Lose the Buddha: Things I Had Forgotten About WW and Other Topics

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Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Things I Had Forgotten About WW and Other Topics

1) I don't care what the ads tell you, you're still on a diet. I mean, it all makes sense and I don't begrudge the formula because, hey, it works and it's healthier, but I'M HUNGRY. Can we all just stop pretending right now that we enjoy the neverending mind fuck that is the time we spend searching for low-POINTS foods all essentially so that we can stave off hunger? Because WW won't let me have more than a cup-and-a-half of pasta and I'm sorry, but diet or no, I'm not through eating after that, and no, I really just want more pasta, not Zero POINTS soup. Last night I made this lovely bowtie pasta with mushrooms and pine nuts and I actually dipped into that ol' pile of distraction tricks and simulatenously washed dishes and called a girlfriend of mine ... JUST SO I WOULDN'T EAT MORE. I hate that shit.

2) Zero-POINTS soup sucks ass. Maybe it's the actual cabbage in it, but it reminds me so much of The Cabbage Soup Diet soup that I kind of want to dip my hand in a boiling pot of it, if only to punish myself for making the stuff in the first place. Actually, because I hate the stuff so much, I toss kidney beans, tomatoes and chiles into it, and use fat-free beef broth, which turns it into One-POINTS soup but whatever. It tastes better that way.

3) The stupid grimace face at the eTools. God I hate him. Is it necessary to have an emoticon for every week's weigh-in? When I lose, I don't feel renergized by the happy face, or the same, tired motivational quotes they've been recycling for years now. I get why they have the quotes, since they use motivational quotes each week at the end of every meeting, and if you're an online user only, well, makes sense. Still. Get rid of Mr. Grimace, people.

4) Oh, the conflicting messages. Ever hunker down into some WW recipes and note all of the use of cooking sprays? I'm a fan of the cooking spray, if for their ease of use only, but I was at a meeting a couple of weeks ago where the leader spent several meetings lauding olive oil, saying its use was worth the POINTS used. And I agree with her, too. But then why is it that nearly every WW recipe avoids cooking oils as though they were carriers of the plague?

5) The meetings can feel a little canned. My girlfriend and I walked in a scad late last weekend and I found myself sticking to standing in the back of the room, instead of finding a seat. We stayed for the whole meeting, because that's the promise we made to ourselves when we started, but I practically ran outta there when it was over. I can only take so much reasoning as to why I shouldn't buy an entire bag of chocolate candy. The best reasoning I can think of is that I will eat the entire bag eventually and it will make me gain weight. There. Done.

All this is really to tell you that I'm really struggling this go round on WW. Getting myself motivated to be on this plan was harder, way harder, than it was the last time I made this kind of effort. All of the little pieces that made this work for me - hardcore workouts, rabid dedication to POINTS tallying, and limited alcohol - have been harder to adjust to than I remembered. I told my girlfriend that I'm not giving up, of course. I have lost weight, after all, and am eating so well and taking such good care of myself that the benefits of such a healthy lifestyle outweigh the fact that I haven't see as consistent of a weight loss as I would have liked.

The truth is that it'll happen for me. It would have been nice to say goodbye to about 15 pounds by the holidays, but if about eight is all I'm going to get, so be it.

In other news: if Red Hot Chili Peppers is the band of choice for the spinning instructors at my gym (on Saturday, the teacher used THREE BLASTED RHCP SONGS!), then Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears are the favorites of those teaching cardio kickboxing. Last night, it was AN HOUR of pop music's former golden couple, and I have to tell you: Sexy has done been brought back, now let's just leave it alone.

I need to buy shoes to wear for that class because running shoes aren't appropriate. It's really just a glorified aerobics class, and while I enjoy it, as much as a person can enjoy 60 minutes of pain, I really wish my gym taught a plain ol' kickboxing class. I love punching actual people and things.

Lastly, I'm in the market for an air-popper. You know, for popcorn. I used to have one - YEARS ago - but can't find it and in addition to being the WW-recommended manner in which to prepare popcorn, it just tastes better. Anyone out there have a model/brand they'd recommend?

Posted by Erin at 08:09 AM | filed under: Random

comments

Have you tried air-popping popcorn in the microwave? You put a quarter cup of popcorn in a brown paper bag (like a lunch bag), fold over the top twice, and staple it. Then just throw it in the microwave. Really easy, and cheaper than an air-popper.

posted by: gretchen at November 1, 2006 10:01 AM

wow, talk about WW bashing - you do it so well... i had to laugh at your post because everything you said is so true... WW is like any other program, they have their tips and tricks, dos and donts, and standard weekly talks... i guess the only way to get thru it is by doing what works for you - if you want 2 servings of pasta, then have it, as long as you have the points... if you'd rather have 4 cups of popcorn, then that's okay too... i haven't had an air-popper since HS, how funny... bet you could find one on ebay for cheap! :o)

posted by: jodi at November 1, 2006 11:35 AM

I love my microwave popper! It's called:

Presto 04830 PowerPop Microwave Multi-Popper

You can buy it at Amazon. it works great and while I typically make my popcorn with oil and salt you can skip the oil and it still works.

