WLB - Week 3 - Post 3 (Not a Diet)

Originally posted on my Win, Lose, or Blog blog when I was a Win, Lose, or Blog season seven contestant.

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I have been working on losing weight since September. I have had ups and downs as anyone will and should expect when trying to lose weight. I have found it important and helpful to not dwell on the downs.

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I am pleased with my success. For the most part, it hasn't been too difficult. Had I put myself on a diet I would have wanted to shoot myself months ago. More accurately, had I put myself on a diet I would have FAILED miserably months ago. I am glad I opted for using Points. While I don't do all of the Weight Watchers "stuff" I think the food part has helped me change my life and not just my eating.

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While using Weight Watchers Points Plus as a guide for my eating I have been able to eat pretty much anything I want. I may not get to eat as much as I would like to at times but that is what has contributed to the positive change in the numbers on my scale. Once I started using Points I was able to better understand what the serving sizes were for items and realized I was eating two servings of this and three servings of that.

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My greatest success to date: I lost weight during the holidays. What do I think was the key? I prepped myself. During the entire month of November leading up to Thanksgiving I envisioned what would be on my plate at Thanksgiving dinner. I visualized what my plate would look like and what items I would have on my plate. I knew beforehand which items would most likely be higher in points. I knew that by filling my plate with salad first would limit the room for all the other items which in turn meant I took smaller portions of the higher point items. I had some of everything I wanted even dessert and I didn't go over my points for the week. I handled Christmas dinner in a similar fashion.

I know what works for me won't work for everyone but I know that thinking about what I am going to eat ahead of time really helps. Before I go to a restaurant I will check out the menu and find the options that sound the best and will still fit in with my points for the day. By checking out the menu I can also see all the items included in the meal so I can decide if I need to ask for a high point ingredient (extra butter, sour cream, mayonnaise, etc.) to be left off. I can also look to see if there are items I can substitute (salad instead of french fries or steamed vegetables instead of mashed potatoes).

I will continue this tomorrow. It is a long enough post as is.

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