WW

[dancerjodi]

Its been a week since we signed up for WW online and its been going well. I have to say that flex points are a life saver on the weekend.

A good recipe and some rambling about food here

I'm curious to see how we weigh in tomorrow night (I'll let you know on Thursday), though I'm not expecting any difference in me. Given that I only have 10-15 lbs to lose I'm sure it will come off slow (that, and I haven't been exercising as much as I'd like). I *am* feeling better physically though, and I'm just fascinated to learn about what food is made up of and how it all adds up. Its kind of gross to think of all of the food Brian and I have been eating when at restaurants and the kind of crap it results in us putting into our bodies. No wonder Americans are so fat and unhealthy as a whole (compared to other countries that are eating more natural foods and are more active on a daily basis)!

We made this http://www.weightwatchers.com/food/rcp/index.aspx?recipeid=50524 last night for dinner, and the salsa was SO GOOD! I think cutting the chicken in strips post cooking and eating with fajitas would be good (rather than making it with a rice or couscous grain on the side). Brian and I are thinking of picking up one of the WW cookbooks, because it would be neat to browse things that way. The new Executive Assistant in my office is also doing WW with her husband and is taking 2 WW cookbooks out of the library (to peruse and see if worth buying), so I may be able to check them out through her in person.

Tomorrow starts a new points week which is good, since I'm going out for dinner Wed (for a friend's birthday), Thurs (for my birthday) and Fri (before the Extreme show). Again I say, flex points are a life saver. Its been interesting checking out restaurant menus before going out and figuring out what the healthiest options are. I'm splurging points-wise when we go out Thursday though. Brian and I will grab dinner at http://www.widowfletcherstavern.com/, where I'll be getting the Scallop and Shrimp Amore and a salad. MMM, a gorgonzola tomato sauce! No fried dough for us though, we'll be able to guilt each other into not getting it I'm sure. The WW site doesn't have fried dough listed, but 1/2 a funnel cake (basically the same thing) is 12 points. Ouch! Based on that eating one whole fried dough exceeds the daily points I should be eating :)



I have an hour ballet class tonight. It will be good to get back to moving but I still need to figure out what I'm doing iron-wise. Though the gym is nice, I don't want to come in here earlier than I am already, and staying later puts me sitting in the worst of traffic. I'm wondering if I could figure out a good weight routine with staying power at home - I still haven't gotten there yet.

Comments

[tk7602.livejournal.com]

my little revelation of the day: meat lover's pizza. 11 points a slice. i usually have 3, with some breadsticks and a soda. aka about 40 points. for dinner.

man, no wonder those last 30 pounds haven't been going anywhere!!!!

[danaecormac.livejournal.com]

Its kind of gross to think of all of the food....when at restaurants and the kind of crap it results in us putting into our bodies. No wonder Americans are so fat and unhealthy as a whole

I was just thinking about that this morning. I said to myself on the way to work via McDonald's (and the yummy Egg & Cheese McGriddle I had), "Jennifer, you are what you eat. You eat fatty food, you will be a fatty person."

My problem, I KNOW what to do, I just don't do it. I ALWAYS feel better when I eat cleanly (a lot of fresh fruits & veggies, whole grains, beans). But I get caught up in the "convenience foods" and that is where I get into trouble.

Sigh.

[dawntreader]

ugh. funnel cakes. i love those things, but we got a homemade kit for christmas that we tried out. we made way too much dough and ate way too many funnel cakeS. yes, plural. i was so sick to my stomach afterwards. i guess there's a reason they are meant to be shared. :)

also, thanks for the recipe sharing and being our guinea pigs!

[roaming.livejournal.com]

Can you say more about what's bad about restaurant food? I think, and maybe I'm rationalizing, that if it's not a cheap take-out fast food kind of place (heh, I just mistyped it as "fat food"), it's "okay." For example, we get the mustard crusted chicken from Not Your Average Joe's fairly often. Twice a week I'd say. Two flat chicken breasts, asparagus, and, okay, a mound of garlic mashed potato. I eat one of the breasts, most of the asparagus, half of the mash, and save the rest for lunch the next day. It may not be thin food, but is it "bad" food?

ww

[dancer.livejournal.com]

"Can you say more about what's bad about restaurant food?"

