So far, so good

I'm about 5 days I to my No-WW life, and so far I like what I'm doing! I signed up for My Fitness Pal, a free online calorie and activity tracker. The premise isn't all that different from Weight Watchers - you write down what you eat and add in what you exercise and try to stay under the daily goal.

But there are a few things I like better.

First of all, the barcode scanning tool on MFP is 100x better than the one on WW. You know - the thing where you use your phone to scan the barcode on a package of food. With the WW app, I never got a result 9 out of 10 times. Seriously! I was beginning to wonder why I even tried! With MFP, there has only been 1 or 2 times in the past week where it hasn't worked, and those were really obscure or generic brand foods. I love it!

The best thing that I like so far, though, is this message I get at the end of the day:

I would LOVE to weigh 202.5 lbs in 5 weeks! I find this message at the end of the day to be a total motivator. It's like "keep this up, and see what could happen!"

I've been sneaking on to the scale here and there this week, and I do see that things are moving in the right direction. I am waiting until Saturday to do my "official" weight, though!

There are things I don't like though.

There's no place to "check off" my number of fruits and vegetables each day - something I got used to with WW. I liked to see that number go up and up and up.

Along those same lines, it bums me out that my fruits and veges aren't "free" anymore! Not that I think I stayed this weight for so long because I was eating too many apples & bananas, but I do find myself thinking twice before grabbing a banana at breakfast or an apple with lunch, just so I don't have to count the calories. I know that's not healthy eating, so I need to figure out how to navigate counting fruits and vegetables. (Vegetables aren't really a problem. Their calorie count is so low that it doesn't really put me over the mark for the day like fruits do).

The last change that I'm not used to yet is the WW idea of the "flex points" - those extra points/calories for the week that you can use all at once on a splurge day or throughout the week. They aren't built into the My Fitness Pal plan, so I'm not sure how to navigate days that I go over. Should I try to keep exactly to my calorie goal? Or can I go over now and then?

I've also slacked on exercise this week, which I am sure isn't helping. But I had sick kids. What can I say? That takes a lot out of you!

The best thing about mixing it up?  I have been tracking every little thing! The differences between WW and MFP are *just enough* to keep me interested and motivated. I hope the motivation shows up on the scale!