A Bad Weekend

Well, yesterday was weigh-in day. Not such good results this week by any means. I lost one lousy pound. On the one hand, it's not surprising, because I didn't have a very good weekend. I don't know why, but I was in a foul mood all weekend, and that translated into a complete lack of motivation to cook, plus cravings for unhealthy food. Saturday night I decided to just go ahead and eat fast food. I had 30 daily points still available, and all 49 of my weekly points. One of the things that the weekly points are supposed to be there for is so that if you have a craving or a slip, you have space to include that in your program without feeling like you've fallen off completely. I used 10 points of my weekly allowance Saturday evening, and I didn't feel too bad about it. Unfortunately, Sunday was another bad day, and not only did I have Burger King for dinner again, I also ate an entire sleeve of Ritz crackers. That took another 20 points of my weekly allowance, and made me feel pretty rotten about myself.

On the other hand, however, the single pound is a little frustrating. I still had 19 of my weekly points left, even after my terrible weekend, and I started exercising last week. I walked 10 minutes on the treadmill at 2 mph four days last week, and I was rather proud of that. I was afraid that having not exercised during the period between stopping Atkins and beginning WW might have resulted in losing all the advances I'd made in increasing my exercise time from 5 minutes to 12 minutes per session. Anyway, technically I stayed within the WW guidelines for the week and didn't get good results. I know that the technicality doesn't really count, though. I had a bad weekend and I paid for it. I'm back on track now though.

It's been several days since I posted, so I'm not going to list my entire intake...I've already mentioned the worst part. Total points for each day were:

Thursday: 44 points
Friday: 54 points
Saturday: 66 points
Sunday: 76 points
Monday: 47 points

You guys have no idea how hard it was for me to admit to you how much I screwed up this weekend...it's even more embarrassing and humiliating to write it down and see it in black and white than it was to screw up in the first place. The deal I made with myself when I started this blog back in September was that I was going to be totally honest and accountable in it - about the bad things as well as the good. That's a large part of the point of writing it in the first place. When I do well I get to bask in the sound of your cheers, when I'm struggling but sticking to it I get to lean on your encouragement, and when I screw up royally...well, I have to admit it and take the scorn.

So Confusing...

So I've decided that staying within the technical specifications of a weight-loss program is only one piece of the puzzle. Figuring out why each program works (or doesn't!) and why they stress different foods is almost more important than sticking to your daily points or carbs or calories or whatever you're counting. Or maybe that's just the way my brain works and other people don't care why a program works as long as it does, in fact, work. I don't know. My intake for the last two days:

Tuesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal - 7 points
Lunch: Turkey pastrami wrap, tomato-beef broth - 14 points
Snack: Cottage cheese with canned pears - 9 points
Dinner: Sauerkraut and sausage - 21 points
Dessert: Sugar-free Jello pudding, Cool Whip - 5 points
Total: 56 points

Wednesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal - 7 points
Lunch: Salad, banana - 16 points
Snack: Plain Greek yogurt with blueberries and honey - 4 points
Dinner: Ham steak, red potatoes, peas, milk - 20 points
Dessert: Sugar-free Jello pudding, Cool Whip - 5 points
Total: 52 points

Anyway, I've been doing a pretty good job of staying within my WW program guidelines so far, although squeezing in three servings of milk and nine servings of fruits and vegetables per day hasn't quite worked yet. I'm working on it! Some of the points values are very confusing and counter-intuitive to me, though, particularly coming from a low-carb program like Atkins. Fruits and vegetables are for the most part zero points. While that's really nice and I love being able to eat fruit again and have more than half a cup of vegetables with my dinner, it's also a little mind-blowing, because fruits in particular have a lot of carbs. A banana has about 25 carbs! That's as much as I was allowed in a whole day on Atkins, and I don't have to count it at all on WW? Even an apple is about 15 carbs - unthinkable on a low-carb program.

The last few days I've been having oatmeal for breakfast. Once again, something that I really like, high nutritional value, lots of fiber, very natural, but very high carb. Half a cup of dry oatmeal is once again about 25 carbs, or a whole day's worth on Atkins - but only costs me 4 points. The reason I've been having oatmeal for breakfast instead of eggs and bacon or sausage? I was planning to have sausage the other day - and then I looked at the points. Bacon is fairly reasonable on points value, 4 points for three pieces. Sausage is not. Sausage is 15 points for 8 ounces! It reminds me of my reaction to learning that butter is 3 points per tablespoon. What?!

I think retraining my mind and reactions to work with the WW program instead of Atkins is going to be the hardest part of the whole diet!

It Worked!

So yesterday was weigh-in day and I was sooo nervous as we pulled in to the doctor's office. I really didn't think I was going to have lost any weight, with the number of carbs and the sheer amount of food I've been eating on the WW program. But guess what? I did lose! And I lost more than I did on any week I was on Atkins. Let's hear it for 4.4 pounds! It worked! I'm so excited. As a result of the loss, my daily points allowance has gone down from 57 to 56. I don't think that's going to be much of an issue, since I've had a hard time most days eating enough points!

