‘I Just Finished My First Month Of Weight Watchers—Here’s What It Was Like’

During week two, I learned that I can’t lie—even to a point-counting app. I was going to put an extra handful of cereal in my yogurt and not tell Weight Watchers, but I realized that if I cheat when I’m keeping track, I’m just cheating myself. 

Well into my second week, I kind of got the hang of how to track things properly, but it was tedious. If you log in to tally your breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack for a month, that’s 120 eating occasions when you have to put every single item into the search bar. And with each meal potentially having five items—for example, a breakfast of a cup of coffee, two tablespoons of creamer, two hard-boiled eggs, one piece of toast, two tablespoons of peanut butter—well, you do the math. It could be about 600 items to tabulate. 

Related: ‘How Many Eggs Is it Really Safe to Eat Per Week?’

There’s also the measuring. I couldn’t just eyeball things. When I thought I was eating “just a little spoonful of peanut butter,” I was actually eating about five tablespoons, which is the same amount of points (15) as three strips of bacon. 

I faced the same issue when I tried to make myself a balanced dinner at home, like chicken, roasted cauliflower and asparagus, and a salad. I’d add those items to my daily calorie log, but then had to add the ingredients I’d used to get there. The marinade for the chicken, the olive oil for the roasting, and the dressing for the salad. My thumbs are tired just thinking about it

Because I dreaded record-keeping, I kept my meals simple and tended to eat the same things quite often because I knew what they were worth.

When I was faced with an unknown, like snacks at a neighbor’s party, I almost wanted to rummage through their fridge to see if they had hard-boiled eggs. Because those, I know, are two points. Instead, I opted for basics, like all the veggies I could eat (without any of the dip) and a handful of almonds. I was dying to try the hot ham and cheese sliders, but just not this month. 

By mid-month, after what I considered a lot of sacrifice, I’d only lost two pounds.