How odd and wonderful

[threadwalker]

Isn't life unexpected?

2 years ago in June I showed a friend how Weight Watchers works and described why I liked it. At the time, I was the only person I knew in my social world and in my circles at work who did weight watchers and it felt like a dirty secret... like I was the only one who couldn't manage my weight without help, so I needed the pros to show me how to eat. For me, personally, it was a big step to share that with someone I cared about. Telling people I do WW feels like I am saying "hey, I'm handicapped, but I've figured out how to function." Doing that with someone who's close to me is deliberately making myself vulnerable, which is both terrifying and enpowering.

So the friend I shared this with was at my house and expressing frustration and annoyance about not losing weight despite eating healthy. I took a deep breath and, prepared to be blown off or teased, I pulled out my weight-watchers stuff and showed her how I calculate my points. She didn't laugh or blow me off. She was curious. Since she had carried all her food with her and still had most of the containers in her tote, I showed her how to add up her points. According to WW, she was exceeding her daily points by more than 7 via high sugar juices (Snapple, etc) and frozen meals and yogurt that wasn't low cal or low fat.

(Isn't it funny how we think we are doing one thing, such as eating healthy, but we are doing something else, like loading our bodies with sugar. There is such tricky marketing out there).

It was fun to dig through my fridge and show her how she could cut 10 points by replacing juice with water, frozen meals with chicken, and "leaded" yogurt with low cal or fat free yogurt. Afterwards, on her own, she contacted WW and got on the points program; she told me that I inspired her. (wow!) She hit her goal sometime last year. I know she's excited about her jean-size, which she says is the smallest she's ever worn, but I'm excited that she's doing fitness and eating right; she looks healthier to my eyes than she's ever been. And I freely admit to some selfish self-interest in seeing the people I care about have good health.

2 years later, WW has become such a wide spread life-style in my social circle that it's doesn't even raise an eyebrow. No one gives you the "look" or eyeballs your butt with some unsaid message on their face. When someone says they are doing "points", suddenly people are talking about recipes, fitness, and the life-style changes they've made. They talk about goals, maintenance, struggling or succeeding. They talk about how good they feel. There's this overall vibe of mutual support. It's like we've become this spontaneous traveling WW meeting that convenes whenever anyone has something to celebrate, needs help, or just wants to talk about how good they feel.

It's pretty freaking awesome. On the one hand, I wish it had been like this 2 years ago where showing up and saying "points" inspired a spontaneous WW jam session. On the other hand, watching it spread and knowing I was a catalyst that inspired a few people is a great feeling, too. I'm so jazzed about eating right and fitness, it's inspiring when I see others get excited, too, because it reinforces/validates my opinions.

On a personal note, I still feel like a freak when I'm outside of my WW posse and I share with anyone that I do WW, which is my internal baggage. At work, a site of over 1000 people, we struggle to get 17 people to join WW to keep our meeting active, so WW isn't something that is common here. When people ask me how I lost weight, I tell them I did it the hard way: eating right with the help of WW and fitness. Each time I share the part about WW, I feel like I'm base-jumping and going to plummet to my death. I'm not sure if it's empowering or not, but I'm working on being upfront and not being embarrassed that I need rules to eat by and that I need to follow those rules closely even though I'm at my goal weight and maintaining. I often quip, "I didn't get to 200 lbs by eating right and exercising."

So I've been pondering... my reluctance to admit I joined WW... my current personal growth challenge to share my WW membership with people who haven't drunk the coolaide... and watching the people around me also change their lifestyles, which has lead to a postive, support network that speaks the same code. I'm so used to working on my own on stuff, it's odd to be part of something that others have joined on their own as well AND find value in. (I often feel like the crack-pot in the wilderness when I get my ideas). It's just such a great vibe and everyone is so openly encouraging of each other.

Comments

[etaine-pommier.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way. And it's really hard to combat the "why are *you* on WW???" that frequently comes my way.

I wish there was more awareness that people who are thin usually have to work at it...

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

Wow! Are you psychic? what prompted this post was a conversation with my boss and my reflection on the feelings it invoked:

Boss: You'll be escorting Manager X around.
Me: Oh, I know Manager X. He's in my WW meeting.
Boss: WW? Are you kidding? You don't need to be on WW.

And the cell-call ended.

I had the free-falling sensation when I mentioned WW. I had the moment where I know my boss does NOT understand. And there was some kudos and a compliment buried in there, which was also nice.