My food for the last few days...

Friday
Breakfast: Scrambled egg, 3 sausage links, banana - 12 points
Lunch: Turkey pastrami wrap, tomato-beef broth - 14 points
Snack: Plain Greek yogurt with blueberries and honey - 3 points
Dinner: Chicken with teriyaki sauce, green beans, Rice-a-Roni - 23 points
Dessert: Sugar-free Jello pudding, Cool Whip - 5 points
Total: 56 points

Saturday
Breakfast: Scrambled egg, 3 pieces bacon - 11 points
Lunch: Turkey pastrami wrap, tomato-beef broth - 14 points
Snack: Plain Greek yogurt with blueberries and honey - 3 points
Dinner: Ham steak, peas, red potatoes, milk - 21 points
Dessert: Sugar-free Jello pudding, Cool Whip - 5 points
Total: 53 points

Sunday
Breakfast: Scrambled egg, 3 sausage links, banana - 12 points
Lunch: Turkey pastrami wrap, tomato-beef broth - 14 points
Snack: Cottage cheese, canned pears - 7 points
Dinner: Smoked sausage, sauerkraut - 21 points
Dessert: Sugar-free Jello pudding, Cool Whip - 5 points
Total: 58 points

Monday
Breakfast: Oatmeal - 7 points
Lunch: Turkey pastrami wrap, tomato-beef broth - 14 points
Snack: Banana - 0 points
Dinner: Chili, saltines, milk - 28 points
Dessert: Sugar-free Jello pudding, Cool Whip - 5 points
Total: 53 points

I've done a pretty good job of sticking to my points, although figuring out how to get them all in has been interesting sometimes, to say the least. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it on the blog previously, but the WW program, in addition to the daily points allowance based on your age, gender, and weight, also gives a 49-point weekly allowance to everyone. These points can be saved up for a special occasion, split evenly through the week, not used at all, or any combination of the above. I ended up using one of those points on Sunday, although I hadn't planned to use them at all. It doesn't seem to have hurt me any, though!

Hungry!

Yesterday was a hungry day...not sure why, I ate the same things I've been eating all week, but I got progressively hungrier throughout the day. I was grumpy and tired all day too (well, I'm always grumpy and tired, but more so than usual!), so maybe I was just hungry as a response to that. Anyway, I managed to resist and not eat anything I shouldn't, so that's a good thing.

Breakfast: Scrambled egg, 3 sausage links, banana - 12 points
Lunch: Salad - 16 points
Snack: Plain Greek yogurt with blueberries and honey - 3 points
Dinner: Ham steak, peas, red potatoes, milk - 20 points
Dessert: Sugar-free Jello pudding, Cool Whip - 5 points
Total: 56 points

Aside from being hungry yesterday though, I'm concerned about what the scale's gonna say on Monday when I weigh in. I just feel like I'm eating way too much to be able to be losing any weight, particularly on the carb side. I've purposely avoided adding up the carbs I'm eating so I don't freak myself out, but that doesn't keep me from knowing that fruit and rice and potatoes are high-carb! I know they're complex carbs, but still...I guess we'll find out on Monday!

Stir-Fry. Lots & Lots of Stir-Fry.

So last night I decided I'd make a stir-fry for dinner. That would seem like a simple, healthy, diet-friendly sort of meal, right? Well...sort of. The WW online tracker includes a recipe builder, so I entered all my ingredients and then stared at the total in shock. 18 points per serving! I managed to reduce it to 16 points by cutting out some of the cooking oil, but it still seemed awfully high. I'd already thawed the meat, though, so since I had enough points available, I decided to go ahead and make it. At that point I discovered one reason the total was so high. A pound of meat and two pounds of vegetables makes a lot of stir-fry. A lot. Suddenly my two servings of stir-fry turned into four servings...with 8 points each. As a result, I was quite a bit short on my points total for yesterday, but I suppose things like that are going to happen as I learn this new program.

Breakfast: Scrambled egg, 3 pieces bacon - 11 points
Lunch: Salad - 16 points
Snack: Plain Greek yogurt with blueberries and honey - 3 points
Dinner: Beef and vegetable stir-fry, milk - 10 points
Dessert: Sugar-free Jello pudding, Cool Whip - 5 points
Total: 45 points

One thing I noticed as I was using the WW recipe builder yesterday I thought was interesting - although they say that vegetables are worth zero points for the most part, and the vegetable line items showed zero, they were adding a few points to the bottom line. I haven't altered the recipe yet to a more reasonable size, and for the total points for two servings, it's showing 33 points. If I add up the individual line items, though, I get 25 points. That's a pretty significant difference! I'm guessing that if an item is worth less than one full point, it shows as zero, but when the software totals the points, it's adding in those fractions. I'd really rather it told me if an item is worth .7 points and so on, but so be it.

I'm On a Diet? Really?

