August 23, 2014 - Topic of the day

julieworley376

Good morning! Things tend to be quiet on a weekend around here so not sure what we will get out of this but...

When something that is supposed to be good for you... isn't. That is the topic of the day. And it's inspired by my recent cancellation of Weight Watchers and the effect it has had on me.

I had fallen into a pattern I didn't really recognize until I quit. Ummm.. like banging your head against a brick wall and it feels great when you stop? Actually I imagine it doesn't.. but I digress. I have been a member of Weight Watchers for years and years... that's a lot of money.. because you see, the program works, but I wasn't doing anything right. For years. According to them. While according to me, I stuck to the program and tracked, weighed, measured carefully and would lose weight poorly, mostly not at all.. or in more recent times.. gain weight. It made me feel terrible about myself. Especially when the leader, who I happen to like a lot said things like.. you are looking for a magic bullet, you are responsible for what goes in your mouth, do you think you are different? No, no and NO.

What I have realized is that I would go back to class, get weighed in, be determined to stick to it, then I would make a mistake and think, I messed up so now I might as well not go till I can stick to it. The result was a roller coaster of emotions and bingeing and dieting. I was forever buying stuff and secret eating, it was crazy.

Then I decided to have lap band surgery, then I quit Weight Watchers.. then the craziness stopped. Yep, just like that.. and I have stopped gaining and I am maintaining my weight.

I still think the lap band is the right tool to help me take control. And I am not dissing WW as a program for people, the nutrition is sensible and it is regular food, but it didn't work for me, it wasn't good for me.

Is there anything you have tried you later realized that despite it being a good thing and supposedly good for you.. just didn't work for you at al?

persistentsoul

I have done several rounds with WW over the years and yes was a waist of money every time. For me i think it was too gentle in a way. They set the food intake at such a small deficit in the name of gradual weight loss being best but that leaves very little room for error and if for whatever reason the standard estimate based on thier calculation does not actually fit then there may not be any real deficit built in. It works well for WW because the longer it takes to lose weight the more money they get. That is what anoyed me most last time. My local group leader has been around years and also I would say is quite clearly not at her target weight and not got any smaller in that time. I found the weekly meetings very uninspiring and mostly they were used to promote WW products many of which were slightly "better" for you copies of regular junk food but with a bigger price tag and more chemicals added. It all seemed to be very much about them making lots of money and much less about encouraging people to eat real healthy foods and change relationship with food.

MFP is much better, at least this is free to use.

Exercise is the other thing that is meant to be good for me and i know it is good for me but often ends up being counter productive due to the indjuries incured. Blisters on feet, fibromyalgia pains, tendonitus, thigh chaffing, joint pains even from swimming. It seems like every time i get really enthused about excersise and start enjoying it then some injury or other leaves me imobolised. I am trying to keep to gentle walks for now , that is all i can manage anyway.

Another good one was when I watched that "Fat, sick and nearly dead" documentary film. I found it really inspiring so off i went to invest in a good juicer. All good, I ate all those lovely organic greens and veg with apple to make it drinkable. I tried it several times but after a 5 days each time i would get struck by bad thrush and cystitus at same time. So that idea of a brilliant health revolution died fast. My body is clearly very unsuited to sugars even natural ones. I was very anoyed because juicer was expensive and I really enjoyed drinking my beatroot, veg, apple and ginger juice thinking i was filling my body with supper nutrients, only to be left in extreme discomfort peeing acid and itching in very inconvienient places.

Then there was the raw food vegan diet i did once that left me with permanent stomache upset and shivering to the extent my teeth nattered while indoors wearing 5 jumpers (very effective for weight loss though as nothing stayed for very long once eaten).

There were the xenical / orlistat pills the doctor gave me that I would not take again if i were paid to. Whatever i ate even just vegand lean meat was converted in to foul smelling orange liquid that left my body when it felt like it regardless of if i were near a bathroon at the time, it also caused foul smelling gas. Very bad and took weeks to recover from even after stopping taking pills.

From now on I am sticking to eating real food and no pills other than vitamins.

julieworley376

LOL Ryan.. that is why we are all here.. we have a problem!!!

WOW Persistent.. you really have tried everything, as I suspect a lot of us have. And I hear you on the WW in fact it is actually making me feel better to hear it.. I am not the only one that failed.. I am not a failure.. WE are not failures. As I read in the book by Khaliah Ali I just finished, most overweight people have shown more discipline and more determination over their food than people who don't struggle with it ever could.

