Well I thought I would babble a little bit about my plan, and why I'm happy with it, and how it works. a friend on FB asked me to write it out for her, so I did. I thought I'd repost here. Yes, I track ww points. This is because simple 5:2 doesn't work for me. Without tracking what I'm eating on "normal" days, I was overeating. Probably by a lot. I need to track or I don't lose weight, even with fasting. *shrug* that's just me.
I have dieted for long enough that I know one thing -- every day deprivation kills me. I have also read enough studies that show you can and DO slow your metabolism down with constant calorie restriction. So, the BIGGEST part of my diet plan is that my body never knows when it's getting calories. I alternate light days and indulgent days. I really believe that this is key to my success, in no small part because I documented what I was doing last year, and the weeks where I was *not* doing this I had the least weight loss. The weeks where I do this perfectly are always my best weight loss days.
So what does this look like? Yesterday, I ate 15 points. Yes, weight watchers thinks I should eat 30. I don't care. I started my day as usual, with a double espresso and 1/2 tablespoon of real half and half. I had another at about 9am (1 point for up to 1.5 tbsp half and half). Then I switched to black tea (I get really, really nice tea so it's a real treat). I skipped lunch, which wasn't hard because I had a really indulgent weekend. By about 3, I started making dinner, which was a big pot of chili. Yes, the food smells started to make my stomach demand some food, so I had 4 ounces of low fat deli turkey (Plainville Farms -- 1 point for up to 5 ounces) and a banana (2 points for day so far). Dinner was 2 cups of beef chili (8 points), 1 tbsp sour cream (1 point) and 1/2 small avocado (I count it as 2, because I don't agree with ww charging so much for such a healthy food). I was super happy until about midnight, when I had a light cheese stick (1 point) - total of 15 points. I suppose 17 points if you want to be really strict, but that's not how I count my ww points. I do NOT believe in their strong penalties for healthy, natural fat and I don't always count all the points if I think a food is super healthy, like avocado. I *DO* always count all the points, or even overcount points on things like sugar and flour. I called this a fast day, because I didn't eat until about 4pm.
Today, is a light day, but not a "fast day". I started with my usual two coffees. at 9 I had a grapefruit. At 10 I had 1/2 cup whole-milk plain yogurt with 1/2 small container of fresh raspberries (3 points). Lunch will be homemade tomato soup (2 points), and a turkey wrap (1 point turkey on a 2pt low calorie wrap) with greens, 1 tsp light vinaigrette and a smear of mustard. Dinner will be lemon-pepper cod (cod fillets from Trader Joe's, coated with lemon pepper from Trader Joe's and cooked in a nonstick skillet with spray oil), a pile of spicy string beans (frozen TJ's fine french beans, sauteed with garlic salt, sunflower seed oil and lots of crushed red pepper - I will use a tablespoon of oil in the whole thing, so 2 pts each), and something else. I haven't decided yet. I have two zucchini that need cooking or I might go get a cauliflower and make "rice" or I might go all out and make some roasted potatoes I can spend 5 more points, and still have 3 points left over for a treat of 1 dove truffle with a black decaf espresso after dinner. 20 points today. THIS MEANS, I have 15 points banked from Monday and 10 points banked from Tuesday. Wednesday is going to be fun!!
Tomorrow: Typically, I don't have anything but coffee before my ww weigh in. If it's a successful weigh in (and it is if I'm on track), Bruce adn I go out for Indian buffet. But Bruce has to do a work lunch tomorrow, so I will do another splurge. perhaps I'll treat myself to a croissant and cappuccino after my weigh in (13 points), then go out to a nice sushi lunch with my SIL. Maybe Bruce and I will share a bottle of wine with dinner. Maybe I'll have pasta for dinner. Who knows? All I know is I have 55 points I can eat on Wednesday and that makes for a very indulgent day. It also means that I have replenished my supply of willpower, because I get TREATS and it means my body relaxes because it realizes there is no famine, so it doesn't need to slow my metabolism down.
Thursday: I will do my best to repeat Monday. I'll try to stick to 15 points. I'll try to fast until dinner, which should be easier to do because I don't have to cook. I only have to reheat the chili.
Friday: I get to eat my leftover points from Thursday. Since that means it's a 45 point day, I can easily share a bottle of wine with my husband at dinner. Or we can get a pizza. or I can have ice cream.
Saturday and Sunday: I have 42 weekly points I'm allowed on weight watchers and you'll notice I haven't had *any* of them yet this week. Plus, in theory, you're allowed to eat your earned fitpoints (I almost never eat any of those). so that's roughly 51 points per day. I also allow myself to have any points I didn't manage to eat from Wednesday and Friday's allotment. I usually have two meals a day on weekends, a brunch somewhere around noon and dinner. I might make omelets or pancakes for breakfast, or bacon, scrambled eggs and toast. I'll add some fresh fruit and yogurt to pancakes, to increase the protein and I'll carefully measure the syrup, and limit myself to 2 pancakes, but I still have them, with butter and real maple syrup. Dinner can be wide open, and I often have things like a cheeseburger (since I have 20* points I can blow on one). But I still count every point, I still try to avoid all snacking, and I still have to make choices. Maybe I *can* spend 35 points on a cheeseburger and fries, but I won't have wine or beer and I won't also have bacon an omelet and toast for breakfast. So I might skip the fries and have wine instead, or carefully weigh out once single ounce of fries. I even have a pocket scale for things like that!
Other rules: I try to not have more than 1 bottle of wine a week. That usually means Bruce and I share two bottles of wine, usually two different nights, occasionally not. Sometimes we'll share a bottle of wine one night, and on two other nights I have a single-serve size bottle to myself. Snacking: I don't snack unless I'm truly hungry. Like stomach growling or actually hungry enough to eat fruit (I don't particularly like fruit, and I have to be legit hungry to eat most fruit), and it's been at least 3 hours since my last meal. Getting rid of snacking has put me much more in control of my body. I used to eat CONSTANTLY, and now that I think about it, most of the time was eating out of habit or boredom. I did lots of those mini meals, and not I think that's just THE WORST ADVICE ever. We don't need to eat six times a day, barring diabetes or some other blood sugar issue. Now I rarely snack.
The end result? Yes, some days I feel like I'm really and truly working at the diet. Yes, I have three days a week that are difficult and make me use my willpower. BUT, I'm never more than a day from a wonderful food treat. I *know* it's temporary and I either ate really well yesterday or tomorrow (or both!).
And it's working beautifully for me.
And about 170 calories
