Points, again
Dec. 18th, 2010 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
melliciousSo I lost four and a half pounds in the last 8 days - not bad, especially considering I didn't actually count my points (or POINTS PLUS, which is what the new points are called to distinguish them from the old points) more than about half the time. And I am all awash with Weight Watchers fervour now that I've actually lost weight, and I bought the "member kit" that has the big books with all the points in it, so I figure this gives me something to rattle on about. I also bought the specialized point calculator. The old system had sort of a slider thing that you could calculate points with (although the calculator was available for the old system too), but the new system has four things to input instead of three (that is, fat/carbs/protein/fiber, rather than calories/fat/fiber in the old system) and that made it too complicated to be able to use a paper slide thing. Which is another thing some of the old members are disgruntled about.
Now bear in mind that I am an old member, in the sense that I've been going to Weight Watchers off and on for years and years. Let's see - my mother lost a lot of weight on it in the early 70s, when it was this ungodly stringent thing where you were supposed to eat liver once a week and most people made their own WW spaghetti sauce from scratch. I never really considered joining until they loosened up - I guess I first joined in 1986, which was the year I ended up back in Houston living with my parents (long story) and also the year I eventually met Rob. My mom and I went to Weight Watchers all that spring, and I lost, I think, about 25 or 30 pounds. (I've always thought that might have been a factor in my getting together with Rob - not the weight itself, really, so much as the fact that I was feeling really confident at the time. Confidence has always been an issue for me.) Of course, by the time we got married the next year I had put a good bit of that weight back on again.
That's been the pattern for me - I stay on WW really well for three or four months, maybe - then I start backsliding. The way this plays into the controversy about the new vs old point system is that the old system wasn't really working for me, so well, and thus I'm not so averse to changing it. I really feel like the emphasis on fruit in the new system gives me a better shot at hanging in there. I like fruit. I don't much like vegetables, and I'm not going to try to make myself eat vegetables quite as much as I usually do every time I try this. Some, yes, but not as much - because I think that's been another factor in why I keep quitting.
So anyway, I've been going around with my little calculator and here are some point values I came up with:
- 1.5 ounce package of peanut butter cups - 6 points
(I bought these at the grocery store tonight because I was craving them. I was expecting the answer here to be higher than 6 points, so I'm rather pleased with this one.)
- 6 Ikea meatballs (the frozen ones, that is) - 5 points
- 7 pc. popcorn chicken - 4 points
These two are my favorite go-to frozen things that I pop in the oven when I want something easy (which is a lot, frankly) - and the answer's not too bad for either of these, thank goodness. I can live with those answers.
The kit I bought today has two books and a journal in it (and some coupons). The books are the Complete Food Companion and the Dining Out Companion - this is my third set of these, so they're not anything new. They usually publish new ones every year or so. A lot of this is available on weightwatchers.com, if you subscribe, but it didn't seem like all of it was, so I decided to go ahead and get them. The Dining Out Companion is sort of hit or miss - some places seem to have everything on their menu in there and some places just have a few things (usually just the lower-calories ones, seems like). Jason's Deli is not listed and my WW leader said she thought they had probably chosen not to be listed. (Then I went and looked up a baked potato on their website - 2300 calories, something like that. Granted, their baked potatoes are ungodly gigantic and I usually get a small one rather than the giganto one, but still, wow.)
Some semi-random things from the Dining Out Companion:
- DQ Turtle Pecan Cluster Blizzard (large), 41 points (but a small Banana Split Blizzard is only 12)
Bob Evans is one of the ones that has their complete menu in here, looks like, and it makes me want to go get on a plane for Columbus, quite frankly, so I can have:
- Strawberry Banana Crepe, 9 points - cause man, those things are good, and we don't have Bob Evans down here.
More:
- Sourdough Jack from Jack in the Box, 18 points
- Olive Garden breadstick, 4 points (bad because I don't think most people stop at one)
- Pizza Hut personal pan pizza, pepperoni, 18 points
- Starbuck's tall nonfat latte, 3 points
(which I suppose means the venti I got the other day is more like 6 points)
Okay, anyway, I'll stop. Practically everything I like is some largish number like 18 points, which I guess is the problem with the way I normally eat, isn't it?
Now bear in mind that I am an old member, in the sense that I've been going to Weight Watchers off and on for years and years. Let's see - my mother lost a lot of weight on it in the early 70s, when it was this ungodly stringent thing where you were supposed to eat liver once a week and most people made their own WW spaghetti sauce from scratch. I never really considered joining until they loosened up - I guess I first joined in 1986, which was the year I ended up back in Houston living with my parents (long story) and also the year I eventually met Rob. My mom and I went to Weight Watchers all that spring, and I lost, I think, about 25 or 30 pounds. (I've always thought that might have been a factor in my getting together with Rob - not the weight itself, really, so much as the fact that I was feeling really confident at the time. Confidence has always been an issue for me.) Of course, by the time we got married the next year I had put a good bit of that weight back on again.
That's been the pattern for me - I stay on WW really well for three or four months, maybe - then I start backsliding. The way this plays into the controversy about the new vs old point system is that the old system wasn't really working for me, so well, and thus I'm not so averse to changing it. I really feel like the emphasis on fruit in the new system gives me a better shot at hanging in there. I like fruit. I don't much like vegetables, and I'm not going to try to make myself eat vegetables quite as much as I usually do every time I try this. Some, yes, but not as much - because I think that's been another factor in why I keep quitting.
So anyway, I've been going around with my little calculator and here are some point values I came up with:
- 1.5 ounce package of peanut butter cups - 6 points
(I bought these at the grocery store tonight because I was craving them. I was expecting the answer here to be higher than 6 points, so I'm rather pleased with this one.)
- 6 Ikea meatballs (the frozen ones, that is) - 5 points
- 7 pc. popcorn chicken - 4 points
These two are my favorite go-to frozen things that I pop in the oven when I want something easy (which is a lot, frankly) - and the answer's not too bad for either of these, thank goodness. I can live with those answers.
The kit I bought today has two books and a journal in it (and some coupons). The books are the Complete Food Companion and the Dining Out Companion - this is my third set of these, so they're not anything new. They usually publish new ones every year or so. A lot of this is available on weightwatchers.com, if you subscribe, but it didn't seem like all of it was, so I decided to go ahead and get them. The Dining Out Companion is sort of hit or miss - some places seem to have everything on their menu in there and some places just have a few things (usually just the lower-calories ones, seems like). Jason's Deli is not listed and my WW leader said she thought they had probably chosen not to be listed. (Then I went and looked up a baked potato on their website - 2300 calories, something like that. Granted, their baked potatoes are ungodly gigantic and I usually get a small one rather than the giganto one, but still, wow.)
Some semi-random things from the Dining Out Companion:
- DQ Turtle Pecan Cluster Blizzard (large), 41 points (but a small Banana Split Blizzard is only 12)
Bob Evans is one of the ones that has their complete menu in here, looks like, and it makes me want to go get on a plane for Columbus, quite frankly, so I can have:
- Strawberry Banana Crepe, 9 points - cause man, those things are good, and we don't have Bob Evans down here.
More:
- Sourdough Jack from Jack in the Box, 18 points
- Olive Garden breadstick, 4 points (bad because I don't think most people stop at one)
- Pizza Hut personal pan pizza, pepperoni, 18 points
- Starbuck's tall nonfat latte, 3 points
(which I suppose means the venti I got the other day is more like 6 points)
Okay, anyway, I'll stop. Practically everything I like is some largish number like 18 points, which I guess is the problem with the way I normally eat, isn't it?
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