Back on the Bandwagon

Saturday, May 1, 2010
I've been taking a break from Weight Watchers for the past seven weeks. I was just TIRED. Tired of counting my points, tired of having to plan every meal. You know, the usual whiny complaints about how come I can't eat whatever I want, whenever I want, with no consequence, life ain't fair, blah, blah, blah.

Well, today I'm getting back on the bandwagon. I've gained a few pounds* during my hiatus, but I'm getting back on plan soon enough that I don't feel like I'm starting over. I figure it will take me a couple of weeks to lose my "backslide pounds," and then I'll get busy losing the next 30.

You know that saying, "Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels?" Yeah, that's not entirely true, at least for me. I'm glad I took this break, and ate some of the things I'd been missing over the past months, like Ben & Jerry's Stephen Colbert's AmeriCone Explosion. But the time has come for me to behave in a more disciplined manner when it comes to my food choices. Here we go again!

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*Okay - five pounds. I'm trying to take my weight loss journey in an honest manner, without resorting to euphemisms, but at the same time not beating myself up. So I GAINED FIVE POUNDS. Which I will lose in the next two weeks. Go, me.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Hah! I've on and off the bandwagon several times. It is a lifetime endeavor. You'll notice that your eating habits have changed even when OFF the bandwagon. Most peculiar....

Janiece said...

Brenda, you're right about my eating habits. Even when I was "taking a break," I found my choices were far wiser than they'd been before I joined WW.

Stefans said...

A while ago, when I was attempting to lose weight, I came across the Hacker's Diet (http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/hackdiet.html), an engineer's approach to losing weight. It pretty much treats the human body as a black box system (summed up as: staying alive takes X kcal per day, so eat less than X kcal and lose weight).

When I met up with my sisters (three older sisters, so you can imagine I'm pretty cautious about posting in a thread regarding weight loss) for the holidays, one of them described the WW diet to me and I was struck by the similarities between the two strategies (If only I had done my thermodynamics course at that point, I would have recognised certain similarities to the way the universe works, but whatever. You've got to stop being introspective at some point, or you end up doing philosophy). I'd be interested to see whether you notice any similarity in the strategies.

For full disclosure I should point out that, while the Hacker's Diet worked for me, I am a 20 year old male and I have since come to the conclusion that the HD is a bad strategy for trying to improve physical fitness rather than just burning fat.

Janiece said...

Stefans, the bottom line when it comes to weight loss is that regardless of what program you use, you have to eat less and move more. It really is that simple, as the Hackers Diet suggests.

Of course, psychologically, it's never that simple.

I chose Weight Watchers because it takes that very simple idea and puts it into a format I could live with. The point system allows me to manage my food (and my activity) with a level of flexibility that allows me to socialize in food heavy situations without feeling guilty. Since eating well over the long haul is one of my goals, I have to have that flexibility if I'm going to be successful.

As for physical fitness, even when I'm on hiatus, I don't give up exercise. I'm resigned to the idea that in order to feel good (and keep a functioning brain), I will have to engage in aerobic exercise 4-5 days a week for the rest of my life.

As someone who would rather have a root canal than exercise, you can imagine how happy this makes me.

But given the choice between eating a cupcake and having to get on the elliptical, or sacrificing the cupcake and staying off the elliptical, I'm choosing the cupcake.

And that's basically what WW teaches. If you want to have a cupcake, then have one - but don't have one every day, and don't think you can have a healthy body without exercising. It's just reality - with cupcakes.

nzforme said...

Forever ago, a member of my family was in Overeaters Anonymous, and I went to a couple meetings for support. And every time I saw someone getting a one-year or a five-year chip, they all said the same thing: "It wasn't a perfect abstinence." I didn't understand that at the time -- I figured that if you fell off the wagon, you'd have to start counting again the next day at "one." I get it now, though (now that I blew my own "300 discretionary calories per day" thing massively two weeks ago -- but, dude, STRAWBERRY PIE) -- what matters it that you don't look at the slip as a total failure and just give up. Look at the slip itself as part of your program. You allowed yourself a few weeks of Americone Dream; the overall price is a couple more weeks of weight loss than you'd originally planned. No big deal. It's not a slip -- it's a necessary part of the overall plan.

The Mechanicky Gal said...

Sigh. Whoever thought up THAT phrase clearly has it wrong.
And the one about nothing tastes as good as the first bite.
Nuh-uh. EVERY bite tastes as good as the first bite.
Just some words of inspiration for you.... :-)