1. Eat anything you want. Yes, you can have cheeseburgers for breakfast and donuts for lunch and dinner but it’s not recommended. Weight Watchers is based on the points system and those burgers and donuts will burn through your daily point total allowance in about three minutes. For a man my size (5″10′, 35 years old) I have a daily points allowance of 24 points. You can use these points any way you want. Once you hit 24 points during that day, you stop eating. If that’s too challenging for you, rest easy they thought of that. You also get 35 weekly points to use on any days that you go over your daily point total. Family barbeque where you struggle to discipline your eating? Not a problem. Have a couple beers (lite beers are only two points) or some chips and take those from your weekly reserve.
2. Attend the weekly meetings. This is where you either a) strut your stuff in front of the crowd and get applause or cheers or b) put your tail between your legs and recognize that other normal people like you are having success with this thing – it can’t be that difficult. During my last meeting I announced that I had crossed the ten-pound-loss threshold and the crowd applaused for me. Granted I feel like Brad Pitt compared to some of these poor souls, but it still boosts your ego to get that applause. The major points of the 30-minute meeting are announcing new promotions to keep you motivated, hearing stories or anecdotes from the instructor, hearing other members announce their success, hearing other members mention tips and ideas and seeing other folks like you wanting to better their lives.
3. Find some zero point foods and eat them. For me, this has been pretty easy. Nearly all vegetables are zero points and most fruits are one or two points. I make it a habit to have the recommended four to five servings of fruits and vegetables. Plus, there is something psychological about the brain thinking it is eating when in reality the body is consuming zero-point foods that have no affect on weight. The brain is trained to see food, activate the salivary glands, move the arms and hands to bring the food to the mouth, chew the food and digest it. This psychological motion is identical whether consuming a slice of chocolate cake or a bowl of grape tomatoes and carrots. My success has been in “tricking” my mind into thinking it is still getting that chocolate cake when in reality it is getting plenty of healthy veggies.
4. Exercise. Being an avid jogger, I used to be of this mindset. “Hey I just ran four miles, I can have two bowls of ice cream and a Snickers bar.” Um – WRONG! For a person of my size, running four miles is the equivalent of five points. That Snickers alone is six points! The ice cream is probably another ten points. You can see why it’s just easier to eat less than pig out after exercising. Exercise does a couple things for your body, none of which including letting you pig out. First, it slowly changes your metabolism over time. Eventually you could eat a Snickers and it would have no effect on your weight. Ever. That may take months or years of intense physical activity. Second, it gives you leeway on your daily point totals. Days that I allowed myself a little snack after dinner were also days that I jogged in the morning. Before bedtime I realized I still had four points left for day and realized that it was from the early-morning jogging.
5. Learn the hunger scale. A large part of my problem was binging when I was starved. Weight Watchers has a hunger scale similar to this:
   1. Totally full
   2. Ate a little too much
   3. Pleasantly satisfied
   4. Will be hungry soon
   5. Completely famished

   The idea was to always keep yourself around three or four. For me, that meant eating every two to three hours. Yes, it meant snacking at my desk throughout the day, but it prevents those level-five famished fire alarms for me where I could eat a row of Oreos (and have before).

6. Stay away from red-light foods. A red-light food is one that you know you won’t stop when you eat just one. For me this includes pizza, cookies, cereal, some bread products and chocolate. Eventually I will have the discipline to eat these types of foods, but for now I am staying away from them like an alcoholic stays away from bars.
7. Develop a plan for red-light situations. Red-light situations are the same concept as above, but limited to places instead of foods. For me, red-light situations include family picnics and barbeques, employer-purchased meals (“Hey, work is paying for it. I can eat as much as I want!”), and anywhere where I had a couple drinks and thus lowered my judgment and critical thinking. I make a mental plan before leaving the house. I fill up on water, zero-point foods and a game plan for how to stay away from the pizza table or the beer cooler.

The list above is just one man’s observations on how to have success with Weight Watchers. Your success will vary, but hopefully it will be as plentiful as my success has been.

Finally, here are some quotes I heard at one of our meetings that stood out:

• Nothing will ever taste as good thin feels.
• All that matters are the first couple bites. Beyond that it all tastes the same.
• If I am going to eat it, make sure it is worth it. Crappy chocolate is not worth it.

Good luck in your healthy living endeavors.