.. but I do need WW. It's not about "being on WW", it's about using WW's rules to help me live. Rules to live by. Boundaries. Self-awareness. Asserting your needs.

Re: Hmmm...

[beanolc.livejournal.com]

I find it inspirational, but I'm also in the WW club so it's not foreign. :)

[beanolc.livejournal.com]

Oh honey, you were in your own cave! It wasn't unheard of or freakish. I had been dickering around with WW for years -- back to early grad school days actually. I know Hawk Girl had in the past too -- but yes, your success, Miss Monday's success, and d_salie's success all combined in different ways got my ample arse in gear.

I wear it with pride, actually. I freely admit to my coworkers and non-close circle what I'm doing. It was hard at first because I didn't want to jinx myself, but it got easy as it worked. Now I try to educate without being preachy. When folks comment to me how good I look I tell them *exactly* what I'm doing, how it's not a diet, how I don't deprive myself, yadda yadda. The world needs to understand that radical change doesn't mean suffering.

Hugs and kudos to you. I, too, love how encouraging we all are.

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

But it's a nice cave... lol

It will always be a hard topic for me to share. It overlaps a lot of the OCD-urges. But I feel safe with you guys.

[beanolc.livejournal.com]

Well I should hope so! ;-p

[hrj.livejournal.com]

I've been wondering lately whether it's an accurate perception that a significant number of peoople in our social circles have hopped on the health/fitness/nutrition bandwagon ... or whether there's simply a tendency for people who are working on health/fitness/nutrition to gradually identify and gravitate towards more interaction with People Who Understand. That is, is it more like a growing socio-political movement with people "joining up", or is it more like an alternative-livestyle community with people "coming out"? A bit of both, I suspect, but it's interesting to ponder.

Drinking the coolaid with you

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

>>According to WW, she was exceeding her daily points by more than 7 via high sugar juices (Snapple, etc) and frozen meals and yogurt that wasn't low cal or low fat.

I think this is a key point, both for me and for others. I wasn't eating junk food -- I don't drink sodas, buy snack food, or frequent fast food. But I was eating "good" food that had a lot of fat in it. Example: Trader Joes sells a polenta lasanga that is really good and wheat-free, so that was a staple. But when I did the WW point calculation it was huge!

So, yeah, the great thing about WW was that it gave me knowledge of how much I *should* be eating for my age and height and then gave me a simple way to track it. WW as reality check as it were.

Go us!

[fighter-chick.livejournal.com]

Actually, I've been working for a few months on summoning up the courage to ask you a question. Can WW Points be used just to promote healthy eating? My efforts to get myself back into the habit of eating enough food have been a miserable failure. I need some sort of structure or system that can help me to create appropriate meals on a daily basis. I also need some help figuring out what foods will get me the proper nutrition.

Would WW be a viable option for me, do you think? I need to maintain weight or even gain a few pounds, not lose. I've felt weird about asking because I've never been overweight and I've feared getting flak for being a "skinny girl" asking about WW.

But now seems like an opportune time...

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

Have you considered going to a nutritionist? I used to know one at my barn (she's since moved on), and what you're asking for is exactly what she did, namely, teach people what they needed to be eating.

Just a thought. :-)

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

Flak? I'd never give you flak. Your challenges are just at legitimate as the next persons.

IMO, WW promotes healthy eating, not just low-cal eating. There are 2 programs, points and core.

In points, you take your weight and calculate what your daily calories should be. Since most people who join are trying to lose, it's calculated to help the lose. When you hit your goal weight and switch to maintenance, those points are increased so that you are not losing weight. So you'd probably be starting out from a maintenance point of view.

On core, you eat from certain lists of food. You eat as much as you want, using your personal sense of "Fullness" to guide you. You can eat off those lists, but you have a certain weekly calorie limit for "off list" food. I've looked at core and (again, IMO) it's a very healthy approach that reduces processed foods, encourages high fiber, vegetables, and protein. However, there's no set "amount" so you're self-driven. So if you're having a hard time developing appetite, that might be tough to use Core to tell you when to eat or how much.

Essentially what I do is eat Core foods and use Points to guide my portion size and daily calorie amounts. I was on a soft diet this week (courtesy of getting a tooth pulled) and I found I had to eat (err.. drink soup) on the clock. So fruit/yogurt smoothies, soups, etc, all paced by the clock. I didn't get hungry and never felt overfull. (Though I'm craving a chunk of meat to chew on!)

