01 02 03 I'm My Favorite: Rebelling Against the New Weight Watcher Points Plus Plan 04 05 15 16 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 31 32 33

Rebelling Against the New Weight Watcher Points Plus Plan

I wasn’t expecting to, but I’ve been really struggling with the new Weight Watcher’s Point Plus program. At least I know it’s all in my head and it’s just a matter of me working through it. My problem is I’m rebelling against my favorite foods being higher points. I didn’t realize how dependent I was on the food I eat every day and the fact that I don’t eat much variety. Breakfast was always the same – ½ cup vanilla yogurt with ½ cup Kashi cereal for 4.5 points which is now 6 points. Lunch during the week was pretty much Chipotle or McAlister’s and dinner was eggs, pasta, soup or a sandwich.

I eat this at least twice a week for lunch.
McAlister's 1/2 chicken tortilla soup (2 pts.) and
1/2 spud ole with veggie chili (7 pts.)

So the problem is I only get three extra points a day but all of the food that I used to eat went up in point value. And I don’t like it (stamps foot on the ground).

The other problem was on my recent trip to Trader Joe’s I picked up some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and some gingerbread men cookies “for the kids.” So when I get home from work now and I only have maybe 5 points left for dinner (whereas I used to have 7-10 points left) and there’s nothing on my old dinner menu that I can eat for those points, what do I do? I rebel by reaching for those delicious cookies. That will show those points. (See this is why I blog – now that I write this all for you to read it makes me realize how unreasonable I was being and makes me want to stop.)

So needless to say I’ve had a “bad” week and a half and the scale sure is showing me that every day when I get on. It was up over four pounds earlier in the week. This morning I’m up about two pounds.

I’ve also only exercised twice this week because of other evening commitments. Jacob’s Christmas program is tonight so I’ll miss Zumba again and had written this off as a non-exercise day, but I really need to move so I’m going to go and do the elliptical at the Y after the kids go to bed tonight.

Gracie's Christmas program was Tuesday evening.
Here are Gracie and Jacob after the program.

I’ve done well with my eating yesterday and today, so I’m hoping my gain tomorrow with be on the small side.

So here’s why I know these point issues are in my head. I’m not keeping in mind that I get more weekly points (14 points more in fact) and that I get more points for exercise (Zumba used to get me 7 points, now it gets me 10 points) so I just need to get used to the fact that I will NEED to use extra points every day whereas I didn’t have to do that before and that I will HAVE those extra points because of the extra weekly and exercise points that I get now.

I also need to be open to eating new foods. One of the great things about the new program is all fruits are zero points and so are most veggies. I was not eating many fruits and veggies before and honestly it was because I didn’t want to waste my points on them. We’ve been going through bananas like crazy now that they’re 0 points instead of 2 and I’m trying to fill up on grapes and apples and carrots now in the evenings instead of sulking that I only have 5 points left for dinner.

I also adjusted my breakfast. I shaved 2 points off the total by reducing my Kashi cereal from ½ cup to ¼ a cup and adding a few extra dried cranberry’s for flavor.

So, my week starts anew tomorrow morning and I’m anxious to give it my best. I’ve also been working on my calendar to find time to fit exercise in three times a week which was a challenge with everything going on. Next week I’ll be able to attend my normal Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday Zumba, but after that I’m going to have to work in some elliptical time at the Y to make up for classes that I’m going to have to miss.

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