First, a bit about my health. I am a semi-avid jogger and I still weigh the same as I did when I was 18 years old. I’m 35 now, but I’d like to be more trim and lose 15 – 20 lbs. When I stick to it I have enormous success with weight watchers but I have not been as diligent with it lately. For those familiar with the Weight Watchers system I would estimate a typical attendee could easily consume 100 – 150 points per day at this conference. A Weight Watchers devotee typical consumes 20 – 25 points per day.

My problem was that I ate way more than I normally would have eaten. The first meal of the day was a Bob-Evans-style breakfast of eggs, bacon, waffles, muffins, etc. Lunch was basically the same as what you’d expect from a dinner entree: chicken casseroles, Mexican, Italian…you name it and it was there. Dinner was as bad as lunch except they tacked on rich high-calorie cakes, pies and desserts to it. Plus, I neglected to mention the two snack breaks around 10am and 3pm. Now, if you were to indulge yourself at just one of these meals or snack times you could still recover to your normal eating routine. But gorging meal after meal after meal…I mean come on! Maybe I’m not a typical American eater but could anyone possibly eat a Bob-Evans 2,000 calorie breakfast every single day? And lunch? And dinner?

Back to the title of this post: why do we gorge ourselves when the food is free? I’m going to list my personal reasons as well as some others.

• this is a rare opportunity. I must eat as much as I can before the chance escapes me.
• this food is way better than my normal daily routine. Pigging out once won’t kill me.
• think of the money I’m saving. If I went out to eat for these meals, I’d have spent $300 per week!
• hey this conference is paid for…I better get my money’s worth.
• could it be human instinct back to pre-historic times when man did not know where his next meal would come from so the need to splurge makes sense.
• my buddy/family member/colleague missed this meal so I’d better not let his share go to waste
• they’re going to pitch this uneaten food anyway so it better get eaten

The part that makes me feel most guilty is knowing that there is no way in Sam Hill I’d have eaten this much if I were at home for that meal (or that day or week for that matter). For me I have found that successful healthy eating habits come from training your mind into thinking this free meal at work, at a conference or at a friend or family member’s house needs to viewed the exact same way as a meal by yourself at home should be viewed. Eat in normal-sized portions with low-calorie, low fat healthy foods. No need for seconds and no need necessarily for sugary dessert. The times I’ve stuck to my diet or normal healthy eating habits are when I try to find a way to make my day’s meals nearly identical to my daily routine. For me personally this is usually:

1. a low-fat cereal with skim milk for breakfast
2. a low-fat bread and lunch meat sandwich, low-fat salty snack, some veggies and some fruit for lunch.
3. a square dinner of 4 – 6 ounces of meat, starch and veggies.
4. if my points or calories are under for the day then a small dessert is good.

I’ll say what many people all over have said. Weight Watchers works when you stick to the plan. The pounds simply melt away week by week.

If you receive unsatisfactory food or service at a restaurant do you?

a) Admit it’s not worth the effort to complain and ignore it
b) Mention it to the server casually
c) Mention it to the server, the manager and anyone else who can help

Most consumers have experienced poor service or bad food while going out to eat. Now, if you are paying someone else to cook, serve and clear your food shouldn’t it be worth your hard-earned money? If you receive poor service or the wrong or ill-cooked food, SPEAK UP! The following polite lines will most often get your bill reduced or your meal for free! Keep in mind that good restaurant managers view you and your party as a lifelong customers worth hundreds or thousands of dollars over the life of that restaurant! What’s one free meal going to cost them if they keep you as a customer who refers other customers.

1. “I’m sorry, but this baked chicken is not cooked like the description. I’m just not pleased with it. What can be done to rectify this situation?”
2. “We waited 35 minutes for our dinner and the order was messed up. IS there anything you or your manager can do?”
3. “I bring a lot of my business clients to your establishment here every month. We were not happy with X or Y today. What can be done to keep us coming back?”

My brother Mike went out on New Year’s Eve with his girlfriend and another couple. To save time he called ahead to ask the restaurant if they took reservations or call-ahead seating. He was told “no” but really wanted to go there, so they went anyway. After a two-and-a-half-hour wait to get seated, he later heard from a server that they do, in fact, take reservations. This was frustrating for the whole party to learn that they spent over two hours in the lobby of the restaurant when they could have been somewhere else (like at home) with a reservation. Mike politely told his story to the manager and the manager to decided to give them free drinks for the drinks they already consumed. Again: another great perk just by asking!

