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Do you have certain people, places and/or events in your life that make sticking with the Weight Watchers program especially challenging?
Me too 🙂 I think it’s just a reality of life for anyone living here in the US where food is plentiful, available, and usually super-sized.
One of my challenges is going to eat at my Mom’s house. I love my Mom, but she’s been encouraging me to overeat since I was a kid. Here’s just a sampling of the kinds of things that are out and about waiting to tempt me each time I’m there…
Candy dishes. Not just one, but several scattered throughout the living and dining area…
(I didn’t snap photos of the large container of toffee, dish of tootsie rolls, or M&M dispenser!)
There’ll be supermarket bakery sweets on the counter like these frosted brownies. And packages of cookies in the pantry. (You get the idea.)
My pulse starts to quicken and glands begin to salivate within minutes of walking through the door. My resistance is pretty high for a while, but then it starts to weaken and I usually give in to a handful of peanut M&Ms and a tootsie roll or two.
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Take a look at what she served my sister and I for lunch recently and tell me what you would do to stay on program…
A big jug of unsweetened peach herb iced tea with 0 PPV. I grabbed a glass right away and kept it full as a way to distract myself from all the food and leave less room in my belly for the high PointsPlus value food to come.
Out on the counter was an array of snacks including this jalapeno hummus, crackers, chips and snack mix for dipping. (PointsPlus values ingested: 4)
Then she pulled from the oven a pan of The Pioneer Woman’s Olive Cheese Bread. When she shared what was in it, I nearly fell off my chair: 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup mayonnaise and 3/4 pound of cheese mixed with lots of chopped olives and slathered on a loaf of French bread.
Any dish with that much fat is going to taste good. The recipe claims to make 12 servings which means each hearty slice has a hefty 349 calories, 22.7 g fat, 25.6 g carbs, 1.7 g fiber and 11.8 g protein. (You may be able to eat this and stay slim if you spend your days out roping cattle like the Marlboro man, but I sure couldn’t.) It was tasty but heavy and salty and not worth the PPVs (3 to 4 bites which I estimated at 3 PointsPlus Value.)
Next on the menu: BLT’s. I had half. (I assigned it 8 PPV.)
Also on the table within an arm’s reach, one of my biggest red light foods of all times: potato chips. Whoever came up with the Lay’s potato chip campaign was right when she said, “Nobody can eat just one.” (I sure can’t and believe I ate about a serving for 4 PPV.)
I also ate a good sized portion of this yummy 0 Points Plus fresh fruit salad and brought some of what remained home.
But, wait, we are not done yet! Mom also pulled from the oven a pan of turkey sausage with onions, peppers and mushrooms. I was full, but ended up having a few bites because it’s another favorite (4 PPV)
Total PointsPlus values consumed: 23. This is way more food than I would ever have for lunch at home, but because it was there staring me in the face, I ate more than normal.
But the good news is that this is a big improvement over what would have happened in the good ole days: pigged out until my stomach ached and then suffered trying to digest it all afternoon.
And because I had planned for what I knew would be an eating extravaganza by eating a light breakfast and ending the day with a small dinner I was able to more-or-less stick to the program.
It’s days like this that really challenge our skills and resolve. But with time and practice it’s doable!
What are your biggest eating challenges?
You might also like…
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