How strict?
 

I am just curious as to how strictly everyone is following their plan? Do you allow yourself cheat days? Just trying to figure out how to make this work for me!

I am pretty strict, but WW makes it easy to stay on plan and easy to have a day to splurge if you have to. I know that I am more likely to have higher point days right after my weigh in day, just because I have more days to burn it off.

For me, I have to have a PLAN that works. If I need a "cheat" day, it's not working. I'm losing weight slowly (maybe 1/2 lb. a week) but I don't feel at all deprived and if I have a craving, then I eat what I'm craving (just a smaller portion if it's something really calorie-dense). I didn't track my calories on Christmas Day and New Year's Day, and that's it since I started back.

I count calories and try as best as I can to stick to my daily limit. There are the odd days that I'll eat over, but I wouldn't consider it a cheat day, it's usually less than 100 calories. If I need a treat, I make sure that it'll still fit into my daily allowance.

This is my 3rd time doing WW and my 6th day so far! I am tracking any splurges I may have. I am just curious as to how others are working their plan. Wednesday night I ate out Mexican and I still came in right at my points!

At the Mexican restaurant? Oh geez well because I am so big I have 46 points and most days I have a hard time getting there. I am usually at 36ish. Since this is a weekly tradition (my friends and I go to play trivia) I saved my points during the day to make sure I had enough to use that night. I had chicken fajita nachos.

I did a lot of searching for nutritional information of mexican restaurants on the internet before hand. Fond the restaurant that had nutritional info and the same menu item. That was the only way I could do it. I am very tempted to call the restaurant and ask for nutritional information!

It really is!!! My plan for next week is to order the cheese sauce on the side, order a half order instead of the whole order and have an order of shredded lettuce. I think I will be better able to control how much I eat that way!

I do the same if I can't find the exact item.

It definitely sucks but well worth it!!! lol. I need to start looking around STL for good mexican food, there isn't a decent one here where I live! :(

As for OP's original questions- sometimes I would have a "relaxed" weekend using my WP along with DP, having a little extra here and there, never really using more than half of the WP. But if I have something coming up like a dinner or a party, I save it up for that day and track as best/closely as I can. I prefer to plan it to feel more in control but it doesn't always work out that way. :) Fajita chicken nachos sounds really good, BTW!

They are so amazing! I can completely devour the full order but need to start ordering just a half order!

Today is my second day on plan.. and I went through my 48 points today plus a few weekly points...I splurged on a homemade mini pizza.. In all truthfullness... i had a few tbsps of frosting-PLEASE DONT SHOOT ME!! I SWEAR I WONT DO IT AGAIN!! INLESS ITS ON A CUPCAKE!! I dont know..we had vanilla frosting that i bought for this diet soda cupcake recipe.. and it was 2 points for 2 tbsps...so i had... a couple...meaning...5 servings...UGH its bad..so bad.. I havent done that since i was 16 when i used to eat frosting with my finger out of the can.. But this is honestly what its about..its about being honest with yourself and maybe even with others..because it was hard for me to write that..but if i keep it a secret Im sure im more prone to do it again or feel guilty and cheat the system... so in total my day went like this:

Breakfast: 1/2 cup 2 percent cottage cheese
w/ 1 medium bannana and 1/2 cup of fresh peach = 5pts

Lunch: ZIP...

Afternoon snack: Frosting..yes..4 servings = 10 points eeekkk!!!
(Should have eaten lunch)

Afternoon snack #2: 3-2 ingredient banana chocolate oatmeal cookies =6pts

Afternoon snack # 3- Diet coke and 1 bag of Krispy Minis Ricecakes 8 points

Late Dinner: 1 gluten free individual size pizza crust-10 points for the whole pizza crust w/ 2tbs of BBQ-2 pts plus -1/4 cup of raw onion-0 plus 1/3 cup of skim milk mozzarellla-2pts

Total points consumed in the day: 43 Points.

HEY! Wait a sec!!! i could have squeezed a little more cheese on that pizza...im not even up to 48 points yet!!! Oh well...

Point is: Splurging is a 14 point pizza and 10 points of krispy minis(which didnt taste as good as they used to) and Frosting..yes i said that..

So do you need to have a cheat day if your allowance allows for all you want??? No..not really.. I dont see a need to cheat..If i go through all 48 points plus 48 weekly points.. i will let ya know :)

I love your honesty! I had a reese egg ! Only one but it's 5 points!

I don't really see it as "cheating" to use the weekly points. That's kind of what they are there for. If I end up using some of them, so be it.

I don't go crazy anymore where I would eat a whole box of cookies or bags of candy - that stuff doesn't really make it into the house anymore. And I don't want to live that way anymore.

