Official Start of Summer! AKA Ice Cream, "Dawgs", Chip 'n Dip Season!

... Not to mention the beers and cocktails; BUT Wait....

I am not trying to copy what "Hungry Girl" does so well, just want to stimulate your thoughts and appetite with substitutions:

Summer BBQ Fare can be very very off track or very very available and Weight Watchers friendly with minimal effort, planning ahead and ASKING for what you want from the "Griller".  Do't be afraid, I bet the rest of the family would love to have some new and exciting grilled meats, veggies and fruit and some new salads - who knows - they may even become new family traditions?  

Here are some fun and Delicious Weight Watchers Recipes to keep you on plan and excited about grilling through the summer:


Grilled T-Bone Steak with Easy Barbecue Sauce
Prep Time 8 minutes - Cook time 14 minutes. 7 PPV per serving - 4 servings.

INGREDIENTS:

2 Tbsp chili sauce (or ketchup)

1 Tbsp packed brown sugar

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tsp course grained (or any mustard)

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1 LB (raw weight) T Bone steak, cut thick (1-1.5")

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Preheat grill to high.
• In a small bowl, combine chili sauce (or ketchup), sugar, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, mustard and ginger; brush sauce all over steak. Grill, flipping once, brushing steak with any leftover barbecue sauce while steak cooks, about 6 to 7 minutes per side, or until desired degree of doneness.
• Remove steak to a cutting board, cover loosely with aluminum foil and let stand for 10 minutes before slicing against the grain. Yields about 3 ounces steak per serving.

Grilled Pineapple with Coconut Sorbet

Prep Time 7 minutes - Cook time 10 minutes. 4 PPV per serving - 6 servings.

INGREDIENTS:

6 Tbsp dried, shredded and sweetened coconut

6 slices fresh pineapple about 1/2" thick

1 Tbsp honey

1.5 C your favorite brand of light ice-cream, light coconut sorbet or fat-free frozen vanilla or chocolate yogurt

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Preheat grill to high.
• Spread the coconut evenly on a microwave safe plate; microwave on high, tossing a couple of times until lightly browned with some while shreds, check in 30 second intervals.*
• Brush the pineapple with the honey and place on the hot grill, Cook until lightly charred on both sides (about 3 minutes per side).
• Serve 1 slice per plate topped with the ice-cream, sorbet or yogurt and a sprinkling of the toasted coconut.

* If you prefer to toast the coconut in the oven - it'll take about 15 minutes on a dry cookie sheet at about 300 deg F.

Raspberry Lime Rickey (with or without alcohol)

Prep Time 5 minutes .  2 PPV per serving  (6 PPV each with addition of Rum, Vodka or Gin).  4 servings.

INGREDIENTS:

2 C unsweetened frozen raspberries (substitute any berries)

2 Tbsp fresh line juice

.25 C sugar

16oz plain seltzer or diet tonic

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Combine frozen raspberries, lime juice, sugar and seltzer in a blender; blend until smooth. Remove blender container from stand and shake it; blend again. Serve immediately over ice. Yields about 1 cup per serving.

If you share a recipe in the meeting room and you'd like me to post it on the blog - please email it to me and I'll gladly post it.  Take a look at the "Insider Trading" tab this week to see Ted's Ginger Chicken family favorite recipe.  Also, stay tuned in the weeks to come for some more fun and delicious recipes to help you through the summer.

If you missed last weeks BLOG - here is the info you need to 

Get moving and get losing with the SPRING moving challenge.  It begins in the meeting this week and runs through July 14.  

Walk, Jog, Dance, Swim, Ultimate Frisbee, Ride, Kayak, do Handstands... it doesn't matter.  We will be encouraging you all the way to get active in any way that excites you, to track your activity and win prizes!

We'll be distributing a brochure at your meeting that week giving details the challenge, it has coupons offering you discounts on fitness paraphernalia (e.g.25% discount at Reebok.com) and will also provide you with the 6-weeks activity tracker which is a paper option for submitting your entry form for prizes.  In addition, the brochure entitles you to purchase all Weight Watchers fitness products on sale -- $5 off, including pedometers!


