The WW Friendly Kitchen

This week's meeting topic was particularly pertinent for me. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. As such, it is important to have a kitchen which supports my weight-loss efforts- not impedes them. Here are my tips for managing my (kitchen) environment:

1. Label it. I get out my Sharpie when I come home from the store and mark up the POINTS values of items right on the box/can/bag.



2. Pre-portion/make my own 100-calorie or 2 POINTS snack treats. A ziplock or tupperware style container with pre-portioned grab-and-go snack helps both my POINTS and $$ budget.



3. Keep the good stuff front and center, and push the challenging foods to the side (hidden behind a big basket of fruit or another filling food...). This way, when I open the pantry or fridge, I am greeted by POINTS friendly filling foods from the get go. What meets the eye first is often the best choice.



4. Give my food scale "prime real estate" on the kitchen counter. I keep my scale out- front and center. This reminds me to measure the weight of different foods.



5. Have multiple sets of measuring cups. This way, I can't use the excuse that the measuring cup is in the dishwasher/lost/dirty/etc. when it comes to portion control. The Weight Watchers Easy Measure set is another good option when needing to measure easily.

I challenged members this week to make 10 changes to their kitchen this week. I too am going to do this. Already I'm planning on: getting a few new tupperware containers, organizing my tea cabinet so that it is easier to see my selection and thus easier to choose a cup of tea when I'm wanting something flavorful, getting some freezer bags, checking out those green produce bags that someone in my meeting mentioned (thank you- they are supposed to make fresh produce last longer!), and a few other tricks.

Back to Blogging

Well hello there. Remember me? I've been more than a big neglectful of this blog, and for that I do apologize. Life has gotten particularly hectic lately- so I've really had a hard time keeping up on some of the "extras". Unfortunately that also means that I've been struggling a bit to keep taking care of myself a priority- but that needs to change! Remember a few weeks back when we talked about emotional eating? Stress, in particular, seemed to be a popular emotion for members to turn to food to "fix". I'm right there with you! That said, I've been employing a few of the techniques we talked about in that very meeting to my own life.

You may recall at the end of the meeting I suggested that we all create a list of 10 viable things to do when we are emotionally hungry (meaning, that we are not physically hungry, yet an emotional response is triggering the desire to want to eat...). I displayed a large list of my Top 10 on the flip chart, and in jest, I suggested that I should post that giant sized list on my own fridge at home. Well, I did that! Yep... the entire bottom half of my fridge is covered in flip chart paper with my list. Is it working? Well, as I sit here with my cup of pumpkin-ginger spiced tea, and "cuppa' tea" is the first item on my list I'm feeling pretty good about things! So, again, here's my list of things to do to combat emotional eating:
10) Cuppa' Tea
9) Call a friend (I just did that one too...)
8) Take a walk/bike
7) Into a good book
6) Shop... (could be dangerous...)
5) Clean
4) Shred (workout DVD)
3) Make a list
2) Get out of the house! (i.e. a bookstore, library, etc.)
1) Listen to music and fall asleep...

Oh- and I will add that if you post this in a public space (or in my case, very public b/c of the blog and b/c it is just so big on the fridge...) be prepared for an additional bonus- in doing so, you open the door to ask for help. Your friends, family, or anyone who visits your house will surely see your list, and this in turn can easily prompt a discussion that can lead to you asking for help (another Weight Watchers "tools for living").