It’s funny how having that weekly weigh in makes such a difference.
For those who have never been to a meeting, it’s not a public thing. You get on the scale, and no one-- including you-- can see the numbers except the WW leader working the scale. She writes the number in your book.
But I’ve been good, and am hoping for a reward of a lower number of pounds than last Thursday. The accountability is a pretty strong motivator; I’m being good and looking forward to Thursday. The thought of a positive result helps keep me on track.
Today will be a different kind of a day. My youngest (15 years old) is sick. High fever, sore throat, just generally feeling awful. My husband took her to Urgent Care yesterday afternoon, and the quick test came back negative for strep. But she’s sick enough that I decided to take the day to keep an eye on her; I may end up taking her to the pediatrician if shes’ not feeling a bit better in a few hours. So I’m home all day, basically alone while she sleeps. I may try some time on the treadmill between bouts of schoolwork and housework.
And it’s funny how people prepare for it. Many people wear the same clothes (or the same type of clothes) every week for weigh-in so that the numbers won’t be skewed by different amounts of clothing. And they remove everything they’re wearing/carrying that could possibly be removed to try to get the number as low as possible. A trip to the restroom before weigh-in is also common.
At my meeting, there are several people who always wear a T-shirt and shorts for weigh-in – even on the coldest days of winter. Some come to the meeting dressed that way. Others change in the bathroom. One woman wears her T-shirt and shorts under her regular clothes in the winter and strips down in the meeting room just before going on the scale.
I leave my eyeglasses on for weigh-in, but lots of people don’t.
I’ve even seen people unscrew and remove their earrings before going up to the scale, and I have heard rumors that some people take out their contact lenses, although I can’t say that I’ve actually seen this. :))
How funny. We’re all teachers or secretaries in a Catholic High School.So I’ll take off my heels, but the skirt and top or dress pants, blouse and jacket/cardigan stay on.
We don’t need to have some 15 year old boy walking by, glancing in the classroom window, wondering why his math teacher is taking her clothes off.
Wearing the same clothing at each weigh in, doing the weigh ins on the same day of the week and time each week are actually pretty good ideas. That way you eliminate variables that fluctuate from day to day, from morning to night, from the weight of the clothing you wear, and end up getting a trend line over the course of weeks that is reliable. That way, instead of obsessing on an absolute “number” at a given point in time, you can measure your progress based on relativistic changes measured under the same conditions. I weigh my self every Friday morning when I get up, on the same scale, in the same state of undress. I make my doctor’s office nuts because I refuse to allow them to weigh me when I go for office visits and instead report to them the results of my last weigh in. I try explaining to them that the numbers I give them over time have more validity and value than randomly scheduled weigh ins under differing conditions but they haven’t quite bought into it yet, lol.
I did WW many years ago with meetings and it was great. Kept the weight off for quite a while, but it creeped back up so I joined the online a couple of years ago. My payments were pretty much donations for a while (meaning I did not really follow the program since I thought I knew how to manage my weight), but once I stuck to the points, it really worked. Back to it again to try and stop the upward creep and lose the winter weight. I find the online workable, as the meeting times I can attend coincide with the exercise classes and think the latter are more important.
When I went back a few years ago, and didn’t lose any weight the first week the leader told me to watch my fruit intake, even though it was zero points. That has to also be true with some of the zero point foods on the current plan. I also did not take advantage of the “weekly” extra points and did not eat to my activity points. I was able to lost one to two pounds per week most weeks.
For me, bread (good crusty breads) and chocolate are my triggers to over eat. I pretty much cut out all bread (but will have a veggie burger on a reduced calorie english muffin for dinner).
I find it hard to believe that the soup recipe (which I will certainly try!) is zero points with chicken and beans.
Chicken breast and just about all types of beans are zero points.
And they do make the point that “zero points” is not the same thing as “free.”
The reality is that no matter what you’re eating, if you eat too much of it you’ll gain weight.
So they emphasize “zero points” to mean eat until you’re satisfied. Not “post Thanksgiving stuffed”, but “satisfied.”
Admittedly, I’m less that two weeks into this, so please don’t anyone take me as a know it all. But I’m enthusiastic, and I love a project, so here I am.
My plan is to decide on how much I’m going to eat, and put that on the plate. And let that be it.
If I’m still hungry half an hour later, then I can have something to eat. But I need to let the idea that I’m hungry catch up with all the food I’ve just eaten. Being a little hungry for half an hour won’t kill me.
Alcoholics live “one day at a time.” They don’t pledge to be sober forever, they aim to stay sober today.
In a similar vein, we don’t need to promise to be good forever… just that we’re going to stay on plan for this meal and worry about the next one later.
The leader last week said “Hunger is just a feeling. You can live with a little hunger.” And that made sense to me. So I was a little hungry on the way home from work yesterday… it had been a while since 6th period lunch. Instead of diving into the fridge when I got home, I went with the idea that I was feeling a little hungry, and made myself a cup of tea to tide me over until dinner. It worked.
