It is remarkable how good your food tastes when suddenly you are eating a whole lot less of it.
This is my observation after having been back on the program for one day.
Well, I want food to taste good! So I am very pleased with this outcome.
I am also very….challenged by my return to the points system. No pain no gain, right? Except in my case it’s “No pain I gain!”
Here’s the abridged explanation for anyone who might not know how the system works: With Weight Watchers, all of the food that you eat is assigned a number of “points” based on its calories, fat and fiber. In order to lose weight, you must limit your daily intake to a certain number, which in my case is 18 points.
This is hard work for a person who hasn’t been paying attention! I am naturally inclined to consume two or even three times that amount. Here’s but one example: if you look on the back of one of those $0.99 bags of Doritos, you will see that it contains three servings, not one. This was a helpful (albeit humbling) bit of information for me to learn.
So yes. There is a learning curve involved here as well as the need for ample recourse to that stern headmistress, Discipline. My body rebels when I tell it “No.” It pitches a fit and rejects any limits. Usually, though, when it is done with the tantrum and the tears it’s ready to listen.
Like today, for example.
During my Holy Hour this morning, I picked up Father Benedict Groeschel’s new book The Virtue Driven Life. Isn’t it “funny” how we often seem to turn to the very page that we’re in need of? I opened the book to the chapter on temperance, whereupon Fr. Groeschel suggested that we “look at our own intemperateness and see if unhappiness is causing it” (p. 84).
I guess I could spend some time meditating on that one.
He goes on to say that “many people are intemperate because they are miserable and suffering.” I tend to be neither extreme, thanks be to God, but I do find that I do the most over-eating when I am over-whelmed by my to-do list. Sitting down with a bag of Doritos is so much easier than sitting down with a basket of laundry! In the end, though, what makes us happiest?
Don’t answer that! : )
Finally, I loved Fr. Groeschel’s suggestion that we “enjoy what’s going on while it’s going on.” This is the ultimate goal of my going back to Weight Watchers: I want to eat to live and not live to eat.
But if I do happen to be eating, I want to like it, certainly.
And I want to like myself when I have finished.
Wow, to like yourself afterward is the big thing!! Hi Margaret, I love you so much and could not wait this morning to finally look you up!!! Just know you are in my prayers on your path to temperance! Your writing is so wonderful for me, it always makes me think about myself and my own life and changes that need to happen. (while reading this, I realized I really need a holy hour again, now that the baby is almost 10 mos., I think this can be done) With that holy hour, everything out of order in my life will fall into place, answers will come, peace will come again and those changes that need to happen, will.
I can’t wait to read what you’ve been posting…so here I go…..
I’m watching what I eat too and recognizing again that I too tend to not watch when I’m stressed or upset. I try to ‘ignore’ what goes in.. but then I CAN’T ignore what comes after.
I feel so much better already (just three days now) knowing that I’m treating my body as a temple again and that, as you said, I eat to live, not live to eat!
Happy Sunday, Margaret!
I am just the opposite. I eat when I’m happy (which is much of the time), and I lose when I’m under stress (rarely). This year I put on about 15 extra pounds. I too am trying to use lent as an opportunity for discipline.
Your examination of your “self” is so beautiful, and inspiring to the rest of us. Thank you!
Good luck Margaret, and enjoy your meals! Not only for temperance, but for better health and happiness as well.
Do you have any troubles with the pickiness and counting of the points diet? I find that I tire VERY quickly of counting everything I eat.
When I need to lose pounds, I usually start out with a strict counting to remind myself of portion sizes and healthier food choices, but then I like to move on to just making better choices and eating only what I need to satisfy hunger.
Otherwise, I think too much about food while trying to lose and I feel deprived. Even if I lose several pounds this way, I rebel afterward and gain it all back.
Also, when I want to lose I get cooking. It may sound strange, but I find that when I am trying new recipes and using a great variety of the freshest most flavorful ingredients, I enjoy the food through the whole cooking process– from store to table– so when it comes time to eat, it doesn’t take very much to satify me.
I could lose about five pounds right now (winter!)…so off to the kitchen!
Margaret, I have been thinking about doing this too (though I won’t be writing about it–LOL!) Thanks so much for sharing–it is very encouraging.
Loved the van story, btw. I too drive a large, suspicious, non-descript van!
I am in the throws of trying to lose weight as well as have been back and forth with WW. Since I’m nursing, I have this fear it won’t come off.
I’m trying to lose weight too. I’m doing an excerise class twice a week, but haven’t started real dieting yet. I’m looking into WW, since they have a modification of the program for nursing moms.
I have found that I eat when I’m down. Especially eating chocolate and other sweets. It’s a real struggle to have control in this area as I find myself eating before thinking about it.
Thanks for sharing your struggle in this area.
Jen and Jen: the Weight Watchers program for nursing moms is just the same, except you get 12 extra points a day!
I followed the program after I had Camille and the weight just dropped off–1 to 2 pounds a week until I reached my goal.
Hi Margaret–
Another Jennifer piping in here…I did WW last year and became Lifetime! I plan on starting it again after Easter. Little baby AJ will be 3 months by then! 🙂
I must say, Margaret, that only 18 points a day sounds very hard!! I had 32 when I started last time (because I was still nursing) and I was sooo hungry all the time! I am praying for you! Love and hugs!
Hi Margaret,
A fellow writer, blogger and renewed WWer here… I’ve been at WW since Oct. when I felt convicted I need more help in the temperance dept. It’s been a journey of grace, both with success of 22 lbs lost so far as well as gently dealing with my impatience with a 47 year old body in need of repair!
Let us pray for one another and to Our Lady of Perpetual Help:
O Mother of Perpetual Help, grant that I may ever invoke thy most powerful name, which is the safeguard of the living and the salvation of the dying. O Purest Mary, O Sweetest Mary, let thy name henceforth be ever on my lips. Delay not, O Blessed Lady, to help me whenever I call on thee, for, in all my needs, in all my temptations I shall never cease to call on thee, ever repeating thy sacred name, Mary, Mary.