how much cheese, what sort of cheese...mashed potatoes with just potato, or
butter etc?  and lean hamburger meat?

i always think the benefit of WW is if you really want to keep eating that
you probably can, perhaps a little modified, and with portion control, but
you could!

i dont' even know what grits are, i have often wondered!

have you checked out the website for some success stories?

christine (in oz)

Welcome!  Can't help you with the recipes (portions are important!), but
you could ask how much of everything goes into it. From that you can
work out the points for your portion, using the points calculator.

Best of luck with the losses.

HI,

grits should be there, look under hot cereal and perhaps corn grits.  The
dish your mother makes can be done like a recipe, list the ingredients,
figure the points and add it up then divide by the portion.  I have lost
about a hundred pounds, I started at 251.6, now 155.0  my goal is 146 and
perhaps lower, about half the weight I started with needed to go, don't
worry about the long term, just think about this week and know that any
weight you lose, no matter how little or how slow will be healthier for you
so again welcome and good luck, post here often for support, Lee

Lee has good advice for figuring the points for your mother's dish.
Experiment with points and see what works. The first little while on
WW, just journaling (recording) what you eat is a powerful tool for
getting started and an important mainstay for longterm success. I'd
not overworry about calculating the points perfectly, at least not
initially.

Good luck Danny, and welcome. Where is Swainsboro in relation to
Atlanta? I have daughters in Fairburn.
--
Linda P

I started out a few months ago at 415.4.  Which isn't 500, but it's
closer to it than 200 is, and I know that makes a difference.  So far
I've only lost 25lbs, but like I said, it's only been a few months.
There's a woman who sometimes comes to my meetings, she started out at
420, and she's lost 182lbs as of last week.  There's another woman I
haven't met who started out about the same, and has lost 220lbs.  It's
generally taken a year or two (everybody's different, annoyingly), but
it comes off.  Just keep chugging along, it'll go.

I'd go for the split it into ingredients, calculate them, then add and
divide approach.  Look at the labels on all the packages she uses, find
out how much of each she puts in, and do the math.  You'll get used to
the points system pretty quickly, but it's important to be fairly
accurate with it, because everybody tends to approximate more and more
as time goes on.  Don't approximate too much now; it'll bite you in the
a.s later.

Best I can do for motivation is to repeat the things my meeting leader's
told us.

1) Use all your points.  All of them.  A good way to manage your flex
points is to use them all up in three days, say, Friday/Saturday/Sunday.
 Don't use them too regularly (like 5 a day, every day), because your
body will get comfortable with that and won't work to burn fat.  Feel
free to switch those three days around, F/S/S a couple weeks, M/T/W some
weeks, whatever.  The idea is to keep your metabolism churning.

2) Activity points, when you get around to earning them (I still spend
my days on the sofa), must be used too.  If you only earn 2 or 3, that's
ok, but any more than that you need to eat.  Elsewise you face metabolic
shutdown again due to lack of sufficient intake to compensate for the
activity.

3) Keep a journal.  Every day.  Unless you're good at in-head math,
don't trust yourself to remember what you had for breakfast after you've
had dinner that night.  If you go to a party or bbq or something, take a
little piece of paper with you to keep track.  Just make sure you write
it all down, because..

4) If you're having a problem, talk to your leader.  S/he may ask to see
your journal to try and figure out where your problem is.  But don't be
afraid to ask for help; that's what they're there for.

5) Go weigh in every week.  Meetings are good, especially if you've had
a bad week, but the weigh-ins are important.  Altho I imagine you've got
the same problem I do, where commercial scales don't go high enough to
weigh you anyway.  Go for the weigh-in, stay for the meeting.  Good food
suggestions usually crop up in them.

6) Don't take a day off.  This isn't a diet, you're not starving
yourself and detoxing on water and celery for a week, you're trying to
fix what's likely a long-term weight problem.  You didn't put the weight
on by saying 'ok, well, today I'm going to change my normal healthy
eating practices and eat lots of cheetos, just for a change', and saying
'well, I'm just going to not count today, and go back on the diet
tomorrow' isn't going to fix it.  If you seriously want this to work
(and I'm sure you must; 400lbs is miserable, I can't imagine 500), stick
to it.  As long as you respect the diet, it'll respect you.

And that's enough for now.  I'm sure I've forgotten things, but likely
someone else will point them out.  Just watch out for me, I'm long-winded :)

-Tay

Welcome. Get your mum to tell you what went into the dish, and use
www.fitday.com to calculate the amount of calories etc. You will then
be able to turn that into points.

Good luck

Ray

Hi Danny and welcome to the group.  Others have given you good advice
about your questions.  I shall just wish you good luck and say that you
are in my thoughts.  Here is our welcome notice to get you started in
the group.  Stick around and let us know how you go.

