Feelings on Core

Well, we've been doing the Core plan for a week now, and before my weigh in, I thought I'd weigh in, so to speak...

Now, I track my food over at the Daily Plate and even though I'm on Core, I still measure what I eat, just so I know what it is that I'm eating. It's been useful for trending and they have a lot of nifty functions that tell me what I'm too lazy to math out for myself: salt, fiber, protein, etc.

On Core, my calorie count has been about the same as with Flex (I'm just not as hungry as I used to be, and honestly, that's a change I can live with) but my fat count is lower. Previously I've been edging as close to "recommended" as possible. My sodium has dropped remarkably in the last week - processed foods have a bucketload of salt in them. Fiber's eh. Bread's not a core food, and I've been tending to get most of my fiber from the Fiber One yogurts (also not core). What I am getting in comes mostly from vegetables and my afternoon bowl of Shredded Wheat.

Well, that's the specifics of what I've been doing, so the question is now: how do I feel about it?

Pretty good, but I don't think it'll last. This no-bread thing might get old really quick. (I know it's not no-bread, it's use points for bread, but as I'm a real dragon with my WPA, I feel sort of no-bready). That being said, I've spent a bunch of WPAs this week. 11, so far, which is - I think - the most I've spent since joining Weight Watchers.

The Good:

Because I don't have to worry so much if I have 'enough' points for dinner, I'm eating more earlier in the day, so I'm not hungry around 4pm or so. I've got these paranoia problems that even when I know exactly what we're having for dinner, I worry that I'll be hungry later in the day, so what I end up with is 6-9 points AFTER dinner that I end up snarfing 'junk food'. Ok, so it's not as bad as the junk food I might have eaten earlier, but still, 6 points of highly processed 100 cal packs, or fat free chocolates isn't... nutritious. This week, I have sometimes had one snack after dinner, but not always. I don't feel this compulsive need to eat points just to eat them, and that's helped a lot. Both me, and Thomas. (he's eating a LOT less than he was on Flex. I'm slightly worried about that, since his trending has shown that when he doesn't get all his points in, he gains weight...)

We went over to an easter/housewarming party this weekend. The couple who used to live above us bought a house and we went over to their party. The very first thing Jess said to me when I turned around the corner was "Ohmigod, Lynn!! You've lost so much weight!" and squealed and jumped around like a maniac. It was fun. And gratifying.

The Bad:

You can't allot in your day for a planned 'out to dinner' trip. I'd say at least 90% of what I might order in a restaurant is Non-Core... thus, I'd have to spend WPAs. We didn't test this theory. I cooked dinner every night this week, plus packed Thomas lunches, plus made breakfast and lunches for us weekend mornings.

I like to cook.

I don't like to cook THAT MUCH.

The Ugly:

Our grocery bill was massive high this week again. Nearly $200, and we had to go out a few times to pick up "ran outs", "forgots", and "oh my god, this fish is bad, replacements."