Ok so there is a difficult side…

I have mentioned many many times how easy Weight Watchers is, and its not a lie, its the easiest ‘diet’ I have ever tried.  But its not without some difficulties.  I hate even calling it a diet, because I eat what I want to, most of the time, and every diet out there you can’t have things you love.  Like pasta!  Or ice cream and cake!  Or pop/soda, whichever you prefer to call it!  What diet would allow you to have a brownie fudge sundae for dinner?  WEIGHT WATCHERS BIIATCH!

With that said, the two difficult things for me about this system, are keeping track of points (measuring and weighing, remembering to put in my points on the website, and making sure I fit all my meals under my daily points) and finding recipes that we love that are low in points.

Counting points is hard, because its not so simple as this is this many points and that is that many points.  You have to measure, you have to weigh, you have to KNOW what your food contains to know if you can fit it into your day.  That handful of M&M’s has to be counted, so you know how many points you just swallowed.  The times you finish off your child’s plate (I haven’t met a mother yet that doesn’t do this, LOL), has to be measured/weighed.  EVERYTHING that goes into your mouth has to be accounted for, because if you don’t, your going to go over your points and if you go over enough you won’t lose, you will gain.  You can’t just eyeball it, unless your Justin Wilson (he was a Cajun chef here in America who used his hand to measure and was ALWAYS right).  But its not just about the number of points per item or meal, its also about staying under your daily points.  Because if you go nuts on one meal, you have to skimp on others just so you don’t go over.  I love the weekly allotted points, because many times even if I have been good for the day, I still go over and these little extra points are awesome to have for those days.  Like today, my oatmeal this morning although very healthy, was 6 points!  That was 1 tbs of Smart Balance butter spread, 1/2 cup of oatmeal, 1/2 cup whole milk, 1/4 cup berries and 1 tbs honey.  See nothing insane or terrible for me, but it adds up.  Now I’m left with only 16pts for the day, ick. I have to squeeze in my next two meals, with as many filling, 0 point foods as I can, otherwise I’m going over today.  Some people find it easiest to plan every single meal for a week, so they know what days they will go over beforehand.  I don’t, I stock my house with a variety of foods so I can pick and choose depending on my mood. 

Now I love planning and list making, but finding recipes that fit into our daily points is not fun or easy most of the time.  I collect recipes, so I will go through a good 40 before finding 1 that will do.  Then I have to add in sides, and make sure they are filling foods and low in points.  It takes a ton planning, and sometimes its so much easier to just to get takeout and ‘forget’ to put in your points for that day.  One thing about Weight Watchers, that I didn’t have last time, is the ability to build recipes.  This means you can make any recipe you want, all you do is enter in the items and their amounts, how many servings and it tells you the points.  Ta da!  No more guessing on how much my favorite chili is, I got the exact amount now.  The bad part of this, is seeing that those recipes that you thought for sure were healthy, aren’t so much.  But then something fun happens, you get to experiment with your favorite recipes, and make it healthier for you and your family.  You get to see what items to swap out for, and what items to cut back on.  It’s oddly fun, well for me it is.  You have to do a lot of planning to make sure that the meals you have, will stay within your daily points.  Not only that but if you want to make one of your mom’s famous recipes that is 15 points for one serving, you have to make sure that your sides and other meals for the week are low in points. 

I for one, find these things very small compared to what they could be.  I’ve heard many people say that they’d rather cut everything out instead because this system sounds so hard.  Um go right ahead, you eat your naked salad with bland chicken breast, while I munch on a cheeseburger and fries.  Yes it has its hard parts, there are days where I hate points, and want to tell them where they can stick it but I remind myself how bad it could be and then tell myself how much I’ve lost, and the sunshine returns.  It does take time, and energy to do this system the right way, but it is beyond worth it.  I’d rather put my energy to finding healthy but tasty meals for my family and keep track of my food, than wallowing in despair because I can’t have the foods I love.