Active Yet?

The Place:     Charles River Canoe and Kayak
The Day:     Sunday 7/22/12
The Activity:    Kayaking on the Charles 
The Motivation:   Activity Points!!!!  What Else???
Today's fun activity for me was 95 minutes of kayaking, we were motivated on the way home to row harder because we did not want to pay for a third hour (not that I'm cheap - just thrifty) anyway you can literally see the difference between the leisurely pace out and the hurried pace back in these 2 charts:  

1:07 PM to 1:59PM

2:00PM to 2:35PM

The first one depicts the time spent on the outward bound course - we travelled 3 miles from Auburndale to Waltham (the weir at Moody Street) and the second screen shot is the return trip.

I wore the monitor on my lanyard around my neck the whole time.  The wearing position makes no difference as to the recording of the body's movement, but when I got home and sync'd the monitor to e-tools, I named the activity (as rowing) which is why you see the shaded green area and the little person in a boat on the chart and it moved the needle from 1 PPV earned to 5!

Here is what today looks like so far:

If you have not yet checked out ActiveLink in the meeting room - this is a MUST HAVE tool.   Ask me at your meeting and I'll happily give you more information!

It is a state-of-the-art activity monitor combined with a personalized web experience designed and built by Phillips exclusively for Weight Watchers to assist us to analyze the activity we are doing (or not doing) and motivate us to do more --- and as you can see, it is doing just that for me!  If you look carefully at the chart - you'll see I am at 150% of my daily activity level challenge for today and it's only 4:30PM!

And Now for Some REALLY ....
.... Great news!   The Food Tracker was recently expanded to include new restaurants and foods, including those from Trader Joe’s. That’s right, Trader Joe’s! And more are on the way. We’ll be adding tons of new listings through July, to the tune of more than 100,000 new items.

Members requested Trader Joe’s foods, so WW says they're excited to finally be able to deliver.  There are now more than 1,000 distinct products from Trader Joe’s—including items from their bakery, frozen and refrigerated food sections, and their general grocery.  WW says  "We're committed to making tracking an easier, more convenient experience for all our members, including those who shop at Trader Joe’s."

As for restaurants, you'll now find these eateries, among others, in your Food Tracker: Cosi, Shake Shack, Panera Bread, IHOP, Chop’t, Krispy Kreme, Ranch 1, Five Guys, PF Changs, and Pinkberry.

There are also new entrée listings for existing restaurants, including Red Lobster, Chipotle, Domino’s, Burger King, and Subway … to name just a few!

Did you know that Weight Watchers has a blog called "What's New" - here they update members on what's happening online and other logistic changes to the materials and program to help you stick with it!

Weight Watchers on the move!

The Newton Center is soon to be in our "past history"!  We're moving to 300 Needham Street, next to Pearl Vision and EMS in the building on the "other side" of TJ Maxx.

As of Thursday this week we'll see you there.

The longer opening times will allow you to be able to come and "drop" in anytime through the week - on weekdays from 8:00AM to 8:00PM.  For the most part, the meeting times and personnel are going to be the same - so don't be shy.. come on in and say "Hi"!

And Finally - it's been a while since I shared a recipe:

Alternate Bean Salad
Makes 4 servings
3 PPV per serving.
Very very simple bean salad with only a few ingredients.  You'll see that I only use 1/2 a can of each of the canned beans because I like to keep some back to use on tossed leafy salads, but this recipe is so easy you can use all the beans and double the number of servings.  BTW - sometimes I give it an extra kick with a dash or two of hot sauce...

3/4 C green or white wax beans (or mixed) cut into about 1 inch pieces and lightly cooked
1/2 can (7 oz) red kidney beans
1/2 can (7 oz) garbanzo beans
1/4 C small diced red pepper
1/4 C small diced green pepper
1/4 C small diced sweet white onion or scallions
1/4 C medium or hot tomato salsa

Mix everything together and place in the fridge for about an hour to allow the flavors to develop - this salad keeps well in the fridge for about 4 days.