The FastDay Forum

I totally understand that when something is working, stay with it. If you have any spare time, read the science behind his plan. He is a well known endocrinologist at Harvard Medical School. He has researched it for 20 years or more. I just know for me, every time I went on WW I ended up weighing more after than when I started unless I made Herculean efforts to "follow" their plan. Low fat low calorie diets don't work in the long run.

Good luck to you and have a great trip to France!

[Tracieknits]

Thank you. The weight watchers plan has changed and it's no longer low calorie low fat. The old plan was terrible -- a point was roughly 50 calories and food "cost" more if it was higher in fat and cost less if it was higher in fiber. The new and current plan has a food cost more if it is high in sugar (and points go up FAST if a food is high in sugar) and food costs less if it's high in protein (4 ounces of sliced chicken breast is only 1 point). I appreciate that you are trying to be helpful, but I am not going to rock this boat.

[Tracieknits]

Well it's Thursday, and back to posting in my diary about my fabulous progress on my plan that I am enjoying and doing very well with. It's a light day for me today, and it looks like I'll stay somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 calories today, provided I don't have any wine tonight. But if I do, it's not the end of the world, I'll still end up about 5 points down for the day to carry over to the weekend.

We're having zucchini noodles today, with meatballs and tomato sauce. I splurged on a gorgeous French baguette from the fancy French bakery. This stuff is seriously as good as the best baguettes in Paris. I can have 50g of bread for 4 points, so I think that's points well spent. There's no carbs in the rest of dinner I had very few carbs today, so I think I'll be ok.

No plan yet for tomorrow. I may see if my son wants to go out for thai food at lunch time. So long as I stay away from the rice, it's very low in points and carbs. I need to contemplate tomorrow's dinner though. It should be fairly reasonable as I'm going out for a splurge lunch with my parents on Saturday. Yes, the mom who doesn't cook and can't know I'm dieting because she gets weird. But she's getting pretty old, because she also doesn't seem to be noticing that I've lost more weight.

hello tracie @tracieknits
just read through the last couple of pages of your diary. inspiring I really enjoyed reading how you are getting on & your food choices & the new ww plan. I did ww about 8 years ago to lost the weight I gained when my dad died (lost a stone in the month after through stress & then put it back on plus more). Its so good that you can carry over points & have a weekly allowance aswell. sounds so much more generous than my plan all that time ago. your way of doing things is definitely working for you.
you always seem to be eating out fantastic. eating out & still losing weight
oh & big congratulations on your weight loss so far.
anyways, off now to have another look around.
shelley xx

[Tracieknits]

Thank you so much Shelley! @Johns

You're not *supposed* to carry over daily points - ww actually tells you you really should eat them all every day. But that's how I modified it for me, to blend it with 5:2. And it's working very well! I'm losing weight faster than anyone in my ww meeting -- I get a 5lb star almost every other week and nobody else is getting them that quickly.

I'm trying really hard to learn how to eat out and not gain weight. My husband travels a lot and while he lost 50 lbs doing 5:2, he gained back 40 of them, in large part due to his travel schedule. You can't have a fast day easily when you're supposed to be taking a customer to a fancy business dinner, for example. So this has been very good for him, helping him learn what he should be eating to meet his TDEE. Since maintenance is such a problem, I think we'll give it a go to getting lifetime and trying to learn the skills to maintain our losses once we finally reach goal. But the thing is, we love going out for Thai food or a nice Curry or having a really good pizza -- we are New Yorkers, after all, and pizza is huge here! We don't want to have to give that up forever, so we're trying to learn how to live with it in a healthier way

[Tracieknits]

well I didn't break down and have wine on Thursday so I rolled over 10 points. Friday morning I ate those 10 points in a lovely breakfast with my son. We went to the local bagel place, which makes insanely good NY bagels and we picked up half a dozen onion bagels for the week. When we got home, we split one, and had it warm (still fresh from the oven) with some French butter. We also had wholemilk yogurt and fresh cherries. Add a bit of half and half to my espressos, and there were my 10 rolled points -- so worth it.

For lunch I had a light wrap. Then for dinner we made turkey reubens. They consisted of lean sliced turkey breast, very very thin slices of swiss cheese, a bit of light thousand island dressing, a large quantity of drained sauerkraut, all on pumpernickel bread and then toasted/grilled. I made some duck fat potatoes (using less fat that normal) and I was too full to eat them. The bread, since it was lower calorie/lighter bread, was a bit insubstantial and didn't quite hold up to all of those fillings, but it was still nice to have a sandwich. We shared a bottle of cremant (French bubbles not from Champagne). After dinner, a decaf espresso and a single Dove promises square of dark chocolate took me exactly to my 30 points for the day. I still haven't used a single weekly point, and the week ends Sunday night! Today we're going to visit my mom, so I expect we may use a lot of points. She not only doesn't cook, she doesn't like people preparing food in her kitchen. So we're eating lunch and dinner out somewhere. But we will be fine. I could even eat 72 points of food today and not go over what Weight Watchers says is ok.

