News and Reviews
- 7 days of snow, ice, and subfreezing temps…Elsa, LET It Go!. Thanks for letting me do the chat from the camper, I really didn’t have another option after everything refroze today
- I’d just like to point out that on this day in 2018 it was Chat #55 and guess what we were talking about? What’s In Your Toolbox! Coincidence? I don’t think so 🙂
- Julie in our IYHAE Facebook Group is hosting some great challenges starting last week. Here are details and you can get more by joining / reading in our group
- Here’s the Challenge rotation:
- VEGETABLE CHALLENGE – DONE!
- TRACK IT CHALLENGE – DONE!
- WORKOUT CHALLENGE – this week
- WATER CHALLENGE
- LEAN PROTEIN CHALLENGE
- SWAP FOR LESS POINTS CHALLENGE
- It’ll repeat every 6 weeks to keep us motivated, starting over, or trying something new. If you have another idea I’ll be glad to add it into the rotation.
Since this week is the workout challenge I have a quick question, has anyone ever done one of The Conqueror Challenges? I saw one today that is virtual walking Yellowstone and it looked cool but I’m easily sucked in LOL. Let me know if you have! It has been 4 weeks tomorrow that Karen and I have been able to walk due to illness, illness again, and then all this darn snow.
Last week was Chat #348 “How to Build a Tracking Routine!”
How appropriate was it that Julie set this week for a tracking challenge over in the If You Have an Egg Facebook Group? Very appropriate!
The simple fact is that people who track what they eat are more likely to lose weight. There are a number of reasons for that: accountability, re-countability, repeatability, and lots more. But tracking “consistently” is better than “perfectly”.
Pro Tips for Consistent Tracking:
Learn Why You Don’t
If you find yourself not tracking alot, try to identify a few reasons why like:
- Time constraints
- Not understanding how to track certain things
- Frustration with the app updates (this is real people)
Remind Yourself Why You Should
I don’t think there is a single hand that wouldn’t go up if I asked “who thinks tracking is key in your weight loss / management?”. But then when so many of us find ourselves with empty circles and even emptier days we need a reminder of why we should:
- Really seeing what happened on any given day (or even today)
- I need it so I can repeat good days/weeks or remind myself if something out of the ordinary happened (like the cough drops and carbs week)
- Being honest with ourselves doesn’t mean talking down to ourselves. Sometimes you need to write it down, shake it off, move on and not dwell on the unknown
Consistency Counts
Being consistent is more important than being perfect. If you are someone who loves the journey of keeping that complete journal, good for you! For the rest of us consistency looks like:
- If weekends are a hard time to track, try tracking meals consistently during the week
- If you eat the same things for two meals a day (example breakfast and lunch) try quick adding those and then just tracking dinner or snacks
- Even if you can’t be consistent in your tracking yet, just consistently opening your app every day may be just what you need!
Your homework was #TrackingToolbox and I wanted you to pick just ONE tracking tip from your toolbox and share it with us
- Gwen loves Quick Add and uses it frequently for meals she already knows the points for or has tracked so many times it just makes sense. But she cautions to not get too generous in your estimations like saying something is 5 points when you clearly know you ate 8 or more points this time!
- Sylvia used to track in the app and on paper with pictures and stickers. She got burned out so now she just tracks in the app as she goes since her busy grandma schedule could change without notice!
- Leisha loves the ease of the app but she loves seeing her food journaling in her own handwriting and bonus stickers even more!
Bravo, you did it!
This Week’s Topic: “How to Build a Satisfying Meal!”
I know I’ve whined about snow and ice but I’m going to keep that topic going for just another minute. We had a snowstorm of a decade last Monday going into Tuesday. Then we had freezing temps and ice. More freezing. A little sun, which made the snow that did melt into you guessed it. More Ice! Someone from our church asked today what everyone’s been eating since we have all been cooped up for a week and the store shelves are still pretty bare. I’ve seen some really creative ideas on what is “satisfying” this week, but let’s talk about how to build a satisfying meal on a normal day!
So I literally this morning was making bacon and egg sandwiches and realizing I’ve made some form of “winter weather” breakfast as we stay in our camper for ourselves and the kids every day this week. I asked them all this morning “when it’s warm and I’m standing in your kitchen in flipflops do you want blueberries in your yogurt?”
