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!”
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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