If you are trying to gain weight and get inspired to eat healthy, tasty food, I find the Clean Eating books by Tosca Reno to be very inspiring. Again, nutritional eating written by someone who was heavy and lost weight. But she's a fitness person and the editor of Oxygen, so a lot of her advice has to do with nutrition in relation to fitness and "eating for your muscles", not eating just to lose weight.

Short answer: yes.

[beanolc.livejournal.com]

There's a points quiz with the e-tools and one of the questions is "do you want to lose weight or maintain?" If you choose maintain, and then nudge the points up a bit if you need to gain, I'm sure it would work. They also, on the e-tools site, offer meal ideas by day and by week... that way you could print them out and check them off, adding one more element of accountability.

If I can be of any help, please don't hesitate! :)

Thinking about climbing on your bandwagon...

[nightbocci.livejournal.com]

I did the HMR thing about two years ago and managed to lose 50 pounds on their program. Unfortunately, I've put many of those same pounds back on because I didn't follow through with the maintenance portion of the program (we had just bought a house and couldn't spare the $$). I share the same dirty little secret: I, too, have a difficult time keeping it off without some sort of support.

Good timing on your post. I'm feeling the tingle of motivation starting to develop....

Re: Thinking about climbing on your bandwagon...

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

Hey, you! Are you on my WW filter? Do you want to be?

Re: Thinking about climbing on your bandwagon...

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

Edit: OK, nightbocce, I just added you to my WW filter. :-)

Added your your filter...

[nightbocci.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what that means, but sure.

I drank yer coolaid!

[shutt3rg33k.livejournal.com]

I joined last Thursday, but I'm finding that my reluctance (Okay, flat out refusal) to use the kitchen here is an issue. However, once the UI starts coming in, it's my plan to go do www.dreamdinners.com, which my stepmom loves and has already calculated the points for. Not an entree over 7 points, and it comes out to less than $4 per serving.

[answers-within.livejournal.com]

Coming in out of nowhere here, but I've been hearing SO many inspirational stories of WW on various journals within this extended group...does anyone deal with WW and being gluten-intolerant too? Or know anyone who does?

I've just figured for a long time that trying to count points and work with recipes AND have to adjust for no gluten was just going to be too much, but I'm really wondering whether it's worth trying. I'm confident that I eat healthy, but obviously I'm still eating too much as I'm not managing my weight well at all. I'm open to any input or feedback, as I've been super-impressed by what I hear from y'all...

[beanolc.livejournal.com]

You can tailor it to your needs. The great thing about WW is that it's not a prescribed diet-- nothing is forbidden. The e-tool (I'm not a meeting girl, I'm an online girl) has a huge recipe database, and each recipe is editable. If there's an ingredient you can't tolerate, you can replace it with one you can and the points get recalculated. You can also plug in your own recipes and have them calculated, which helps with the substitution issue. I have serious dairy issues and have done just fine, considering how many recommended snacks are dairy based.

[answers-within.livejournal.com]

Before your message I actually had no idea they had a full online system, and once I checked that out this week, I felt a lot more positive about it! I think if I do this, that is the only way for me to go, and it's great to hear about you and so many others who've been successful without going to meetings.

I also didn't know you had dairy issues and had been easily able to work around them - I'm sure it will be the same for me, especially since I've been living gluten-free for about 2 years and have a good idea of what foods I have to avoid and what I can substitute in.

I think I'm going to sign up tomorrow but still pondering a little more...the things all of you have shared have been EXTREMELY helpful and encouraging, thank you!

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

Greetings and Salutations!

You pretty much use the WW on-line tool, plug your recipe in and it pops out how many points per serving. You can fiddle with subsititions, etc, to reduce calories. They have a recipe data-base, too. WW is very flexible. We often talk in our meetings how every food is a WW food as long as you know the points value and portion size.

I might be gluten-intolerant. I can't digest pasta and bread (which is like crack for me!) makes me feel heavy and bloated. So by trial and error I've been discovering what works and what doesn't work.

[answers-within.livejournal.com]

Hi there - I wanted to really thank you for the response, and I'm sorry it took so long to get back to you.

I've spent the last week checking out the WW website bit by bit, and I'm about 90% there. The online thing sounds perfect for me, as I'm really not a meeting person, and I'm really quite impressed with the various tools they have - the recipe-maker is probably the key thing for me. The ability to "fiddle with" the recipes, as you mentioned, is what will make it real for me, and that's the only way it will work.