There are weekly prizes available from such companies as Garmin, Camelbak, Reebok, Speedo, Apple, Bowflex and many more.  There are also Grand Prize winners going to be drawn from members who track all 6 weeks and enter the drawing - XBox 360 250GB Console with Kinect, Kinect Spor5ts; Season Two game, Zumba Fitness Rush game and Your Shape: Fitness Evolved game :)

Please come this week to collect your brochure and find out how to register and get started.  It's a really cool challenge!

Happy Memorial Day:

We pause a minute to consider all the amazing soldiers and their families who have bravely defended our freedoms throughout the ages.  Our hearts and love goes to them, especially if they never made it home or were injured on our behalf.  


Thank-you and God Bless You!

On a final note - if this has been a weekend of more food and beverages and less Weight Watchers - please don't skip the meeting (come and get motivated and just skip the scale instead).  

I wanted to share with you that I saw "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" last night and my favorite line from the move is this:

"Everything will be okay in the end - which means if it's not okay yet, it's not the end"  (Unknown - but some attribute it to John Lennon)

“Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it”

Albert Einstein.

This blog was never meant to be a "Nina's Musings" kind of a blog.  My intention for it when I began, and still is, that it's an informational conduit for me to be able to communicate with members; ideas, information, shared wisdom and so on.  However, this week I am going to "muse".  Thanks in advance for indulging me.

What is the Weight Watchers Experience?

BEFORE

I was working in the Newton Center one evening this week, a mom and daughter came in, stated they had joined 3 days before and asked for their money back!  Shocking, I know...  When I asked them why, you know I did ask them, the daughter said it was because the experience of the meeting differed from their expectation.  She told me that they had been expecting to have a "one on one" session with a counselor, to have more private attention.  Hmmm, well that got me thinking.

The meeting model worked so well for me as a member for several reasons;
(a) it allowed me to be "anonymous" when I needed to wear tan and keep my head down, at the same time still allowing me to listen to the sage advice and help being offered to and from other members,

AFTER

(b) it allowed me ask questions for clarification or advice when I needed it and not embarrass myself in a one on one setting in which I may be less inclined to ask,
(c) it allowed me to be the advisor and friend to others and offer my wisdom when I had an experience that allowed me to learn and therefore giving me something to offer the group, and finally
(d) it helped me to realize that there's a whole community of us out there doing this and trying our hardest to work at it every day.

Without that shared experience, I KNOW I would not have been successful.  It seems to me that we so want to be perceived as strong, capable and unfailing in our resolve, to be able to come up with the answers on our own, somehow it seems like a weakness to have to come to meetings, to be vulnerable and "bear our souls" in a public setting.  I beg to differ, as do many successful lifetime members I have encountered in the 5 years I have been doing this, they all say the same thing... Meeting are the Magic in the Weight Watchers Experience - the shared struggle, the shared joy, the community.

If you're missing from your meeting - come on back, no questions, no judgements, just support!

Are you ready to

  ?

Get moving and get losing with the SPRING moving challenge starting May 27 through July 14.  Walk, Jog, Dance, Swim, Ultimate Frisbee, Ride, do Handstands... it doesn't matter.  We will be encouraging you all the way to get active in any way that excites you, to track your activity and win prizes!

We'll be distributing a brochure at your meeting that week giving details the challenge, it has coupons offering you discounts on fitness paraphernalia (e.g.25% discount at Reebok.com) and will also provide you with the 6-weeks activity tracker which is a paper option for submitting your entry form for prizes.  In addition, the brochure entitles you to purchase all Weight Watchers fitness products on sale -- $5 off, including pedometers!


There are weekly prizes available from such companies as Garmin, Camelbak, Reebok, Speedo, Apple, Bowflex and many more.  There are also Grand Prize winners going to be drawn from members who track all 6 weeks and enter the drawing - XBox 360 250GB Console with Kinect, Kinect Spor5ts; Season Two game, Zumba Fitness Rush game and Your Shape: Fitness Evolved game :)


Come to a meeting in 2 weeks time and DIVE IN!

Since the sun is shining it feels like Salad Weather:

Asian Style Crab Salad

This Asian-influenced salad gets some of its flavor from tamari, a brown sauce made from soybeans. Use it to flavor other dipping or basting sauces, too.

