My Sordid Dieting Past: Weight Watchers Review

This is a series in which I regale you with stories and reviews of diets I've tried first hand.

Part 3: Weight Watchers

Now, I'm not here to blast the Oprah of all dieting plans. Merely to give a recount of my personal experiences. Sometime in the future - I'll give you some anecdotes of my friends that have their own diet dramas, but this one, is mine.

The Premise

Weight Watchers is not a diet, it's a lifestyle. You eat what you like, all the while learning an overall healthier approach to food in regards to portion sizes, choices, and not hinging your entire life on obtaining vast amounts of it in order to ease stress from the horrible day you just had. It's incredibly flexible, making it adaptable for any schedule or circumstances. Calories, fiber, and fat are converted into handy "points" and you're given a set amount of points daily, as well 

as a handful of extras for treats, dinners out, holidays etc.

Plus, it's a team sport! Support is key in Weight Watchers - and you get it either from meetings or on-line (or both).

The Fantastic

The best part about Weight Watchers: it's doable! It's a lifestyle change that actually fits into your life. You like pizza? Have some! Chocolate? Well, they make our own, so you know it's diet-legal!  Of course, you're encouraged to eat a healthy balance of foods - including loads of veggies ('free' foods - sounds good, no?). 

On top of that, it's pretty easy. Ok, it's really easy. You stay within your allotted points, you do lose weight. It's based on the most simple, tried & true formula: Eat Less. And, you can earn more points by exercising. It's a pretty good deal all around. Also, I think the support, whether it's online or in person can be extraordinarily helpful. Hell, if I didn't think community dieting was smart, this article would've started as "Dear Diary..."

On top of it all, it's been around for awhile. That means it's established and constantly refining the program. Plus you can come in contact with real live success stories. In fact, I know quite a few. My sister in law, Ms. M, recently dropped 10+ pounds on it. That said, a WW guru is never too far. My friend/coworker S can rattle off the plan, plus 14 tips and tricks that give you no excuse to be puttin' on any poundage.

The online resources for Weight Watchers are pretty amazing. Message boards make it easy to get advice and make connections. eTools help you track your progress, tally your points, and look up foods. Plus all sorts of ways to push you toward eating the right foods. And if that's not enough, there's a HUGE recipe database containing a Weight Watchers recipe for whatever you're craving. And if that doesn't work for you,  there are loads of fan sites & other resources, like the all-knowing, all-tasting Hungry Girl

The Faults

Ok, so I have to say WW is a great plan, and the faults are pretty much on me. That said, there is such thing as too much freedom. After being on plan for a couple weeks, I will slowly start abusing the privileges of the point system. The picture below is a prime example of that. I, like many Women of Weight Watchers (WoWW), stock my house with handy little snacks from the grocery store. At first, it's exciting. "I can have ice cream - and it's only 2 points? For reals?!" and the one serving is perfect and you feel satisfied and smug. Me? It goes down hill fast. I quickly calculate how many healthful foods I can sacrifice in order to devour maximum snackage.  The picture you see here is a sane & delicious WW ice cream bar, on top of a

 perfectly portion controlled WW brownie.

 I don't think the fine folks at Weight Watchers intended for these convenience foods to substitute for dinner.

Speaking of convenience foods, this plan has A LOT of them. You could totally get by on frozen dinners and pre-packaged snacks. While this is, well, convenient, it's also very high in sodium. For example,  ubiquitous comfort food Macaroni & Cheese has 790 mg of sodium. That's a third of what you should have in a day. 

Other than convenience foods, there are a lot of things that WW offers to assist you in dropping weight - and dropping cash. Books, cookbooks, magazines, website memberships, weekly dues, water bottles, scales, smoothie mixes, special mixers for your smoothie mixes, points counters, point calculators, little sugar free candies, and body fat meters...to name a few. You have the choice NOT to purchase the extraneous merchandise. While some are helpful tools, others will just lighten your wallet. Try to remember that buying a book won't help you lose weight, it's acting on the information inside the book that does the trick.