Its just a matter of amounts. If I get a total of 20 pts a day I need to balance that across the day and keep myself from being starving in between meals. If your average restaurant dinner (figuring drink, sides) is around 12 points, that only leaves me 8 left for breakfast, lunch and a couple of snacks. Its just pretty limiting. An average breakfast for me is 6 points, an average lunch is 5 or 6 and then I usually have a morning snack and afternoon snack. Eating an average meal at a restaurant then puts me at over 20 points for a day which isn't great (see flex point comment below).

I'm just trying to choose wisely, for instance:
Chicken fajitas: 8 pts
Chicken enchiladas (2): 16 pts
Chicken Curry, 1 cup: 10 pts

That doesn't include a starch on the side, sauces or cheese on veggies, and doesn't include a caloric drink for dessert. If you compare that dinner at Not your Average Joe's to a sandwich and fries at McDonalds, depending on what you're getting, they may not be all that nutritionally different in terms of calories, fat and fiber (its just that one place is making the dinner more naturally). Chicken=chicken, fat=fat, starch=starch (and all that jazz).

We *are* allowed 35 flex points per week over and above our # per day, so I just save them for those eating out times and I try and choose something yummy that's less bad for me at said restaurants so I can eat more food w/ less points. I usually try and take 1/2 of the meal home too since the portion sizes are so massive. An average work day points-wise for me is still at around 22 (so I end up taking 2 flex points each day, and the rest are for the weekend which ends up higher due to eating out). Thursday (my birthday dinner) is estimated now to be at around 24 (eating a smaller lunch than I would normally to accomadate for the rich dinner, and bulking up on salad w/ lo cal dressing as a snack so that I get my veggies and aren't hungry).

Check this for some WW points for certain restaurants:
http://www.weightwatchers.com/food/rst/index.aspx?tabnum=3

Of course, that's assuming that the site will let you look at it without a login :)

Thus far, its been an interesting process and we're definitely learning a lot!

Re: ww

[roaming.livejournal.com]

Ah, makes sense.

I just find that when I eat less than I'm used to, I get hungry. Gnawing hungry. I expect it's a matter of training, getting used to something different, or shrinking the stomach. But a lot of it is "comfort" level. Certain foods, no matter how much I eat of them, just don't make me feel like I've actually eaten. Apples and carrots, for example. I love 'em. I can nosh on them all day. But they leave me craving something that combines protein/carbs/fiber for bulk.

Or, as a friend told me when I said I knew it was time to diet, no more denial: "Get used to this concept -- DEPRIVATION. You can't lose weight without it. Unless you're running marathons every day to burn enough calories."

Re: ww

[dancer.livejournal.com]

"Or, as a friend told me when I said I knew it was time to diet, no more denial: "Get used to this concept -- DEPRIVATION. You can't lose weight without it."

I haven't found myself hungry at all since we've been on ww. Sure I was bummed that I wasn't eating that double chocolate fudge cake for dessert or snacking on chips and salsa before our fajitas . . . but that wasn't hunger as much as desire for something tasty for the sake of taste.

I've enjoyed what I've been eating, and its almost like a game to see how many cool things I can eat with little points. Like, a glass of OJ is way more points than a cup and 1/2 of strawberries (who knew!) and eating baked tortilla chips works out well - 30 of them for not many points at all.

At a basic level I think its finally really sunk in for me that garbage in = garbage out, and if I want to stop with the garbage out I need to stop with the garbage in. The ww thing just makes it easier for me to think about how to fit *some* garbage in while not throwing off the whole thing, if that makes any sense.

"Unless you're running marathons every day to burn enough calories"

That is important too, which is why I can have a couple of pieces of pizza for dinner tonight (since I'll be dancing) to balance things out :)