It really does pop all the kernels and the little "power concentrators" are cheap but hard to find in normal stores. I ordered a whole bunch of them from Amazon.

posted by: Helen at November 1, 2006 02:32 PM

You know, the only people I know who've been truly successful on WW have continuted to count points and obsess about food long after reaching goal weight. A friend of mine won't go to a restaurant that doesn't post nutritional info online because she won't know how many points her food has.

Yes, she's been at or below goal weight for 2 years, but at what price? Yikes.

posted by: susan at November 1, 2006 02:44 PM

You know, Susan, that's just it. The chances of me ever reaching some "goal weight" are slim because what I'd have to do to reach and maintain that weight means I don't get to have a life. I'd just like to get back to about where I was around 140 pounds and in really good physical shape. I was athletic and while I may have been weighed more than what's recommended for my height, I was happy with my body and didn't feel any emotional craziness doing what it took to get there.

posted by: Erin at November 1, 2006 02:59 PM

Man, do I hear you on all points WW related.

I rejoined 6 weeks ago partially based on your comment about the monthly pass. I also did it because I know it worked for me 13 years ago. I lost 50 pounds then and mostly kept it off for 3.5 years until I changed jobs and injured a foot. Now I've got close to 150 pounds to lose to get back where I was 13 years ago.

That last time, I felt like I was a total slave to counting food values and religious exercise so I was reluctant to sign-up for that feeling again. To date I've lost 15 pounds and have resigned myself to losing slower this time around so I can still enjoy going out with friends, parties, etc.

I feel like I have to go to the meetings. I've done WW online several times in the last few years but it's too easy to shrug and say, "Oops. I gained this week." I need the stranger at the desk handing me back my book knowing that I've gained.

As for the zero point soup--if you like black beans and spicy stuff, here's an alternative that I've been eating a lot of recently:
1 can black beans, rinsed
1 can Rotel (tomatoes and green chilis)
1 can fat-free reduced-sodium chicken broth

With just these 3 ingredients, I get 4 servings and it's 1 point per serving. And with the black beans, it's pretty filling.

I've also made it with 2 chicken breasts shredded and 2 cups of cooked instant brown rice. The rice soaks up all the liquid and makes it more like a casserole. The added ingredients increase the servings to 6-1.5 cup (approx) servings for 4 points each. Again, very filling. And if you've got the points to spare, a little shredded cheese adds to it.

Keep plugging away. I'm sure I'm going to see the grimace tonight after I weigh-in, but last night somebody at water aerobics told me they could really see the weight I'd lost already, so screw the grimace!

posted by: Dellface at November 1, 2006 03:55 PM

Erin, it sounds like you might be ready for something new. Have you considered the "non-dieting" approaches advocated by authors such as Geneen Roth, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, etc.? (And no, this is not a commercial! :)) The idea is basically this: dieting just makes us obsess over food more than we normally would, so in the long run diets just make us fatter. They lead to all-or-nothing behavior, such as "last-supper eating" (pigging out the night before "going back on the diet" because we don't think we'll ever get to eat our favorite foods again). We don't need to be counting calories, we need to be working on developing a "normal" relationship with food, and Weight Watchers doesn't really encourage that.

I yo-yo'd for most of my life but in the past three years my weight has been stable at approx. 30 pounds less than when I started using this approach, and I've stayed a size 10 as opposed to my initial 14-bordering-on-16. (I say "approx" because I rarely weigh myself -- the scale is another form of torture I've learned to do without.) No food is forbidden, which means I'm not obsessing about chocolate, etc. -- I know I can have it any time, so it's lost it's appeal. I eat when I'm hungry, eat what I actually feel like eating at the time and savor it, stop when I'm satisfied, and then get on with ejoying my day without giving food much thought until I start to feel hungry again, and I don't feel guilty about what I've eaten. Overall, I eat less than I used to, because eating has lost its urgency. I no longer panic that I'm not going to get enough. And I very rarely have that stuffed feeling that used to be routine for me.

The whole thing has sure freed up a lot of time and mental energy! I have finally "made peace with food" -- food is no longer the enemy. There was a time when I would not have thought this possible.

The idea of eating anything you want can be scary at first, but you soon realize that once you remove the restrictions, you enjoy your food more, and you really *aren't* going to eat everything in sight.

Sorry if this sounds like a product endorsement, and maybe you've already heard about all this stuff. Anyway, the book that I found most helpful is "Intuitive Eating," by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. I also enjoyed a book by Geneen Roth called "When You Eat at the Refrigerator, Pull Up a Chair."

Good luck!

