First, let me say this:
I loved Weight Watchers. And I still recommend it to people who are looking for a straight-forward way to keep track of their food and help them lose weight. I lost about 35 pounds on WW after Baby Belle was born.
But the issue was this:
I got really frigging sick and tired of tracking every single bite. For a while it was fine. Fun, even. Something to keep me focused. I had measuring cups, measuring spoons and a digital scale. It was a project to work on, and I worked hard. And I did well.
But then I just got tired of it. Perhaps that says more about my personality than the program itself, but I just got to a point where I didn't want to obsess over every bite, worrying when I was eating at someone else's house and couldn't figure out exactly how many points I was eating, etc. It was fatiguing, but also stressful.
My motto for a long time has been, "I refuse to lose weight by any means I'm not willing to continue in order to maintain that loss". I came to that conclusion after trying a bunch of fad diets that involved shakes, cleansing juices, food combination theories, and extreme caloric restriction. I'm just not willing to do any of those things long-term, so it doesn't make sense to make my body dependent on any of them for weight-loss and weight-maintenance. When I first started doing WW, I thought, "This is great! I could easily continue to do this for maintenance!" When that feeling changed, I knew it wasn't for me.
Why am I talking about this? Consider this the forward to my next post about restriction and deprivation. I've been thinking a lot about it since Alexis posted this, and in even more detail since she elaborated here. Food is fuel for our bodies, yes - but it's also intensely personal, and I'll be sharing my thoughts on that.
Yes, WW worked for me when Joe was 2 and I wanted to lose weight before conceiving Isaac. I used it again after Isaac and again after Sarah. Both times it did the job: focusing me so that I would be a bit more conscious of what I was eating. However, I have always used whole foods while on WW. I quit WW early on after Sarah because I wanted to save money and I was doing fine without it. In fact, I had flipped the fat switch and WW was really no longer applicable. That said, I still look at foods and assess their point value;) p.s. I submitted my mother of 5/breastfeeding story to WW because I thought it would be a good success story for their nursing program. Alas, I never heard back.
ReplyDeleteOh dear I am SO NERVOUS waiting to hear what you are going to say!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI love this posting btw.... I had a very similar experience with WW. I use MFP sometimes but more as a way to check in with my eating, get back on track, see how good food affects me vs bad food and then go off again and eat my way again.
SO NERVOUS........................!!!