Choosing Health over Illness: Weight Watchers

The first time I went to a Weight Watchers meeting was in 1999. My friend at work had done well with it and I was desperate enough to put my preconceived notions aside. WW hasn’t just changed over the years, it has evolved every year. It’s just not the same program as it was a couple of decades ago or even five years ago. I was to the point where I couldn’t fit into my clothes. I had gone through a breakup and was trying to get back in the market. I could no longer cross my legs at this point, and I knew the pounds would never melt off on their own. I had to take action.

I had done other programs and I was skeptical. But the difference with WW is that, from the beginning, you buy your own food and prepare it or select it off a menu. You determine what portion size you will eat. You don’t get a prepackaged meal plan where you buy frozen dinners and turn off your brain and judgment. You have to start out from the beginning learning to read food labels, figuring out “points”, writing them down, and basically being responsible for your own weight loss. The problem with the other programs I got on was I would lose the weight but never adjust to going off the frozen dinners (or adding back carbs, meat, or Mexican food). WW actually teaches what foods are conducive to losing and which ones aren’t, along with portion control. I think this is the problem most people have: They haven’t a clue what foods will make them fat. They may think they know, but they don’t. It’s sure not something they would have learned from Mom, friends, or society, and definitely not advertisements. WW is like getting a degree in practical nutrition.

After I joined, I took off 23 pounds or so, and at 5’3”, that was 15% of my weight. I worked out once or twice a day and ate within my points. I loved the program because it was flexible and motivational. I reached “lifetime“. Then the weight started creeping back on within a year or two so I dropped out. I have a slew of excuses, the biggest one being, “It‘s not that bad.” I surpassed my original highest weight (I used to say, “I weigh two pounds more than my highest weight ever.”) However, once I met my current boyfriend, I felt like I was ready to recommit and lost all the weight again in three months (now I knew how to fast track this deal). I did a good job of keeping it off by working it on the WW website. Eventually he bought into the healthy lifestyle and we still get in a walk or bike ride together every day. He even measures his cereal!! But the weight started to creep back on. Once I changed companies (my environment, my friends, my routine, my attitude, my priorities, my nail polish, my sheets) it again became an uphill battle and I grew two sizes since 2005.

I still go once a week to WW. Just because you gain a good chunk of the weight back, there’s no reason to quit. Once you hit “lifetime”, you only have to weigh in once a month, which I do. I found weighing in (and paying) more often doesn’t necessarily motivate you to do what’s required to get the weight right back off or keep it off. But here’s my other reasoning. Let’s say you are on the “UP” elevator for awhile (which is part of life.) You can (1) Get frustrated and quit going to meetings and stay on the “UP” elevator ad nauseum until you’ve gone up six more sizes or (2) You can keep going to meetings and gain ten pounds. (OK, sixteen pounds.) I choose (2), the “UP But Not All The Way Up Elevator” I can ALWAYS get bigger, and if I don’t go to meetings I’m positive I will. My hope is that by writing this, I will do something constructive like go back to tracking online.

The difference between WW and a diet is a few basic philosophies:
True believers see this as a lifestyle that they have bought into. They don’t expect to revert back once they reach their goal.
This is about health, not glamour. If I can keep the focus on health, I’m actually more likely to stay focused. I’m sporadic about caring about my appearance, but I’m pretty consistent on being a health nut. I may like being attractive (who doesn’t) but I hate bad knees, lack of energy, aches and pains, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, depression, and all those things we might associate with “old age” which are actually the result of an unhealthy lifestyle. Nobody ever listed on a death certificate: Cause of death - chips and salsa and sitting at a desk all day. But that’s what mine would say if I blew off WW.
WW puts some emphasis on working out. It’s about 75% about food and 25% about working out. If you want to stay healthy, you have to work out. Here’s my favorite quotes about it:

"Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness. " ~Edward Stanley

"If it weren't for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some of us wouldn't get any exercise at all. " ~Joey Adams


OK, I’m off to get back on WW online!