Pro Tips for Building a Satisfying Meal:
Seasonally appropriate
Or in our case this week “weather” appropriate. A homemade acai bowl sounds fantastic when the weather is warm. But when you’re wearing two pairs of socks standing in the kitchen things like oatmeal, eggs, and citrus fruits may be more satisfying. Shopping in the season is also a way to make your meal more satisfying. Watermelon in the winter is a no go but come June? Bring it on! Websites like Seasonal Food Guide can keep you in the know whether you are shopping, planting, or just eating.
Build a meal
Check out this week’s Weekly in your WW app. Building a meal based on the time of day, when you need to eat your largest meal, as well as making sure you have an appropriate amount of protein, carbs, non-starchy veggies and some good fat are key to a satisfying meal
Color My Plate
I am a big believer that the most colorful plate is the happiest plate. I wish we were at the showroom today so I could show you, but just tonight Casey and I added colorful riced cauliflower to some red chili, with a handful of yellow corn chips and a dab of white light sour cream. It was a pleasure to the eyes and the palette! Check out my Breakfast Bento Bowl for a great starter idea!
This Week’s Homework: #ColorMyPlate
Your homework for this week is #ColorMyPlate. This week your homework is to make the most colorful plate (or bowl) you can for just one meal this week and share your pictures so we can all oooooh and aaaaah! 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!
- 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: Wendy’s Chili & Emeril Duet Review!
In case you missed it, we had a record breaking amount of snow for the first time in decades. We aren’t used to this type of weather, so this was a new challenge for us. And while we were stuck inside, I discovered two things.
1) No matter how much we cleaned out the fridge and freezer, there will always be food in there. I know not everyone can say that, but the general American family has an issue with buying too much dang food and packing it all into their fridges and freezers.
2) The weather people don’t really know what they’re talking about AND I will no longer let anyone shame me into getting food necessities just because of the threat of snow. I went to the store a few days before the snow, and I got a normal trip’s worth of groceries. But… we forgot pull ups. That was a tough lesson to learn.
3) John found this out when he had to go into work on day 3 of the snow. A couple of the guys at work told him something that I had never heard of before. John took me straight over to investigate.
Wendy’s offers a FAMILY MEAL SIZE CHILI??? It is only available regionally, but it was HUGE! I love Wendy’s chili! A small chili is 5 points and a large is 7 points.
Each container was $13.99, and I believe that there were about 7-8 small portions per container. A great value! We had four people (and a 2 year old) had meals out of it for 2 days in a row!
The other part of this Eggstra Credit is a review.
When we left the loft before Christmas, we didn’t expect that we wouldn’t be back for weeks. We didn’t plan on getting sick, and we CERTAINLY didn’t plan on snow.
And something else I didn’t plan on… we didn’t have the air fryer, the waffle maker, or the instant pot. We couldn’t access any of those things, and there are a few things I make that I REFUSE to make in the oven. They are my tried and true air fryer/waffle maker/instant pot recipes at this point, so I was in a pickle. So when we were making baked potatoes the other day, I was sweating because I didn’t have my air fryer with me.
John’s mom purchased this appliance a few years ago. She got a Emeril Lagasse Pressure Air Fryer Duet, and it was still brand new in the box.
It took me a few hours to figure out how to use it. They are still available at Walmart, but before you run out to purchase it… read this review.
My dislikes:
- I had to read 20 pages of instructions before I could even cook anything in it.
- It’s heavy!! It weighs close to 20-25bs, and comes with multiple lids for different uses… which makes the weight and space issue worse.
- You would have to buy accessories to really use it to its full potential. So we were really limited in what we could successfully use it for.
- Trying to figure out how to pressure cook or air fry was really difficult, and it’s really easy to mess up what you’re trying to do. You have to click so many buttons to get started, and if you mess up at all… you have to start all over again.
- Pressure cooking, it did fine. Air frying is a really small, limited space and it wasn’t as good as my Simple Living air fryer.
- You can’t easily look at them to check and see the progress of what you’re cooking. You have to cancel, wrestle the lid off, pull it out and check, and start the process all over again.
This Duet is not worth the money. Please purchase better quality air fryers and instant pot, because you will be happier in the long run. We will be using it simply because it was available and free to us, but I’m not a fan.
The Wendy’s chili was a thumbs up! The Emeril Duet…. a thumbs down.
What is your favorite air fryer/instant pot? And did you know about the Wendy’s family size chili?? Let me know in the comments!
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