Anyone interested in a Weight Watcher''s thread?

[stepcutgirl]

I am trying so hard not to complain about it too much. My poor fiance has to listen to me as I truly cry over it (he might be getting nominated for sainthood soon). I really, really appreciate your understanding. I'm trying to be optimistic and will try to have a great week.

You are doing so crazy good - I am truly happy for you. It is such an amazing feeling to be successful!

Are you exercising? I have never been good in that area but was still able to lose, so I didn't feel as much incentive. I need to start doing something but I'm not sure what I should/will do. I walk some, but need to do so more often. Have you found anything that you enjoy doing?

Thank you. I am doing really well and I've taken very easily to the Points Plus program whereas I couldn't hack it on Momentum. I think different people respond differently to each program and one program does not fit all. I am so sorry you are struggling, I will be keeping you in my thoughts this week. If you wanna chat about it I usually check this page once a day and I'll look to see if I can find you privately.

Exercise....yuck! I maybe walk around the block twice a week, tops. I have the same thoughts that you do, I'm losing without exercising so it's not really on my radar until I stop losing or REALLY slow down the pace.

 

[Skippy123]

Stepcut, yay for your weight loss!!!! You are doing awesome!
Aryana, yay for being so close to goal. When I was 10 lbs from goal it was tough to get those last 10 lbs off, but you can do it!!!! If I remember correctly I changed things up a bit, more protein, less process foods, ate more lentils, beans, veggies and more water. You are doing great and sooo close!
I love Weight watchers so I can't help but pop in here and cheer you ladies on!!!

 

[stepcutgirl]

Thanks Skippy! I always like hearing from success stories!

 

[stepcutgirl]

Weigh in was this morning, my goal was to just not gain as I ate HUGE meals out twice this week and had a lot of wine one night and ice cream twice. So I held my breath and hopped on. To my amazement I lost 1.2 lbs and met my 5% goal! Hooray!

Aryana-how did this week go for you?

 

[Skippy123]

Weigh in was this morning, my goal was to just not gain as I ate HUGE meals out twice this week and had a lot of wine one night and ice cream twice. So I held my breath and hopped on. To my amazement I lost 1.2 lbs and met my 5% goal! Hooray!

Aryana-how did this week go for you?

YAY congrats!!!!!

 

[stepcutgirl]

Weigh in was this morning, my goal was to just not gain as I ate HUGE meals out twice this week and had a lot of wine one night and ice cream twice. So I held my breath and hopped on. To my amazement I lost 1.2 lbs and met my 5% goal! Hooray!

Aryana-how did this week go for you?

YAY congrats!!!!!

Thanks!

 

[Aryana]

Sorry that I didn't get a chance to post earlier. Brace yourself - I actually lost 2.2 pounds! Goodness, that was a hard-won battle! I was extremely good last week and tried so very hard. I didn't eat any weekly allowance points, either. The interesting thing is that I thought I was pretty good the weeks I didn't lose, so I'm not sure what I was doing wrong. I did try to spread my points out a little more throughout the day. Anyway, now that I actually lost some pounds, I'm more motivated. YAY - I know how I am and I was so afraid I'd just give up if I couldn't get it to work. I'm now 10.2 pounds from Goal #1! Once I'm a few pounds from Goal #1 I'm going to adjust to 10 pounds less for Goal #2. I'm not sure where I'll settle, but I have a 'mental' goal (I'm not certain it is a healthy/sustainable/attainable goal, although it is in my weight range. We'll see!)

YAY for you, Stepcut! 1.2 pounds is a big loss! Congrats on the 5% - it is amazing the positive difference in a person's health by losing 5% - 10%.

Hi Skippy! Thanks for the encouragement. That is great that you lost weight with WW. I have always believed it worked, but I was just having a lot of problems with the new program. It is still harder for me, but I really want to stick with it! Do you attend meetings as a lifetime member?

