Pimp my points!

Nineteen weeks into this adventure, I think I've become a point pimp. Inside my head is a virtual point calculator and I'm constantly tabulating the values of all sorts of foods for myself and for friends who are dieting but just don't understand how to do it without starving! I think each person on WW has a list of great low-point treats that will satisfy the naughty urge. Here's mine.

Sweet

Skinny Cow Ice Lollies - 1.5 pts

Pink'n'Whites - .5 pts each

Miles of Mallow - 1.5 pts

Tesco Chocolate Chip Cereal Bars - 1.5pts

Curly Wurly - 2.5 pts

Cadburys Fudge - 2 pts

Savoury

Walkers Baked Crisps - 1.5pts

Potato Heads - 1.5pts

Walkers French Fries - 2pts

Quavers - 2pts

Most people I meet find it impossible to believe that you can have this sort of stuff and still lose weight...what they forget is that you can have a little bit of this stuff as (hopefully) you're keeping your diet in check with other low-fat and low-cal options. I've even had people tell me that they don't understand why they can't lose weight because all they eat is...and when I point up their diet, I soon understand why.

A great example of this is a friend who feels she is constantly starving yet continues to gain. Her diet involves:

no breakfast (bad move)

a mid-morning baguette with sausage, eggs and bacon (at least 15 points)

scampi chips and peas for lunch (at least 15 points if not more)

for dinner two slices of bread and butter (4.5pts) followed by at least a bottle of wine (8pts or so).

Of course she's starving as she's:

a) not spreading her food throughout the day

b) a fair chunk of her calories feature saturated fat

c) nearly 1/4 of her calories are coming from booze

At the moment, thanks to folks like Jamie Oliver, the government is earmarking cash to be spent by local education authorities on nutritional learning for children. Let's hope this education scheme works as thanks to fear induced by the media children aren't moving as much as possible to burn calories and busy work schedules encourage parents to become part of high cal/high fat ready meal culture.