A week in the life of...me

From time to time, members ask me to share my menus/daily log. I am always happy to do so- and figure if I post a week's worth of my meals here, this can be an easy place to access the information. However, before I do that, I have a few things first to get out of the way. Deep breath. Okay- here goes:

1) I eat very little to no animal products. I am a long time vegetarian who eats very little (if any) other animal products (dairy, eggs, etc.) at home, and try to avoid them when I'm out and about. Now, why was the deep breath needed? Well, because I recognize that the way that I eat is different, and sometimes people make assumptions about vegetarians (i.e. we are all a bunch of hippies preaching about the evils of eating meat). Those of you who know me from meetings know that I'm not this way. 1) I'm not a hippie :) (though I have a funny picture of myself from a few years ago when I pulled off the look pretty well for a Halloween costume...). 2) I have some really strong convictions about respecting the ways that others eat- and as such, I do not judge others for their food choices (meat or otherwise), and hope that others will extend this same respect to me about my food choices. The other main (and false) assumption that people sometimes make about vegetarians are that we are all skinny. This is simply not true. I was a vegetarian when I was overweight, and I was overweight before I became a vegetarian at the age of 15. In short- my vegetarian diet didn't do squat for my weight-- one way or another. Consider that french fries, chocolate, ice cream, mozzarella sticks and fettuccine alfredo are all vegetarian foods-- now do you see why all vegetarians aren't skinny?? Seriously though--- I sometimes worry that some members may be less inclined to relate to me as a leader if they have different food choices than I do. Lastly, I just want to clearly state that I am not opposed to others eating meat. In fact, my husband is a classic meat and potatoes guy- who doesn't cook. I love to cook, and love to cook for others, so certainly am well versed in meat cooking and preparation techniques-- just not the eating side of things. To each their own.

Now that I got that one out of the way, (phew...I really did feel somewhat nervous about that...)the other items that I want to disclose may all make sense.

2) I eat a lot of stuff that others may consider "weird". For dinner last night, for example, I had a kale and miso stir fry. I love tofu, tempeh and seitan (no, not the devil... seitan is a "wheat meat" of sorts made with wheat gluten- it is actually really tasty). As you can imagine, I also eat a lot of different vegetables. I think that it is safe to say that I like them all (even the unpopular brussel sprouts)-- though something about cooked green peppers makes my stomach turn (raw and crunchy I love them, and yellow and red peppers I can do cooked).

3) Although I eat "weird stuff", I am pretty boring when it comes to variety. Consider that I am cooking batches of food for me (and separate food for my husband). See my note about his eating style above, and you will understand that a kale and miso stir fry isn't going to fit into his meat and potatoes pallet. Hence, I eat a lot of leftovers. Often I'll cook a big batch of something (i.e. soup or a casserole) on the weekend, and eat it for lunches (and sometimes dinners too) throughout the week.

4) I now use e-tools for my POINTs calculations. Whenever possible, if I have the nutritional information in front of me, I'll pull the cal/fat/fiber off that and 'save' the particular brand/item in my tracker for future reference. So, for example, if I say "wheat bread- 1 POINT", this doesn't mean that ALL wheat bread is 1 POINT- just so happens to be for the particular type of bread that I'm eating that day. I also really rely on the "recipe builder" tool. That said, when I joined Weight Watchers and was loosing weight back in 2002, e-tools didn't exist! Point being--- you can track as diligently as anyone with e-tools, assuming you've got your POINTs Finder, a calculator, and tracker (though e-tools is really, really nice for convenience sake)!

5) Lastly, please know that although I'll post my daily menus here for a week, this is just me and my one week. Weight Watchers is about YOU and your preferences and lifestyle. I hope that my postings expose you to some new ideas and help you see an example of Weight Watchers in action-- but please don't allow you to limit yourself to eating 'my way'. I've seen so many members have success in different ways-- and I'm pretty sure that most (all?) of them don't eat the same "weird" way that I do! :) You can work the program with convienience foods, you can work the program with restaurant foods, you can work the program if you love to cook, and you can make it work if cooking is the last thing that you want to do. So long as you are following the program- using your daily POINTs target, using (or not) your Weekly POINTs Allowance, and adhering the the Good Health Guidelines, the program works! Isn't it amazing how different our actual food selections can be-- and yet we can all be sucessful on the plan?

Oh- one more thing. I am not perfect. I'll post my good days- and my bad. This will be the 'uncut', 'uncensored' version of my Weight Watchers week. Enjoy!