Weight Watchers Chat #367: “How To Build a Satisfying Meal!”

News and Reviews

Today is the first day of the “Water!” 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!
Thursday is my 57th bday! Just sayin 🙂
And then a week from Thursday (June 21st) is the first day of summer! Do you find it easier to stay on track or harder once this season is officially in full swing?
Last but not least, we need some help. Due to some expected budget cuts at John’s real job, my budget for grocery hauls, buying new foods to try, gadgets to show you, and expenses to keep the blog and chats going just got cut. Like completely. If you find a food or gadget you’d like me to try out for everyone please use the address at the end of this chat to send a sample, a coupon or even a tiny gift card to purchase it. I’ll be checking into some ways to help support our efforts financially and will let you know what I come up with. For now, keep sending those Stars during live chats, keep watching those YouTube videos, and I sooo appreciate you using my affiliate links to purchase from Amazon! <3

Review Last Week: Last week was Chat #366 “Are People in Your Life Helping Or Hurting Your Progress”

Have you ever been in a situation with a friend, family member, even a complete stranger and left the situation thinking “well that wasn’t helpful at all….”

This week we decide who’s helping and who is hurting (whether intentional or not) and what to do about it!

Pro tips for protecting your progress:

When we think of the word influencer, connotations of someone modeling sunglasses or subliminally selling you workouts comes to mind. But the real influencers are ones we see, hear and even come in contact with on a regular basis. A consistent enough basis that our thoughts, and even sometimes our beliefs about ourselves or our journey become affected. That doesn’t mean intentions are negative, but they may have a negative impact on us anyway. Think things like:

The spouse who regular wants to treat you or show you love with hot doughnuts or special cookies
The co-worker who invites you to lunch every day to get you out of the office
The person you follow on Instagram or YouTube that tells you if you’ll just work a little harder, have a little more willpower, or rely on them a little more that you’ll be a mini version of them

Sort em out and stack em up

Identify the top 3 – 5 “people” in your life that are talking in your ear the most, offering the most opinions, influencing you the most. Then based on whether their connection helps or seems to hurt your progress, sort them according to the chart in your WW Weekly from the app:

Who could I connect with more?

Who could I connect with less?

Social Swap

Whether you realize it or not, the time you spend watching the news, commercials, social media, etc plays a huge part in your current identity and how you feel about your progress. If you follow more “young, tall, blonde, fit, extreme workout” channels but you look like me it will probably hurt more than help. But if you find “like minded” people, news, encouragers, who can relate to you and where you are NOW, the progress is limitless!

Your homework was #SocialSwap. This week’s homework may require you to spend a little time weeding out in your social media feed and subscriptions. I want you to find ONE person you are following, or watching, or listening to that is NOT helping and may even be hindering your thoughts about your progress. Hit UNFOLLOW and then find someone who is more in tune with who you are NOW, where you are in your life and your journey, and hit that FOLLOW button and tell us about it!

Melisa went in a little different direction and stopped following political and news feeds. She replaced them with inspirational and motivation posts!
Janelle went through and cleaned up…several negative nellies have now been deleted from her life!
Lynn went above and beyond and just deleted people from her “friends” list that only ever posted negative things. Lynn’s such an inspiration, let’s flood her feed by giving back some of those positive vibes she’s always handing out!

Bravo, you did it!

This Week’s Topic: “How to Build a Satisfying Meal”

There is nothing worse than getting to the end of a meal and thinking “why didn’t somebody tell me there was ham on the other side of the bar?”

Not telling my dad there was ham on the other side of the bar is a story John will never live down. My grandmother was in the hospital. We had to eat Thanksgiving out that year. We were all having a “didn’t know about the ham kinda day” but it can mean a lot of things on any given day! Too many points. Not enough food. Food wasn’t good. Wasn’t something you would have chosen if you’d known. Or you find out after you’re done that the one thing you were looking for that meal was just on the other side of the serving line and you didn’t see it.

Pro tips for building that satisfying meal:

What’s On Your Plate?

Draw a plate on a piece of paper, section off a paper plate, or if you have an already divided plate for this exercise even better. What will be on your plate for this satisfying meal?

Protein? – how much, what will it be?

Veggies or Fruit? – one kind, multiples? How much of the plate will they take up?

Carbs or starchy veggies? – is it something you can’t live without or regret not having later? Will the points fit with your plan?

The food isn’t on there yet so you can make as many changes as you’d like. I always tell my countertop customers “we can make as many changes as you’d like until it’s cut”. So make as many changes as you’d like until it’s on your plate!

Mind The Rum (and you might want to keep an eye on Arnold Palmer too)

In the famous words of Jack Sparrow “Mind The Rum!”. Of course he was worried someone might spill a drop, but during the summer especially at social events it may be a matter of minding the points too. A few ways to enjoy those festive beverages and keep your meal even more satisfying are:

New to me this summer is Chick Fil A’s “Sunjoy” a ½ to ½ mix of unsweetened tea and diet lemonade for only 1 point versus a virgin Arnold Palmer at 4 to 6 points
Hungry Girl boasts a Perfect Pina Colada with only five ingredients and 3 WW points!

