I'm halfway through Day 3 on the Weight Watchers program. The online tools are really quite good, I have to say; I like the ease of just typing in some keyword like "green beans" and then choosing from the lists, plus you can calculate your "points" on any food if you know the calories, # of fat grams and # of fiber grams; this is very helpful for me in tracking French products NOT on the lists, like Actimel, a small bottle of liquid yogurt that I really like. I was actually a member of the online program in 2005, which I had completely forgotten, so I had to zap all my old data to get a fresh start-date, but the system retained a lot of the customizations I'd made to my "favorites" lists for food and activity. I had to clean those up too, as the foods I was often eating in America are not even an option here; this is not necessarily a bad thing, however, as I tended to eat a lot of pre-packaged stuff, which isn't as healthy as making things with fresh ingredients.
I have to admit, though, that I have felt hungry every single afternoon and every evening before bed. Like, REALLY hungry. I've done Weight Watchers before and can't remember feeling quite this hungry, but maybe I'm not remembering accurately. And I've even gone a bit over my daily points allowance (WW, for those who don't know, assigns "points" to each food type and serving size, and depending upon your age and current weight, you get so many points per day, which makes it rather easy, and you can eat nearly anything you want as long as you stay within the points allotted). The system does account for "going over" your daily points on occasion, by giving you some additional points you can use during the course of the week -- like if you have a special event and want to eat more, this lets you do it and still stay on program -- but it just means you might lose weight at a slower pace that week. To combat the feelings of hunger, I am drinking a lot more water -- I fill up a 1.25 liter bottle every morning, and that's the MINIMUM amount of water I have to drink each day -- and I feel like technically, I am eating plenty, so I'm not sure why my stomach has this empty, cavernous feeling even within an hour of eating lunch. I try to delay eating my breakfast until 10am so I don't feel the need to eat lunch too early in the day. I don't eat dessert (a fruit or yogurt) right after dinner, I wait a bit so it's closer to bedtime so I can avoid that hungry feeling that will prevent me from sleeping. I'm hoping it is just my body adjusting to the new regime. Either that, or this is backlash from giving up so much sugar in my "old" regime -- a very real possibility since I tend to snack a lot.
It's been interesting to learn the "points value" of certain food. Take a cube of sugar, for example. The online system doesn't list "cube" as a measurement but it does accept grams, so I had to go and look at the box of sugar cubes (because all proper French girls buy CUBES of sugar, not loose granular sugar -- didn't you see Leslie Caron as the quintessential French mother-in-law in Le Divorce? "Ah, originale! We do have a cousin who uses grains of sugar instead of cubes") to find out the measurement. A #4 size cube (yes, they come in different sizes) is 6 grams, or .5 points. I normally put 2 in my morning coffee. Today I decided to try just 1 cube and although it wasn't as sweet as I like, I found with a splash of low-fat milk, I could live with it.
The past two days I had errands to run, so I made a point of walking briskly wherever I went, and I live in a part of town where there are some pretty good uphill stretches. On this program, you get extra points when you exercise, and if you run through all your extra weekly points, the system will apply your activity points -- and this way, you can still stay "on program" even if you're eating a bit more. So you can either eat less and NOT exercise, or eat more by exercising. Since I like the option of eating more, I'm thinking I'll try to do more exercise.
I have not been "pristine" on this program -- in fact, I had soupe gratinée à l'oignon for lunch today, which is like 7 points plus 2 more points for the extra bread -- but then I am not aiming for perfection. In the past, trying to do it all perfectly was usually what set me up for failure and disappointment with my results, so this time, for now at least, I'm just tracking everything I eat, and tracking my activity, and if I happen to eat "too much" some days, then so be it. I figure no matter what, I'm already ahead of the game just by tracking everything, because I'm so much more aware of what goes in my mouth or what I'm doing with my day. I think right now, aiming for healthier choices overall and AWARENESS of ALL my choices is the best thing I can do for myself.
As I write this, it is just after 5pm and my stomach feels empty again... growl, growl, growl. I'm not sure yet what we're even eating for dinner (I have not gotten my act together enough yet to start planning family meals in advance... I'm saving that for NEXT week) so I am wondering what I can eat that won't take up too many points, as the onion soup really played havoc with my numbers for today. Maybe a yogurt would satisfy... or maybe not. Trial and error, right?
Thanks to those of you who have written in with your comments and direct email messages, sharing your own struggles and thoughts. Feel free to continue to do so; although I don't want this to become a weight-loss blog, we could all of us do with a little support.
