What I Wish I Knew My First Week on Weight Watchers: Advice for Newbies / Beginners

I had a terrible time my first couple of weeks on Weight Watchers because I couldn't figure out what to eat. The veterans must have a bunch of things they pick up without thinking about it, because if you ask, they tell you, "Oh, just poke around on the Weight Watchers website! There are great recipes! I love the chicken teriyaki with greens!" or "Flip through the guide! There are great ideas, organized by points!" or "Eat whatever you want! That's the great thing about WW! Just make sure you track everything!"

That last one is particularly bad advice, because if you do that, you've used up your points by the time you're done with lunch (or maybe before). The others are actually good advice, and true, but they don't help any when you get back from running errands at noon and you're starving and you don't want to fix poached salmon and roasted asparagus for lunch. That's not to say you shouldn't cook lunch from scratch, but sometimes--especially that first week--you just want to eat.

They didn't understand that I needed actual food recommendations, not just generalized advice. So, here you go, the foods I wish I'd known about my first week. I'm a newbie myself, just four months in, so take this with a grain of salt. Also, forgive the amateur photos, I don't have the patience to set up those gorgeous food shots.

- I've said elsewhere that I'm not a fan of wasting points on supermarket bread, but sometimes you need to get the sandwich filling from the plate to your mouth. Sara Lee Delightful works well for that, and it's one point per slice. Also, "light" english muffins are two or three points, depending on the brand. Compare either of those to my old favorite sandwich bread, which is five points per slice.

Sara Lee Delightful sandwich bread and
Thomas light english muffins

- What to put between your Sara Lee slices: deli turkey and canadian bacon are 1 point for 2 ounces, which is plenty for a sandwich. Turkey bacon is one point per slice. My go-to breakfast is a single slice of Sara Lee bread made into a half-sandwich with either deli turkey or canadian bacon. Thank the lord I love deli mustard because it's zero points and adds a lot of flavor.

- The single serve pack of StarKist Chunk Light tuna in water is ZERO points. How amazing is that? So you can add a tablespoon of light mayonnaise (1 point) and two pieces of bread and you're still at 3 points. You can stir in minced onion, carrot, or apple for extra flavor (zero points). Or you can add capers and a squeeze of lemon (also zero points) to go Mediterranean.

Progresso Light soup and a Chunk Light Tuna pouch

- More lunch ideas: If you don't have a problem with salt (and recent research has shown that not many people do), Progresso Light soups are good, easy choices, although be aware that there are two "servings" in a can. The chicken and vegetables with rosemary in the picture above (my favorite) is 2 points per serving, so four points for the can. Other brands of light soup are also good.

PB2, both flavors, and lightly salted rice cakes, also known
as edible styrofoam, but sometimes they serve a purpose

- PB2 is powdered peanut butter which has somehow magically had 85% of the fat removed. At our grocery store, it is on the top shelf over the regular peanut butter. Is it as good as real peanut butter? No. But it's not bad. Two tablespoons are one point (as opposed to three points for one tablespoon of regular PB). You stir a tablespoon of water into two tablespoons of the powder and you have peanut butter (use a little extra water so it spreads easier). It also comes in chocolate, which is-- astoundingly-- the same number of points. My favorite late afternoon snack at the moment is a plain rice cake (1 point) spread with two tablespoons of chocolate PB2 (1 point), topped with banana slices (zero points). It's actually pretty dang good.

- More snack ideas. I really, really needed something I could carry in my purse for when I'm out running around. WW has some mini granola bars that are two points, but they're hella expensive and they're about a bite and a half. I've finally settled on Nature Valley Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate Protein bars. They're six points, which is a lot, but they're relatively inexpensive, they're easy to carry, and they have 10 g of protein and only 6 g of sugar. If you're having a craving for something sweet, they do the job without blowing 15 points on a small hot fudge sundae from Dairy Queen (which I have also done, and sometimes it's worth it). There are lots of other options-- I spent about fifteen minutes in front of the granola bar section at the grocery store scanning bar codes in the WW app to find one that I liked.

Nature Valley protein bars and Pop Secret 94% fat free popcorn

Also in the picture above: 94% fat free microwave popcorn is 2 points for 3 cups of popped corn. I ate about five gallons of popcorn my first week because I didn't know what else to eat.

- And check this out. If you ate everything on the plate pictured below, it would be ZERO POINTS, and of course that goes for almost all fruits and vegetables eaten without any added sugar or fat. (The only exceptions I know of are avocados, corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes.) This is my favorite thing about weight watchers. If I put out a plate of cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, broccoli florets, clementines, etc, not only do I eat them instead of other snacks, the rest of my family does, too. They don't need to lose weight but it never hurts to eat your veggies.

I know. If I were a real blogger I would have
found a banana that looked more appetizing. 

- If you can't eat raw veggies without dipping them in something, try Opa Greek Yogurt salad dressings (with the refrigerated salad dressings in the produce section). They have a definite plain yogurt tang, but that's OK with me. The Feta Dill flavor is one point for two tablespoons. Yogurt can be a good snack, too, as long as you check carefully-- my old favorite (Dannon Cherry Orchard) is eight points, but various different "light" and non-fat greek yogurts are 3-5 points per serving. The Oikos Triple Zero shown in the picture is sweetened with Stevia, which has kind of a funny taste but is only 3 points.

- Late evening hot beverage. Having a cup of decaf coffee or herbal tea about an hour before I go to bed has saved me from many an evening snacking binge. I doctor it up with a quarter cup of soymilk (1 point) and a half teaspoon of maple sugar (0 points) and it is a life saver.

One more little trick. On the Weight Watchers app, if you pull up an item-- say deli turkey-- there is a default serving size. For deli turkey, it is two ounces. But if you edit the serving size, you sometimes discover that the next size up is still the same number of points-- three ounces of deli turkey is still one point. It's surprising how often that works. That's how I know that 94% fat free popcorn is two points for three cups, even though if you pull it up on the app, it says two cups are two points. Obscure WW knowledge.

So, hope that is helpful. And may we all persevere, even after we screw up and have to forgive ourselves and get back to it, which is where I am right now. I got halfway to my goal and got lazy, but I'm not giving up. I know a few of you are also in WW, any tips to add?