you buy new stuff. Check out Allrecipes.com where you can plug in what you’ve got, and the web site will come up with what you can cook with it. Keep some basic, nonperishable supplies in the cupboard (like cans of tuna, tomatoes, rice, pasta) and things that last for months in the fridge (like sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, olives) that will add life to your fresh ingredients.

2. Use smaller plates.
The best way to lose weight is to cut down on portion size, day in and day out. The average plateful is two-to-three times a healthy-sized serving. You’d be amazed at how much more satisfying a small portion looks on a smaller plate. You don’t feel deprived – and you’ve saved calories and money as your groceries will stretch farther. To find out what a real portion size is for any food, check out this nifty tool, a Portion Calculator at LoveFoodHateWaste.com.

3. Try a new mantra: Doggie bags are divine.
If you’re smart, you’re not going out to eat much. So when you do, you’d better stretch that one meal into two. Learn to love leftovers. Who says that little bit of your entrée and the vegetables isn’t enough for another meal? Have you forgotten so soon what we said about portion size? (See #2). Cut up the main dish into small bites, cook up some nice chewy brown rice or toss in a few more sautéed vegetables and you’ve expanded those leftovers into a full meal.

4. Don’t toss leftover tossed salad – keep it for the next day.
I know gourmands turn up their noses at day-old salad, but if you think of it as marinated vegetables instead of wilted lettuce, it tastes much better – and the nutritional value is pretty much the same. (On day three, even I give up. Toss it onto the compost heap — and while you’re out there, take a walk around the block for a little more exercise.)

5. Shun prepared foods — Slice, dice and cook it yourself
You can pay twice as much or more for ingredients that are prepped – like grated cheeses and bottled garlic. In addition, cut up foods go bad much faster than whole foods – so you can lose two ways. Prepared foods are handy – but here, too, you’re paying double, sometimes triple the costs of whipping it up yourself. Why pay twice as much for a ready-made roast chicken (rarely organic), when making your own chicken is so simple: wash and remove the innards, pat dry, then slather a little Dijon mustard all over the outside (don’t be squeamish, use your hands) and throw it in a pre-heated 350-degree oven for about 20 minutes a pound. Cheap – low-cal, and fresh.

NEXT TIME
“Ways to Burn Calories Without Burning Money” – Continuing our theme of cost-consciousness, we’ll share new ways to move more without spending a lot of money!

Stay within your POINTS budget, earn some Activity POINTS, save time to attend our meeting next week and enjoy the dividends of all your healthy choices. Have a great week!

Diane

Motivation Vacation

2009-05-31T20:53:00.003-04:00

I took some time off work and enjoyed a nice six-day vacation over Memorial weekend. I indulged in some extra treats (homemade pizza, brownies, ice cream!) but kept up with my exercise (walking, jogging, biking, yoga and badminton) and got plenty of sleep. I flew back into town on Wednesday afternoon feeling relaxed and rested, but I think my motivation must have missed the return flight with me.

It sure was fun relaxing my eating habits a bit and enjoying some extra treats. Now it’s time to get back to my normal, healthy eating habits, but I find it difficult to switch gears these first days back. This often happens to me when I have been trying valiantly to stay on track during vacation. I return, relax and lapse into some bad habits. Or I suffer from post-vacation let down and continue to enjoy a few extra treats to console myself about getting back to reality again.

Whatever the reason for my motivation vacation, I know it won’t be a lengthy sabbatical. My commitment level to Weight Watchers may fluctuate from time to time, but I know I feel happier and healthier when I’m truly following the program. Just like we talked about in our meeting, one way to get back in touch with motivation is to remember what I want and the good feelings I get when I achieve my goals: I want to feel in control of my eating, to be proud of my choices, have fun shopping, know my clothes fit, be active, lower my blood cholesterol number, feel confident, happy, and healthy and to enjoy my life.

When I look at that “What I Want” list I get a motivation realization: these things are definitely more important to me than the fleeting pleasure of tempting foods, so I choose to recommit to doing the things necessary to meet my goals like tracking, measuring, getting my Good Health Guidelines in and exercising.

If your motivation has taken a vacation lately, I recommend a little “Motivation Meditation” to think about what you want. Post an “I Want” list where you’ll see it and be reminded of why practicing good habits is important to you. Then when you think, “Gee, I want a cookie” you can look at your list and remember, “But I want these things even more!” Time for a little motivation celebration…whoo hoo!

“Don’t sacrifice what you want most for what you want now.”

PROUD MOMENT OF THE WEEK
I realize I’ve been blogging about a lot of my struggles lately. I guess like most of us I have a tendency to focus on what goes wrong more than what went right. So let me take a moment to share some of my recent non-scale victories: I started the 7th week of walk/jog training for the Walk-It Challenge, I attended my second body sculpt class (without the squats making me walk quite so bow-legged this time), I’ve been enjoying lots of salads and summer fruits, and I have now completed 2 months of continuous “open book” tracking. But my proudest moment came this Saturday when I went roller-skating for the first time in many years. I was impressed that I made it around the rink without ever falling (though there were a couple of close calls!). But even more amazing was how I successfully navigated going to the women’s restroom while wearing roller skates. Now THAT was challenging!

What are your non-scale victories? Make sure you celebrate all the little things that go well throughout your week because they can add up to big success!

LAST WEEK! LAST WEEK! LAST WEEK!

FREE REGISTRATION
The $20 registration fee will be back Sunday June 7th, so if you are thinking about joining, do it this week!

$5 PEDOMETER COUPON
Pay only $19 for a cool Weight Watchers, POINTS-counting pedometer! Offer ends 6/6.

WALK-IT CHALLENGE TRAINING
Online registration ends 6/6 so sign up for your free training program this week. Learn to walk or run a 5K at www.teamweightwatchers.com!

FREE BOX OF BARS WITH MEMBER KIT
Purchase any member kit and get a free box of 2-POINTS Bars – offer ends Saturday!

NEXT TIME
Are you looking for ways to lower your food bills while staying on track and developing healthy habits? At our next meeting we’ll talk about ways you can cut costs while cutting calories. If you’ve got money-saving tips, be sure to share them.

Enjoy your week and I’ll see you at the meeting!

Diane