It seems like a very public forum to track my food choices and with a bit of luck my successful weight loss. The biggest benefit of a blog is that it keeps you honest, calls you to account. I have been putting on pounds slowly over the past two years and rapidly of late. My willpower is not really the problem. I have great determination when I put my mind to something. My problem is putting mind to something!
I have heard so much about the success of Weight Watchers, people are shrinking before my eyes. I did try it a couple of years ago when I started to put on weight, but I was too preoccupied to look inwards and deal with it. It also was not the nicest of environments, the meeting that is, and it put me off very easily.
Not this time.
I went last night to the meeting and it was much more pleasant than the last time, a nice small comfortable room and not too many people. No queues to get weighed, which makes it a little less like an ante-natal appointment in the maternity hospital! I knew the system had changed and I was keen to hear the information and how it worked.
But first, I needed the bad news.
I had not weighed myself in a year as far as I can remember. Fear I think. So when I stepped on the scales, a sense of calm resignation came over me. I was not going to be deterred by a number on a machine. I was going to OWN that machine in a matter of weeks. I waited patiently for the results.
12 stone 7 pounds.
Crap.
I was actually more interested in the fact that the computer in front of me had estimated my BMI and my target weight which is 10 stone. That is very achievable. 2 pounds a week will have me fabulous by the end of September.
All things going well.
Pity I didn't make this decision four months ago.
Ah well, here goes.
So this morning, I sat and studied all the literature I had been given, menu plans, recipe ideas, a little wheel that looks like you need a science degree to operate and a notebook to write down my meal choices.
Everything you eat has a point value. Fruit is zero points so fruit bats must all be beach babes. Apart from the pointy ears of course.
I was allocated an allowance of 29 points per day. You also get an extra weekly allowance of 49 which you don't have to use but it comes in handy if you have a meal out or a party where you don't want to be calculating the points for everything you eat. I intend on using that for my few glasses of wine, and decreasing it week by week. My aim is to not need to use it at all in a month or two.
Having read my little guidebook, I turned my attention to breakfast. I usually have two scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast. Eggs are not too big a deal, but the toast and butter are positively stupid. Of course you can choose to have them, but it does mean only eating lettuce for the rest of the day, but I am sorry, it is not worth it.
I decided I will keep eating eggs as they keep me nice and full and I don't feel like I have traded my life in altogether. Besides, they are a superfood. It's not like I am eating poptarts.
Before the double egg whammy, I made a smoothie. I will list the ingredients for you as they will appear in my 'tell-all' food journal
100ml apple juice 1point
1/2 t peanut butter 2 points
1 banana
1/2 mango
handful of blueberries
The mango and blueberries were in the freezer. If I see nice mangos in the supermarket and they are a good price and get a few of them, chop them and put them in the freezer. You can use them in a smoothie from frozen. Saves adding ice.
It was yum if I do say so myself.
I'm sure you could lose the peanut butter if you wanted, but I love the body and richness it gives the smoothie. Takes the sharpness away.
I followed the smoothie with a boiled egg which is worth two points.
Not too bad so far!
My plan for lunch is soup. I may bake some bread, if I can figure out how to calculate the points per slice.
So, off I go to tackle my day.
I am armed with a tub of mango, a banana and grapes as snacks in case I feel peckish. They are allowed in as large a quantity as you can digest. or indeed raw vegetables. Except parsnips would you believe. They have a points value.
Wish me luck!
Tanya x
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