News and Reviews
- We are expecting impending inclement weather in our area at some point tonight. If it suddenly starts snowing during the chat we will either end early or you will be headed out with me!
- Please do not get distracted by this, BUT…I met with an anonymous group of urgent care nurses this week to chat about GLP medications in patients who do not require the drug for diabetes management. I’m hoping to find time to chat about this either next week or in a different venue, but I wanted to let you know I finally got some real life facts and not just rumors floating around
- 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 – this week
- WORKOUT CHALLENGE
- 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.
Last week was Chat #347 “How to Set Goals That Work For You!”
Over the years we have chatted and chatted and chatted about STAR goals. This was once was of my least favorite topics with WW and now that I fully understand and embrace the “do” instead of the “don’t” it’s one of my favorites!
Here’s how they break it down!
4 Steps to a Perfect for YOU STAR Goal:
Specific
Goals don’t have to be big, they don’t even have to be fancy. But they do need to be very specific. If you can’t measure the results you’ll never know how you did. An old “friend” that I had a love/hate work relationship with called that quantifiable. If you can’t quantify your results you don’t have any results.
Instead of “workout more” try being specific like “workout 20 minutes a day, 3 days this week”
Truly Doable
Whatever the goal is, it needs to be truly doable in one week’s time.
A goal of meal prepping 7 days this week when you work doubles 5 of those days isn’t going to happen. Instead how about “I will meal prep with my daughter on Sunday this week so we both have meals ready for this busy week coming up”
Actionable
This is the “do” instead of “not do” I mentioned earlier. Not only can you not measure (quantify) what you have NOT done, the negativity that surrounds those thoughts sometimes kills it before you start.
Rather than set a goal to “not” eat snacks after dinner, try something like “this week I will drink a sugar free hot cocoa or read that book I’ve been meaning to start when I feel like an after dinner snack”
Your homework was #ShootForTheSTAR. This week I want ALL OF YOU because you have not had homework in two weeks to choose one goal that you can make Specific, Truly Doable, Is Actionable, and Relevant to your journey
Let’s see how you did:
- Casey’s STAR goal was to plan one family meal per week. Last week she had Manwich with steamed corn and a salad for everyone. This week she already has spaghetti with ground turkey, garlic bread and a nice salad in the lineup!
- Julie had a goal of hostessing and participating in a Veggie Challenge every day this week and she #NailedIt !
- Mary Ann set TWO STAR goals this week: one was to add vegetable to more meals and the other one was walking 1 mile each day for 6 days. Boom! Done!
Bravo, you did it!
This Week’s Topic: “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!
This Week’s Homework: #TrackingToolbox
Your homework for this week is #TrackingToolbox. This week your homework is to pick just ONE tracking tip from your toolbox and share it with us. 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: WW App Tracking Changes!
Sooooo while I was out sick (literally) there were significant changes to the WW app in regards to tracking. Some were good. Many were bad. And a few even seem to be “un”updated. I’ve taken the comments and questions I’ve had during that time and tried to come up as many answers as I can. Please note: I have an iPhone and iPad and some of my updates won’t look like yours. Also please note: there were changes before I could even get this chat printed 🙁
| Where did Quick Add Go? |
My opinion on this change, it’s too many steps now.
Tip: this is handy when you eat certain things over and over and know the points or when you are not sure and just need to assign some points to something |
| Where did the Points Calculator Go? |
Soooo many steps 🙁
|
| Can you Edit a Quick Add or Points Calculator Item? |
| Mmmmmm technically…but only edit the day and the meal time. You cannot edit the value, the name or the quanitity. You can however swipe left and delete but then it’s gone gone |
| Is Multi Track Gone? |
| It is gone from my app and I’ve been told it was “going away” if it’s not already gone |
| How do you track a food, recipe or meal you’ve already saved? |
| Click the three line “hamburger” menu in the upper left corner
Touch the “My Food” Icon and you can toggle between those three |
| How do you add a new Meal? |
| Search me, I can’t find it! I can find the ones I’ve saved previously but not how to add any new ones. The only thing I did find is when you click on Search Food or the mealtime you want to track in a list of Recent Tracks will come up and you only need to click the + sign to add them |
| Can you change the measurement on something that is usually an items or partial item to a weight or volume? |
| The specific question was about avocados. It was not working two weeks ago but appears to have been resolved so that you can toggle between the item (like 1, ½, etc and weights or volumes for that item) |
| Does the barcode scanner still work? |
| It seems to work just like it has and you can either scan the food item, or check a list of foods you have already scanned, or manually add a barcode. BUT I cannot find where you scan a label for it to auto add in nutritional information or to add a new food if it’s not in the barcode scanner database. Anyone know if that’s gone or I just haven’t found it? |
| Where do I find my recipes? |
This one was tricky and changed from last week to this week.
|
| How do I create a recipe? |
| See the directions above for where to find recipes
Click “Create” in the upper right hand corner Enter details as normal including typing or scanning ingredients Click Add More Details to add any special notes, cooking times, etc This is honestly my favorite tracking tool and I will visit WW in person if they mess with it LOL. I bring in recipes from the WW app, add from recipes given to me, or from my own and adjust ingredients as needed, serving sizes or quantities as needed |
A few quick tips!
Hamburger Icon → Recipes
Hamburger Icon → Restaurants (go over filter)
Hamburger Icon → WIYF
Hamburger Icon → Your Weekly Plan
Hamburger Icon → Zero Point Foods
What questions do you have about the app updates? Comment below!
Quick Links:
Don’t forget to celebrate your Bravos with our downloadable stickers!
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