The Bottom Line

Weight Watchers is a solid plan. Flexible, easy to follow. However, like any other diet plan, if you don't follow the rules, you keep your extra pounds. The community aspect, combined with the wild popularity of the company, makes it easy to make changes to your lifestyle. If you're new to weight loss in general, I'd recommend starting here. If you're a chronic rule-breaker like myself, you might want something slightly more strict. 

More Drama?

Just a note to acknowledge the recent addition of ads on this site. 

Sorry, I had to. You've seen the news! The economy blows and those 100-calorie packs don't come cheap! 

In all seriousness, it's to improve this site and offer better info for all the diet dramatics

Fabulous Food: Spicy & Sweet Potato Fries

Ok, so I'm admittedly a little fry-happy today. After posting about one of my favorite crave killers, garlic fries, the sweet potatoes in my kitchen started calling to me. The result? Spicy & Sweet Potato Fries. In the oven, of course. Although - I wouldn't totally categorize these as diet food per se, they are pretty damn delish. In general, sweet potatoes are on my fav diet food list, since they're low on the glycemic index and a good sized spud is only about 150 calories. 

I was close to keeping these in the diet-friendly zone, but things kind of got out of control. Let's just say there was a dipping sauce involved. As you know, dipping sauces are delicious little bowls of calories & fat...diet killers. But I made one anyway. It made the husband happy, and he mercifully ate most of the pile. 

Spicy & Sweet Potato Fries

3 Sweet Potatoes

2 -3 Tbs olive oil (not extra virgin)

1 Tbs chili powder

1/4 tsp Cayenne

pinch ground ginger

1 Tbs Kosher Salt

2 tsp black pepper

1 Tbs honey

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

- Cut sweet potatoes into fries, about 1/4 inch thick (no thicker than 1/2 inch)

- In a bowl, combine all ingredients (adjusting for taste)

- spread out on cookie sheet in one layer

- bake at 400 for about 30 - 40 minutes, turning once or twice

Once they're tender and getting crispy, take them out of the oven and hit them with a light drizzle of honey, kosher salt, and chili powder. I served mine with an evil full fat chipotle mayo, but these would be killer with some honey mustard too.

 

Crave Killer: Garlic Fries

Some days, it's easy to be on a diet. You get that sense of pride, strength, and sexiness. You're looking better, feeling better, and secretly delighted that some d-bag in a pickup truck just honked at you on your lunchtime walk. 

Other days, not so much. You're a basket case, teetering on the edge of sanity, sitting in a McDonald's parking lot trying justify an order of large fries dunked in sweet & sauce with a cheeseburger on the side (and a diet coke, of course).

I found an amazing french fry craving killer: Garlic Fries (from Cooking Light). So far, it's kept me out of the Mickey D's parking lot. It's baked, of course, but you get the feeling of a huge splurge from these taters. After you bake these beauties, you toss them in a mixture of garlic, thyme, and butter. I know! It's only 2 tablespoons for the 6 servings this recipe produces. So, as long as you can restrain from devouring the whole batch you're in good shape. These fries will still cost you 256 calories per serving, but it's still less than a medium order of fries will set you back, plus loads less fat. Plus, it will keep you from idling in a fast food restaurant's parking lot, and hearing "Crazy Fry Lady is back" emanating from the drive thru window.

The Evolution of the Poncho

Remember when we all wore ponchos? Yeah you do, don't deny it. None of us were proud of it, but ponchos rocked for about 10 minutes back around 2005-ish. It pains me to think of it, but it was stylish (for a time) AND had the added bonus of hiding mid-section lumpage. Oh yeah - the poncho was the off-the-wagon dieter's BFF.

Times change though, and we realized that the look was over (it was a poncho, and we're office dwellers/teachers/moms, not Baja-based surfers).

What is a girl with a pooch supposed to do without her slimming poncho?!!

Well, the poncho has evolved, to the Cascading Sweater. Yup, I bought it too. After a disastrous winter, I needed a few wardrobe pieces that would, um, give a little.

After seeing these sweaters everywhere, I finally bought one at The Limited. I figured I'd give in and cover up. It's just billowy enough to hid my apparent lack of situps, but still nice enough to wear to work. Plus, I can wrap it around and slap a belt on it when I loose some inches. 

Sure, it's comfortable, it makes me look slightly less like a tent (like the poncho tended to do). What will the next best thing in camoflab be? Cashmere anorak? Merino parka?