Ooh, I love it when a plan comes together! You've got it sussed @tracieknits and it's great to see it is all working beautifully for you and fitting into daily life to boot - hurrah!

I really think that each of us has to develop our own way of doing things that works for us - and you are a shining example/trailblazer! I can totally see how wonderful it is to roll over some points for use when you need them...and obviously, life needs to contain some high points...and for many of us, they are food-shaped!!!

I'm really enjoying reading your posts - even if I haven't been so brilliant at posting just lately. Keep on keeping on - because you are really rocking the weightloss! Xx

[Tracieknits]

Thank you so much @Hazelnut20!! You've been such an inspiration to me, with your wonderful blog, that I was hoping this might help someone else -- even if that someone is just me next year, having fallen back into a rut

Yesterday was stressful, as visits with my mom always are. We skipped breakfast, knowing it would be a high point day. We went out for burgers at a local place that actually makes pretty healthy burgers. They use grassfed, free range, organic beef. and the burgers aren't greasy at all. I got a whole wheat/wholemeal bun and lots of veggies on mine and guestimated 23 points. My son offered me his fries and I only ate two of them before thanking him and asking him to move them to the other side of the table, away from me

We ended up leaving early, but since it's a 2.25 hour drive, we didn't get home until dinner time. My son really wanted a pizza, so that's what we did. I've actually weighed a slice of pizza from this place before and compared the grams to the weight watchers website, so I'm pretty sure that the points value is correct. I made a very large salad while we were waiting for the pizza to be delivered and I had 18 points of pizza. Bruce and I made sure we got our walking in with walks in the morning and the evening. So including a small dollop of cream in my espresso and a small amount of light vinaigrette on my salad, I had 47 points. Not to bad for a splurge day.

We have a party at my sister in law's tonight. I've already offered to bring a large salad. My other sister in law is a wine rep so she always brings lots of great wine. So we might end up using most of our points >.<

My weight today was unchanged from Wednesday, which is fabulous considering I ate out (means lots of salt and water retention). Usually on a Sunday, my weight is a pound or two higher than the previous Wednesday. I always see my biggest losses on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Hi Tracie @tracieknits, I just read all through your mix and match journey - what a brilliant idea. I think that doing intermittent fasting gives people enough control and confidence to be able to develop the plan to completely suit their circumstances without ever feeling they have failed because feast is built in as much as famine. Very well done, and wonderful that you take such time and care with your posts to encourage everyone. I have several colleagues who have had fantastic weight losses with WW, but sadly regained (plus extra) in each case once they got to maintenance. ...I'm sure that intermittent fasting, with an added extra like you are doing if necessary, really is the way to go for the long term. I have managed to get down to 9st 7 - 9st 10 which is the upper band of my range when I was 16 years old ( Im now 54) .....it seems like a complete impossibility! Good luck with it all as you approach your trip to France, we had a wonderful time there beginning of June, All the best

[Tracieknits]

Thank you so much for your kind post @JLmid! That's fantastic to hear you got down to that weight at 54 -- gives me a lot of hope as I turn 50 at the end of the year I know that with my height, I look pretty fabulous at 10 stone/140, which is what I weighed at 16 as well. For the first time in a long time, I'm starting to think that might actually be feasible!

I am definitely concerned about maintenance, as I don't want to regain. So I think daily weighing will be in the future for the rest of my life. Really, I only ever regain once I stop weighing. I think it's what I'm going to have to do.

I've really enjoyed reading your posts and hope this keeps working for you (I can't see why not with several splurge days to look forward each week/month). How do you calculate the carbs in Thai food? When I follow a recipe it always asks for palm sugar and with rice or noodles or side dishes on top I have to keep them for feast days. Thanks, Wendy

[Tracieknits]

I've really enjoyed reading your posts and hope this keeps working for you (I can't see why not with several splurge days to look forward each week/month). How do you calculate the carbs in Thai food? When I follow a recipe it always asks for palm sugar and with rice or noodles or side dishes on top I have to keep them for feast days. Thanks, Wendy

Thank you! For one, I don't strictly count carbs. I'm still mostly doing weight watchers, so I'm counting points. Of course points go up very quickly when there are a lot of carbs in a food, so if I want to eat well, I need to eat fewer carbs. 150 calories of ice cream is 7 points, but 150 calories of chicken is only 2. brown rice is 6 points for a cup, which is 200 calories. So this naturally keeps the carbs low. If I want to feel full on 15 or 20 points in a day, I'm looking at lots of veggies, and plenty of lean meat, but not as much fat or carbs. Fat is calorie dense, so points are high but not as high as for sugar. 1 tbsp of olive oil is 4 points, 1 teaspoon is 1 point.

