Welcome to this Week's Weight Watcher's Meal Plan!
Weight Watchers unveiled its new Program, Beyond the Scale with SmartPoints this week. 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.
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.
(If you are looking for Healthy Meal Planning Solution with lots of options including low carb and vegetarian diets with complete nutritional information and Weight Watchers SmartPoints, my WW friend Kristen, from Slender Kitchen has a really good one.)
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 #59)
From here on out I'll be providing SmartPoints (SP) values instead of PointsPlus. Much of the inspiration for this week's plan comes from the new Beyond the Scale Plan Guide, which I picked up at my Weight Watchers meeting last Sunday.
As I continue to try to maintain a certain balance in my diet at this most indulgent time of year, I'll be trying to keep my cooking as vegetable focused as I can with an emphasis on soups. I love soup. When you eat a really good bowl of soup, you feel good and you know you're being healthy too. It's a great way to eat a little less without feeling like you are depriving yourself. Have a wonderful week 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. Pear Almond Oatmeal - ¾ cooked cooked oatmeal (4SP) topped with ½ cup medium chopped pear (0SP), 1-½ tablespoons sliced Almonds (1SP) and sprinkled with Cinnamon.
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. Slow Cooker Olive Garden Pasta Fagoili (6SP) and a slice of Crusty Bread (2SP) - Hearty and delicious, this soup is a family favorite.
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. Burger - 3 ounce lean beef burger (3SP) on a toasted light English Muffin (2SP) with Lettuce (0SP), Tomato (0SP) and Ketchup (1SP) and WW Apple Slaw (5SP)
2. Slow Cooker Bean Barley Soup (1-½ cups - 6SP) and a simple side Salad (0PP) with low fat Dressing (2SP) - This is an easy slow cooker bean barley soup, healthy and satisfying, that comes together in minutes and can simmer in the crock pot for hours. It’s perfect for this hectic time of year.
3. Simple Slow Cooker Chicken and Gravy (4SP) - with Mashed Potatoes (½ cup - 4SP) and Green Beans (0SP)
4. Greek Omelet - 2 eggs (4SP) with chopped Spinach (0SP), chopped Red Bell Pepper (0SP), chopped Scallion (0SP), chopped Tomato (0SP) and 2 tablespoons Feta Cheese (2SP) with a simple side Salad (0SP) and low fat Dressing (2SP)
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. Sliced pear (0SP) with 1 ounce cubed low-fat Swiss Cheese (1SP) and 14 Almonds (2SP)
2. Grape tomatoes (0SP) with a 1 Cheese Stick (2 SP)
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.
Chocolate Almond Coconut Truffles (2SP) - While not exactly health food, made with avocado, instead of butter they’re a more wholesome chocolate treat.
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!
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Dee
What would be the best way to search for gluten free and crock pot recipes? I come up with things not gluten free. Thanks!
Martha McKinnon
Hi Dee, unfortunately because gluten free has not been a priority for me, I haven't done a good job tagging and categorizing recipes here for that. I'll try to do a better job. Sorry about that!
Suzanne
Can I ask what brand of low fat swiss cheese you have? I've never seen such a thing. Would be great to have a 1SP option! Thanks!
Martha McKinnon
Hi Suzanne,
I live in Phoenix, which is a big city with LOTS of different grocery stores. Some of the brands I've seen here include: Weight Watchers, Alpine Lace Light, Jarlsberg Light, and Reduced-Fat Sargento. Hope this helps!
Suzanne
Yes! Thank you Martha!
Judy
Hi Martha, Your blog & recipes are one of the best! I recently purchased your crockpot PDF and now of course the PP will need to be changed to SP. Would you possibly consider putting together an index with the recipe name and new SP?
Martha McKinnon
Hi Judy, I think you'll find the updated SP for the recipes contained in the pdf here: https://simple-nourished-living.com/weight-watchers-recipes-updated-with-new-smartpoints/ We are working to get recipes updated as quickly as we can!
Judy
Oh this is perfect - I just went through and handwrote the updated SPs so I'd have them right on the recipe. Thanks!!
Martha McKinnon
Glad it worked, Judy!