Forget Brown Bagging! Tiffin Box it!

I was so excited to see this cool Tiffin Box made out of funky yellow melamine at one of my favorite home stores, Crate & Barrel. It's a cool little series of containers that stack neatly on top of each other, creating a nifty lunch box.

Ok, maybe I'm sheltered, but I haven't seen these things outside of movies or documentaries about India. I've heard them referred to as dabbawallah; and they are used to transport hot lunch from home to work by a delivery service too! so you don't have to haul your odorous Indian food (well, they just call it 'food') on your commute. Usually they're made of tin, but this one here is Americanized a bit I suppose. And, you'll have to take it to work yourself (unless you know something I don't...then spill!).

I always thought they were ingenious - maybe because I have a thing about my food mixing. Or because I have a thing about eating my food in order. Yeah...I might want to talk to someone about that...

Pizza: You Are Evil

So over the weekend, I promised myself a bit of a splurge. My friends just got engaged, so a little bubbly was in order. I am convinced that champagne is not necessarily a splurge, more of a God given right.

Alas, a little booze does, in fact, lead to harder stuff. Having no carbs in my belly for the better part of two weeks can be fun - then suddenly not fun at all. I know from experience (I was an Atkins gal in college, so my rhyme was: all booze, no bread, it will go straight to your head). Once that oh-so woozy feeling came over me, I knew I had to hit the crackers. A few Triscuits with some cheese isn't so bad, right? Well, that also lead to harder things - like donuts. A policeman friend of ours brought donuts to the party - it was hilarious, until one landed in my mouth.

So what does this have to do with pizza? I'm getting there.

After my night of Homer Simpson cocktails (donuts & any booze) I was back on track! And so proud of myself. Unfortunately Monday brought on a very busy day - which meant no time for food. I went home and hit up the Triscuits & cheese again (it's a weakness, what can I say). But I made up some good healthy eats for lunch today...go me!

Which brings me to lunch today. Again, a crazy busy day. No time for my usual desk-based breakfast. It's so key for me to keep up my willpower into lunch. When lunchtime arrived, I was locked in a conference room...with TWO PIZZAS. The obligatory salad for 5 people to share was there too - so I dove in to that thinking I could resist that oregano-laced love potion wafting up from the table.

Nope. Pizza is some sort of super villain with mind control powers. I saw myself reach for a slice anyway - even though the real me (encased in a force field apparently) was panicking at the sight. I still managed to eat only the cheese mostly, and even blotted the lovely grease. I figure that was the pizza's way of subduing me further, so the junk-foodie in me would be justifying the actions as "not so bad" to the dieter locked in the force field. Clever pie, that pizza.

Off to start anew tomorrow - as long as I don't get attacked by a chimichanga or something.

Drama on the beach...South Beach

Ok, I've put off my diet review series long enough. It will continue, but I can't halt the posts for it any longer!

After gaining 10 pounds after the holidays (I maintained from Thanksgiving through New Year's...then celebrated it by chowing down for almost a month straight) I decided I need a plan. The gym alone - or rather, the sporadic visits to the gym alone - is not enough for me. That, and I was entirely off the diet & exercise wagon. I was so off the wagon, that it waited for me, left, came back, and finally left me for dead since I was not ready to get back on.

With all the diet drama out there, I had to figure out what plan was best for me. I thought I'd do so by compiling my dieting past to figure out what worked and what didn't. I have the notes prepared, but posts are still in progress.

However, I was able to pick a plan. I decided on South Beach - since it's really how I like to eat. I actually love whole grains, veggies, and fruit - it's just that fast food is SO GOOD! And so much easier than the whole grocery store/cook/eat/clean up routine - which I apparently lost patience for at some point. Weight Watchers is great - I know some people who have great success - but it's not for me. I fall into the "I can have 10 cookies for dinner with these points" category, I completely abuse my freedom. But South Beach has that firm, yet gentle hand that keeps me in line.

Admittedly, I'm a week and a half in. I feel much better, my pants fit again, and I'm down a few pounds. I'm sure that since I'm posting on this, I'm destined to wake up with those pounds padding my ass tomorrow morning, but why have this blog if I'm not going to spill?