Perfectly on Program

A very nice lady emailed me today asking me questions about my experiences with Weight Watchers. She made the comment that she had read that I stayed on program all of the time and that must have taken a great deal of willpower.

Others have referred to me as a Weight Watchers Poster Child.

Yes. I have stayed on program nearly every day since I started Weight Watchers.

No. I am not the WW Poster Child.

I'm not perfect. I am so imperfect that it isn't even funny. I don't have this incredible source of willpower, although I do have some. I am still tempted and I am sometimes lazy.

So what does it take to stay Perfectly On Program all of the time?

Willpower? Yes. Some.

Dedication? Yes, but not to Weight Watchers. It takes dedication to yourself.

Planning? Most definitely!

See here's a little mental exercise I went through when I was starting Weight Watchers. I suggest that people who are having a hard time staying on program do this for themselves.

I'm the type of person who works well within boundaries, but I want to know the exact edges of the boundaries. I want to know just how far I can go without breaking the rules. I want to bend a few if I can, but I won't break them. Mama always said that I played by the "good girl rules" and I do.

So here's what I did. I asked myself how I want to eat. What things do I want to do regarding food? If I could continue to eat with wanton abandon, what do I want to do? How does food fit into my lifestyle?

Here is my list:

• I want dessert every night
• I want to still eat sweets
• I want to snack when I'm hungry
• I want to eat food that tastes good
• I want large meals when I'm hungry
• I want to not feel guilty if all I want for dinner is something snacky
• I want to eat out on the weekends without worrying too much that it will totally send me off program.

Once I had my list I started figuring out how I could work Weight Watchers into my lifestyle so that it was the least painful it had to be. As you can see, a program that told me what to eat and when to eat it would NOT work for me.

Here's how I made Weight Watchers work within my lifestyle:

I want dessert every night

I will find sweet treats that are low in calories and fats, and therefore low in points. For me this would be:

• Skinny Cows (2-3 points)
• Half cup fat free ice cream or frozen yogurt (2)
• Lucky Charms or other sweetened cold cereal (2 points for 1 cup)

I want to still eat sweets

Find sweets that are low in points and keep them in stock at home so I'm not tempted to go "out" for sweets. Buy things in single serving packages, or package them myself when I get them home. Try different no calorie sweetners to see what works for me. Stock diet sodas, sugar free sweetners, and other 0 point items for when I just HAVE to have something sweet but I'm out of points.

I want to snack when I'm hungry

As above, load up on low calorie snacky foods. Some of my favorites are:

• 94% Fat Free Microwave Popcorn
• Cinnamon Graham Sticks (2)
• Grapes! Grapes! Grapes! (1)
• Kudos (2 or 3 points)
• Chewy Quaker Granola Bars (2)
• Rice Krispie Squares (2)
• Fat Free Pringles (15 chips for 1 point)
• Sweetened cereals (most are 2 points for 1 cup)

I want to eat food that tastes good

Try new things! Try new recipes. Use the recipes online at Weight Watchers Online. Ask people for their favorite recipes. Take old favorites and modify them.

I want large meals when I'm hungry

There is nothing better than sitting down to a BIG meal when you're hungry, is there? Eat a big salad with every meal. Find a 0 or 1 point fat free salad dressing you like (my favorites are Fat Free Italian (0), Walden Farms 0 Calorie Oriental (0), and Walden Farms 0 Calories Thousand Island (0).) Add great veggies to your salads. Always have at least one vegetable side and learn to eat them nekkid.

I want to not feel guilty if all I want for dinner is something snacky

Realize that one day of eating a lot of snack foods is just fine. You're not going to expire because you had a bag of popcorn, grapes, and Fat Free Pringles for dinner, as long as you're not eating that way every day and as long as you stay within points.

I want to eat out on the weekends without worrying too much that it will totally send me off program.

Use the bank or flex points to save some points for the weekend. I've always eaten the following way (using the old plan):

• Monday-Thursday ate at the bottom of my points every day, earned at least 4 APs, and banked 9 points per day.
• Friday ate at the top of my points and my APs.
• Saturday and Sunday ate at the top of my points and my APs and felt free to use 10 points from my bank each day. I didn't always use all ten, but they were there if I needed them.

This has always kept my weight loss, and now my maintenance, on track just fine. I've never seen a gain because I eat my points unevenly and it works within my lifestyle.

Doing this allowed me to push those boundaries and make it work for me. It takes planning up front, but in the long run it makes the program SO much easier. It made it easier for me to use the willpower I did have because I could always make the plan work for me.

So you see it isn't like I had a magic bullet, or more willpower than the next person, but what I did have was a plan in place that allowed me to take the plan and make it work within my lifestyle. If I had not done this pre-planning and introspection I would have found myself resentful of what I had to give up to stay on program.

Doing this, though, made me realize up front BEFORE I came upon situations where I would be tempted, that I didn't have to give up all that much to stay on program.

After all, think about it. Thin people don't walk around with a big sad sack face on because they "can't" eat this or "can't" eat that. They live life, they love food, and they eat to live, they don't live to eat. If they can do it. I can do it.

And if I can do it, you can do it!