P.S. I loved "Tales From the Scale"!

posted by: Hungry No More at November 1, 2006 08:02 PM

Presto has a great air popper! I have had mine for years. I think I bouoght it at Sears.

posted by: Pat at November 2, 2006 09:53 AM

Amen, Ladies. I have just eaten an assload of Halloween candy, with the thought in the back of my mind: "No more after this week." Bullshit. Do I really want a chocolate-free life? NO! Do I want to analyze everything that I eat? NO! Do I want to see a pie chart breaking down my fat/alchohol/carb/protein intake? NOOOO! Arghhhhh! But, do I want to be fat?! NO! There's got to be a better way. A way we can live with our entire lives -- not in fits and starts.

I lost 20 pounds because I went hungry a lot of the time. Once I gave myself 'permission' to eat after this self-imposed starvation, I went nuts. And now I'm almost back to where I started. I bought four pairs of identical fat pants and I WEAR THEM EVERYDAY. I can feel the lumps of fat hanging over these stupid fat-pants and I'm getting really pissed off. How the hell did I get here?

Who else is pissed off!??!

posted by: Susan at November 2, 2006 10:29 AM

hahhahaha my sister and i have been contemplating the air popper too, but if you look at the points for oil popped corn, i'll suck it up and use oil...remember...it's good healthy oil. hahahhahahah!

Oh this post cracked me up. I've had all of the same thoughts while sitting through meetings these last few weeks.

posted by: nicole at November 2, 2006 12:20 PM

I was just thinking about rejoining WW today. You've just reminded me why I stopped in the first place!

BTW, I have the Presto Poplite and love it. Purchased at Walmart for less than $20. Makes perfect popcorn every time.

posted by: Melinda at November 2, 2006 06:06 PM

Wondered in here from dietgirl's page. And I'm a ww'er too and I had to laugh at your complaints about the soup and the grimacing face on the etools when you don't lose!! I agree!! I rarely make the soup as then I tend not to eat it all as I don't like it much! But, I guess I differ in that I'm not hungry on ww and I eat a but*load of fruit and veggies if I am. I'm actually not tired of the meeting (most times) as the leader I go to is pretty inspiring and makes it funny. Can't say that about the other leaders I've tried. I do get tired of counting the points so some day I will try the other option 'core' where you eat certain foods but they don't tell you the quanity. I do worry about the obsession w/ points and all the exercise I do when I get to goal as I was reading a inpiring ww success story and she is at goal and doing marathons, etc. and is still counting points and obsessing about it, it seems. So, I will continue to read books like a reader described above and try to learn all I can about the emotional connection to food/ and how to just not think about it all the time! Have a good week.

posted by: Patty at November 3, 2006 01:17 PM

I second the Presto PopLite. They seem to last forever (despite the fact that the plug sometimes emit sparks when you unplug it--doesn't seem all that safe) and make great popcorn every time. I make lame-ass low-points popcorn in a bowl with a secure cover by spraying with a little nonstick spray, sprinkling on "buttery salt," then covering the bowl and shaking it up really good. It's not movie theatre butter, but it's not bad.

posted by: spacedcowgirl at November 3, 2006 04:04 PM

I wish I knew a successful ass kicking alternative. But I don't.

What about plain old maths? Calorie counting? Energy in vs energy out. Too time consuming?

My only bit of advice would have to be - find some women who are healthy weight then ask them what they do. Seven habits of highly effective people? What about 7 habits of highly healthy people?

If their methods of getting and staying skinny are insane (e.g. diet pills) then obviously give that idea the flick, but generally these people eat way smaller portions and they don't face dive into Mississipi mud cake everytime they eat out.

So if you find some healthy people, give 'em my number will ya?

posted by: Beckie at November 3, 2006 06:41 PM

I want to punch Mr. Grimace face in the his stupid mouth.....

posted by: LaShawn at November 3, 2006 09:38 PM

I just joined WW today and hoping to drop 25 pounds. I am opting for the core program. I would never be able to keep count without being too obsessive about it.

posted by: mary at November 4, 2006 05:12 PM

hehe I love your post.. you've just said all that I have been thinking for the past few months.
I love being on ww, but sometimes it does get a bit monotonous... ho hum... oh well.. let us plod on.

posted by: bee at November 9, 2006 07:58 AM

Oh lordy. Now I remember why I quit WW. It drove me utterly and completely insane.

posted by: Meg at November 10, 2006 12:52 PM

Greatest invention ever: NordicWare Microwave Microwave Popcorn Popper 3-qt. Available on Amazon, got mine at Target.

You can use without oil, or add a small amount if you like -- helps the salt to stick.

I hate WW meetings -- they make me oddly angry and I refuse to go. But I love the program and don't mind counting points. Guess it works if you're a naturally slightly obsessive-compulsive person!
; )

Loved TFTS!

babs

posted by: babs at November 12, 2006 04:00 PM

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