Simply Satisfying - switching this week and need ideas

[Mifford]

I've been doing pro points for about 6 weeks now and I've been struggling to get my points up to my daily allowance as I don't eat a lot of carb foods. The trouble I've had is that I don't lose weight if I'm under my daily points but in order to get them up to my full 33 each day I'm having to add in more pasta and rice etc which I then only lose 1/2lb a week despite being 100% every day each week.

So after much discussion with my leader I've decided to give Simply Satisfying a try this week as it fits a little bit better into the foods that I prefer to eat. Looking at what I eat normally I seem to have been falling somewhere between the two different diets - I've been having too many weekly points for Simply Satisfying but not enough points for Pro Points so switching to the SS method may well work better for me.

Anyway - looking at what I'm going to eat this next week I'm absolutely fine for breakfast and dinner without needing to change much as I have a lot of smoothies, fruit salads, boiled egg and porridge for breakfast and for dinner tend to eat fish, white meat and vegetables without the pastas or rices and often without potatoes but I can add those in without a problem. Last night for example I had pork escalope cut into strips and stir fried with a whole load of veg such as baby sweetcorn and pak choi and I'm more than happy with that.

The one I'm struggling with is lunch. I can't eat bread other than very limited amounts of the WW breads so sandwiches aren't really on the menu and I'm kind of getting sick of tuna or ham salad.

Is anyone else doing the Simply Satisfying route and what kind of things do you eat?

 

[Tracer]

I'm not good with carbs....one thing I like is to finely chop cucumber/onion/tomato/radish/celery/grated carrot mix in a bowl (add Mayo or vinegarette) then add meat ham/turkey/chicken tikka. Get lettuce leaves whole and use them as wraps ( just like yuk sung). I get lots for about 4pp.....x

 

[Mifford]

ooo I like that idea (minus the tomato) - I can use baby gem lettuce as a little taco shell kind of thing.

I went shopping this morning and bought bits that should fit with the simply satisfying but already messed up - I knew salmon was on the list so got smoked salmon for lunch and then discovered that smoked salmon is actually points and not healthy & filling - doh! It was only 3 points though so I'm not too worried.

I got tuna, ham, turkey roll and cottage cheese. I worked out I can do a mixture of salads, jacket potato & the odd sandwich with WW bread this week. I got some wholemeal pasta as well so I can have small amounts of that - assuming that the gluten doesn't cause me problems with my stomach but we'll see.

 

[Mifford]

so yesterday I spent the whole time calling this version "healthy and filling" then realised that was wrong so today have been calling it "simply satisfying" ... bearing in mind its actually called "simply filling" I'm amazed anyone knows what the heck I'm talking about! lol

 

[LittleMissThin 17]

so yesterday I spent the whole time calling this version "healthy and filling" then realised that was wrong so today have been calling it "simply satisfying" ... bearing in mind its actually called "simply filling" I'm amazed anyone knows what the heck I'm talking about! lol

I did the exact same thing when mentioning it to my mum! Both filling and healthy and then simply satisfying! :silly:

 

[Mifford]

well quite clearly they named it wrong and it should be called Simply Satisfying on which you eat healthy and filling foods :8855:

 

[Rosie_Lee]

this is basically the old core plan isn't it except you get the 49 weeklies.

i used to love being on core (was always hungry on discover) might be one i turn to if i get a bit stuck or after hols etc

 

[Thetrigos]

Can you have the WW soups? Or any sort of soup really? If you home-make it it can be zero or very low points.

 

[Rosie_Lee]

http://www.weightwatchers.com/images/1033/dynamic/GCMSImages/FillingFoodList_US.pdf

 

[Mifford]

thanks Rosie - that list will make it easier to make choices. I don't know about the core or discovery plans - I last did WW about 12 years ago when it was just points and only one plan so I never looked at when they changed it.

Thetrigos I have a receipe for butterbean and sweetcorn soup that is delicious so that's a good idea.

I had celery and apple salad for lunch with yogurt and lime dressing which was really tasty. I threw in a handful of cashew nuts to bring the protein up and slow down how quickly my body deals with it so did have to point them but it was really tasty. This is the kind of stuff I much prefer eating so this version of the plan is certainly mentally easier on me - although I'm only 2 days in so by the end of the week I may think differently lol

 

[Mets]

Would you be able to post a typical days menu please? I'd like to try this plan as sometimes I'm still hungry but I don't have enough points left. This might be a better plan for me but with so much choice on that long list, I don't know where to start!

 

[Mifford]

I can tell you what I had the last couple of days if that helps:-

Breakfast
Melon & mint smoothie with low fat natural probiotic yogurt & teaspoon of flax seed oil

Snack
Cherries straight off the tree

Lunch
Apple & celery salad, 10 cashew nuts (3 points) & homemade dressing with yogurt, lime & olive oil
Melon

Dinner
Chicken stir fried with a whole load of mixed veg
2 x meringues topped with mandarins (3 points)

Breakfast

20g puffed wheat and milk with a teaspoon of sugar (just couldn't stomach them without as they were too bland) (1pp)
Pear

Snacks = satsumas, curly wurly (3pps)

Lunch = mixed bean salad, lettuce, beetroot, butternut squash & 50g low fat feta cheese (2 pps). 2 slices of WW bread. Fruit and sugar free jelly.

Dinner = pork escalope stir fried in olive oil with 1/2 tin ratatouille. 2 slices WW bread. Pineapple smoothie with 1 teaspoon flaxseed oil.

I've been snacking on loads of fruit in between - I went cherry picking this week at the local pick your own fruit farm so I've been eating loads of those. I don't know if its where I've switched plans or I'm on some tablets from the doctors or it could just be one of those weeks but I'm REALLY hungry this week. I'm eating more than I usually do though so I don't think its the change of plan - plus I was really hungry last week for some reason as well.

