Holly Week 2: My Weight Watchers Tools

As a lifelong freelancer, money is always tight. Hence, I have undertaken the Weight Watchers program without getting a membership through the company, avoiding the monthly fee. In order to fake a Weight Watchers plan, I began by researching the system on Wikipedia. After learning about the system and how it worked, I then found an online calculator to determine the number of points I would be allowed each week, which was 31. I reduced it down to 29 after hearing rumors that it was recommended that all people do 29 points and in order to match my fiancé. Per the information I found online, Weight Watchers users are also allowed 49 extra points each week to use at their discretion.

Furthermore, users can earn points by participating in exercise. I decided to omit this part of the diet for myself in order to prevent me from exceeding my allowed points. My theory is that if I attempt to exercise as much as possible and do not count those points, then I will be in a good position for when I inevitably use all of my allowed points (including weekly points) and still want to or need to eat more, because if I count them, I will just use them immediately.

I then purchased the Weight Watchers Points Plus books from Amazon.com. The general food guide (not pictured, was lent to a friend) and dining out guide cost under $50 combined. I also lucked out and found out that my friend’s mom has been on Weight Watchers for over a year (she is down more than 50 lbs), and she offered me a stack of resources from her meetings. I also use an online points calculator to calculate foods not listed in the books and foods by specific brands (for instance, a slice of sourdough bread from one brand can differ greatly in points from another brand, depending on the portions of ingredients used).

Other helpful tools include a list of 0 point items and these lists for generic food items and various restaurants. My fiancé additionally made a whiteboard graph to help us keep track of our daily and weekly points.

The Weight Watchers system encourages increasing your level of activity. This has been a major hurdle, but also a joy for me. As mentioned in my previous post, I used to be very active. However, for the last two or three years, my level of activity has been severely limited by my need to sit in front of a computer to earn a living, so getting back on my feet has been challenging, but also a relief.

I have had many gym memberships and purchased expensive workout equipment in the past, including a resistance recumbent bike and an elliptical, but getting down to basics and utilizing equipment that is more accessible and dynamic is often more effective.

My Tools for Increasing Activity:
Yoga Mat
Exercise Ball
15 lb. Hand Weights
Resistance Band
Running Shoes
Surfboards
Skimboard
Skateboard
Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 for Xbox360
Rockband and Drum Kit for Xbox 360

So far, I have increased my activity from 0 calories burned per week to roughly 2,000 calories burned per week. I have primarily focused on walking, since I live in a picturesque area, and my most frequent route is six miles round-trip (roughly 600 calories, 6 points). My fiancé, who writes a blog about adding one crunch and one jumping jack to his exercise regimen per day, has also allowed me to exercise with him, though I have modified my regimen to include pushups instead of jumping jacks. As a woman with a large chest, I find jumping jacks painful, and I need to seriously work on my upper body strength.

This week I used all of my bonus points by Sunday (my diet week begins on Wednesdays) due to late night snacking, though I walked 18 miles, did 400 crunches, and completed 30 pushups! Not a great start, but not a bad start either.