Friday Weigh In

Friday is our Weight Watcher's meeting and weigh-in.  I have to admit that after yesterday's post, I was not really looking forward to the scale today.  Somehow I was feeling like I was not as disciplined with my points as when we started, and that really had me worried.  I went to bed early, feeling like if I didn't, I'd cave to a serious case of emotional munchies.  I had a large glass of water and tucked myself in. 

My day started off with a jolt.  Don't ask me why, but I woke up in a panic - not because its Friday, but because it was light out and my alarm did not go off!  What time was it?  Who knows - the power was off.  I ran downstairs to find my cell phone - to discover that Justin had exactly 11 minutes to get outside to catch his school bus.  We rushed - me, too - because it was raining hard, so I drive Justin out to the end of the driveway to wait in the warm car and stay dry.  We wait, and wait, and wait - listening to the radio, which 20 minutes later informs us there was a 2-hour delay due to slippery roads.  Ugh!  Make matters worse, we have no power to make coffee, no power to bring water up from the well - so no hot shower.  Not a good start to the day.  Sometimes a start like this can make the whole day seem bad.  We went back to bed where it was warm, and about half an hour later the power was restored.  Time to make the coffee!

We eventually head to our Weight Watchers meeting and face the scale - and what a surprising turn to our day - Chuck lost 2.8 lbs and I lost 1.4 lbs.  Guess what I learned from that is while we may not be quite as diligent in how we count our points (allowing for breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks)...as long as we stay within our points allowance - we will lose weight.  After our meeting, Chuck and I talked about this a while.  I have been staying within my points allowances for each day and using some weekly points allowance, too.  What I have been missing was the luxury of "formal snacks".  What I mean by that is when I first started the PointsPlus program - I followed the suggested daily PointsPlus Targets breakdowns by meal chart on page 60 of the Getting Started booklet.  Every breakfast for me was 5pp, lunch was 8pp, dinner 11pp, and there was room leftover for two snacks - 3pp and 2pp.  I really loved those snacks.  Take a look at a few of them and you'll see why:


Black Bean Brownies (4pp ea)



Hard boiled egg (2pp) and fruit (0pp)

Cheese (2pp), Crackers(2pp) and Grapes

Vita Top Muffin top (3pp), Fruit (0pp), Coffee with ff half & half (0pp)



WW Cheese wedges (1pp ea); Tostitos Baked Scoops (15 for 3pp) plus Salsa (0pp) plus guacomole (1pp)

 You get the idea - snacks can be fun.  BUT - what I wasn't thinking about was that instead of snacks, I've been enjoying the extra points in my meal portions...or in desserts.  Tonight it was a 'banana split' for 5 points plus: 1/2 cup of lite ice cream for 3pp, 1tsp chocolate syrup for 1pp, 1 tsp chopped walnuts for 0pp, 1/4 cup whipped cream for 1pp, 1/2 cup strawberries for 0pp, 1/2 cup fresh pineapple for 0pp and 1/2 banana for 0pp.  WOW!  I guess its not a bad trade off for the two snacks some days.  So if I'm missing my snacks - I can just PLAN for them.  If I want a banana split, I can just PLAN for it.  If I want one of the brownies sitting on my counter - no, never mind - they are regular brownies and about 12 pp for each one!  I can live without them ;0)

So - I'm still loving the new PointsPlus program - I'm just learning the ropes of real life.  Everything has its trade-off.  Points do, too.

Tell me - what are you willing to trade your snacks for?  I'm listening to you!