Weight Watchers Chat -- Part III

[keahgirl8]

Won't it be great to not need that extender? I'm sure you can lose the weight, but be kind to yourself and make sure you haven't set your expectations too high.

I agree with you, Debbie. Rather than fixate on a number, it would be a lot healthier to say "I am going to work at this and see how far I get by then!" That is what I did last year. I had a number in mind for what I wanted to be by the end of the year, but I didn't hang everything on it. If you really stick with this, you may not be at the number you want, but I think you'll be pretty happy with your progress. Just take this one day at a time, one pound at a time.

 

[pwdebbie]

pwdebbie, you had me worried there for a moment--so I did some frantic googling and finally found the article I read last week. http://aka.weightwatchers.ca/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=10951&sc=3
I also found the nutrition info for Guinness on Livestrong, and did the points myself--came out to 1 pt, seems to be low carb?? Like I said, voodoo magic.

Well, per justdietnow.com, a 12 oz Guinness Stout or a pint of Guinness draught is 4 PPV. On a 2011 WW community thread, a pint of Guinness was listed at 6 PP (the old system, prior to PPV). Just be aware!

On my etools tracking (and my "book", the one with the a-z foods), you can plug in just about any amount of ff greek yogurt and it comes up 0 points. I never would even have considered it (figured it would be, you know, not worth it) but my leader mentioned it as a "free" food in the meeting.

I use e-tools and consistently find 3 or 4 points for Greek yogurt, fat free. Is any one else finding this?

Now I am wondering if the Canadian program and the US program are different somehow? It seems odd to me that the differences would be that extreme, but I can't come up with any other reason. I have 28 pts (or rather "Points PLUS!" ) a day, at a BMI of 33, plus 49 weekly points. Is that comparable?

I have 26 points a day and yes, the weekly points are 49. I don't know if Canada and US programs are different.

Congrats to you, pwdebbie, Lynn and Karyn on your losses this week! Your totals are inspiring to me, still officially in the single digits.

Dizzyr, I sooo know what you mean about the pics! I have a pic of me when I was at goal, with my kids at KSC, as my wallpaper--the last pic I was happy to be in! (And 60 lbs and 7 years later, I still sometimes use it as my fb profile. Hey, if you're my fb friend and you don't know the difference, it's not my job to disillusion you!) Good luck with your plan. Personally I can't eat that little, I usually eat half my points by the time I'm finished lunch.

I'm planning to have pics taken on this upcoming trip in the same places I did in 2010 for the sake of comparison.

 

[keahgirl8]

The yogurt I eat, which is Fage 0%, is 3pp per cup. I frequently use it as sour cream, so sometimes I just use a dollop. Anything less than 1/4c is 0pp.

 

[coastgirl]

Hmm. Seriously must be a Cdn/US difference then. I wonder why. Do you still count calories to determine points? We use carbs, fat, fibre and protein only.

Tarameow, how are you 7 pts over? Have you used all your weeklies? Please don't be too hard on yourself. Tomorrow is another day!

Went to WI today, was down 0.9, for a total of 9 lbs in 6 weeks. I know that's fine, reasonable even, but it feels slow.

 

[keahgirl8]

Hmm. Seriously must be a Cdn/US difference then. I wonder why. Do you still count calories to determine points? We use carbs, fat, fibre and protein only.

We calculate our points the same way!

 

[bumbershoot]

The yogurt I eat, which is Fage 0%, is 3pp per cup. I frequently use it as sour cream, so sometimes I just use a dollop. Anything less than 1/4c is 0pp.

Same.

I'm Denise and I'm new to the boards. I just recently rejoined WW. I am booked on a cruise in November and when I booked it I set my weight loss goal at 100 by the cruise (my actual goal is 200 which seems completely impossible ).

I'm thinking if I actually write down my plan here and tell people what it is you will help me stay on track. It's been about 6 months since I booked the cruise (and set my goal) and I'm only down about 20 lbs. I'm still keeping my goal of 100 which means I need to loose an average of 3 lbs a week from now till then. I know the more you have to loose the easier it's supposed to be to drop bigger numbers each week but...............


All you can do is work the plan and see what your individual body does. YOu can't guarantee certain losses unless you're doing dangerous things to yourself.

