Last week we talked about how Weight Watchers points can quietly become the goal. This week I want to show you why counting anything, points, calories, or carbs, will never be enough on its own. And I am going to start with my own blood work.
A few years ago, my blood sugar numbers started coming back high. I could not understand it, because I was eating healthy. Whole foods. Everything the experts said to do. I had already cut out most of the dessert foods years before. I had even started eating oatmeal every day, because that is what healthy people do. And still my blood sugar spiked morning after morning. One night, after what I was sure had been a good day of eating, I tested it, and it was through the roof.
Here is what those good days actually looked like. Lentils. Sweet potatoes. Beets, carrots, tomatoes. Bananas, grapes, and mangoes by the bowlful. All whole foods. All things I had been told were free.
And I have to work harder than most. Diabetes runs deep in my family, so my body has less room for error than somebody else’s might. Carbs are my kryptonite. Yet no tracker I used ever flagged a single one of those meals, because by every count that mattered, I was having a perfect day.
Now, if you have never done a program that counts your food, here is the shorthand. Most weight loss apps have you count something. Weight Watchers counts what they call points. Every food gets a number. You get a daily budget. Stay under the number, and you had a good day. Simple enough. And Weight Watchers has a list of more than 350 foods that count as zero. No weighing, no measuring, no limit. In their own words, they do not provide portion suggestions for these foods. Bananas, grapes, corn, beans, lentils, all zero. All yours, in any amount, and the app will never say a word.
Zero points does not mean zero carbs. Zero on the app does not mean zero in your body. A cup of lentils carries about 40 grams of carbs. A cup of corn, about 27. A large banana, 27 more. These are wonderful, God-made foods, every single one. And a woman can eat these free foods all day, quietly stack up more than 150 grams of carbs the app never counted, spike her blood sugar meal after meal, and go to bed proud of her perfect day. She is not doing anything wrong. She is doing exactly what the word “free” taught her.
The app cannot tell corn on the cob from two chocolate chip cookies. A cup of corn has about 27 grams of carbs, and two average cookies have about 22. The corn has more sugar than the cookies. And yet the app charges you points for the cookies and gives you the corn for free. Your body reads them almost the same, and your body is the one keeping the record that shows up in your blood work.
So here is your challenge this week. Take the foods you eat by the bowlful because you think they are safe, and look up their actual carbs. Write the real numbers next to them. Not to be afraid of food. To finally know it. It took me until my own numbers scared me to do this, and it is one of the reasons the last two years have looked so different for me.
And one more thing, said with love: if your blood sugar concerns you, that is a conversation for your doctor, and it is worth having this month, not someday.
Zero points on a weight loss app or program is not zero in your bloodstream. A perfect day on paper is not the same as a good day for your body. Your body counts what the app cannot see.
Learning what food actually does in your body, and getting honest about why you reach for it, is exactly the work we do at Weight Loss God’s Way. That deep work starts in the Breakthrough Method, our foundational course, where every Champion begins.
You cannot heal what you cannot see.
Not sure how to invite God into your weight loss journey? Start with our free assessment. In a few minutes you will see where you are, what stage you are in, and what to do next.
Cathy
Weight Loss God’s Way
P.S. Still not a quit-Weight-Watchers campaign. I keep pointing at Weight Watchers because so many of the women I love are on it, and because it is the clearest example of a good tool doing something good tools cannot do, which is heal the reason we reach for food. Keep the lentils. Keep the program if it helps you. Just know what your food is doing in your body, because no tracker will tell you.
