She was “let go” from Weight Watchers a few weeks ago, after having worked there for more than 10 years. She was a leader who was loved and she was great at it. People would drive from several towns away to attend her meetings even though there were meetings that were closer. She was that good of a leader – caring, compassionate, and always able to help me get my head back in the right place when I got off track with my weight loss efforts. Plus she had great results with people that proved how good she was. She had helped several people achieve weight loss goals of over 100 pounds!

I was devastated to find she was gone and from how things had been at the meetings the previous couple of weeks I certainly didn’t think she had left willingly because why would there need to be 4 people from the corporation watching over things? Looking back it obviously was to prevent our leader from saying she was being let go.

Why would they let someone who has won numerous awards with the company walk out the door? Someone with rocks for brains as far as I’m concerned.

Apparently she wasn’t doing enough “selling” of Weight Watchers products at the meetings. One of her bosses was insistent that she do 5 “sells” of Weight Watchers products during every meeting. Yeah, I was paying $12 a week for a meeting just to have 5 Weight Watchers products hawked at me during a 30 minute meeting. (don’t quote me on this but I do have it from a source that I consider very reliable; and I have attended a couple meetings to see how the new leaders they brought in are doing and I’ve counted how many times during a meeting they try to sell something – it’s at least 5 every time!).

How insane is that?

Aren’t the meetings supposed to be about support and helping people with their questions, problems and most importantly, successes with weight loss? The most inspiring meetings were ones where someone reached a milestone weight loss goal or “Eureka” when they reached goal!

Isn’t it supposed to be about the people and not be focused on selling as much “product” as possible; which by the way are not the healthiest things in the world. Some of the ingredients lists on Weight Watchers bars, snacks and other products read like a science experiment – not exactly health food.

Seems to me that Weight Watchers has forgotten about the people they are supposed to be helping and instead have put the focus on “selling.” Yes, I know they are a company and need to make money. I have no problem with that. But there’s no way I’m going to continue to pay to attend meetings only to have them turn into a 30 minute commercial for Weight Watchers products.

It’s time for me to move on and find a place where I feel supported and not just like a sales target.

But first I’ll be writing a letter to the president of Weight Watchers stating how I feel.

This week we played what she called “Pass the Pumpkin.” It wasn’t just any old pumpkin. It was one that weighed exactly 5 pounds and she knew this because she took her Weight Watchers scale to the farmers market and weighed pumpkins until she found one that was “just right” (actually she said her husband had to do it because she has an injured back right now – wish I could have seen that!).

The pumpkin got passed around to everyone at the meeting. While each person held it, they told the entire group how many “pumpkins” (5 pound increments) of weight they had lost (you could practically see people doing the calculation in their head as they were dividing their weight loss by 5!).

It was fun to congratulate everyone on the weight they’ve worked so hard to lose. For me it was a great reinforcement of how much good work I’ve done at weight loss since I tend to look at how far I still have to go rather than how far I’ve come (yes, I’m more of a “glass half empty” rather than “glass half full” kind of person).

It was so cool to be able to say that I’ve lost almost 11 pumpkins (54 pounds)! That’s a lot of pumpkin pie!

And a surgery in July (my son’s) is what got me off track last time. Okay, well that’s not really true.  It’s what I used as an excuse to get off track last time when my son’s surgery, my Mom not feeling well and having lots of doctor’s appointments that I took her too, and then several parties and a wedding, all became my excuses to not exercise regularly and to completely fall back into my old unhealthy eating habits.

So I’m hoping for the best and that I’ve lost at least 2 of the 5 pounds I need to get back off so I’m back to the 57 pound loss I was at before I lost my focus in July.

I’ve really worked hard at eating healthy and exercising this past week.  Although I always told myself Iwouldn’t set hard and fast deadlines for myself I always thought I would have lost at least half of the 120 pounds I want to get off by the time a year had passed.

Now I realize that’s not going to happen because my one year anniversary at Weight Watchers is this Thursday, September 3, 2009.  So this is where I have to look on the bright side (just like PollyAnna – ugh!) and realize that I’ve done well to have lost over 50 pounds in the past year.  I’m happy about it but honestly it makes me sad too.  I know I could have gotten at least another 25-30 pounds off this past year if I wouldn’t have had so many “lapses” where I gained a little weight back and then had to get it back off again.

Some days I really wish for that magic little weight loss pill……….

I’ve been struggling with my weight loss most of the summer. It seems that whenever I’m “on track” with my eating and exercise, something happens to throw me off. There are so many parties and get-togethers in the summer and food has been abundant at every one I’ve been to. Plus my schedule has gotten thrown way off track more than once because of family medical issues which was a double whammy of it being hard to plan ahead for healthy food and high amounts of stress (and food has always been my big “go to” for comfort in times of stress).

