my body is a mystery

Even after my disaster of a week, I lost weight. Less than a pound, but still. Weight Watchers, you mystify me sometimes.

cruising for a bruising

This has not been the most successful Weight Watchers week of my life. I ate way the hell too many cookies while watching Project Runway on Wednesday (oh, Petit Ecolier! Why must you tempt me so!), got a little over-excited at Otto on Thursday, followed a prosciutto, goat cheese, and fig jam panini at Paninoteca with a flight of whoopie pies from One Girl Cookies on Friday, and indulged in churros and chocolate and linguine con seppia on Saturday. I've been over my points since last night, which I've never done before. I just want to go home and sleep and I have no motivation to do anything I'm supposed to up to and including eating well. I imagine I'll gain when I weigh in tomorrow and frankly, a wakeup call would probably be a good thing.

service-oriented

A lot of people seem to find this blog by searching for variants to two questions: "how many points in Weight Watchers is a gingerbread latte?" and "Can I eat Chipotle on Weight Watchers?" The answers: a tall nonfat gingerbread latte with whipped cream (because fuck if I'm giving that up) is five points and not really, no.

good news/bad news

Good news: Pretty much all my skirts and pants are too big!

Bad news: This means that I don't really have any skirts or pants.

Good news: This gives me a perfect excuse to go shopping!

Bad news: I'm broke.

Good news: Seriously, these H&M jeans I purchased right before starting Weight Watchers almost fell back off me when I tried to put them on.

Bad news: I never once wore them and now the return period is over.

ha HA!

According to the booklet I got at tonight's meeting, dancing vigorously for 15 minutes will net me TWO activity points. Crank up the Mariah Carey, y'all. All I want for Christmas? It's you.

cannell-love-you

I'm currently working on a freelance assignment for an Italian foods company. When I took the assignment, my contact said she'd send over some samples. Guys, I came home today to find a giant box filled with no less than ten bags of pasta, five jars of different kinds of tomato sauce, a jar of roasted red peppers, a can of cannellini beans, one of chickpeas, one of artichoke hearts, and two bottles of extra virgin olive oil. I am set for non-perishable groceries for life, y'all. Or at least until Christmas. I made my favorite recipe with some of the whole-wheat shells tonight and it was as awesome as you might suspect. Later this week, I'd like to do something with more of the whole wheat pasta and maybe the cannellini beans? I'm obsessed with cannellini beans and want to eat them on everything all the time. I'm thinking maybe whole-wheat penne with cannellini beans and arugula pesto. It will be, I think, a very good accompaniment to the season premiere of Project Runway.

things that taste better than being thin feels: part two

•Pissaladiere

•Brownie sundaes

•Duck yakitori with yuzu-flavored salt

•Barbecue potato chips

•Bacon-wrapped hot dogs

•Sangria

siiiiigh

So, yesterday was an unusually exhausting day for me and I just plain forgot to post. Although I guess this means that I'm no longer an official NaBloPoMo participant (sad!), I'm still going to try to post every day for the rest of the month. Tomorrow, I'll have lots to say, but today? Today, dude, I'm padding over to my best friend's house and spending the day watching The Wire on DVD. Yessssss.

hell to the yes

The Gingerbread Latte is back at Starbucks. I don't care that Starbucks is lame. I don't care that frouffy coffee drinks are for pussies. I don't even care that a tall skim Gingerbread Latte is five points. It's the most wonderful time of the year, guys, and I feel great.

a love affair continues

My boyfriend who is, for the record, a fully grown adult, is worse than many children about eating vegetables. I'm on a neverending quest to show him that veggies can be delicious, so is it any wonder that I'm resurrecting my new favorite recipe for him tonight?

I'll take any excuse, guys.

tuesday yay!

Just came back from weigh in! 15 pounds down since starting the program! Is it maybe a little sad how happy I was to receive my five pound star sticker today? Yes. Yes, it is. But whatevs! I feel excellent.

words that are, apparently, banned in posts on the weight watchers message boards

•Shit

•Damn

•Crap

i wonder...

So, just, you know, hypothetically? How many activity points could I earn for dancing around my room to Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You"? Like, several times in a row?

a partial list of things that taste better than being thin feels

•Linguine carbonara

•Freshly made chocolate chip cookies

•Fried calamari

•Pizza from DiFara's

•Anything from Momofuku

•Burritos

•Cider donuts

•Soup dumplings

•A pot of Earl Grey accompanied by scones with clotted cream and jam

•An Alsatian apple & cream tart

•Cream puffs

breaking up with chipotle

The lack of banned foods is by far my favorite thing about Weight Watchers. I like knowing that I can eat whatever I want, so long as it's in moderation. My pre-WW eating wasn't, per se, unhealthy (as I discovered when I plugged my recipes into Recipe Builder, most are only 4-7 points per serving...the issue was that I was downing four servings at a time), so I haven't really much changed what I eat, just how much. The one exception? Chipotle.

Guys, I love Chipotle. Not-so-secretly, I want a burrito with rice, black beans, carnitas, fresh tomato salsa, cheese, and guacamole every day. That burrito? 28 points. My daily points target? 22 points. Could I eat half the burrito? No. I have no control over Chipotle, and anyways, burritos are subpar as leftovers. What about a burrito bol? Still 21 points. This is possibly doable, since when I have a Chipotle burrito for lunch, I don't need another meal until breakfast the next morning.

I've broken things off with Chipotle for as long as I can possibly stand it, but if an insane craving comes (and I'm sure it will), I'll probably still get a burrito and eat real real light for the rest of the week. Oh, Chipotle. Why must you tempt me so?

Also, if I'm home in Boston, I'll say fuck it to points targets for a super steak burrito from Anna's Taqueria. I once read an Andre Leon Talley piece in Vogue where he quoted Oprah as saying "Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels." That's bullshit. An Anna's burrito tastes at least twice as good as being thin feels.

all i want for autumn is squash

I love carbs and I love starch. If I ever went on Atkins, I would be the crankiest bitch of all time. Since joining Weight Watchers, I've learned to minimize my starch intake, but I'm not going to lie, most of my meals involve pasta or rice or potatoes. Last night, I made the starchiest/best recipe of, perhaps, all time. I completely think that the whole Jessica Seinfeld Deceptively Delicious thing is bullshit, but after trying this pasta with squash, goat cheese, and bacon, I understand how she gets away with stuffing mac and cheese with butternut squash. The recipe tastes like some of the best, creamiest mac and cheese you've ever had with a bonus kick of sweetness from the squash and awesomeness from the bacon. I got it from Serious Eats which found it in Real Simple. I used rotini (Barilla Plus, if you care) instead of linguine and a little more chicken stock and garlic than the recipe called for. I am seriously counting down the days until I can make this again. It's 9 points, 8 if you dial down the bacon a little or use whole wheat pasta. Seriously. Make it tonight. You will not regret it.