Welcome to this Week's Weight Watcher's Meal Plan!
Weight Watchers unveiled its new Program, Beyond the Scale with SmartPoints two weeks ago. SmartPoints goes further than PointsPlus with nudging toward healthier eating. I was given early access and have been evaluating it for over three weeks. You can read my detailed assessment of Beyond the Scale and SmartPoints here.
How's it going with SmartPoints so far? I hope these meal plans help the transition easier 🙂
Every Saturday I share my Weight Watchers Weekly Meal Plans with Points and Recipes here on Simple Nourished Living. It includes what I'm planning to have for breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well a few snack and dessert ideas.
Meal times so much easier when I've taken the time to think about what I'm cooking and eating ahead of time. With the shopping done and weight watchers recipes at the ready I can just walk into the kitchen and get cooking.
I don't always stick to my plan one hundred percent. Life happens. But, it helps to have a rough guide and prevents me from reaching into the cookie jar or bag of chips too often. Whoever said that failing to plan was planning to fail was spot on!
The Benefits of Cooking at Home More
Since I like to cook I may be biased, but I've always believed that the food you cook for yourself is essentially good for you. Taking the time to cook for yourself is a supremely nourishing act of kindness…
And mindfulness. When I step into the kitchen and begin to cook I lose myself in the process, becoming completely focused in the simple acts of chopping, mixing, stirring, smelling and tasting. It gives me pleasure and keeps me grounded and connected to myself, my family and the world.
My Overall Weight Watchers Meal Plan Strategy
Even when you like to cook, it can be the last thing you want to do at the end of a long day. I've found that the key is to keep things simple. Just reading many of the meal plan programs out there suggesting a different breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day are enough to make me run from the kitchen screaming. Are you kidding me? Who cooks like that? Not me or anyone I know.
I've experimented with many of the sophisticated meal planning programs out there, but I've never been able to make them work for me. Yellow sticky notes and iPhone lists are more my speed.
As a creature of habit, I tend to rotate between the same one or two breakfasts and lunches the days I eat at home each week. And because we are a family of two most recipes result in leftovers that we are happy to eat again or transform somehow. So, I usually only cook from scratch three or four times a week. We like to eat out a couple of times, usually during the weekend.
If we end up with more food than we can eat, I portion it out, package it up and pop it in the freezer for future quick and easy lunches and dinners.
I hope these posts make it easier for you to stay on track with your weight loss and/or healthy eating goals too. It's a process that gets easier with practice.
And remember, there's a Weight Watchers Weekly Meal Plans Section on the blog so you can get inspiration from all of the previous weekly meal plans too. Enjoy!
Weight Watchers Weekly Meal Plan (Week #60)
From here on out I'll be providing SmartPoints (SP) values instead of PointsPlus.
This week has been a challenge. Rod's daughter hosted a champagne focused holiday party last Saturday night with an impressive spread of food and we were out with friends a couple of times during the week. Next week the food centric celebrations will continue and the weather has turned cold which really revs up my appetite.
When you love Christmas cookies and eggnog as much as I do, it can be rough keeping things in balance. When I'm not celebrating, I plan to be compensating with soup. I love soup. When you eat a really good bowl of soup, you feel good and you know you're being healthy too. Have a Merry Christmas, if you celebrate it, and remember to take the time to cook something healthy and delicious for yourselves, dear friends!
Breakfast
This week I'm going to begin the day with a cup of black coffee (half calf/half decaf) (0SP)
1. Peanut Butter Toast - 1 slice whole wheat toast (2SP) spread with 1 tablespoon Peanut Butter (3SP) and sliced Banana (0SP) and Grapefruit half (0SP)
2. Cereal with Fruit - 1 cup Mini Shredded Wheat (5SP) with 1 cup Soy Milk (2SP) and Chopped Pear (0SP) and Pomegranate (0SP)
Lunch
I like to keep lunch quick and easy. Limiting my choices makes weight loss/maintenance easier. (Here's research that supports the idea.) I eat lunch out 1 or 2 times a week with my mom and/or girlfriends, something I look forward to. Whenever I can I'll choose soup 🙂
1. WW 0 Points Vegetable Soup (0SP) and Grilled Cheese - Top open-face light English Muffin (2SP) with Tomato Slices (0SP) and sprinkle evenly with ¼ cup part-skim shredded Mozzarella Cheese (2SP). Broil until heated through and cheese starts to brown.
