| My Weight Watchers Experience |
| Why I joined: When I was out in Colorado with April this winter, she was doing The Points. Every time we ate anything, it was "that's 3 points." "That's 4 points." "That's way too many points." "This has no points." And I would say "GOOD LORD with the POINTS, April!!" So she said, "do it with me." And I started to - loosely, I wasn't going to meetings. And it worked. And it was really easy. And then I remembered that my friend Scott did it. He must have lost 50 pounds on it. He looked great. My mom and dad were on it last year, and THEY looked great. I hadn't come across anyone who started and stuck with it that didn't look good. None of these people ever looked bad to start with. I was definitely concerned for my dad's health with the extra weight (he has high blood pressure), but not one of these people really looked like they needed to lose weight. Not even Scott. The thing was, that they looked SO MUCH BETTER after doing it and losing the weight. I've never felt badly about the way I looked. I thought I could stand to lose some weight, but I was far healthier than a lot of my thinner friends. Before starting Weight Watchers, my cholesterol was 136 and my blood pressure was about 120 / 70. I rode my bike, swam or ran almost every day. So the weight wasn't really messing with my health. And since I didn't mind the way I looked, I didn't want to put in the effort that would make me look better. So what changed my mind? I was back in Florida for a friend's wedding, which I was in. April came over to my parent's house one day and we got to talking about our fun winter as ski bums. During that conversation, she said the magic words: "Man, I never would have been able to ski like that if I hadn't taken off those 20 pounds." BING!! There it was. If I lost weight, I would be BETTER AT SKIING. I would be FASTER ON MY BIKE. I might be able to BEAT MY SISTER AT SOMETHING ATHLETIC. Sign me up! How it works: Or really, WHY it works. Either way. You can eat whatever you want!! Every food is assigned a point value. They give you a list of point values of most commonly eaten foods, and you also have a "Points Finder" that allows you to figure the point value of any food from it's FDA food label. (You know, where you find the calorie content of a food on the package.) Points are based on a combo of calories, fat and fiber. It's basically a really easy way to count your calories... You keep track of your points every day in a journal (a glorified peice of paper). You have to write down what you eat, and write the number of points beside it. JOURNALING IS KEY. You get a new journal every week (or you can buy one that looks like a notebook which lasts you 8 weeks). You are alloted a daily points range based on what you weigh. You aim to eat about that number of points per day. Activity (exercise) raises your point maximum up to 4 points per day (depending on what you do). You don't have to use your activity points, but if you are really active, you should because otherwise your body holds on to all the calories and weight loss slows down. You are also given 35 extra 'flex' points that you can use any time in the week. You can even use them all in one day (like at a wedding or something). The flex points are a bit of trial and error, I find I can only use about 20-25 per week and still lose at the same rate. If I use all 35, I'll lose weight more slowly (about .4 pounds in a week). What the program is doing is teaching me how to eat well. I now measure out my cereal in the morning, instead of just pouring it into a bowl. (I used to eat about 3 servings worth of cereal before this.) I cook myself 3 ounces of pasta, instead of just what looks like will fill me up. I eat one or two slices of pizza, depending on how many points I have and how hungry I am. I eat one brownie instead of 3. They teach you about portion sizes, and you learn quickly how to best spend your points. 2 Hershey's kisses OR a granola bar? Well, if you really want the chocolate, go ahead, but if you're really hungry, you'd better go for the granola bar. I am refining my eating habits. I'm not changing the food I eat, I just eat less of the stuff that's bad for me or highly caloric and more of the good-for-me stuff. THIS SYSTEM WORKS REALLY WELL. If you can count, you can do it. Just write it all down. If you cheat in your journal, it will show on the scale. You are only cheating YOURSELF. Weight Watchers doesn't care if you don't follow the points exactly, in fact, they'll probably be happy since you won't lose the weight and will still have to pay them. But if you follow this program, you WILL GET GOOD WEIGHT LOSS RESULTS. I have lost an average of 1.2 pounds per week (so it is going to STAY OFF). So sign up at WeightWatchers.com. Ways to make it work for you (now that you've joined): The best part is that YOU CAN EAT WHATEVER YOU WANT. And I DO! I eat cheeseburgers. I eat pizza. I LOVE brownies so I eat those too. I just write it all down in my journal with the points. Now, there is no way I can eat those 3 things all in the same day and stick within my points. So I have to PLAN. If I know I'm going to dinner, I eat less for breakfast and lunch. Write everything down in the journal. Even if you drink 5 glasses of wine or eat an entire fried chicken, write it down with the points value. Then make up for it the rest of the week. Or if you know you are going to a dinner on Friday, save your flex points until then. You can do this and plan if you write every little thing down. Every little bite, lick and taste. They all add up to points. Pay attention to portion sizes. A serving of oatmeal is one cup. If you want 2 cups, fine, just account for the points. An ounce of chicken is 1 point, find out how many ounces the peice of chicken you are about to eat weighs. 