Weighty Wednesday -- Mind Games

About ten days ago I started Weight Watcher's Simply Filling technique, and I seem to be doing quite well with it.

Weigh in results=. DOWN 3.2 pounds

So the technique works!

As I mentioned in last week's Weighty Wednesday, Simply Filling involves eating what Weight Watchers has designated as "power foods"--you know all that healthy stuff. Technically, one can eat an unlimited amount of these power foods, but I prefer to weigh and measure them to keep a close eye on the process.

Even though you might have an unlimited amount of power foods, you still need to track the other items you might eat...which is pretty much anything not on the list: salad dressing, non-fat free dairy products, including cheese, fattier cuts of meat (hamburger), a glass of wine, etc. These points are deducted from the 49 weekly points, and trust me, these can disappear quickly!

Friday night (pizza night) finished my weekly points off. See, told you they disappear quickly!
Three days to go before weigh in and I was having to use the activity points that I accrued to make up for all the points I used (a few glasses of wine, a salad (off the Skinnylicious! menu) from the Cheesecake Factory, homemade pizza, Caesar salad).

*Poof!* They're gone! Trust me, it doesn't take much to use them up.

The big question was why this technique works for me, but not the simple tracking with daily points.

It all comes down to head games.

I'm sure I blogged about it before, but sometimes I need to repeat myself because I haven't  learned the lesson.

When I was counting points and tracking, I was allotted 26 points per day. So if I wanted to eat Fritos or peanut butter or a granola bar, I could. It would cost me some points, but no big deal.

BUT when one does Simply Filling, you only have your 49 weekly points to use throughout the week. When my hubby and I ate at the Cheesecake Factory and I had one of their Skinnylicious chopped salads, it cost me 6 points. I ate it over two days, but I still counted all the points.

Why?

Because it had blue cheese, corn, beans, and a salad dressing. Those goodies still count.

I made pizza last Friday--EVERYTHING counted. I only had one and a half small slices--thin crust, but we had pepperoni, prosciutto, and three types of cheese. I counted 14 points. It adds up.

Add a 5 oz glass of wine--4 points.

And by Saturday morning, I had used up my weekly points.

It was a good thing I was earning Activity Points by walking!

But the biggest part of the game challenges me with my number one problem--afternoon grazing/boredom.

If I need to eat, I can find all sorts of power foods to eat. Usually the problem isn't hunger. Being on Simply Filling keeps me from grazing inappropriate food items because I don't have enough points to eat them, or I'm too much of a point hoarder to use them!

But it makes me stop and think before I wolf something down.

This is the key for me to lose the weight. 

Once I get back to goal, I think I will keep practicing this technique.

If something works, why change it??

Later, Peeps!