Welcome to this Week's Weight Watcher's Meal Plan!
A couple of quick notes:
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- I started tracking my points on Weight Watchers again. It's that time of year when I can really use the extra awareness to avoid gaining weight during the holidays.
- Weight Watchers has invited me to be a part of something very special and all very top secret so I can't talk about it yet... but you'll want to keep your eyes and ears open!!
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 #56)
Thursday is Thanksgiving! Friends have invited us to a non-traditional 5-course French meal sans turkey, which will be a Thanksgiving first for us. I hope you have a wonderful holiday filled with delicious food and the love of friends and family.
Breakfast
This week I'm going to begin the day with a skinny latte (2PP) and either:
1. Microwave Mug Apple Pancake Puff (4PP) and Fruit (0PP) - This 4-Ingredient Microwave (affiliate link) Mug Apple Pancake Puff is super easy to toss together, perfect for a quick and easy breakfast.
2. Scrambled Egg (2PP) and Whole Wheat Toast (1 slices 2PP) and Fruit (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. Now that the weather is cooling off I'll be eating more soup. It's one of my secret strategies for staying slim all year round.
1. Skinny Curried Sweet Potato Soup (4PP) - One of my favorite soups, which requires quite a bit of chopping, but makes enough for me to enjoy all week. Sliced Lean Ham (3 oz - 2PP) on Triscuits (6 - 3PP)
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.) Since this is Thanksgiving week, I'm keeping things extra simple in the kitchen this week!
1. Skinny Artichoke Spinach Baked Pasta (7PP) and a Simple Tossed Green Salad (0PP) dressed with Light Dressing (1T - 1PP) - Perfect for Meatless Monday, I think this artichoke spinach baked pasta would also be great with a little cooked chicken stirred in.
2. Crock Pot Italian Meatball Soup (6PP) and a Slice of Crusty Bread (2PP) - I think one of keys to making Weight Watchers work for the long haul is finding recipes that will please the entire family. This crockpot Italian Meatball soup is a great example. It doesn’t taste like "diet" food. Because it’s not. It’s just a really hearty, flavorful soup that makes a great one dish meal.
3. Leftovers
4. Thanksgiving
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. Light Popcorn (2 cups - 2PP)
2. Apple (0PP) and Peanut Butter (1 Tbsp - 2PP)
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.
Low Fat Impossibly Easy Pumpkin Pie (4PP) - It wouldn't feel like Thanksgiving without a pumpkin dessert of one sort or another 🙂
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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Margaret Smith
I would love to hear hour comments on a weekly basis about your recipes etc. #Thank you