Bottom line: when I got on the scale at Weight Watchers today, I weighed the same as I had in the middle of May. The 5 pounds I worked so hard to lose over the summer found me almost faster than I can say “sure I’ll have fries with that – make it a large!”

If you could see me right now, you would be seeing me sigh. I know it’s nobody’s fault but my own. I’m well aware that nobody forced me to open my mouth and shove food in it (I’m sighing again).

And everything that happened over the summer that challenged my weight loss efforts?

It’s life.

Things happen. I know it’s not always going to be smooth sailing.

Until I learn to deal with my stresses and emotions without turning to copious amounts of food, then I’ll always struggle with my weight (me and thousands of other people right?).

As always I know I have 2 choices: do it or don’t do it. I can “brush myself off” and get going on Weight Watchers again and renew my commitment. Or I can quit and let myself gain all the weight back I lost.

I’m not quitting.

(did you know? daffodils and rainbows are symbols of hope?)

It is the one that works for you.

That sounds like a load of bull, right?  It is true, though.

Here’s why: just like people are different and aren’t cut from the same “cookie cutter” mold, no one diet will work for everyone.  But, keep in mind that every diet boils down to the same basic principle of “less calories in than burned equals weight loss.”  The various diet plans, programs, surgeries, and pills just have a different way of getting there.

For me, after more than 25 years of trying practically every diet out there, along with several different “miracle weight loss pills” (the end result of which I became fatter than ever), I finally walked through the doors of a Weight Watchers meeting on the advice of my nurse practitioner.  I’ve now kissed 57 pounds good-bye, which is more than twice as much weight as I ever managed to lose at one time in the past (although I would now weight a negative number if I had kept off every pound I’ve lost over the years).

Why is Weight Watchers working for me?

1) No food is off limits. The food choices are completely mine.  There are no teeny portions of cardboard tasting foods or specific meal plans containing foods I hate (say the words “cottage cheese” and I’ll say the word “icky!).  Nothing makes me want a food more than when someone says I can’t have it.

2) Support via weekly meetings. It’s where I can ask any question I want and get all the help I need to stay motivated.  Plus for me, seeing other people losing weight makes me competitive which makes me work even harder to keep going.

3) Accountability on the scale. Believe me, that darn thing doesn’t lie (If I choose to eat 3 pieces of wedding cake, eat a huge plate of pasta, and have 5 margaritas the scale is completely willing to let me know!   And yes, I may have chosen to do this on at least one occasion…and the results weren’t pretty)

But Weight Watchers didn’t work for a friend of mine because she couldn’t handle making all her own food choices which resulted in her eating candy, chips and any unhealthy carb she could get her hands on every day.

She switched to the Curves weight loss plan because it limits carbs and has less food choices overall.  She found it easier to follow at first, but now she’s getting bored because she says “there’s only 5 menus I really like, so I keep rotating them and now I’m getting really sick of them.  I used to like chicken.  Now I almost want to run away screaming when I see it.”  It looks like she hasn’t found the right plan yet, but hopefully she will.

But while I like Weight Watchers and recommend it because it’s helping me get great results, I’m not going to wax poetic and say it’s the greatest thing in the world because I hate these things about it:

1) I absolutely loath writing down every bite of food I eat. It’s almost as bad as writing down every penny I spend, which I’m also doing in an attempt to get my spending under control (just think of any word that is the opposite of “fun,” multiply it by 10, and you’ll know how I feel about writing down what I eat and what I spend)

2) The weight loss is slow (like watching paint dry, but 20 times worse).  Yes, experts say people who lose weight slowly have the best chance of keeping it off (blah, blah, blah).  But, seriously, who wouldn’t want to take a magic pill before they go to bed one night and wake up the next morning skinny and looking great?

The good news is that there are a lot of weight loss books, plans, pills, and surgery options (if you are overweight enough to qualify) available to help a person lose weight.  The bad news is that there are a lot of options which can make the choice overwhelming.

Try to not get discouraged.  If one plan doesn’t work for you, try another one.

To help you, because we all have different needs and different lifestyles to take into consideration, ask yourself the following nine questions before choosing a diet for yourself:

1) How much time am I willing to spend preparing meals and snacks for myself?
- If you have zero time to shop or cook, consider a service that delivers meals to your door (Nutri-System and Jenny Craig are two popular programs)
- If you are willing to do at least some cooking and shopping then consider Weight Watchers – especially if you have a family and don’t want to have to prepare separate meals for yourself (just load your plate with more fruits and vegetables).

