Challenges in Detail

What made me the most frustrated?

On the Weight Watchers site i would read about the infamous TOM. TOM is an acronym for TIME OF MONTH. ARRRRG! That would get me, especially around PMS time. I would bloat and of course it's all water, but there were a couple of times that I had some gains of about two or three pounds that week. Oh the frustration! The feeling of letdown! Seeing that scale climb up a couple numbers, trying to stand a certain way to make the numbers go down, KNOWING that that's cheating, can't do that hehe--that was hard.:(

PARTIES AND SOCIAL OCCASIONS

All my thin friends would eat their pizza, cheese and crackers, drink their wine, and not have an issue at all. Oh they'd eat sandwiches, french fries, and what have you. Meanwhile I'm thinking HOW do they do it? WHY is it so easy for them? Then again, I had to come to the understanding that my metabolism is what it is. I can't make it into something that it's not. I have to either work with what I have, or deny it...and denial ain't a river in Egypt.:)

TRIGGER FOODS

For me, it's cheese, and sweets. I just love them. Well especially cheese. Even now, I have wine cheese in the house(I HATE fat free cheese) and I allow myself to eat about an ounce or two a day, counting points for it. It's worth every bite! But I must be careful not to overdo it. It's VERY easy to overdo it with cheese, for me!

RESTAURANTS AND DRIVE THRUS

Sometimes my husband and I are en route somewhere and we have a time factor to consider. I need to eat, so I must stop somewhere. One day, I was expecting to sit down and have a nice meal in a restaurant but my husband forgot to tell me the general plan was to go to a drive thru...there just wasn't time for a sit down meal. That was not fun. He understood of course that I need to have a planned situation, I can't just willy nilly change the plan. But I had to make something work for me that I wasn't prepared to do. Fortunately I was able to find a place that sold salads, and as I was still on Flex at the time, bought a Chef Salad for 6 points with FF Italian dressing. It takes the people you love time sometimes to get used to what you must deal with every day. My husband learned a lesson that day as did I...constant communication is the key. It's also the key in whatever restaurant you go to. One time I went to a Kentucky Fried Chicken and ordered a chopped veggie salad. Well, one thing that is important in your weight loss journey is not to assume everything will make sense. Obviously the sensible thing is to have a salad where you have a choice of dressings that you put on yourself. But no, KFC's vegetable salad has an ALREADY MIXED IN ranch vinagrette dressing. I found that out and of course I had to work with it. I was not a thrilled camper, but I made the best of it. Normally, when I choose fast food places I choose Wendy's or McDonalds. Their salads are much more sensible for me.

ALCHOHOL Some of us enjoy a bit of alchohol from time to time. If you're at a party and you want to live a little, that's ok. ..just make sure you pay attention to how much you're drinking so you can count the points. Of course, moderation is the key to everything, like eating sweets. You're not going to have a sundae three meals a day, you may get sick of them after awhile.:) But you can enjoy a little frivolity now and then.

EATING TIMES

For many years, because I'm an opera singer, I've been known to do my big eating at night. Like we'd have a performance, and go out afterwards, and I'd eat a substantial meal sometimes at 11 pm. Now technically, it really doesn't matter when you eat, even if you eat at midnight. So long as you eat sensibly and follow the plan, you're all right. Word to the wise...don't have a huge meal late late at night before a weigh in day. You're bound to see a gain there or at least a standstill. It's best, on the day before weigh in, to eat your biggest meal at least 12 hours before you weigh in. This may not work for everyone and it's not an official rule of Weight Watchers. But it works best for me. You may find that 10 hours is the best. It's up to you.

YOU CAN DO IT!

No matter what temptations arise, you can stay on track. If you want to lose weight, you will do it. There are other alternatives, other healthy foods, and habits that will satisfy you. Trust me, if I can do it, you can too!