Daddy's Little Girl

It's no secret that for the better part of my life I have been a Daddy's Girl. Not only do we share so many of the same physical characteristics, we share a similar personality. I guess it should come as no surprise then that in my adult life, we are beginning to share many of the same hobbies. The thing that is funny to me is that for so long I have emulated what my dad does, starting with how he tied his shoes (yep, I tie my shoes as if I were a lefty!) all the way up to how he would send a thank you letter to a potential employer. My dad has taught me and shown me so many things in my life and now it seems that it is my turn to teach and show him.

Just like I didn't really want to own up to online dating, I'm not sure I'm ready to own up to having joined WeightWatchers. I guess blogging about it is one way to tell the world! I mentioned last week that I joined WeightWatchers...it's true! And I've been telling my dad all about the process and how it works. He is in the market to lose quite a bit of weight, and this seems like a program that would really fit him and his current lifestyle.
Although it's been a whopping 14 days since I joined WW, I've already found things that I really like about the program and I thought I would share them here, just like I shared them with my dad last night.

1. They never make you feel bad! You get an allotted number of points per day, plus bonus points that you can distribute through the week, plus if you add exercise, you get those points too. I'd have to eat 24 cupcakes to go through all those points!

2. You learn about what foods are "good" for you and what foods to avoid. And not only that, but you have to document when you eat the bad foods. It makes eating 3 slices of pizza and no salad a lot less appealing when you know you are going to have to go back to WW and document those 3 slices of pizza...and then see that you can eat celery for the rest of the day. After lunch last week I showed my dad how many WW points his lunch would have been, and the thing was, he knew he wasn't making awesome dietary choices, but there was no evidence of that (other than his slowly expanding waistline).

3. You can add commonly-eaten foods to your WW online ahead of time, so when it comes time to log something, you don't skip it because you don't have the nutrition stats. I spent 30 minutes today adding about 6 Willy's menu items to my WW queue. Guess what? None of them were under 10 points. Cool. But I also dug through the contents of my freezer and added all my pre-packaged items - frozen Amy's pizzas, Trader Joe's tortillas, and ice cream sandwiches. Now I hardly even have to think when I enter these items in. It makes for such easy tracking!

The most important thing for me has been to stay motivated, and I've done that by telling my dad about it. For the last week he's asked me how it's going, and then told me all the things he ate that day and how many points he thinks they were. It's interesting - my dad often eats fast food for breakfast and McDonald's recently started offering an oatmeal option. Turns out that oatmeal option is 7 points, and an Egg McMuffin is 8. Not such a healthy alternative afterall. Who knows - maybe it keeps you full longer, I'm not sure, but it definitely puts things into perspective!

All I know is I want to see this smiling face for another 30 years, and getting healthy is the only way for that to happen. I am so proud of my dad, so excited to share every little detail of my life with him as I grow up, and I know he is so proud of me and looks forward to hearing about everything I do.

If you are interested in eating healthier and/or losing weight, I definitely encourage joining WW!