I know what my Daily Points Target should be for me to lose weight but I'm having a hard time staying to that Target. I eat all of my Daily Target, all of my Weekly PointsPlus Allowance and all of my Activity PointsPlus also. With that I also get a Nursing PointsPlus Daily Allowance that I use too. About a month ago I had to take one of those Nursing Points away for each day to get back on the losing track. It worked so I now know exactly how many points it takes for me to lose weight. With that knowledge I should be able to lose those last pounds that are nagging me. Should is of course the important word here.
Why aren't I losing? Why am I at a standstill? Why am I sabotaging myself instead of sticking to my budget? It's frustrating me so instead of continuing on in this frustration I've decided to dive into these questions.
Why aren't I losing? I'm using too many PointsPlus Value in a week. So.....why am I using too many PointsPlus Values in a week. I can't say that it's pure hunger. Sometimes I am hungry and sometimes I am just eating for various reasons. What it gets down to is that I know many people who can lose weight who don't get extra nursing points and who don't even use their weekly points. How do they do it? Well, obviously they eat a lot less than I do.
So....how can I eat less? I've been thinking about what I eat in a given week and day. I eat a ton of snacks. What is happening frequently is that I snack all day plus eat 3 meals. Then, when I get to my last meal of the day I have very little left for a good dinner. This is causing my to go over my PointsPlus Budget when I eat a normal dinner. This is a problem that I should be able to fix.
Here's the plan. I need to cut back on some of those snacks. I realized this on Friday but didn't start doing anything about it until today. I let myself eat waaaaaaay too much this weekend as I looked deeper into my eating habits. As a Catholic I do not eat meat, snacks or desserts on Fridays during Lent. I realized that this past Friday I could get by with eating less and live a perfectly good life. It even gives me a little bit more time in my day since I am not spending so much of it finding and eating food.
Today I started my new plan of eating one snack in between each meal. I was accustomed to eating 2 to 3 snacks in between each meal. This is just not necessary. This is something that I want to try. I need to try it for a whole week and to see the results. My main concern is that I will be too hungry between meals that I will overdo it for the meal but I know that I have to try something I really think that this will help me tremendously if I stick to it.
So now you all know my plan. Please feel free to check on me. Comment on my blog and ask me how it's going. I need all the accountability that I can get.
Until later,
Corinna
"Therefore prepare your minds for action, discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed. Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance." -1Peter 13-14
This is an email response I got from Kate regarding this blog. For some reason the comment button wasn't working that day so she emailed me instead. She has given me permission to post it here.
ReplyDeleteI recently re-joined WW here in NC. Something that came up in one of my recent meetings addresses your dilemma regarding snacking throughout the day and then not having enough points left for a good dinner. The idea is to start counting "daily" points AT dinner rather than at the beginning of each day at breakfast. That way you will be sure to have a good dinner and you'll have a handle of just how many points are left for breakfast and lunch the following day as well as being able to better manage points for snacks--hence, controlling your snacking.
Hope this helps. I really get the whole thing about not understanding exactly what makes you "need" to snack more while you're enjoying it less! That is the behavior that led me back to WW in the first place. I just couldn't handle it anymore. The trick that's been working for me is going for water whenever I think of food, and my favorite is sparkling water because it feels like you're having soda. If you're really dying for taste you can always add just the tiniest bit of sugar-free juice for flavor. We'll see how well it works. This is only my second week back on the program. It actually is encouraging to know that even someone like you, who has been on the program a while and served as a leader can be challenged in "working" the program.
Something that's just as challenging for me is making sure I keep good sleep patterns. I know studies have shown that you loose more weight when you get enough sleep so it's extremely frustrating when I find myself actually resisting going to bed at a reasonable hour...just like right now as I sit here typing away at 4 a.m.! It's a process . . . I just don't know why or how to change it. (Does this sound familiar??) I think maybe it's a case of simply pretending I'm my own kid and telling myself to pull up my socks and just do it!
Take care and best of wishes as you pursue those last pounds you're releasing. (That's another one . . . I do my best to think of it as "releasing" the pounds rather than "loosing" them because when you loose something you always want to find it and the last thing I want is to find these pounds again!!
Here is another comment that wouldn't work the other day. This one if from Lois. She emailed me and gave me permission to post it.
ReplyDeleteThe old hunger thing, huh? I often think about hunger and how UPSET we Americans get when we're hungry!!! Heck, I even warn people that if I haven't had breadfast by 10:00 a.m., look out!! I'm unhappy and crabby!! Yet, I have to think about all the millions of the people in the world who are really hungry each and every day. How miserable and painful. Yet, here we get all upset about it - we do not want to feel that "pain" for any longer than necessary. A friend of mine told me that when she was fasting in prep for a colonoscopy she was shocked at how often she started going for a snack -- she had no idea how many times a day she would reach for food. I try to remember this when I want to eat in between meals - something I tend to do a lot, too when I'm home during the day. I guess we all have to get a little stronger and put up with a tiny bit of "pain", all the while knowing that we're never going to actually starve.