I just signed up for Weight Watchers. It will be my second time using their app to track my daily points. It worked last time—and then, as with most things, I grew bored of it and stopped doing it. This is not a character trait I recommend, by the way. It certainly would have been nice if I hadn’t been so clueless as to not realize that the monthly charge was automatically renewing for 8 months after I had given up and gone back to melting cheese on everything. But alas, I am keenly aware that it is a blessing to have the means to waste $23 a month without even realizing it until your husband finally hounds you enough about a monthly charge that appears to be utterly disconnected from your cheese and potato chip habits.
I lost ten pounds in less than two months on Weight Watchers and apparently, gaining it all back was the nudge I needed to get back on the weight loss bandwagon. I spent almost a whole year being quite proud of myself for only gaining back two pounds. Then 4 pounds. Then 6 pounds. But now that I have officially put all the pounds back into the pooch, I am struck by a rare (for me) and powerful sense of motivation to do something about it. For me, that something is Weight Watchers because it’s affordable, I know it works, and I can do it on my phone.
Now, many of you know that I am a loud and relentless champion of school choice. I realize some find it annoying while others find it inspiring. Putting all that aside for the moment, my recent weight gain is definitely due, in part, to where my youngest attends school. In years past, my husband had been tasked with getting him to school. But this year, for the first time, I am the one who drives him 9 miles into a different zip code so that he can attend 5th grade at the diverse-by-design charter school that we chose for him starting in kindergarten. He was in our zip code for K-4, about 6 miles away, but middle school means a different building just a bit further away. And obviously, if I’m already out on the road by 7:30 in a place that has a Dunkin’ Donuts on every block, I’m going to get a coffee while I’m out. And therein lies a major problem that I didn’t discover until a fellow basketball mom enlightened me over the weekend.
I have been getting a large hot latte with whole milk, no sugar—what used to be a rare treat had become, with my new driving schedule, a much more frequent part of my diet. Little did I know that this $3.69 of self pampering is almost half the points Weight Watchers allots me for an entire day. Would you believe that one large latte with whole milk is 10 points? Ok, you smart people probably already know that but I had convinced myself that the whole “no sugar” thing basically meant that I was drinking celery juice.
Now don’t get me wrong. My morning coffee habit wasn’t the only problem. I am the mom to three active growing boys who eat non-stop—and like any good mother, I fill the house with lots of junk food. But once I taste just one of those sour cream and onion potato chips, I’m a goner.
So, if you need me, I will be cooking chicken breasts, lots of veggies, and so many eggs…if you hear a loud happy scream, it will be me celebrating that I got into a pair of non-stretchy jeans. Wait, do I even own those anymore?
I will be saving my lattes for those special times when I meet awesome people—in person— for coffee. And all that drive-thru latte money I’ll now be saving? That is going to pay for the monthly Weight Watchers membership so it’s a win win.
Oprah would be so proud of me. Now, anybody want to meet for coffee? Just make it sure it is before my new bed time of 7pm, designed to keep me away from the kitchen and out of the chips bags once my 23 daily points are all gone.