weightloss wednesday: weight watchers for free

remember when oprah totally called out j.hud and asked her
how much she lost, even though she had specifically said
she wouldn't tell? go oprah. i think it was like 65 lbs?

*update 6/2014- i have since joined ww online so i've tweeked this to what i've learned. good luck! 
my mom is a lifetime weight watchers members so naturally i associate ww with jolly old women. not true, in fact- one of the prettiest, best shaped and married a trust fund kid girls i know goes to ww. so for me, deciding to try it out was not easy. thankfully, since my mom is a member i had a resource of knowledge and products to try. so here's what i've learned, which is in no way comprehensive. oh and this is the new, points plus plan.

1- calculate how many points you get a day using this link. you also get 35 flex points to use on a splurge night. typically, i act like i don't have these then just allow myself one dessert/meal out a week. if you're exclusivly nursing, you get 14 more points. if you're baby is eating solids and nursing, add 7 points. if you're pregnant, it is not advised to be on ww but you can still incorporate the same principals, just don't focus on how much you eat, just what you eat.

2- write EVERYTHING down. write what you eat, drink, and what exercise you do. now ww will give you extra points for working out. i choose not to calculate these- the point is to not eat as much--- and it's not like i'm running a 10k everyday and really need to fuel up. so i consider exercising a bonus. i think there's a HUGE amount of accountability and deterrence that occurs when you know that handful of M&Ms at the dr's office you're going to oink will be shown in your notebook. the one great thing about joing ww if the app that calcuates food by scanning their barcode, searching resturants & food and keeping track of things. this, to me, is worth the money. but you can easily do it yourself.

3- talking about accountability, try to find some way to keep yourself going. that's why ww is so successful, they have to weigh in once a week! and there's a fabulous group of people giving you ideas for meal, different products to try, and time to toot your own horn. my friend got me started on it so we talked a lot about it together. my mom also is a ww veteran- so i talked with her. it's nice to have people to chat with. make sure you weigh yourself at least once a week at the same time of the day. i've started posting foods i like, successes i've had on twitter and that helps me because i don't go to the meetings. 

4- get some gear! my mom gave me her old calculator that i could take to the store and input protein/carbs/fat/fiber to give me a points value so that was amazing- online version here. now if you pay for ww, you can use this app. their free option is pretty useless, just gives you some recipes- not good ones at that. i bet you can find one in the apple store. she also gave me a fancy scale [nice but kind of useless] and i've got some library recipe books- blah. haven't found anything better then....

5- eat yourself skinny! here are some of my favorite ww friendly websites- found some delicious meals on here. slender kitchen [their nutella bread is to die for], laaloosh, emily's bites, and my favorite- skinny taste. i've also found tons of pinterest. it's also nice to figure out how much your own recipes are you can put it in this recipe builder then calculate points here. the only stinky thing about that is figuring out serving size. another great thing about paying if that it will let you 'build your recipe' but there are online tools for that. pinterest has made finding recipes easy. i also like the hungry girl cookbooks you can check out of your library.

remember these commercials? so cute!

-fruits and vegetables are FREE [aka zero points] on the new points plus plan which is ah-maz-ing [said in a penny voice]
-some things like peanut butter and avocado are super high in points which i don't always agree with it.

one of the hardest thing for people in ww is
a- how much time it takes
b- finding out how much points are in things
c- losing steam
now it does take time at first but once you get the hang of things, it gets super easy. esp since you typically eat the same things. for example, i love cream of wheat in the morning so that's 4 points right there [with milk]. the points thing is kind of a pain- but at the grocery store i'll usually mark on the box right then what their points are so i don't forget. and the losing steam thing? well i haven't figured out a way over that yet. i haven't been keeping track for a while now- but i've still taken this knowledge and will eat different because of it. i still use ww recipes and have found tons i love.

as with anything in life, it's all about balance and finding what works for you, which is why i love ww- it gives you tools and helps you pay attention to what and how much you eat. for example, i love oatmeal squares cereal and usually give myself a huge bowl- which is 6 points for one cup- so quite a lot. and while it's filling, i could easily make different choices and get full on lower point [or zero point] foods.

side note: my bff8 has used spark's people in place of ww- i wish i could give a review of it but i haven't used it myself. so definitely worth a gander. i have since used spark notes and it is nice but not as easy as the ww app. but it's free. i just hate calculating calories and would much rather do it based on points.