On average, people with more to lose tend to lose more at first. But what happens on average, what happens when looking at statistics, doesn't mean that it's going to happen to any one particular person.

On average a person like me should have lost slowly. I have been on a faster track (despite eating all Daily, all Weekly, and ALL Activity points since early on). Statistics would say that DH should have lost faster; he started at such a high weight that he was at the max points (which is 71 points by the way) for quite awhile...but he's actually on a much slower path than I am, when it comes to losing.

All you can do is DO the plan and enjoy every loss as it comes.

You have lost 20 lbs in 6 months! That is AWESOME! Is it what you hoped for? Sounds like the answer is no. Is it better than what might have happened otherwise? Oh yes indeed! Would you cheer me on if I'd lost 20 lbs in 6 months? I think so. So cheer yourself!!!!!

Here's my plan - does it seem doable?

I'm on spring break right now and I'm going to spend the last two days of it making up some meals to put in the freezer and planning out my menu. I decided I would not use more than 10 points before dinner which means fruit, veggies, yogurt and protein only for breakfast and lunch - breads take up too many points! I figured this way I could eat more or less any dinner (within reason of course) for dinner and still be well under my point value for the day (it's pretty high because of my weight).

Please don't try to eat under your Daily points. There's no need to do that until you've been doing it for months and haven't seen ANY losses. Learn about and get your Good Health Guidelines, and eat your points.

Eating fruits, veggies, yogurt and protein through the day is awesome! But only hitting 10 points before dinner might prove to be difficult. Maybe it will work great for you! For me I would probably be committing murder by the time dinner rolled around, and then I would still be incapable mentally of figuring out what to have for dinner.

And it's OK that your points are high right now. They don't want you to get so hungry or desperate that you start binging, AND they want you to NOURISH the body that you have (while still eating an amount that will allow for losses). Nourish yourself, be good to yourself. The losses will come. Focus on learning to eat well, planning out your foods, and hitting the good health guidelines.

For exercise I walk my kids to school in the morning and then to the bus so it's 30 min to the school and 30 minutes to the bus so that's an hour every day Monday to Friday. I was going to aquafit three days a week but got out of the habit so I'd like to get back to it at least 2 nights a week. I'm also going to try and pull out my Wii fit and start using it again.

I just can't stand the thought of looking like a giant whale in all the cruise photos (we're also going to Discovery Cove first so I'll want a ton of photos from there but I'll want to crop me out of all of them) and also I don't want to be huffing and puffing everywhere. I'm basically just really tired of being fat.

I totally understand. Just don't hurt yourself to get there. The time it takes us to get to goal is one period of time. The rest of our lives will be maintaining, and we don't want to do anything crazy to get to that point, only to realize we never learned to really eat, to nourish ourselves without overnourishing, to maintain our weight.

For more incentive I told my daughter we could do the parasailing at CC and also go to Harry Potter at US and to do both of those things I need to fit in the weight restrictions. I also really really really really (really?!) don't want to need a seatbelt extender on the plane anymore.

Head's up on the extender...even once you can go without it on MOST airplanes, it doesn't mean it will be so for all. DH has found this on more than once occasion, and it can still really mess with his head because he doesn't WANT it to be like that. But some airplanes have nice long belts, and some have shorter ones. A flight attendant recently told me that United is refitting their planes with longer belts, so no one has to deal with the extender issue (it's not fun for anyone). But other airlines might not be.

Not needing the extender is a huge triumph! But suddenly being on a different plane and needed the extended isn't a failure, either; it's just a different seat and for whatever reason that belt is shorter.

pwdebbie, you had me worried there for a moment--so I did some frantic googling and finally found the article I read last week. http://aka.weightwatchers.ca/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=10951&sc=3
I also found the nutrition info for Guinness on Livestrong, and did the points myself--came out to 1 pt, seems to be low carb?? Like I said, voodoo magic.

On my etools tracking (and my "book", the one with the a-z foods), you can plug in just about any amount of ff greek yogurt and it comes up 0 points. I never would even have considered it (figured it would be, you know, not worth it) but my leader mentioned it as a "free" food in the meeting.

That article is old. They don't say POINTS PLUS, they say POINTS. Points is ancient. POINTS PLUS is different. I hate hate HATE that they don't date their articles, because if you go looking through the archives you can really mess yourself up.