So I'm a little concerned that my new program doesn't really seem like much of a diet. As I was eating my bowl of pudding last night for dessert, I was thinking about what I ate yesterday, and it didn't seem terribly...diet-ish. Well, judge for yourselves:

Breakfast: Scrambled egg, 3 pieces bacon - 11 points
Lunch: Salad - 16 points
Snack: Plain Greek yogurt with blueberries and honey - 3 points
Dinner: Chicken with Red Wine Sauce, green beans, 1 cup chicken Rice-a-Roni - 23 points
Dessert: Sugar-free Jello pudding, Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 57 points

That doesn't really sound like a day on a diet to me. The salad I had for lunch sounds like diet food to some extent, except it was really more of a chef salad, with cheese and meat and hard-boiled egg - very yummy. I really felt guilty about having the Rice-a-Roni with dinner, but I was 8 points short for the day without it. That's a huge number of carbs! I know, I know, I'm not supposed to be counting carbs anymore...but it's going to take a while to change that mindset. It would have been a little healthier if I'd had plain rice instead of Rice-a-Roni, but I had it available so I used it. I guess we'll see what the scale says on Monday!

Day One!

Well, yesterday was interesting. After having been on Atkins, the Weight Watchers program is somewhat counter-intuitive, and I think it's going to take a while to get accustomed to the differences. I certainly get to eat a lot, though, which is pretty cool! I have 57 points to consume each day, and yesterday I only managed 52, but at least I was close. It felt strange, but very nice, to be able to eat fruit and vegetables to my heart's content.

I think the change that's going to be hardest for me to get used to between Atkins and WW is the difference in the way butter is treated. On Atkins, the whole idea is to convert your body from using carbs as its main energy source to using fats, so fats like butter and oils are encouraged and unlimited - within reason, of course. With WW, the program seems to be based more around nutrition density, calories, and the relative difficulty of processing different types of foods. The high nutritive value, fiber, and complex carbs in fruits and vegetables are encouraged and unlimited - but pure fats like butter are penalized. A single tablespoon of butter counts for 3 points. It's not really a big issue right now when I'm having a little difficulty figuring out how to eat enough to use all my daily points like I'm supposed to, although it feels a little odd to be carefully measuring something I used to use with abandon, but I can see it becoming a problem down the road as I lose weight and reduce the number of points I have available. I'll deal with it if and when I come to it, I suppose! Anyway, yesterday's meals...

Breakfast: Scrambled egg, 4 pieces bacon - 13 points
Lunch: Salad - 16 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: Chicken & mushrooms, sauteed zucchini, milk - 19 points
Dessert: Sugar-free Jello pudding, Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 52 points

One thing that I think did work really well with my previous program was the schedule I made for myself of eating something every 3 hours so I was never really hungry, so I'm going to continue to do that with WW. If I'm starving, I'm more likely to have cravings, and less likely to want to spend the time and energy to cook when I want to eat right now! It's best to prevent that as much as possible, I think, since my energy levels are never exactly high to begin with. Avoiding the situations where I'm tempted to fall off the program is a large part of the battle!

A New Year, A New Start

Hey everyone! As I'm sure you've all figured out by now (since I haven't made a blog post in nearly two months) I got very frustrated with my lack of progress on my program and fell off it with a vengeance just before Thanksgiving. I thought it would be fairly self-defeating to try to start a new diet during the holidays, so I set a start date of January 3, the first Monday after New Year's, and here we are!

Based on the research I've done and comments from you guys, I've decided that the main reason I was so unsuccessful with losing weight on Atkins last fall is that my body was in starvation mode. I simply couldn't manage to consume enough calories and still stay within my carb limits. I was averaging 1100-1200 calories per day, and although different calculators came up with different numbers, the general consensus seemed to be that I should be eating 1900-2000 calories per day. That's a big deficit.

Anyway, what I've decided to do is go with a different program altogether, and the winner is Weight Watchers Online. The online version of their program is cheaper than the weekly meetings, and getting me out of the house to a meeting would be next to impossible anyway. I've been on Weight Watchers twice before, both times with the traditional weekly meeting format, both times very briefly and quite reluctantly on my part. Needless to say, I didn't have much success. They've been around for a very long time, though, and many, many people have lost a lot of weight with their programs, so they must be doing something right!

The WW program is based on point values assigned to everything you eat. They calculate the number of points you need to consume per day based on age, gender, height, and current weight, and the number changes as you lose weight. For example, when I was exploring the site before I weighed in this morning, I entered a guess for my weight as 400 lbs, anticipating that I would have gained back all I had lost. The system then calculated a daily total of 59 points for me. When I discovered this morning that I've only gained back 7 lbs (YAY!) and changed my starting weight to 383, it reduced my daily points to 57. They encourage fruit and vegetable consumption, which is something that I was having a hard time with on Atkins. On WW, most fruits and vegetables have a zero points value, so I can eat as many of them as I want. Well...within reason, of course! But I won't have to restrict myself to half a cup of vegetables with dinner and no fruit at all, which will be very nice.

So as of this morning, we're off and running again! It's gonna work this time. I'm determined.