Thank you to everyone that responded to my post yesterday about reaching goal. 😉 Had a few people asking me for tips of how I made it work for me. So here goes....but I warn you...this post will be long!
First off...I only followed Smart points and didn’t even try the new plan. I love SP and didn’t want to change what was already working so well for me. I am not treating this as a short term diet, this is a lifestyle change and has to be or I will never maintain my weight loss. So I have to love it or I would be miserable and it would in unsustainable.
So on to my tips...beside the usual ones that we hear all the time...track everything, drink water, and stick to the points.
1. Don’t let yourself get hungry. Learn to recognize the difference between real hunger and wanting to comfort eat. If it is true hunger...have a drink of water or eat a piece of fruit or a small snack. I am rarely hungry on SP compared to other WW plans I have followed. But If I don’t eat when I am hungry, I start thinking about food...followed closely by craving something...usually something unhealthy. Then I make bad food choices! I also bulk out my meals with lots of veggies to ensure I am full after meals. If i want to comfort eat, I go for a walk instead.
2. Allow yourself treats. You don’t have to eat like a rabbit to be successful with this plan. I have chocolate everyday! Yes, you read that right...every day!! I always save points for a snack size piece of chocolate (like Halloween sized candy) That is my treat after dinner and it stops me feeling deprived or feeling like I am on a diet at all. As long as you can stop at the one piece! If you can’t, find something else that you like as a treat that you can stop at just one serving.
3. Ban trigger foods from the house altogether. (Hopefully family members will support this one!) I love liquorice! But I cannot stop at a reasonable portion. Having a little just puts the taste in my mouth and it drives me nuts because I know there is more in the cupboard. I eventually break down and go back for more and before you know it, a big pack is gone and I am feeling slightly sick from eating too much sugar...not to mention guilty because I blew my points right out of the water. So no liquorice in my house. I do still have it very occasionally to stop myself craving it but only buy a small amount.
4. Eat all of your daily points. Less is not better! If I eat less, weight loss would slow right down or stop. It just slows the metabolism down. If I tracked my day, and it only came up to 28, I weigh out 2 points worth of unsalted almonds to get to my 30 points. It is only a few but I make sure to eat all my dailies! I see people post that don’t eat all their daily points. It just makes you hungry too if you don’t eat enough!
5. Experiment with weekly points. Everyone is different and what works for me might be different for you. When I first started the smart point plan, I had 47 daily points! I struggled to eat that many and found I was adding things like cheese to my meals just to get my daily points in so I rarely touched weeklies. As my daily points came down, I would use weekly points occasionally but not much until I realized that i actually did need to use some for optimal weight loss for me. Don’t be scared to use them. You will still lose weight. However, I do not recommend just dividing them by 7 days and tacking them on to your daily points. That does slow my weight loss right down. Vary your days. Allow yourself the occasional really high day using weeklies, preferably at the beginning of your week followed by a day that you stick to dailies only. If you eat the same amount of food everyday, your metabolism gets really good at surviving on what you give it without burning any fat. Remember this is a survival mechanism. Your body does not want to lose weight! So by varying your points, it has to keep adjusting to the food you give it and you will keep losing weight!
6. This one is a hard one...don’t let yourself lose weight too fast! If you losing more than 2 lbs a week (after the first couple of weeks) you are losing too much, too quickly. It isn’t healthy. Trust me on this one! First time I did WW many moons ago, I was losing about 3.5 lbs a week and no one warned me of the health risks. I was thrilled until I developed gall stones and had to have my gall bladder out. Now, when I lose weight too quickly, I develop kidney stones! If you are a turtle, be happy about that...it’s much healthier and easier to keep off later. It is easy to get impatient when you have a lot to lose like I did, but slow and steady really does win the race.
7. Exercise. Yeah, I hate exercising! I don’t go to the gym. All I do is walk. I did get myself a fitbit last year and try to get my 10,000 steps in. I don’t always succeed with that but I do get a daily walk with my dog. Do what you enjoy or that isn’t sustainable for long either.
8. Allow yourself small non-food related rewards. Bubble bath, good book, whatever you like and can afford. You deserve a reward for your hard work!
9. Lastly...(anyone still reading? Lol) Be Kind to yourself! We are all human, we all make mistakes, we all fall of the band wagon. I have done multiple times...too many to count. Dust yourself off, step away from the liquorice (me) and get back on the wagon. You will be so pleased you did when you reach goal!
Good luck everyone and feel free to message me if you have questions about any of the above. I will leave you all in peace now. 👋