PatrickB_87

I've written several times about WW so most of you already know my feelings on it. I have used it on three occasions. The first when I was I youngest and managed to loose weight. But like all other times I eventually quit, especially the last two times as it was just a waste. I was horrible at tracking and hated the point system (i I just want to know what I'm doing, don't hide it behind points), and being the only male in the room never helped. The public weigh-ins were anxiety inducing and the meets always felt like product sales pitches. I say all this while knowing I have lost weight on it ( but I gained all that back and 150 extra a long time ago and well after I left ) and that my parents have lost weight on it. One is a lifetime member with still a little more to go and my mother has just started again. They have both been on and off it just as many times as me.

I see my mother having to deal with figuring out points and putting them into the app and all I can think is, calories are so much easier. She was talking about a pedometer they offered but told me that you have to buy the device and then pay a monthly fee to use the only system and they don't work with any other devices or apps. Really, WTF is that? All I can say is that I am happy not to be doing it and you couldn't pay me to. I am loosing weight at a steady rate, I know what I am eating and how to eat. I am informed and in control, more then I can say about my experiences with WW. And except for the occasional ads on apps and the rather sad MFP blog, I have no one constantly trying to sell me something.

With MFP i've had no issues tracking. It's become habit.

Oh Ryan, you will buy the iwatch or whatever they call it (i hope they don't call it that). Which is fine, enjoy it. Though your right, it will have little to do with your weight loss. I have a fitbit flex and use several apps and the only thing I use them for are the bits of information hey give me that make things a little easier and mostly only to add exercise calories.

melissasue0317

My experience with WW sounds completely different from everyone's. When I joined WW it was the WW at work program, easy, with ppl I know of-not necessarily that I knew well. The weighins were completely discreet and amazing support group. I lost just over 70lbs with WW. I just recently stopped due to a job change within the company and could no longer participate in the group. I was active w them for 10 months.

My losing weight on my own is more difficult for me bc I find myself trying new diet things like more good fats or low carb etc. I feel I could easily start to yoyo again. So back to the WW mindset I go. Not tracking points plus bc I no longer pay for that but tracking the calories in MFP. Everything can be good in moderation and if slow loss still means long term loss, I am happy with that.

I may return to WW one day of I feel I'm off track, for me it helped show me that healthy eating is a balance. I could definitely see the push for buying specific WW products but our group leader did not personally do that. She brought in local sales ads and products that she liked or other members liked, and loved sharing the cheaper cost for good food.

Also, I debate constantly on which cool new toy to get to help and ultimately do not buy any. I do not exercise enough yet to utilize it properly. But my work schedule is finally leveling out in a new position that should allow me to plan better.

carostad

I've done Weight Watchers a few times. I basically like the program, but agree it feels like a sales pitch. And, the recipes some people would share during meetings drove me cuh-RAZY! 1 cup of fat free cream cheese, 4 tablespoons of Splenda, 1 package of sugar free Jello instant pudding, 1 package of fat free sugar free cool whip, uhhhhhhh, where's the real food in there? How can that possibly be good for someone who's trying to improve their health???? I just didn't get it. And, if anything, it made me feel very contrary and want to run out and do the exact opposite of what other people were doing.

I did like the accountability of weekly weigh ins, and never had a problem with points (not much different than tracking on MFP if you use the Weight Watchers app....) but $45/month is hard on a single income with two homeschooled kids. I had success while using the program, but giving it up was not so good for me mentally. I've also watched lots of people yoyo using WW, and feel like if I'm going to make this lifestyle stick even after I've achieved what I want to achieve, I need to make sure the tools are available to me, no matter what. MFP is free, I can keep it up for as long as I want, and if it goes away, the program I'm using is my own, so I can find something else to make it work.

Took a reallllly long hike yesterday. I'm pretty sore today but I plan to at least do my daily 2 mile walk later. We were hiking for 3 hours, took a "shortcut" out of the woods to get back to the car and ended up 6 miles from the car because there were no roads to get us there and we couldn't find our way back to the trail. Had to ask a random stranger for a ride back to the car, which was an adventure in itself. Fortunately she was a boy scout mom and was very sympathetic to our plight. I left my hiking stick in her car and had to go back a few hours later to pick it up. She must think we're beyond crazy, lol. I've been joking about stopping by today to borrow a cup of milk or something. Hehehehe....

