Weight Watchers Wednesdays

Several bloggers do "Wordless Wednesdays" and post a lovely photo. Since I'm seldom at a loss for words, I thought I'd do something different. My goal is to lose about 32 lbs. and being the glutton for humiliation that I am, I'm going to post about my weightloss adventures on Wednesdays. Perhaps this will spare you from having to hear my whine about it every other day of the week, but I digress.

I haven't had much luck dieting on my own lately so I joined Weight Watchers (click here for link) in March. They have two plans: The Core Plan and The Flex Plan. On the Core Plan, you can eat as much as you want from a preapproved list of foods. Since I'm pretty sure chocolate is not a core food (at least not according to Weight Watchers), I decided to track "points" using the Flex Plan. Yes, I'm that anal-retentive that I can track every morsel I put in my mouth, plus it's point value. It's very telling....

What do I like about it?

1. It makes me accountable for every bite I eat. Since I've never had an eating disorder (other than eating too much), this increased emphasis on food doesn't bother me.
2. It does actually seem to be working for me.
3. I'm actually enjoying the meetings more now than I did years ago when I tried Weight Watchers.

What don't I like about it?

1. It doesn't seem to address the carb/protein issue that other diets do (Atkins is an extreme example. Sugar Busters, SouthBeach are other less-radical lower carb diets). I'm to an age where my body doesn't process carbs as well as it used to. While I do try to increase my protein intake for at least two meals, technically, I can eat all carbohydrates and still be not exceed my target "points." (I actually did well with the South Beach Diet a few years back but it involves a lot of planning and cooking. I'm not that into cooking.)
2. My measly 19 points per day leave me feeling pretty hungry at night. Perhaps if I went to bed at a decent hour, this might not be an issue, but.... (On the Flex Plan, I also get 35 bonus points for the week to use as I want. I can spread them out over the week, or I can binge on a whole chocolate devil's food cake. Okay, so maybe not, but you get the point.)

So here is my progress so far (this is what I'll be posting on Wednesdays):

• week 1 (Wed. 3.9.07) ~~~~~~ Just getting started!
• week 2 (Wed. 3.14.07) ~~~~~ - 3.4 lbs
• week 3 (Wed. 3.21.07) ~~~~~ - 1.6 lbs
• week 4 (Wed. 3.28.07) ~~~~~ - 2.4 lbs
• week 5 (Wed. 4.4.07) ~~~~~ + 0.6

Total Weight Loss -6.8

I'm not happy about that 0.6 weight gain, but I can certainly understand it. I ate way too much boiled crawfish this past weekend. Although not high in points, when boiled right, they are very high in salt. My own bathroom scale - which does not calculates tenths of a pound - had initially indicated a weight gain of 2 pounds! I knew most, if not all of it, was water retention due to the excess salt. This morning my scale showed a loss of 1 pound since Monday so all today, only showing a gain of .6 of a pound is not so bad. Lesson learned: drink plenty of water with my crawfish. Diet coke just doesn't purge the salt as well.