For alcohol (and things with sugar alcohols) you can't use the normal formula. With alcohol a shortcut is to use the alcohol by volume number in place of the fat, but that's still just an estimate. If you only drink once a month or so, underestimating won't destroy your efforts, but if you drink a Guinness regularly and count it as 1 you're going to be in trouble eventually.

Is your tracker set to Simply Filling? I cannot figure how you are getting 0 for FF greek yogurt. But if it's set to SF, since that's a Power Food, it might show Zero if you try to track it.

 

[coastgirl]

Same.

That article is old. They don't say POINTS PLUS, they say POINTS. Points is ancient. POINTS PLUS is different. I hate hate HATE that they don't date their articles, because if you go looking through the archives you can really mess yourself up.

So why would they put it on the front page the day before St Pats day? I didn't go looking for it, it popped up. Grr. I will ask our leader about it on Monday. Am really, really cranky now that I feel like I can't trust the site. I also have a question in to tech support about the yogurt. For the last 6 weeks I've been treating it as free. If I can't trust some of the tips then I can't trust any of the tips, which takes away a key source of info and strategies.

 

[dizzyr]

Thanks everyone for the advice I think you are right I'm setting myself up to fail. I think the reason I set the goal so high was because I feel like even if I lose 50 lbs I'll still look fat and only at about 100 will I start to look normal so I was worried that if I didn't think it was possible that I would actually be able to make that goal that I would quit. The reality is any weight gone is a great thing and I just need to work the plan and actually stick to it. I am going to try and stick with my plan of mostly fruits, veggies, yogurt and protein before dinner but I'm not going to set a points limit.

I also think excercise is key especially if I want to keep up with my kids

 

[bumbershoot]

So why would they put it on the front page the day before St Pats day? I didn't go looking for it, it popped up. Grr. I will ask our leader about it on Monday. Am really, really cranky now that I feel like I can't trust the site. I also have a question in to tech support about the yogurt. For the last 6 weeks I've been treating it as free. If I can't trust some of the tips then I can't trust any of the tips, which takes away a key source of info and strategies.

I'm angry FOR you. It's awful that it came up. They obviously have some sort of automatic system that pulls things with certain tags and it got something inappropriate.

I would call the 800# (or Canadian equivalent) instead of talking to the leader. Our leader always tells us to contact the number if we have problems/concerns about the website. It's more powerful coming from the members.

The BEST way to truly trust what you're eating, use the nutritional info for the food you are eating. (obviously not alcohol...talking about food here) So if you're eating Oikos yogurt, use the NI on the label for that. If eating Fage, use that. Using the generic entries is for when you truly do not know the NI for the item you're eating.

Of course, since you've been using that for 6 weeks and obviously not having problems, that's great! You are doing wonderfully! And if you were doing Simply Filling it would be fine, as you eat Power Foods without counting points, to "satisfaction". (non power foods get counted from your weekly and activity points)

Not sure if it's on the Canadian site or not, but there's a recipe for a gin&tonic on the American site that shows something like 0 pointsplus. Of course, the serving size is in milliliters.

That was the other thing on the St Pat's day article, that it said a jigger of gin was 2 points.


Since I was doing WW 13, 10, and 8 years ago, when beer was 3 "points" (but the # of points per day got down to 18, and during two of those times you had to count fruits and veggies), it's easier for me to see that 2 points for Guinness just isn't correct. And I've spent time on the WW message board where the questions are asked a lot and I know about the alcohol thing.

Thanks everyone for the advice I think you are right I'm setting myself up to fail. I think the reason I set the goal so high was because I feel like even if I lose 50 lbs I'll still look fat and only at about 100 will I start to look normal so I was worried that if I didn't think it was possible that I would actually be able to make that goal that I would quit. The reality is any weight gone is a great thing and I just need to work the plan and actually stick to it. I am going to try and stick with my plan of mostly fruits, veggies, yogurt and protein before dinner but I'm not going to set a points limit.

I also think excercise is key especially if I want to keep up with my kids

You can do this.

 

[robinb]

I ended up going to my meeting today instead of yesterday. Good news! I lost 1.6 lbs and earned a coveted 5-lb star . That makes a loss for every week except one since the start of the year . Now ... off to Florida on Sunday for 2 weeks: WDW and Tampa (for a big swim meet for DD). I'm sure to come back with a few pounds but I always do. My plan is to eat something green every day. I really don't want to deprive myself or limit myself to one "treat" but I admire those who can .

