To get my head back in the game without adding too much pressure on myself taking care of a newborn, I began by tracking my food and calorie intake on a notepad and paper. I wasn't strict, just to maintain awareness of how my day truly was looking overall. It was a good plan and I did it for a few weeks and lost about 5 lbs. The past few weeks though, I didn't stick to my plan and not being mindful caused me to return to my starting point! I initially thought, well, get back to tracking because it seemed to work! BUT I'm wondering if the "accountability" and/or "enthusiasm" aspect is missing. The first time around, I did it all online and didn't need the physical element of accountability. But things are obviously different this time. I don't put myself first. Maybe since I'm otherwise occupied, I may actually need more accountability (other than you guys, of course).
Recently, I've heard news that Weight Watchers is in the process of launching a new program and has done so in the UK. At first I didn't even entertain the idea of checking it out because why fix something that isn't broke other than to make more money by requiring everyone to re-stock their materials and calculators etc. When a plan has been around for that long, people do eventually get a hold of the materials from their friend and the details of the plan are no longer sacred. I say "isn't broke" because as you may know, Weight Watchers was the program that helped me lose 100 of 130lbs.
But then I had to think about it for a second. It's not that the program was "broke" but there were a few flaws that needed improvement. While the program was designed to encourage eating whole real foods if you truly paid attention to the "rules," it was getting a reputation for encouraging eating processed foods. It was partly because that was how people were choosing to spend their POINTS in the strict sense of a daily POINTS allowance (100 calorie packs ring a bell?) but also because well, they SELL those kinds of foods with their name on it with a POINTS value so of COURSE people are going to assume that it is a "WW friendly" food and "only 5 POINTS" etc. Not to mention that realistically, not all POINTS are created equally and you should not assume that a 10 POINT burger has the same impact on your body as a 10 POINT pasta dish made with healthy whole wheat pasta, veggies, protein & cheese, for example.
Since WW originally launched their POINTS system, science has revealed that eating healthier whole foods has an entirely different metabolic impact on your body than the simplistic "calories in v. calories out" science. (Jillian Michaels bases much of her book "Master Your Metabolism" on this very principle as well.) So it seems that WW has decided to get with the times and improve the program to reflect what science has since revealed. So far I haven't been given any direct information from WW other than what's on their European website and other internet buzz sources.
The new program is guided from the very fact that not all foods have the same impact on your metabolism, so their POINT value should reflect that [source: WW.uk]. It states:
Using protein, carbohydrate, fat and fibre to calculate the ProPoints values in a burger for instance is a new, different and more accurate way to look at food and how it affects your weight loss efforts.
