Big step, small accomplishment

OK, so this past week I have been trying to figure out how to actually live on 22 points a week without going crazy or going ballistic. For those who missed last post, I joined Weight Watchers this past week. I found out that by going online and tracking everything there it is much much easier to record your food. It still is a megga pain to type things in and try to figure out exactly what it was that I had and how much of it I actually ate. There is a section that lets me save different food choices so I can just drag and paste so that is helpful. The hardest part is making the food choices every day. I know, what's so hard about that...low cal and low fat and you're done right?? Not exactly. I'm a see it and want to eat it type of person so that means eliminating those things that I would most dearly love to eat from my line of vision. This past week on two different occasions the loving husband has brought home donuts for the kids. In one case it was a whole box of powdered sugar covered blueberry donut holes. What saved me was a box of Weight Watchers cakes that were of a much lesser point value so when my willpower was at the breaking point I just had one of those with a half cup of milk and crisis solved. We also eat out more often than we should so that has been a challenge. Salad bars can be both a blessing and a curse depending on what is available. There is only so much lettuce salad one can eat and I really hate it that Hy-Vee only puts real bacon bits out. I'm one of the very few who actually prefer the fake ones on my food. Even the much touted healthy Subway can be a problem. I don't know if I counted everything up right but one 6 inch sub had the potential to cost half my daily points. Thankfully I don't really like the higher calorie ones and I prefer no cheese on my sandwich but I do have to have my mayonnaise. Lets just say that I will not do too many 6 inch grilled chicken with mayo in the future. The other challenge I face is the whole correct serving size/portion control thing. To get the low point values not only do I have to eat that particular food but I can only eat so much of it. Even those foods with a 0 or 1 attached will cause weight gain if I overdo it. Do you know how small 2 or 3 ounces of meat is?? I'm getting used to dumping my cereal into a measuring cup and the same with my milk. I'm also a stress eater so during those times when I'm really stressed out I want to do chocolate or a Coke. I'm glad I had made the resolution to drink more tea and less soda before I decided to do the Weight Watchers thing. I did buy the Coke but it is still in the fridge and I have driven past Casey's all this past week with no stopping in for a pop or donut. I even did McDonald's drive thru (for the kids) and did not get a Coke. Next week Thursday I have another belt test so I have been putting more hours in practicing so that has helped. I'm still wanting to increase my activity level since I have a ton of physical fitness stuff to do for the black belt test this summer. Last night after we got home from a practice session we decided that it would be fun to go to the church spaghetti supper so we loaded up the kids and told them we were going to eat at the church. We got there and the parking lot was full. Just as we were getting ready to get out of the car we both had the same thought---isn't there a 5:30 Mass on Saturday night? We checked the announcement and the cell phone calender and figured out that the supper was the night before--OOPS! Needless to say that with three hungry children we did not go to church. We went to Pizza Ranch instead. If there was a challenge to me then that was it. I actually did better that I thought I would. I did do a large plate of salad with the fat-free dressing and I had iced tea instead of Coke. One can not do Pizza Ranch without having pizza so I had one slice of Canadian Bacon and pineapple to satisfy me. I avoided the yummy fried chicken, ranch fries, homade potato chips and onion rings (great reluctance here) but did take a small helping of mashed potatoes--I love those. Pizza Ranch is also known for cactus bread (a dessert pizza) and that is on my don't want to give up lists so I had a piece. All in all I ate much less than I usually would have and did not do as much greasy deep fried as I wanted to but I did not go away hungry. Of course I did go over points but only by 1.5. I guess if I hadn't eaten that apple for an afternoon snack I would have made it. OK, it was that piece of cactus bread that did it but I chose to eat it knowing how much it was going to "cost". For those who might be wondering if I lost any weight last week. The answer...yes, 3.4 pounds. Not a lot but better than nothing.