I want this to be a lifestyle shift for me, so no food is off limits as long I have the points for it. So I have been finding ways to add chocolate into my day as needed/desired (usually a chocolate almond cluster from Sprouts bulk bin - you can just buy one!) or a Ghirardelli square. For me, it's the difference between eating one or two versus 10 or 20!

I usually don't have "cheat days." Like others here, I'll have splurge days, but I track them. I've lost 65 lbs. this way. Occasionally I'll take a break for holidays and not count. I also do trivia every week at a bar with my boyfriend and his mom. So that's usually my splurge day. This system really works for me, and if I cheat it, the only person I'm gonna hurt is me. :) I also don't restrict the food I can have. If I want something, I work it out to have the points to eat it. Like lindalee said, just not a whole bag or box of what I have a taste for.

I think it is important to think about you mean by "cheat" day. Some people consider it a cheat day if you eat weekly points or if you have a piece of chocolate or eat out. With WW I don't consider any of that cheating since those are things that are allowed on the program.

Cheating - to me - is doing something that is against the rules. So, if I was following a program where I could eat 50 carbs a day and I decided to have a day where I would eat carbs and not count them - then that is cheating.

The other thing is whose rules are you looking at to determine if you are cheating.

If WW - then cheating would be doing something against the WW program. I get 26 points a day plus 49 weekly points. So if I have eaten all 49 weekly points and then eat 30 points the next day that could be seen as cheating. I've certainly done that but I don't plan to do it. It would be counterproductive to regularly plan to do it.

The other type of cheating is where you aren't following your own rules. Again, I think that is counterproductive to plan to do that.

I am not someone though who finds it helpful to have rules that are too rigid. I have certain foods I avoid eating on a regular basis (refined carbs, for example) but in a given situation I will eat some of them. I don't consider it cheating because I fit it into my overall eating plan.

I have splurge days, so those are days when I will plan to eat my weekly points. I try to keep it to one day a week, I may be eat all my wps (i do not plan to go over my wps) but it depends on the situations. Then I will stay within my dps for the rest of the week. With Easter I have spilt my wps between 2 days becuase of 2 family dinners. In a few wks we are going away for the weekend and eating out 3 or 4 times,I will try to make healthier choices but may not be ale to stay within my wps. I am not to worried about it becuase the rest of the week I will make sure I stay to my dps, plus we do not go away very often so I will treat myself. (that is the way I will live after reaching goal so that is how I also want to live now. )

So set your own realistic guideline and stick to them, wws is about flexibility and making it fit to your life, so figure out what works for you and plan to eat that way.

The bolded part is exactly what I do. I track everything and if I am craving something that I know isn't the best for me, I work it into my points. Sometimes it takes me a day or so to make sure I can fit it into my points, but I always make it work.

I also try not to use the weekly points. If I do, its not a big deal, but I do try to keep to my daily points allowance without going over.

I've never gone over my weekly points so I don't see eating anything within that framework as cheating.

But I do make sure that the high calorie things I'm eating have some nutritional value and are awesome.

I buy dark chocolate at the grocery store with all my other foods. Then when I'm really low on points for a day at bedtime or just bored with my usual snacks I go and break a piece off. I'd never want to spend the points on junk because it's not satisfying. Peanut butter is another good snack like this.

Also, I don't eat wheat or gluten so many of the typical cheat foods just don't speak to me. Once I stop eating something I start to lose interest in it unless it's something special (challah bread french toast!).

Strict strict strict - oh god, I even tracked Easter and it's wasn't pretty, but I kept myself accountable and did it.

I track every BLT every day, even it is way over points. It's how I learn to adapt the plan to my life. And don't forget, it's not just staying within your points, it's also getting in the GHGs and movement every day.

I tracked for Easter..and i was lucky if i made it to my DP's...however.. yesterday i dug into my weekly points for the first time..only 5 though...However my scale said i was up 3 pounds since the last time i weighed..Im guessing it must be a water weight thing...i have been eating salty things lately..craving for salty over sweet.

Ok so at the beginning I followed it stricly, ate only my points daily and then ate half my weekly 49 points on the weekend. Was losing pretty good (1.5-2 lb weekly). Now I've gotten lax and go over my points daily (by at least 2-5) and lax on the weekend, but surprisingly I'm still losing weight! Just not as quickly of course (maybe 1-2 lb biweekly).

Which actually makes me happy because I feel I'm almost in maintenance mode right now which is completely doable in my life and I never ever feel deprived. I'm going to tighten up my points again though because I still have 30 lb to lose!