My First Week on Weight Watcher's New Personal Points Plan

 I was ready with a new mindset last Monday when Weight Watcher's rolled out their new Personal Points plan. I was hopeful that a "new" plan would give me a "new" start as I am still struggling to get those last 10-15 lbs. back off.

Upon opening the plan I was asked a series of questions about my personal eating habits and food choices; lucky for me I love fresh fruits and veggies and ALL the lean proteins like eggs, fish, chicken, non-fat dairy, etc.  I wanted to keep potatoes and whole grain pasta in my plan since I have been loving how I've been eating this past month and I could absolutely do that on this plan!  I added in 30 minutes of daily exercise 6 days a week; knowing that on the weeks we hike I tend to do way more than that.  


I LOVE that I can earn points for things like drinking water, exercising, and eating fibrous vegetables-- things I do without even thinking about them anymore.

With the new plan I start with 18 daily points and 30 weekly points but most days I easily earn up to 6 or even 7 extra points!  I'm often left with points that rollover into my weeklies too!

I always plug in what I intend to eat that day right in as soon as I log in breakfast so my day read:

Monday:  yogurt parfait (3 points for 1/4 cup of granola), salad with grilled chicken and low fat dressing (2 points), Pumpkin mac and cheese with steamed broccoli (4 points). 

I also plugged in my 36 minute stability ball workout.  I had used 10 points but had 13 remaining because I had earned back points on all the veggies and my workout.  Then when we added in hiking later in the day and I drank lots of water and earned even more points. 




Tuesday I planned to eat another yogurt parfait (3 points), leftovers from dinner the night before (4 points), and dinner was stuffed acorn squash with salad (3 points with croutons and dressing and far free cheese on the squash).  

BUT with an hour and forty minute hike and my morning workout and another day of drinking lots of water I had enough points for 1/2 cup of ice cream and 1 Tablespoon of shell topping after dinner!  


I'm not quite understanding HOW this plan will work but I am loving it!  Whenever I have extra points I turn to sweet or salty snacks; which I fully admitted were my downfall when asked at the start of the new plan. 

Wednesday I was not feeling well so I went over my points and dipped into my weeklies.  I didn't do any exercise and while I drank a lot of water (to earn 1 point) I didn't eat many vegetables either.  I had another yogurt parfait bowl (3 points), my son made me a grilled cheese (using Sara Lee light bread at 2 points per slice, Brummel and Brown spread, and 1 slice of American cheese my sandwich was still 9 points!) I tried to balance it out with some veggies and an apple.  For dinner I had thrown pizza pork chops into the crock pot (with whole grain pasta it's just a 5 point meal). My real ruin of the day was having another small 1/2 cup of ice cream with shell topping (14 points!).  




Thursday I woke up feeling great after having slept for 8 hours straight.  I did skip my morning workout but only because we had a hike planned for the afternoon. I planned to eat my usual fruit/yogurt breakfast (3 points), a large salad with chicken on top (4 points with dressing and croutons), and chicken noodle soup with fresh bread for dinner (8 points).  We hiked for an hour and I drank two huge containers of water so I still had quite a few points left at the end of the day. 




Friday is my weigh in day and when my points officially start over so my rollovers from the day before did me no good (which I knew!).  I knew it was going to be a very rainy day so I made sure to exercise first thing.  I did a 37 minute yoga workout on YouTube and then sat down to plan out my meals.  I had yogurt parfait for breakfast (3 points), another large salad with chicken and croutons for lunch (3 points), and a shrimp stir fry over riced butternut squash with a salad for dinner (3 points). 


I do find the only thing I am really struggling with is estimating how many cups of veggies I am eating both in my salad but also in things like my stir-fry.  

With only 9 points eaten for the day and 19 more to go I didn't have a blue dot because I hadn't eaten enough points.  A good problem to have! We cooked up some cookie dough we had in the freezer from one of Alec's school selling projects and all enjoyed some nice warm triple chip cookies hot from the oven. 


Saturday I jumped right into a cardio dance workout.  I then planned out my meals for the day.  Once again I started with fruit/yogurt/granola (3 points), had a large salad for lunch; this time adding in tuna fish with a bit of light mayonnaise for a 4 point meal.  I drank lots and lots of water and between my veggies, water, and workout earned quite a few extra points for the day.  Dinner was chicken breasts, roasted potatoes, and salad so just 3 points for me.  I used most of my snack points on more cookies and an Enlightened yogurt bar.  I did have to use 1 weekly even with my added points and because of that I didn't get a blue dot.  



