I have had a bit of a mortality check recently becauseI have been experiencing chest pains. I went to the doctor on Friday and he told me they are intercostal muscle spasms brought on by stress. Deo Gratias. He told me I need to "destress", which unfortunately is not happening anytime soon. So before I went to the doctor, I figured I need to buckle down on my diet again. I could stand to drop a size and keep check of what I eat.
Ok, so Weight Watchers works by like this point system. I am not sure how you define a point because it is measured by calories, grams of fat and grams of fiber. For example, 1/4 cup of rolled oats is 1 point, one glass of skim milk is 2 points, one orange is 1 point. You get the picture. For someone my weight, I would be allotted 20 points a day, plus 35 of what they call "Flex-Points" for the week to use as you wish. However a nursing mother gets 30 points. This is mainly for a nursing newborn, not a 22 month old. I decided to try 30 points to start because I have a real problem with becoming lightheaded and dizzy between meals. To be honest, I am not sure how to survive on 20 points at this stage of my life without being lightheaded and dizzy all day long (no "dizzy" comments please). I lost .4 of a pound, so my husband thinks I should stick with the 30 points as long as I am losing and do not have much to lose. (I have no idea how much I should lose because I refused to look at my weight. I let my husband see and he said it was not much.)
I really wish the program was tailored a bit better to extended nursing Moms though. I think the concept is for Mom's who nurse little babies, and then stop early. It is hard to gauge how many calories or "points" a mother of a toddler who nurses constantly should be taking in.
I have major issues with the WW program, because a calorie is not just a calorie. However, if you use common sense and choose your points from within healthy foods you will probably be OK. What I see happening is people eating foods with little or no nutrient content just because they also are low in points. I am happier when some one pays more attention to making the calories count.
btdt -- point system is roughly 1 point per 50 calories, plus or minus depending, of course, on fat and fiber.
ww only lets you add the extra "nursing points" when you are nursing exclusively. they assume you'll stop by, at the latest, six months.
i agree with alicia.
I did it too sort of on my own, while my husband was on the online WW program, and I recall that 50 calories roughly equaled a point w/some correction for fat and fiber. If so, Pansy's non-nursing allowance would be 1000 calories? That can't be okay.
I got into healthy eating and forgot about the points and kept losing. Then slacked off on both health and calorie-counting and finally gained some back :(
I am both amused and embarrassed that it's the slender Sleepy Mommy who is joining WW and not the one with the significant weight problem.
I did WW in '99-2000. Dropped 17 pounds, kept at least 12 of them off (including after Hambet was born.) I liked the flexibility of the POINT system, but I HATED the meetings. I also resented the way both the corporation and the local franchised seemed to ignore people who needed to lose large amounts of weight.
WW just pulled those nursing mommy numbers out of their heads. They just took the general guidelines for nursing moms ("eat X extra calories") and converted that into points.
The point system does reward healthier choices (veggies, for example, are unlimited, and high-fiber foods have fewer points.) What's the deal with the flexi-points? Does that replace "banking" points?
Peony,
Yes, Flex-Points replaces the banking points. They lowered the amount of daily points and give you 35 Flex points at the start of the week.Also, the woman who does our meetings is a hoot and she makes the meetings fun believe it or not. But she says "between you and me" do not go to other meetings.
Alicia,
I agree and disagree. I am guilty as charged, I mean many of the people I have come into contact with at WW are like me, live to eat as opposed to eat to live people. When all you have is twenty points, who wants to eat flax when you can save that point for a piece of chocolate. I do that. On the other hand, I think that has more to do with personal preference than the program. The program insists you eat 5-8 servings of fruit and veggies, 2-3 cups of milk and 6 glasses of water. The problem is more with Mother Nature, whether you eat so many calories of flax seeds or chocolate, if you step over too many calories, you will not lose weight. Many of us are there because we like chocolate and a lot of it.
However, after you reach your goal, it is hard to figure out how to eat right and enjoy some of the "bad food" we all enjoy without keeping track of points forever. So WW really does not teach you how to do that.
Smockmomma,
Yeah, I think they assumed that if you were not done by 6 months (and I nurse exclusively until 12 months), that with toddlers, it would only be once in awhile, not significantly.