Forever Fighting Fat: The Never Ending Weight Loss Journey

Newspaper Column on Positive Thoughts

I'm very proud of this weeks column. I've been re-reading Louise Hay's book, "You Can Heal Your Life" and it really inspired me. The post can be found here.

Some of What we do is Obvious

Sitting at my usual table, at my usual coffee house, at the usual time, I'm not sure I "read" my newspaper, per se. I glance at an article, absorb a few lines, and then give myself the luxury of letting...

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Latest Column

My column this week is a humorous one about an invention everyone needs to lose weight. If you'd like to read it, please see it online at here.

Review of Weight Watchers Momentum Plan Books: Week 3

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I decided it would be a good idea to provide a very brief overview of each of the new books in the 2009 Weight Watchers Momentum Plan. In case you're unaware, when you join Weight Watchers, you get a new pamphlet/book each week for the first ten weeks that you're a member. Each of these books is designed to help you with some aspect of losing weight. Week two was designed to help with increasing activity. Week three is set up to help you stay ahead of hunger, which is the title of the booklet.

Book 3: Listening to Your Body's Signals
Stay Ahead of Hunger

 

It's been mentioned by several people that the Momentum plan is not a big change from the Flex and Core Plans used for the last few years. As a matter of fact, it's been called the "Flore" plan by some as it incorporates the best of both programs (IMHO).  However, if there has been a shift, it's more in the direction of getting members to eat healthy as opposed to "lose weight." After all, one can be at her correct weight and still be unhealthy. But, if you're healthy, you will naturally be at your correct weight (whatever that is).  One of the reasons I'm such a proponent of Weight Watchers is because they've never been an organization that's out to con people with quick fixes or false promises; it's always been about the health and changing habits. That said, this program takes it the furthest.

Table of Contents

This pamphlet/book/booklet (I don't know what to call it) has several section in the TOC:

• Introduction
• Understand the power of your body's signals
• Recognize hunger, satisfaction, and fullness
• Respond in a healthy way
• Your next steps

Introduction

In this brief section, WW sets the stage for the booklet, pointing out how important it is to understand your body's signals about hunger and food.

These couple of paragraphs set the stage for the remainder of the book. There's also a very brief blurb promoting how Week 5 and Week 6 will be of value too. I think that's clever as it helps people realize there's more on the way.

Understand the power of your body's signals

This section (which includes a recipe for roasted fennel and carrots for zero points!) starts getting the reader to be aware of the "just right" feeling and provides a tip on the "Smartest Strategy" to accomplish it. They're trying to get readers to understand there is a wide gradient between empty and full. Extremes won't cut it.

Recognize hunger, satisfaction, and fullness 

Now we're getting into the "meat" of the proposal with some specific steps understand where on the  "hunger scale" you fall. In a nutshell (what's with all the food metaphors?) there are three basic stages:

Hungry
Satisfied
Full

Biggest changes in Weight Watchers new 2009 Momentum plan

I've been following the Momentum plan for a week now with my first weigh in in about one hour. (I think I might have lost 3-4 pounds, which for me is amazing!) Of course, in addition to following the program, I've conducted two (rather wobbly) "getting started sessions" for my members. Should you not be totally "up" on WW lingo, a "Getting Started Session"is the 30 minute session we do at the conclusion of the regular meeting. It's for new members. This week, which Weight Watchers calls "Conversion Week," we basically turn the entire meeting into a GSS.

I am what is called a "Diamond Leader." As near as I understand that, it means I'm in the top 20% of leaders in my area. I admit to being a little confused as to how that is determined but I'm still flattered and I've been a Diamond Leader for both years that it has been offered. I mention this not to brag -- well, OK, maybe a little -- but more so to point out that I am very comfortable with leading WW meetings. In my 20 years working for WW, I've probably conducted thousands of GSSs. Yet, for some reason, I'm awkward in doing this one. That said, last night I started getting my footing and I think that's because I finally decided that the changes from the Flex/Core plan to the Momentum Plan are more psychological than physical.

Don't get me wrong; that's not to say they are not substantial. Quite the contrary, you can change your actions all day and all night but if you don't change your thoughts, you'll still find yourself returning to old habits. Weight Watchers has always focused on habit change; that is not new. However, there seems to be more of an embrace this time.