Well the dish I have been having most often is gai gra pow, which is ground chicken with chilis, thai basil, onions, bell peppers and string beans in a very thin. clear soy sauce based sauce (no starch). They serve the rice on the side and I can get brown jasmine rice at the restaurant I like. I read several recipes for this dish and they are pretty consistent in not calling for much sugar - the most popular recipe for it on the web calls for 1/2 tsp sugar to 200g of chicken breast. I will admit that some days it tastes a bit sweeter than others at the restaurant. But one thing I like about weight watchers is they say not to worry if the points aren't exact. So I checked out a recipe, it matched the points value WW assigned for a serving (4) and I figure I'm fine eating this. If the dish tastes sweeter that day, I often add a point to the dish, or I will eat less of my brown rice. I also like to get another version of basil chicken, with bigger chunks of chicken breast and different veggies, but a really similar flavor and very light sauce. The other thing I often get there is California roll made with brown rice - again, it's very low in points and really not a problem. I'm not sure that I can get one of the noodle dishes until I'm on maintenance, and even then I think I'd have to be very careful and/or eat a very small serving size.

Hope this helps!

[Tracieknits]

I do also only have thai food on my splurge days, btw. Mondays and Thursdays I aim for almost a fasting day - 15 points ~750 calories. Tuesdays and Fridays I am to have a "normal" day and roughly eat the 30 points I'm supposed to eat. Wednesdays and a weekend day are "splurge" days, where I eat any points I didn't have on Monday or Thursday and those are the days I'm allowed to have weekly points, or things like alcohol or chocolate. So my metabolism never really knows what it's going to get and so far doesn't seem to have slowed down at all. I don't seem to have any days where I'm ravenously hungry. I'm really liking this rhythm. It seems I'm actually content with my light days after my splurge days too.

I like the sound of gai gra pow. If I eat Thai food in a restaurant I sometimes choose chicken larb salad but now that we're in the middle of winter I tend to prefer red, green or mussaman curries, all food of coconut, fish sauce and sugar (to balance the salt ). It sounds like your new way of eating will keep your metabolism very confused which is supposedly what we want to do. I think that's what I did when I was in maintenance with 'splurge' days on Friday night and parts of the weekend but lighter days during the week. I've been cutting down on wine during the week but chocolate and home baked goods are still my weak points. I'll keep reading your updates with interest. Good luck! x

[Tracieknits]

I like the sound of gai gra pow. If I eat Thai food in a restaurant I sometimes choose chicken larb salad but now that we're in the middle of winter I tend to prefer red, green or mussaman curries, all food of coconut, fish sauce and sugar (to balance the salt ). It sounds like your new way of eating will keep your metabolism very confused which is supposedly what we want to do. I think that's what I did when I was in maintenance with 'splurge' days on Friday night and parts of the weekend but lighter days during the week. I've been cutting down on wine during the week but chocolate and home baked goods are still my weak points. I'll keep reading your updates with interest. Good luck! x

I do love those curries! But I'm saying no to them, for now. There's an Indian buffet near us that prides itself on using more spices and no cream, "just a touch of yogurt" -- the curries there do feel lighter and that's where I've been getting my curry cravings satisfied. I also sometimes make a curry at home, so I can control the calories. I love the Tikka seasoning from Schwartz, so I make it off that. But since it's summer here, its far too warm to make a big pot of curry. I'll be doing that again once it cools down. We're expecting 88F here today, and 93F tomorrow (31c/34c). Tonight is barbecue chicken (found a low calorie spicy bbq sauce and I don't use much of it) and big salads.

For my update: Yesterday I did well with my light day and left about 13 points to eat on Wednesday. Today I'm aiming for leaving about 5 points or so. My weight was down 1.3 pounds this morning. The usual pattern lately has been to show all of my losses on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, with my biggest loss of the week always showing on Wednesday. So fingers crossed tomorrow follows suit. I just realized that in the past week, I had dessert once (1/2 cup of dark chocolate ice cream/ 150 calories/7 points) and only one other piece of dark chocolate, a small Dove promises (2 points, about 60 calories). I did have plenty of alcohol, having half a bottle of wine on both Saturday *and* Sunday nights. But really, just about everything else I ate last week was pretty healthy. And I didn't feel deprived