…and yes, I realize it’s only Monday.
Even after recommitting to my weight loss, I was still struggling to really stick to the calorie counting and daily tracking on SparkPeople. I was still food journaling, but after a month I started to slack on even that. I was doing okay and managed to lose a few pounds, but I was still feeling frustrated. It was hard to stay in my calorie range and still feel like I was getting all the nutrients I needed and eating the right foods.
Around the same time, my mom joined Weight Watchers and was really liking the program and having a lot of success. A couple of my real life friends as well as the fabulous blogger Beth were hitting their goal weights with Weight Watchers as well. Maybe it was a sign from the universe, I have no idea, but after a couple weeks of thought I decided maybe Weight Watchers was exactly what I needed.
The decision to join Weight Watchers was actually a difficult one. The cost was definitely the biggest factor in my hesitation to join. I can think of a lot of other things to spend $10.50 a week on. Plus, in the past, I’d been so successful with Spark which costs $0. However, it was also pretty clear the Spark method just wasn’t cutting it for me anymore, and it was really difficult to ignore the success others around me where having. I knew I needed to shake things up, and Weight Watchers seemed like a really viable option. And even though the money thing was still a bit of an issue or me, it seemed ridiculous not to invest $10.50 a week toward my health and *hopefully* finally reaching my goal weight. After a week of debating, I decided to just bite the bullet, and I asked my mom if I could go with her to her next meeting.
And so, Weight Watchers Wednesdays (because who doesn’t love some good alliteration) has been born on my blog. Each Wednesday, I will be posting about the previous night’s weigh-in and meeting. I’ll be posting my weigh-in information, reflections on the past week, and anything of note from the meeting. Other than Weight Watchers Wednesday, the only other impact this will have on the blog is I will now be posting the PointPlus Values when I post new recipes.
Wednesday will be my first “official” Weight Watchers Wednesday post, but before I officially kick things off, here’s a quick summary of my first impressions and the first two weigh ins.
My first weigh in was on June 21, 2011. I weighed in at 164.8lbs.
Week 1 (6/28/11): 163.2lbs – 1.6lbs lost
The first meeting was good. I got the impression that after 2.5 years of healthier living I probably wasn’t going to learn much new information at the meetings, but I like the leaders and the group. Regarding the program overall, I really like it so far. To me, it seems like a much simpler approach. Counting points is much less overwhelming than counting calories and trying to make sure I’m getting enough carbs and fats and protiens. PointsPlus Values are calculated in such a way that the more nutrient dense a food is, the lower the pts+ value seems to be. Plus I really love that fruits and most veggies are 0 pts+. I find myself eating a ton more fruits and veggies since they “don’t count.”
Week 2 (7/5/11): 163.2lbs – 0lbs lost, but 0lbs gained as well.
Not losing didn’t come as too much of a shock since weigh-in was the day after the 4th of July holiday weekend. I didn’t really over-do it over the holiday – I stayed under my weekly points allowance – but I did eat a lot of foods I don’t normally eat. (I ate more meat in those three days than I’ve probably eaten in the last three weeks!) I definitely think that had an impact on my weigh-in. It also left me feeling kind of crummy. I was ready to get back to more veggie-centric meals.
So that’s it for now. Check back Wednesday for the first official Weight Watchers Wednesday post!
Girl Can 
🙂
I was feeling the calorie counting frustration as well. It’s been driving me insane and I found myself obsessing over the calories in a banana or apple!! I was going crazy and I switched back to counting pts last week. I feel much more sane now since WW is so familiar to me. And I lost a pound last week and I wasn’t losing anything counting calories.
Does it drive you nuts that mostly the members just talk about how much processed crap they can eat for x pts? I have a hard time being around that without smacking someone! LOL!! 😉
Ya know, I haven’t really run into that much yet. They have the products sitting out, but the leaders never push them and rarely even mention them unless something is being sold at a reduced price or they just got something new or something.
This particular group and leader actually seem to have a pretty solid focus on eating whole, real foods. The other day we were talking about snacks on the go, and 95% of the stuff that was suggested was actually whole foods or foods with minimal processing. That definitely would make me crazy though. I think if I was running into that I would probably look for another meeting or be less likely to attend meetings at all.
The “free” fruits have veggies have been huge for me. I eat SO much more now. (I’m sure the fact that it’s summer and there are so many fruits and veggies readily available doesn’t hurt either.) There’s actually been several days where I’m a point or two under because I’ve eaten so many fruits and veggies. I know you’re not really supposed to go under your points, but I figured with the volume of fruits and veggies I’ve been eating it’s probably okay since a) I’m not intentionally going under points and feeling unhungry and unsatisfied and b) every though the fruits and veggies are free, they still have calories so I’m pretty sure I’m still eating a healthy number of calories.
So far I’m really impressed by the program.
Weight Watchers is how I lost 30 lbs a few years ago. I have since gained it back, but it definitely works! I am thinking of rejoining, however, I just don’t think I have the money right now, so I might stick to sparkpeople. I know it works too, I’m just usually too lazy to use it! Good luck 🙂
I got really lucky on the money side. I had planned to take it out of my savings account, but when I got to the meeting with my mom she offered to pay my fees. It’s actually another great source of motivation for me because I don’t want to “waste” her money since she totally didn’t have to do that for me!
I still love Sparkpeople. I lost my first 30 – 40 pounds with them through the course of 2009. I just burned out on the calorie counting, and I was overwhelming myself trying to be perfect getting the right amount of calories and making sure I got all my other nutrients in the appropriate amounts. I definitely still recommend Spark to friends though! Keep up using it, and it will work!
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