Weekly Weigh in and PointsPlus Update

First of all, our friend finished the Boston Marathon this morning in 2:55:56!!  Woohoo!  That is just amazing to me.  Wow!  This was his first ever marathon, too.

So I didn't lose any weight this week, but I also didn't gain any so it could be worse.  The problem is I'm getting discouraged.  It is apparent that I'm at a plateau or in a slump of some kind.  Everyday for months I weigh between 155 and 157 (with a few weights higher or lower) and I'm getting tired of it.  Last week, I had 5 great workouts including just under 14 miles of running.  I thought the added workouts would help me bust through, but that was not to be.

After several months following the new WW PointsPlus plan, I've come to a few conclusions.  As I posted before, I was not very good about tracking my points from the plan's start date until January/February.  Since then I have been tracking fairly well.  While I have had a few weeks that I've gone over my points by like 5, I haven't had any major overeating weeks.  What I have been doing, though, is using all the daily, weekly and activity points and it's become clear that I cannot consume that much food and still lose.  I don't want to blame the plan, but I have become a little bit annoyed that I have no choice but to follow the PointsPlus plan.  I know, I know, it's not just the plan.  I know how to eat and how much because I was doing that and successfully lost over 75 pounds.  The problem is, I know the old WW plan like the back of my hand, but I've been trying to forget all that and learn the new points values.  But something just isn't adding up for me.  The points values for most things are higher and so is my daily and weekly points allowance.  Activity points earned are also higher.  But if I use all those points, I'm not losing.  On the old plain, I could use all my points and still lose.  And that's what I loved about it!  I might not lose big, but I would still lose and I certainly would not gain!  I haven't taken the time to calculate the points based on the new and old plans to see the difference because I just don't want to.  That would take time and effort and what was always so nice about counting points is that it was so easy and effortless.  I also didn't have to play and trial and error games to see how many points I could actually consume while still losing weight, however, that seems not to be the case anymore.  Ugh!

This week I'll be experimenting a little by trying to cut points out of my days.  My goal for this week is to not use any weekly points and very little activity points, if any.  I feel like I need to shock my system and kick start the losing process again.  That first week of any diet plan always shows large losses and if I cut down from 42 points or so each day to 29, that should be a pretty big shocker for the ol' system, right?  It might sound drastic, but it's really not.  29 points is my daily allowance and according to the experts at WW, that should be how many points I consume for maximum (healthy) weight loss.  What I don't understand is how 29 is the lowest number of daily points while I still have 20 pounds to lose.  Under the old system, I usually lost a daily point or two every 10 pounds or so, but on the PointsPlus plan I'm at the bottom already.  How can that be?

I feel like I've given myself ample time to embrace this new program and I just haven't.  I think the changes are awesome for people who are just starting out and have no idea how to eat healthy.  By putting more emphasis on eating whole foods including fruits and veggies, they have really added to the overall plan and made it less appealing to fill your day with processed low cal/low fat junk.  Brand new members of this plan will learn way more healthy habits than under the old plan.

But for this old dog, I'm not loving these new tricks.  I want my old plan back and I'm feeling a bit resentful that I have to switch from something that was working to something brand new.  I still think there is a caloric component to weight loss and although it might be old school, I want calories to be part of my equation.  PointsPlus takes away this component and adds a more complicated points calculation.  I can't look at a food label and automatically calculate points.  Now it's 4 nutritional components instead of 3 and calories isn't one of them.  I cannot change my mindset on this as I know weight loss to be calories in vs. calories out.  Period.  I don't apologize for thinking this way; it is the facts.

I am seriously considering switching to a straight calorie counting plan, but I'm willing to give WW one more chance.  I just don't want to have to think so much about calculations.  When I first started WW when they introduced points, it's was new and fun.  Then point calculating became old hat.  The new calculations seem like work and effort.  I'm too lazy for that!  I always felt like WW was a tool that would help me reach my goals.  Now it sort of feels like an obstacle.  And it also sort of feels like a gimmick, a diet corporation like any other.  They do not stand out to me like before.  I used to find inspiration in the success stories, now every one of them begins with "this person lost weight using a prior Weight Watcher plan".  I'll be honest, I did have a dream of being a WW success story, but not so much any more.  It has lost it's allure. 

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This morning's run:
5K in 34 minutes
I wasn't feeling it today and almost didn't get out of bed.  I had trouble sleeping last night and I was awake several times in the night.  When my alarm went off at 5:00, I turned it off and crawled back in bed.  But 5 minutes later the guilt won over, I thought about all those running Boston today, and I trudged downstairs.  It was a slow run, but I did it.  And now my workout is done for the day!  That is a wonderful feeling!