How many points in a chai tea latte?

I'm officially doing weight watchers. Well, as "official" as I can get by borrowing my sister's points ruler and instructional booklet.

It has only been one week, but I am very serious about it. I have a notebook divided into quadrants where I track my daily food/points, water intake and multi-vitamin. On every 2-page spread there is one square left over to summarize my week and mark my weight. And the first week I lost 3.5 pounds, which I am very happy about.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't really doing this to see the number on the scale go down. (And for the record, this is the first scale I have ever owned.) I've just felt like my eating got a bit out of control while I was breastfeeding, and I wasn't able to curtail it when the breastfeeding stopped.

The best part about tracking what I've been eating is this incredible sense of control. I know how much I should be eating, and I can make choices throughout my day to work around this. I'm still making the meals that I normally would, but I'm dividing them up into portions and eating a lot more salad (no points with a "spritzer" for dressing!).

I think a lot about whether eating something is really worth it, whereas before I would just eat the cookie even if it wasn't a really good cookie. And I'm still eating at night, but now I plan for it, and save those points for a glass of wine or a fudge pop (or two).

I also did some research into restaurant nutrition guides when I knew we were going to be out on the weekend. I was speechless. I know I shouldn't be shocked, but I cannot believe what restaurants put out there - especially things that seem healthy. It is unbelievable.

So we will see how this goes, but so far I really like the feeling that I am in charge.