Serves 4

PPV per serving 6

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound lump crab meat

2 medium uncooked carrots, julienned

2 medium green mangos, julienned

1 small uncooked red onion, julienned

2 cups snow peas, julienned

2 tsp sesame oil

3 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

3 Tbsp tamari sauce 

INSTRUCTIONS

Pick over the crab meat for shells; set aside.

Put the oil, vinegar and tamari in a large bowl and whisk it together for a few seconds to combine.  Then add the veggies and mango and toss well.

Divide the salad among the 4 plates and top with the crab.  Serve immediately.

Yields about 2 1/4 C per serving.

Thanks for visiting my blog - check back next Sunday for a new post :)

Set yourself us as a "follower" of the blog and receive alerts when I post new stuff.

And, by the way - your comments are very welcome :)

NOTE:

Weight Watchers is Closed on Monday May 28 in observance of Memorial Day

Have a healthy week

Survive the Supermarket!

Weight Watchers Speak "I can't eat it if I don't have it"

Looking for a comprehensive Shopping List?
You can use this one to see if you're giving yourself your "BEST SHOT" at staying on track - come to the meeting this weeks to get ideas of specific brands and even more great Supermarket Finds and Strategies!
Vegetables such as

            green beans

            broccoli

            onions

            bell peppers red / green / yellow / orange

            radishes

            grape tomatoes

            lettuce

            celery

            baby carrots

            jicama

            sweet potatoes

            cucumber

 Fruit, such as

            berries

            apples

            melon

            grapes

            bananas

            mangoes

            lemons

            blueberries

            pineapple

            raspberries

            strawberries

            pears

Whole-wheat waffles

Frozen vegetables such as

            peas

            spinach

            mixed / steamer bags

            corn

Haddock

Ground lean beef, turkey, or chicken

Veggie burgers

Turkey sausage

Fat-free or low-fat milk

Fat-free or low-fat cheese

Parmesan

Fat-free or light mayonnaise

Low-fat or fat-free spreads such as cream cheese

Plain or flavored 0% Fat Greek yogurts

Eggs or egg substitute

Low-fat / low sodium luncheon or deli meats

Seltzer or calorie-free flavored waters

Sugar free ginger ale

Flavored tea

Sugar free hot chocolate

Whole-grain breakfast cereals

Instant or cook oatmeal

Light whole-grain breads

Tortilla wraps

Whole-wheat pasta

Whole wheat couscous or quinoa or bulgur

Brown rice

Canned tuna

Canned salmon

Canned beans such as cannellini, garbanzo, or black

Canned refried beans

Canned fruit in own juice

Salsa

Canned or jarred tomato sauce

Reduced-fat pasta sauce

Broth

Low sodium / low fat soups

Flavored vinegars

Ketchup

Mustard

Ponzu sauce

Hoisin sauce

Healthy oils such as canola or olive

Dried herbs or spices such as basil, oregano, Mrs. Dash, cinnamon

Sugar substitute

94% fat-free microwave popcorn or air-popped type

Baked chips or tortillas

Whitman’s brand Weight Watchers candies

_______________________________________________________________

Valuable tips and advice from Lifetime Members across the country

• “Keep tracking PointsPlus values even after you have reached your goal.  It’s too easy to increase your portion sizes and eat too many extra PointsPlus values if you don’t”.
• “Enjoy every day you are on plan.  Laugh at your mistakes and celebrate your successes”.
• “Create a strong catalog of meals you love to eat.  Eat only what you truly love and the plan will be a thing of JOY”!
• “Keep yourself busy so the focus of your life is not food”.
• “Be intentional about your healthy lifestyle.  Don’t leave it up to chance”.
• “Lifetime membership is the greatest gift.  I encourage my friends to please hang in there because earning Lifetime will keep them fir for life.  I have remained faithful to my goal because Weight Watchers helped me change the way I eat for life”.
• “Anyone can lose weight – we've all done it a million times – but the key to keeping weight loss off is to embrace your new lifestyle – tell yourself ‘I love the new me!’”
• “Meetings are the place where I learned my new lifestyle and they are the place I continue to learn and contribute to the health and well being of my fellow meeting room buddies”.

OH – one more – I could not resist this:

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what's the first thing you say to yourself?”

“What's for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”

“I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It's the same thing,” he said.

