Weight Watchers

First of all, let me say for those of you who have been reading so far, thank you soo much for your kind words and encouragement! I'm really glad to know someone is actually reading this - it motivates me!

So, most of what I have written so far has been about my experienecs gaining weight and being an over-weight person. There is so much more I could write about (and might some day), but for now I feel the need to change it up a little. I want to write about how I lost the weight, and what I am doing to make it a permanent change in my life.

For many years, when I was heavy, I knew I was heavy and I wanted to do something about it, I just had no idea how. I'd try over and over again and never have any success. I'd fail in some way or another and tell myself I'd start again tomorrow. I was always going to start tomorrow. Or Monday, or next week. It never happened when I'd try to go at it alone. I had no idea what I needed to do, or how to go about doing it.

That's when I discovered Weight Watchers. A friend of mine was going to meetings at the time and I decided to try it too. Since then, I have gone to so many Weight Watchers meetings, I can barely remember the first one. What I do remember, is that it worked for me.

Weight Watchers is not a strict diet that is unmanangeable and hard to follow. For those of you who don't know, WW is based on a points system. Each food has a point (calculated based on calories, fat, and fibre) and each person has a set number of points they should aim to eat each day (based on height, weight, and level of activity). It also allows for an additional 35 "Flex" points each week. What I liked about WW, was that I could still eat some of my old, "bad" foods as long as I counted the points. Or I could find the low-cal version of my favourite foods and eat them instead. The best part of it was that WW is a gradual plan that helped me to make small changes in my life. It taught me about what foods were better choices and gradually I started to make those better choices more often.

That's not to say that it was always easy. I had a lot of difficulties accepting some of the "ideas" behind the WW system. I was annoyed that I'd likely have to cut out favourite foods like chicken fingers forever. I didn't understand that one day I'd be able to eat these foods again - just once in awhile, instead of regularly! I questionned a lot of the things that were taught to me at WW and didn't always agree with some of their opinions. At times, I fell off the program. I got sick of counting points and would stop tracking (writing down everything I ate). I would feel bitter that others could eat whatever they wanted, and I couldn't. From about 2005 onwards, I went on and off Weight Watchers many times.

One of my biggest struggles with WW, was my "all or nothing attitude". I'll admit, I am a bit of perfectionist and definitley a control freak. I had the mentality that I had to follow the program 100% and if I fell off the least bit, I'd give up. After all, at my meetings they taught us "If you kind of do it, it kind of works. If you really do it, it really works." Every time I failed, my feelings of bitterness and resentment would return. It was a constant struggle. Eventually I would learn that being a perfectionist at the program was holding me back. Once I learned to let go of that, I was finally able to reach success!