That is my now-famous-around-here beet hummus. Regular hummus is so last season. Unless it’s Zahav’s hummus, which is forever. I’ve got the recipe for you. But first I have to tell you something about those two ounces of beet hummus and accompanying whole wheat pita. I know something about it now that I never knew before.
That combo is worth 2 Weight Watchers points. Along with the apple I had, my lunch was 4 points. Why do I know this? I signed up. I mean, it was partially Jennifer Hudson. And it was partially that the bastards brainwashed me while I was sick and laid out on the couch for weeks watching the new Cooking Channel on which they’ve bought up all the advertising. But mostly it was a fellow food writer and blogger whose lost some significant weight all while eating real food.
I’m hardly a convert. Today was just my second day. And I’m doing the online version, not the going-to-meetings version, where I was once subjected to an hour long discussion about the relative merits of various brands of string cheese. And, of course, I’m not going to quit eating actual whole foods prepared from scratch. I’m just going to give it a whirl, see if it helps me get my weight to a place that’s more comfortable for me.
After at least a year of struggling to accept my body and let go of the scale, my weight has gone up and my self esteem has gone down. This equation, I know, is a problem. But I have come to a place where I have to admit–giving Weight Watchers a try is easier than watching my weight creep up while I feel worse and worse about myself. This is probably a terrible mistake, but it’s where I am right now.
On a positive note, based on my two days experience, the plan is really crazy sensible. For example, today I had:
1 fried egg on 1 slice of wheat toast with coffee, half-and-half and sugar, just like normal.
2 ounces of beet hummus (which I made with somewhat less oil and tahini than I might have otherwise), 1 toasted whole wheat pita (which I probably would have brushed with olive oil otherwise), and 1 apple.
Dinner was 3 ounces of fish with 4 ounces of a vegetable and lentil salad. The crazy thing about this was it was a recipe I’m testing for work, and the only thing I changed to make it work out points-wise was I ate more salad and less fish and I used slightly less dressing. Dessert? 8 ounce of watermelon. Oh, and I had a glass of white wine as well–only 2 points.
So, as you can see, it’s hardly a starvation diet. Though the Weight Watchers website is heavily geared to processed foods, they make it very easy to simply enter the recipes for your home cooked food, especially if you have a digital food scale. The only issues I can imagine sticking to this program involve restaurants, but I have 35 points built into each week to accommodate a weekly restaurant splurge.
Some of you may be wondering why I’m not posting this on What I Weigh Today. It’s all part of trying to bring my cyber selves under one roof. I’m adding a Weight Watchers category, which I’ll use to denote posts on the subject and recipes for which I’ve worked out the points, starting with this one.
Beet “Hummus”
Serving size: 2 ounces; WW points: 2
12 ounces beets (about 5 small)
1 tablespoon, plus 1 teaspoon olive oil, divided
2 garlic cloves
3 tablespoons tahini
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1. Scrub your beets, drizzle with 1 teaspoon of olive oil, wrap in foil, and bake for about 1 hour or until tender. Let cool until cool enough to handle and peel.
2. Place the garlic in the food processor and pulse until minced. Add the beets, the tahini, the lemon juice and the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil. Process until smooth. Season to taste with salt. Serve with toasted pita.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, that looks good! I looove beets–just discovered that they roast perfectly in the slow cooker. No need to heat up the kitchen, always a good thing. Now I’ll have to pick some up just for hummus.
Good luck with WW. It really does work (said the fellow food writer you linked to in your post).
Good luck! As I’ve said to you before, I’ve found it pretty easy to combine WW with a love of food and a healthy, non-processed lifestyle, particularly if you’re skipping the meetings, where things get more dicey. It’s just a simplified way to get you to watch your portions and be aware of what you’re consuming. I hope you have a good experience with it.
I’ve found the online WW program to be user-friendly enough, and I agree with you that it is so much better than listening to 45 minutes of “If you want crunch with your sandwich, sub celery sticks for chips!” However, I have found it unbelievably easy to skip tracking my points for, like, weeks at a time. I also find that the activity points don’t really balance out with the food tracker sometimes and that is kind of annoying.
I find it helpful to refer to WW as “Wonder Woman” instead of “Weight Watchers.” I visualize a day when I look awesome in a star spangled bustier and high-waisted briefs.
Debbie: I saw the slow cooker technique on you blog. Pretty neat, though the slow cooker is like the one kitchen appliance I don’t have.
Missy: I can see now that you don’t have to eat boxed/convenience foods to make the plan work–though I am still wondering how I will calculate restaurant points. They don’t even have “gelato” or an option for non-fast-food tacos in the data base. If you have tips for calculate points in restaurants, I want to hear them!
Meg: I love thinking of WW as standing for Wonder Woman, though I chose to think of her more as a highly efficient and successful superhero than a babe who looks good in her underwear
I’m finding out myself that the road to body acceptance has unexpectedly come paved with a little weight loss, a direct result of desiring to physically feel better. Feeling healthy does wonders for my body image when my head’s in the right place.
Good luck with WonderWomaning. I’ve seen it work great for some people… but then I remember the dark ages of WW, the meetings I attended as a child with my mom in the 80s. *shudder* But I know it’s changed. And kudos to you for doing the math!
Yeah the restaurant situation is killer. I always add a point or two to whatever I’ve estimated to make up for whatever butter or oil they’ve undoubtedly added in. I tend to do restaurant dishes in the recipe builder and guess at the ingredients involved. It’s definitely not an exact science. At least I’ve gotten to the point now, 1.5 years in, where I’m good at eyeballing how many oz of meat, etc., I’m having?
Good for you for continuing to explore healthy ways to feel good and educate yourself. I was raised by a post-WW mom and have always known about healthy, well-rounded meals. It’s a shocker to see how much people don’t know about that. (Ignore the fact that both my sister and I are varying degrees of overweight – we KNOW what is healthy, at least.)
Also, doing points assignment on your recipes is likely to be very popular with the interwebs. I don’t think that’s your primary motivator, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing, either.