Tuesday, March 15, 2011

"Leah's Weight Watchers Plan" has begun...

As I mentioned recently, I have been considering making the Weight Watchers plan a better fit for me by changing the program/diet up a bit to suit my needs (and wants!).

This is not something that I recommend to anyone just starting out on Weight Watchers, and I am going into this with my eyes wide open. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. If I gain weight, I gain weight. And if that happens, I will have to either tweak my tweaks, or go back to Weight Watchers as written.

It just feels like the next step for me, as I get closer to maintenence. I want to make a few tweaks to the Weight Watchers plan that will help to make it better for ME.

Basically, I will be staying on the Simply Filling Technique, but adding some foods to the Power Foods. As I add more foods to the Power Foods (foods that I can eat to satisfaction without counting PointsPlus), I will subtract PointsPlus from my 49 Weekly Allowance Points.

This week, I have added hummus to my Power Foods, and since I rarely eat more than a spoonful a day (usually much less), I have subtracted 5 WPA.

Next week, I'm planning to add one more item, and subtract WPA accordingly. I'm taking this process slow, and seeing what happens. I'm pretty excited to see how it all works out!

Foods that I will be adding to my Power Foods list:
1) hummus
2) healthy, whole foods crackers and cold cereals
3) nuts and natural nut butters
4) avocados

After adding one new item weekly, I will eventually no longer have the 49 WPA, and will be using Activity Points for any foods not on the Power Foods list (which will by then include all of the above foods).

Did I explain it okay? I hope so! I think that tweaking the plan is a good thing for me right now. It didn't work in the past, but I'm pretty sure that was for a few reasons:
  1. I wasn't working hard. I was using my "tweaks" as an excuse to be lazy and not really work any program.
  2. My tweaks were too vague.
  3. I was interested in losing weight, but not committed!
Have you ever changed the program to fit your needs?
What were your results?

Stay tuned for tonight's "Tasty Tuesday" post! ;-)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm excited to see how this goes for you. It sounds like we eat pretty similar diets except I love greek yogurt, cheese, and eggs, on top of all things vegan. I'm a little too lazy to tweak the program for myself, but I think you have a really good idea based on what you eat. I just have trouble with portion control, so for me making nut butter "free" would be a death sentence!

Katy said...

I think we just have to do whatever works for us. The idea of "free" fruit wasn't really working for me. I was consuming way too many calories...so I have had to tweak that. I still count pts but I also track through Spark People. It has been a very educational experience over the past 2 weeks! We just have to do what works for us! Good luck!

Mariebop said...

I hope your tweeks work out for you. I completely cancelled my WW subscription. Finding Points values was becoming a chore. I switched over to myfitnesspal.com. It's free so I don't feel bad when I don't use it. :P

Jennifer said...

yay for tweaks! I'm excited to hear how this works for you! Once I hit goal and lifetime and maintenance, I'll be doing some tweaking of my own!

Anonymous said...

Maintenance is a hard road. I didn't last but a year before I went crazy and started to eat everything in sight. This time I am finding things to go a bit easier with losing because I love fruit. I am eating power foods that I like this time. I have shrimp and cocktail sauce, salmon with dill sauce and teriyaki chicken as well as a few ounces of dark chocolate and red wine. I make big fruit salads and often have low fat cheese and crackers. I can't to the vegan thing because I don't feel well on it and I don't like health foodie things much. I am trying to "tweak" it so that I am eating more healthfully but in a manner that I can do for the rest of my life. I don't like barley and grainy dishes much so I am happy with the higher protein and less carbs. Good luck on maintaining. You look terrific.