but I'm sitting here, a bit after 11:30 PM Wednesday evening, doing some meal/grocery planning and calculating my daily points and otherwise reflecting on my previous week as per the new Weight Watchers 360˚ Tracker. Which I think is helping.
Anyway, I've begun to realize some things and thought they might help you too. Maybe.
This week, as I've reset my WW habits and tracked more than just my food I've noticed (again) that after I eat carbs, especially wheat based carbs of more than a couple of points, I become both HONGRY and cranky/blue a few hours later and it continues all through the next day. All I want to do is eat and grumble. I don't like either of those things, so I haven't really had any pasta or bread, other than a couple of 2 point wraps, since my 'carby meal' (one measly cup of spaghetti that screwed me up for about 30 hours) on Monday.
Holy moley, what a DIFFERENCE, in just two days. Energetic, feeling some creativity, chatty, happy... HUGE difference. Don't really like it - oh, bread, how I adore thee - but it's obviously not good for me to eat that kinda thing at all. This coming week I am going to make a point to look for non-wheat bread sources so I can still have my shaved smoked turkey sammich once in a while, but hopefully without the growly munchies. Maybe I can cut wheat completely out? I know that even whole grain pasta messes me up so I think that's just done. Alas.
Eating more points seems to be helping too - I'm much less hungry overall, less tired and listless (maybe that, too, is related to the bread and pasta??) as has almost daily exercise. I've missed one day this week, simply because we were busy and I just wanted one day off, but after increasing my time with Richard Simmons from 20 min to 40 I can really feel a difference in how I'm moving overall, how I carry myself, and I feel... snug. Not saggy. If that makes sense. Yay!
Lastly, I've switched my week around to start on Thursday and end on Wednesday (instead of Friday/Thursday) because after I weighed in on Thursday (hungry because I had barely eaten pre-meeting to keep my weight a little lower), I considered any remaining plus points to be 'free eating points!!!' and tended to, well, eat stuff I shouldn't. Like fast food, pizza, etc. I know that they're there for life's events and happenings, but using them to binge... probably not a good idea, especially since I really didn't keep track, I just ATE. But, since I'll be weighing in tomorrow, my unused plus points for this week will remain unused. I think that'll work out well as I continue on this road to wellness.
Maybe these little tweaks can help you too? Is there some thing you're doing that you know you maybe shouldn't but will make a huge difference if you just stop or at least realize it's a problem for you? A little change you can make that will get you back on track?
I hope so, because we all deserve to be healthy and happy. {{huggs}}
4 comments:
Those are some great observations. I, too, have been contemplating shifting week start day. At the moment, it's Saturday, but that's not working well for me. Hubby (and I) like to do breakfast on Saturday morning, he likes to do steaks on Saturday night. These are huge points busters. Beginning the week with all my weekly points blown is not inspiring to staying on plan. I'm going to try shifting my week start to Sunday, so maybe I'll still have some points left by Saturday for the big blowout.
This is part of the ongoing, hubby will only eat certain things struggle, but it isn't all him (you guys knew that, of course).
Since the new year, I'm just tracking points (boy are there some blowouts), but I want to get in the habit of tracking no matter how bad I think it is. The only thing I've recorded for more than the last year is weekly weights. Which, surprisingly, have stayed pretty steady (a fifteen pound swing over the course of the year, but I wound up close to where I started and still down over 20 lbs from when I re-started almost two years ago).
So, tracking points is a big step in the right direction. I sense there are some easy wins I could make in some changes, and I'll begin looking at those before next month.
For me, the initial weight loss is always easy. Then the switch in my brain trips and it becomes the hardest thing on the planet again. My goal is to come out of this plateau and make another step downward while remaining, well, getting back in the game mentally. Because weight loss is all in my head. And, on this subject, my head is plenty messed up.
Good observations! My mom has a gluten intolerance and I suspect I'm heading that way but haven't done anything about it yet. You might look for brown rice pasta. I'm pretty sure it's gluten free and might be a viable alternative. Also, Mom eats spelt bread, which tends to be sorta dry and crumbly but might do the trick for you.
I don't think I mentioned it here, but I dropped WW a month or so ago. I've been tracking food and exercise on SparkPeople and have had some interesting revelations. SP has a feature that breaks what you eat into calories, fat, protein, and carbs. When I was tracking on WW I had no idea I was eating a lot of fat and not enough protein. No wonder my weight won't go any lower--I'm not eating enough protein to build muscle. So that's my only gripe with WW. Points are great, but you can eat nothing but low point foods and sooner or later you're going to stop losing weight, at least the way I was eating. Now that I know the problem I can do something about it.
SparkPeople is a wonderful site, and their tracking system is great for what you are checking nutritional balance. I sometimes think I need to track both places for just those benefits.
Several years ago, I used DietPower software which was WONDERFUL for tracking all kinds of nutrients. Unfortunately, it's not available for the Mac. Stephen, I think I have a CD around here somewhere I could mail you if you wanted to try the program.
When we had the girls and I *had* to lose weight for surgery or be sent to the hospital (with facilities for people above a particular line I'd crossed) instead of the surgery center (where normal-sized people went and was cheaper and better covered by insurance) I used Calorie King. There was a free version (Mac and PC) but I liked it so much I bought the full one. It tracked everything too, and made charts to show how you did with different meals, too. I still use it when the WW food list doesn't have something I'm looking for, or doesn't break down into units that fit my circumstance better. Was a good buy all around and I lost about 19 lbs while using it, plus walking an hour or so a day, every single day.
My problem with it, ultimately, and Spark People, is that I'm doing it alone. Just me and the computer. Sure, there are buddy systems and message boards and things, but what I need is showing up, in person, to face my good or bad choices. I get in one of my funks and stop making a point to key things in or go online... and I stumble, fall, and get right back to where I'd started. I have not missed one WW meeting yet. If I can't go to either Thurs meeting (we've had cancellations due to weather), then by golly I go on Saturday. I need that accountability, at least currently. Later... maybe, maybe not, I just don't know. But it seems to be working, overall, since I was down 2.8 lbs today, with a net loss of 21.2 :) Not the great, earth-shattering numbers I'd hoped for (I'm 4 months in) but still... not too shabby. :-)
I have a problem getting enough protein and I have to make myself get my daily fats in. It's so, so weird to me to actually PUT olive oil in things so I get fat. My usual problem is too many carbs. ;) But protein... I definitely need more protein. Very glad eggs are just 2 points and since I've never had a cholesterol issue, they're my go-to protein source many days.
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