I joined online Sunday night after New Year's, and went to my first meeting that Wednesday. I've never been a huge fan of New Year's resolutions, but I had given myself until the end of December to find a way to lose the weight on my own. Which didn't happen.
I thought maybe I should just take another blogging break rather than subject you to my musings/thoughts/rants about points and food tracking. But I finally decided, as I always do, that you don't have to read it. I put "weight watchers" right up there in the post title so you can click away if it's not a topic that interests you. I'd probably do the same if our positions were reversed.
I've thought for several years now that if I couldn't manage my weight loss on my own, I'd try Weight Watchers. Mainly because I know several people who have had good success with it (some of whom read here). But two things kept me from signing up: one, I was so sure I could manage it on my own; and two, I hate tracking what I eat.
The first thing--I was so sure I could lose the weight myself-- has proven to be abundantly false. I have more or less figured out how to maintain, to stop the upward creep, but I have not managed to lose more than 2-3 pounds on my own. (For those of you who are new, I gained about 20 pounds a few years ago when I was in grad school and went through menopause at about the same time, on top of already being a bit on the plump side.)
The second thing--that I hate tracking what I eat-- is trickier. I've done it (tracking) several times before, and although I start out with enthusiasm, in a couple of weeks I'm playing all kinds of mind games with it and it completely backfires. I end up mentally arguing with the tracking, and losing touch with the idea of developing better eating habits. If there were mind games at the Olympics, I would win the gold medal in a flash. I am terrific at mind games.
But that ended up being a non-issue because WW has a new plan that doesn't require food tracking. I haven't tried it yet--I can manage the tracking for the first couple of weeks, so I thought I'd try the "Smart Points" plan for awhile until I adjust to the new eating style. But I'll probably switch over to the no-tracking system eventually.
I'm not saying anything about the results, maybe never will, because TMI. But I'm hoping the fact that I pre-paid three months will mean I stick with it at least that long. Stay tuned.
I'm not saying anything about the results, maybe never will, because TMI. But I'm hoping the fact that I pre-paid three months will mean I stick with it at least that long. Stay tuned.
3 comments:
Good luck with it. I mean that sincerely, it's hard.
Food is so weird - I mean we need to eat to live, so we eat. We are programmed to especially like that which is not healthy for us because in the programming part of evolution sweet and fat meant we could live a day or two longer. And then there's all the emotional stuff with food - not only the associations of grandma's fried chicken or lasagna or mom's mac & cheese or fabulous chocolate cake - but also the calming effect of carbohydrates and suchlike. It's really kind of a miracle anyone ever manages to lose weight.
I've been working on lifestyle. I was doing a food diary for a while and I need to pick it back up, but really just how to I want to live and what do I eat and exercise that I like and that is good for me. It's a slower process, but seems to be working.
What Karen said.....
"And then there's all the emotional stuff with food....."
Like her, I wish you well. It's not something I can comment on though, I've had to let go of all numbers and monitoring. For my mental health, I'm unable to even LOOK at shit which refers to dieting or weight loss.
I hope it gives you what will be best, whatever that ends up being.
yeah, I know. Exactly what you both said. But I'm doing it anyway. I was going to go on AT LENGTH on this post about all of my/our/our culture's weird shit about weight and weight loss, but since I don't have anything else to post about these days, I decided I might as well split it up and write more later. I totally get it if you want/need to skip reading them, because there is nothing I'm more bored by than reading about other people's weight/food issues. That's why I wasn't even going to say anything about this. I will say this for Weight Watchers, though-- it's doing exactly what I hoped it would and getting it outside my head. I can (and do) still play head games with myself, but it's not nearly as bad as when I was doing it all on my own. Who knows, it may not work in the end, but right now (week two) it's doing pretty much exactly what I wanted, which was force me to face up to some things I needed to deal with--things that have less to do with my weight than with my eating habits. Thanks (both of you) for being in spite of your reservations.
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