Weekend!

Happy Monday, everyone! My weekend was pretty full as well as the few days before. Over the past week since I've been back from the holidays and even somewhat during the holidays, I've had an overwhelming sense of freedom with food. As you know, I've been making an effort to track what I eat differently. I've been seeing how my body responds to food, tracking pts, calories, food groups, ect (see here for details). At first, it was daunting to try and remember more information about food than just the pts value. I wasn't really selecting that many different foods than when I was doing WW either (save for the usual holiday splurges). However, that's slowly started to change. Through being less concerned about points, I've started eating more fruits, salads, and items you could call whole foods. I guess the change has come mostly through listening to my body and enjoying how it feels and looks in response to certain foods.

I am comfortable eating out at almost any restaurant and don't regret the choices I make. With the points system, if I went out, most things were about the same pts value regardless- like do I want to spend 8pts on a salad or 12pts on fries? My answer was always 12pts on fries any day. Now, without the points values guiding me and only a rough value of calories in my head, I choose the salad because I know how it will make me feel later, not only physically, but mentally proud of myself for doing something good for my body. I choose whether to put meat on my salad depending on whether I've had enough protein that day or if I worked out. And those times that I do want something like pad thai or fries, I don't feel bad about it because I know the choices I've made the rest of the day were sound. I feel like I enjoy food more, rather than obsess about it until I get something I don't really want. So far, this approach seems to be working for me, but we will continue to see over the next few weeks.

Side Note: I think Weight Watchers is the way to go to lose weight. I think that it is one of the only diets that promotes a lifestyle change rather than a "diet" per say. I wouldn't have been able to lose the 34 lbs I did last year without having used the tools it provided. I also think that the only reason I'm able to try what I am doing now is because I followed the weight watchers point system for a year and the framework it gave me is embedded in how I think about food now. So- if you're looking to start weight loss- I recommend WW if you need a boost.

Now for my weekend eats:

2 sips of a slimfast for breakfast friday 1pt 40 calories

Smart Ones Ravioli 5pts 270 calories

Christians Pizza- MAJOR SLICE (I thought it was 2!) Thin Crust Avocado and Roma tomatoes with tomato sauce and feta cheese. 7pts 320 calories?

After that I had 2 small gin and tonics- 6pts 340 calories

Veggie Delight at Subway Saturday. Ate 1/2 for 5pts 253 calories (I added cheese).

Dinner was chic fil A kids meal 490 calories, 11pts

Played cards with Matt and read for the night 12pts on beer 600 calories

Pad thai from TARA THAI for lunch. I love that place! I had 2/3 for lunch and the last 1/3 for dinner with a cliff bar. Munched on chips for a snack later

It has been so cold lately! Maybe I just forgot while I was out of town, but this is seriously how I look plus puffy blue Christmas socks while sitting inside my house working on my thesis.

Have a good week! Weigh in post tomorrow, get ready!

Hope to see less of each other next time!

Casey