So, we have weekly challenges, and this one appeals. My entire life is based around routine – be that the alarm going off and having a few minutes to wake up, to getting out of the house by a certain time to catch the train, to making sure I’m on a good train home to have as much quality time as possible out of work. I pretty much know where I need to be and when, and we’ve kind of got our food routines sorted out too.

The key to this challenge is to make sure anyone starting out on Weight Watchers knows to think ahead, have some element of routine in your life and then to show how I do it and any challenges faced when eating out. I’m very much a creature of the do-it-and-see-what-happens kind; for example, I’ve been out and grabbed the first food I could  (finding out later on that it covered an entire days allowance was quite a shocker), though have also planned ahead and knowing we’ll be at a certain place and working out what I’d fancy from the menu (when they put them online) that’s a low(er) calorie option (hello Pizza Express).

If I was at work, then my daily routine would be something like this :

6.30 wake up
7.30 on the train to work, get to my final station by 7.53. If it’s good weather walk to the office which is at least a mile (and log the activity)
8.10 at work, eating my toast for breakfast (7-8 points), try to get up from my desk as much as possible through the morning (and usually fail)
11.00 mid-morning snack – usually a WW packet of crisps followed by a banana (2 points)
12.30 Sandwich time which is always a Sainsbury’s Be Good To Yourself Egg and Cress sandwich (7 points)
13.00 lunch time. If the weather is okay, then it’s a walk down the hill (and it’s an evil hill) and back again which takes around 15-20 minutes, which of course is logged as an activity
13.30 lunch time over, back to work
14.00 Vegetable sushi afternoon snack (4 points)
16.30 finish work for the day. Run for the bus (logged activity) and run when I’m off the bus to catch the….
16.38 train – if I’m really lucky I get this one though I have two others I can get close behind
17.00 nearly home
17.25 pick H up from nursery, walking from bus stop (or walking from station if there’s no bus due within five minutes – I have a handy phone app to check) (log activity)
17.30 home, start preparing food – or if I’ve been really organised some veg we’ve prepared from the night before for soup or a stew in the Soup Maker. While Basmati rice is quicker, wholegrain rice is less points but takes longer so I get that on the go as soon as I get in (as it takes around 25-30 minutes)
18.30 evening meal
20.00 H’s bedtime
the rest of the evening is ours! I generally don’t eat in the evening but might have a WeightWatchers chocolate biscuit if I really need something to eat (Shaun snacks on a ton of fruit instead and often does his Couch to 5k run at this point too).

I also log everything properly, though sometimes do it as I’m going along – it depends how busy I am in the day. I have 28 points to use in a day and very occasionally have a few left, but mostly use them up. I very rarely dip into my 49 points and have set the app to use my activity points first through the week (handy when I earn points after I’ve gone into the 49 points as it gives you them back!). I earn around 10 points extra a week which does need to be improved (pilates, swimming lessons with H, general walking, running for buses or trains). My hour-long pilates class earns me 5 points, the swimming lessons earned me 2 – though bear in mind they were H’s lessons so not proper swimming on my part so I know I could earn more.

So, what do I find helps me through the day? Generally having Weight Watchers foods to substitute (the crisps are good and always in stock at Poundland so don’t break the bank and I don’t feel like I’m missing out). Fruit is easy to eat through the day with minimal preparation beforehand and comes in at 0 points. I eat normal bread, though choose Sainsbury’s Be Good To Yourself sandwiches as my main lunch (and they’re only £1.05 so I don’t find myself wanting to do the Meal Deal). I don’t actually need any more food as I’m full after lunch, though eat a little bit extra if I’m going to pilates in the evening as don’t like to eat my evening meal before I go.

I’ve found that having done Weight Watchers for this long I’m eating my usual foods once more, substituting bread products for WW-own ones (bagels, wraps, naan breads) apart from my breadmaker bread, and just controlling my portion size.

So really, this seems to be what works for me. Also, as I’m one of those people who likes to work with numbers, don’t be deceived by something being 1 point – put in 10 of them and you’ll find out the decimal place of what you’re eating – it might be 1.4 points, so have three and you jump up a point in total to 4.2 (rather than assuming you’re having 3 points-worth). Handy hint there if you’re aiming to eat within your limits!

I’ve been provided with six months of Weight Watchers membership, all opinions are my own