Planning is Everything

So after two whole days on WW, I've come to realize (for the umpteenth time) that planning is everything. Sadly, a new computer program to enter what I've already eaten will not do much for me at all. It's using the program to plan ahead before I eat that will make the difference.  And it's planning that is all the work, especially as I go back to work.  I love my job, but it sure does take a chunk out of my day!

So day one was a day out of time due to jet lag. I went wild for fresh fruits and vegetables, wasn't able to be awake in the evening hours that are my downfall, and so used my last couple daily points to eat some chocolate and went to bed feeling the allowances were generous and a piece of cake. Monday did include an Italian dinner cooked by my girl who attended L'Academie de la Cuisine while I was gone. All fresh ingredients, sounded like a good idea. But then I realized the salad she was making was bread salad, and the shrimp scampi had five tablespoons of butter in it!  It was terrific, but I was tired and barely awake, and had munched on fruit and cucumbers all during the cooking, so portion control was not a problem for me. And luckily there were no leftovers.

Yesterday, a bonus day off from work, we spontaneously decided to have lunch at Ikea.  Salmon, I thought. But the meatball lunch was only $2.99!  How could I pass that up? With potatoes, of course. When I sat down in the afternoon to calculate points, I realized I had already gone over all my daily points, used my sole activity point, and dipped into my weekly extra allowance.  For a while I contemplated no dinner, but the rest of the family wanted to be fed, so I coped. First, the afternoon was again full of fruits, totally free on the program. Then, I cooked baked salmon, using basil leaves and a squeeze of lemon instead of slathering in pesto as I would ordinarily do. I cooked zucchini, onion and tomato in sprayed olive oil for zero points. I didn't make a starch, instead offering the good Italian bread from the day before to the rest of the family.  Worked for me, only six points for the salmon and nothing for everything else. Not a disaster, but an early lesson in planning ahead. Had I not calculated after lunch, I would have had a lot more for dinner.

So my complaints: I've done a lot of on-line tracking, starting with WW back in the last decade and then going mobile on my Treo with a different database, upgrading to at least three different ones on the iphone, and now back to WW, with iphone app.  The WW database is small compared to others I've used. The name brand database so far has not coincided with the brands I use.  The fast food database doesn't include the restaurants I frequent for lunch (Cosi and Quiznos and Panera). So far, I haven't been impressed with the way you add foods to use recurrently to the database. When I entered my Muesli cereal, for example, it only allowed entering one "portion" for the values. The portion on the box is 2/3 of a cup, but I want to eat only half a cup. I can do that to add to the tracker, but if I come back to this food after a while, I'm going to have to figure out all over again what a "portion" is and adjust for how much I actually eat.  Also, I found a way to add permanent foods on the iPad app, but haven't found it on the computer version!  How weird is that?

They have blogs and message boards so I'll have to find where the geeks talk about the way the interface works.  The iPhone app is only rated 2 stars out of 5 on average, with which I would concur.

More later. Work awaits. Breakfast is ready, and lunch is packed.  Starting out right.