Point Worthy? *

[Starting my regular blipping again. Hopefully I don't bore everyone with the mundane fills my days.]

So Kim and I are on a diet. We've been indulging ourselves here in Portland for the best part of the year. Easily done I'm afraid. There is just too much good food, drink and interesting places to visit in this city and it's hard to say "No". But "No" is exactly what we have said and we are pretty happy about it. It's been tough but it's a lot easier when you can share it with your partner-in-crime and, together, we are actually enjoying the process.

The diet itself is very straight forward. We use the Weight Watcher's Points System, which is basically a simplified way to count calories. I have a daily allowance of 26 points and Kim has 23. I can eat whatever I want but it can't add up to more that 26 points.

How do you work out how many points a serving of food has? Well, some of it you just look up on the web. For example, a banana is two points and so is an egg yoke (the egg white is 0 points). Most white meat and fish are one point per ounce. If you know the number of calories, grams of fat and grams of fiber that an item has (which is usually displayed on the packaging) then there is a nifty Weight Watcher's slide-rule gizmo that calculates the point value.

Anyway, the net effect is that you eat less and so take in less calories than you burn. But I find that there are other curious effects too. First, you really treasure your points. You find yourself sizing up foods and portions and try to decide if they are "point worthy". How filling the food is? How tasty it is? Will it satisfy? These thoughts go through your mind all the time. You start to really value some foods over others. I find that I'm much more appreciative of fruits and vegetables. Candy and sugar are simply out. They are just not worth their points. Ultimately your goal is to make it through the day without being hungry, and it's very doable if you just eat the right things.

Another effect is that I enjoy my food a lot more than I did before. I savour each bite. I'm more into seasoning my food too and getting creative with ingredients. I'm more critical of the quality of food. The same goes for beer and wine. I also found that, after the first week, I don't need to eat as much food to fill up so the process has gotten a lot easier. I think blipping is harder than dieting. If you can blip, you can diet. Believe me!

* - 2 points for 5 ounces of wine.


P.S. I love the new thumbnail crop tool!