Amy: Week Sixteen - Finding "Momentum"

So it’s Wednesday, which is clearly not Tuesday. I had my weigh in yesterday and strangely stayed exactly the same. I don’t have many weeks like that, and I’m a bit surprised. I slacked on exercise a bit and got a little wild and loose with my tracking/food consumption. It was a nice surprise to maintain.

Weight Watchers launched a new program this week - MOMENTUM. I’m still familiarizing myself with it, but I think it will be good for me. The main objective of the changes seems to be to help us make smarter choices. On most days, I stay within my points. I dip into those extra weekly ones more than I care to admit, but for the most part I follow the plan (the old one) pretty well. What I don’t do however is make good choices as I’m doing so. So I eat what I want, within the points allotted to me, but there are many days I feel hungry. This new program hopes to change all that.

We’ll see. I’m excited. I’m a total nerd and new materials are heavenly to me. I often find I do better when I really have to think about the program, so changing it up helps me re-focus. You can get lazy and “cheat the system” as Kate reminded me yesterday.

The first thing I noticed at my meeting were the new posters. One caught my eye and really made me think. There were two meals side by side. Both were pasta dishes and both were valued at 10 points each. That is where the similarities ended. On the left plate were four small pieces of cheese-filled ravioli with a scant topping of marinara sauce, presumably something off the menu with no concern for fat, fiber or calories. On the right was a heaping plate full of shrimp, whole grain pasta, broccoli, tomatoes, onions topped with marinara sauce. Both looked delicious, but could both fill you up and keep hunger at bay?


It struck me because I’m totally the left plate kinda person. I don’t want to compromise the fat and taste I’m so accustomed to, so I tend to go for smaller portions of the higher point-value items. And far too often, I’m hungry within an hour or two after. Well no wonder, who the heck can survive on four crummy pieces of ravioli? Then, when faced with hunger later in the day, what kind of choices am I making to fill the void? Usually I go without, crashing my metabolism or grab whatever is handy. Amazing how there’s rarely a bowl of barley handy...

Weight Watchers isn’t rocket science - it’s user-friendly for anyone of course, but it does hit you in the head like a ton of bricks and you’re sitting there like “DUH, of course”. I’m a pretty smart cookie, but I guess I need that ton of bricks from time to time.