The controversy of diets

I haven't had as many comments as were made regarding my last post. My goodness!

Rather than leaving an extra long comment in there, I decided that another post is in order.

Diets are an interesting thing. We Americans keep getting fatter as more and more diets come out of the woodwork. Most are ridiculous. Somewhere along the line the word "diet" changed from meaning "what you consume" to "a tyrannical method of starving and or depriving yourself in any manner of ways".

I've already experienced the latter definition through a clinically healthy and "successful", but realistically short-term diet called Medifast. I did really well while I was on the diet (which consists of consuming 5 of their "shakes" and 1 "lean and green" meal). Worked well, but was boring and I couldn't take it after a while. It took all the joy out of food and never taught healthy eating habits.

I never gained back ALL or more of the weight I lost, but gained a lot of it back.

I realized after that experience that any kind of drastic diet was NOT going to work, at least for me. None of this fad diet stuff for me. I need to allow myself the things I like to eat, or know that I can eat something I want every once in a while without blowing my weight-loss plan to hell. Otherwise, I go nutso with the deprivation!

Enter, Weight Watchers.

(Sidenote: WW may or may not be for you. You may or may not like it....whatever. I will be talking about it, and hopefully I won't sound like an advertisement, but I may. Just deal with it. *smile* )

I've been generally trying to eat a balanced diet and not overeat, which is probably why I haven't ballooned to a size even larger than I was pre-Medifast, but it just wasn't working. Granted, I was also being lazy and not really doing a whole lot of active stuff. What I lacked was accountability. I could sneak in and "forget" about that huge brownie, or whatever.

So, after the wakeup call I described earlier, I thought about my choices and decided to check out the WW website. After talking with some people who have used the program, I realized that it was very realistic, and that I could do it.

I don't see WW as a "diet" (latter definition). I see it as an accountability and reference tool to help me eat the right amount of food to be able to lose weight AND still eat the things I like (just in better moderation). I log what I eat, it gives me the "points" values and I can plan around special events. Now that I've used it for nearly 2 weeks, I can see that it's definitely going to be good.

I'm not obsessing, but I'm eating a lot healthier. I could still eat like crap, but just eat less of it, if I wanted to, but the accountability factor built into the program (even though it's just me and my computer tallying things up) challenges me to choose foods that are healthier. I still enjoy what I eat and I don't feel guilty over every little bite of chocolate. And I can even splurge every once in a while for a date with Nathan :-)

Oh, and yesterday was my first weigh-in day, and I've lost one pound already! Within a year, I should be at my goal weight and I'm excited about that. Everything happened together for a reason, and I am at the point where I know I can do this. it's not about how I look. I like myself and know that those who are important to me love me the way I am. It's about being healthy and setting myself up to live healthier, be more active, and be an example to my future kids. I want to teach them healthy habits from an early age.

The added plus is that when Nathan and I get married, I'll be feeling even more sexy than I already do and be the healthiest I've ever been! Woohoo for that!