Let’s begin with a statistic taken from the U.S. Department of Agriculture:

“In 1994-95, 57 percent of Americans consumed meals and snacks away from home on any given day, accounting for about half of their daily calorie and fat intake on average.” This is “is 33 percent higher than in 1977-78.”

http://www.bcm.tmc.edu/cnrc/consumer/archives/mealtime.htm

The “What We Eat In America” survey is based on personal interviews nationwide. The 1994-96 study is USDA’s 10th national food survey since the 1930s. Over 15,000 Americans including low-income individuals, children and the elderly were asked to recall their food intake for two days. Now, the purpose of this section is NOT to lecture you on healthy eating versus unhealthy eating (although the odds increase dramatically for unhealthy eating when you go out to eat). The purpose of this section is to, once again, show you how you can give yourself a raise by reducing your eating costs.

Let’s look at three types of eaters:

Frugal eater: packs lunch every day; dinner and breakfast home; rarely goes out to eat

Occassional go-out-to-eater: packs lunch sometimes; goes out for dinner sometimes; Goes out to eat on weekends often

Spendy Eater: eats lunch out every day; dinner out 4-5 times per week; all weekend meals are eaten out

(Short commentary on the Spendy Eater: it is highly likely that this person is NOT a trim person. Also, it is highly likely that this person will tell you that he can’t pack a lunch for less than $4 – $5 per day so why waste his time packing one? )

For the purpose of this example I will eliminate the extremes and not analyze the “Frugal Eater” or the “Spendy Eater” (although I believe more and more Americans and becoming Spendy Eaters). Let’s look at a typical week and potential savings.

The Occassional Out-To-Eater

This person “brown bags” it for lunch at work 2-3 days a week and goes out the remaining days. He goes out to eat for dinner 3 times per week (or orders pizza delivery) and mostly eats breakfast at home. On weekends he eats a couple meals out.

Lunch: 3 days per week X $5 lunch = $15/week

Dinner: 3 days per week X $10 dinner = $30/week

Weekend meals out: Approximately $20 per weekend in meals out

These assumption are for the “average” Out-To-Eater.

Now, this person is spending $65 per week eating out or $279.50 per month eating out! That is a car payment for some people. To reduce these costs I’m not recommending eliminating eating out entirely. Rather, find ways to make it cheaper or reduce just some meals out. Possible suggestions:

• Buy an Entertainment book from someone local or from entertainment.com – the book costs around $30 and it includes $1000s in savings and coupons
• Use coupons for restaurants
• Cut one section IN HALF (reduce lunches out in half or dinners out in half)
• Get carry-out more often (thus eliminating tips, drinks, tax, etc)
• Cook more meals at home and pack your lunch more often

Now, some of these tips are common sense and some require discipline. But look at it another way – if this is you then you are spending $279.50 per month and you have nothing at all to show for it (except for maybe a bigger waist!)

If you still don’t have the discipline to reduce these costs, what if I told you I would give you a $140 per month RAISE if you could only find a way to cut these eating-out costs in half? Well, YOU CAN! You don’t need me to get that $140/month – just cut the $279/month in half and BINGO! … there’s your $140/month RAISE.

• Taking small steps at first Eric and Donna Reed first went a month without buying anything. This included drinking powdered milk, giving up fast-food french fries and wearing pants to work due to holes in Donna’s pantyhose
• They then took a leap to three months with no spending. This included mapping out in advance the number of bars of soap, rolls of tissue paper and loads of laundry detergent down to an exact science.
• During their annual buying spree, jokes from the cashier at the warehouse club included “do you own a restaurant?” and “do you own a cleaning service?”
• They did allow $10 per week for milk and fresh produce. Also gift cards were purchased for restaurants with the twofold purpose of limiting the spending at the restaurant and treating them to a fun evening now and then
• This frugal planning saved them approximately 50% in groceries. That would be equal to clipping thousands of coupons per year.
• They made exceptions for dry cleaning, medical prescriptions and car repairs.

This wasn’t easy for Eric and Donna, but they eventually compared themselves to their missionary friends in Asia who were told to bring four years of supplies for their trip. When compared to that couple the Reeds didn’t have it too bad with that level of required planning.

With some discipline, planning and flexibility the Reeds show that we needn’t live the hyper-consumption lifestyle to which so many are accustomed.