2. Leftovers from dinner
Dinner
Because we are a family of two most recipes result in leftovers, so, I only cook from scratch three or four times a week. (We eat out once or twice.)
1. Chicken White Bean Salsa Soup (1 cup - 3SP) and a simple side Salad (0PP) with low fat Dressing (2SP) and a warm Corn Tortilla (2SP) - This quick & easy chicken white bean salsa soup is the kind of dish that barely qualifies as a recipe. Just stir together some chopped cooked chicken, chicken broth, salsa and a couple of cans of drained white beans and add chili powder and cumin to taste.
2. Slow Cooker Corn Shrimp Chowder (8SP) - and a simple side Salad (0PP) with low fat Dressing (2SP) and a sliced of crusty bread (2SP)
3. Christmas Eve Open House with Family and Friends
4. Christmas Dinner with Family
5. Leftovers
Snacks
I try to limit my snacks to one in the late afternoon which keeps me from being overly hungry when I'm getting dinner. To prevent snacking while I'm making dinner, I often chew gum. A former Cheez-Its junkie, I've pretty much given up on processed, packaged snack-y foods that I can never seem to get enough of once I begin. Weight Watchers calls them Trigger Foods, I call them EVIL and have expelled them from my house 🙂
1. Spread a Brown Rice Cake (1SP) with 2 teaspoons Peanut Butter (2SP) and Banana Slices (0SP)
2. Grape Tomatoes (0SP) with a hard Boiled Egg (2SP)
Dessert
With the new SmartPoints plan sweet treats are a lot more "expensive" than they were with Points Plus. I usually try to limit dessert to once or twice a week. I don't keep many sweets around the house. You can't eat what you don't have 🙂 And I usually save my points plus for homemade sweet stuff, which is more work, but always tastes so much better. Through the years I've convinced myself to not waste my valuable points on ho-hum sweet treats.
Microwave Baked Apple (2SP) - Sweet and satisfying, this microwave (affiliate link) baked apple is an easy, healthy, satisfying alternative to apple pie with just 2 Points.
If you make one of our weight watchers recipes, we would love for you to take a picture and share it on Instagram. Use the hashtag #simplenourishedliving. We want to see what you are making and would love for you to follow us on Instagram.
And remember, there's a Weight Watchers Meal Plans with PointsPlus section on the blog so you can get inspiration from all of the previous weekly meal plans too.
Have a wonderful week!
This post contains affiliate links to products I like. When you buy something through one of my Amazon links or Craftsy links, I receive a small commission that helps support this site. Thanks for your purchase!
Subscribe to Get: Top 10 Reader Favorite Recipes
The Top 10 Most Popular Recipes (PDF) on Simple Nourished Living + Weekly Support Emails with Tips & Easy Healthy Recipes Not Found Anywhere Else!
Kelley
Hi there!
I have never eaten tapioca! I see it in your recipes a lot. Do you cook it first or put it straight from the box into in the crock pot. Thanks!
Martha McKinnon
Hi Kelly, it's just a thickener. You put it straight from the box into the crock pot.
Kelley
Thanks!
Martha McKinnon
My pleasure, Kelley!!
Arlene
You have said (sSP) for the points value of the mozzarella cheese, what does that mean? I ts probably obvious but I'm a bit slow!!!
Martha McKinnon
Hi Arlene, It was just a typo. Should be 2SP. I've fixed it in the post.