I have lost a total of 70lbs over the last 6 months with Weight Watchers Smart Ones frozen dinners and Noom. Money is tight and I can no longer afford the luxury of paying $2 for the WW meals, so instead I had to do some research and find some other cheaper alternative with the same calories, fat and sodium as the Weight Watchers.
My partner of 19 years told me that we should buy the Michelina’s because they were half the price, but I insisted on the Weight Watchers for several reasons. The first reason is because the Weight Watchers has the name Weight Watchers. It’s psychological. If you see it is a product for losing weight, you put it in your mind that if you ate that or Lean Cuisine that you are doing good. Another reason was because they weighed more than the Michelina’s, so naturally you want more food, even if it was only 1-2oz difference. My final reason is that the Weight Watchers show up as green in the Noom app while the Michelina’s show up as yellow. Although, the pizza snacks show up as red.
So since times are tough and we don’t have the luxury anymore, I decided to start buying the Michelina’s. They are $1.49 at Albertson’s, but they are currently on sale for 10 for $10. I could be paying .97 cents at Food Maxx, but what’s 3 cents? I also have coupons for $1 off 5, so if I use 2 coupons then I am really getting 10 for $8. Not bad. Although, I printed the coupons and went to the store without them. Ooops.
I wrote a post about how the Weight Watchers are better than the Michelina’s Lean Gourmet which I still stand by. The reason I don’t like the Lean Gourmet is because the sodium is really high and the calories aren’t that much lower than the Zap ‘ems. They have more flavors in the Lean Gourmet too like the meat and potatoes, which is what I miss from the Weight Watchers. The Lean Gourmet meals are good, but I have a huge issue with the sodium content. The Lean Gourmet also show up as yellow in the Noom app, so they aren’t any better than the Zap ‘ems in that regard.
Not all of the Zap ‘ems have vegetables in them so what I’ll do is I will buy some frozen vegetables and when I open the Zap ‘ems, I will pour 1 cup worth on the top and then microwave it for double the amount of time suggested to make sure the frozen vegetables will have time to cook. My favorite is spinach. I’ve added broccoli and brussel sprouts too. I would like to also buy some carrots and put those in there. It just makes it that much more healthier in my mind and it gives me more food.
I don’t have that much more weight to lose to get down to my goal weight of 170lbs. Last night I weighed myself at 192.8lbs, but today it went back up to 195 for some odd reason. Last week on my weigh in day I was 193.6 so I would love to be 191 or 192 tomorrow, but we will see how it goes. I just hope the switch from Weight Watchers to Michelina’s hasn’t made much of a difference, but I will find out tomorrow.
I am trying to buy a bicycle so I can exercise to help me lose weight, but the only way I can is if people help me out by buying a keychain, my hemp choker or bracelet or some earrings on my Etsy store. You can use the coupon code NODOMA for 25% off. It would really help me. The keychains are cheap at $2 and the earrings are also cheap (inexpensive, not cheap) at $5. It’s only a couple bucks, and they literally take hours to make each and I’m not asking for much for them.
Anyway, thanks for reading.
Xanapus` Lair 
This is my latest lazy meal. I get whole wheat fettucine and a tub of the grocery store brand spinach dip. The dip is 100 calories per tablespoon. I crush some garlic cloves into it, stir it up and let it sit and get strong while the pasta cooks. It takes about 3 heaping T. of the dip to dress the fettucine. It’s so delicious. I don’t add any butter, just a lot of cracked pepper. I don’t know exactly how many calories are in the plate full, but I don’t see how it could be too many for dinner.
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That actually doesn’t sound too bad. I need to stop relying on frozen dinners to get the proper serving sizes and so I can learn to cook healthy. When I was fat, I would cook so much food because I knew I was really hungry and I would end up eating all of it because I hate having leftovers, but that stretched my stomach and would cause me to overeat. So, I have learned that I can have leftovers and I can freeze it for a future meal. I hated leftovers because they would sit in the fridge and go bad. I just need to change my whole thinking and attitude about food and how I store leftovers.
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“I just need to change my whole thinking and attitude about food and how I store leftovers”.
Well, reading you these last few months, it looks like you’ve changed your thinking and your habits a lot. It certainly shows in your photos.
One of my colleagues gave me this tip. When you serve yourself your plate, put away the leftovers in the fridge or freezer before you sit down to eat.
For pasta, my answer is to use the 7-oz. package, which you don’t find everywhere. I stock up when I find it. A one pound package of pasta makes 2.5 meals for me, but it’s hard to divide out the right amount, and often there’s a fail, and I end up throwing away some cooked pasta. The 7-oz. package is a little too much, but pasta is cheap, so I don’t mind throwing some out for the possums and raccoons.
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