Which is why you should have many and be flexible
My life clearly does not follow my plan. And honestly throughout the years, plans tend to change anyways. So when things do not go as planned, I need to remain flexible and also have more than one plan to go with. This is especially important if you try to lose weight and keep it off. Having a plan is important. But being flexible when things do not go as planned even more so.
And being flexible requires A LOT of preparation. Say what? Yeah sounds like it does not make much sense, but bare with me! The better you are prepared, the more easily you can flexibly block a curveball or two that life is throwing your way. I will give you an example from my own life. I do like to have lunch together with my husband and our puppy at or around noon each day. It’s a routine that is important to me (check-out my thoughts on the power of routines here).
However my work week can get pretty busy and as much as I try to protect that lunch time, I might have a meeting right up to the time reserved for eating. So in order to be flexible on my own terms, I need to be prepared. And that is the reason I am trying to prepare food as much as I can. You can find some of my meal prepping tips here.
Just to be clear, I am not a food blogger in the sense of me being the creative mind behind many great recipes. I just do not have that in me. But I do like to eat good food that fits into my WW (Wellness Wins / Weight Watchers) plan and helps me maintain my weight loss of ~60lb. Thankfully there are many great recipe pages to pick and choose ideas from. And then make those your own. So why I am writing this blog? First and foremost because I like writing and that passion makes me a writer. And Because I think sharing my journey could help someone else find theirs. Or get back or just kick off a thought process. And that’s why.
So when I am sharing my recipes, than they usually have originated somewhere else. If I use them 1:1, I will rather share the link to the actual recipe page. If I am customizing them to my liking, I am usually sharing my version and will reference the origin. I am not here to collect any credit but especially not credit that is not mine to collect. So today I thought I would share how I made sure the hubby and I would not feel deprived when it comes to a delicious Christmas dessert and some of the pages that help me be flexible. Especially in building a great repertoire of meal prep ready recipes. So when things are not going as planned, I do not have to turn to unhealthy fast food or quick fixes that will end up on my hips as quickly, as they were prepared.
Gingerbread Cheesecake
This recipe is coming from one of my favorite recipe pages. A disclaimer upfront – this page uses a lot of sugar replacement in the form of monk fruit or Swerve sweeteners which makes their recipe low in WW points. However if that’s not for you, you can easily swap with the regular stuff and just recalculate the points, should you be on the WW plan, too. thepounddropper.com
I made this recipe here and just tweaked it by adding the following additional spices to make it even more gingerbready:
- All Spice (1/4 tsp)
- Cloves (1/4 tsp)
- Ground ginger (added another 1/4 tsp)
I used egg beaters instead of the 3 eggs and in doing so, I was able to get 6 slices for 2 SP / slice on the WW green plan. It’s so good and it’s not missing the crust. However, I had made some gingerbread cookies a week earlier (I shared the recipe here) and they were a great decoration and doughy topper.
This recipe is so delicious, I am already thinking about turning it into a staple, no matter the season.
The gingerbread cookie recipe is from another recipe page I am using occasionally: skinnytaste.com
The page has so many creative recipes. They are not always super simple and they are a little high in points for my liking. But it’s a great page to get ideas and then tweak them or further lighten them up.
If you do like rather simple but yet delicious recipes, I highly recommend trying drizzlemeskinny.com . The author loves loafs and muffins and has a lot of great game day and other finger food ideas. I have made many of her baking recipes either as she shared them or by replacing the real sugar with sugar replacement, whenever I wanted to save some additional points.
You know what, I am actually kind of glad that life did not go as planned. I originally studied politics, sociology and political economics to become a journalist. However life happened and I had to earn money. It let me to my career in customer service and I would not want to be any other place. I met my husband and we got our pooch because things did not go as planned and we moved to the US where we enjoy (mostly) living.
So there is that. And if I can’t find a recipe on the pages I have shared above, Pinterest is a good source for recipes. But also a good way of finding additional recipe pages to add to your library. I recently got an air fryer and toaster oven. And for everything I think about making, I am searching Pinterest for recipes or ideas, first. Especially if I already know what I want to make but am not sure how exactly to make it in the air fryer.
Having a great library of recipes that can go in rotation is important. Especially, if you do not want to feel deprived. Just eat healthy on your own terms.