Day 169 - 21 Charms & 9 Spacers

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Next Charm 84.9 lbs

I am BACK!

The holidays are over, and all is as it has been for the past months. I am sure many of my readers are curious, maybe very curious, how I did? Well the answer is simple: I gained weight.

I am not exactly sure how much, as I could not go to the weigh in yesterday; I arrived home from my flight from Ireland at 09:30 PM. However I did go to the weigh in in Ireland on thursday morning 11 october, and the scale indicated I weighed 302.9, and thus I gained 3.3 lbs.

I must admit, I was extremely disappointed as I really did try to stick to the programme, and so I did some soul searching, and re analysed my food intake, and came to the following conclusions:

- too little water
- too little exercise
- to much guesstimating, and too often I was more than 100% off, I often used double the points that I wrote down.
- not as much fruit in supply as I have at home, and so I had too little or no fruit
- too little vegetables
- too much candy and chocolate, even the reserve of points I had saved up could not justify that

In short, and I must admit it took me some time to accept that I was not failing, but rather enjoying my holiday, I had a grand holiday. I did enjoy my mint Chocolate.

Weight Watchers in Ireland is so very different from the much enjoyed and trusted band of people I know in The Hague. The people do not join in, and the coach just stands in front of the group rattling off some kind of sales pitch, which was utterly uninspiring. Itwas as if I was in school, and the saddest part of it was, that wheree the strength of WW lies in the GROUP meetings, the joint effort, where people support eachother with their accumulated and combined wisdom and humor.

People in Ireland are there as individuals, NOT as a group. They do not joke with each other, or even talk with each other! They just sit there an listen to "teacher". And in doing so the benefit and power that could be garnered from a team spirit is completely and devestatingly lost. I found that so poignantly missing, that I wondered what made WW Ireland so much more special than any other diet. In my mind, it lost its effectiveness, its edge, as the team effort was lost, and was no better than any other individual programme that people follow.

I thought it was a shame that the coach did not take the oppurtunity to ask me questions and discuss in the group how we do things in Holland , and perhaps compare and learn from eachother. I decided to stay for the Introduction meeting for some of the new comers, and was gifted the introduction set as well. It was dry and at times confusing, and not very inviting. But I did get to hear about the CORE programme, which allows WWers to switch on a weekly basis between the POINTS and the CORE programme.

My general conclusion: If I had lived in Ireland, and went to WW meetings, I would never have lost the weight that I have now. And it makes me realise how important the team effort is to me.

As such a very poignant and disappointing difference

However, today I am back to my normal routine again without much trouble, eventhough I did not take in enough water AGAIN!I really have to work on that. As I did not weigh yesterday, I will have to find out next week how much I lost in these last two weeks. My adjusted aim, is to have not gained or lost any weight. And after that?

Well, I have bought a new dress! Too small again, but one that I wish to wear for christmas, and BY GUM! I will. It is 2 sizes too small and I look forward to wearing it then.

Breakfast
6,0 points
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2,0 p - 2 rye bread
0,5 p - 10 gr. linera
2,0 p - 4 slices sasage
0,0 p - strawberries
1,5 p - optimel
1 water

Lunch
4,5 points
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4,5 p - Yoghurt and fruit
0,0 p - 0,5 l. cola light

Diner
16,0 points
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4,0 p - 6 french bread
6,0 p - 30 gr. garlic butter
4,5 p - 150 gr. veal
0,0 p - lettuce tomato and cucumber
0,0 p - mushrooms
1,5 p - olive oil
0,0 p - 1 cola light
1 water

Various
3,0 points
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2,0 p - 10 cashews
1,0 p - chewing gum
2 water

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Day maximum: 29,5 points
4 water (11:00 AM), 3 vegetable, 2 fruit, 2 fat, 2 calcium
1. Total bonuspoints used/saved: 28,0/0,0
2. Bonuspoints needed/saved: 1,5/0,0
3. Exercise total: 1132 minutes/- (volgende spacer 1220 minutes)

***SUMMARY: NOT ENOUGH water; Points needed 1,5; Extra excercise: -***