I don't know what it is, but there seems to be a stigma attached to the name "Weight Watchers." Surely when you hear it, your mind instantly goes to middle-aged, stay-at-home mom types who sit at meetings, restricting themselves to SlimFasts and salads in order to lose weight. Maybe that works for some people, but not me (or Oprah, apparently).

From birth until today, I've struggled with my weight. It's a combination of genetics, mental illness (looking at you, anxiety), self-loathing, slow metabolism, and a lack of will-power. I'm a victim of the proverbial "yo-yo" diet – that means I've cyclically lost and gained weight. Part of it is due to stress and peer pressure; however, most of it is my own fault. I love my fast carbs, my cheese, and my sweets. I also love fresh, unprocessed foods. But, my eating habits and habitual low self-esteem leads me to bad decisions.

For reference, above is me at my heaviest in 2013. I've yet to creep back up to that weight, but I've certainly come close a few times. Around this time, though, is when I began a dangerous diet of restricting myself to 400 net calories a day and working out on the elliptical two hours, every day, seven days a week. I lost about 30 pounds in three months, but managed to gain about 20 of them back within the next year. Why? Because I was only focused on getting "skinny" and not on changing my eating habits and lifestyle all together.

Now that I've graduated and I have more time to dedicate to my lifestyle change, I decided to revisit an old friend. This friend has helped me three other times before with weight loss – her name is Weight Watchers, and I am determined to stick with it for (hopefully) the rest of my life.

Being 22 and in a period in my life where food is a social gathering and the alcohol is abundant, committing to a plan such as Weight Watchers often feels impossible. There are days when I want to give up and drive to Taco Bell at 1 a.m. There are days when I reach for a late-night snack of junk food. I'm only human – mistakes are bound to happen during this journey. If I do naughtily binge on Ritz crackers while watching The Tonight Show, I just track it and move along. Holding myself accountable has prevented me from repeating my old ways.

I decided to pick up with Weight Watchers because although it's focused on an overall lifestyle change beyond the scale, I don't feel confined to a certain "diet" (seriously, has anyone else noticed the word "die" in "diet?" RED FLAG). I also don't have the burden of counting calories. Seriously, you guys, counting 32 points versus 1,600 calories is much easier for me mentally. I tried MyFitnessPal a few times, too, but never factored in NUTRITION into my caloric intake. Five-hundred calories of fries is not the same nutrition-wise as 500 calories of a balanced meal...and my body noticed. Weight Watchers's new SmartPoints™ plan uses calories, saturated fat, sugar, and protein to calculate the point value. So healthy swaps, whole foods, and cleaner eating is encouraged; but you can still eat things you like, too. *Oprah voice* I love bread.

To prove to everyone that you can lose weight happily while loving yourself and the food you eat, I played hipster food Instagrammer for the day and documented every meal. I track all my meals in the iTrackBites app (note: I am not an actual member of Weight Watchers...yet. Once I have a steady income I will most likely do the online plan plus meetings. Just in case you were wondering).

My daily allotment of points is 32 and my weekly allotment is 42. I try to earn at least 50 FitPoints™ a week, but personally I never trade FitPoints for food. I do have some rules for myself, too:

1. Have a fruit or vegetable with every main meal.
2. No more than 10sp per meal.
3. Don't go under or over daily allotment more than three points (exceptions are made for when I'm going out and need my weeklies).
4. Have a steady balance of macronutrients in each main meal.

On top of getting my eating and exercise under control, I make sure to keep a consistent sleep schedule. I wake up at 7 a.m. every day and start my morning with a YUGE glass of water. Note my aesthetically pleasing mason jar and reruns of The Golden Girls (never said a part of me wasn't a middle-aged stay-at-home mom type).

Around 9 a.m. I start breakfast. Typically on Fridays I allow myself to eat whatever I please as long as it fits within my daily points. I don't normally crave fast food as often anymore, but oddly on this day I wanted an Egg McMuffin. Rather than high-tailing it to McDonald's, I made my own.

The breakdown:
• One (1) Trader Joe's meatless breakfast patty (2sp) – I'm a pescatarian, btw.
• 1/4 cup egg substitute (0sp)
• One (1) fat-free American single (1sp) – this cheese is too processed for my liking, but it's all we had... :/
• One (1) Thomas Light 100 calorie multi-grain English muffin (3sp)
• A few spritzes of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray (0sp)
• A handful of spinach (0sp)
• A hefty serving of strawberries and blueberries (0sp)
• Total SmartPoints: 6

Pro tip: I use smaller plates to trick myself into believing there is more food on my plate. The aforementioned yuge glass of water also helps fill me up before I eat, thereby diminishing any further sustenance temptations.

This breakfast was SO GOOD. On the new plan, six points seems like nothing, but the carbs (I usually eat my carbs during the day) and protein kept me full for hours, even though I did nothing but bop around the house all day and take pictures of my food.

I haven't eaten red meat in more than six years. Burgers have never truly been my thing anyway – although I do crave the concept of an old fashioned burger and fries. My fish intake is steadily decreasing as I try to adopt more plant-based meals into my regular dietary routine, but today I opted for a salmon burger. God bless the person responsible for packing salmon into a patty.

