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...

[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.

[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...

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....

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...

[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.

[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.

[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 ;)