A Word on Weight Loss

So in late May I joined Weight Watchers online in hopes of getting some control over my big ol' body.

My weigh-in day is Sunday, and as of today I have lost 16.9 pounds. I jumped up over the 15 pound mark, which was a short-term goal. I am pleased.

The WW program is called "pointsplus" and I don't think you can do it without being in their program. I have yet to figure out how they compute the points. But then, I am not the best with math.

Anyway, the way this works is you have a certain number of points of food you can eat, depending upon your weight and how fast you lose. The least number of points you can get is 29 and I suspect that is what most folks end up with.

Some foods are free, like broccoli and green beans. You can have all of those you want.

Fruit is also a free food, for the most part. So you can have all the bananas, apples, and oranges you want. If you have a sweet tooth this is a good thing.

Meat has more points that I would have thought. White rice is one point fewer than brown rice, and I always thought brown rice was better for you. So I don't know why this is.

An egg is 2 points.  Tea is 0 points, unless you put in a spoon of sugar, then it's 1 point.

The SmartOnes meals are anywhere from 5 to 8 points. Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice meals zoom on up to 10+ points.

If you want, you can put in your recipes and it will tell you how many points it is. The problem there is defining a "serving." That can be somewhat arbitrary.

The plan manager program also tracks your activity. If you earn activity points, you can eat more if you want, though so far I have not done that. The points rack up throughout the week, but everything reverts to zero on your weigh-in day.

For example, it gave me 18 activity points for spending 5 hours doing "light housework." Who knew vacuuming could burn so many calories? I only get 1 point for every 10 minutes of walking on the treadmill!

You also get a number of points that you can use throughout the week over and above your daily points. So if your daily target is 30 points, and you eat a 7 point piece of cake, you are okay. In fact, you get enough points so that you could eat a 7-point piece of cake every day if you want, but I don't do that either. I have occasionally dipped into this little pile of points but not by much.

I feel sure if I used up all the points allotted, I wouldn't lose a thing. I might not be gaining weight but I don't think I would be losing.

The weight loss is slow on this diet. I am averaging a half-pound a week.  Everyone says that is the best way to lose it, that it will stay off better.

I sure hope so.

The other part of this puzzle is my overall health. In July I learned I had uncontrolled asthma and the doctor indicated that was a big reason for my inability to get healthy. I couldn't exercise long because I grew winded and had to stop.

The asthma inhalers have allowed me to increase my walking time on the treadmill significantly. I am sure this has been a help.

I have my fingers crossed that I can get all of this under control. I would like to be healthier in the next decades of my life than I have been in the previous ones.

We'll see.