 Hi friends, welcome back to my channel and a very special welcome. If you're new here, my name is Jen. I'm a certified weight loss and nutrition coach and it is a Friday, so it is weigh in day. We're gonna talk about my week, we're gonna talk about how I'm navigating the holidays so far, the Weight Watchers Workshop topic and then I'm going to share this week's weigh in. So if you're excited, get this video a big thumbs up, subscribe if you're not, turn your bell on because I upload a weigh in every Friday and I actually upload five videos every single week. Don't forget to check out the description box down below for nutrition coaching, where I offer personalized to you macros and calories. Have these done before the new year. That way you are set up for success when the new year comes to reach your weight loss goals. And this is also what I have followed to lose and maintain a 140 pound weight loss. I also offer one-on-one coaching for accountability, to ask questions or talk with me directly. Macros and calories and coaching make a great Christmas gift for yourself or for anybody else on a health journey. So I will have my nutrition coaching website at the top of the description box. You'll also find links and discounts to my favorite things and come join our Facebook group. We would love to have you. So let's talk about my week, the Weight Watchers Workshop topic and this week's weigh in. Friday, friends, I hope you had an amazing, amazing week. I hope you are in full swing of the holiday spirit. I mean, obviously I'm in full holiday mode. I have been wearing Christmas shirts, earrings, jewelry, pajamas for the entire month of December. Actually, I started in November. It's one of my favorite things to just wear fun holiday clothing and jewelry throughout the holiday season. It just keeps me feeling really festive. And I have been just such a festive mood this year. I'm really excited about Christmas, even though it's super low key for us. I'm just excited about everything leading up to it. Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, it just, it brings me so much joy. Speaking of leading up to Christmas, we have already had our first Christmas party of the year. My friend Victoria does a pajama themed party every year. We had so much fun. I wore that put onesie that I shared in my Timu video. I'm gonna pop pictures in here for you. It was so comfortable. I could see myself wearing that a lot. I may pick up a couple more onesies just for regular times throughout the year because it is so incredibly comfortable. I wore my little reindeer slippers from Timu as well and we just had an amazing time at the holiday party. I did not track my meal. I stayed on track during the day. That is something that I typically do during the holidays is I'll eat normal throughout the day and then I'll allow myself a treat meal if you wanna call it that at the party. I had cookies, I had all the amazing food. They had this really good cheese ball and crackers. They had an amazing charcuterie board. I had everything my little heart desired at the party. I didn't track it and I moved on. Started over the next day, got right back to normal. That's how I navigate holiday parties and we've already had one. I have another one coming up here in about a week for my boot camp group and then I have little lunch dates planned. We have all sorts of fun stuff planned for the holiday season and I am just navigating it the best way that I can. I've also been really leaning in to working with my new coach, Brenda, leaning into my workouts, revised my food a little bit just to give me a little bit more calorie since my goal for the month of December is to maintain not gain and then I have some pretty hefty plans as we move into the new year. I'll be sharing that with you guys in my vision board goals video that'll be coming out a little bit later this month. We'll talk about my 2023 goals and whether or not I hit them and what major things are happening in 2024. We'll do my vision board together. That video is coming. So again, make sure you're subscribed in your bells on so you don't miss it. So I've been getting in my workouts. I've been drinking my water. I've been focusing on eating my normal food as much as possible and enjoying the holidays because that's part of a sustainable lifestyle. You guys know I don't restrict or eliminate. I still enjoy my life. I still enjoy parties. I still eat out regularly and I've managed to maintain and lose weight. And that again for me is what is considered a lifestyle, not a diet. And I'm all about a lifestyle, not a diet. I made my famous frosted sugar cookies for the parties that I have this month. And then of course for the holidays, they're in the freezer and what I did is I put them in the garage freezer so that they're kind of out of sight out of mind. I mean, I know that they're there because I love them. I know that they're there. But if they're in the garage freezer, I'm less likely to eat them. Like I'm too lazy to go to the garage and get them out of the freezer where if they were on my kitchen counter or in my freezer, in my kitchen, I'd be more likely to reach into them. So that's another tip I have for you is kind of the out of sight, out of mind situation when it comes to some of those holiday treats or foods that you have a hard time controlling yourself around. Still allow yourself to have them. Just put them out of sight, out of mind. So I feel really good about how I've started off the month of December when it comes to food, my workouts, and even just my maintain not gain philosophy for the month. Before I share with you my weigh-in though for the week, let's talk about this week's Weight Watcher's Workshop topic. That is 13 simple swaps to save you points. Now, if you track macros and calories like I do, you can utilize these tips to save calories as well through the holiday season. Think about what foods you're planning to eat this week, what recipes are you planning to whip up, and what little tweaks and changes can you make to save points, calories, fats, carbs, whatever it is that you're following for weight loss. Try this, the WW Guide to Ingredient Swaps. You're gonna want to screenshot this. If the recipe calls for types of meat or poultry with more fat like skirt steak, ground beef, or chicken thighs, try leaner cuts like tri-tip sirloin, 95% lean ground beef, or skinless chicken breasts. You can save up to five points per serving. PS, enjoy seafood, shrimp and tuna steaks make great swaps too. If the recipe calls for coconut oil or butter, try olive oil or canola oil, and you'll save up to four points per tablespoon. If the recipe calls for full fat milk or cheese, try fat-free or reduced fat, and you'll save up to four points per serving. If it calls for sugar, try a substitute like granulated stevia, grated apples, or mashed bananas, and you can save up to four points per tablespoon. Oil