Hope everyone is having a good weekend! Looks like it might rain here soon so I'm going to get outside quickly.

KnitOrMiss

On the stopping of things that were supposed to be good for you but weren't, I about did my own head in with a challenge at work. Weigh ins were Fridays, so I would restrict my activity and food and such Thursday, so as not to retain additional, and it kept stretching out to where I wasn't do anything for myself. It was so awful. I gained at the end of the challenge because I'd given up. When it was over, within 2-3 weeks I lost about 7-8 pounds.

Also, I'm discovering with my body chemistry that things I've always eaten and considered good for me like bananas and melon, etc., really are NOT good for someone with my particular body chemistry. They cause massive blood sugar spikes and drops, despite the fact that I am not diabetic, hypoglycemic, or insulin resistant. My body just doesn't like them. And that used to be my go to breakfast!

I did WW informally for a while (someone gave me their tracking info), but I never understood the "underpinnings" and so it never really worked for me... Glad to hear stories from both sides of it!

mikesgirl4evr

What I've stopped doing that was supposed to be good for me but wasn't. Like everyone else I have done WW way too many times and had all the same problems so I won't expand on that one. The biggest thing I've done really has more to do with frame of mind than it does actually "doing" something. Mine is going on a diet. Everyone has always told me that going on a diet to lose weight is good for me but it has never worked. This time around I have changed "going on a diet" to "making lifestyle changes" and it has made a world of difference. I no longer feel as if I'm denying myself anything and that this is something I can stick with. Going on a diet always set me up for failure. Making lifestyle changes and accepting that I won't always be perfect have finally set me up for success.

KnitOrMiss

Dee, that is what has helped me stay on this path, if rockily so right now, realizing that dieting - anything temporary would not work. I've been working to make sustainable changes... Well, they were sustainable until my fiance was let go from his job, presumably because of some trumped up charge, but we all know it was because he was requesting accommodations for his disabilities...proving that, however, is impossible without a lawsuit. When he was "terminated," our finances took a nose dive and I can't afford anything now... So the changes I worked so hard to make are out the window in favor of survival. Sucks... But, the mindset of changing my habits, my brain, my body, and my mindset is the only thing that has made any of this even seem possible!!!

mikesgirl4evr

Carly, I can completely relate to financial issues. With Michael and i both on disability and him losing half of his to child support and add paying off a very large bill, money has been beyond tight around here. Thankfully, the large bill is paid off so now I can work on getting everything else caught up. I'm beginning to see a light at the end of a 4 year tunnel. I don't care what people say, it costs more to eat healthy and I will argue that point with anyone. Some things that I found when times were the worst was to control what I could: log my intake every day (I changed my calorie goal to something like 4000 so I knew I would never go over but logging every day kept me in the habit), drink my water every day and get my exercise in. Then when things got better, I slowly lowered my calorie goal. I also didn't weigh during that time because I didn't want that number on the scale to cause the guilt, etc. that comes from the larger number. Then when I did weigh in I had to remember that yes the scale was going to be up but that didn't define who I was. I had done the best I could with what I had.

My brother had the same thing happen to him as your fiance. My brother is morbidly obese and has congestive heart failure. The prison had been trying to get rid of him for years. They knew that he never used the restroom at work (he took his diuretic in the evening instead of in the morning and peed all night so he didn't have to pee every 5 mins at work....thinking they would appreciate that). They pulled him in for a drug test and of course he couldn't pee in the cup. He offered his hair and his blood but they wouldn't take them (both of which are better indicators of drug use btw). They terminated him on the grounds of refusal to take a drug test. He tried suing but eventually dropped it and went on disability. Hopefully, your fiance will be able to find something soon. You are in my prayers.

KnitOrMiss

Dee, I know this is such a cop out, but I got so frustrated with logging, and how difficult it can be to add recipes, and frankly, I just gave up. Couldn't be fussed. With the new medications I'm taking, I find it extremely difficult to get my water in. And with the sweltering jungle heat here that feels like the surface of the sun most days, my walking has stalled... I think it was this trifecta of sucking that pulled me down the rabbit hole.

I'm very sorry to hear about your financial situation, and your brother's struggles...but glad to see both are on a positive path. With my fiance, he has a very wide pride and stubborn streak, so this path is not an easy one for either of us. He is convinced that receiving benefits, he will lose his will to live...

Anyway, Happy Thursday, everyone.