My current strategy

I am feeling so good about my week.  My weigh-in is tomorrow.  I don't know what the scale will say but my body and my mind are saying that I feel great.  I have tracked everything that I ate this week with the exception of Saturday at my brother's house.  Even though I didn't track it all on Saturday, I know that I did not go over my points. No matter what the scale says tomorrow I am proud of myself for doing so well in such a challenging week.

I wanted to tell you how I have been managing my points.  A couple of months ago I changed the way that my etools is set up.   For those of you who don't know what etools is, it is the online tools that Weight Watchers gives its members who have a monthly pass or are free lifetime members. I am a free lifetime member so I get etools for free as well.  My etools track all of my food for me if punch in what I eat and how much.  With WW I get a certain amount of points each day for my daily target as well as more points each week for Weekly Allowance Points.  In the past I have let myself use my extra weekly points anytime throughout the week that I chose.  The downfall to that strategy was that I would often use all or most of them in the first 2 days of my week.  Then by the time it was weigh-in day I was hungry, feeling deprived and longing for some weekly points.  When I got home from my meeting I would eat like crazy knowing that I had more weekly points to use.  It was a rough cycle.  It was making me feel like a binge eater. Maybe it was making me into a binge eater.  Either way I was not happy with the cycle.

A few months ago I changed the settings on my etools to take all of my weekly points and distribute them equally over the week.  Now, when I log into my etools I see how many points I have for the day and 0 for the week.  It sounds like a mind game.  I guess it is a mind game.  A mind and body game.  This is keeping my from eating 100 points in one day and 30 the next.  It's balancing my days and weeks.  It's helping me feel like I can treat myself each day a little instead of treating myself like crazy on one day and depriving myself for the next 6.  It has helped me to eat healthy and still treat myself on my birthday, at parties, at picnics, at ballgames, and all of those other fun occasions.

This strategy may not be for you. Your strategy may work just fine for you but if you find yourself needing a new strategy, you might want to try it. It took me some weeks to get used to it.  It was trial and error for several weeks but over the past 2 weeks it has worked so well for me that I am looking forward to using it for the rest of the summer and into those challenging holidays.

What kinds of strategies have you all been using to keep you on track during this challenging summer season?  Share them by commenting on my blog and give ideas to all those who read this blog each day.  You may be surprised at how many people you are helping.  Lots of people read this blog (I see the numbers;)

Have a great weekend everyone.  I'll check in again with you soon.

Corinna

"And God said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.  This is how you are to make it: length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks." -Genesis 6:13-15

See, God was a planner too!;)