Wednesday 11 August 2010

I never thought I'd say this...

...but I’m officially a Weightwatchers Cult member. I accept this and welcome it with open arms.

It’s had the unfortunate side effect of turning me into the person I used to hate though.

But with that I’ve had a revelation. I only hated that person because;

a) I hated myself, and
b) I didn’t understand what the hell they were talking about.

I didn’t want to hear about people successfully losing weight because I knew that I was steadily gaining. I didn’t want to believe that Weightwatchers was necessary because we all know that if you eat less and exercise more then you lose weight.

Eventually I had to ask myself this question – if you know that “all you have to do” is eat less and exercise more, then why aren’t you?

I can’t answer that to be honest. Who knows. Maybe it was just my fear of failing – better to not try Weightwatchers and sit and sneer at it instead of giving it a go and perhaps finding it didn’t work for me.


I’ve tried hard not to become a Weightwatchers Apostle and have failed a few times recently. It’s hit me hard because I swore I wouldn’t become one of those people. But I now understand how it happens. You rarely get people asking about Weightwatchers and wanting to know how it works, instead you get faced by people (who were like me two months ago) who sit and tell you what Weightwatchers is and isn’t and why it doesn’t/won’t work. I do feel defensive about it, I has worked for me and you want to try and desperately explain that it’s not the big bad d-word and that it’s really sensible.

But I'm to reign myself in when I can feel I'm proselytising. Because at the end of the day, everyone has to find the thing that works for them. Weightwatchers is working for me. It might not work for others. Instead I’m concentrating on myself, it’s not up to me to tell people that Weightwatchers is great, if they want to lose weight they will find their own way. I will continue doing my own thing.

The biggest thing I found difficult to comprehend before is that Weightwatchers isn’t really a diet. I genuinely don’t believe it is. It’s something which has allowed me to make that “lifestyle change” that really annoying thin people always bang on about. It’s educated me – I thought that I was fairly savvy about food before but I’ve learnt I really wasn’t. My main problem was a question of portion size – I would think I was being healthy and would have been if I wasn’t eating enough for 3 people.


I won't lie, at the beginning it’s a complete pain in the arse and you have to weigh things and check things and yes it’s a little time consuming and irritating. But it really all depends on how much you want to lose weight. If you really want to do it, you’ll make the effort. At this point I don’t weigh things anywhere near as much as I used to, I know how much rice/pasta/meat to cook and I’m confident enough that I’m generally making the right choices to stay within my points allowance.

It all depends on how you take the term “diet”. If it means “you can’t eat what you want” then yes, fair enough, it’s a diet. But that’s life. I can’t eat everything that I want to eat, that’s how I ended up over 16 stone. Can I have some of what I want? Hell yes. Do I have crisps most days? Erm hell yes. I just don’t eat an entire family size bag each night.

Do I ever have that horrible hungry feeling you get when you’re dieting and not allowing yourself anything nice? Never. (Which has amazed me because I’m eating far far less than I used to) And if I do get hungry, I eat. I just eat an apple instead of bar of chocolate. To me that’s not dieting, it’s being sensible.

(I won’t lie. The embolism kick-started me into taking this Weightwatchers thing seriously. I want to do everything I can to make sure that my body is working properly. It is definitely something that helps as a motivating factor.)

Nobody understands Weightwatchers less than my Mum. In fact no-one understands the concept of weight loss less than my Mum. She is, always has been and always will be, a skinny malink. She doesn’t need to worry about getting fat because her appetite won’t allow it, I barely see her finish a plate of food, and that’s fine, it’s just how she’s meant to be. This means that she finds it incredibly difficult to understand;

a) how people get fat in the first place, and
b) how people go about losing weight once they’ve got fat.

Over the past 3 days I had two irritating, yet hilarious, conversations with her that perfectly illustrate how much she doesn’t “get it.”

Sunday

Mum: What have you been doing today?
Me: Not a lot, did my laundry, did some baking [made these muffins as recommended by Mooncalf. They’re about 3.5 points each if you speak the lingo. And more importantly, frickin' acesome.]
Mum: [high pitched voice] Ooh 1lb! 1lb! [referring to my 1lb gain last week]
Me: Yeah it’s really not a big deal Mum, for a start they’re low fat and secondly I’m not going to eat the whole freakin’ lot am I? I’m allowed a muffin every so often. JESUS.