generally in baked goods, you can substitute unsweetened applesauce. I do this all the time. That will save you up to five points per tablespoon. If it calls for heavy cream or sour cream, try canned pumpkin or fat-free Greek yogurt, and save up to 11 points per quarter cup. And lastly, if it calls for peanut butter, try powdered peanut butter, and you can save up to five points per two tablespoons. Now some of these swaps I think are excellent ideas. Now you guys know that I don't really, I'm not a big proponent of fat-free cheese, especially, or fat-free foods in general. I would say shoot for a lower fat or use a little less of the full fat. I do agree that some of these swaps are excellent. The oil and applesauce swap is game-changing. I personally think unsweetened applesauce makes your baked goods even better. I think this is a great tool, especially with all of the holiday baking that we have throughout the month of December. So let's dive a little bit deeper. How to save even more points. Cut down on oil or other fats, grill, broil, or steam food instead of frying and sauteing. Brush oil directly onto food or use a cooking spray or oil spritzer. Use reduced salt stock to prevent stir-frying vegetables from sticking. Stretch a serving or amount. Chop nuts and chocolate into smaller pieces. Opt for grated cheese instead of sliced or cubed, and look for brands with less fat or no added sugar, and use the WW app to compare. These are also excellent points. Definitely chopping things up into smaller pieces, especially nuts, will make them go a lot further, which will save you points, calories, fat, all the good stuff. This is a really great topic, especially for holiday baking. And like I said, we can transition this over from WW into calories and macros as well. I also wanna make something really clear. You should be 100% okay with making a recipe as it is. For example, my frosted sugar cookies, I don't modify anything. I use butter, I use sugar, I use lots of flour, I use the original recipe, and I'm 100% okay with that. It's okay to eat regular food in regular recipes. You just get less of them. You get less frosted sugar cookies than you may get of a more reduced calorie, reduced point version. But be 100% okay with eating holiday foods as holiday foods are. It's not about turning everything into a lower point or lower calorie option. It's about moderation. But that also means that all of these tweaks and shifts that you can make in points and calories and ingredients really can be beneficial for weight loss. Just plan ahead to fit the foods that you love into your day. Like I said, when we attended the Christmas party, I made sure I got in my protein that day. I ate normal throughout the day and then I allowed myself to have whatever I wanted at the Christmas party in moderation. I didn't eat everything I could get my hands on. I still ate normal, so to speak. I just allowed myself to have fun foods. That is what makes things sustainable, especially during the holidays. I do wanna share three fast facts from Weight Watchers with you. Number one, it isn't sustainable to rule out your favorite foods. Number two, lowering the points in what you cook is one strategy to help you fit in your favorites. And number three, foods that are higher in protein, fiber, and unsaturated fats are typically lower in points and calories. Those are gonna be your lower calorie options. It's all about balance, including your favorite foods, eating cookies and treats and recipes as they are, and then implementing lower calorie, lower point options as well. That is what is going to be sustainable. That's how you're going to lose the weight and keep it off. So I think this is a great topic, especially like I said, considering all the holiday baking and just the holidays in general. Speaking of the holidays, let's jump into my weigh-in. Like I said, my goal for December is to maintain not gain. Last week, I had a little bit of a loss and I felt really good about that. This week, my weight seemed pretty stable throughout the week. If you didn't know, I do weigh myself every day. This is something that's really helped me heal my relationship with the scale and understand that weight fluctuations are normal. I will tell you that when I weighed in the date after the holiday party, my weight was up a little bit, which is to be expected. But within a day or so, it kind of leveled itself back out again. I'm continuing to do all of my workouts, get in my movement, drink my water, eat as normal as possible, normal, whatever that means to you as possible. And when I stepped on the scale, my weight is exactly the same as last week. I weighed exactly what I wore last week, weighed last week. So overall, throughout the week, I maintained my weight, which is great considering that I have drastically upped my calories with my new coach. I've upped my workouts. So I'm definitely a lot more sore and sore muscles become inflamed and retain water, which can show up on the scale as a weight gain. All of that considered the fact that I maintained my weight, moving into the hardest month of the year makes me really happy. And again, maintain not gains my goal and that's exactly what I did this week. And I am so thrilled about that. It really proves to me that this is my lifestyle, that I'm able to enjoy the holidays, parties, my favorite foods and still maintain my weight and even lose weight. That is what is so special to me about counting my macros and calories and really focusing on eating enough, eating my protein and still enjoying my favorite foods. I don't feel like I'm on any type of diet. This is literally my life and it's able to be my life through the holidays and that's pretty impressive. If you haven't had your macros and calories done, definitely have that done, especially as we move into 2024. Coaching, I offer that. It's there to help you navigate through macros and calories, weight watchers, whatever you're doing, whatever goals you have for the new year, I'm here to help you with that. It's just something that's a great gift for yourself and it also makes a great gift for others. So I'll make sure my nutrition coaching website is at the top of the description box. And now I wanna hear from you guys. How are you navigating the holidays? How was the first week of December for you? Did you gain, did you lose? And what do you think about these tips on how to make some simple swaps for lower points, lower calories? Let me know everything down below. And if you enjoyed the video and of course, if you found it helpful, give it a big thumbs up, subscribe, turn your bell on so you don't miss any of the five videos that I upload every single week. Again, nutrition coaching, links to discounts to my favorite things and my Facebook group are all down in that description box for you. Happy Friday friends, happy holidays and I'll see you in tomorrow's grocery haul. Bye.