Shortcuts to Mealtime Success

Hello, Weight Watchers! Did this week's meeting help you take charge of your own Royal Castle and try some new healthy substitutes? Remember that it's okay to use our Asserting tool to help us with the Ask for Help habit!

SMALL CHANGES MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE!
Just to humor myself, I looked up my menu from my very first day on Weight Watchers in July 2003. I'm posting a menu from a few weeks ago just for comparison. It's amazing how different they are after five years of small changes!

7/7/03
Breakfast
2 - 1 c FF milk
6.5 - 2 c Post Frosted Shredded Wheat
Snacks
3 - 1 serving Pepperidge Farms Xplosive Pizza Goldfish crackers
0 - 1 SF Popscicle
2 - 1 stick Kraft String'Ums string cheese
Dinner
2 - 1 cup canned green peas
2.5 - 2 servings Bull's Eye barbecue sauce
9 - 12 piece Tyson popcorn chicken bites
3 GHG checked (though healthy oils wasn't one of them at the time - I can't remember what the eighth one was)

4/9/08
Breakfast
0 - 6 medium strawberries
1 - 1 tsp canola oil
0.5 - Splenda brown sugar blend
2 - 1/2 c Quaker Old-Fashioned Oats
1 - 1 c 8th Continent Light vanilla soy milk
Lunch
1 - 2 T Kraft Light raspberry vinaigrette
1.5 - 2 T crumbled blue cheese
0 - 6 medium strawberries
0 - 5 oz baby spinach
1 - 20gm raisins
Dinner
1.5 - Green Giant Baby Brussels Sprouts & LF Butter Sauce
4 - 3.5oz pork chop, grilled in dry rub
2.5 - 1/2 c Betty Crocker au gratin potatoes, prepared
Snacks
2 - 2 small apples
1 - Sargento Light string cheese
2 - Fiber One Oats & Chocolate bar
1 - 1 c 8th Continent Light vanilla soymilk

NEW COOKBOOK COMING!
Look for the newest seasonal cookbook, Sizzle It, to hit meeting rooms near you between now and the end of May. At $10, this cookbook comes packed with 140 Flex and Core recipes, a handy how-to guide for grilling, and a decadent grilled desserts section.

TFL OF THE WEEK
Mental Rehearsing is practice in your imagination. Since the mind and body form one system, your mind can help you prepare for the actual situation in which you want to behave or act a certain way. It's practiced by all top performers, be they athletes, actors musicians, artists, public speakers, or salesmen. It can also be practiced by people who want to become top performers at losing and managing their weight. Mental rehearse for weight-management success by doing the following:

1. Imagine yourself in a tough weight-loss situation - one that's likely to come up in your life - as though you're watching yourself in a movie.
   
2. Create the specific situation in your head. Be as detailed as possible.
   
3. In your mind, step into the movie and practice responding the way the new, healthier you wants to respond. Try to see, hear, feel, and do what you would if you actually responded that way when the situation comes up.
4. Mentally rehearse every day before the actual situation.

ARTICLES OF NOTE

• Shortcut Cooking
• Success and the City

We are in constant need of great ideas for quick and easy ways to Eat Wisely, whether following the Flex or Core plan. This meeting will help us to identify and share tips for stocking up the freezer, pantry, and refrigerator with helpful, corner-cutting groceries and utensils.

Have a great week, everyone!

Cyndi

A smiling face is half the meal

--Latin proverb

Crustless Strawberry Pie
3 cups strawberries slices
1 package sugar free cook & serve vanilla pudding (not instant)
2 cups water
1 package sugar free strawberry jello

Spray pie pan lightly with Pam.
1. Place the sliced strawberries in a deep pie dish.
2. Cook pudding in a pan with water (not milk) as package directs to a boil.
3. Sprinkle the jello powder into the pudding mixture after the pudding cooks. Cool 5 minutes.
4. Pour pudding/jello mixture over strawberries.
5. Refrigerate until cooled.

SF Pudding mix is 80 calories per box
SF jello mix is 40 calories per box
3 cups of strawberries is 2 points so the whole pie is 4 points.