News and Reviews
- Today is the first day of the “Veggie” Challenge hosted by Julie over on the If You Have an Egg Facebook Group. Hop in any time, it’s not a competition with anyone but yourself!
- Today was the Daytona 500 so we should be on the downhill swing of the back to back to back group grazing events. How have you done?
- In case you didn’t notice the WW app has updated yet again! I’ve only found a couple of small cosmetic differences so far on my iPhone like the top bar on the home page. It now has a toggle between “food”, “weight”, and “activity” and the way your weeklies, points left and points used is displayed differently. The barcode scanner is now below that instead of in the upper right hand like it has been. I also noticed Weekly Activity is now a toggle between “points”, “steps” and “minutes”. What changes have you noticed?
Last week was Chat #352 “How to Get Excited (Again!) About Your Go To Foods!”
Alyssa loves the movie Turning Red and if you’re not a fan, you just don’t get the movie. It was totally me when I was a pre-teen and I soooo connected with the term “ride or die” when the main characters referred to their friend group while they sang their favorite 4 Town Song.
Pre WW I could use the lyrics “You’re never not on my mind, oh my, oh my
I’m never not by your side, your side, your side
I’m never gon’ let you cry, oh, cry, don’t cry
I’ll never not be your ride or die, alright”
About foods like potato chips, candy bars, believe it or not milk, peanut butter and most especially FRENCH FRIES! French fries were and are my ride or die.
So how to you get excited about your Go To Foods:
Remember your WW Ride or Die
Over the two plus decades that I’ve been on WW my list of foods I literally can’t be without to be successful has changed. More than once. What are your top 5 – 10 point friendly WW go to foods that you know have to be on hand for this ride. For me it’s things like:
- 2 point Greek already flavored Yogurt
- JIF Peanut Butter cups
- Lighter point “chocolate” chips like Annie’s Peanut Butter chips
- Six or more “back up” frozen or heat and serve meals
- Popsicles or frozen yogurt bars
- Cheese sticks of some kind
- Tuna packs
Find the Fun
Next identify a few foods, recipes, creations that you actually find FUN and add them to your go to list.
I find recreating recipes into low(er) point options fun. My friend Karen has taken great delight in finding plant based recipes to test and try on her family.
I have friends who enjoy manipulating StarBucks and other menus to find low point things they will enjoy (see the discussion over in IYHAE about KFC, it’s fascinating!)
If you find it fun, add it to your list!
Revisit those pre-WW Ride or Dies
If I told myself “you can NEVER have french fries again!” I would have been done with WW before I even got started. In the second half we will do a deep dive into some of those Ride or Die foods for me and help find a way to include them, enjoy them, and not feel deprived in the process!
Your homework was #RideOrDie. Unless you’ve already got something in mind I want you to hold tight through the second half to learn more about how to do this week’s homework! After that I want you to pick ONE Ride Or Die food from before WW and let us know how you will include it!
- Lynn’s ride or die is close to my heart…peanut butter! She eats a sandwich for lunch at least once a week using 2 slices of 45 calorie bread, 2 teaspoons of peanut butter and 2 teaspoons of sugar free jelly for a total of 4 points!
- I’ve known for years that Orlando Debbi had found a way to keep avocado on her plate and record a realistic (not the app) number on the points. She always weighs out her avocado…per the app half of an avocado is 4 points. Debbi weighed half of a smaller one (not a mini) at 36 grams and turned out to be 1pt and was more than enough for 2 slices of sourdough bread!
- You’ll have to go check out the yummmmm picture in the IYHAE Facebook Group, but Melisa loves iced cold coffees! She did not give them up, in fact she makes her own now and uses sugar free creamers and cool whips!
Bravo, you did it!
This Week’s Topic: “A New Way to Respond to Setbacks!”
Your best friend texts you and drops this bomb “the Girl Scouts were set up in front of the store today and I was hungry when I got there. I’m so ashamed of myself, I bought a box and ate one whole sleeve before I even got done shopping!”
Your response is:
1 – “oh geez idiot, why didn’t you just go in the other door?”
2 – “oh no! You know you have to eat something before you go to the store, you were just setting yourself up for failure”
3 – “dang girl, you go! You only ate one sleeve?? Give the kids the other one and track your next meal. You are so killing this!”
Pro Tips for responding when YOU are the one who got suckered in by those little cute girls in green uniforms:
Tough Love Isn’t Self Love
While I don’t want you to completely overlook any potential setback and give yourself an unlimited hall pass, research shows that tough love for yourself can actually make you less likely to reach a related goal
“You’re Should-ing All Over Yourself”
If you know who Stuart Smalley is you just told me we can fill in the same age range circle on a survey!
This Saturday Night Live series of skits from the early 1990’s was meant to be a satirical look at self help gurus and we laughed and laughed while Al Franken stared at himself in a mirror chanting “you’re smart enough. You’re good enough. And doggone it, people like you”.
But 30 years later I find myself Stuart speaking to myself and realizing much of what was said in fun is soooo true. A personal favorite is “you’re should-ing all over yourself”. In the Girl Scout Cookie scenario I can hear myself saying “you should have done this, you should have done that”. Stop Should-ing all over yourself!
