The Inconvenience of Core

I have been thinking for a while now about the old Weight Watchers Core Program (focus on filling foods) - it would have to be my all time favourite WW system and I am still pining over it's loss - silly I know, but I just found it sooooooo easy compared to other systems. There was nothing convenient about Core, but I realised today, that the inconvenience of Core was the reason that it worked for me.

With Core, there were no quick fixes. Meals had to be planned and prepared. Menus had to be planned and prepared so I could pick up the best ingredients on shopping day. Even the 21 weekly points (for treats, bare in mind, I consider avocado a treat, especially when covered in Mexican food) had to be planned. I could still have my Jelly Surprise once in a while and still lose weight.

At the end of my Jelly Surprise post I asked this question : "Do I have to decide? Jelly Surprise or my dream outfit? OR can I have both???????????" Well on Core I could have both! *I haven't actually had the Jelly Surprise for months. My husband misses it*

The bottom line for me is that HEALTHY / GOOD FOODS NEEDS TO BE PREPARED - THEY ARE INCONVENIENT!!!! Quick easy meals are usually full of rubbish, which equals rubbish meals, for example, a carrot takes roughly a minute to peel and cut up whereas it just takes seconds to grab a biscuit and eat it. All of this convenience equals weight gain!!

Now, I know that the 1 minute that it takes to prepare my carrot isn't really a long time, but who wants to eat a carrot on it's own?? So I make a dip - usually with WW cottage cheese and either some oil / fat free dressing or some taco seasoning or taco sauce - just a little something to add a bit more flavour to the cottage cheese, then I decide that I don't just want carrot, so celery and / or fresh mushrooms are added as well. Now, as I am preparing all of this, the kids sit there and eat it, which is good because I am so glad that the little ones eat these things so I am not going to stop them, but then I have to make 4 serves instead of just 1 serve.

My 1 minute carrot has turned into a good 20 minute preparation, screaming and crying session because someone's carrot is cut up too small or too big - "I want big carrot", "I don't want cheese", I want little carrots", "I want those white things (mushrooms), but smaller", "I want more carrot", "this is yuk" At this point I end up cleaning up spat out food cause I forgot that this child doesn't like this food, but the one I didn't give it to does like it. It's rather exhausting - convenience = easy = no clothes that fit me.

Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that my life HAS to be much more inconvenient. I am going to stick with what worked the best for me in the past - I am going back to Core.