_______________________________________________________________

Have you ever wondered about The Body Mass Index?  A MEMBER ASKED ME FOR MORE INFORMATION THIS WEEK:

Why BMI is the recommended method to diagnose overweight and obesity, how it is calculated and its links to several diseases.  Body mass index, or BMI, is a measurement that evaluates the relationship between body weight and height. While BMI is not a direct measure of excess body fat, it is the recommended method to diagnose overweight and obesity. Because it expresses the weight-height relationship, BMI provides a more accurate measure than body weight alone.

The formula for calculating BMI uses weight in kilograms and height in meters: BMI (kg/m²) = Weight (kg) ÷ Height (m) 2; or weight in pounds and height in inches: BMI (lb/in²) = Weight (lb) ÷ Height (in) 2 x 703. Online calculators that automatically do the computations from an entered height and weight are a convenient method of determining BMI.

Definitions of Overweight, Obesity

Over 50 healthcare organizations around the world, including the National Institutes of Health, use the same BMI standards to define adult overweight and obesity.

Definition BMI Overweight 25-29.9 Obese 30-39.9 Morbidly Obese 40+

BMI's Link to Diseases

BMI is used as the standard to diagnose overweight and obesity because there are so many studies that show a link between BMI, the risk of several diseases and death.

As BMI increases, so does the risk for several conditions, including

• Diabetes
• Cardiovascular disease
• Stroke
• Hypertension
• Gallbladder disease
• Osteoarthritis
• Sleep apnea
• Some cancers
• Premature death

While the links between BMI and disease risk is clear, it is important to remember that it is only one of several disease risk factors. In other words, BMI cannot tell an individual that he or she will get a disease, only that his or her risk of developing the disease is increased.

BMI has some limitations.  It tends to overestimate body fat in people who are very muscular and underestimate body fat in people who are highly sedentary. BMI also doesn't show where the body fat is located. Abdominal fat carries the greatest health risk.

_______________________________________________________________

This recipe comes from “DINING with the DUCHESS”

Sarah, the Duchess of York.

Braised Leeks

PointsPlus™ Value:    2
Servings:  8
Preparation Time:  5 min
Cooking Time:  25 min
Level of Difficulty:  Easy

8 medium leeks – halved lengthwise and thoroughly cleaned

½ cup chicken broth

¼ minced parsley

¼ cup white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon minced thyme

1 teaspoon grated orange zest

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1.  Preheat the oven to 375°F.  In a 9 x 13” baking dish combine the leeks and broth.  Cover with foil and bake until soft, approximately 25 minutes.
2. Meanwhile in a small bowl, combine the parsley, vinegar, olive oil, thyme, orange zest, mustard, salt & pepper with 2 teaspoons of water.  Serve the leeks drizzled with the vinaigrette.

See you in your meeting this week :)

And The Winner Is:

"Everyone's a winner"

This is a direct quote from a member a few weeks ago - she told me that all losses that show up on the scale; even 0.2LBS,  are a "powerful gain".  Her words reminded me of something I posted a couple of years ago that was written by a successful member.  Interesting that 2 separate people feel the same way.  Here you are:

Wow...I Gained!!!
Although I have LOST a lot of pounds, I realized this morning how much I have GAINED!
~ I have GAINED a new healthier, balanced diet, a new variety of foods that I love that are good for me!
~ I have GAINED a BMI of 25, a healthier heart, a longer life.
~ I have GAINED a whole new wardrobe of cute skinny clothes!
~ I have GAINED the ability to go up and down stairs without huffing and puffing, walk all day without tiring, and keep up with my kids!
~ I have GAINED increased strength and coordination - a new appreciation for fitness.
~ I have GAINED a respect for myself!
~ I have GAINED social confidence.
~ I have GAINED a sense of empowerment - my life is in control!
~ I have GAINED a big smile on my face when I look in the mirror and see ME again.
~ I have GAINED an understanding of how I got so overweight and what to do to avoid ever going back there.
~ I have GAINED a new way handling problems rather than medicating myself with food.
~ I have GAINED the respect of other who didn't think I could do this, and never believed I would stick with it.
~ I have GAINED the knowledge that I am setting a good example for my children of a healthier attitude towards food and exercise.
~ I have GAINED faith in my ability to accomplish anything I commit myself to achieving!
~ I have GAINED a wealth of friends through my meetings...a circle of support!
See "GAINED" isn't such a bad thing!