Mirror Mirror
And now I’m totally switching gears and quoting a favorite Disney movie. “Mirror Mirror on the wall. Who is the fairest of them all?” We all assume it’s Snow White right? Nope, it’s YOU. You are the fairest of them all. And the smartest. And the most dedicated. You showed up on a Sunday night, took an hour of your time to check in, maybe even opened your app to see what changes I was talking about. YOU ARE THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL!
This Week’s Homework: #FairestOfThemAll
Your homework for this week is #FairestOfThemAll. Easiest homework EVER. If you watched this Live OR if you checked in with us OR if you opened your app then you did your homework. All you have to do to get your badge this week is shout I AM THE #FairestOfThemAll and remember to tag me 🙂 Now DO YOUR HOMEWORK because I promise there is someone who needs the idea you have already rattling around in your head. Whatever it is let us know, I promise your decision to participate this week will help you AND someone else! Then type it, snap it, share it however you like, and then tag me for your next cool badge!
Don’t forget to do your homework #FairestOfThemAll and tag me when you share on social media!
- Tag @ifyouhaveanegg on Instagram
- Tag @ifyouhaveanegg on our Facebook Page
- Tag @Kelly Green Milligan in our Facebook Group
- Tag @ifyouhaveanegg on WW Connect
Extra Credit: Look Before You Leap!
How it started.
Employee and friend Kelsey texted me early Saturday morning and innocently said “hey, I’m stopping at Smoothie King on my way in. Do you want anything?” And immediately I thought great, everyone else is going to be sipping a delicious smoothie and I don’t get one because it will obviously be all my daily points plus some. I politely said no thank you, but there was a pang of regret when the Door Dash girl walked in with them. (Seeing them spending money on Door Dash was another source of anxiety for a discussion another day LOL)
How it ended.
After several minutes of oooohs and ahhhhs as they sipped, Kelsey and Lilly tag teamed and tried to convince me that despite my intel from a couple of years ago that surely there were lightened up versions that would be in my points budget. We checked and voila (or as Casey used to say when she was little Ole!) there are. I didn’t have to miss out. I not only lept before I looked, I didn’t even look! And so here is a list of 5 things I think you should take a look at, before you leap to conclusions about how it fits on your WW journey.
| #1 Smoothie King (or other convenience food establishments) |
| Did you hear how quickly I shut that offer down without even checking my app? No matter how much I preach checking, double checking, and checking again, I did not practice it. I was zero to disappointed in about 30 seconds which led to feelings of denial, feelings of being left out because I’m on a “diet” (which I’m not mind you), thoughts of boxing foods into little forbidden groups and more.
Now did I want to spend all my daily points on a smoothie? No way. Did I have a “I’d spend that?” number in my head? You betcha. Here’s what we found:
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| #2 Assuming Vegetarian and Vegan Means Healthy or Low Points |
I could talk about this for daaaaaaays and may even do a separate chat about it, but I need to say out loud…just because something is labeled “vegetarian” or “vegan” does not at all guarantee health, low points or even good for you. And as I’m typing this I realize we need an entire chat LOL
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| #3 If it seems too good it probably is, but if it seems too bad just check again! |
Sounds like I’m talking in a circle but if you’ve ever scanned a can of zero point beans and had it come up 4 or more points then you know what I mean. There are literally tens of thousands of items in the WW database and while I’d love to say they are perfect, there are mistakes and there will always be mistakes. It’s just a fact of life. When in doubt I suggest:
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| #4 Don’t Assume You Understand WW Math, Scan it and click the qty |
| The way points are calculated under the WW system some rounding will occur just like in math in the real world. If you look up a singular light string cheese you will be rewarded with only 1 point to track. That’s because the fraction or decimal is under one and a half (lower than 1.5) and it is rounded “down” to just one point. BUT when you scroll up to 2 pieces of the same cheese the math jumps to 3 points. Why? If one string cheese is 1.4 plus another string cheese is 1.4 then two string cheeses is 2.8 which by math law rounds up to 3. It stinks but please be aware that you are not cheating the system if you don’t follow the laws of WW math, you only cheat you |
| #5 Don’t Forget Portions Versus Servings Chat #337! |
| There have been many many foods over the years that I took off my list because I didn’t look, I just lept. Even though I was quick to shut down Smoothie King (never again!) I try to be aware and “look” at foods I’ve turned away before as a portion rather than a serving. You’ll just have to go back and watch the entire Portions 101 Chat but one of my favorite examples is granola. I get gasps and shocked hands over mouths when I tell people I eat granola and I eat it multiple times a week. This Pumpkin Seed & Flax granola from Aldi is 9 whopping points for a ¾ cup serving. But LOOK! Don’t LEAP! My portion is 2 Tbsp of this flavorful and crunchy cereal to top my yogurt with fruit for only 1 point. If I had just looked at the suggested serving and points I never would have tried it. |
What is one thing you have lept past and will go back and take a look at? Comment below!
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