By Laurie Marshall
A few weeks ago I told you about all the women in my office who have decided to join Weight Watchers and take control of their physical destinies. As a result of our discussion of food and weight loss in the break room, we’ve recruited a couple more ladies to our mission of good health! A couple of us think we should have the slogan “Boobies before Bellies”, based on the part of our bodies we want to see first when looking at the ground. There are no men in this group – in case it wasn’t obvious…
After almost a two months on the program we are all doing well in our commitments to bring lunches from home and we are eating lots of salads and fruit and lean proteins. It’s been fun to share successes and challenges each week and to get the scoop on supermarket finds that are PointsPlus-friendly. We still talk about food constantly quite a bit, but the food talk is starting to share time with discussions about families and shopping again. It’s not like we’ve become zealots or anything. We’re just really enthusiastic.
One of the things we’ve discovered during our lunches together is that snacking between meals is one of the hardest things we deal with. We vary in whether we are more susceptible to sweets or salty snacks, and what part of the day we are weakest. Based on what I see in online forums and articles, this seems to be a recurrent theme.
That’s probably why so many diet programs recommend that we eat five or six small meals a day instead of just the traditional three. The gods must have heard us talking about snack challenges, because in the last couple of days I have received two emails about healthy snack options. One was from MyRecipes.com and provided a link to a month’s worth of 100-calorie snacks. The other was from Weight Watchers and it offered some ideas for snacks combining 0-point foods and some of their so-called “power foods”.
Personally, I have found that it helps to eat breakfast. I have always been prone to skipping it just for the sake of time-management. It was all I could do to get myself and my son dressed, him fed, and both of us out the door on time in the morning. And if there is any kind of immature morning melt-down… (I’m talking about my son here) then we were lucky if we got out at all. Fitting in an additional 10-15 min. of breakfast time for me would have meant dragging my butt out of bed that much earlier. Bed vs. Breakfast? That was a no-brainer.
But since starting this new regimen I’ve been putting together a quick English muffin, Canadian bacon and cheese sandwich while I am making the G-man’s eggs and bacon in the morning and I can take it with me if I’m really pressed for time. I’ve also been keeping milk and cereal at work for emergencies. Having something to eat in the morning – even just a snack-sized something like a banana – makes it less likely that I’ll overeat at lunch because I’m hungry. I’m also keeping some fresh veggies and almonds in my office in case the home stretch in the afternoon proves longer than expected.
As of today, I have officially lost 9.5 pounds since joining Weight Watchers. That includes a couple of weeks of no weight loss because I was getting a little cocky in my ability to “guesstimate” my point usage. I learned my lesson. It’s actually making my life a lot easier to not have to think so much about food. I am not putting anything on a “can’t have” list – just watching my portions and limiting access. I have actually been able to turn down ice cream twice in the last couple of weeks just by thinking about what’s more important to me – losing weight or that snack. It was an easy decision. Buttoning my skinny jeans without a struggle this morning helped seal that commitment even more.
Look for Laurie’s fitness tips and updates on her personal health-focused journey every other Friday on nwaMotherlode in Mom Blogs. Send questions or input to her at mamas@nwaMotherlode.com. Or click on the comment button below and share your thoughts right now! To see previous installments of Getting Healthy for Good, click HERE.
