Hello & Happy Sunday everyone! I am Kelly and this is Weight Watchers Virtual Workshop #406 brought to you by If You Have an Egg.com. Today is Sunday, March 16, 2025 and if you were not able to join us LIVE, just visit https://www.youtube.com/@ifyouhaveanegg to watch (or listen!) whenever you can!
If you are new or returning to our LIVE workshop please give us a shoutout so we can all welcome you…we are glad you are here!
This week over on the If You Have an Egg Facebook Group, our Focus Leader Julie will be chatting about this week’s focus topic “Don’t Sleep On Sleep!”. Join us and don’t forget to comment to join in the fun! If you aren’t already a member of the group simply visit the group here and remember to answer those 3 questions so I can let you in 🙂
So this one is good news and possibly bad news. It was bad news for me…
The good news: Halo Top announced a new line of 8 indulgent sweet treats in January called Halo Top Mix Ins.
More good news: Halo Top is celebrating the International Day of Happiness on March 20 and the launch of eight new flavors by giving away 80,000 pints of its “too good to be true” ice cream. Here is a link to complete BEFORE MARCH 20th! https://halotop.com/firsttaste
Bad news: The giveaway is not available in my state or the following states, boooooo…hissss….CA, CO, KS, LA, MN, NV, ND, TN and WI
More bad news: While this is still significantly less calories and points than regular ice creams, each ⅔ cup serving of Mix Ins is 160 calories and 6-7 points. That means “my” one serving of an entire container is between 18-21 points.
So potentially better news: the entire container is the equivalent points as ⅔ cup of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia
What do you think? Good news or Bad news? And have you tried any of these?
This week’s Good Egg Award goes to Karen Hapka from New York. By my calculations, since August 2017 Karen has posted a whopping more than 2,700 inspirational (mostly Snoopy!) posts for us on IYHAE. TWO THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED and still going strong. For us. For free. On her own time. You are a Good Egg Karen! Keep posting that good news this week over in our If You Have an Egg Facebook group for a chance to be next week’s Good Egg Award recipient!
Don’t Sleep On Sleep!
This week was so appropriate to chat about sleep. Time change. Season’s changing. We’re past the honeymoon phase of those who joined or re-joined WW in January. Why is good sleep important on our journey? Let’s dig in!
Did you know?
Your brain can have the same “fight or flight” response when you are trying to go to sleep that it does in a real action required situation? According to sleepfixmethod.com “When you can’t sleep, it’s often because your brain is stuck in high alert mode. This overactive survival mechanism, designed to protect you from danger, misfires and convinces your brain that something’s wrong.
But when your brain can’t find an obvious threat—no loud noises, no actual danger—it keeps scanning… until it latches onto something. An embarrassing memory. An unfinished task. Or a bizarre midnight mystery that suddenly feels impossible to ignore”
Kaye from here in Knoxville shared this absolutely hilarious example of one of those bizarre midnight mysteries!
How can you tell if you’ve had a good night’s sleep (or NOT had a good night’s sleep)?
- Did you choose to maintain your weight because you were at your final goal?
- Did you choose to maintain your weight because something else was going on and it was more important to hang on for dear life to what you had lost rather than focus on losing more weight?
What are some issues not getting enough sleep or quality sleep can cause?
- Lack of sleep is proven to disrupt the production of hormones that regulate appetite
- Sleep deprivation whether from too few hours or from interrupted sleep can lead to higher levels of ghrelin and lower levels of leptin. This may cause you to feel hungrier and less satisfied after eating
- Stress…there’s that S word…has also been shown to increase cortisol levels. This can cause increased appetite and fat storage, yikes!
I have never had trouble falling asleep but as I get older I have had to develop some “stay asleep” or “get back to sleep” habits. I have listed a couple of mine below, what are some of yours?
- Reading an hour before actual lights out. Not a tablet, not a phone, nothing with blue lights, or I will end up scrolling through funny cat videos
- Gwen taught me a redundancy game to make my mind stop asking why Tarzan doesn’t have a beard. Or why I didn’t finish that to do list at work. Or all those other things. Just pick a topic and name one item related to that topic by the alphabet. Example: European Cities: Athens / Brussels / Copenhagen / Denmark / Edinburgh / Florence / zzzzzzzzzz.
- What are some of yours?
STAR Goal Icon:
Who can tell us a STAR goal they have for tracking this week? Remember it needs to be:
S-pecific so you will know if you did it
T-ruly doable in a week’s time
A-ctionable meaning you will DO something and not not do something
R-elevant to your journey!
Topic: Go Green for St Paddy’s Day!
A couple of things you need to know about St Paddy’s Day:
- “Paddy” is spelled with Ds, because Patrick in Irish is not spelled with a T… it’s with a D! I don’t want that to get you in trouble with any of your Irish friends!
- It’s also mine and John’s anniversary! We are celebrating 36 years this year!
Since we are celebrating St Paddy’s AND my 36th anniversary, we are making some celebratory foods… but of course they have to be green!
This was one of my mom’s favorites, and she used to make this all the time during my childhood as a sweet treat. We didn’t keep cookies, cakes, or any normal sweets. But we always had canned fruit and jello, so we had Lime Jello with Pears! The “recipe” is so easy. All you need is No Sugar Added Pears and a box of Sugar Free Lime Jello. So simple, so quick, and delicious! The tip I have is that if you use fruit that already has a liquid in it, reduce the amount of water the directions have recommended by 25%.
Next, I made a WW Watergate Salad. Another green thing for St Paddy’s, but there is absolutely nothing that actually looks like a “salad.” I have already posted this recipe before, but this one I modified to have No Sugar Added Fruit Cocktail. I prefer the Very Cherry, but they were out of those this time. You can always add marshmallows and more nuts, but remember to keep up with the points you are adding!
Which of these St Paddy’s Day recipes would you try? Let us know in the comments below!
