Weight Watchers, of all things

Over the years, I’ve watched my hair stylist, an attractive woman around my age. I’ve seen her hair change shape and color, of course – that’s her job, after all. I’ve also seen her body change. It happens as you get older, as you have kids, as you get stressed and overworked and overwhelmed. It happened to me, god knows. And I almost liked that she too gained weight with the years. Nice to have companionship in this image-conscious land of the skinny. But last time I saw her, toward the end of June, she looked great.

When I complimented her, she beamed and told me she’d lost seventeen pounds on Weight Watchers. She said she had more to go, and I could see that she did, but it was amazing the difference that much of a loss made. Her face looked different, less full. Her body, that too, of course. I wasn’t jealous. I was encouraged. If she could do it, maybe I could too.

A week later, I brought Damian to a kiddie gym class with his buddy Corey. Corey’s mom complimented the instructor, a faux-grouchy older man, on his noticeable weight loss. He beamed and said he’d lost thirty five pounds on Weight Watcher’s.

Weight Watchers again. Hmm. I read through the growing thread on TUS, puzzling out if this was something I could do. I started following along at home. I couldn’t count points but I could become more conscious of what I ate. I dropped four pounds in two weeks. Well, good. But ten pounds is my wall. I get to ten pounds and something happens – I face a buffet, a yearning for chocolate, a panic attack. I eat. And once I give in to the urge, I’m off the wagon but good. Until next time, when I lose that ten pounds and hit that selfsame wall again.

I joined Weight Watchers. I like its commonsense approach. No fad diets here, just a simple calculation of calories, fat and fiber (the points system), with encouragement to exercise and eat your fruits and veggies. I’ve been to eleven meetings now, weighed in and participated in the meeting afterward.

I’ve lost eighteen pounds so far. I'm well past that ten pound barrier and truly addicted to the process. Like my stylist back in June, my face and body have already transformed. It’s happened in such small increments, I look in the mirror and wonder how it happened at all, where the changes I see came from. But I can’t wait to go in for my next haircut and show her what she started.

Posted by Tamar at October 5, 2003 03:29 PM