July Challenge: Losing weight while saving money!

dannahaz

Carrot soup - no points

Dice one onion
Chop 500g-ish peeled carrots
Put in saucepan,
Add 3/4 pint chicken stock )from stock cube is fine)
Add a few peppercorns

Bring to boil, simmer for 3/4 hour to 1 hour
Blitz with a blender

Stirl in fresh coriander (or coriander in oil) if liked

Alternatively, add shaved or grated parmesan

Serve.

Delicious. Quick. No "points"

dannahaz

Watercress Soup - some points

Gently ook one chopped onion in about 1oz of butter until clear

Add 3/4pint chicken stock, made with stock cube. Bring to boil

Add two handfuls (or one bag if you buy from M&S/Sainsburys/Waitrose) watercress, and simmer for literally 2 minutes

Add two tablespoons cooked rice (to thicken), and blitz with a blender.

Serve

Very green, very yummy, and very very quick to make.

When I first made this and saw how green it was, I thought "I can't eat this, it's going to be so....green tasting". But it was lovely.

Myosin

Prunes, lots and lots of prunes! :rotfl:

carolt

As a novice, can someone explain to me what the points system means? I've gathered that the less points the better, but what exactly does it mean? How high can you go on points eg is a giant chocolate cake 18 points or 3 or what? And who gets to decide how many points something is. Sorry if I sound thick.....

Pink.

Carol,

I'm not sure, but I think it's something to do with one of the slimming clubs ie Weight Watchers or Slimming World.

If you ask on the lose weight thread on the I wanna board, someone there will be able to explain.

Pink

thriftlady_2

The 'points' system is a Weight Watchers thing. Basically all foods are given a points value which is based on calories and saturated fat. No idea how it's calculated, and I don't think you'll be able to find out as WW would lose money if we all knew how to do it :rolleyes: . The only way to find out the points value of everything you eat is buy the WW guide to shopping which you can do through their magazine.

Some foods have no points. These are all vegetables except potatoes, peas, sweetcorn, broad beans and parsnips. So soups, curries, caseroles made with tomatoes, carrots broccoli, peppers, mushrooms etc and some veg stock come out at zero points.

WW generally recommend you eat around 20 -24 points in a day depending on how much you have to lose (the more you have to lose- the more you can eat).
HTH:)

tryhard_2

starchy/high carbohydrate vegs - potato, sweet potato, broad beans etc will add to your calories so i guess that's why they have points.

dannahaz

carolt wrote:

As a novice, can someone explain to me what the points system means? I've gathered that the less points the better, but what exactly does it mean? How high can you go on points eg is a giant chocolate cake 18 points or 3 or what? And who gets to decide how many points something is. Sorry if I sound thick.....

Thriftlady is exactly right in how it works.

The points system is Weightwatchers. The others have something similar ("sins" or something), but I don't know if they are calculated in the same way.

The number of "points" you allow yourself per day depends on your starting weight and how fast you want to lose weight. I was 14stone 2 and I wanted to lose 3 stone, (which I did by the way, yay!), and I was aiming for 18 points a day. On this I was able to lose 2-3lb a week very steadily. If I had been on 22 points I would have expected to lost about 1lb a week.

It's impossible to work on a daily basis, so you usually do it over a week, and you are aiming to average 18 points a day. so if I had something extra on one day, I'd just eat less points the next day, or the day after.

From memory, up to 49 cals was 0 points, 50-99 was half a point, and so on. Then you also added in points for the saturated fat content. I can't remember whether it was a point per gram of saturated fat or more or less.

What I did learn is just how fattening cheese is. A 1oz portion of cheddar - which is slightly bigger than your index finger (nowhere near enough for a sandwich) is 4 points. Nearly a QUARTER of my daily allowance! Giving up cheese is probably what made the difference.

Normal sliced bread is 1 point a slice. If you're having a really thick slice, or a slice of M&S bread which is full of sugar, then its 2 points. A typical bread roll is 2 points.

1/2 pint of semi skimmed was 2 points.

1 teaspoon of sugar is half a point. (I gave up sugar in my tea and coffee)

A Little Chef breakfast was about 26-30 points.

Vegetables (with the notable exceptions mentioned by Thriftlady) are zero points, as is a stock cube, so if you need to fill up and you haven't got many points available, then a day of no points soup is a great way to balance it all out.

Although I'm no longer on the diet I am very aware of what I am eating, and I often have a "no points soup and salad" day.

Hope that helps

thriftlady_2

Thanks for that Dannahaz, that's very encouraging as I weigh about 14 st. I really must get back 'with the programme' as I know it works. I do hate having to work out the points in all my recipes, including bread, though:rolleyes:

fatfreemummy

I think this is a great idea,I would like to join to.Have tried ww and slimming world they allwork if you stick with it but Ihave other things that I could be doing with £20 A MONTH.My daughter and I have decided to get weighed weekly in Boots for 30p,we bought a keep fit video at the charity shop for 50p,and we have decided to do more healthy eating and keep fit as a family.Lots of oldstyle cooking from scratch.I hope I can lose some weight this time.So good luck everyone HAPPY OLD STYLE DIETING