Weight Fluctuations

You know the way weight will fluctuate 2-3 pounds any given day? Sometimes there's no rhyme, nor reason to it that we can see. Lately, my fluctuations have taken a downward spiral.

Before I started Weight Watchers, I had cut down on my portion sizes and lost 5 lbs., but I would sometimes gain a couple back. After the 5 lb loss, I considered that # my "lowest weight".

Since I started Weight Watchers, the lowest weight has become my new "highest weight". Now, my daily weight is four solid pounds below the "highest weight".

I think this is a healthy way to do it. The program allows you to make "mistakes", but start fresh again every Sunday. As long as you're putting a modest effort forward, you will start the downward trajectory. For me, it's been a pound a week.

I can feel it coming off all over my body, too. I've lost a little from everywhere, another sign it's happening the right way. And, I never feel hungry.

I think, with time, it only gets easier. You body becomes accustomed to smaller portions and a balance in your cravings occurs. You're eating less, too, so you're able to better understand what your body is asking for.

I'm feeling very positive right now.

The Weight Watchers Game

Participating in Weight Watchers online seems like a game to me...a shell game.

Each day you're issued points, plus you have a reserve of bonus points to draw from, but you can't use up all your points if you want to "win."

This is where it starts to be a shell game.

If you're honest about what you've eaten, every little careless bite, at the end of the day you're left moving those shells around trying to come up with a low-point option.

Yesterday was one of those days for me. I started it off with a portion of skinless, boneless, chicken breast leftover from the night before. At lunch, I had chocolate chip cookies; before dinner, I had a glass of wine, and when I added it all up, I didn't have any more points. Uh oh. The day's not over yet.

I went to my refrigerator (rearrange the shells) and chose vegetables for dinner. If I was going to win the game, I needed a "0" point option and vegetables are worth "0". I steamed broccoli and sauteed brussel sprouts, and voila, dinner.

I'd "won" for the day. I used up my daily points and didn't have to go into my bonus ones, and dinner was delicious! I went to bed that night feeling full...very full, and this morning the scale went DOWN another pound.

I'm starting to like this game!

Potatoes Are NOT Thy Friend

My sister told me the other night she'd read somewhere to treat potatoes like chocolate.

Huh?

My first blog post was about how high in points a square of chocolate was, now potatoes? Reject! I am The Potato Girl. I can make potatoes every which way of Sunday. I can mash, fry, saute', bake, and casserole them. I like them here, I like them there, I like them everywhere!

1 medium (173 gram) red or white potato, cooked--4 points. That's without all the yummy stuff on it, of course. I like Ranch dressing, olive oil and Parmesan on my redskins. All fried and then stirred together.

From now on, whenever I take my portion of potatoes, I'll have to see a big caution sign over the bowl.

Week 2: Weight Gain, Frustration, Hope

Week 2 had its ups and downs. Right after I wrote the last post I gained the two pounds back. I was shocked. I wondered, what in the heck kind of diet is this anyway. I started to really doubt the Weight Watchers system.

But I studied it and thought about how in a normal life there are ups and downs from day to day, week to week, but yet, there will be an overarching trajectory up or down. I reminded myself how this really hasn't been a "diet" at all, just eating a little less and adding more veggies and fruits. I've never felt hungry. So, I put my trust in the system and moved ahead.

As a reward, the extra two came back off and another two as well. Yes, the trajectory is definitely down even though I had fabulous meals out twice this week. I was worried about eating out because I love French Dips and pasta. I ate both of those things and much more on each of my outings, but I was careful to add their points into my tally at the end of each day and I took home leftovers. The net result is that I used up a lot of my "bonus points", but so far have still come in about right.

I'm feeling really, really good. I didn't even gain weight when I traveled, which I almost always had in the past. I have lots of energy. I'm happy. I feel great! The online system is perfect for me--daily accountability without having to leave home!

I Lost 2 Pounds!

After having started the Weight Watchers program mid-week and having to learn a lot about which foods have how many points, I still came out two pounds lighter.

Yippee!

I know two pounds is not very much, but it inspires me to keep going.

This is what I've learned so far:

1.) You have to prioritize your foods, basically, make decisions about which foods are worth losing points over and which aren't.

2.) You have to learn to eat smaller portions of food you love. I've started cutting food into smaller bites, putting down my fork after each bite and drinking water and talking between bites. This has been a good thing because it helps me to relax and enjoy the tastes of whatever I'm eating. (And the company)

3.) Drink more water. For some reason, this program has made me thirstier. I'm guessing it's because I used to eat when I was thirsty, rather than drink. Now I'm waiting off long enough to tell the difference between thirst and hunger.

4.) Be very careful drinking alcohol on this diet. I've found that wine affects me much harder now that there's less food to balance it in my system.

5.) Be creative. Since I'm not eating everything in site--the vaccuum cleaner effect--I'm spending more time thinking about what I will eat when I do. I'm going less to the easy things, breads, crackers, and chips, and experimenting with other combos that involve lots of vegetables. Anything that's worth "0" points is getting a boost up in my daily routine. But I'm always searching for low point flavor.

Flavor, flavor, flavor--life is all about that, isn't it?

So, here goes a new week. My extra points start again, and I'm much smarter about how this all works.

Starting Weight Watchers

Starting Weight Watchers was a huge reversal for me, I've never been a fan of "diets." Instead, I've always believed you should eat what you want, but only when you're really hungry and then smaller portions. My belief hasn't changed.

So what did change?

A couple of things. 1.) My close friend and my sister both started Weight Watchers and had amazing success. Both of them, like me, needed to lose 15-20 pounds or so. All of us were at the top of our "healthy" weight ranges, sometimes going over that line. 2.) Another family member, struggling with more to lose, experienced high blood pressure and probably needed to shed the weight for her health, I thought Weight Watchers would be the way to do it, and hoped we could join together.

I started to research the online version of Weight Watchers and then told her about it, but she wasn't interested. By then it didn't matter because I was. Once I saw what was available online and how it worked, I knew it could fit in to my own personal philosophy of healthy eating and might be just the thing to keep me on track and encourage me.

I started the program, weighed in, and began to record my daily food and exercise.

Immediately I had decisions to make--what was important for me to eat and what wasn't.

Example: I love my coffee in the morning, but the vanilla creamer was costing me points. Did I love my coffee? Yes. Did I love my vanilla creamer more than other things I could eat or drink? No. Solution: Get rid of the vanilla creamer and drink my coffee black.

Example: I love to pop things in my mouth, here and there, throughout the day. One of the things I'd pop in was a square of dark chocolate. I looked up its point value and found it was worth 5 points all by itself! I get 26 points for the entire day, do I really want 5 of them to be a square of dark chocolate? No way! I bought carrots, broccoli, and sugar snap peas to snack on instead.

With everything else, daily meals, I'm trying to find alternatives for flavor--like lemon (0) points, and smaller portions, eaten slowly.

I've been at it for 4 days and I find that I'm getting better at staying close to my daily point goals. I've educated myself about where I'm losing the most points and where I can cut back and add in 0-value point items without feeling deprived.

I never feel hungry.

I'm very excited about this program and hope one day to be A Skinny Cowgirl.