Weight Watchers

April 19, 2014

Today’s Musings

It is a beautiful day outside. It is 74 degrees with a very light breeze blowing.  I have been working in my yard most of the morning.  I came in for a bit, but I am going right back out as soon as I finish this.

I have added a new post to my http://fullfilledprophesy.wordpress.com/  blog.  I have been slow posting to that blog because I need to research before I post.

I mentioned before that I was using Weight Watchers to rid myself of some extra pounds.  I am so pleased with this program that I want to say I highly recommend it.  The cost is minimal.  It can be done from home, no meetings to attend.  It does not feel like a diet.  I can eat any food I want.  It is all about portion control.  There are meetings if one needs that kind of structure.  I don’t like meetings so being able to do this at home is perfect.  I pay attention to my points and most of the time I have a point or two left over.  I have steadily lost weight from the first day.  I lose about 2 ounces a day or a bit over a pound a week.  Weight Watchers told me I would lose between 1/2 pound to 2 pounds a week.  Someone with more weight to lose or if one loses weight easily, could lose faster.  I have had a terrible time losing weight.  It was easy to gain and very hard to lose.  I am very happy with the rate I am losing.  It is the only program I have found that works for me.  I spent BIG bucks with Metabolic Research Center and it did not work.  I have tried Atkins, fasting, Nutrisystem, and I can’t remember all the others.  Nothing worked. Weight Watchers was my last shot.  A friend told me his son lost a lot on WW and I thought I may as well give it a try.  I am so happy I did!.

The sunshine is calling me, so I am off to enjoy it.  I hope you are having a beautiful day, also.

Happy Easter to you all!

April 4, 2014

Another Blustery Morning

You just never know when you greet the day what you are going to find.  It was warm yesterday… 75 degrees when I got up at 5:30 am.  The stars were peeking through the clouds here and there.  A lovely morning.  We had a storm last night.  The thunder woke me several times.  It startled some barks out of Belle, my Maltese pal.  This morning it was 42 degrees with a cold wind making it feel even colder.  The clouds are all gone.  It is another blustery day.

I have my small garden planted.  I have tomatoes, bell peppers, broccoli, lettuce, asparagus, and kale in.  It is really a salad garden.  Someday I will increase it to include other vegetables.  I do grow herbs, too.  I have lavender, rosemary, marjoram, thyme, sage, and basil.

I wrote before about slimming down with Weight Watchers.  I am still having great results.  I am losing a bit more than a pound a week.  What is really wonderful about WW is I don’t feel like I am on a diet.  I can eat anything I want.  I just need to stay within my designated points.  That is not hard to do.

I gave up drinking cow’s milk a few years ago.  I decided it was not really good for me.  I also stopped drinking soy milk because it interferes with my thyroid function.  I settled on coconut milk.  I like it to drink and to cook with but it is high fat so I can’t drink much.  I don’t really like it in cereal, either.  It does have a healthy fat even though the media gave it bad press.  (A lot they know!)  I also cook with coconut oil because it is a healthy oil…not like Canola oil which is made from GMO rape plants.  I said all that to say I have discovered goat milk.  It tastes like cow’s milk, does not have to be homogenized and it contains those medium chain fatty acids that coconut oil has that is so good for me. Goat milk is easier to digest than cow milk.  It is closer to human milk so therefore it is better for humans than cow’s milk.  I have a local supplier so I get the milk fresh from the goat.  After looking on the internet, I find that there seems to be goat farmers (ranchers?) just about everywhere.  I suspect there is one near you, in case you are interested in a healthier milk for you and your family.

 

March 20, 2014

Slimming the Body

Over the last decade or two, I have slowly added some extra pounds.  I have made several attempts to take them off but didn’t have any long lasting results.  I always said I would not pay money to lose weight but this year I decided I probably needed to do that.  I joined Metabolic Research Center in January.  That is a very expensive program.  I was spending a lot of money buying all the supplements and protein drinks they recommended.  The diet is very restrictive.  After 2 1/2 months I had lost only 7 pounds and had spent over $1000.00.  I had expected to lose 2-3 pound per week.  I decided that was not working for me.

I had looked at Weight Watchers on line a number of times but “I wasn’t going to pay to lose weight” so what did I do but swallow a camel. Weight Watchers cost a tiny fraction of the cost of MRC.  I decided to join.  I started losing weight immediately.  I was so surprised after what I had been through with MRC.  I just thought this would be a cheaper plan and that I would go on with the slow weight loss.  Weight Watchers said I would lose 1/2 to 2 pounds per week.  I lost a pound in three days!

Weight Watchers has been a pleasurable experience.  I was given 26 points per day plus 49 bonus points for the week.

 WW wants me to use all my points each day.  They cannot be carried over to the next day.  If I use more than my 26 points in a day, I can use some of the 49 bonus points.  So far I have not used any bonus points.  I really like that I am encouraged to eat fruits and vegetables.  Fresh fruits and vegetables count as 0 toward my 26 points.  Because I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, I stay comfortably full.  I have to work at getting those 26 points in each day.
There is no food that I cannot eat.  Because my goat milk is full fat,  I thought I might run into a problem there, but it doesn’t use up many points.  I checked out the points on things like fruit pie (7 points), ice cream (5 points), wine (4 points), pizza (5 points).  I don’t expect I will be consuming much of those, but it is nice to know that I can should I choose.
The recommendation is to eat fat free or low fat foods.  I am eating cheese made from skim milk but it is not considered low fat.  I do buy fat free cottage cheese and yoghurt.
Exercise gains points that can be traded for food points.
 I put the WW app on my phone so I can keep track wherever I am. There is a bar code scanner on the app so I can scan a food to see how many points it uses.  There is a calculator that I can input fat, carbs, and fiber for foods that I can’t scan.  They thought of everything!
This does not feel like a diet at all.  I just track all the food I eat to make sure I stay at my 26 points.  I eat what I like.  The way I see it, this is something that I can do from now on.  Once I reach my goal weight I can still track to make sure I don’t over eat and gain back.  I am sure my daily allowance will increase when I reach goal and go on maintenance but I could be happy at this level.  It has plenty of food and variety.