Two Week Weigh-In & Reflections

Two weeks down, 10 weeks to go!

I signed up for Weight Watchers for 3 months because they had a special where the activation fee was waived and it was only $3 more than a 1 month membership- not a hard choice to make. I honestly didn't think that I was going to love it as much as I do.

And I really, really do!

Last week at my weigh-in, I was down 3.5 pounds to 137! I really felt great about that progress as sometimes when you don't have alot to lose, it can be really tough to get that number on the scale to go down.

Today, I weighed in at 137.5 which I pretty much expected. You see, there is both a pro and a con to weighing in smack dab in the middle of the week. Pro? I have three full days to make up for poor dinner decisions made on takeout night or hastily eaten food on a hectic Saturday afternoon. The flipside to that pro, is that I was a little overzealous with my sushi portions this past Friday. We also had sushi the week prior but I kept it light & appropriately portioned and had a great weigh-in, so I figured what was a few more pieces of sashimi & a deep fried roll going to do?

Anyways, I compiled a list of my pros and cons so far of the Weight Watchers diet;

Pros:

1. You literally have free range of what you want to eat. If you want to blow your 26 points on one meal at the Pickle Barrel, go for it. 
2. It encourages you to eat a diet high in fruits and vegetables, as they are all 0 Points+
3. Carb friendly! You can literally eat your carbs to your hearts content and if you get smart about portion control, you can have them (almost) guilt free! Luckily, we were already mostly a refined flour-free household so phasing out the white carbs we were eating was relatively painless.
4. I personally find counting points is easier than counting calories & am starting to (sort of) understand how point values are calculated
5. I rarely feel totally starved & if I am hungry, I am now more likely to reach for fruits and veggies, fat free yogurt, or a hardboiled egg. Side note; one a day I do feel ravished- it is likely due to smoothies. See below.
6. I have more energy, feel better about my food choices and am drinking a considerable amount more water.
7. The website has a pretty impressive list of foods and some great resources. There are also A LOT of WW friendly blogs which make it easy to find new meal inspiration.

Cons:

1. I refuse to eat fat-free cheddar cheese and the Points+ value for a tiny piece of regular cheese makes me want to cry. 
2. Smoothies too. Seriously, fruit is 0. Yogurt is 1. But fruit + yogurt= 7-10 PP+? Say what!
3. Avocados need to be re-evaluated by the folks at WW. They are SO good for you, but the Points value practically scares you away from eating them. 
4. The WW iPhone app doesn't have the Recipe Builder, which I guess isn't the biggest deal but kind of annoying as I have to park myself down in front of the laptop and enter everything in.

So, as you can see- I definitely have enough pros to keep me going and really, only some trivial cons to the program. I really see why it works and am happy to say it is working for me and my family. Obviously, Jason and my daughter haven't joined me on this weight loss journey- but I am still able to provide healthy, nutritious and balanced meals from the program for them, which, for me is more important than what I'm eating.

I have also consciously moved towards a more "clean eating" approach which I will discuss further in another post. While I don't intend to purchase 100% organic, small changes have made a huge impact on other aspects of my life. With increased water, fruit and vegetable consumption, more lean meats & proteins and only whole wheat or whole grain rice, pasta & quinoa on the menu, my hair has been so much shinier, my skin has been clear & glowing and my overall energy levels has greatly increased!

I'm also still pushing through the 30DS. I did some seriously intense circuit training at the gym yesterday so I skipped the dvd when I got home but today I only got a 45 minute run in and 15 minutes of abs so I might pop it in tonight before bed. I am excited to finish round 1 but I took a peak at Level 2 and I am pretty sure I might just about die!

I'll try to get a before picture at some point too. I know I'm two weeks in already, but the weight loss has been minimal and I haven't lost any inches yet so I figure it'll do!

Thanks for checking in!

xoxo

Amanda