Flex Points?

I abused and used all of my flex points over the weekend.  But I just realized that there is a good way to use those flex points and a bad way to use those flex points (are they still called Flex points?  - just looked it up, it's now called Points Plus Allowance)  PPA from here on out!  There are 49 weekly PPA that you can use in any way you like.  You can use them all in one day, you can spread them out all week, you can divide them up per day if you'd like.  Well, I chose to use all of mine on Saturday night and Sunday morning.  As it is I get a very generous amount of daily points.  So much that I have found that I am unable to use all of my points in one day, which is a BIG NO NO.  But I've been filling up on Salad (because I LOVE it!) and very small portions of food (I need to learn small portions, over eating is a big one for me)  I find that I'm usually about 10 points short for the day.  So how can I actually use my PPA for the week when I can't even finish my points for the day?  I do know that it won't always work out that way.  I'm new in the program and am being very careful of what I eat.  I know there will come a time where I will wish I had more points and more PPA to use, this past Saturday night and Sunday morning are very good examples of that!  I'm rambling, but there is a point to all of this.

So Saturday night, we met up with some former students of my husbands EMT (Emergency Medical Training) class and they wanted to eat dinner at Famous Dave's.  Saturday was SUCH a busy day that I had only had 10 points worth of food all day, by the time we got to dinner (I wasn't hungry throughout the day though, only when I got to Famous Dave's that night)  So I looked up my meal points in my Restaurant Guide & I had plenty of points left in my daily, plus a few PPA that I wouldn't even use all of my PPA.  I had been eating so small all week that I got so full, so fast that I was uncomfortable.  I will remember that next time!

Then yesterday morning (Sunday) we met my family (Brother, mom, Grandfather) at Cheesecake Factory for Brunch in Annapolis to say goodbye to my little brother who leaves for bootcamp the next day (Monday, which is today, he's on a plane now, headed to SC)  I decided to have my favorite dish, spicy Chicken Thai Pasta, the lunch size and avocado rolls to share with everyone as an appetizer.  Unfortunately Cheesecake Factory is NOT in my restaurant guide, I should have looked up the nutritional values on the internet for CCF before I left home, I would have chosen MUCH differently.  So I did not eat again until around 6:30, because I was still stuffed from brunch.  We ate at my sister in law's house at a party.  I started out with a few small pieces of fruit & cauliflower (Free, no points!) then had a hotdog (and then ate Evan's since he didn't finish his - WHY did I do that???????!!!!) and then had a small piece of cake.

I go to figure out all of my points from CCF and dinner last night and I can't calculate my points from CCF because they only list the calories and sodium of the meals online.  How frustrating.  So I don't know just how over and beyond I blew my daily points, plus my PPA.

Now I know that there's a good way and a bad way to use your PPA's.  Blow them on healthier food, not bad food.  It does make a difference.

Even though WW says to eat all of your points in your day and even though they say that daily points can't/don't/won't carry over from day to day, I am just hoping that my extra points that I didn't eat all week long will save me from this horrible weekend of eating.  Even though I counted out my points from Saturday and used PPA, I'm sure I exceeded my daily 45 points.  I will work very hard this week to make up for that.  I ended up choosing to use my points on serious junk, which had a lot of sodium in it and I'm realizing now that it's not really okay to use PPA for those types of things.  I didn't really think about it that way before.  In my head, a calorie is a calorie is a calorie.  But you can choose better calories and still be satisfied.

I hope this post made sense.  It was a learning experience for me.  I tend to bounce all over the place and ramble.  But I have all the tools I need to make better choices.  I made better choices all last week and I let the thought of using Daily Points and using PPA to eat things I wanted, but I realize now that not all points are created equal!