It’s been a little over a month since I blogged about my weight loss. I’ve posted a bit on Instagram (and therefore onto my Endless Strength Blog on FB), but nothing with some real meat to it.
Since my post here on the blog, I decided to suck it up and rejoin Weight Watchers, which was the best move. They’ve done a reboot again and the program they have now is called Freestyle. I really like it. When I posted via Instagram how much I liked the changes to the program, I received a few inquiries and decided to post a little about the differences here.
Just a few of the changes that impact my use of the program are listed here:
- Weight Watchers unveiled ZERO point values for some foods that used to have points associated to them. AND…they were things I really like to eat. AND…they are healthy things that I would choose to eat more of if they didn’t cost me points. Here are just a few: Eggs (Yes!!! EGGS ARE FREE now!); Chicken Breast (only the breast!); Turkey Breast (only the breast!); Shrimp (THIS JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER!); Crab (not the imitation kind…only actual honest-to-goodness, dug out of the leg/shell Crab); Plain, Fat Free Greek Yogurt. Those are things I eat and will eat more of because they are zero points. I think there are more, but I haven’t found the need to go searching for them probably because I don’t eat them all that often.
- There are fewer daily points assigned also. For example, I used to get 30 points per day, and I now get 23 and I weigh more now than when I was on the program at 30 points per. I happen to think the change in point values for those healthier foods must be part of it, but I haven’t felt the need to dig into the program materials to discover why daily points were lowered.
- ROLLOVERS! So, we have always had this batch of “weekly” points that could be dipped into if we go over our daily points. As of right now, I get 42 every week, but I foresee that dropping when I get down another 10 pounds or so because i understand that a person’s weight/age/etc. all impacts the number of weeklies they are assigned. And I remember that the number would go down at various points in a person’s journey. So where do the rollovers come in? Well….let’s say you don’t use all 23 daily points. It used to be they really encouraged you to eat ALL of your daily points (something about metabolism, avoiding starving yourself, etc.) Well, now if you have up to 4 points remaining at the end of the day…rather than try to find something 4 points to use your remaining points, if you’re not hungry, just go to bed and the next morning, those 4 points will have been added to your weekly points! LOVE this, by the way. More later.
- Recipes have been adjusted to reflect new point values and that makes it all easier (love love love the WW app, by the way, it’s my lifesaver).
Tomorrow is my next weigh-in and it will be my fourth week in a row. I’ve lost every week. I anticipate that I will lose again this week.
I’ve tracked every day for the last four weeks. It’s crazy. When I was struggling and not focused, I would miss a day tracking all the time. Of course, that didn’t help me achieve my goals and I fell completely off the wagon. Now I’ve tracked stuff all day every day for four weeks and I think how crazy it would be to go a day without tracking. That just means I’ve reestablished my good food-tracking habit.
I’ve stuck to my activity plan all these weeks, too. Now, last week on Monday and Tuesday, I didn’t make it to my 5:15 a.m. Crossfit, but I made sure and walked 45 minutes both of those nights to still get something in. I’ve learned that walking really IS just as good as running. Sure, it’s slower, but I am a fast walker, so it’s not that much slower. đŸ™‚
Craig and I have food-prepped for the week on the weekend each of these weeks. It’s been wonderful to rush out of the house for work while simply grabbing a meal container out of our extra refrigerator and knowing that lunch is taken care of. No Jimmy John’s or Subway or workplace cafeteria food! A healthy, pointed-out, delicious lunch every single day. What’s awesome is, we usually make enough that I can have one of them for dinner, too, if I don’t want to use the points it would take to eat whatever the kids are eating.
Here are a few of our recipes we have used:
- Bacon and Swiss Quiche (this was surprisingly delicious and we fixed it two weeks in a row) — 4 points per serving
- Ham and Cheese Quiche Spiral — 3 points per spiral
- Slow Cooker Italian Chicken and Tomato Soup with Spinach — 1 point. If you add 1/4 cup orzo pasta when heating up in the microwave, it’s delicious and it’s 5 points.
- Spicy Turkey-Cheddar Enchilada Pie — 9 points (usually saved this one for dinner)
- Tuna Salad Flat-Out Wrap — 4 points and YUMMMM!
- Chorizo Beef and Veggie Enchiladas — 7 points. Truth: The WW recipe was Chorizo Chicken and Veggie Enchiladas for only 5 points, but we couldn’t find Chorizo Chicken.
But they are delicious — it’s more like a casserole and made 12 servings. I’ve also reserved this mostly for dinner. I even let Dani try one because she loves enchiladas. I didn’t get a chance to ask her how she liked it though.
So, there you go for a little status update on how this whole recurring weight loss thing is going. I’m feeling better, my pants are looser (well, the larger sized ones that I bought a few months ago), my stamina is getting better during workouts and…I’m overall happier knowing I am doing something to get myself healthier again.
Endless Strength 