Question and Answer

Also, question for you. Do you plan out your husbands meals for the day? How did he do it on flex. My husband keeps asking me about WW and is interested in doing flex but intimidated about counting the points himself. Last night he asked me if I would just plan out his food for the day and he would eat it. This would be a hard plan for me because I need the flexibility but it might work for him. He doesn't have a lot of weight to lost 25 lbs or so. He did Jenny Craig before I met him and had success with prepackaged meals. Just wanting your thoughts and your experience doing WW with your husband.

Looking Great from Weight Watching asked me this question the other day in my comments and I hadn't gotten around to answering it yet.

Hmmm...

The short answer is "Yes."

Yes, I plan his meals for him. I pre-cook stuff like hardboiled eggs that he takes to work with him for breakfast, or I pre-cooked a bunch of hamburger patties (2-3 points depending on what grade of ground beef I could get) and kept them in the fridge so he could nuke one whenever he wanted to.

Usually for breakfast on Flex he had an egg (2 points), a banana (2 points) and a cereal bar (3 points). He'd have another cereal bar as a midmorning snack (3 points) and then use a Smart Ones for lunch (they range in the 2-9 point per lunch, and he usually picks out the higher point ones) and an apple. He'd come home and have a snack (usually one of the pre-made hamburgers) and then dinner would be a share of whatever I was eating (my dinners tend to range from 4 - 9 points depending, and if there was extra, he'd often get a larger portion to make his points balance out.)

I mark everything in the fridge with a points sticker (color coded) on the leftovers boxes, so he knows what he's looking at if he wants something to eat.

When he gets home from work, I generally ask him how he's doing on his HGs (Healthy Guidelines) and plan dinner's side dishes around that, if he needs an oil, or vegetables or whatever.

Yes, it's a lot of work. Yes, sometimes I resent that he can't seem to take care of himself. It can especially be annoying when we're on flex and he's complaining about not getting enough points in and I have to make high point suggestions when I'm already out of my daily points and hungry. [And you can't imagine the number of people who tell me "let him worry about his thing and you do your thing." But... and this is the honest truth here: I am a stay at home housewife. In very technical terms, he's my BOSS. And how many of YOU tell your boss "Oh, sorry, I can't get those project forecasts for you, I'm doing my own thing today, you can just do it yourself." My JOB is to take care of the child, to take care of the housekeeping and the bills and the appointments. But it is ALSO to take care of him. That's what he pays me for.]

Now on Core, I pack his lunch the day before (usually the same thing I'm having for lunch that day, just because it makes my life easier) and obviously I'm still making dinner every night. I pre-boil eggs and I make that baked oatmeal recipe a lot, so that he's got good Core snacks. I also tend to keep sugar free jello and/or pudding on hand in portable containers so that he can have a snack at home, and he can take one with him.

It's a lot of work.

But I think it's worth it.