Welcome to this great newsgroup where you'll receive lots of support,
advice, and encouragement. Once a week on Sundays, I post a list of
links that newcomers to asdww might find useful. You may want to look
for that later in the week, or do a backwards search for last Sunday's post.

In the meantime, here's our FAQ:
http://www.didian.com/asdww/
our welcome notice:
http://www.geocities.com/welcomenotice/index.html

Frequently seen acronyms on this NG:
NSV = Non-Scale Victory
WOE = Way of Eating
WOL = Way of Life (Living)
OP = on Points or On Program
DH = Dear or Darling Husband
DS/DD/DGD/etc = Dear or Darling Son, Daughter, Granddaughter, etc
WI = Weigh-in

Amberle3's Challenges:

Totally Groovy exercise challenge:
http://www.angelfire.com/me4/travelgirl/tg.htm

Choose to Lose weight loss challenge:
http://www.angelfire.com/me4/travelgirl/ctl.htm

Weight Loss Challenge Summary:
http://www.angelfire.com/me4/travelgirl/summary.htm

Other acronyms:
http://www.wwlissa.com/dwlz100+/100+acronyms.htm

Here's a short synopsis of the USA Flexpoints program by Joyce -

How many points you can eat is only based on your current weight, as you
lose weight those points allowed will decrease (logic is that your body
will need less to operate).   At 183 pounds and based on the new US
flexpoints system, you will have a set point target of 24.  In addition
to this you are allowed 35 flexpoints to be used throughout the week ...
as well as any activity points you earn on a particular day.  When your
weight drops to 175, your target drops to 22 points ... weight reaches
150, target once again drop to 20 points.  3 servings of dairy of
recommended per day, 5 servings of fruit and veggies, minimum of 6
glasses of water.

The basic plan is easy.  Eat at least your minimum daily number of
points.  Points do not carry over from day to day.  You are allotted 35
weekly flexpoints to be used at your discretion ... can divide them up
and use daily (would be an additional 5 points per day) or save them and
use them for a special occassion during the week.  Activity points are
earned based when exercising, but can ONLY be used on the day they are
earned.

Joyce
WW starting weight: 228.8 - 2/5/02
current weight:  133.3
Lifetime: 4/4/03

And here's an explanation of Core/No-count by Laura -

It is a great plan. You DO however need to make sure that you are eating
at your normal Flex plan target number of points. This can be difficult
for some and you WILL stop losing.

Here is the summary of the plan: http://ahwww.home.comcast.net/summary.htm
Here is the detail list of foods:
http://ahwww.home.comcast.net/wwcoreplan.htm

Basic rules:
1. Eat as much of the core foods as you need to feel "satisfied" (not full).
2. If you want to eat foods that are not on the core foods list use you
35 weekly points allowance (WPA).
Note: use these points on healthy foods and not junk.
3. Activity points are used to supplement the 35 WPA for Non-core food
items only. They must be used on the day they are earned.
Note: most people find that they will increase the amount of core foods
because they are hungrier due to exercising.
4. 2 teaspoons of heathy oil daily is required.

~Laura

Please note that if you live in onther countries (UK, Australia, NZ,
Europe), the Points plans are different.  The UK and Australia/NZ
calculate points based on saturated fat and total kilojoules.

Most of Europe calculates based on total fat and total kilojoules.  The
desktop calculator above can handle all of these programs.

Disclaimer: As an unmoderated Usenet newsgroup, asdww is unusual in that
most of the people who participate are respectful, considerate folks who
freely share their experience with and knowledge of WW, weight loss, and
maintenance. Yet occasionally, spammers, trolls, and flamers show up to
post advertising, false information, insults, and the like. Nearly all
of the time, people like this are just trying to yank someone's chain.
Most of the regulars on this newsgroup offer their experience as a
suggestion to try if you're stuck, but are quick to advise that each
person has to find what works for him/herself. If someone posts
something that doesn't sound right to you, ask the newsgroup, ask your
WW leader, or ask your health professional.

Much success on your weight loss journey! WW works!

Others have answered the recipe question, so I'll toss in an alternate
resource I find pretty handy.  If I don't know nutritional info on a food
that isn't in the WW database (I'm an online user, so I don't have the
books), I often just google in food + points + WW, and a surprising lot of
times I find somebody has it on a website somewhere on the internet.  For
grits, for instance, I found:
http://www.angelfire.com/me/kyoddie/points.html

I don't trust these sites to be accurate always, but, then, the online WW
database isn't accurate always, either.  Some of their frozen foods have
different points values on the boxes than they do in the database.  I try to
verify by doing the formula myself now and then even with their online
database--and only recently discovered that Cocoa Puffs are not 2 points per
cup as their database says, but 3.  (I should have known when I saw Cocoa
Puffs were the same points as Cheerios that it was too good to be true!)

Best of luck to you.  :)

Angela