8 Healthy Guidelines

Zazu did an self-evaluation the other day of how she is dealing with Weight Watchers 8 Healthy Guidelines. I think this is a great idea and, at the risk of displaying all of my faults, decided to give it a whirl.

• 5 Servings of Veggies and Fruits per day - I usually have 1 serving in the morning and add veggies to meals all of the time. This has never been a big issue. I don't count many veggies except peas and stuff I know has pts. If I don't know, it's free.
• Choose whole-grain foods - We've always eaten whole wheat bread and I've switched to brown rice and whole-grain cereals. I've also boughten and eaten some whole-wheat pasta, but am just starting in on pasta-season, so will get more into this in the coming weeks. Generally I've jumped on this wagon.
• 2 servings of milk products per day - I don't care much for milk so I substitute LF soy drink and yogurt. I try to have 1C in the morning, I put whole milk in my coffee, and I try to remember to have 1C for supper unless I've had cheese during the day. Usually I get it in, but it's always an effort.
• Healthy Oil - I have actually taken to using oil-based salad dressings as my sauce in lunches. Paul Newman has some great suggestions. This is the one area I don't worry about points - I count them, but will choose high-fat options if I like the taste. It's something that's worth spending 2 pts/day on to me.
• Adequate protein. I usually get enough. This was a new thing to me because I was always so cheap at the grocery. Knowing I need protein and evaluating the cost in pts vs money has really modified some priorities.
• Limit added sugar and alcohol. Sometimes I still struggle with the sugar. I have switched to sweetner and try to satisfy a sweet craving with something like frozen pineapples or strawberries mic'd for a bit with a packet of splenda. I love baked goods, whip cream and chocolate. I try - let's leave it at that. With alcohol, I really don't drink a lot. 4 glasses of wine or beers per week tends to be my limit - not because of the points. Quite often one bottle of beer on Friday night is all I really want. I will very rarely have 3 drinks in 1 day. I just like knowing that I can, if I want to spend 3 pts on it and slow down my progress a bit.
• Drink 6 glasses of water per day. Sometimes I don't have a problem with this and sometimes I do. If I have my bottle, no problem. Lately I've been slacking and would like to get this back up to 8Cs per day
• Multi-vitamin daily. Very rarely, even though I keep a little bottle of Centrum in my desk. But now that I'm typing this I think I'll go downstairs, get a cup of water and take a multi-vitamin.