2) How much, if at all, am I willing to exercise?
- Exercise is a key part of health, but if you’re in poor health or extremely overweight, exercise can be difficult, at least at first.  I lost my first 20 pounds without doing any exercise at all (and I personally know someone who lost 50 pounds without exercising), but I started losing at a lot faster rate once I started exercising.
If exercise is really hard for you, don’t think you’re going to lose all your weight by signing up for a gym membership and working out for 2 hours every Start with a program that doesn’t require exercise, and then start exercising slowly once some of the weight comes off and you are feeling more energetic.   And, so exercise doesn’t seem so much like work, try to find something you enjoy doing (for example – did you like riding bike or going swimming when you were a kid?)

3) Do I have health issues, such as diabetes, which can make some diet plans dangerous?
- It is always recommended that a person consult their health care professional before starting a diet, and it is crucial to do so if you have health issues so that your diet isn’t further endangering your health (because losing weight is supposed to make you healthier, not sicker).

4) Do I have time to attend meetings or to meet regularly with a counselor?
- If not, then don’t choose a diet plan/program that requires it.  You’ll only be setting yourself up for failure. If you have a crazy busy schedule, consider a program that has online support.

5) Am I motivated enough to go it alone without the benefit of meetings and regular weigh-ins on the scale or do I need that accountability?
- If yes, then buy a weight loss book or join an online program.  If you need accountability then choose a program that provides it.  It’s not bad to need accountability.  It’s just how some of us are (I completely need accountability or I go off the deep end and eat all the junky food I can get my hands on.  There’s nothing like the thought of weighing in the next day to get me to pull my hand out of the chip bag).

6) How fast do I think I need to lose weight?
- If you think you have to lose 20 pounds in the next month so that you look great for your class reunion, stop and think about why you want to lose weight.  You’ll have the best chance of success if you do it for yourself, not for someone else and not because of a specific event.  Also, keep in mind that the faster you lose weight, the less likely you are to keep it off.
If you are determined to lose a lot of weight very quickly, consider a medically supervised program, such as Medifast

7) Am I willing to consider surgery or diet pills to help me achieve my weight loss goals? (Keep in mind that surgery and pills can have serious risks.  According to Web MD, 1.5 percent of people who undergo gastric bypass surgery die from the surgery itself or from complications of the surgery)
- Thousands of people have weight loss surgery every year with many people being able to lose the weight and keep it off.  It’s not a magic elixir though.  If you have your stomach made smaller, you will have to eat small meals.  If you don’t you’ll get sick and run the risk of complications.  I have a friend who had gastric bypass surgery several years ago.  She lost the extra weight and has kept it off, but she has to take a handful of supplements every day, cannot drink liquid at the same time she eats solid food (because her stomach fills up too fast) and has to eat very small meals.  She says it was really tough at first emotionally because she still wanted to eat for comfort and not only when she was truly hungry.
- Diet pills work for some people, but they are obviously not magic.  Otherwise everyone would have taken them by now and nobody would be overweight.

8 ) How motivated am I to stick to a diet to lose the weight? Hint: Wishing you could lose weight is not good enough.  You have to want to lose weight more than just about anything else in your life because it’s hard, especially if you have more than 20 pounds to lose.
- Don’t start any diet, NONE, unless you are 100 percent committed to losing weight.  If you don’t want it really bad then don’t start because you’ll only fail.  You have to be ready to undertake the task because it may very well be the hardest thing you ever do in your life (and no, I am not kidding).  I’m not trying to discourage you or be mean.  I’m talking from personal experience.

9) How much money do I have to spend on a diet plan?
- You can spend zero dollars on a diet plan and you can spend more than ten thousand dollars on a diet plan/program/surgery.  If you have no money to spend, check diet books out from the library or use online resources to help you.  Otherwise, tailor your plan to your budget.  Currently, it costs me about $40 a month for Weight Watchers, excluding the gas it costs me to drive to weekly meetings.  It’s well worth the cost to me.  You may have more or less than that to spend.
Keep in mind that the more services provided, the most the program is likely to cost.  Meal delivery services easily run into hundreds of dollars a month.  But, it might be just the thing you need to get that extra weight off which will likely save you thousands in medical costs down the road.

I wish I could make it easy for you and say that “X” is the best diet for everyone but unfortunately I can’t.  We all have different needs, different budgets, differing amounts of free time, and different levels of health that are factors.  Take the time to consider what yours are so that you can find the best diet for you, which is the one that helps you get rid of the extra pudge!

