Since January 1, I have lost 36 pounds. I realized for the first time dieting that if I want to lose weight, I have to go after it. It will not come to me. So if you want the most consistent weight loss, below I reveal what two things I do to have the most success with Weight Watchers Freestyle every week.
I have done Weight Watchers quite a few times over the years. But, this new Freestyle program blows the excuse of ever being hungry out of the water. With all the foods that are 0 points, to me, there is no reason why you cannot build a great menu plan around those foods while dispensing your daily points throughout your day.
So I really took the time to ask myself, what was so hard with staying on the Weight Watchers plan in the past? Why did I stray? Yes I always lost weight, but never stayed on the program until goal. And it was much more harder to stick to previous Weight Watchers plans before because every food counted. But, even then, I was full mostly all the time. So I did some deep thinking and realized that what kept me from seeing the plan to fruition were two things: Planning meals for the week beforehand and doing as much prep work beforehand as possible.
I found that most times I strayed from the plan was due to poor planning and repetitive meals. Or I knew what we were going to eat for dinner, but I didn’t feel like peeling vegetables, getting the food processor out, cutting and washing vegetables, etc. If you think about it, we can eat anything within our points on Weight Watchers, so what makes us go astray?
Like I said in the last paragraph, for me, it was not planning my weekly menu ahead of time and not prepping foods before I needed them. Something had to change.
Planning the Meals…Beforehand
This is my process on how I come up with the weekly meal plans. I divide each day into the 3 meal categories with extra lines for snacks, etc. I leave a large column at the bottom for what items I may need to buy. To the right, I put potential snacks I may want for the week or put ingredients for a Weight Watchers friendly dish I’m taking to a gathering. Most times, it is just a new recipe I want to try. Taking the time to do this makes it much easier and quicker to get my grocery list prepared. Here are a few pictures of how I do my planning:
Prepping the Meals…Beforehand
Below are lots of pictures of dishes that I am preparing for the week’s menu. Even something as simple as washing and separating snacks into bags or containers saves time:
For instance, in Florida children have FSA testing this time of year. This week in particular, I know that I have to be on a Facebook Live event with my son’s teachers regarding these tests. It is at 7:00 PM Tuesday night, exactly the time we eat dinner.
Knowing this, I am going to prep my meal beforehand and make it either a slow cooker meal, or something that I can prep before time that allows me to not have to be up and cooking while I need to be on the computer. I can prep all the side dishes, sauces, etc. beforehand which prevents any scrambling and eating out.
For instance, we will be eating Shrimp & Broccoli in Garlic Sauce (recipe here) tonite. Early in the day, I will peel the shrimp, chop the broccoli into florets and make the garlic sauce base before dinner.
This also applies to my son’s lunches for the week. Each week, he gets one of three lunch totes that we own. What I do is prep and make his lunches for 3 days and put them inside the refrigerator. This way, I do not have to prep his lunches for 3 days. Then for the remaining two days, I make 2 days worth of lunches. I bag the chips, cookies, and so on for the entire week though, so all I need to do is make 2 sandwiches for the rest of the week. Simple, right:
Lastly, these are the things I have to do to continuously lose weight. To date, I am having great success. Yes, there are times I would rather be doing something else, but I know this is what needs to be done in order to have success with Weight Watchers.
Also, if you need some kitchen time saving tips, read this post I did a few months back on my favorite time saving tools.
What has stood in the way for you in the past while trying to lose weight? And, how are you going to stay motiviated this time around?