Weight Watchers Diary – Lifestyle Challenge Week 1

Week one in Weight Watchers couldn’t have gone better for me. The meals are really tasty, so it’s all going well so far. I find that planning your meals helps a lot. I joined a gym where I do a bootcamp class twice a week. During the class I find it really tough, but I feel great afterwards so it’s worth it. My other secret is to drink lots of water. I drink 1.5l to 2l of water a day. Sometimes you might think you’re hungry but all you need is some water.

I did cheat a little on the Friday night. I was out with friends and had a great night so I did not spend my time worrying about my ProPoints. The next day I would have loved a big fry with loads of ketchup and a pizza or something greasy for dinner. Instead I had tea and toast in the morning and then for dinner I cooked a chicken fillet with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, peppers and onions. I’m glad I stuck to my healthy eating plan.

Overall I feel great, I find I have more energy in the evening and at work thanks to the healthy foods and exercise. I hope the coming weeks will be as good as this week but let’s see what happens.

Height: 5:5

Starting weight: 15 ½ stone

Planned weight loss: 2 stone

Warren Barry

The first meeting involved meeting our group leader Gwen. We were each given a folder that contained a getting started guide, a pocket guide to ProPoints values and a tracker for food, drink and activity. We were then weighed individually and given a daily ProPoints allowance that if followed should meet a target of dropping up to two lbs a week.
We were introduced to our class members and asked for their number one key factor for success based on their experience and using the tracker log for food and drink values to monitor your intake and keep on track was the overwhelming response from the group.
Gwen then gave a talk about breaking a cycle whereby a person could make poor food choices based on stress or more importantly a lack of planning. I thought the topic was quite interesting as I could relate to it.
The most striking thing from my first few days was that I felt I was able to eat really well without feeling hungry. Vegetables have been a mainstay for most meals except breakfast. I ate out twice since last Wednesday. I found this tougher to deal with than when I was preparing my own meals.
I have also trained twice in a personal training studio with Mark and Declan in Fitness Together in Ranelagh and completed a 27km cycle since last Wednesday. I have another session with Mark this afternoon….

Height: 5’9

Starting weight: 15 stone 3

Planned weight loss: 1 stone

Laura Kavanagh

My first week Weight Watchers went better than expected, and I even had my birthday party to compete with in between! The major saviour was those weekly 49 ProPoints that were allocated for the weekend so I didn’t feel guilty having a couple of drinks. What I didn’t do after a night out that I would normally do is order a takeaway. I knew I would feel guilty after eating a pizza and would only blame myself afterwards. So I remembered back to the talk in the previous class about positive thinking and learning how to manage your negative and positive thoughts. Gwen (our class mentor) spoke about how to trade or replace those negative thoughts with positive thoughts. Rather than telling yourself I missed out on a takeaway, to notice all the things that I can do. For instance I had all the ingredients to make a big omelette, and accepted that I needed to change my habits after a night out. So instead of a greasy takeaway I made an omelette. It wasn’t as tasty as a pizza but it was very filling and it made me feel a whole lot better that if ate an entire pizza. For me this was a good step in the right direction. Onwards and upwards!

Height: 5:3

Starting weight: 11 ½ stone

Planned weight loss: 1 stone

Sarah Moore

Ok, so last Wednesday (the 28^th August) we attended our first meeting and met Gwen, our lovely team leader. We were weighed in along with everyone else and then we sat down for the class which was all about beating the post-holiday blues. I think everyone can relate to this feeling, especially towards the end of summer. We were then released to do with our designated daily ProPoints, the best we could. I was given 31 ProPoints which at the time seemed like quite a generous amount but after the last few days I found out that it wasn’t!

Laura and I were both fortunate and unfortunate to be celebrating our birthdays on Friday and Sunday which meant we had a weekend of celebrating to look forward to but also the guilt that would go with possibly not doing the best we could with our ProPoints.

I found that the fact fruit and veg have a zero ProPoints value a huge help! Starting this week we are going to give a few of the Weight Watcher recipes a go so keep an eye out for how we get on with the

Height: 5’7

Starting weight: 13.5 stone

Planned weight loss: 1.5 stone

Check back on these pages weekly for regular updates from the foursome, and if you want to find out more about Weight Watchers classes in your area, you can do so here.