Or use fun, delicious, zero calorie cocktail mixes to make mocktails or keep your festive adult beverages lower point! This 20 flavor mix from Thoughtfully Skinny Cocktails includes Peach Bellini, Lemon Drop, Blood Orange Margarita, Mojito, Sydney Sunrise and more. Each zero-calorie cocktail mixer is sugar free, gluten free, vegan, vegetarian, nut and dairy free! And if you use my link here I will earn a tiny affiliate fee which helps fund all of this fun!

Summer Savings – Decision Time!

Choosing not to decide is still a decision. Let’s say you are going to a family cookout and you know there will be store bought potato salad, deviled eggs, watermelon and Sharon is bringing her famous coconut cake

Store bought potato salad is approximately 6 points for ½ cup

Deviled Eggs are approximately 1-2 points for a half egg or one deviled egg

Watermelon is zero!

Sharon’s famous coconut cake at about a 2” x 3” slice is unknown territory. The best you can do is look up something close so let’s call it’s 16-20 points

You can decide to have all four items for approximately 26 points. Or you can leave off the store bought potato salad that you can have literally any time and spend 20 points. Or you can decide you won’t decide until you get there but wow, what a decision! I don’t know how that plays out for you but I end up eating all of it and then being disappointed in myself. Or I skip the thing I want and live regret until I see Sharon the next year.

OR! I can decide to have cake and count it and be happy with my decision. OR EVEN BETTER, I can decide to enjoy a half a piece, eat it soooooo slowly and savor every single bit with no regrets and a few points left in my day!

This Week’s Homework: #SummerSavings

Your homework for this week is #SummerSavings. As much as John’s new paycheck is freaking me out I’d love for the saving to be talking about money….but I’m talking about points LOL. I know you have a summer event coming up where decisions will need to be made. Decide on ONE food (or drink) you know will be at this event and tell us how you’ll save. It might be deciding to skip it, taking a half portion, or maybe bringing your own skinny cocktail mixes! Type it, snap it, tell it. 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 #SummerSavings 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: Perfect Summer Meal Planning!

Tonight, we will be making some summer saving decisions, and we will be making a pretend summer plan!

I don’t know if you know this, but there is an icon on the WW app that looks like a clipboard and a stopwatch called “Weekly Plan.” Have you ever used it? I’ve used it a few times, and it is a pretty good tool to use to stay on track and plan for your day. We will be filling one day out instead of a full week!

Let’s say that on Saturday we are attending a picnic… now let’s start planning!

After going to Saturday in the Weekly Planner, go to Start Planning. When it says “What are you looking for?” you can go to recipes/meals/foods you’ve saved before, pre-made 5 day meal plans, OR create our own plan, which is what we did during the chat.

When you go to a picnic, what are some things that you are expecting to be there?

Vicki said crackers and cheese – we found Ritz cheese crackers on the app (3 pts)
Sherri said hot dogs – (10 pts)
Lots of you said watermelon – (0 pts)
Lynn said cold cuts – (4 pts)
Carol Lou said pasta salad and we found a recipe! WW had a recipe called “Easy Pasta Salad” that we added to our list (4 pts)
Melissa said her husband’s family always brings fried chicken… so we added KFC original recipe chicken breast WITH the skin (10 pts)
Katie says there will be an ice cream cake! – (11 pts)
I added an Arnold Palmer to wash down all of these yummy foods
Who can forget chips???
The final item will be a strawberry shortcake

Right now, we have planned for jus a single serving of each item on this list… which adds up to 72 points. You can absolutely eat this meal! But does this sound satisfying and worth the points to you? It might to a lot of you, and that’s ok!

But if you are looking to make some choices that make you satisfied while still being able to enjoy this picnic, what things would you substitute or change on your plate?

First thing that needs to go is that KFC chicken breast! You can have KFC anytime. There is probably someone grilling the hot dogs or maybe some veggie burgers, and you can always add some fun toppings like Sarah suggested! So instead of the KFC chicken breast, we will be grabbing a hot dog with onions, ketchup, mustard, relish, and (my favorite) sauerkraut on a toasted bun. Just that change alone has saved you 9 pts!! We are down to 63 pts!
But if we are eating that hot dog loaded with toppings… you probably don’t need the cold cuts either. So we are now down to 56 pts.
Maybe instead of potato salad, there is a recipe for a yogurt and cucumber salad for 3 pts on the WW app! Down another point that we don’t need.
Now about that Arnold Palmer… what can we trade for that?
Why don’t we get rid of the Strawberry Shortcake and the Ice Cream Cake as well? Instead, we can enjoy that watermelon or maybe some strawberries with Reddi Whip Zero Sugar topping. There is bound to be a bunch of fruit and all would make for a delicious sweet treat! That knocks us down a good bit to 27 pts!!!
BUT! I’m going to add 2 things in that won’t add a bunch of points back into our picnic meal. One thing that you could do is to volunteer to be the one to bring a drink. Bring Blackberry Pre-Sweetened Cold Brew Tea from Southern Breeze. Hands down the easiest drink to make and it will make you really popular at the picnic! I’m taking away the Arnold Palmer for this delicious tea, so that drops us down even further.
The other thing I want to add in is a tray of cocktail shrimp. Casey and I rediscovered that we love shrimp at a retirement party a few weeks ago! A whole tray including the cocktail sauce is only 3 pts!!

Our final number is……….. drum roll please!!!!!!! TWENTY FOUR POINTS!

That’s only 1 point over my daily limit. That sounds like a delicious picnic, now I need someone to have it with!

What kind of picnic choices would you make? Let me know in the comments below!