1 cup of blueberries is 1 point, so measure out the cup instead of eating straight from the container. Do the same with pretzels and chips, count out the 20 pretzels that make up one serving before you start eating them from the bag. Measure, don't eyeball, the tablespoon of peanut butter. If you need more, fine, but write it down as 2 tablespoons and don't go over your points! Don't cut out your favorite foods. Plan for them. If you want a cheeseburger (17 points for a really good one), then eat oatmeal (2 points) for breakfast, a big salad with lots of 0-point veggies for dinner (0 points) with some soup (3-4 points). Maybe have some whole wheat bread (2 slices of the light kind are 1 point). And VIOLA. You can eat that cheeseburger and you won't be hungry the rest of the day. Also, don't get the fries with the cheeseburger. Get a side salad instead. BUT IF YOU LIKE THE FRIES: eat them some other day! Small fries from most fast food places are 5 points. Go get some and write it down, then be smart about what you eat and drink the rest of the day. Use light or fat-free substitutes. This is a lot of trial and error, but it does help you out. I use ONLY light whole wheat bread to make sandwiches on. (1 point for 2 slices.) Fat free frozen yogurt has 1/4 the points of regular ice cream. Fat free cream cheese. Reduced fat peanut butter. One percent milk. Whole wheat pasta instead of regular. Equal or Sweet-N-Low instead of sugar. Again, if you can't live without it, DON'T. Just realize that putting half-and-half in your coffee is 4 points, vs. 1 point for skim milk. Write it down. Skip the cheese. Order a hamburger instead of the cheeseburger. Don't put the cheese in the burrito. No cheese on the Egg McMuffin, please. Chances are, you won't notice it the second time you order this way. If you really love cheese, EAT IT SEPARATELY. Have 2 ounces of cheese as a snack and enjoy it by itself. Don't eat it on a hamburger and then on a salad later in the day. Drink a lot of water. It's a little hard to get used to, but it really does curb your appetite. Sometimes you think you are hungry, but if you have a glass of water, the hunger goes away. It was thirst. Eat a lot of vegetables. Many of them have NO POINTS and they're really good for you. Fruit has points, but not many. A cup of blueberries is one point - versus a cup of cereal is 4-5, which are you going to take as a snack?? I like eating small meals and snacking a lot. I keep a "12 point bag" at work. I have 12 points of food in there and I eat it during the day. It includes my lunch along with a couple tasty low-point snacks so that I won't get tempted to eat things that are not so nutritious. Eating out. Generally restaurant portions are huge. Get a to-go box with the meal, and put half of it in there before you even start eating. Skip the bread. You can either ask your dinner companions to take what they'd like and send the bread back after that, or just ask the waiter straight out not to bring the bread to the table. If you want to taste the bread, do so, but would you rather eat the bread, or drink a glass of wine? Or if the bread is the reason you came to this particular restaurant, eat 3 pieces and have a 0-point salad for dinner. DON'T BE AFRAID TO SPECIAL ORDER. As in: "I'd like the mediterranean omelette, egg whites or egg beaters only, no cheese, dry wheat toast with jam on the side." And then if the toast comes out white or buttered, SEND IT BACK. Tell them you ordered it specifically with no butter. Think of it this way: if you were allergic to seeds and nuts, and they brought you sesame toast, you'd send it back, so why wouldn't you send back the toast with the butter? You asked for it. My other favorite order: Cheeseburger, nothing on it but all on the side, no fries, a side salad instead also with the blue cheese dressing on the side [so that I can dip my fork in before taking a bite of salad]. YUM. Servers just love me. Actually, they never seem to mind. And if they do mind, guess what - there are thousands of restaurants. Eat somewhere else that doesn't mind accommodating you, THE CUSTOMER, next time. Exercise. I worked out a lot before joining, and I still do. When I get lazy about working out, you can tell on the scale. I lose more weight the weeks I'm good about exercising. Some people like having a training journal, too, to keep track of what they do. I've started logging my activity at President's Challenge, it 's a website that keeps track of your activities (you fill it in) and after achieving certain levels, you get awards for being active. Whatever you do, working out is key. Check out some of my tips on training and exercise. Steam your vegetables instead of sauteeing. If you must saute, try doing so in chicken (or vegetable) broth instead of olive oil or butter, to cut down on fat. Using the broth is no points! |
| Tips on Training and Exercise Tips on Eating Well Tips for Weight Loss My Recipes My Training Log My Weight Watchers Experience Back to the Be Healthy page |
| Anyone can lose weight. If you have 'tried everything' then maybe you should try weight watchers, they will show you ho to lose the weight and keep it off. So far, I have lost 33 pounds on Weight Watchers. |
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