Weight Watchers PointsPlus Review: The Snowball Effect

I recently went on vacation. My first vacation in seven years. During that time, I decided to go "no-tech" as part of my vacation relaxation. No Skype. No laptop. No iPad. No e-mail. I was going off-line.

I did think ahead and had every intention of staying on the diet. I even ordered the books that list PointsPlus values for almost everything you can think of. And a special journal to record those PointsPlus values in. After all, I had used this pencil-and-paper method years and years ago. In fact, the first time I joined Weight Watchers, there was no online version.

Then, the snowball effect went into full effect.

It started innocently enough: Someone offered me popcorn at a movie. I have a weakness for popcorn. And movies. And one without the other just makes me feel a little sad. So, I gave in.

I tried to be "good" and measure by handful, but as I reached in for, what was probably the third or fourth, I convinced myself I had conveniently lost count and I said out loud, "What the heck, I won't worry about PointsPlus values today."

For some reason that I've yet to discover, sitting down at my computer and typing in all those foods and beverages and see their values on my screen made it "real" to me, it made me feel like I absolutely had to be accountable. For some reason, going off-line caused some sort of disconnect and I lost my discipline completely: That one slip-up suddenly became my license to eat with wild abandon.

Old habits came back really quickly. I don't even remember having a second thought about that coffee drink I had later that day. With whip? Why, yes, of course. And then it was an order of fries at dinner instead of veggies. And, gosh, was I so tired of diet soda; just one ice tea wouldn't hurt, right? And then the next day happened. And another. And they were all filled with poor choices and empty journal pages.

After all, I was on vacation!

Well, my vacation from my diet has lasted nearly three weeks. Each Sunday I've promise to buckle down come Monday, but I haven't. In the first three months of my review, I lost just over 20 pounds; in a few weeks, I've already gained back two of them. I can see the way this is headed and that snowball effect is going to happen to the scale really soon, too.

I think it's time for my vacation from accountability to be over.

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Weight Watchers PointsPlus Review: Piling on the Power Foods

I'm hoping chowing
down on carrots will crunch my appetite.

If you read my last post about my Weight Watchers PointsPlus review, then you know I was considering switching to a different approach to the plan, the Simply Filling Technique.

Well, I got some great advice from readers about the pros and cons of making the switch and I have settled on a compromise:

For the next three weeks I'm going to eat as many of the Power Foods as I possibly can and see how many "other" foods I tend to work in to my day on average. That way, I'll know how many PointsPlus values I would theorically spend without officially switching to the plan. That will tell me how comfortable I would be with not tracking Power Foods (Can I make them the main-stay of my diet?) and using PointsPlus values for everything else (Just how many non-Power Foods do I actually eat in a week?).

So far, the main Power Food that I have been relying on is fruit. Most all of them have zero PointsPlus values and when I feel like a snack, I reach for them.

What I haven't been eating enough of is veggies! One or two servings at most and if I'm honest, often it's one. My goal this week is to eat two servings each day and work my way up. My first method will be to eat either baby carrots or a big veggie-filled salad at lunch every day.

Other Power Foods I plan to pile on my plate include reduced-calorie bread, soup, fat-free yogurt (I have gone from "forcing" myself to eat it daily to actually looking forward to it! Hello, two servings a day!), egg whites and beans. I haven't been eating these types of foods regularly and I know it's time to.

I am interested to see how much these foods help me curb my hunger. I still struggle with feeling overly-hungry at night and here's hoping adding these foods I've been missing out on will do the trick! Next week, my next weigh-in results will be posted. Stay tuned!

Note: Weight Watchers has provided me with free access to the online version of their program, and other tools, for me to complete my review of the new PointsPlus program. I am in no way being compensated by Weight Watchers.

Image: Clipart.com

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