<p>Count me in as a Weight Watchers Fan. I joined in early Dec. and have lost 13 lbs. and have kept it off. I’ve really enjoyed the framework of the new Points Plus structure and enjoy the support at meetings. I’m eating more fruits and vegs. and whole grains with the weekly splurge included…highly recommend WW–get a few buddies to join with you too…also, the on-line tools for daily tracking are great. It’s made a tremendous difference for me. Never thought I’d see this size again!</p>
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<p>Good idea. Since it’s a type of bread, many people assume that a bagel is equivalent to a slice of bread and eat accordingly. It is not. A regular bagel (not even a jumbo one) has the mass and hence the calories of four slices of bread.</p>
<p>How does WW Points Plus differ from the old WW? I haven’t done WW in several years so maybe it’s time to give it another try.</p>
<p>I’m not inclined to state a goal in terms of pounds or inches to lose, although I will track those. I do better with short-term goals, and I’m thinking in terms of greatly reducing the amount of sugar I consume and exercising more. I can, in theory, accomplish these in a couple of weeks. Then I can set new, easily achievable goals. My major problem is that I don’t have time to really focus on myself, with S1 and S2 at home, requiring large amounts of food, vegetarian in S2’s case, and the more meat the better for S1. This afternoon I drove S2 and his best friend to their regular sports activity, and the friend came over for dinner and the evening. Tomorrow morning I have to go to the airport to pick up S2’s cousin, who will be visiting for the week. And so on… So I think that a series of small changes is all I can manage right now. Joining WW and tracking what I eat would be too much.</p>
<p>Hey, I’m tracking how many glasses of water I drink in a day, NYMom…baby steps, baby steps…(going to the kitchen to get glass #4 soon…8 glasses a day is tough for me; don’t think that I’ll make it today).</p>
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<p>Two ways I increased water intake: drinking only water with meals (no tea/soda/anything else) and taking a water bottle with me in the car.</p>
<p>Thanks for the hint, Amesie.</p>
<p>When I did WW many moons ago, I found if the water was cool instead of cold I could drink more. I also added lemons to help and I counted my iced tea at lunch as water; it helped get my numbers in each day. If I started my first glass when I got up in the morning and the second after my shower while drying my hair, I felt I had made progress.</p>
<p>The one problem of drinking all that water is needing to know where every bathroom is located when out and about 
I can’t tell you how many times I had to make an emergency stop while out running errands, knowing there was no way I would make it to my next stop or home!</p>
<p>I have always found drinking water to be a chore, but I find I enjoy it more if I keep it in a Brita pitcher at room temp, add ice cubes, lemon, and a drop of agave nectar. I also don’t like it cold. </p>
<p>NYMom - I think you are so smart. I like to set realistic goals and then feel energized by accomplishing them.</p>
<p>This thread is more my speed. The diet/exercise thread is very motivating, but a bit intense. I am trying to slowly redirect my eating and exercise. have found the livestrong site helpful [Calorie</a> Counter, Calorie Tracker & Food Journal | MyPlate on LIVESTRONG.COM](<a href=“http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/]Calorie”>http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/)
I’ve lost about 4 lbs. Have 12 to go.</p>
<p>jym-
I too have found the LIVESTRONG link very useful. Knowing that even my stretching burns calories and can be tangibly demonstrated is empowering!
I did great with my food intake today and horribly with exercise. Men came to rip up
S2’s shower to find a leak. A job that DH promised would take 1 hr took 3. All my “me time” consumed. The goal tomorrow is to leave the house when S2 departs for ACT and head for the gym. Gotta happen because dinner tomorrow is at foodie friends home which will entail several courses of mind blowing epicurian delights.</p>
<p>Livestrong is also great for surprising you with trends in your diet, eat a lot of fruit instead of cookies, feeling smugly healthy and realise it is still sugar. Eat cheese & nuts for a snack and think the high calorie count is offset by all that good protein and realise you did not eat enough protein, then add one cup non fat milk and see the difference.</p>
<p>I’m doing WW and like the new Points Plus. Things that are “good for you” are lower in points, most fresh fruits and veggies count as zero points, and you have more points to work with than under the old system. Pretty much everyone is allotted 29 points per day, with more available for the week.</p>
<p>A great afternoon snack at work: an apple and a piece of light string cheese.</p>
<p>Thanks for starting this thread; I am always looking for more helpful hints, although I have found that my results really lag behind my effort lately. I have cut calories, watched the type of food that I eat, exercised daily, and have only lost 7 pounds since January 2. I am an older CC parent soon to be eligible for social security and still having hormonal spurts. Oh, and the Diabetes Prevention Project says I am diabetic but my dr. says not quite yet, so I REALLY need to get that weight–and my blood sugar–down. Although it is expensive, I have been working with a personal trainer since Halloween and that is the best thing that I have ever done for myself.</p>