                         --- Author Unknown

SPRING CHALLENGE 02/12 - 04/14

I'm please to announce the winners of the SPRING CHALLENGE:
The winners were randomly drawn from the folks who qualified under the rules of the challenge.
Here were the requirements to qualify for the drawing:
You were required to set you own goal for the 8 weeks,  at least 5 LBS - communicate it to me at the start and then weigh in at least 4 times during the 8 weeks and send me the results of each visit to the scale in an email.  

At the end of the 8 weeks - all members that reached their chosen goal (within 1 LBS) and who had reported at least 4 weigh-ins were placed in the drawing for prizes.

(Lifetime members at goal or members working through maintenance during the challenge were included - provided you followed weigh in and reporting requirements)


CONGRATS TO EVERYONE WHO PARTICIPATED AND CONGRATS TO THE PRIZE WINNERS:
Grand Prize  of 3 Cookbooks and a WW Fitness DVD
Terry P, Waltham Monday 5:30PM Meeting

3 Runners Up Prizes of  A Weight Watchers Cookbook each:
Norma D, Waltham Monday 7PM Meeting
Robin B, Newton Sunday 10:00AM Meeting
Sara A, At Work Thursday 12:15PM  Meeting
                                 
                             Come to your next meeting to collect your prize from me.

Here's a bit of fun for NO reason!

1. Pick the number of times per week you would like to go out to eat (more than once but less than 10)

2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)

3. Add 5

4. Multiply it by 50

5. If you have already had your birthday this year, add 1762. If you haven’t, add 1761.

6. Subtract the four digit year that you were born

You should have a three digit number. The first digit is how many times you want to go out to eat in a week. The remaining two numbers are your age... oh yes they are! :-)

eTools Makeover


High-tech improvements bring more interactivity, better resources, and greater accountability

Expect exciting changes and new features on eTools as of May 22. Here’s a sneak peek at what you'll see this month.

Community Challenges get plugged in: The freshly redesigned Community Challenges will now pull weight and activity data directly from the Plan Manager, so you can check into your Challenge with accurate numbers.

Food Tracker gets more comprehensive: We’re adding thousands of brand-name and restaurant foods to our database. We’re also adding a new feature to the search function to make it easier to find foods—you be able to sort your search criteria by column, for example by PointsPlus® value or brand name.

Homepage Alerts keep you accountable: If you haven’t tracked your food or weight, you’ll now be prompted with an alert. These little reminders are one more way to help you be successful on Plan!

To learn more about each of these exciting changes, head over to our updates page on MONDAY by clicking here.

Tales from the Trenches...

In-Flight Options:
         When the food bites back!
A recent conversation with a member was a real eye opener for me.  She told me that she had made a peanut butter sandwich for nourishment on her SF to Boston flight, but was concerned because it was a lot of PB and "real bread", she would have liked an option for fewer PPV on her flight.

Once on the plane she saw the In-Flight Menu Choices and was happy to purchase what looked like a great healthy sandwich; Chicken Thai Wrap with a sauce.  Discarding the sauce, she dug into the sandwich, thrilled that the airline was giving thought to those passengers who did not want to eat a mayo slathered, fatty, carb-y food and had a "good choice"

However, upon returning home (she kept the wrapper) and calculated the PPV in order to track it - 14PPV without the sauce!  For a wrap!  (Oh, and by the way, the Sodium in the sandwich was over 1000 mg).  She couldn't believe her eyes, it was chicken and veggies...??  She feels that her best option would have been the PB sandwich.  I just looked at eTools and a "standard PB & J" will set you back 9 PPV!

And the moral of the story is - if you're going to want to eat in the air - BYO!

Here's a great article that I found on a blog:
A Guide to Airline Meals and Snacks

And finally:

Wanda  lost 80.8 LBS
Weight Watchers Member (from Inspirational Stories on www.weightwatchers.com)

Wanda's TIPS

"Don't give up if you mess up along the way, because it's the times when you get back up that make the difference."
"Be selfish when it comes to you weight-loss goals.  Don't let anything get in the way of your workout time or preparing your meals.  Make it a priority."
"Combine cardio and weight lifting for great results."
"Remember weight loss is a marathon, not a sprint."

See you in your meeting.  Have a wonderful week!