I’d like to thank Oprah, Weight Watchers and Jesus for the new Freestyle Plan.   I am totally digging it!  I can’t wait to share the Weight Watchers Freestyle Free Foods List I’m going to love to enjoy. But first, let me share some 40-something context.

If you didn’t know, earlier this year, Weight Watchers updated it’s program and it’s totally for the better, if you ask me!

Let me do a quick rundown how Weight Watchers works: foods are assigned points values. Weight Watchers determines how many points you can eat based on your age, weight, goals, etc.  The “so called” “bad” Food is worth more points.  I say “so called” because nothing is really all that bad.  You just have to eat it in moderation, right? The healthier food options have lower points. Those with zero points are the ones that propel you toward your weight loss goals. Nothing on this list will surprise you. Examples are the lower fat, low sugar, whole foods like veggies, fruits, ice cubes and air pockets. No, the last two are not new product brand names, just me being facetious. Anyway, I think Weight Watchers wants to “get inside my head” with the point system. Assigning low point values to the foods your mom forced you to eat as a kid sort of coerces you into eating more of them because they are low or zero points.

Back to the program.

As you go about your day, you eat, track and accumulate points to your benefit or chagrin. The goal is to stay within your allotted number of points. In the previous program, I exceeded my points daily and even shot through the grace points for the week. Truthfully, most of the time, the old plan wasn’t working for me.

Freestyle Set me Free!

The new program is the dawn of a new day.

The latest adaptation of the program is called Freestyle. It has made my life so much easier already!!! First of all, they’ve added a gazillion more zero point foods.  The foods aren’t just veggies and fruits, but things I actually love like chicken breast, shrimp and even eggs!  Since I’ve started Freestyle, I find I’m never bankrupting my points. In fact, I have extra points left over. I can carry these beauties over to the next day!  You couldn’t do that on the old plan.

It also means if I flub my entire day (with “bad” food choices), I can still have a healthy, zero point meal that evening and be OK.

Yesterday was a perfect example. I had an hour and a half to kill. So, I called up my girlfriend, Lisa because she lives and works nearby. We landed at Houlihan’s.  I couldn’t even refer to my blog post about Houlihan’s because I hadn’t updated it yet.

After perusing the menu, I decided I wanted apple pie minus the ice cream.  Earlier that day I had a zero point breakfast (boiled eggs)  and a zero point lunch (salad and chicken breast). In my mind, that impromptu “girls’ night wouldn’t have been complete without dessert, so I felt free (get the pun) to indulge in a little pie with my buddy. She did the same. So fun!

Yeah, the pie consumed most of my daily allotment of points. I think it would have been like 57 points with the ice cream. I get 23 in a day.  I didn’t eat the ice cream, so I’d say it was likely a good 30 points.  All in all, it was fine because I had the points available. Later that night, I was a little hungry.  So, salad to the rescue again! I had one with a 2 point protein drink.   I felt guilt-free and in complete control of my journey. Winning!

I know. I know. I can’t have pie for dinner every day – nor do I want to. Catch my point: I wanted that special treat and, thanks to the program, I was able to enjoy it.  Everyone should be allowed a cheat meal from time to time, and mine for the week was apple pie from Houlihan’s.

Gimme Room…

Any lifestyle plan I embrace must be simple, flexible and offer me lots of options.  I’m a classic foodie and I enjoy eating. I enjoy tasting and exploring different textures and various styles of food.  Relishing meals is important to me. I’m so a foodie! Are you a foodie too?

Anyhoo, my goal is to make great food choices 80 percent of the time.  If I do, I should be empowered to have a few luxuries 20 percent. That’s reasonable, right? It’s not too much to ask, is it? Well, Freestyle says “no”, it’s not irrational, it’s blissfully doable.

All those folks who completely eliminate bad foods make my eye twitch. I used to be that way – no cookies, no cake, and no pie. Life became a dull, monochromatic gray. Hey, I’d rather be a happy size 14 than lose all my weight only to be a skinny, mean, deprived little person. I’m usually my smallest when life isn’t good. When life is, I’m about a size 10 to 12. Kelly Clarkson is right! Did you read her interview expressing similar sentiments?

Yeah, happy trumps skinny any day.

With that said all, things in moderation – but not total, extreme elimination.

Thanks, Freestyle for letting me moderate. I love you to the moon and back.

Here are some of the new zero-point Freestyle foods I’m going to really enjoy:

Applesauce (unsweetened)

Beans (adzuki, black, board (fava), butter, cannelloni, cranberry (Roman), green, garbanzo (chickpeas), great northern, kidney, lima, lupine, mung, navy, pink, small, white, refried (fat-free), snap, soy, string, wax

Chicken breast, ground (99% fat-free)

Chicken breast or tenderloin, skinless, boneless or with bone,

Egg whites

Eggs, (whole, including yolks)

Figs,

Fish, anchovies, arctic, char, bluefish, branzino (sea bass), butterfish, carp, catfish, cod, drum, eel, flounder, gefilte, fish (store-brought) grouper, haddock, halibut, herring, mackerel, mahi-mahi (dolphinfish), monkfish, orange roughy, perch, pike, Pollack, pompano, rainbow trout, rockfish, roe, sablefish, rockfish, roe, salmon (all varieties), salmon, smoked (lox), sardines, sea bass, smelt, snapper, sole, striped bass, striped mullet, sturgeon (smoke too), white sucker, sunfish (pumpkin seed), swordfish, tilapia, tilefish, tuna (all varieties), turbot, whitefish, whiting

Fruit cocktail

Yogurt, plain (nonfat, unsweetened)

Yogurt, Greek (plain, nonfat, unsweetened)

Yogurt, soy, plan

Note: Kelly Clarkson Explains How Her Weight Is a Sign of Her Happiness
http://www.eonline.com/news/894033/kelly-clarkson-explains-how-her-weight-is-a-sign-of-her-happiness 

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