Why?  Because my warped mind was sure that even though she would be completely supportive out loud, that in her mind she would be thinking “how could you be such a pig that you gained 12 pounds in 3 weeks?”    Yes, 12 pounds.  It’s horrible.  A pound is 3,500 calories which means I ate 42,000 extra calories during those 3 weeks or an average of an extra 2,000 calories a day.  Is it any wonder that I’m fat?  Talk about complete lack of self-control

How do I know I gained 12 pounds?  Even though I couldn’t face the scale at Weight Watchers I got on my scale at home Monday morning when my “skinny” pants felt tight.  That’s when I snapped out of the food induced fog I was under and remembered that I can’t eat anything I want without consequences (it was also when I resolved that I would go to Weight Watchers Tuesday morning, which I then changed to Wednesday evening, which I then changed to Thursday morning, and which then became “not this week”).

I got on the scale again this morning even though I almost never weigh myself at home and was happy to see I’ve lost 6 of those pounds, which is a lot to have lost over the last 4 days but I was really bloated on Monday morning so I knew I had several pounds of water weight hanging around on me.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that I still have 8 more pounds to lose to get back to where I was a month ago.

It’s pretty depressing but at least I’ve put a stop to the backsliding before I gained back all the weight I lost (plus an extra 5 or 10 pounds just for it to be more upsetting).

Why am I telling you this?  It’s certainly not because I’m proud of what I’ve done.  Part of it is selfish.  I hope that by writing about my struggles and putting them “out there” for everyone to see, that it will help motivate me to finally get all the extra weight off.  The other part is that I’m hoping I can help at least one other person see that even if there are bad days (or bad weeks) of overeating, it doesn’t mean a person should give up.

Yes, I lost the “battle of the bulge” (not funny, but true) over the last several weeks.  But I’m determined to not lose the war I’ve declared on my fat.

I know I have to get my butt back at Weight Watchers next week even though there’s no way I’ll have all that extra weight off.  I’m hoping I can keep my resolve and get there.

I did okay until the middle of July, managing to pare 7 pounds off between May 1 and July 15.

Then, as my husband likes to put it “life happened.”  My Mom had some health issues, one of our children was injured and needed surgery, and then last weekend we had a family wedding. Plus in between we had lots of other parties (why do they all revolve around food?)

Can you guess what I did when I got stressed?  Yep, I ate and I didn’t eat just anything.  I was really picky about only consuming foods high in sugar, fat, carbs and starch.  Forget the carrots and apples.  They held all the appeal of a piece of cardboard.

Plus, because things we so out of whack and crazy in my life I missed some of my Weight Watchers meetings  and up until July I hadn’t missed a meeting since the beginning of the year.

At the beginning of August I started pulling myself back together.  I found the courage to go to Weight Watchers and step on the hated scale and was thrilled I had only gained 2 pounds.

For some reason that led me to think I could continue to be haphazard about what I put in my mouth (cuz after all only gaining 2 pounds after eating junky food for 3 weeks wasn’t too bad).

And, then all hell broke loose last weekend with my eating.  I didn’t pay attention to what I ate at all (although I can tell you I had 3 pieces of wedding cake).  I gained 6 pounds over the weekend!  I can hardly believe that’s possible but my scale at home gave me the same horrifying number each of the 11 times I stepped on it hoping it was wrong!

That means I had a sum total of zero progress since the beginning of May 2009.  I’ve gained back every pound I lost the 3 months and I feel like it.

The clothes I purchased this summer in a “just fit me size” are a little snug and I feel completely lethargic.

Now I have 2 choices.  I can either get back on track and be more determined than ever to lose weight.  Or I can give up and gain back all the weight I’ve lost since September 2008 (I’m still down 50 pounds despite my dismal summer).

I’m choosing to get back and track and start once again.

Even though going to Weight Watchers tomorrow and stepping on the scale is going to be incredibly painful and disheartening, I have only myself to blame.  Nobody forced me to eat anything.  All the junk I ate was, unfortunately, a decision I made.  And nobody told me I had to cut back on my exercising.  I just got lazy.

So, here’s to starting over one more time!

I know I can do it.

Almost everybody seems to have an opinion about which weight loss product or plan works best.

I think my success so far (57 pounds and counting!) is testament to how well it works and here’s 7 top reasons why I’m following it:

1 – it’s working (insert happy dance here).

2 – no food is off limits so I can actually go out to eat if I want or have a bowl of popcorn for dinner if I choose to do so.

3 – there are no pills (which may later turn out to be more dangerous to a person’s health than the extra pounds of blubber).

4 – no dangerous “weight loss surgery.”