 

[Skippy123]

Aryana, awesome on the 2.2 lbs; yay you!!!!! I use to attend monthly meetings to keep my Lifetime status (I stayed at goal for a year and half till recently), because in October I became pregnant with twins. I am not doing weight watchers currently; I am eating as healthy as possible for the most part. It actually was hard for me to switch gears out of WW since I was so use to counting points. I hope it is okay that I pop in here; it actually is very inspirational to read yours, Stepgirls and others WW journey so I stay encouraged after the babies arrive. I am very curious about the new program as I did flex points before being pregnant. Congrats Aryana and stepcut on the weight loss; it is very inspiring to read!!!

 

[stepcutgirl]

Sorry that I didn't get a chance to post earlier. Brace yourself - I actually lost 2.2 pounds! Goodness, that was a hard-won battle! I was extremely good last week and tried so very hard. I didn't eat any weekly allowance points, either. The interesting thing is that I thought I was pretty good the weeks I didn't lose, so I'm not sure what I was doing wrong. I did try to spread my points out a little more throughout the day. Anyway, now that I actually lost some pounds, I'm more motivated. YAY - I know how I am and I was so afraid I'd just give up if I couldn't get it to work. I'm now 10.2 pounds from Goal #1! Once I'm a few pounds from Goal #1 I'm going to adjust to 10 pounds less for Goal #2. I'm not sure where I'll settle, but I have a 'mental' goal (I'm not certain it is a healthy/sustainable/attainable goal, although it is in my weight range. We'll see!)

YAY for you, Stepcut! 1.2 pounds is a big loss! Congrats on the 5% - it is amazing the positive difference in a person's health by losing 5% - 10%.

Hi Skippy! Thanks for the encouragement. That is great that you lost weight with WW. I have always believed it worked, but I was just having a lot of problems with the new program. It is still harder for me, but I really want to stick with it! Do you attend meetings as a lifetime member?

WOOT! WOOT! WOOT!

I am so happy for you! I was thinking about you all week! I think small goals help so much more than thinking about the end goal. I am probably setting too high a "goal" this week but I really would like to lose 3.9lbs this week. That would put me at a weight I haven't been in 8 years and would actually be more of a celebration for me than hitting 5%. Probably too high a goal for one week but I'm sticking closely to my daily points and not eating my weekly points this week. When I look back at my past weeks I have eaten all of my daily and weekly points every single week. I also took your lead and have been eating a few more points for breakfast and lunch.

Skippy-I like you posting here!

 

[TravelingGal]

hi gals...

Thought I'd pop back in. I'm still on it, although my goal through the holidays was to maintain. Which I did. Then came Jan and I had a pregnancy scare that freaked me out and I think I gained 2 points through that nightmare.

So back on, and doing well, and liking this new system.

 

[stepcutgirl]

Hi Tgal! Glad to see you on here.

 

[stepcutgirl]

Aryana-Just wanted to let you know I'm posting in the March healthy living thread. There are a few more WW's in there too! Come join us.

 

[Aryana]

Hi Tgal! Glad to see you are doing well and liking the new program.

Skippy, you are so sweet! We like you posting here!

Stepcut, I read on Healthy Living that you gained 1 pound last week - I am sorry - that stinks... It is especially hard when you have a goal you want to reach and try to be good and it doesn't work out as hoped. You'll get there! Here's hoping to a big loss this week!

Last week I gained .6. Don't understand, but that's all I'm gonna say 'bout that. My plan this week was to shake things up, and so far I have done that! We went out of town to a Whale Festival over the weekend. It was rainy and cold, so I had to partake of the wine tasting part, right? So on Saturday I enjoyed going to the shops and trying wines from different wineries. I 'might' have eaten some of the appetizers served, too...oh, and then there was dinner....and breakfast at the B&B... The only saving grace is that we walked A LOT. We walked through the town and along the headlands looking for whales and looking for whales and looking for whales (um, are we the only ones to go to a whale festival and not see a darned whale??!). Strangely, I weighed myself yesterday and I was down a little. We'll see what happens by Thursday, though - maybe the fat hadn't had time to glom onto my butt yet!

Stepcut, I see you are posting in Healthy Living. I feel more comfortable talking about WW specific stuff here, but I will start posting there as well!

