#oneaday Day 1023: Progress

You may recall a short while back I mentioned that Andie and I started Weight Watchers as a means to get us both actually paying attention to what we were eating and losing some weight. I'm pleased to report that it's been going very well so far — in the first few weeks I've already lost over a stone, and I anticipate things will probably be slow but steady from here.

I've been enjoying Weight Watchers more than Slimming World, even though I know Slimming World was also very effective. Weight Watchers is just less work, though; Slimming World involves a lot of "substitutions" and doing things that are specifically "Slimming World-friendly", whereas Weight Watchers is more a case of "put what you want in your mouth, just remember to make a note of it… and if the prospect of making a note of it gives you pause, maybe think about whether or not you really need to put it in your mouth".

For the most part, I feel like I can eat pretty much what I want — I even had some KFC chicken the other lunchtime. It was rather eye-opening to see how many Weight Watchers points certain takeaway curries were, though; a single naan bread is 28 points, for example, while a chicken tikka masala is an incredible 81 points. To put that in context, I'm supposed to stick to about 55 points per day, plus a weekly balance of another 40 or so that I can use as I see fit for things like an occasional treat. (Andie, who is both female and much smaller than I am, is on 27 points per day, so she wouldn't even be able to have the naan bread and stay within her limit without breaking into that weekly allowance!)

These are extreme examples, of course, but enough to make me think that a curry perhaps isn't the "slightly healthier" takeaway option that we've historically thought of it as. Subway is probably the best one to go for, though that is, of course, more of a lunchtime sort of thing, really. A turkey and ham footlong with plenty of trimmings and cheese is "only" 19 points — well within my daily limits. For the moment, anyway.

As I lose weight, that points allowance will decline somewhat; it's already dropped 2 from the 57 per day I started at. Presumably the thinking is that as one loses weight, one needs less food to keep oneself alive — and indeed one will use less energy simply by existing. I'm hoping that the gradual decline in "allowance" will correspond to a decrease in appetite, otherwise things are going to get more challenging as we go along. But we shall see, I guess; the really hard part is getting started, and that's been going quite well so far.

Still a long way to go yet, but we're getting there. And if you've been pondering some sort of slimming plan for yourself, I feel pretty safe in vouching for Weight Watchers right now; give it a try and you might just be surprised how straightforward it is, even for someone as prone to stress and boredom eating as I am.