I like your enthusiasm @bjkmom. It will carry you far and it helps those of us who have been at this for awhile to dig down and recommit. I like your approach too. My sense is that many of us do not have a good sense of “satisfied” so it’s wise to start with a small portion and learning what satiety really feels like. So, like you, I start with the traditional portion size (e.g. 3 oz chicken breast) and try to see if that works. If it doesn’t and I am still hungry, I’ll eat more-maybe it will be vegetables or a piece of fruit or maybe a small helping of dinner-but I try to wait. One thing I do need to be careful about: if I get too hungry, it can lead to overeating. I try to remember to carry a piece of fruit or a premier protein drink with me.
You inspired me to sign up! I blew todays points at breakfast so I’m studying the free foods before lunch break. Trip to the grocery store after work to restock the pantry with good choices. Spring break is 7 weeks away and I would love to be 15 pounds lighter!
Hope WW also teaches about the correct serving sizes, because no matter whether it is points or calories, size matters.
I know this is not a site many would follow, but do take a look at the link. Very illustrative description of how a road to weight gain can be paved with wrong portion selections:
I’m following this thread with a lot of interest, as I’m trying to lose weight, but on my own. Thank you @bjkmom for starting this discussion and @bunsenburner for the link. Even though I appear to be eating primarily the zero point foods highlighted in this thread, portion size is definitely something real and a contributing factor for me. Taking it one day at a time, not used to going to bed feeling hungry, but feeling glad when I wake in the morning (I weigh myself every morning).
Our food culture in this country is just crazy. We’re bombarded with highly rewarding addictive foods, in addition to the normalization of large portion sizes. Temptation is everywhere!
I haven’t ever done WW, but it seems like a great set of tools to reconfigure one’s view on portions (points) and food choices (points).
One reason I like having the kids out of the house is there is very little food in the house. We have a some boring basics to put together some simple meals. If I find myself mindlessly wandering into the kitchen, there is no bag of tortilla chips or trail mix calling my name.
@bunsenburner Portion size was what I had to re-learn when I went back on WW. That and how little i really need to eat. For me, it is all about mind set. When I am in the WW zone, I don’t find it hard to turn down the treats at work or the restaurant bread. When I am out of that zone, it is really hard. Some days I am definitely hungry, but others not at all. Good luck all.
Portion sizes is a very important concept, particularly with regard to the zero point foods. Keep in mind that zero points is not zero calories and many of the zero point foods, if not eaten in moderation, will pack significant calories. WW gives them zero points, however, because based on certain criteria WW has judged these foods to be nutrient dense or to promote a healthy nutrition plan and therefore assigns zero points to induce people to eat them. Some of the foods can be calorie dense because of fat content (ex. whole eggs, salmon), others such as fruits can have high sugar contents so you want to be cautious about expending your daily points on other foods and then loading up on zero point foods without portion limitations.
@MichaelNKat, we were also told at a WW meeting that the foods that were recently reclassified as having zero points for the Freestyle plan are foods that people are unlikely to overeat. As my leader said, “People don’t gorge on chicken breast, beans, or nonfat plain Greek yogurt.”
However, I don’t think the planners accounted for the creativity of many WW members. Within a week after Freestyle was announced, zero point recipes for delicious mixed dishes, including many versions of chicken chili, flooded the Internet. And people might gorge on those. There were also massive discussions about ways to make nonfat plain Greek yogurt taste better, such as combining it with fresh fruit, sweetening it with artificial sweeteners, and (my favorite) mixing it with unsweetened applesauce. People might gorge on the dressed-up yogurt, too.
We particularly need to be careful about portion size when we take zero point foods and make them more palatable. With freedom comes responsibility. Freestyle is calling on us to take a lot more responsibility than the previous plan did. It’s a challenge.
I’ve noticed this same thing @Marian. One member at my meeting last week said that she is mixing nonfat Greek yogurt with a packet of Hidden Valley Ranch and snacking on a big tub of it it with carrots all day. Zero points. I thought of doing the same thing…but I think I might get out of hand with that.
If you are on any weight loss regimen…you should not be gorging on any kind of food. Period. Weight watchers discusses portion control at every meeting I’ve ever been to…it’s a key ingredient to any diet.
It sounds like Freestyle is giving you more options and choices…WW has always been about responsibility!
Back to the recipes.
I made chili last night and it was delicious.
1 pound 95% ground meat (I used beef but you could use any kind of meat)
1 medium sweet onion chopped
1 green pepper chopped
1 can kidney beans drained and washed
1 14.5 Oz can of diced tomatoes
3/4 cup salsa
2 tbs chopped garlic from a jar…or 2 cloves garlic
1 TBS cumin
1 TBS chili powder
1 tsp coriander (I omitted this because I didn’t have it)
Cayenne if you like it more spicy…or chopped jalapeño.
Anyway…
Cook the meat and onions until the meat is not pink. Add the rest of the ingredients…and stir. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and simmer for 30 minutes.
We each ate 3/4 cup of this…and it was plenty filling!
Right. I think that munching on anything all day is missing the point. We’re trying not to just lose the weight, but to rethink our eating habits so we don’t regain what we lose.
So both portion control and impulse control necessarily have to be part of the picture. Zero point foods are great, but they still have calories. Eat enough of them, and the weight won’t be coming off.