Huh?

Yeah, right. OK, let me explain it a little better. The plan still uses points, which it has for the last decade or so. The daily points target, that amount you get each day, has not changed for any of my members. It's the same as it was in 2008. I have not noticed any major changes in points values of any foods.  In my opinion, what has changed however, is the emphasis put on "filling foods,"  hunger levels, activity, and liquids.

Filling Foods

Barack Obama "Falls off the Wagon"

I was watching Meet the Press this morning. (I had a choice between Condoleezza Rice on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" or President-Elect Obama on Meet the Press. It was a no-brainer.) Most of Tom Brokaw's discussion with the incoming president was about the important issues we face: national security, domestic issues, finances, etc. However toward the end, Brokaw asked Mr. Obama about smoking. Here's the exchange:

So what does that have to do with weight loss?

Staying Focused, Feeling Sad, Moving Forward

 I am -- or was -- in a real funk today. I'm a little better now but I though it would help (me) to share it.

I just woke up that way and I can't trace it to anything in particular. It's just like a big giant dark cloud is hanging over my head. I've got enough therapy behind me to let me know that it's OK to feel down once in a while; it's actually healthy. But, I've got enough of a "fixer" in me to also tell me that it's OK to try and figure out why and fix the damn thing.

I mean, when I think about things on the grand scale, I'm doing better than most. And, if one looks at my "seven lessons of prosperity," prosperity, that feeling of being OK with most of the world, is a "most of the time kind of thing." I think it's more on a the small scale. But, what the hell, I'm getting philosophical. It doesn't matter. It still feels like crap and when I feel like crap, I am more inclined to eat without control. That won't solve a thing, so I've got to do something different.

So, I did a little thinking and several things are bothering me:

Staying Balanced in an Uneven World

I spent last weekend with my wife on the Smith River (see previous post). I spent a lot of time writing and figuring out where I "want to be." Being a "solopreneur," I can get dragged in so many directions. I get stressed. I eat. Repeat cycle.

So, following the advice of my dear friend and accountabilibuddy, Rich DiGirolamo, I decided to take some time and write. I mean, actually write, none of this computer stuff (like I'm doing now).

So, I sat and wrote. Who am I? What do I do? What do I enjoy? What do I want to stop doing? You know, all those light, easy-to-answer questions that don't affect one's life. Simple stuff. (Yeah, right.) It helped. It gave me some clarity -- and some confusion.

I decided:

Dying Young or Keeping a Food Diary?

Today's winner of the no-duh award goes to the Kaiser Permanente study that found out that keeping a food diary doubles diet weight loss. OK, that's a little mean because it is a valid study, but it shows that people who keep food diaries lose more weight than people who don't. At WW, diaries, journals, or "quick track systems" as they're now called, have been a staple of the program since I joined in 1971.

There was a also a study not too long ago that said that the reason so many people gain weight -- or at least don't lose it -- is because people who DO NOT keep track of their fod intake tend to underestimate how much they eat.  The New England Journal of Medicine said they eat by as much as 47 percent more then they think they are eating and  overestimate physical activity by as much as 51 percent That's an amazing statistic when you think of it.

Let's say one only underestimates her intake by 25%. I mean that's still a lot but less than the maximum. The average woman needs about 1200 to 1500 calories to maintain her weight. (To use a calculator to figure out what you need -- your BMR -- go to this post.) So, if she's off by 25%, that's about 300 to 400 calories a day. Since it takes 3500 calories to put on a pound, she'll be putting on a pound about 10 days! (Sound familiar?)

By tracking what you eat, you become conscious and aware. That unto itself tends to slow down what you eat. (Even after maintaning my weight as long as I have, I still keep a food diary.)

So, what's the comment in the headline about "dying young?"

Ethical Question/Survey/Poll about Habit Change

OK, here's the question. Supposed someone came to you and said he could guarantee you would never again have to battle weight (or whatever your bad habit is). You would be "cured" of all cravings. You would never want to go off your program. However, the price would be that for the rest of you life, you had to follow a very specific, unyielding, exact program and could not waver, no matter what the circumstances. If you made one slip, you were off the program and regained all your weight and could not start again, would you give up all choice to achieve that?

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