Shopping Helper

I don’t know about you but I can always use some help when shopping – especially at the grocery store!  I saw something posted on Weight Watchers Supermarket Foods Facebook page that got me thinking about all the great help we have available to us so I thought I’d list some of my favs here:

• Hungry Girl’s Official 2012 Supermarket List (this is what got me thinking)
• Skinnytaste.com – one of my favorite web sites for recipes but it also has a shopping list feature which leads me to
• ZipList – which is not only a web site but they have an app for your Android or iPhone (love this app use it every week – some of the cool features is it allows you to scan UPC symbol on packages and will automatically enter them into your shopping list, being able to select my store [Giant Food] so things are grouped according to how they arrange the store, being able to list the number of items I need (6 cans of chicken broth), price and size plus a lot more)
• Weight Watchers Barcode Scanner (available for iPhone & Android) – LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this!  It is a time saver in the supermarket.  The other day I was trying to find string cheese that was only 1 pt, so I was able to scan the UPC code and the app did the rest!  It told me how many points and gave me the option to track it.  It also keeps a history of items I scan and I can add them to a shopping list.

So if you are like me and love how technology can help you (okay when it works or we aren’t doing it wrong) then I suggest you try some of these to see if they don’t make your next shopping trip a bit easier.

Best Laid Plans…

…of mice and men or in this case woman.  How ironic that talking about planning was part of the last Weight Watchers meeting I attended.  I had “planned” to blog about that meeting a few days after it happened instead of 2 weeks later.  I “planned” to attend last weekend’s meeting but Mother Nature had something else in mind.  Sometimes the old saying of “Man makes plans and God laughs” is very true.

Our leader, Pat, started off the meeting with a quote “Goals you want to reach without a plan is just a wish”.  Planning is a big part of Weight Watchers and having a healthy journey.  I have learned that planning my meals out for the week works better than when I don’t.  I don’t plan down to the detail of x meal is on x night but I do plan out what meals I’m going to make for that week and buy accordingly at the grocery store.  Several other members shared that they too find that planning their meals works well for them.

Planning includes finding new recipes.  I love how many recipes are on e-tools as well as all the great Weight Watchers cookbooks.  Keep in mind that if you use a cookbook that was released prior to the PointsPlus 2012 plan you might need to re-calculate things (just double check that the points listed are still the same).  Also another feature of e-tools is the recipe builder.  A great way to find out if that recipe you think is low points truly is.  You enter in the ingredients and number of servings then recipe builder figures out how many points per serving.  A member shared that a great web site to find new recipes is www.skinnytaste.com.  Great thing is you can find recipes based on the amount of points you want to use for that meal.

Another great way to plan is double your recipes.  Use the extra portions as lunches for the week.  Use convenience foods to help you plan better.  Chopping takes up a lot of time but you can use pre-chopped vegetables to help you fix those recipes quicker.  But what if you don’t always have the time to cook meals?  Great thing about this plan is that you have options.  Weight Watchers makes a lot of great food you can buy and don’t ever have to cook.  So it doesn’t matter whether you are a budding Bobby Flay or have two left hands when it comes to the kitchen you can still plan ahead and use options to help you achieve your goals.