Schedule Craziness & Thoughts on Core

I'm finally getting caught up with my journals after the nuttiness of the last week. I've been unbelievably busy and just need to take a little time to unwind and regroup.

Today is the 24th day of my 30 day experiment with Core. Here are a few observations that I've made. Your mileage may vary.

HardCore
The first few weeks I was doing the program hardcore and trying to avoid using WPAs. I started to feel really good. I started to lose some of the bloating that I was getting in my feet and legs. Cravings went away and I didn't have an urge to snack all the time.

Using WPAs
Over the past several days, I've relaxed quite a bit and have been liberally using WPAs for non-Core items. The snacking urge is back in a major way. My feet and ankles have started to swell again. I discussed WPAs at the last meeting I attended with the leader. She's a substitute leader from another meeting. She's quite knowledgeable about the program and has been very successful in her own weight loss. She scolded me in the nicest possible way about not using the WPAs, saying that WW wouldn't have worked them into the program if they weren't beneficial. I have to disagree in some small way. I suspect the WPAs were added in to give the plan some extra flexibility not because of any specific health benefit. (Not that flexibility isn't a good thing!)

Planning
Planning is a big part of success on WW under the best of circumstances. My goal is to go into each day with a plan but to stay flexible so you can roll with whatever punches come my way. Obviously I do better some days than I do on others. I have found with Core that I have to double up on my planning efforts. I know part of it is working with a program that is new and learning to live within the guidelines.

My Overall Impression
I do think that the benefits of Core do outweigh the shortcomings. I feel good enough that I think I can deal with the inconvenience of the program constraints. Failure to plan is my own shortcoming and that is something that I really need to work on if I'm going to continue with the Core program. I do also need to spend some additional time researching available options so my meals aren't so freaking boring. I do think that the Core program is a good one... if you can work within the guidelines.