Weight Watchers Diary – Lifestyle Challenge Week 10

Halloween is a great time of year with fancy dress, trick or treat and loads of yummy food. Just because you are on a diet it doesn’t mean you can’t eat nice food! An Aero funsize is only two ProPoints but a handful of monkey nuts is 6 ProPoints, so you really need to know what you are eating. I find using the Weight Watchers calculator very good as it gives you the ProPoints so there is no guesswork involved. Halloween also reminds us that Christmas is approaching fast and I really need to get in gear to hit my weight loss target. Tonight in class we discussed previous success stories from past members. We heard one story of a girl who was struggling with her weight each week and had a reunion coming up, so she gave herself three weeks and lost 10 pounds. She took on exercise, tracking and cooking the Weight Watchers way. All these aided her massive weight loss and she hit her target in three weeks and on time for her reunion. I found this very inspiring and it has given me the drive to really push ahead, this week I am only going to focus on the next seven days. I’m going to track everything that passes my lips, do loads of exercise and I am also not going to drink any alcohol. I still have my Christmas dress on the back on my door and it still doesn’t fit but it will I have full confidence that I will wear the dress on Christmas day and it will be the best Christmas present I can give myself. Height: 5:5 Starting weight: 15 stone Planned weight loss: 2 stone Weight loss to date: 9.5lbs     Warren Barry This week was really an example of tracking and portion control. I'm on placement in Hospital in Cork for the next month so preparation was a big part of my bank holiday Monday. I went about planning (for tracking) and preparing my meals before I got to Cork. I had two poached eggs with mushrooms and spinach for breakfast everyday. At 11am I had an apple and some almonds with coffee. I prepared 800g of round steak mince with lots of vegetables and some quinoa and broke that up into four portions in Tupperware, which I had for lunch every day. I found this quite convenient and helpful in ensuring I made correct food choices rather than eating whatever was on offer in the canteen. I had a chicken breast and vegetable every evening for dinner, which was pretty straightforward, quick and easy. I have not had the chance to exercise as much as I have been doing as I have a lot of study to get through each night. I did join a gym for the month and managed to go twice last week. Height: 5'9 Starting weight: 15 stone 3 Planned weight loss: 1 stone Weight loss to date: 11.5lbs    Laura Kavanagh This week for me was a huge learning curve. I exercised a lot more than previous weeks so I presumed I would do a lot better for my weigh-in. To my surprise, I didn’t do as well as expected, as I wasn’t as diligent on tracking as I was training. Coming off those scales and speaking to my leader she clearly stated that it is always about tracking and creating the right balance. The most important aspect is staying focused and going back on track for next week and remembering that Christmas in my sight! This week’s class was how not to be tricked by treats this Halloween! We spoke about not buying goodies for the tricksters until the actual day of Halloween, or be very good at hiding stuff! Gwen shared a list of ProPoints values for fun-sized candy. I thought I’d share it with you. Even if you’re not on Weight Watchers it gives you an idea of what’s bad for you, and what’s worse! Smarties, fun size = 2 ProPoints Milky bar, fun size = 2 ProPoints Caramel bar, fun size = 2  ProPoints CurlyWurly = 2 ProPoints Gummi Bears, 14 pieces = 3 ProPoints All Roses chocolates, 1 piece = 1 ProPoints All Celebrations, 1 piece = 1 ProPoints Time Out, 1 Stick = 2 ProPoints So this week it’s all about being treat wise and knowing the ProPoints of your favourite treats and not to lose sight of that Christmas weight loss goal! Height: 5:3 Starting weight: 11 lbs stone Planned weight loss: 1 stone Weight loss to date: 5 lbs   Sarah Moore This week was really about dealing with temptation. Halloween means there’s an endless supply of goodies around. You’re preparing for little people calling to the door or there could be a dress-up competition in work (well, there was in mine) and along with that comes little pumpkin-topped cupcakes. All these things make resisting just a little bit harder. It also becomes nearly impossible to track everything you eat, as you’d have a nibble here and there and then discount them as they seem so small and insignificant… but they aren’t! With the long weekend your weekend almost becomes longer than your week. I found this out a little bit. I ate out a lot at the weekend and I was convinced that I was going to go up on the scales. To my absolute surprise, I stayed the same. Now I know that I was saving my ProPoints so that I could eat out and I didn’t drink at all but I still thought I’d be way over. I also did a silly thing on the Friday and Saturday – I knew I was going out for dinner so I saved as many of my daily ProPoints as I could until dinnertime. This led to me having a banana and a bowl of soup on Friday and by the time I left work and dinner came, I was seeing stars and got a migraine (which I suffer from and now know can be induced by not eating. The same thing happened on Saturday!). You need to eat during the day, even if its fruit and yogurt for breakfast and some soup and a slice of bread at lunch. DO NOT do what I did! For the next week I am going to continue to exercise like I have been and really focus on my tracking and what I am consuming. My eye is on my Christmas goal and I’m slowly but surely getting there. I just have to keep on this track. Get rid of the little treats that don’t get recorded! I’ve also cut out Diet Coke this week, which is my weakness in the evenings or when I hit a slump in work so I will see if that makes a difference over my next few weigh-ins. I constantly have some form of fruit beside me on my desk, people come to see my ‘fruit shop’ sometimes! I find this is the easiest way to just nibble on something when I feel a little hungry. Laura has included a small list of the treats which are worth two ProPoints, so if you have to have something, make it one of those! They still give you the feeling of having a bar etc. just not with the same amount of calories. Height: 5'7 Starting weight: 13.5 stone Planned weight loss: 1.5 stone Weight loss to date: 9 lbs   Check back on these pages weekly for regular updates from the foursome, and if you want to find out more about Weight Watchers classes in your area, you can do so here.