Welcome to our next guest blogger, a very good friend with a sharp wit who will be known here as Angelina Jolie…
 

So I joined weight watchers last night. Again. I can’t count how many times I have done this in my life but I am not going into it with a very positive attitude. Weight Watchers has always seemed to me to be the healthiest way to lose weight and to live. It just makes sense; there is nothing crazy to affect my internal organs or send me into ketosis, whatever that is. It is just a way of looking at food , knowing what nutrients it contains and creating a balance in order to lose weight or to simply maintain a healthy lifestyle. 
Having said that , now I will tell you why I hate it. When I am on Weight Watchers all I think about is food. How many points does it have? How much should I eat? How do I get variety in my diet ? I should stop here and clarify a couple of things. I hate to cook and I hate to grocery shop. A couple of disadvantages when changing from my normal lifestyle of either eating out or not eating because there is no food in my house, to planning, counting, measuring, shopping, portioning and the dreaded cooking. 

All day long, I have to look at food as points, not sustenance. I have to plan, not just a day, but what I am going to shop for, cook and eat, for a week!! How do I know what I am going to feel like eating on Wednesday as I plan my meals and shopping on Sunday? And yet I know that people, one very best friend of mine in particular, who is on vacation as I screw up her blog, who are masters at this and follow the plan with great success. 

So I paid the money to join. Online. I cannot sit in a meeting with a group of people who are that positive and bubbly about, well just about everything. I cannot applaud that much in an hour. I cannot get excited about a sticker. And I have never found a person with whom I could sit and bitch (can I say that?) under our breaths about how much we hate our lives on Weight Watchers. 

So I did some research of my own and found this:

6 Steps to Sleeping the Weight Off

How Gaining Sleep Can Help You Lose Weight
Last Updated: Aug 16, 2013 | By Elizabeth Hurchalla from Livestrong.com
Overview
What if you were told that there’s an effective weight loss method that costs nothing and doesn’t require you to change your diet or exercise? 

What if you were told that you could lose weight while you sleep? And that sleep itself — not some magic fitness contraption — is one of the best-kept weight loss secrets? Saying that people who sleep more end up eating less (and being less hungry) might be oversimplifying a little too much, but in essence, that’s what multiple studies have found. 

Two studies have shown a link between sleep deprivation and a propensity to gain weight. In a study published in 2012, “Short Sleep Duration, Glucose Dysregulation and Hormonal Regulation of Appetite in Men and Women,” participants consumed over 300 more calories a day after four hours of sleep than after nine hours of sleep. “That could translate into 31 pounds a year,” says Kelly Plowe, R.D.

Okay. Now we’re talking. The only counting is how many hours you sleep and how many pounds you lose! Except…..Did I tell you that I have this thing that prohibits me from sleeping more than 1-2 hours at a time and that I average 4 hours of sleep a night?
So off I will go to the grocery store with my recipes and my list and my plans and my points counted. And then I will sit and cheer “WooHoo” for every person who managed to lose an ounce and I will treasure my hard earned stickers. And I will lose weight and be healthy. With a little help from my friend.