Welcome to this week's Weight Watcher's Meal Plan!
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.
I've discovered that 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
I think we all know that cooking at home as much as we can is better for us. I recently ran across this study linking home cooking with a healthier diet. Basically, the study confirmed that people who cook at home more frequently ate fewer calories and less sugar than those who cooked at home less.
And there's more good news: When these people did eat out, the home cooks tended to consume fewer calories out of the home as well. I think the process of cooking gives home cooks better awareness of the ingredients and associated calories involved in preparing various dishes so we have the understanding to make better choices when we eat out.
My Overall Weight Watchers Meal Plan Strategy
I'm incredibly lazy, so the key to cooking at home, instead resorting to eating out and takeout more often is to keep things simple. I get tired just reading so many of the meal plan programs I see that suggest a different breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day! Are you kidding me? Who eats like that? Not me or anyone I know.
I'm a creature of habit. I tend to rotate between the same one or two breakfasts and lunches the days I eat at home. And because we are a family of two most recipes I make 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 I 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 #52)
All is well in my world. I hope it is for you too. Although it's far from cool here, the intense summer heat is now safely behind us. People are venturing outside, walking their dogs, running, biking, eating outside. I'll spend some time this weekend cleaning up our little backyard so we can begin enjoying our patio again. Have a lovely 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 skinny latte (2PP) and either:
1) 4-Ingredient Microwave Mug Apple Pancake Puff (4PP) - A recent discovery you can make in minutes that I can't seem to get enough of at the moment.
2) Scrambled Egg (2PP) with an English Muffin (3PP) and Fruit (0PP) or Sliced Tomatoes (0PP)
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 end up meeting up with my mom and/or girlfriends a couple of times a week for lunch, something I look forward to
1. Trader Joe's Asian Chicken Salad (6PP) - A quick and easy lunch you can toss together in minutes. I like to mix everything except the peanuts and dressing together and store in an airtight container or quart size mason jars (affiliate link). Then when I'm ready to eat I just drizzle on the dressing, sprinkle on the peanuts and toss.
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.) I love the return of soup season. Hearty Soups manage to fill us up in a nourishing way and never leave us feeling overfull the way so many foods can.
1. Slow Cooker Chicken Vegetable Soup (3PP) with Warm Crusty Whole Grain Bread (4PP) and a Simple Tossed Green Salad (0PP) dressed with Light Dressing (1T - 1PP)
2. Slow Cooker Caribbean Jerk Chicken (5PP) - with Baked Sweet Potato (1 medium - 4PP) and Steamed Broccoli (0PP)
3. Easy Slow Cooker Kielbasa Sauerkraut and Potatoes (9PP) - An easy, healthy delicious way to celebrate Oktoberfest - with Roasted Carrots (1PP for the oil)
4. Super Simple Sloppy Joes (New Recipe) - with corn (½ cup - 2PP)
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 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. Apple (0PP) and Cheese Stick (2PP)
2. Plain Greek Yogurt (½ cup - 2PP) drizzled with Maple Syrup (2 tsp - 1PP) and sprinkle of Granola (2 Tbsp = 1PP)
Dessert
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.
Skinny Apple Brownies (4PP)
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!
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