4:36 pm - 06.22.2008
Weight Watchers #33

Had a good weigh-in today - I was 215 lbs, 1.4 lbs down from last week, for a grand total of 53.4 lbs lost to date.

That means I'm 10 lbs from WW employment, and 20 lbs from my 195 lb goal.

(The other thing that was nice today? Spending some quality time, before the meeting began, chatting up a very pretty Jewish girl, a lifetime member who's slipped a little this past year, and is working on losing 17 lbs.)

Unlike the past number of weeks, I felt fairly confident about this week's weigh-in (The first time in a month that I've lost over a pound). It might have been that I just felt I was "due", but I'd also been particularly well-behaved this week, and perceived, for the first time in a long time, a slight-but-noticeable shrinkage in the waistline area.

But anyway...

It was a good meeting today - about "Eating less without feeling deprived" - but the most interesting weight-related stuff this week happened outside the meeting.

In therapy Wednesday, Javier applauded my weight loss (as he often does). And then he made the point (As he often has) that I can now use what I've learned in losing weight, and start applying the same discipline and commitment to other parts of my life I want to change (To develop myself as a writer, or work more diligently on my harmonica playing, for just two examples).

I responded by saying that WW was working for me because I wasn't having "to work at it", because it didn't feel like "discipline". Because I'm terrible with doing things - even things that are fun, and/or things that would serve my own best interests - once they start smelling at all like "work".

Then Javier reminded me that I wasn't a happy chappy as I started with WW - I was hungry, obsessed with food (and the next time I'd get to eat), frustrated that I didn't feel better about what I was doing.

But I stuck it out, and learned how to work with the program. And now, 50+ lbs later, eating the way I do is a habit, so much so that I can't even remember how difficult it was when I started.

And that is a good thing to remember - If you want to change, and you tough it out (Because change is hard, by and large), good things await you on the other side.

And the hard part of changing your life doesn't stay hard forever.

The other thing that happened this week was that I read a section of the LA Times I'd set aside, that had been lying around the house for weeks, on weight loss.

There wasn't much there I didn't already know, but it ended up being well-worth my time anyway.

Much of what the main article had to say about weight loss was tremendously discouraging; by and large, our bodies make little-to-no distinction between "healthy weight loss" and "starvation". So when you start losing weight, your body puts up a number of defenses to put the brakes on, since it basically thinks it's saving your life.

(Which, early on, made me want to tell my body - "Ummm, Body? I haven't been a 'hunter-gatherer' for a really long time now. I can get food pretty much whenever I want it, okay?. And for the record, Brainiac? I'm definitely not 'starving'. On the contrary - I'm almost 75 lbs overweight. So knock if off, and let me lose the @#! weight already, you stupid putz!")

And not only is it very difficult to lose weight, because our bodies actively fight our efforts, it's ridiculously easy to put the weight back on, for the same reason - Our bodies think "Dude, I am like totally saving your life right now...".

And while science is working on end-runs around the processes that cause us to gain and retain weight so readily, apparently the only thing that really pushes the "re-set" button is exercise.

And yeah, I know "exercise is good" (Don't we all, really, whether we actually do it or not?). But I don't think I linked it strongly enough to, not only being able to lose weight, but being able to keep it off.

And "keeping it off" is the name of the game.

So exercise I shall.

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