Day 21 of Son of DDDY Challenge: No Weigh-In, Made it to Pilates (a bit late), wheeze is improved, and the new WW encourages more healthy produce consumption!

No good word from Tanita-san. Had to rush like the dickens to make it to Pilates, and I came close to cancelling. I was shaky from my meds and hated driving. Fortunately, the studio is just a few minutes drive away. So, got a work-out in. Not at my maximum exertion or even close, but hey, still got the muscles going.

Nothing much to report. I did sign up for the 3rd part of the Challenge--Spawn of....I forget. I won't do 1200 calories, but I'm gonna try to bring down my level from 1760, ideally to 1600. I've been making some days at that level, so it's not impossible.

Still feeling relatively calm about food. I like that. I like not feeling obssessed and wanting to stuff. Sure, I want to eat all sorts of things I am not allowing myself, and it takes some self-talk and clear NO, IT IS NOT AN OPTION. But I am also allowing myself things I enjoy, so that I don't feel utterly deprived. I think I'd feel deprived at 1200. Just saying...

I don't know why I'm calmer about food since the summer--is it the Cytomel? Is it some psychological switch that flicked? Is it temporary or a real change? I do not know. But I want it to keep happening. I want to make even better choices and stay at a lower eating level and get down.

I was happy to hear a couple months ago that Weight Watchers was making changes to encourage the consumption of fruits and vegetables (or rather, more consumption of, as most veggies have had zero points for a while now). It's been a long time coming. I remember when I used to go to meetings, that the ladies (the group was mostly women) would fill their journals and discussions with talks about the lowest point cookies and candies and stock up on the WW brand Franken-treats (if you read the ingredients, you'd know what I mean). Sometimes, those journals would have 3 or 4 or more of these fake treat foods taking up points and show very poorly in the veggie and fruit department. I understand that not everyone likes veggies, but to eat several of those choco or fudgo or whatever instead of an apple or a cup of melon or a mango or papaya or a couple kiwi or oranges or bananas or pomegranates or berries was nuts.

I use fakey foods--mostly for protein, occasionally cause I crave chocolate, mostly for convenience. But when I did WW and I had X points, I tended to eat 11, 12 fruits and veggies. I figured if I got a lot of zero point veggies and some 1 point fruits, I could fill up with few points. I still try to get in at least 6 fruit/veggie servings a day, and want to work my way up to a better eating plan that has at least 9 servings. There is so much nutrition in produce, it behooves us to take advantage of the array of colors and phytonutrients and goodies in there, including the potassium that fights salt-bloat.

Bringing the points value of fruit to zero is a needed corrective to a diet that often encouraged the use of those crap ingredient-laden treats for 1 and 2 points. Non-nutritive stuff should carry a point-penalty. Healthful foods--real food that's low in calories and higher in fiber and nutrients, should have a bonus. Now, they do with POINTS PLUS, as do "satisfying" foods--foods that help you feel full longer: "You make smart choices; you won't feel deprived."

It's about healthy, filling, value-added food.

My suggestion for those doing the WW plan: Don't count your activity points. Yeah, do your movement, but don't count it to eat more. Stick with your daily + allowance points. And, if you can manage it, don't splurge the 49 points in one day. My experience (and the studies do back this) is that big overeating on one day makes it harder to get back on plan in the days/weeks that follow. You re-activate those habits to overeat--IN YOUR BRAIN.

Here are my particular Points Plus parameters:

Your PointsPlus budget

Your daily PointsPlus Target: 34
You'll continue to try to stay within this number each day.

Your weekly PointsPlus Allowance*: 49
You’ll still have this weekly Allowance for treats and extras.

I haven't read all the new point figuring particulars. The old points system was basically 1 point for every 50 calories (more or less). So, if I was allotted 36 points, that meant I was eating basically eating 1800 calories.  Don't know what that 34 daily is now. Given they allow 7 points extra per day as needed (if the allowance is divvied up), to make for 41 points per day, I'm thinking that it definitely has changed. It will mean more calories per point. I'm sure someone has worked it out already.

If you're interested, here are the SEVEN RULES FOR FOLLOWING THE POINTS PLUS PLAN:

~Get to know PointsPlus™ values 
~Don’t deprive yourself 
~Make smarter food choices 
~Get physical activity 
~Track with the Plan Manager  

~Set inspiring goals 
~Fill up on Power Foods 

 Make sure to check the  points on your fave foods. The Fiber Gourmet Cheese crackers no longer count 1 point per bag; now they are THREE points per bag. Your former go-to one point snacks may have gone up.

Food logging:

BREAKFAST:
1 WS Vanila protein shake (made with 8 oz water)
1 green tea and Green Magma shake (made with 6 oz water)
2 glasses water

calories: 120
fluids: 26 oz

LUNCH:

1 Subway Meatball Salad (all veggies except pickles/banana peppers, mozza cheese)
2 cups coffee
8 glasses water

calories: 335
fluids: 80 oz

DINNER:
Leftovers: rest of Tulum Chicken salad, rest of refried beans and Mexican rice, pico de gallo
2 cups watermelon and 1 tsp sugar-free chocolate chips
8 glasses water and 2 cups decaf

calories: 664
fluids: 80 oz

SNACK:
1 WS Vanilla Shake (made with 8 oz water)
1 container Dr. McDougall's peach-raspberry oatmeal-barley cereal
1 can 100-calorie lite Peaches
2 glasses water
calories: 504
fluids: 24 oz

Total Calories: 1633
Total Fluids: 210 oz