I am so incredibly pleased with my results this first week! I made a plan, stuck it, and it worked. Amazing.
It is always humbling to track my food. One day I should add up the points from a normal day when I'm just eating whatever I want. I probably use twice the daily points I am allowed. So when I start out and have to stick to that 26 points, I am happy to get close. Going over a little doesn't freak me out in the first week or two since I know I am cutting way back on my eating habits. Sometimes it is the quantity I am cutting back on. For example, I would normally have 2 cups of my homemade clam chowder and call it a meal. On the plan I would have 1 cup of the chowder and add a salad to it. But then sometimes it isn't quantity, but food choice. Like choosing the McDonald's chicken sandwich for 15 points instead of the Arby's roast turkey, ranch and bacon sandwich for 22 points. That was Monday. I'll explain in a bit. :)
I love this progress report. I think I will post it each Friday when I weigh in. And I love that it breaks down the day for you. It shows where most of my points come from. As you can see, I didn't eat breakfast on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. I usually don't eat lunch on SUNDAYs since I am getting ready for church at that time. Since I would be leaving for a choir practice 45 minutes away after church, and not returning home until 9pm, I ate a big meal mid-morning and then had some nuts on the way to choir. I think I had a small portion of dinner when I got home. It totally worked!
MONDAY was an interesting day. My youngest child woke up with abdominal pains at 5am, and we spent the day in the emergency room. Thinking it might be his appendix (which it was not), they didn't allow hime to eat the entire time that we were there. I didn't eat as well. You can read the rest of the story
HERE. When we left the hospital at 4pm, I had already concocted a plan. I missed breakfast
and lunch, and it was close to dinnertime. I could splurge and call it my meal for the day. What I really wanted was the Arby's Market Fresh Turkey Bacon Ranch sandwich. I've only had it a couple of times, and it's so good. But that was 22 points. Add on curly fries and you go way over the 26 allowed points. Michael wanted McDonald's, so I checked out their menu. I was
not getting a salad. The Crispy Chicken Ranch BLT is 15 points. Add on an order of medium fries, and that brings it to 25 points. Perfect! I don't think this is the way Weight Watchers is supposed to work, in fact I
know that, but it was ok for that one day. I ate 4 points worth of Skinny Pop popcorn in the evening and went over my points a little.
On TUESDAY I didn't eat breakfast because we ran out of milk. I tried the three year old powdered milk we had in my protein shake, and it was nasty. I was too frustrated to eat anything else, so I just waited a bit and ate an early lunch. I had Subway for lunch (since we had a followup visit with the doctor late morning and it's tradition to pick up lunch for the sick kid after we see the doctor), and splurged on some Fritos. Then we had chinese food for dinner (since my husband has been out of the country for the week and it's tradition to get chinese food when he's gone. haha! that's the only time we get chinese food!), and I was so very careful about what I ate.
It's amazing. I feel so good about how I did this first week. Going forward, my weeks will each be different. There are so many curveballs thrown at you when you are trying to lose weight. Sometimes you are not at home, sometimes you are on vacation, sometimes you are at a church dinner, sometimes they pass around cookies at church (oops! forgot to track that one!), sometimes your husband takes you out to eat ... There are many scenarios. And you have to be prepared to make it work and not feel deprived. Talking about feeling deprived ... Oh, man, I was so hungry yesterday! Around 2pm I felt like I could eat everything and anything. It took so much self control to not do just that. I knew that I had lost weight since I peeked at the scale the other day, so I didn't want to sabotage myself the day before the official weigh in. I did go a little nuts though at dinnertime and ate 4 mozzarella sticks that were 8 points. Yikes! That's ok. I still lost 2.4 pounds!!!
I love the Weekly PointsPlus Allowance. It's not good to use those points when you are trying to lose weight, but they are there if you need them.
EXERCISE ... I did it! That is really the biggest thing. I did the elliptical for 20 minutes on five days this week. I am so proud of myself. Getting up and moving is the one thing I would rather not do. But I did it! This week I am going to bump it up to 30 minutes.
Moving forward, I do not expect to have these same results each week. When I did well on Weight Watchers before, I consistently lost weight every other week. Kind of weird, but that's how it worked for me. I would lose 1.5 - 3 pounds in one week, and then lose barely anything in the next week. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what happens this time. I already lost enough for two weeks, so it will be fine if I don't lose much this next week. That doesn't mean my efforts will diminish. It's just the way my body works. I think it goes into survival mode. "Woah! Something's wrong here! Losing weight! SLOW DOWN!!!" That's what my body says. haha.
Oh my gosh, I can't wait to fill in my numbers for the first month ... Three more weeks to go!
I am very pleased, considering it was my birthday this last week. And I made carrot cake. And I ate a 13 PointsPlus piece on Tuesday, Wednesday AND Thursday. I actually weighed myself the morning after the first piece, and I was a pound less than my weigh in today. Yikes. AND I didn't exercise enough! It shows 1hr 20 mins of exercise which was two 30 min days, and one 20 min day. BAD! I must say though that I have valid excuses. And I did lose 1.6, and I am on track. So, I am pleased. This next week should be nice and normal.