<p>I have learned that I cannot cut my calories too much; my body starts holding on with desperation to its fat stores. The book, Menopause Reset, recommends eating a very small meal/snack every 2 hours. I haven’t been able to manage that but I have tried to eat smaller meals more regularly. Greek yogurt with its higher protein has become my breakfast and bedtime snack (although many people try not to eat before bedtime, I need a protein snack or I wake up at 4 am).</p>
<p>I also cut back the quantity of exercise but really upped the intensity. I treated myself to a heart rate monitor and do intervals on my elliptical. Although the rest of my body is showing its age, my resting heart rate is 58 which even impressed my trainer.</p>
<p>It is really depressing to read all of the magazine headlines while standing in the checkout line at the grocery store about losing 10 pounds in 2 weeks. Thirty years ago I might have been able to do that but now I know that it is going to take a very long time.</p>
<p>Regarding the water intake - 6 glasses is easier and perfectly sufficient, especially if it’s not a particularly hot (90+ day) you haven’t been out sweating all day. It’s much easier to achieve also - one with each meal, two between lunch and dinner and 1/2 between breakfast and lunch, 1/2 between dinner and bed. Once you’ve accomplished that on a regular basis you can add 2 more glasses if you want to but the latest studies show it’s not necessary.</p>
<p>H & I keep bottles of Key Lime juice and Lemon Juice in frig, then add to our water.
Those plastic squirt type lemons & limes with juice in them would work just as well, if you didn’t want those bottles taking up room in the refrigerator. </p>
<p>WebMd also has all kinds of tips on there for dieting & what foods are OK or not OK.</p>
<p>Not being able to lose weight despite your best efforts is also a sign of insulin resistance and diabetes knocking on your door. Once I was diagnosed as diabetic, I immediately went on a very low carb eating plan…no sugar or flour or starch items and exercised 6-7 days per week. Have lost 30 pounds…yet that was in 1 year so my body doesn’t lose easily but I am thrilled with the result. All my blood work, A1C, triglycerides, cholesterol etc are now normal but vigilance is key, as are quantities and eating something every few hours so you never feel hungry enough to binge.</p>
<p>lotsofquests (& other women who are “of a certain age”) – I had posted the following link on the other diet/exercise thread, but it’s now buried many pages back. My D, who is a personal trainer certified in the Metabolic Effect (ME) method, originally sent me the link, which is to a Q&A on the ME Facebook page. I’m pretty sure you don’t have to be a member of FB to open the link. Anyway, the answer to the Q about why it can be harder for post-menopausal women to lose weight is about half way down the thread. It’s a fairly lengthy answer, but seems to make sense. Hope you all don’t feel it’s too intense – so read it or not as you wish. :)</p>
<p>[What</a> is the key… | Facebook](<a href=“Facebook”>Facebook)</p>
<p>I would be happy with 7 lbs since January, or 30 lbs in a year - a loss of a half or quarter pound a week adds up. In my case, the alternative is to slowly gain. </p>
<p>Thank you CBBBlinker and others for the information on post-menopausal weight issues. I am going to gradually educate myself on this topic. I know that my metabolism has changed. Before I was 40, I ate whatever I wanted and stayed slim - of course, I was a big exerciser then, too. A post-40 pregnancy and more demanding lifestyle - no more daily 90-minute professional-level ballet classes or several mile-long swims per week - set me on the road to overweight. Because I didn’t have to watch what I ate when I was younger, I had only a vague idea of the calorie and fat content of various foods and had to learn the basics. Now I am going to have to learn more than the basics.</p>
<p>One thing that I have learned about myself is that I am a sugar addict. I learned about this from Katherine DesMaisons’ sugar addiction book. A couple of times I was able to follow the first few steps of her program, which were all I needed to get into a sugar-free state. The changes in how I felt were profound. Basically, what I did was to eliminate all overt sugar and white food (white flour, white rice, etc.), eat some protein with each meal, eat a good breakfast each day. A few days of this and my sugar cravings disappeared, and sugar was actually repulsive. The Coke habit is what has kept me from permanently going sugar-free. I think that only a small fraction of people are in this category, but I definitely am.</p>
<p>Thanks cbblinker, that link has some good information, especially the part about exercise. I think I am exercising more efficiently now. I do two hours of weight training with the trainer and try to do cardio 4 additional days. Instead of hour long sessions at moderate speed, I aim for increasing intervals. </p>
<p>Although I have only lost 7 pounds, it seems that it was all fat. According to my last assessment, my lean weight is the same as when I started but my fat percentage has gone down 4 per cent. More importantly, I feel so much better.</p>