 

[EricaR]

I'm trying to do the new plan but it isn't working so well for me. I've lost 10lbs since January, but in the past six weeks I've been up and down the same three pounds and it is driving me bonkers. I eat really cleanly (very very little processed foods, lots of fresh fruits and veggies, lean proteins, etc). I run, I very carefully track my points, drink my water, etc and nothing is working. I've tried shaking things up, eating one high point meal a week, using some of my bonus points, all of my bonus points, none of my bonus points, eating activity points, not eating them and absolutely nothing is helping.

I think one of the problems is that I strongly dislike the leader of the meeting I had been going to. It was the most convenient time and location, but I found myself avoiding staying for the meetings just because I found her to be over the top obnoxious. This week I'll go over on Saturday morning and try out a different leader to see if that makes a difference for me.

 

[Aryana]

Erica, I have been having the same issues (all except the 10 pound loss part - I've only lost 5.8 net pounds since I started the new plan 12/2/10... ). I'm sorry that you are having trouble. 10 pounds in 2+ months is very good, but I know it is frustrating to be stuck.

I have talked to my leaders multiple times, so I'll share what they have told me. You may have already tried everything, but hopefully there will be something that you can use:
1. Spread points out throughout the day and don't save most of your points for dinner/evening.
2. Eat differently that you did with the old plan. Also eat more protein. (My leader said the first 2 weeks she did PointsPlus she gained weight. She showed the district mgr her Tracker and was asked why she was eating the same way as she did on the old plan. They told her instead of the Cherrios she had eaten for breakfast for the last 20 years to eat protein. They also suggested she change around her other foods to incorporate new foods.)
3. Mix things up by eating extra points some days. On the old plan I tried to eat 2 extra points every few days.
4. Use the Kickstart Guide in the PointsPlus Manual to mix and match your meals with suggested foods.
5. Don't go overly nutty with fruit. Just because fruit is 0 points doesn't mean a person can eat 5 bananas. Be mindful of 'normal' portions.
6. Eat lots of vegetables and fewer foods with high carbs.
7. On the old plan the leader actually suggested I drink wine, saying it helps women lose weight. That was easier to accomplish on the old plan, since now wine is so darned many points. But, if you can make it work, maybe add some wine to your diet.
8. Just try different things and see if anything works. (It seems like you have already done this one.)

That is all that I can think of right now. I'll add more if I think of them.

I do think finding a meeting with a leader that you like is important. My leader is very good, but I have attended some other meetings that were torture. If I couldn't find support in the meetings I would do it online.

Good luck!

 

[stepcutgirl]

EricaR-Welcome! It will be so nice to have another WW here to talk to. I'm sorry you are having a rough go of it. I really didn't like my meeting person either so I just stopped going and switched over to online only. It's been easier for me but I do wish I had more people to talk about it with.

Aryana-Sounds like you had a really nice trip followed by a frustrating trip to the scale. I'm sorry to hear that, especially after finally losing last week. I think you are right, we should post WW specific stuff here and then chat about living well in the healthy living thread.

I did gain a pound last week. I suppose it was just my time as I had been losing very quickly and even when eating poorly was losing with ease for weeks. I had the right attitude when I realized I'd gained but over the course of the week I stopped tracking because I had run out of weekly points and my screw it attitude with food was running rampant. And of course I get on the scale just a few minutes ago -3:30pm here so generally a few lbs more than when I do my official weigh in, in the morning before I consume anything and what does it say? Down 2lbs. Makes no sense. So once again I'm telling myself that starting tomorrow (my weigh in/new weekday) I will go back to eating correctly and eating all my daily and some weekly points every day. That's what I was doing before and it was working so I'm hopeful I can get back on the good, healthy wagon.

Better luck to all of us this week! Erica and Aryana-what days do you do weigh in?

 

[Aryana]

I go to weigh-ins on Thursday evenings. I think I will be paying the price for my weekend tonight - evidently the fat glommed onto my butt after all... (Stepcut, the .6 gain was last week's result, before my weekend!) It is so hard to really know, my weight fluctuates all around and the scale at WW is different than my home scale. At least if I gain I know it is because I wasn't overly good, which is much less frustrating than being good and gaining! (I've obviously arrived at the point where I am straining to find the silver lining!)

