Week One of the Diet

Last Wednesday I started the Weight Watchers Diet. I had been thinking about dieting for some time, but joining Weight Watchers (WW) last week was kind of spontaneous. I jumped on the scale and found that I had again gained weight and in a fit of anger and sadness, I googled Weight Watchers, and signed up.

I weighed myself this morning and am happy to report I lost 3 pounds! The website says to expect to lose 1-2 pounds a week. I know it will be a slow process and 3 pounds may not seem like much, but it's a step in the right direction.

This is my first experience with a diet and the first 2-3 days were pretty hard. I was hungry almost the entire day. It wasn't a rumble in your tummy, shaky kind of hungry, but that gnawing feeling in the pit of your stomach. And sometimes it seemed I was more hungry AFTER I ate. WW is based on a point system and the amount of carbohydrates, fat, fiber and protein determine how many points a food item is. For example, a Skinny Cow ice cream bar is worth 3 points and the Chicken Teriyaki Broccoli thing I made one night was 5 points. The good thing about WW is that you can have an unlimited number of fresh fruits and vegetables because they are worth 0 points. So anytime the hunger was hard to deal with, I usually grabbed an apple or a banana. I ate A LOT of fruits and vegetables last week. I don't think I've ever had that much fresh produce. EVER.

The first few days were difficult with planning meals but it is getting easier. I spent a lot of time researching and printing recipes from the WW website and calculating points from the ingredients in the recipes in my cookbooks. I'm still a little worried about planning lunches and snacks. I know at some point I'm going to get bored with eating produce when the snack monster attacks.

I'm learning what foods keep me fuller longer (or less hungry) and figuring out how to manage my points so that I can squeeze in a sweet treat. I know that the all-or-nothing approach to any change in habits usually ends in failure and really, dieting is about moderation. I'm not going to completely give up my chocolate.

I'll continue to take it one day at a time. Rome wasn't built in a day.