WW (Weight Watchers) Chat #285: Journey to Learning to Say No

News and Reviews August 2022

In case you didn’t see it, Dee (Dish with Dee) from our group was featured in Woman’s World Magazine in the August 1, 2022 edition! Sadly you can’t access it online so if you find a copy please share the insides…the article is called “The Carb That Burns Fat Fast”. So proud of your accomplishments Dee and you are rocking that 105+ pound weight loss!

The month’s theme is “The Journey” and we will spend the entire month learning how to find our way while we are on our way!

Last week during Chat #284: The Journey to More Go To Foods, we recognized that my fearless leader Gwen is right….we are all more in tune when someone mentions food. Right? Show of hands?

So now that I have your (and my!) attention… let’s talk about more go-to foods! With the new WW Personal Points program gone are the one size fits all meals. I never have to eat cottage cheese and you don’t have to try tofu if you don’t want to. For every person I hear complaining about this new-ish plan, I hear 3 or 4 more saying “I’ve never had this kind of freedom. This is really working for me. I actually reached my goal because I wasn’t limited in what I could eat!”

So how do you decide what your “go to” foods should be?

“If you keep putting yourself in food jail, you will spend all your time decided what to eat when you break out”:

Go-To Foods should be things you can imagine yourself eating for the rest of your life. Some may even be things you can imagine yourself eating every week or every day. But you will also have some “not point friendly” go to’s to keep yourself from going to food jail. As an example if you need to be able to enjoy pizza on Friday night with your family you will want to find some go to foods that are zero or low points to eat before or maybe even with the pizza

“I would rather spend the points on ____ than try to figure out how to eat ___”:

If a food is going to be a “go to” you have to want to eat it. Take me for example, I use nonfat plain greek yogurt in tons of recipes, as a sour cream substitute, and to make cream cheese. BUT, I have decided if I’m just going to eat greek yogurt I would rather spend the 2 points and have it already flavored.

One of the girls in our in person workshop has been trying to make herself eat eggs. Why? No one said we have to eat eggs…I mean I hope she finds a method she likes, but if not there are so many other zero point options to go on the list!

“I love ____ so much I could literally eat it every single day”:

Now that’s a go to food! For me that list would include green beans, eggs, and grapes. I could literally eat them every single day, literally.

Your homework for last week was #MyFoodJourney. Since we are talking about our individual journeys this month I want you to tell us what the top 3 foods are on your food journey #MyFoodJourney and then tell us how you will use that on your journey….and then type it, snap it, share it however you like, and then tag me for your next cool badge!

Let’s see how you did!

Vickie makes sure she keeps Sargento Cheese Sticks, eggs, and salad veggies on hand!
Mary keeps eggs, lunch meat, and grape tomatoes…that’s a meal in itself whenever you need it!
Caroline said eggs (I’m seeing a theme here LOL), salad, and fruit. She was commenting all the way from Spain so she’s serious about those go to foods!

Bravo, you did it!

This Week’s Topic: The Journey To Learning How to Say No

If I told you learning to say no really means finding ways to say yes would you agree or disagree? (or shake your head and think I didn’t get enough coffee today LOL)

Tuesday night during our in person workshop, we spent a lot of time commiserating about times that we had to say no to something even if we didn’t want to . And then spent even more time realizing what it helped us say yes to instead. Here’s how:

When someone or something wants more time than you have available…

This could be as simple as a request to collect money for flowers for a neighbor, or as emotionally complicated as a toddler who wants your attention when there is water pouring out from your cabinet. Trust me I know from experience.

Saying NO to heading up the flower committee this time let my friend Jacci say YES to completing a project she had a deadline on and a bonus YES because it allowed another neighbor to meet some new families while taking up the money this time.

And a gentle NO to Alyssa to play while I was on my hands and knees trying to figure out why water was pouring out from Casey’s sink allowed me to say YES to getting it under control before she had any water damage.

When you really want to say yes, but know you should say no…

This one is tough for sure. You want to do whatever it is. Or you felt obligated to help, listen, do, whatever it is…but you know deep down you really should say no this time.

I ended up with a cat that way last week. That cute little orange and white face pleading desperately the whole way it followed me home. It took every bit of strength I had to say NO to Casey, NO to Alyssa, NO to myself…he was soooo cute!

But guess what? It let me say YES to a beautiful young college girl who was looking for her first cat and he was PERFECT! He needed some TLC, she desperately wanted a kitty, it was a YES made in Heaven. And fyi, his new name is Rocky (for Rocky Top since he’s orange and white) and he now has a clean bill of health and the sweetest little bowtie collar.

When you didn’t want to say yes to start with…

You would think saying no when you really don’t want to do whatever “it” is would be easy wouldn’t you? Those of you it comes naturally to have a gift. I’m not one of those people.

But, learning to take a breath and say NO thank you when someone offers food you really didn’t want or NO to going to an event you care nothing about can lead to a YES, let’s do lunch another day! Or YES, why don’t we take that trip to the new JoAnn’s to shop for yarn when we are both off from work?

Don’t feel guilty saying no, you may be able to turn it into a yes that you both will really enjoy!

This Week’s Homework: #MyNoNoJourney

Your homework for this week is #MyNoNoJourney. This week I want you to muster up some strength to firmly (but with love) say “No No” to someone or something….and then type it, snap it, share it however you like, and then tag me for your next cool badge!

Don’t forget to do your homework #MyNoNoJourney and tag me when you share on social media!

Tag @ifyouhaveanegg on Instagram
Tag @ifyouhaveanegg on our Facebook Page
Tag @Kelly Green Milligan in our Facebook Group
Tag @ifyouhaveanegg on WW Connect

Extra Credit: Summer of Savings – How Much Did I Save?

Well that’s it…the Summer of Savings is officially over!

Here’s how my summer of savings wrapped up…let me know how yours went!

In Chat #279 we talked about saving energy in the kitchen. I think this graph from my utility company says it all. Not using my oven or really the top of the stove much really reduced our electric usage in July and August! We saved an average of $43 per month this summer even with one of the hottest temps recorded for the same time period.
In Chat #280 my friend Lara from At Lara’s Table told us her 3 favorite ways to save money at the store. I shopped the sales, went at a different time, and when I wasn’t hungry and didn’t buy anything that wasn’t on my list. My best guess is I saved about $8-10 per week over 10 weeks or approximately $90!
In Chat #281 we saw a few ways to make our own food and in just money saved on grinding my own chicken breast (thanks again Julie!) I saved $11!
If I made a graph of my pleasure quotient over using the food out of our garden, what we already owned, and having my friends and family share in the growing, picking, preparing, and preserving process was unmeasurable. In Chat #282 we learned how to do all of these by reducing food waste and I’m going to put a price of over $60 saved on this one just from not throwing things away!
Chat #283 started the 3 Day Pantry Challenge and boy howdy was that an eye opener! I did it for more than 3 days and was able to use only change at the store last week to pick up what I needed. Between using duplicates, not buying much more than perishables, and not eating out that week was over an $80 savings!
So this 8 week adventure has saved my family approximately $327…wow I will put this habit on repeat. How about you?