Week 1, Day 6: First post

Twenty years ago I achieved lifetime member status in Weight Watchers. As of my first weigh-in twenty years later (Saturday, May 3), I'd gained back all that I'd lost plus an equal amount. I don't want to talk about how much that is.

My next door neighbor told me I'd have a blast if I went to her meeting with her on a Saturday morning. Weight Watchers meetings at the center in South Philly are hilarious, and I had a wonderful time. They're a gloriously mixed bag of ages, races, genders (five guys at the meeting!) and girth. I had tried another meeting about a decade ago, but they were all so serious -- I got depressed just sitting in the poorly lighted church meeting room. But South Philly is variegated insanity of the best kind -- a raucous, happy, nonjudgmental, welcoming bunch.

Our leader, Phyllis, is an older woman, birdlike, who'd lost more than 100 pounds some years ago.

This is all great. But I note that the program and the support, so far, seems to be based on a lot of special (expensive) foods: low fat this, single portion that. If I'm going to spend $14 per week to go to Weight Watchers until I reach an appropriate age-modified goal, I'd dearly love to recoup some of that cost from my food bill. I also want to be able to cook one meal for my husband and me, allowing him larger portions, butter on his rice, etc. And I don't especially want to spend hours in the kitchen either.

So I've started this modest blog to chronicle my attempts to be miserly while following Weight Watchers. I wanted to call this blog "The Frugal Weight Watcher," but that is taken by someone who did a couple postings and then quit. Sigh... There will be comments on other body-management issues as well -- motivation, exercise, etc.

First frugalities right out of the box:

1. Cook large batches of whole grains and beans. Why pay $1 for a 15-oz can of beans when you can have four times as many beans -- no salt added! -- for the same price?

The trick: Buy dry beans on sale. If you keep a sharp eye, even at today's inflated prices, you can still find beans for 79 cents a pound. But who has time to cook beans? Anybody. Here's how. Don't cook the beans for the specific meal. Cook them for the freezer. My own method is to dump 2 lb of beans into a big pot of water, bring to a boil, turn off heat, and go away. When I come back I drain, rinse, refill, and boil again. Lather, rinse, repeat till the beans are done. Package some in 1 pint containers, some in 1 quart containers, and freeze.

Same thing for brown rice -- 3 cups brown rice, 6 cups water, bring to boil, simmer 10 minutes, covered, on low heat. Turn off. Come back at least 30 min later and check. If there's still water in the pot, cover again, heat on high flame for 60 seconds, turn off again. (Turning off the heat is important and you may have to adjust the technique on this step if you don't have a gas stove.) Come back later and check. Barley, at least the hulled kind I buy, is a little trickier but not much. Bring one measure of barley to boil in a 2 measures of water. Bring more water to boil in a teakettle or pot and dump a scant measure in a Crock Pot set on high. When the barley comes to a boil, dump it and its water in the Crock Pot, too. Peek at it every so often, and stir so the grains on top have a chance at the moisture down lower. When most of the water is absorbed (2 hours or so), reduce Crock Pot to low and continue process as long as your nerve holds out. I do this in good-sized batches -- 3 cups of barley and 8 cups of water.

At dinner time, I can pull some grains and/or beans from the freezer, nuke, and move on.

I confess that I've invested about $10 in square freezer containers to conserve space in my frozen foods compartment, but that was awhile ago. I've been doing this for ages, and I'm sure I've recouped my investment several times over.

2. Forget low fat cheeses. Full fat cheeses are the light and the way. They taste better and their mouth-feel is better. Just dial way back on the quantity. Who knew 1/4 cup of shredded cheddar could taste so good on an omelet?

3. Forget egg whites, egg beaters, and other faux eggs. This may not work for everyone, but I come from a long line of long-lived egg eaters.

4. Forget prepared foods. They cost a ton of money, they don't save that much time, they don't taste very good, and they take up valuable freezer space that could be used for your own packaged foods -- small portions of cheap meats, containers of cooked rice, barley, grains, and huge bags of frozen vegetables from the PathMark.

So far, I've been pretty happy modifying my usual dietary habits to count points and cut out the excess. The proof of my approach will be tomorrow when I step on the scale.