Discipline for staying on Weight Watchers

Smart Socratics left this comment on my blog today:

Do tell how you found the discipline for Weight Watchers. I can't seem to keep it together long enough to actually lose weight!

I am no guru - far from it - when it comes to weight loss and the discipline required to diet successfully. Re. discipline or will-power to kick an adiction, I managed to quit smoking in my twenties - relapsed many years later, but did quit again for good (it took me years, though, not to crave a cigarette when I saw others smoke; now seeing people smoking, and smelling smoke, disgusts me, but I do feel Barack Obama's pain in his struggle to quit smoking.)

I think that I got determined to make this diet/exercise plan work (i.e. I became "motivated") once I realized - with great alarm - that I had put on about 25 pounds in roughly a two to three year period. I had known since this summer that things were really not good (I had to buy a brand new summer wardrobe because none of my summer clothes fit anymore.) I had also noticed that I had begun to look "chubby" on photographs taken this past year. Yet, I did nothing. It was only when I had to step on the scale at my doctor's, whom I was seeing for a very bad cold in early September, that reality hit me in the face.

At that point, I knew that only Weight Watchers could work (I had tried South Beach for roughly two weeks about two years ago, it had been a complete fiasco), I had had discussions about this with a blogger who blogs about her weight loss program and is a proponent of Weight Watchers. Also, a friend from Philadelphia visited me in early September and told me that she had lost 20 lbs between March and August 2008 on Weight Watchers and urged me to join "now" - which I did.

The minute I started, I decided that nothing would deter me from losing that weight and getting into a disciplined exercise routine. And I was very strict with this program (through sheer motivation and will-power and, believe me, my will-power is pretty thin, generally speaking), until I stayed with Marty for Christmas and New Year.

For one, Marty is a big guy who loves to cook and eat (so do I), and who can eat a lot (I was actually good about not eating excessive amounts of food), and his food choices are not always low calorie, although I would not deem them unhealthy either (except for the occasional breakfast of bacon and eggs.) One problem was that we did tend to have a few more drinks than normal over the holidays, and I did not really stick to the one drink a day or less rule. I had also no way of getting some exercise everyday - too cold to take long walks outdoors and, where he lives, it's kind of hard to just take a nice walk, and our schedule was a little hectic as well - tough to fit in exercising time. Excuses, excuses, I know. But I also did not try to keep up much with the diet and exercise for those two weeks, because I knew that I would just be there for two weeks.

Surprisingly, I gained only about 2 lbs over the entire length of my trip (three weeks, if I include my stay in Providence with my daughter and her boyfriend.) I can lose that in fairly little time if I apply myself.

As to where I found the discipline for Weight Watchers? Probably within myself, but I also made sure to put myself in a situation where I would be accountable - i.e. I'd have to go to meetings and get weighed weekly (obviously, I have not been to a meeting in three weeks!). Even though I do not like this type of rah-rah group environment, I am aware that it works for this. Here are also a few things that I also keep in mind when I find this regimen a bit tough:

- I want to get back into my old clothes (I am already wearing stuff that I had not worn in over a year.)
- I do not want to have to go up to another size up when buying new clothes (I have not, since I did lose about 17 pounds by now.)
- I think about whether it is worth it to overindulge - i.e. will the price that I will pay for it, in terms of weight gain, be worse than the pleasure that I will derive from having a bit too much food or too many beers? (Obviously, I let that go a bit during the past two weeks - but the stress that it would have caused me to constantly monitor what I ate and drank, which you have to do when on Weight Watchers, would have caused me too much grief during that time.)
- If I don't particularly feel like going to the gym, I ask myself how I will feel if I don't go. That usually gets me right off my butt and to the rec center (and my i-Pod is salvation once I am there!).
- The pounds will go away, and this will feel amazingly rewarding (note that I consider myself exceedingly lucky to have lost those 17 lbs in just two months.)
- This is great for my health, especially since I do have a tad of a cholesterol problem (I will try to get it re-tested very soon to see where I stand with it now.)

I do believe that the little masochist in me does like this, but the pleasure that I derive from being on this diet does not come solely from some sort of sick kick that I get out of depriving myself of a bunch of hedonistic pleasures such as eating fatty foods and being a couch potato. I feel happy that I look better and feel that I am in better shape than I was last summer, and that I can, once more, wear clothes that I really liked and could no longer wear. I've always been a bit obsessed with self-control, even though I do have huge problems with procrastination (that one is my 2009 battle), so I am very happy to have reclaimed some sort of self-control when it comes to eating well and keeping fit. This, in turn, contributes to keep me motivated and disciplined.

Finally, I also know that it's OK to "indulge" once in a while. I love pâté and charcuterie, and I would say that those are my greatest weaknesses when it comes to food (well, I also love pasta.) I cannot imagine never ever having those foods again for the rest of my life. Actually, I had a slice of pâté de campagne for lunch at that pseudo French bistro where Marty and I ate the other day near Chicago. What I need to keep in mind, though, is that indulging once is one thing, but going down the slippery slope where you overindulge daily is what needs to be avoided at all cost (although for ex-smokers, I would recommend NOT to have that one cigarette you crave, because it will lead you to smoke an entire pack within one day! I also realize that food is an addiction to some people, who cannot have just that one small dish of ice-cream or that handful of potato-chips - they have to have the whole half-gallon, or the whole bag... For them, I have really no advice, because I do not know how addictions are treated, and self-discipline is not enough here.)

Anyway, this was a rather long response to a quick question. Feel free to comment.