Monday, 17 January 2005

In response to 'Despondent About Losing Weight'
I won't say that I know how you feel, being despondent about needing to lose a lot of weight, but I certainly started out kicking and screaming. I had just been told I was pre-diabetic, because I had just tested slightly elevated for blood sugar. I HATED the idea of changing my eating habits. I love to eat and I felt like I was being robbed of one of the great joys of my life. I decided to give it 12 weeks, because I figured I could take just about anything for 12 weeks. I would decide then whether I wanted to go on. I actually gave it about 16 weeks. By that time my blood sugar was normal. I decided that losing the weight was the best thing I could do to prevent insulin resistance, but the diet I was on seemed restrictive and I wasn't following it as carefully as I needed to. I hit a 4-week plateau.

That was when I joined Weight Watchers online. My plan was to get to my goal weight, so that I could then go back to eating the way I always had. I told myself that I wouldn't wait until I had to lose 80 pounds next time. The plan was, that when I was 10 or 15 pounds over goal, I'd diet again.

Weight Watchers just works for me. I won't say it's always easy, but it gets easier. I've been losing pretty steadily, with slight fluctuations. But the real change has been in my attitude. Now, I'm not planning on there being a "next time." I feel that this is something I can do for the rest of my life. And I know that I need to. I like how it feels to be thinner, but more than that, I like how I feel eating a healthier diet. I don't have heartburn all the time, for one thing.

I realize that I'm not going to have to go the rest of my life without eating another piece of brie or creme brule or Big Mac. But I don't want them often. It's okay for them to be an occasional treat. And I actually enjoy them more now that they're a special treat. There are some changes I do plan to make when I start maintenance (like regular whole-grain bread instead of reduced calorie), but I don't want to go back to the way I used to eat.

If someone had told me at the beginning that I could actually enjoy eating this way, I either wouldn't have believed it, or the idea would have horrified me. But I realize now I'm not going to morph into someone who says "Mmmm, I just love fat-free cheddar." It's more that what I enjoy now is cooking really good-tasting meals that are, by the way, healthy.

Posted by whaledancer at 12:01 AM PST | Post Comment | Permalink
Updated: Thursday, 9 June 2005 3:52 PM PDT

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