5 – no “liquid” meal replacements.

6 – not forced to eat prepackaged meals unless I choose.  (Sorry Nutri-System but those photos I see of your food on television do not look appetizing at all and those photos are meant to show the food in the best possible light! That ice cream looks exactly like frozen ice crystals with about a teaspoon of fat free milk in it – yuck!

7 – lots of support from my leader (called a “facilitator” now but I think that sounds dumb) and from other members at the meetings where no question or concern is too stupid or silly to ask (seriously).

I’ve been dealing with a plateau for the past month.  The same 2 1/2 pounds has been plaguing me – down, up, down, up…..grrrrr!

I’ve been happy, mad, frustrated, sad, hopeless and completely ticked off.

Last week when I weighed in at Weight Watchers I let my frustrations pour out to my leader (yes, I know I’m supposed to call her a facilitator now but I think it sounds stupid).  She calmly listened and then suggested I quit trying to lose for a few weeks and instead try to maintain since my emotions were all over the place ever since I reached 50 pounds.

It made sense even though I resisted for a couple of minutes.  My emotions have been all over the place.  I was ecstatic when I got my 50 pound reward.  I felt as skinny as Twiggy!  Then I got depressed when I realized that I wasn’t even halfway to my goal (I want to lose 120 pounds). Maybe I did need a break.  So the next day I added a few points to my daily allowance just like anyone who was going on maintenance would…..and then…..I proceeded to pig out!

I decided since I was going to “maintain” that it would okay to drink a regular Pepsi (the full octane stuff with something like 15 teaspoons of sugar in it).  The first Pepsi was so good I decided to have a second..then a third, fourth, and fifth.  While in the middle of my Pepsi binge I got hungry for chips and found a half bag of stale Chili Cheese Corn Chips in my pantry so I ate (inhaled) all of them even though they were more chewy than crunchy.

Then, since I had blown the day anyway I decided to take a trip to McDonalds for a Big Mac and fries….can’t really tell you why – by then I was in a food induced haze and couldn’t stop myself from shoving my mouth full of fatty, high calorie food.

After my McDonalds binge I felt sick.  What a surprise, right?

A bike ride seemed like the right thing to do in an effort to burn off a few of the junk food calories I had just consumed.

The bike ride was hell.  Even though I had consumed enough calories and sugar to satisfy a small elephant I could barely muster up enough energy to get through my normal 10 mile bike ride.  Plus, the farther I got into my ride the sicker I felt.  I was gassy from all the soda and had to fight the urge to jump off my bike and “hurl” into the bushes.

Then and there I vowed to remember how eating that junk made me feel.

The next day, last Thursday, I got up and decided to get back on track with Weight Watchers.  I ate healthy the rest of the Weight Watchers week (I weigh in on Tuesday mornings so my “Weight Watchers” week is Tuesday through Monday), exercised, and drank a lot of water.  Plus I didn’t let myself get on the scale at home (no need to take the risk of further depressing myself).

At weigh in yesterday I was down 4 pounds!

My leader thinks my binge shocked my system all to heck.  She cautioned that I shouldn’t do the binge every week but she reminded me how she often tells people during our meetings to go ahead and use all their extra weekly points in one day when their weight loss is at a standstill in order to get their metabolism burning up calories again.  The problem is that most people resist that suggestion and are too horrified to even consider it cuz how can temporarily eating more mean losing weight?

It does work.   Of course, it doesn’t mean a person should eat the junk I did.  Healther eating is a better idea.

I’m officially down 55 pounds and have now made it through several plateaus.

What have I learned?

For me, the best way to get through those plateaus and start getting the weight off again is to do something different – to shake things up and kind of confuse my body.  During one I started drinking lots more water; then I upped my exercise; then I significantly upped my fruits and veggies; then I changed my exercise routine.  They all worked and got me through plateaus in two or three weeks.

The problem was that when I hit this plateau I didn’t know what to do differently.  I was drinking lots of water, eating lots of fruits and veggies, and had an exercise routine that I could change some – but didn’t see a lot of room for change (mostly because the weather is finally nice – no snow – and I’m working hard to get my “butt” conditioned for long bike rides).

I was so close to giving up but I stuck with it (such a change from the last 150 times I tried to lose weight – I was always giving up.  I just may finally have my head screwed on right).

The thing that helped me the most was continuing to go to Weight Watchers and not skipping a meeting or avoiding weigh in.  Being in that meeting room with other people who understand how difficult it is to get those pounds off and having an understanding leader made the difference for me.

Now it’s onward and forward for me…..working on losing that weight one day (and sometimes “one minute”) at a time.