Doing Weight Watchers for Free

So these aren’t the best pictures of me in the world, but they do demonstrate that since the beginning of January I’ve lost some weight, and if you remember, in the last post, I asked you if you thought I was able to reach my goal of losing 10% of my body weight by Easter.  Well, it’s almost Easter, and looking at those two pictures, before on the left, after on the right, what do you think?

At my home weigh-in on March 9, I had officially lost 11% of my starting body weight, so I was able to reach my goal almost a month early.  Now, I’m working on the next goal:  another 10% lost by October.

As I mentioned, I have been doing the “best of diets,” cutting out sweets and desserts except on special occasions and doing Weight Watchers (WW) for free.  It’s really the combination of these things that has made losing weight possible while at the same time not feeling deprived.  I eat out.  I make “cookies” out of nuts and dates, and I make “ice cream” out of bananas and strawberries.  And I still lost weight, so I wanted to share the resources that I’ve been using to help me.  If you’ve done Weight Watchers before, then it’s fairly easy to do it for free with the right tools.

If you haven’t done it, then it might be a little more challenging since you’re not familiar with the basics, but here’s the blog that made me realize that it’s very possible to do:

How to Get Weight Watchers for Free.  Really! by Freckleberry Fit

On this blog, she shares helpful links.  The first one you’ll need is a calculator to figure out how many points you can eat each day:

Weight Watchers PointsPlus Daily Target Calculator

Then, once you know how many points you can have, you’ll need a way to calculate points for foods:

Weight Watchers Points Plus Calculator

If you’re having a food that doesn’t include nutritional information (because it’s fresh/not packaged), then you might use Spark People:

Track Your Food

Then you can use the calculator to find points for it.  Luckily, there are many fruits and vegetables that are 0 points and are, therefore, free foods.  WW provides a nice list:

Zero PointsPlus Value Food List

If you exercise, you earn activity points.  I have found that I can’t actually eat my activity points and still lose weight, but each person needs to experiment with what they can and can’t eat:

Weight Watchers PointsPlus Activity Value Charts

Finally, besides your daily points, you also get 49 points.  Again, you have to experiment with what your body needs and can handle.  I can’t use the full 49, or I won’t lose.  I’ve set my weekly allowance at around 40 so that I can continue to lose larger amounts.  The weekly allowance allows you to splurge when you need to without having to feel guilty.

Consider giving WW a try if you’re trying to lose weight and eat healthier.  As I learned during my time paying for WW and participating in the online communities, WW really isn’t a diet; it’s a lifestyle.  I hope you give it a try.  To make it easier on you if you decide to try to do it for free, I’m sharing the Google Spreadsheet I use to track points and measurements.  It’s a Google Doc, so please create a copy of the spreadsheet first before entering your information; otherwise, everyone will be able to see it!

 (Click on the image to open the spreadsheet, and then remember to “make a copy.”)

Hump Day Recap October 29, 2014

It’s been one of those weeks…

This week, I decided to try to

1. Cut back on sweets by having dessert every other day
2. Say grace at meal times

How are these things going?

1. I’m actually thankful for this blog because it’s keeping me on task for this one.  There are cookies in the house for goodness sake, and I didn’t eat any on Monday!  Homemade sugar cookies with cream cheese icing.  I hope you understand the magnitude of this one!  Now, granted, Friday was my first day being dessert free.  I had some cookie dough on Saturday, and I ate some cookies on Sunday.  However, I planned ahead for it.  I made the decision to go ahead and do it.  I didn’t just cave in the cravings or eat the cookies just because they were there.  This is a big step for me since normally I just eat them up to get them out of the house. 🙂  Still, there’s work to do in this area because my days without dessert are still difficult.  I’m addicted to sugar!
2. It’s pretty disgraceful how poorly I’m doing at this.  I don’t know what the problem is, but I am so distracted at meal time it seems.  I guess two kids will do that to you.  Perhaps it’s time to get them involved in the mealtime prayer as well.  Being a good influence on children can be a good motivator.  Time to give it a try!  I think we’ll try a simple child’s prayer:

Thank you for the world so sweet,
Thank you for the food we eat.
Thank you for the birds that sing,
Thank you God for everything.

I like this because as a friend of mine recently shared this on Facebook:

And I think that little children’s prayer thanking God for everything, not just food, gets us closer to the task of thanking God at all times for everything.

UPDATE ON PREVIOUS WEEK:

Last week, I resolved to try to

1. Prepare for the 21-Day Tummy diet by trying new recipes and stocking the kitchen
2. Pay for things only with cash, using the cash envelope system
3. Remind myself that by believing and trusting in God, I always have enough
4. Drink a glass of water first thing in the morning

How are these things going?

1. I’m still trying new recipes, but I haven’t stocked the kitchen any further.  This has to be the week, though, because Monday is the day.  Honestly, I’m having second thoughts about this diet.  The food for it seems to be a bit pricey.  We’ll see.  For now, I think I’m just going to commit to Phase 1/the first 5 days of the plan.
2. This is going better.  Of course, we just started the pay period.  It’s easy to do when the envelopes are full!  I found a convenient ATM, which helped fill the envelopes in a timely manner and helped us avoiding resorting to plastic.
3. This has been a rough week.  I get so irritable when I don’t sleep well, and some little toddler has had a few rough nights.  I’m alive, and I’m thankful, though, because I’m surviving.
4. A perfect week for this one.  Like I said, easiest one if I can just get into the habit, and I think it’s there now—so check this one off the list!

Leave a comment to share your progress–good or bad!

Cut Back on Sweets

I am a dessert-every-day person.  Some days, I’m a dessert-every-meal person.  I love my sweets, and now that I know I’ll be trying out the 21-Day Tummy diet in the near future, it feels like my appetite for sweets has increased.  It may also be partly related to the fact that just recently I’ve gone from not being able to have soy, dairy, or eggs to being able to have all three (except for dairy in large amounts since not having had dairy for over a year seems to have made me fairly lactose intolerant).   Now, I can have that donut.  I can have that twinkie.  I can have that chocolate bar (though I may suffer a bit for it).  The freedom of being able to have most everything again has made me a little careless about what I put into my mouth, and I just simply want to have it because I can…and well, it tastes good.

On the first phases of the diet, though, there is no dessert.  That’s going to be a bit of a tough one.  By phase 3, it’s dessert every other day.  That sounds like a happy medium to me.

Let’s try to cut back on the amount of sweets and desserts we have.  If you’re like me and eat them every day, try cutting back to every other day, which is what I’m going to do.  This is not going to be easy, and the trick will be having just ONE dessert on those days and not binging because the next day is going to be dessertless.  Let’s find some willpower, and in the process, improve our health!