WIW: Think Before You Eat

I think it’s about time for a Weigh-In Wednesday post, don’t you?

I am very proud of myself this week.  I have stuck to my WW points every single day for a week!

Okay, so maybe it’s not a huge accomplishment but given that this year has been CRAZY, sticking to a diet for one single week with NO slips is a major milestone for me.

I don’t really know my exact weight because our scale is currently, um, dead.  So I will have to do an official weigh-in once that situation is rectified.

So what changed?  Why am I suddenly able to stick to my WW diet?  For one, I actually QUIT Weight Watchers and downloaded a similar app that cost like $2 one time.  It’s called “Ultimate Value Diary.”  You track all your food by points just like on the WW app but there is a Scan barcode feature so that you can easily find out the points simply by scanning the barcode!  I love that feature–saves a lot of time.

But more importantly, I am trying to adopt the mental attitude of “Think Before You Eat.”  I’m realizing what a mental process eating actually is.  There’s ALWAYS a reason to make bad eating choices:  a bad day, not enough time, too tired to cook dinner, a holiday or family gathering.  And I usually always take advantage of those excuses to eat a dozen cookies or whatever.

But when you track your food, I mean EVERY SINGLE thing you put in your mouth, you start being completely aware of it.  And you will discover that the little snacks here and there start to add up fast.  For example:  I bought those pizza bagel things for my kids.  Normally, when cooking them for the kids, I would pop one or two in my mouth to see how it tastes, figuring that a couple of these tiny bite-sized things would somehow not count.

But now, before deciding to pop those bagel pizzas in my mouth, I scanned the box to see how many points they were.  3 points per bagel!  Woah.  That may not sounds like a lot but those things are literally the size of a silver dollar and I only get 26 points in a day.  Do I really want to blow 3 of my precious points on this minuscule and sub-par tasting snack?   No.

So this doesn’t seem revolutionary, I know.  But really–it is!  I’ve never thought so much about food, or eaten so little of it.  It’s funny.  But I’m actually okay with that ever-hungry feeling and giving up chocolate cake.  Actually I haven’t given up chocolate cake.  I just calculate it first to make sure it fits into the points.

I’ll let you know soon if it’s all working.  I think it is.  My tummy is much flatter.