I'm still not really understanding HOW this program works but if it does help me drop some pounds I'll be quite pleased because I feel like I haven't changed much lifestyle wise but I am getting to eat more foods!

Sunday I don't usually exercise unless my husband and I have plans to hike.  So I planned my day around fewer points.  I had my usual breakfast (3 points), another salad with tuna for lunch (4 points) and then saved my points for a splurge dinner.  We ended up getting take out from a local pizza place called Mr. Z's and my husband and I split a chicken parm. dinner.  I wasn't sure how to track that but used Olive Garden's chicken parmigiana points and tracked a 1/2 serving. I figure it had to be close point wise.  I was so surprised that I had just enough points to make it even without exercising! I think it was the water and added veggie points from lunch that did it. 



  

I weighed in on Monday morning (not my usual weigh in day but I had weighed in last Monday so I would have exactly a week's worth of work to evaluate).  The good news is that I didn't gain anything but the bad news was that I didn't drop anything either.  The numbers were EXACTLY the same! 

I'll give the plan another week following it exactly as is and see if the weight budges but if not I may have to start tweaking the plan and not tracking everything (activity/ water wise) so as to limit my food intake.  

Have you tried the new plan?  How is it working for you?

Linking up with: Spread the Kindness, 






Comments

  1. Sounds like an interesting plan- keep us posted!

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    1. I will! I've already started next week's post. :)

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  2. Yes, keep us posted!

    Happy Tuesday, Joanne!

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  3. I've been very curious about their plans so thanks for sharing about this new one. I am not too bad at staying the same weight or slowly inching higher, but I am not good at losing anything at all.

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    1. You're welcome! I tend to struggle with all of it... except packing on the weight.

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  4. We are doing this plan, too. When I answered the questions to determine my daily points, I sure responded WRONG because everything that had been zero points for me before was now 1-2 points. And for PC, those previously zero point foods had remained zero points. I could tell it was going to be difficult to cook for the two of us. I retook the survey and now we are more aligned with our zero point foods. We have each lost a couple of pounds. Would like to lose about 3 or 4 more myself but PC wants to lose about 20. High five on your journey. Hope you see some results this Friday.

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    1. Yeah, my husband and I definitely do not have the same plans! Thankfully with his new job he's so active that he's mostly stopped tracking points/food and is happy to go along with what I plan for my point system for dinner.

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  5. Yum! All of your food looks so good! Sounds like a great plan!

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  6. I admittedly do not understand the points thing at all, but I know you've done well with it in the past. I hope this new personalized plan works for you like you're wanting it to.

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  7. It makes it sound so complicated. I have never tried one of these plans, but our recent naturopath change of eating, has made me feel better. Which has been my goal lately instead of worrying about what the scale says.
    OXOX
    Jodie
    www.jtouchofstyle.com

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    1. It can be a bit complicated to start but at it's base it's very simple-- eat lots of fibrous veggies, fresh fruits, lean proteins and whole grains. Exercise, drink water, and try to stay away from sweets and simple carbs.

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  8. I'm surprised to see you are not making your own granola. It's only that I made granola bars last week for the first time that I notice, lol. They were really good!

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    1. I have made my own granola before! It can be time consuming though for the sheer amount that we eat in a week.

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  9. Thanks for the level of detail you provided. It is mysterious how this could work, but I hope it does!

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  10. Good luck to you! I hope this new plan works for you!

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  11. It sounds like a great plan to be on. Eating sensibly with a few treats thrown in. Good luck x

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  12. I see a lot of people talking about the new plan.
    I have no control to be so documented & tracking of my food. Of course, its why I'm so overweight - LOL
    Hope the new plans works for you.

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    1. It was so hard to get into the habit of tracking foods; which was why I liked the old plan with so many zero point foods. I only documented those that had points and that made it a bit simpler.

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  13. This sounds like an interesting plan. I think that eating more varied food is always good. Hope you'll have lost soome weight this coming Friday.

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  14. I'm curious to see what you think of the new plan after another week. I am at a plateau with my weight right now and it's pretty frustrating. I know I need to add in more water but it's sooooo hard to motivate myself.

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    1. One thing I HAVE been doing is drinking lots more water; tracking my water intake on the app and earning a point has been motivating me to drink a lot more.

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