The breakdown:
• One (1) Trident salmon patty (3sp)
• One (1) Pepperidge Farm Bakery Classics soft white bun (4sp) – I'm the only one in my family that can digest whole wheat, but I don't eat enough burgers to buy my own package of buns.
• 1 Tbsp Trader Joe's pineapple salsa (0sp)
• Handful of spinach (0sp)
• Generous serving of carrots (0sp)
• 2 Tbsp Nature's Promise organic roasted garlic hummus (1sp)
• Total SmartPoints: 8

I'm not a religious person, but I am convinced that Jesus crafted Trader Joe's pineapple salsa himself. Or maybe it's the work of the Illuminati. It tastes like what I'd imagine Hawaii tastes like. I guess. Also, one point hummus? Did Beyoncé come to save me from all the two point hummus hell? Hashtag BLESSED.

By this hour I had only eaten 14 out of my 32 allotted daily points, so I elected to carb up with some cheese and crackers as I planned on going for a walk around my neighborhood and gain some FitPoints.

I'm borderline addicted to cheese, and it's been my best friend and worst enemy since my journey began many moons ago. Once I discovered Laughing Cow cheese wedges, I was hooked.

The breakdown:
• 26 Nabisco Good Thins veggie blend rice crackers (4sp) – a serving is TWENTY-SIX CRACKERS (26!!!).
• Laughing Cow creamy asiago cheese wedge (1sp)
• Total SmartPoints: 5

Normally I snack on fruit for zero points, but none of our bananas were ripe enough for consumption (they looked like they were straight out of The X-Files), and ya girl needed some more points. I'm still in shock that I ate that many crackers for so little points. TWENTY-SIX. That's basically cheating.

I once tried a low-carb diet and gave up after two days because I was sad and missed pasta. Now I'm gradually beginning to eat less fast carbs and swapping them for things such as brown rice, quinoa, oats, etc. since they're typically lower in points and more nutritionally dense.

Dinner is usually my smallest main meal of the day. Earlier in the week I did some meal prep and made an old favorite of mine from my PointsPlus® days to use up some ingredients (sadly it's gone up since the switch to SmartPoints, but I also only got 28pp per day back then). Oh, and it's vegan because that actually matters!

The breakdown:
• One (1) cup lentil one-pot casserole (8sp)
• Generous pile of brussels sprouts (0sp)
• Drizzle of Sriracha (0sp)
Total SmartPoints: 8

Even though I am a self-proclaimed vegetable connoisseur, I used to abhor brussels sprouts. I thought they were the actual devil. Turns out I was just making them incorrectly. Once I learned how to properly steam/roast and season these lil sprouts, I became obsessed. I don't remember this being apart of the WW plan, but I'll take it.

It was hot as h*ck today, but I made a promise to myself to exercise at least 30 minutes a day. Ideally I strive for 60 minutes; I can't do anything in this heat.

Today my mom (my WW buddy) and I walked around our neighborhood.

Let's all take a moment to appreciate this cute AF FitBit band I found at Walmart.

Total FitPoints Earned: 4

When it's not this diddly-darn hot outside, I've been playing tennis about five to six times a week for an hour. It's also great when you need a good ass-kicking once in a while. Finding workouts I actually enjoy has been the biggest struggle in my life thus far, despite being active in high intensity sports such as soccer and figure skating in my younger days.

One of my goals this month is to stop eating by 9 p.m. As a lifetime member of the After Hours Bingeing Club, I noticed how constant snacking past 9 p.m. affected my sleep and my weight management. Today I managed to have five points left in the day – except every day this week I've been under, which uh, you're not supposed to do...oops. I rarely dip into my weeklies unless I'm going out (I need to work on this, though, because weeklies are there for you to enjoy), so I elected to find a sweet treat to savor that fit into my last five points for the day.

I stopped eating cereal about five-ish years ago because I thought you couldn't eat it when dieting. Later I developed a cavalier attitude about it as cereal is highly processed and loaded with added sugars and other nasty ingredients.

...Sometimes you have to just say "F*** it," and eat the damn bowl of cereal.

The breakdown:
• 3/4 cup General Mills Strawberry Tiny Toast cereal (5sp) – this cereal actually isn't too bad for the amount you get. It has about eight grams of sugar, which is a significant difference from say, the 80000000000 bowls of Lucky Charms I've eaten in my lifetime.
• 1/2 cup Blue Diamond Almond Breeze unsweetened almond milk (0sp)
• Total SmartPoints: 5

One of the beauties of this plan is being able to still eat what you love in a healthy way. I don't eat cereal often, but if I have the points available and can squeeze treats like this into my day, I'm less prone to bingeing on empty calories rather than satisfying my craving.

Total SmartPoints for the day: 32/32

Yep, this is what a day on Weight Watchers actually looks like. There's no deprivation, and I'm not doing this for anyone's sympathy. The program focuses on adapting what works best for your body at a slow, healthy pace to keep the weight off for good. But, it's also about transforming yourself beyond the scale – celebrating non-scale victories like fitting into an old pair of shorts, trying a new recipe, or meeting all your goals for the month.

To the 11 pounds I've shed in the last month, BYE FELICIA.