Wednesday, March 29, 2017

#1846 WW Wednesday - is it worth it?

The topic at the last Weight Watchers meeting is near and dear to my heart. On the cover of the weekly mini-magazine we get was a picture of a cookie with the words "Is it worth it?"

For the purpose of the WW discussion, we were talking about whether a food was worth the points we would have to "spend" to have it. If you don't know, in WW every food has a Smart Points (SP) value that is based on the grams of protein and carbs and sugar and stuff like that. We have a daily SP amount that must be consumed and then there are extra points for use throughout the week (or all at once or not at all) if you exceed the daily amount. It's all based on science and research they say. Anyway, all the SP and weekly points makes WW kind of like a food math situation. I am a planner, so I plan meals for the week and then each night I will plan what I'll have for my meals the next day and pre-track those meals in my WW app. Yes, it's a lot of work, but for me the alternative is over-eating and all the bad things that go along with that activity. Experience has taught me that when I take the time to plan and track, I am more successful with the program.

All that being said, it's important for me to know if a food fits into my plan and if I am willing to spend the points on it.

Monday I talked about going to Trader Joe's for a specific food and then not buying the food I went in to get. Here's the story:

On Sunday I made butter chicken. It is an Indian dish that I found while browsing Pinterest. I like some Indian food. I like the spices. I've made butter chicken before and thought it was very good, so I decided to try it again. The butter chicken sauce is really good. I thought it would be fun to buy naan, a typical Indian bread. I love bread in all of its many forms. I knew that naan was sold at Trader Joes and that is what I went to get on Monday.

Each package had five or six pieces of naan in it. I grabbed the package and gently squeezed it. So soft, so delicious looking! I pulled out my phone, opened the WW app and scanned the barcode to see the SP value. 7 Smart Points per piece of naan, 7! My daily SP budget is 30. I had planned out my meals and I had a few left and I could get into my weekly points, but I had to decide if having a package of 7 SP naan in the
house was a good idea. I put the package in my cart and took a couple of steps, then went back and put the package back on the shelf. Maybe I could have had one piece of naan, or even half a piece, but I didn't want to have all the rest of it in the cupboard and I decided that not only was the cost for half a piece of naan not worth it, but the points weren't worth it either.

I had the butter chicken with some rice and it was completely delicious. I didn't miss the bread. Much.

Are you wondering why I made the butter chicken on Sunday and didn't have it until Monday? We had a late lunch on Sunday and we weren't hungry Sunday night. The butter chicken was extra delicious for having sat in the fridge overnight so all the flavors could really come together.

I'm not always so thoughtful about my food, God knows. I slip up plenty and eat mindlessly at times. I don't always plan ahead. I'm not a robot. I'm certainly not a Weight Watchers savant or I wouldn't still be struggling to lose weight. Maybe that's why when I do really think about what I'm eating and whether or not it's worth it, I feel like it's a little win.

No comments: