Recently a friend asked me for my advice on a detox diet…seemingly, I had attempted a lot of them and she was looking for something tried and true. As she said “detox”, my mind went to elimination. I told her to get rid of gluten, sugar, dairy, and alcohol. Simple, right? Well, I know this sounds easy, but we all know the psychology behind focusing on what you can’t have. You end up unable to see what you can have! So really, in all my years of dieting, I’ve realized that the focus should be on all the foods you CAN eat, not those you can’t…
“Oh no…Katie,” she responded, “I can’t get rid of alcohol!” After explaining how much she needs her glass of wine at the end of the night, I realized a detox wasn’t really what she was looking for. She wanted to feel better. Eat cleaner. Have some accountability. So, I told her about WW. Weight Watchers (R) has been around forever (58 years actually!) and it has certainly stood the test of time, but as of last year, they have rebranded to WW, focusing more on wellness, less on weight. I found out about it from a friend of mine who sent a link to sign up and try the app. Since I love to try new things, including diets, I happily downloaded.
One of the changes in WW is the introduction of ZERO POINT FOODS. This is by far my favorite part of WW and it has changed my way of eating! Truth be told, I am not always about quality when it comes to my food. Sometimes, I just need to feel like I’ve eaten the amount I want to eat! They now have 200+ foods on the Zero Point List that you can eat without counting as points. This is revolutionary. But does it work? How can eating as many of the zero point foods as you want (which clearly are not zero calories!) still make you lose weight? Luckily, I don’t overanalyze, so I just went with it!
I decided to start my WW on a Sunday. While most people start new things (especially diets) on Mondays, I think Sunday is the better way to go. After usually eating what I want on Friday and Saturday, by Sunday, I’m ready to switch it up. Not to mention, on Monday (day 2) I feel like I’m already one step ahead of the game. So, once I reviewed the zero point foods, I realized I could manage eating only zero point foods until dinnertime when I could use up my points (I have 23 points a day to work with.) What I ate prior to dinnertime consisted of eggs, fruits, vegetables, and maybe an occasional piece of leftover chicken. That’s it! And it was definitely enough to keep me satisfied. Dinner was then all about tracking and making sure I wasn’t going overboard on points. I also like a glass of wine at night or going out for happy hour. The key is that everything had to be accounted for, this is the only way the program works. If you don’t want to track your food, don’t bother with this diet.
When I began, I was putting everything in the app; every cup of coffee, every apple, every egg. After awhile, for ease, I stopped tracking the zero point foods. However, when I would track the other foods (and keep to the points allotted for the day) I lost weight and truly felt wonderful. So, you’re still wondering how you can eat as much as the ZERO POINT FOODS as you want? Well, think about it this way, when we binge and eat too much of something, it’s usually foods that are easy to overindulge in, i.e. potato chips, cookies, popcorn… However, it’s not so easy to overeat chicken breasts, apples, eggs, beans, or corn on the cob! It just doesn’t happen because your body tells you it’s full and it’s time to stop.
Another bonus on WW is that you will have extra weekly points to use whenever you want. And double bonus, a certain amount of your daily points will “rollover” into your weeklies if you don’t use them. For me, up to 3 points a day would go into my weekly hopper if unused. So, rest assured, you can still have those days where you want to eat and drink more…you just need to track it! Be aware though, at the end of the week, the weeklies and your bonus points all disappear and restart…my weekly number is 28.
I started the diet around 133 points and after about 12 days, I was down to 126. This is a big deal for me. Right around 125 is a very ideal weight for me. When I got off of WW, I bounced up to 129 or so. Tomorrow is Sunday, so I’m going to get back on it, tracking and all. Have you do Weight Watchers in the past? Are you ready to start again?
Try it out, here is a link to get started with one month free! That’s plenty of time to figure out if this is right for you. And please let me know how you like it!!
https://www.weightwatchers.com/us/checkout/iaf/?iaftoken=6D4EE95500
