So when my mom suggested a few weeks ago that I could join Weight Watchers with her, my initial reaction was less than enthusiastic. Weight Watchers, while obviously not qualifying as a fad diet (it's been around for more than half a century, after all), seemed to be the epitome of one of my least favorite dieting techniques - counting. The thought of counting calories and staring at boxes and bags and adding up this and that has always made my brain cringe. And then there's all the weighing in. While I've always had a general number in mind of what I'd like to weigh, my biggest goals for losing weight have always been 1) to be able to do the things I want to do (hiking, jogging, walking around the zoo for more than half a second) without feeling like someone's trying to drive a railroad spike through my lungs, and 2) be healthier. Yes, I want to be smaller and cuter again (ah, the good ol' days), but mostly I just want to feel better and do more. Obsessively tracking every tenth of a pound lost just didn't seem to fit into that equation for me; my goals are qualitative, not quantitative.
But I liked the idea of the meetings. For several months now, I've been toying with the idea of looking for some sort of eating support group or the like. I felt like I needed to be able to be in a room full of people who have the same problems with food that I do and be able to talk about it, share strategies for reworking how we deal with food and eating, etc. I really do feel that food is an addiction for a lot of people. I've read accounts of drug addicts and what goes through their minds when they're thinking about drugs, and the physiological effect that drugs have on an addict's brain, and I could swear I had written said accounts about my thoughts and reactions to food. I had even gone so far as to look up local Overeaters Anonymous meetings, although I never could quite bring myself to attend one. Not necessarily b/c of the stigma (though that was part of it), but more b/c of the 12 step thing. I just couldn't identify with the religious aspect of the 12 step program, and I figured that around here (otherwise known as Catholic Central) it would be pretty hard to escape that.
Ultimately, I decided what's the worst it could do? Work? So three weeks ago I joined Weight Watchers. And I have to say, it hasn't been what I expected. Yes, there's counting, but there are apps available that make it a lot less labor intensive than I had anticipated. You just type in the food you want, and up pops the point value. The selection of restaurants that have menus pre-loaded into the app is mind boggling, although they are mostly chain restaurants - if I want to go to a unique local place, I have to resort to guesswork. And as a bonus, I've found that tracking everything through the apps feels a little like a game to me. Kind of like constantly checking in to FarmVille to water your crops. Which, of course, appeals to the geek in me. There's the obvious benefit of becoming more aware of your eating habits, since you have to write down (or, in my case, type in) everything that passes your lips. And it's really helped both with portion sizes, and with balancing out what I eat. So if I want to eat a cheeseburger for lunch, I can, but I have to compensate for that by eating something healthier for dinner. I hadn't ever really paid attention to that before, so that's been a nice bonus.
The meetings are the best part, though. My friends know that I'm not big on crowds, and I'm even less big on large groups of people I don't know. But the meeting leaders are overly peppy and friendly, and are very good at putting everyone at ease. There's a topic to each meeting, which I didn't expect, and we get little assignments to work on. Even if I don't participate much, it's so nice to know that I'm in a room full of people who are all going through the same experience - albeit in their own ways - and we're all there to provide support and encouragement to each other. And as much as I rail against the quantitative aspect of the whole thing, it does provide a structure for me, which I do often require. Much as I like to delude myself with the myth of my own spontaneity, I generally don't accomplish much unless I have a deadline or clearly delineated goal to aim for.
All of this was my (extremely) long way of getting around to this week's goal. But seeing as I've probably lost most of you by now anyway, I will talk about said goal in my next post. Ta-ta for now.
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