Stepcut, hopefully your weigh in tomorrow is good!

 

[stepcutgirl]

Official weigh in this morning is down 2lbs for a total loss of 13.8lbs in 7 weeks. Not bad at all. Now I'm just 1.9lbs away from my personal small victory goal. I'm going to eat ALL my daily and weekly points this week and continue my mile to mile and a half walks at least 4 days this week.

Hopefully I will see more progress this week, it was really frustrating last week when I ate so so well and gained, just to be followed by a week where I ate so so bad and had a nice loss. Of course then it makes me think that maybe the loss this week was because of how well I did the week before. But, thus far I've had a minimum of a 1lb loss each time I've eaten every single point, so I'm gonna stick to that and see if it continues to do well for me.

Aryana- I hope your weigh in went well. Maybe you will have some of the same run I've had and lose when you've not been so good!

 

[Aryana]

Sorry for my late update. We went out of town this weekend and I didn't get a chance to post before we left. Anyway, last Thursday at my weigh in I was up .2 pounds. I know I was out of town the previous weekend, but this constant weight gain is getting really, really old.... It is interesting that when I overeat my weight gain is less than when I under-eat (however we walked a ton while I was away, which I am sure helped tremendously). Last week I did try to make certain I ate all my daily points - often it is hard for me to hit my daily total. In the old program it was important to eat all your points, but my leader said it wasn't as important on the new plan. Maybe she is wrong!

As I mentioned, we went out of town again this weekend. I tried to be relatively good, but we since we were at Wine Road Barrel Tasting event on Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Sonoma, I'm not sure what will happen. Since the tastes are small I don't think the wine was THAT bad (plus we take it slow and don't overdo it), but we ate out every meal so that is where the points start to really add up. I will continue to attempt to eat all my daily allowance points the remainder of this week and hope for the best.

Stepcut - that is great news about the 2 pounds! YAY! I hope you can lose the 1.9 pounds this week and hit your goal!

 

[merilenda]

Just wanted to stop by and say hi! I'm doing WW online and I have to say that I love the new points plus program! I feel like I'm already eating much healthier and love that I can snack on fruits and veggies for zero points.

 

[Aryana]

Welcome, merilenda!

 

[stepcutgirl]

Welcome Merlinda!

Aryana-I'm sorry to hear about your gain. I am really crossing my fingers and toes for you for this week!

I am really starting to think there is something here to eating all your points. Though, I find it frustrating and the little rant I'm about to go on is stupid, I need to rant. Ok, so last week I ate way over my points by eating out 3 times last week. As in I had gone through all of my weekly points with several days left till weigh in day and what happens? Yeah, I lost 2lbs. So...I decided this week I would eat every single point, but not go over. Keep in mind, I weigh every day and I probably shouldn't but I feel like it keeps me in check and my weight generally doesn't fluctuate much. So, I had a migraine that kept me in bed all day Sunday. I only got up to eat the first thing around 9pm and what I ate was 3 slices of pizza and a few hours later a WW ice cream. Now of course this wasn't even close to my daily total but it was all bad food that I ate and then went back to bed. I get up Monday morning (thank you migraine meds) and do my morning weigh in and low and behold it says I am down 1.8lbs. Hooray! Yesterday I was back to healthy eating and ate 2 points over my daily points. Get up today for my morning weigh in and it says I weigh 2.2lbs more than Monday and more than my Friday weigh in.

I am seriously contemplating going for some damn fast food in an attempt to lose! I remember a few weeks ago I hadn't lost a pound for the week and husband really wanted fast food so I said ok, it fits into my points for today, I'll have some too. And the next day I was down 1lb! Eating fast food or something else bad for me to make me lose should not be crossing my mind! I'm now having the serious internal conversation of trying to figure out how I'm going to eat all my weekly points (I have 40 left) plus my daily points by Thursday night!