 

[pwdebbie]

Thanks everyone for the advice I think you are right I'm setting myself up to fail. I think the reason I set the goal so high was because I feel like even if I lose 50 lbs I'll still look fat and only at about 100 will I start to look normal so I was worried that if I didn't think it was possible that I would actually be able to make that goal that I would quit. The reality is any weight gone is a great thing and I just need to work the plan and actually stick to it. I am going to try and stick with my plan of mostly fruits, veggies, yogurt and protein before dinner but I'm not going to set a points limit.

I also think excercise is key especially if I want to keep up with my kids

I didn't so much feel you were setting yourself up to fail. What I felt was that you were going to be disappointed. Failure, to me, not losing weight over the long haul. But disappointment, to me, is setting a goal that can't be reached reasonably. I think people quit WW not because they fail, but because they get disappointed. They had high expectations and didn't reach those expectations. Fruits, veggies, yogurt, and protein sound fine to me. In fact, I'm not sure what I eat 95% of the time that doesn't fit into one of those categories. I love my protein especially.

 

[pwdebbie]

I ended up going to my meeting today instead of yesterday. Good news! I lost 1.6 lbs and earned a coveted 5-lb star . That makes a loss for every week except one since the start of the year . Now ... off to Florida on Sunday for 2 weeks: WDW and Tampa (for a big swim meet for DD). I'm sure to come back with a few pounds but I always do. My plan is to eat something green every day. I really don't want to deprive myself or limit myself to one "treat" but I admire those who can .

Have a great trip and let us know how and what you ate. I'm staring at WDW menus thinking, "This is what I should order but THAT is what I want to order."

 

[lovethattink]

We've been eating out alot and I still managed to lose weight the last few weeks! I bought capris today that were a size 8!! I think they ran big, in fact, I know they ran big, but it sure was nice seeing an 8 on the tag!!!! I'm 9 pounds from my goal weight. My goal date is for SWW which starts May 17th. I feel pretty confident I can do it.

 

[bumbershoot]

I ended up going to my meeting today instead of yesterday. Good news! I lost 1.6 lbs and earned a coveted 5-lb star . That makes a loss for every week except one since the start of the year .

Woohoo!

Have fun in FL! And good luck to your daughter!

We've been eating out alot and I still managed to lose weight the last few weeks! I bought capris today that were a size 8!! I think they ran big, in fact, I know they ran big, but it sure was nice seeing an 8 on the tag!!!! I'm 9 pounds from my goal weight. My goal date is for SWW which starts May 17th. I feel pretty confident I can do it.

Wow! That's an exciting size.

 

[coastgirl]

Congrats Robin on your loss and your star! Have a great trip!

Lovethattink, what great news--must be amazing to see the size 8! And really great progress to your goal.

:

 

[tubachick]

good morning everyone! Just back from WI. Down 1.4 today, for a total of 14.8 . Only2.4 until the WII will let me on the board without giving me a "please check your weight it exceeds the limit" Message. Making strides one WI at a time!!

Congrats Robin - Have a good trip!

Great Job lovethattink!! Can't wait until I start seeing a different size tag!!

Have a good week everyone!!!

 

[wvjules]

This mornings WI was -3.8. I'll take it. Woohoo!

 

[tubachick]

This mornings WI was -3.8. I'll take it. Woohoo!

great job!

 

[pwdebbie]

Yay for the great WIs today.

Lovethattink -- I never in my life saw size 8 and really don't expect to now that I am losing weight. I went from kids clothes to junior 11/12 and then started "grown up" sizes in 14. I'm excited to finally be wearing a 16 again!

 

[bumbershoot]

Ah, up .4. That's OK though, I felt like a puffball the entire week long. And I stayed off the scale at home because of it; I don't like being upset with the scale so I just did the program and tried to drink more water.

Hormones were the culprit as was increasing the distance of my jogging. Increasing distance really keeps the waterweight on. And I'm changing the what and when aspect of eating, to try to regulate the need for the bathroom after I start my jog. So it's all in flux right now. Keep calm and carry on is my motto right now!