Tuesday

Mum: How did weigh-in go?
Me: Good, I lost 4lbs and have now officially lost 2 stone [in your face 1lb gain last week!]
Mum: Oh my goodness you’re losing weight too fast.
Me: Yeah I’m not being daft, I’m not starving myself, it’s just the way it’s going at the moment, I’ll plateau sooner or later.
Mum: Well you can’t lose too much, when you stop Weightwatchers you’ll put it all on again.
Me: Yeah, thanks for the excellent support Mum.

She means well, she just doesn’t get it. And that’s fine. I don’t care if no-one else gets it. I do. And that’s enough for me.

13 comments:

  1. Sounds to me like you've got things sussed out. Looking forward to the nextbpost.

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  2. 2 Stone!!!!!! Wowzer - that's freakin brilliant. Way to go you.

    PS - stop using extremely long words that I've never heard of before!

    Those muffins do look rather acesome :0)

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  3. 2 stone that's brilliant! Well done!
    If it is working for you that is all that matters, as you say everyone has to find their own way. Luckily you seem to have found yours.

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  4. You know, weight watchers does work especially if you "work" at it. You are really "workin it" and I am soooooo proud of you Girl!!!! (and jealous too!)

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  5. Well you already know I love WW and have been doing it on and off for over 10 years now. When I'm not following it strictly I will only put on a few extra pounds and then stabilise as sub-conciously I know what I should be eating. I can reel off points of foods off the top of my head, when I do my weekly shop I spend the time weighing and portioning out food so that come dinner time I can just grab from the freezer etc.

    Like you say it's not really a diet, I can't bare people who do Slimfast, Aitkins etc as they're not a sensible way of eating. On WW you can have an indulgent lunch with friends but understand you can't then go for a curry that evening... but if you do you just need to find the points from exercise or cut down the next day.

    You keep at it and don't worry about what other people say, concentrate on your weight loss and you'll be slim and trim in no time!

    Victoria x

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  6. Haha. That sounds so much like my mum. She criticises my weight so much and then now I have lost a little bit she has started asking if I am eating properly.

    2 stone is an amazing achievement though! Massive congrats.

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  7. That is indeed an amazing achievement! I know how you feel, btw - family of skinny bods, *plus* ingrained belief that if you leave food on your plate it's horrendously wasteful... well done for handling it as well as you do!

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  8. Ha! Mums! Mine is dreadful at that sort of thing too.

    I'm so glad you're enjoying the muffins and I'm VERY relieved to hear that you've found a place for crisps in your healthy lifestyle :)

    I think your doing brilliantly and I'm finding your progress very inspiring. In fact, I shall go and prepare my porridge with skimmed milk right now.

    Keep up the good work!

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  9. Typical mum's eh? Well done you for losing 2 stone, brill :) I'm sure you really see and feel the benefits! I've been eating really badly recently so need to get back on track & cut out all the rubbish!

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  10. Amazing well done to you!
    Hugs suex

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  11. I used to sit next to a girl who did weight-watchers and she explained it all to me and I don't think it is a diet either. I think it is good common sense. Sure the weighing thing is annoying but I agree with your arguments - if you want to lose weight - you'll do it. I am a bit skeptical about not feeling hunger though - I always feel hunger when I am working in an office - not so much here but office yes...I think it must be linked to boredom...someone should do a study... xxx

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  12. Well done for the weightloss. I am sure you look and feel much better for it. Keep up the good work.

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  13. Well there we go, it didn't take me long to recover. I'm over it. You look cute (hey not in a lesbian kind of way, you know what i mean!).
    Anyway. The WW thing. Well let's just say I'm not ready for all this counting malarky. It would drive me nuts. I've just signed up to a gym. Hopefully that'll do the trick. And the fact that I've demolished family sized packets of doritos four nights in a row. Surely I've over stuffing my face with crisps and salsa now? God, those love handles are starting to feel rather uncomfortable...

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