Last week I discussed the whys. Why I joined weight watchers, why I’ve stayed with it & why I’m passing that information on. This week is a little bit deeper. This week it’s about the how, or at least the start of the how. Like most people I didn’t know really anything about Weight Watchers & I felt that as a guy, I’d feel very out of place there. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I was worried about all the things I’d be asked to buy or guilted into purchasing so I could be a part of the program & again I couldn’t have been more wrong.
First thing and I believe this to be the most important, about weight watchers I want to clear up is this: It is NOT a diet program. Weight Watchers is a lifestyle. No there are no special foods to buy or gadgets that you have to get or some crazy restrictions. What it means is that it’s your lifestyle. It’s your program. The concept is simple, but a pretty powerful switch in how you look at things. For me, my lifestyle is that I still like having a bottle of coke once and a while. I enjoy having pizza or wings when I watch football with the guys. I like having me a nice steak & baked potato for dinner on occasion. What it doesn’t mean is that I do that every night of the week. The difference is choice. I get to have what I want, when I want it and how I enjoy it but now I’ve thought about it.
I guess the best way to describe this is through an illustration, so here goes: If I want to go watch the game with the guys and we’re going to go to Old Chicago for our favorite deep dish pizza on Monday night, then I don’t have Mc Donald’s. For lunch that day & instead of bacon & eggs for breakfast maybe I have cereal or oatmeal instead.
Now I know, that seems like a “duh” kind of thing and you’re right, it is. But let me ask you this, how much of our health & specifically taking care of ourselves isn’t?
Again, it’s time for an illustration to prove my point. Who hasn’t woken up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom or get a class of water and when you wander through the house you don’t turn on the lights because it’s your house and you know what you’re doing & half way across the room you stub your toe on the corner of the couch or step on the toy left laying out of place?
See, simple but we still look past it all the time and that’s what weight watchers helped me to do… to slow down & think. To make better choices and plan what I want to eat better. Are you starting to see why it’s not a diet? I’m not giving up anything, I’m not telling myself no I can’t have this or that or even starving myself to lose weight. I still have what I want, when I want and how I enjoy it, but now I’ve planned for it and I don’t feel deprived or hungry but I love weight.