Weight Watchers and yogurt

I joined Weight Watchers online. I have been struggling to eat like my dietician instructed since breakfast, lunch and I are only minimally acquainted.  She told me to increase my food intake earlier in the day so I don't get ravenous by dinner time. So I said "ok" and started to eat a slice of toast and a couple of eggs every day. It got soooo old. Especially since I'm so lazy about lunch, getting sandwiches and fruit for the whelp but turning my nose up at the same for myself. I started to turn to canned soup to get something in my belly, but those efforts still left me starving by evening.

I finally decided to begin from the basics. Please, oh Great Weight Watchers where old ladies yammer on about points and brownies and guilt, tell me how to feed myself that I may have relatively even blood sugar, yea verily even blood sugar that will keep me in good temper and good health.

I figured online was a better way to go given that events like this with a strong social element tend to get very old for me. And I was stunned to find that I am terrible at feeding myself.

I mean, I knew I didn't feed myself. But this was stunning.

I decided from the outset to evenly distribute my points across the whole day, just like the nutritionist prescribed. That first morning I ate jicama, eggs, and toast and typed it into the program. It was only 6 points out of 49. Then I added an orange, a string cheese, and finally half of an avocado. I was stuffed and I moaned about what I was going to do about lunch.

Lunch was another orange, a burger without the bun, almonds and olives. Once again, I was full. Dinner was chili, almonds, and a slice of sugar free cake.

I wasn't hungry one single time all day long.

This trend has continued for the last two and a half weeks. The only time I've been hungry was the day Man and I ran errands and I forgot to eat lunch. I had no idea that learning how to eat appropriately didn't involve being hungry. I was hungry through all of high school and it made me thin. Is it a shock that, 4 babies and several bouts with depression later, I've got some extra weight?

Total weightloss so far is 3 pounds, which is appropriate for two weeks of measuring. I've stepped up gym time as well since I have so much gosh darned energy. I'm more patient with the kids now that my insulin resistance isn't ruling my moods as much. WW even reminds me to take my multi and drink bunches of water, and to include plenty of veggies and fruits and good oils in my diet. Who knew? I might even learn how to style my hair after this triumph of personal care.

Now on to yogurt.  This lady has a new recipe on her blog for homemade yogurt. I've looked through lots of resources that describe yogurt making machines and other horrifying measures to make what's essentially milk riddled with tons of bacteria. This new recipe involves nothing more fancy than a crockpot and a bit of your time, and it uses powdered milk. A lot of people who store powdered milk don't know what to do with the stuff besides bake with it. I've managed to expand my use into breakfast breads (eg pancakes and French toast), hot cocoa mix, and smoothies. This new application uses two quarts of reconstituted milk, plus more powder for extra milk solids (which is about a scant 3 cups of non-instant powder).

I started the yogurt last night so it could do its voodoo whilst I slept so I wouldn't peek at it every half an hour to make sure crazy things weren't happening in there. I thought about hitting snooze three times like normal but then remembered my shrouded crockpot in the kitchen. I ran on over and stabbed at the smooth white surface in my crockpot with a spoon and heavens to Betsy there was yogurt in there! It even tastes like yogurt! And I'm not sick yet from sampling it! It's now chilling in my fridge, a semi-solid quivering mass of milky-white pro-biotic goodness, just waiting for whatever the heck I'm going to do with two quarts of the stuff. I think it's going to have to be naan, and.... I dunno. I'll think of something.