What I Learned This Week #12

I'm just going to get the most expensive thing I learned this week over with first. A word of advice: when throwing away your worn-out purse, you MIGHT want to check all the zippered pockets, because one of them could contain a perfectly good iPod. Which you haven't used in a while, but still weren't ready to throw out. And the garbage truck might come before you get back home.

Sigh. At least I didn't get a ticket as I sped home to try to beat the truck to my house.

The rest of what I learned this week has to do with my first week following the Weight Watchers plan. As I said in an earlier post, I found out I was in fact eating too much--at least, if I wanted to lose weight. I've been hungry quite a bit. Not all the time, but hungrier than I used to get. Apparently I used to snack a lot. Yes, I often ate fruit and low-fat cheese and all that, and I actually like raw veggies, but those weren't my first snack options--I love crackers and pretzels and yes, chips--anything crunchy and salty. Now I have to choose whether I want a few crackers or a cup of broccoli (zero points!) and I'm going for the more filling options. Those 100-calorie bags of popcorn are great.

An unexpected effect has been that food tastes better to me now that I'm not eating so much of it. Knowing that this is all I'm getting makes it more delicious. I'm not craving sugar like I was. I stayed within my limits every day and used some of the extra points for a tea party given for my brother and his fiancee. The sweets were delicious and worth it. But the next day at church, there was a graduation reception with cake and other food, and I didn't indulge.

Besides taking off the extra pounds that found their way onto my thighs during the winter, I think this is good for me to develop my self-discipline. It's so easy to say yes to all the tempting things that aren't so good for us in the long run. By planning ahead and deciding which treats are really worth it to me, I think I'm doing a good thing for myself.

For more learning experiences, check out the What I Learned This Week carnival at Musings of a Housewife.