Tips and Tid bits

Since starting on Weight Watchers in January 2010 and losing close to 25 pounds lots of people have been asking me to share my "secret". I first want to make it clear that it is no secret. I tell anyone who comments or wants to know how I did it the absolute truth. I joined Weight Watchers, followed the plan and it worked. They then often want to know what it is I eat, so I thought I'd just share it here and give them my link rather than explaining over and over again...
here is a typical day/week of meals

Breakfast  7:15 am
28 grams all bran buds stirred into one source yogurt, banana

or

54 grams of Kashi Honey Puffs Cereal with 1/2 cup 1% milk, banana

or

one PC Thins Cinnamon Raisin Bagel with 1 tablespoon light peanut butter, banana

or

one packet of weight control oatmeal (any flavour) made with 1/2 cup %1 milk,banana

Snack  10:30 am
Coffee with milk and sugar ( won't ever give up sugar for sweetener in my coffee!!)
AND

6 almonds
or
carrot and celery sticks
or
one apple
or
2 triangles of Laughing Cow Cheese
or
All Bran Bar

Lunch

7 cups of salad consisting of either spring lettuce mix, romaine or  spinach AND 1/2 diced cucumber, 1/2 of a pepper (either yellow or red), cauliflower, 10 grape tomatoes cut in half, and either 1/4 of an avocado, 1/2 cup of beans/chickpeas or 20 grams of cheddar cheese or can of flavoured tuna or 2 oz  diced cooked chicken AND 1 tablespoon of dressing-any type.
Sometimes I'll bring left overs for lunch but usually stick to my salad. and very rarely I'll do the food court lunch in which i choose either a chicken skewer from the Greek place with salad or a turkey sub no mayo from Subway.

Dinner
I find dinner to be the hardest meal to plan for. As most working mothers this is the most challenging time of the day. After coming home from a busy day at work, the kids have been at daycare/school and are really tired- need to fix dinner, entertain the kids and get a whole ton of chores done around the house to boot it can be so difficult to make healthy choices the kids will like.
I refuse to eat a different meal than the one I cook for the rest of the family so I just have to be careful about portion control. Since I do have a food scale this is easier than if i didn't have one. I weigh and measure almost everything.
Since the usual reaction from my son lately for whatever i make is UCH...YUCKY, we decided to plan our weekly meals together. This has been so helpful and has seen us through the last 3 nights with no complaints and crying fits-and the kids have had more than just peanut butter on bread for dinner!

Some examples of dinner;
3 ounces chicken breast, steamed cauliflower, 1/2 cup of rice
1 cup of pasta 1/2 cup vegetarian  bolognese sauce
3 ounces tilapia cooked any way (this is about 1/2 of a HUGE fillet from the fish counter) steamed carrots, small baked potato with 1 tsp of becel
2 oz of beef with sauteed vegetables and 1/2 c rice
I find that buying prepacked foods makes life  a lot easier and I am able to count my points easier too. A family favourite is fish sticks, and sweet potato fries.
I also make a lot of vegetable soups. My favourite is cabbage soup which also happens to be the most healthy and least caloric of them all. The slow cooker is really helpful for this!
I eat cheese but really limit it to one serving by weighing it, (shocking how little cheese one serving is!!) or just stick to Laughing Cow Light. For 2 triangles it is only 1 point.  I have also had to cut out my snacking considerably. I used to eat chocolate chips from the bag before bed...don't do that anymore, and I could eat a whole bag of mini rice cakes in one sitting (still CAN do that-but choose not to) I also no longer eat cereal out of the box while watching TV.
The whole trick is making the right choices and learning what works and doesn't work for you. I remember commenting at one WW meeting about eating the same thing everyday-I am totally good with that-but most people there groaned and said they couldnt' do it- but that totally worked for me-and i try to stick to it!