So far, WW has been a big fat bleh. I am following it faithfully, I am not cheating, I am not losing weight. I lost a pound and a half and it came right back again, even though, I swear to you, I am not cheating, I am watching portions, I am drinking my water, and all the other crap they tell you to do. I drink water all the time, it's not new to me. I take vitamins all the time, It's not new to me. I exercise semi-regularly, it's not a change for me. What IS a change for me is cutting back on my food consumption and completely giving up wine and salty snacks and all the things I love, and NOT LOSING ANY WEIGHT! AT ALL!
Enough of the "Flex Plan" crap. I've switched to the "Core Plan," which is South Beach in WW clothing. I know the other thing "they" say is only weigh yourself once a week, but to this I say horseshit. Not weighing myself often enough (after I thought I was heading in the right direction, scale-wise) allowed the last 10 pounds to creep on, almost unnoticed, until my clothes no longer fit. I now weigh myself every morning. I may hate the numbers I see, but I want to know how I'm doing on a daily basis, not a weekly one. Progress is measured over a week, yes, but trends show up daily. You aren't going to lose 2 pounds in a week if you haven't lost an ounce in 5 days, and I'd rather know sooner than later when something is NOT working.
So yesterday I started eating according to the rules of what they call their their "Core Plan," which IS the South Beach Diet. My new plan is to develop my own hybrid of the two - stay within my Flex "point limits" (because tracking points does help make me more conscious of what I eat) but choose from "Core Plan" friendly foods 90% of the time. Today I was down a half a pound.
I know there are people who can lose weight while restricting calories and fat only. I am not one of them. It's interesting too, because when I look at how I can't lose weight eating carbs and combine it with my family tendency toward Type II diabetes and heart disease later in life, it really does seem like there is something happening on a metabolic level in my gene pool. My dad is a diabetic with a bad ticker. He has NEVER been overweight and in fact was thin as a rail most of his life. He did not have diabetes when the heart disease showed up. When he tipped over into diabetes, he had already been diagnosed and put on the typical low fat, high carb heart disease diet that was in vogue 20 years ago. He dutifully ate his cereal and skim milk and watched his calories and fat intake like a fiend, following the "heart healthy" diet of the day, walked and rode his bike daily, and within a year he was a very skinny diabetic with a bad heart. I look at that, and then at how my own body refuses to metabolize carbs and let me lose weight while eating them like a normal dieter, and I think my family history has to dictate how I eat, and I should pay attention.
Thanks for the kind words on That Damn Shawl - I really don't hate it, I really will wear it, but damn, it got to be one of those projects that I just wanted DONE and off the needles.
I'm working on the blue Dulaan hat and haven't started anything new. I spent some time communing with the stash and it killed the urge to buy anything, even more of my beloved linen. I will make a serious dent in the stash first. I am aiming for "No yarn until Maryland Sheep and Wool." When I have the urge to indulge I will go look through the stash until the feeling goes away. I can't get myself together to start another big project yet, the shawl trauma has to fade for a bit, so it looks like hats and mittens for Dulaan are the knitting du jour.
Hum. What works for me is NOT watching the scale. Instead, I would use a tape measure and track waist, hips, and bust. A much more accurate assessment of how your body is doing. When you're talking a few pounds, body weight fluctuates too much for too many reasons.
ReplyDeleteCatherine, I wrote about the very same topic today over on my blog. I have been unsuccessful with the points method of WW and have returned to Core, which really is WW's version of South Beach. I always seem to do much better with low carb diets, and there's adult onset diabetes in my family too.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago, my doctor suggested that I go on a low carb diet, for that very reason. And the South Beach diet is a very good one, with none of the high fat bad of Atkins. And when Ww came out with the Core plan, we all said it was South Beach WW style, except you can have potatoes on WW. Life is bearable if you can have potatoes. Good luck with it.
ReplyDeleteMy body weight fluctuates a few pounds when I quit watching the scale. I don't drag out the tape measure every day, or even every week. And the funny thing is, when the scale goes up, so do those other measurements! I know that muscle weighs more and occupies less space and all that crap, but the reality is that without a serious effort to lose the fat, the muscles get bigger with a big ole layer of fat on them, and I look like a tank. And I also know I don't work out enough to really cause a significant increase in muscle mass. So for me, the scale is a very accurate indicator of how things are going, and when I ignore it, I get fatter.
ReplyDeleteAnne - you don't have to give up caffeine on SB. It's recommended, but it's optional. For some people it makes a difference in weight loss, for most of us it doesn't. Dr. A would have to pry my Starbucks from my cold, dead hands.
ReplyDeleteEveryone's physique is different, as we've discussed in the past. I have a larger frame than you do and the tape measure method works best for me (when I do work on it) because my weight can fluctuate by 5 lbs, due to water or what have you, or stays the same for a looong time. Yet the measurements stay the same or get smaller.
ReplyDeleteMost of my life I've never worried about a few extra pounds. I've mostly worried (and continued to worry) about keeping a few extra pounds from turning into a lot of extra pounds.
*Sigh* And it sucks. All it takes is 3-4 weeks of not being vigilant, and the weight starts creeping up. It's the little things--an extra piece of bread, or slightly bigger servings.
And yes, I watch carbs more than I do fat. Extra carbs (especially refined) pile on the pounds faster.
My weight fluctuates by about 5 pounds too, and I've gained and lost the same 5 pounds approximately eleventy-jillion times in the past 3 years, but it quickly moves out of that 5 pound comfort zone if I don't get on the scale every day. I think it was Caroline Rea who had the great observation about having "reverse anorexia" - I think I'm thinner than I really am. I put on 20 pounds between my 35th and 45th birthdays by not paying enough attention, and 10 more since I started the new job in August, which really freaked me out. I'm finally past denial and reaching Acceptance - I'm fat and I need to do something about it, even if it means being vigilant every day of my life, because denial ain't cutting it anymore.
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