I do have to think about what I'm eating far more than on the other plan as I find I'm using my weeklies to give my food a bit more flavour and then I can't use them for "extras". I'm quite enjoying it though.

Today I started my day with scrambled egg on 2 slices of WW bread toasted. I just snacked on a handful of grapes to get rid of my sweet tooth in between. Lunch will be the rest of the mixed bean salad that I made up yesterday (Sainsbury's do a tin of mixed bean salad in vinagrette which is perfect in it) with 50g of low fat greek salad cheese (2pps) and possiby an apple for after as I'm out of yoghurt. Dinner I have bubble & squeek planned - basically I steam spinach, cabbage or any other green veggies and potato and then mash it all together. Then it gets put into a dish and I top with a very small amount of low fat grated cheddar which I'll count the points on and grill to brown the top off. I'll probably then have something like a milkshake for pudding.

Tomorrow I haven't planned breakfast or lunch yet but dinner will be steamed chicken, new potatoes and steamed vegetables followed by rhubarb crumble made with stewed rhubarb and topped with gluten free oats and the whole thing will fit within the healthy & filling list

If I'm still hungry this afternoon I could have a ham or turkey roll sandwich with WW bread if I wanted but I don't do well with carbs so I'm trying to keep those down.

I have wholewheat pasta or wholewheat couscous and tuna with cucumber and mint on my list of things I can eat as well. Or even just meat, potato and vegetables as a bog standard dinner works.

Hope that helps

 

[Mifford]

oh and I do like being able to just have a glass of milk if I want one without having to think about how many points are in it

 

[Mets]

Thanks for that. Your menu sounds lovely! The problem I think i'd have is not knowing when to stop eating! If I've made something then I have to eat it all - I've got no control! So I'd worry I'd make too much (because I could) and then eat it all....

 

[Mifford]

the thing with the simply filling is that you eat until you are satisfied without being stuffed - as its the low points stuff presumably you can eat more without a problem.

I've eaten so much fruit this week its insane - and tonight I made the bubble & squeek using 2 big potatoes planning to split it and use half for leftover lunch tomorrow but was really hungry and ended up eating the whole thing.

I've been worrying about it as well but on the WW esource thingy I can switch back and forth between each plan and when I switch it back to the pro points system I am way under the points each day. Obviously I'm eating more fruit and veg which will have an impact but its made me stop worrying about it.

Then again I don't get weighed in until Tuesday evening so I'll let you know! lol

 

[Mets]

If eat whatever is in front of me - so even if I was full I'd still eat it :-/ it's a terrible thing which I've tried so hard to get out of.

I was speaking to someone else on here about it a few weeks ago and what it boils down to, is I'm scared lol it's taken me since September last year to lose 23lbs and I'm scared I'll put some back on by doing this different plan.

I'll be really interested to see how you get on on Tuesday that's handy that you can swap between the two plans on esource. I'll check that out

 

[Mifford]

actually I may have been misleading in the way I worded that - you can switch it to check the points if you want to but on the plans you pick one and stick to it for the entire week so you can't switch back and forth during the week. Does that make sense?

Oh and I understand what you are saying. I seem to be missing that signal that you get that tells you when your stomach is full. I have to portion control what I eat or I will just keep going - if I wait 20 minutes I then realise I don't want any more but I can't rely on my stomach to advise me when to stop because it just doesn't do it.

If the propoints is working for you then I'd stick with it its just that I'm struggling with it. Either that or try it for a week to see how you get on as the foods you'll be eating mean you shouldn't really gain or if you did it would be minimal and if it doesn't work then just switch back to standard pro points

 

[Mets]

Yeah that does make sense and thank you, I think I'd need to sit down and plan out a weeks menu and go from there. I do that anyway, but I think this one would take some planning - and I can be quite lazy!

Please let me know how you get on on Tuesday

 

[Mifford]

will do and yep it does take a bit more thinking - I liked that this week as I've had to be a bit more aware of what I'm eating than normal and having to do a menu for the week has been a good thing too as I tend to do better when I do that.

My scales this morning don't show me as having lost much on it so far but when I did the fat percentage calculation on them it did show that the ratio on that had changed well this week and is down by 0.5% so even if the scales don't show then its obviously doing me some good anyway so I can live with that - I'll hold off of celebrating until my official weigh in at the meeting Tuesday evening though

 

[Mifford]

well tonight was weigh in for the first time after Simply Filling and my weight loss was ..... 1lb.

Now I know that doesn't seem like a lot but my weight losses have been 1/2lb a week on propoints so switching to simply filling has doubled that so I'm going to stick to it again this coming week to see how I get on.

I'm not sure if that helps anyone else considering it but bear in mind that my body does not lose weight easily and my numbers are really low so 1lb in a week is a REALLY good weight loss for me. Plus I feel a heck of a lot healthier and less bloated eating on this plan and I don't have to worry about trying to increase foods I don't really want in order to use up points.

Funnily one of the other ladies at my meeting switched to it 2 weeks ago and she said the exact same thing about feeling healthier and better on it - she had been doing the same as me in that she was choosing what she ate based on how many points it had in order to use up her daily allowance and felt she was eating less healthily than she would naturally choose to so she much prefers the simply filling as well.

Anyway the outcome is as hard as its been in some ways because I'm having to use my weeklies on gluten free products whereas the non-gluten free would be zero rated on this plan and that leaves me with very little ability to have treats at the same time I will be sticking to it as overall I think it suits me a whole lot better.

My challenge for this week is to find a bit more balance on it and trust that it'll work so I can settle into it a bit more.