I realize I sound like I'm crazy. I just needed to vent it out. I love the weeks I lose but it makes it so frustrating when the weeks I am REALLY bad, not just like oh, I had a piece of chocolate bad, are my bigger losing weeks.

 

[Aryana]

Stepcut - thanks for the crossed fingers and toes! I really think I might be doomed this week.... I wasn't horrible, but since I can't seem to lose when I am good, I don't hold out much hope!

I'm sorry you are feeling frustrated. I certainly understand, since I can't seem to figure out what is working/not working for me. Weeks I am good I gain weight. Weeks I am not as good I gain, but not as much. Wish I could crack the code, too.... I'm sure you didn't gain 2.2 pounds overnight - the difference was probably due to being dehydrated the day you didn't eat. (I hope that makes you feel better - I hate the big unexplained gains.) On the weeks where you lost, did you have more activity? I wish I knew something to say to help, but I am clueless. I would just say to try to stay true to the program. At the very least, eating healthier is better for you! Try to hang in there!

ETA - You don't sound crazy - the process is baffling and seems to defy logic.
Do you eat a lot of salty foods? I believe that can make you retain water. I LOVE salt, so I try to be careful before my weigh-ins.

 

[stepcutgirl]

Thanks for the support. I'm pretty sure you are right, that it was dehydration from being sick or something. I should have thought that through instead of just having my little flip out. I say I don't normally fluctuate much but I also don't normally spend an entire day in bed, so it's in the realm of possible that I was just dehydrated. I did end up meeting the husband for lunch and then we ate out for dinner with friends, so no more bad eating this week. I really just need to have a normal week where I eat nearly all my points, but on good healthy eating.

I'm not sure why I'm making this so hard. When I simplify it it goes like this when I have lost more than fractions of a lb it's been the weeks when I was eating what I wanted to but making it fit in my points be it daily or weekly. When I get greedy with wanting more weight and don't finish of all of my daily and most or all of my weekly I either gain, stay the same or lose fractions of a pound. So I need to stop over thinking it. I'm not sure why it's become so frustrating, but it sure has! It just seems like on the weeks when we are good we should be rewarded!

 

[Aryana]

Stepcut, I was thinking about you and started wondering - Do you eat more protein when you eat out? I know the new program focuses on protein, so maybe if you are eating more protein than you do at home, that is part of the difference??? Just a thought that perhaps your restaurant choices aren't all that bad. For me, the last 2 weekends out of town, I have had (cough) steak. (My FI doesn't eat beef, so I only eat beef in restaurants.) My problem is not wanting to substitute steamed broccoli for mashed potatoes!

 

[stepcutgirl]

When I eat out we usually go to sports bar type places and I get either a cheeseburger and fries, fried chicken sandwich and fries or a fried fish sandwich and fries! None of which would I consider healthy. They might have some decent protein but they also have tons of fat and carbs! I ate out three times this week and if the scale doesn't change between tonight and tomorrow I'll either hit my mini personal goal or be super super close to it.

I do get steak out-usually filet- if we go somewhere nicer, but my week to week eating out choices are awful. When we eat at home its some sort of lean protein, a steamed veggie and sometimes a healthy carb. So eating at home is way better for me, yet doesn't seem to yield the results of when I eat out 2-3 times a week.

Was your weigh in this morning or do you go in the evening?

 

[Aryana]

Ok, I guess my protein theory might be wrong!! But here's to hoping the scale is the same tomorrow!! I hope you can hit your personal goal.

I weigh in tonight, so hoping for the best. I seemed to weigh less earlier today, but that could all change by tonight!

 

[stepcutgirl]

Let me know how it goes! Good luck!

 

[stepcutgirl]

Down 1lb for me today. .9lbs away from my mini goal. So close....yet so far away. Hope yours went well!

 

[Aryana]

I was down .6. Stepcut, I'm now with you on the wondering what is going on....I ate french fries, fried potatoes, sausage, wine, etc. this week (when we were out of town). I wasn't crazy with eating, but definitely not careful. How can I lose weight this week and the weeks I am good I gain weight??? Gah, I just can't grasp how this new plan works. Too bad we don't live closer, we could go out for french fries together!!