Ready, Set, LIVE!

So as many of you Weight Watchers followers know, as of November 28th, they have re-vamped their program to the Points Plus method, taking into account more than just calories to help you make the best food decisions in order to eat healthy.

While I was a little skeptical on the first approach, it really is a great plan because it encourages you to eat less processed foods and more natural foods that will make the most of your meals. Lean proteins and fiber carry more weight than fat and carbohydrates in this revamped plan, but all are taken into account to make up the foods we eat.

On one hand, many of the foods we typically enjoy end up being more points...mainly carbohydrate heavy foods like breads and sweets. And you can't get away with as much as you could on the original points plan with the goodies...On the other hand, it forces you to really pay attention to what you're eating to get the most bang for your Point...

Well, being on week two of the plan, I feel like I'm finally getting it. Even though it is easier to choose the greasy, carb-loaded food when hungry, I have been using this new plan as a springboard to step back towards my health journey.

I reset my weight on eTools and when I weighed in after the long Thanksgiving weekend, I weighed in at exactly 200.0 lbs. It's a sad realization how far off track I am from where I was last year at this time (down in the 180s), but as I said, this Points Plus plan is definitely a refreshing restart to getting back in the game and getting back to basics.

Successes for the week:

• Passed on pizza several times as a meal option--twice being that I skipped a meal that was provided for me at an event! 11 point pizza? NOT WORTH IT!
• Finally made it back to the gym for the first time since the summer...last week was a bit of a slow start and I went only once, but this week I have a better plan and better frame of mind and tonight will be the 2nd time.
• Have discovered new ways of incorporating food with the new plan such as having FF plain greek yogurt mixed with fresh berries and some splenda, or just some honey. YUM.
• Got the starter pack for the new plan with the companion guides for the new points values as well as a 3 month journal to track my progress, meals, exercise etc. I do still track online and it's sort of double duty, but when I don't have access to eTools, it's keeping me honest.
• Actually re-planned meals based on earlier meals to incorporate the healthy guidelines (fruits, veggies, etc) and to stay within my points values.
• Dusted off my food scale to measure my portions!
• In most cases...Stuck to portion sizes!!
  
• Lost 1.4 lbs this week!!!

Though I am definitely still a work in progress, I feel like I'm already starting to re-think how I eat and I'm more determined to stick to the plan than ever to make these changes in my life. I even sat down with my boyfriend after the first meeting to show him how the plan worked so he could help me when I need it (like encouraging me to think about what I want when I say I want dessert or not suggest that I have more helpings).

On a side note, I've missed being a part of the health blogging community and although I can't guarantee the frequency of my posts, I definitely want to reengage myself with this blog since it helped motivate me so much when I was in the swing of things.

Until next time!

Happy May! And another website

May Day! One of my favorite days of the year, celebrating my favorite MONTH of the year...for a variety of reasons, one being my birthday - but moreso, I think of May as the epitome of Spring, and with Spring being my favorite season...everything is coming back to life...I celebrate today. May even has a song introduced by Lerner & Lowe's 1960s musical Camelot which is called "The Lusty Month of May" which just about says everything.

But I digress.

What I wanted to mention was another site for food information I found which is a partner of WW and I've read several articles from it before I actually visited the main site.
www.hungry-girl.com
This fun and very useful website was designed by an average woman who, as she puts it, is not a nutritionist, she's just hungry. Clever. But she features not only tips on eating well and recipes, she actively pursues everyday foods and reports back on them. She features different low fat/low calorie foods from the grocery aisles and reviews the taste & the calorie, fat (and point) count and if it's worth exploring. She features familiar restaurants and reports back not only on the (outrageous) nutritional info of their food, but provides ideas of healthier choices when visiting that specific restaurant. She seems to do a lot of interacting with her audience, taking their suggestions for foods to try & review. All in all, it's a great website with a Julia-esque design and will be coming in handy on a regular basis in my quest for good & healthier food.

Enjoy!

Great website for nutrition info and more!

I came across this while searching for the calorie/fat contents of Ghirardelli Caramel Dark Chocolate squares that I had gotten as a gift but there was no nutrient info on the wrapper...
www.thedailyplate.com
It seems to have any and every food brand you could possibly want to know the nutritional info on...or not want to know. Apparently it also helps you calculate how much exercise you would need to do to burn off those calories, and it gives you different suggestions for alternate brands or versions of that food. Very useful for this mad mad world of point counting :) I highly recommend it. I will put list it in my useful sites section.

I guess it's like a free version of WW online. Ah well. It'll be very helpful in my quest. If it can give me Ghirardelli info...I'm happy. :)

Ciao!