Weight Watchers Chronicles
Ok, so I've been trying to lose weight for a while now, but to no avail. So I gave up and decided to go back to the weight watchers plan. I'm not going to meetings or any bullshit like that, but I'm just following the plan. According to the most recent guidelines I could find, I'm allowed between 23-29 points a day. If I do nothing, I get 23. If I walk to and from school, I get 29. If I do strenuous work at theatre practice, I get 29. If I at least do something during theatre practice, I get 25/26.
I know of a lot of people who don't like the idea of WW because of the counting. Ok, in the old days, you had to count calories, carbs, etc. or fruits, veggies, etc. Now, everything has a "point" value based on calories, fat content, and fiber. For example, one serving of cool ranch doritos counts as 2.5 points. (Calories = 150, Fat Grams = 8, Fiber = 1). And here's the equation to figure out the points value of something:
Points = (Calories/50) + (Fat Grams/12) - (Fiber [up to 4g]/5)
And, of course, there's a book for all of those things that don't have nutrition info on them. Like milk. I have the book, thankfully, because my mom is able to get that stuff for free. (Waaaaaaaay back in the day, she was an active member. She made her goal weight, so she gets all the new stuff whenever she wants it. Woop woop.)
Does it suck? A little. It means that I can't go and eat a bag of sun chips for lunch and still have a cheeseburger for dinner. It also means switching to "lite" alternatives for most of my stuff. So instead of my grande caramel frappuccino (at almost 9 points, including whip and drizzle), I have an iced caramel latte with skim (at about 3 points). And if I really, REALLY want that smoothie texture, I just ask them to throw it in the blender. I switch to the fat free salad dressings (and eat more salads) and have an apple instead of a cookie. I mean, it's basic choose-the-better-item, but it's so difficult to do if I don't have something to "count", so to speak.
So here I am, sucking down a 3 point salad that's actually way better tasting than the 10 point burger I was thinking of eating. (Romaine lettuce, red cabbage, onion, cucumber, roma tomato, and 2.5 ounces of ham with as much nonfat Italian salad dressing as I want.) Clearly, I'm feeling pretty good about it today. Will I feel the same way tomorrow or next week? We'll see.
I know of a lot of people who don't like the idea of WW because of the counting. Ok, in the old days, you had to count calories, carbs, etc. or fruits, veggies, etc. Now, everything has a "point" value based on calories, fat content, and fiber. For example, one serving of cool ranch doritos counts as 2.5 points. (Calories = 150, Fat Grams = 8, Fiber = 1). And here's the equation to figure out the points value of something:
Points = (Calories/50) + (Fat Grams/12) - (Fiber [up to 4g]/5)
And, of course, there's a book for all of those things that don't have nutrition info on them. Like milk. I have the book, thankfully, because my mom is able to get that stuff for free. (Waaaaaaaay back in the day, she was an active member. She made her goal weight, so she gets all the new stuff whenever she wants it. Woop woop.)
Does it suck? A little. It means that I can't go and eat a bag of sun chips for lunch and still have a cheeseburger for dinner. It also means switching to "lite" alternatives for most of my stuff. So instead of my grande caramel frappuccino (at almost 9 points, including whip and drizzle), I have an iced caramel latte with skim (at about 3 points). And if I really, REALLY want that smoothie texture, I just ask them to throw it in the blender. I switch to the fat free salad dressings (and eat more salads) and have an apple instead of a cookie. I mean, it's basic choose-the-better-item, but it's so difficult to do if I don't have something to "count", so to speak.
So here I am, sucking down a 3 point salad that's actually way better tasting than the 10 point burger I was thinking of eating. (Romaine lettuce, red cabbage, onion, cucumber, roma tomato, and 2.5 ounces of ham with as much nonfat Italian salad dressing as I want.) Clearly, I'm feeling pretty good about it today. Will I feel the same way tomorrow or next week? We'll see.