Courtesy of WeightWatchers.com
Sometimes, all you want is a
big ol’ plate of food. How do you scratch that itch, and stay on Plan?
Weight Watchers staffers share their own insider secrets.
Often, it’s simply about perception; finding tricky
ways to make yourself think you're eating more than you are. It’s not
just about eating from smaller plates — though that’s a great tip in
itself. No; it’s about different ways of looking at the meals you cook,
and how you combine the ingredients, and serve them. Or eating something
similar to an old-time favorite that’s less friendly in the
POINTS®
values realm. (Who hasn’t tried spaghetti squash instead of actual
spaghetti?
Weight Watchers editors and other staff all have their own tips and
tricks for the full-plate fakeout. Read them, steal their ideas, and
then share your own on the
Portion
Control Message Board thread.
Leslie Fink, MS, RD, recipes editor, is the person who came up with
the idea for this article in the first place. “I thought about it this
morning when I accidentally sandwiched my PB and J. I'd much rather eat
it open-faced because it looks like more. Another thing I do often is to
roast myself a whole pint of cherry tomatoes because the almost no
POINTS
value volume feels so comforting to me. I can eat so much and still
lose weight.”
Jenn Coonce, director, product management (who always brings fruit to
our internal meetings), has some tricks of her own: “Putting anything
on top of a salad (such as frozen dinners); adding vegetables to pasta
sauce; adding blueberries or strawberries to cereal; and adding salsa to
food. For drinks, I love calorie-free seltzer mixed with a little fruit
juice like orange or peach.”
Make the most of veggies
Cauliflower sparked off a conversation, starting with Liz Josefsberg,
Weight Watchers HQ’s resident Leader:
“I live on cauliflower soup in the winter. I simply boil two whole heads
of cauliflower florets in chicken broth with an onion and some garlic
until it breaks apart and makes a hearty, stew-like concoction. I eat a
huge bowl of it for little to no
POINTS values!”
Theresa DiMasi, VP, content, weighed in: “Speaking of
cauliflower, I boil it and then mash with a bit of yogurt. It tastes
almost like potatoes. I also love roasting cauliflower with a mist of
olive oil, parsley, salt and pepper, but that’s not really faking it…”
Over on the design team, Beth Herbert, Associate Creative Director,
is full of tips: “I usually have bite-size Shredded Wheat or Frosted
Mini-Wheats for breakfast. Eating them (sans milk) one by one, by hand,
makes the bowl last longer, giving me more time to fill up,” she shares.
“I also slice apples and pears instead of just biting them whole. It
always looks like more food when cut up. Come to think of it, that can
be true of anything — veggies, meat, etc.”
As for me, (Elly Trickett McNerney, managing editor), rather than
make a sandwich, I like to arrange all the ingredients on a plate with a
lot of lettuce so I feel like I’m looking at a full meal, and I eat
more slowly. Just imagine a plate containing all these goodies: A whole
wheat pita, split in half and toasted, then cut into triangles; 2 ounces
of smoked salmon; 2 Tbsp low-fat cream cheese; 1 tomato, sliced; some
red onion; capers; a lemon wedge; and a pile of arugula with 1 tsp olive
oil and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. It looks so much more plentiful
than if you’d just made a pita sandwich, and it takes three times as
long to eat, assembling each wedge.
Change your environment
From Rebecca Turner, a writer sitting two desks away, her first tip
is brilliant in its simplicity: “A smaller fork or spoon!” More
poetically: “Eating in the dark… I had a children’s book I loved as a
kid where the family had an electrical outage, and one of the kids said,
‘I love eating in the dark… it makes it taste like more.’ So,
candlelight, fancy place-settings, all help. For me, sitting on the
couch watching TV leads me to eat more.”
Rebecca also likes to split her meals up. “Something about having
several smaller courses at a meal feels like more.”
Two final tips from Rebecca: “I also use frozen fruit in salad
dressing; just mashed-up raspberries or blackberries, etc., with
balsamic vinegar and tiny bit of oil. It makes it go a long way as it’s
thicker than a bottled dressing.” And a great tip she got from
The
New York Times: “More sauce, less pasta. I read a Mark Bittman
column a while ago in which he suggested this. The sauce is sometimes
the most flavorful, delicious part, and if you have a lower
POINTS
value sauce, having more can balance out the pasta.”
Amanda Genge, a freelance writer and regular contributor, learned a
lesson from her kids: “Anything cut up into small pieces looks like way
more than it is (I discovered this cutting up food for my kids). My best
secret is roasted potatoes — I cut them pretty small (an inch or so
wide, and pretty thin) and roast in a small amount of oil to make little
delicious bites that take up half my plate, when I've only served
myself the equivalent of half a potato.”
Kim Cassidy, a designer who works with Beth, says, “When it comes to
dessert, which is usually chocolate, I try to make sure I eat slowly. By
microwaving my VitaTops deep chocolate that I usually eat after lunch,
it enables me to thoroughly enjoy it, like one of those molten cakes —
very satisfying.”
And finally, a soda trick from our editorial production
coordinator, Kristina Lucarelli: “I don’t like diet soda, but the real
stuff (as well as high-sugar drinks like OJ) gobbles up too many
POINTS
values. If I’m really in the mood, though, I’ll fill a big glass full
of ice and just pour myself a small amount. I’ve got a huge glass full
of my favorite beverage — for next to no
POINTS values!”
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