Weight Watchers: Getting Organised

It’s 1st January 2013 and so the start of a brand new year. You already know my New Year’s resolution is about being true to myself. Part of that will absolutely be about being more healthy – eating better, exercising more, you know the sort of thing. So the fact that I’m a Weight Watchers Blog Ambassador starting this very day will come in quite handy!

As I mentioned in this post back in December, I have been given a three month subscription to the Weight Watchers website, including the iPhone/iPad app, so I can give the new approach to Pro Points a go. I have input all my details and have started tracking my weight and food. It should be interesting to say the least!!

Part of being a Weight Watchers Blog Ambassador involves weekly challenges that should help keep me motivated, and this week we have been asked to sort out our fridges. As soon as I got the email yesterday I opened my fridge and took a snap of what was inside… not bad I don’t think. There are apples and grapes, vegetables and salad, no sugar drinks, water, semi-skimmed milk, low fat bits and bobs, left over turkey and gammon (now all gone). It’s not exactly full – it is the end of Christmas week after all – but it could have been a lot worse. Phew.

Well, it’s not bad if you ignore the cheese – soft, goats, mature cheddar, Wensleydale; the Double Barrel Lincolnshire Poacher is particularly excellent. Mmmmm I love cheese. It is suggested that I put our cheese in an opaque container and hide them at the back of the fridge, but it’s ok, I can resist the temptation. I’m not the sort of person who will open the fridge and cut herself a lump of cheese just to nibble on. I might have some for lunch but I don’t just snack on it. And anyway, I’m not about to start hiding things – I know out of sight is out of mind and all that, and it certainly does help if you can’t see things – but I want to change my life and my habits not just temporarily forget them. So the cheese stays in the fridge door, I just have to learn to be good!

Apart from checking my fridge I’ve also been through all my food cupboards, chucked away anything that was out of date (which was an awful lot actually, shame on me), and so now I know exactly what I’ve got. I’ve made a shopping list full of healthy bits and bobs like yogurts and jellies and fruit, and worked out how many Pro Points there are in that stash of chocolate I have left over from Christmas… three chunks of Dairy Milk with Oreo is two points, I can work with that. Actually there is some help on the Weight Watchers website if you want to sort out your cupboards and fridge with healthier eating in mind – I’ve not been completely true to the list but it helped.

I’ve also planned my menu for the week. This is something I used to do all the time but laziness got in the way and I haven’t for a while now. I sat and looked through a Weight Watchers recipe book and picked out some things to try. Tonight I used up my slow cooked gammon in a risotto (no cream, no butter, lots of veg, I’ve worked it out as being worth 10 Pro Points per portion, mainly made up of the basmati rice). I am still planning on enjoying my food, especially the curry I shall eat on Saturday night, but I will track everything I eat and hopefully learn how to keep those calories down.

I should say that although I do need to lose a couple of stone to be my “ideal” weight, weight loss is not what this is all about. It’s about feeling good about myself, eating right and hopefully losing a couple of inches from my belly and butt. I have no intention of posting my weight here on my blog, but I will let you know how I’m getting on and post regularly with those challenges.

If you’re planning on sorting out your eating habits as one of your New Year resolutions then good luck!