Trial and error is the ultimate reality with food and how you feel, but if it makes a difference to you, you might find out about getting diagnosed - it's really made me take it seriously and cut gluten out of my diet entirely. My symptoms are nearly the same as yours - unlike the people with more severe reactions, I don't have gastric problems. Instead, I get frighteningly lethargic, bloated, "yucky-feeling", and often my joints hurt. I loved it too - crack is right - so it took awhile for me to get serious about it. Once I cut it out entirely, and then ate gluten again a few months later, I was blown away at how awful I felt.

Anyway, thank you for the feedback and for the inspiration! I read your journal a lot now and I always learn from and ponder the things you write. I for one appreciate your willingness to share your experience!

[sirst.livejournal.com]

The whole process has been great to watch. I've worked with a lot of people who have not addressed their health and fitness until late in life. It's a rough place to be. With work they still get healthy. But the sooner in our lives we address these kinds of things the more likely we are to all be base jumping at 83.

it's all in the timing

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

I wish I'd done this sooner, but my catalyst happened when it happened. I don't think I would have been successful 10 years ago because I was in a different head space 10 years ago.

At least I found my motivation in time to enjoy triathlons and my kids' youth.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

I've been sloooowly losing weight for the past eight years or so, and have lost about 100 so far, with the last 60 on WW. I've found that people who are still fairly heavy will talk to each other about weight loss efforts, but those who have already neared or reached WW goal aren't seen to be in weight loss mode by outsiders, so those spontaneous conversations don't come up.

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

Weight loss is hard. I find maintenace has its own set of challenges. However, out of respect for those who are struggling to reach their goals, I often keep my mouth shut so that it does not seem like I am "bragging" about my issues as a way of saying "woot, I made goal".

In our meetings there are 3 of us who've made goal and sometimes we speak up so that the other members realize that it really is a lifestyle change and that vigilance is critical for us even now.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

I've found maintenance of any weight loss is very hard.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

I'm intensely curious as to how maintenance is going to work for me. Since I've never done any serious weight loss before, I have no idea whether it'll be hard or not. Since my starting principle was that I was making permanent changes in my eating habits, not doing something temporary "to lose weight" I don't really see myself making any significant adjustments to The Plan in terms of eating. I do see myself shifting my gym routine more towards more and different weight machines and less of the intensive elliptical and then seeing what happens. And I do have some specific and detailed plans for how to maintain my mindfulness about what I'm eating while backing off a little on the detail with which I'm tracking it.

Now that I've hit my goal weight, I'm thinking of doing a long, detailed (but one-off) "how I did it" post in my own journal. For various reasons I've been reluctant to include much in the way of nutrition/fitness posts in my regular journal (saving it for comments in other peoples'), but I think maybe I'm ready to do it now. (It will be intensely geeky and have all manner of odd graphs and things because they're an important part of my motivation and process.)

[xrian.livejournal.com]

Well, you and a couple of others in your "group" have certainly inspired me to stop procrastinating and Do Something.

I'm not in a WW group -- decided the meetings were not a good use of my time, since having worked in a food co-op for 16 years I already knew most of what they were saying about nutrition. But I like counting "points" instead of calories. The point system has a built-in bias *toward* healthy food. Here's how it works:

(1) All else being equal, a point is about 50 calories' worth of carbo or protein.

(2) For every 10 grams of fiber in your day's food, subtract 1 point.

(3) Fat gets counted as about 1+1/2 times as many points as its mere calorie count would indicate. This is good, because the sources I was reading in the co-op seem to indicate that, for some reason, fat is used by the body rather differently than its actual calorie count would indicate -- so 100 calories' worth of fat will gain you more weight than 100 calories' worth of anything else. (Alcohol seems to behave in something of the same way, too.)

I've found that two weeks of intensive point counting sets me up for a couple of months of pretty much eating the same amounts and types of foods without having to keep such strict track -- though I admit, that's because I eat pretty much the same types of meals most days, substituting ingredients of the same types. At about that point, though, I have to do another couple of weeks' worth of intense monitoring because little "extras" have crept in.....

I get the "but you don't need WW" comments too, but I smile sweetly, say thank you and ignore them. I actually think what it's about is that the other person has gotten used to seeing you at a particular weight, so you don't seem "abnormal" to them. What they don't know is that the body as presently constituted is covering up some rather nice bones that should be out on display ;)