Solving problems

[pegkerr]

Tell me about a problem you have had in your life that for years seemed insoluable until one day you got fed up and tackled it once and for all and, to your surprise, got the problem licked.

How did it feel to solve the insoluable problem?

I could use some inspiration.

Comments

[peacockharpy.livejournal.com]

I weighed 145 pounds when I finished graduate school in 1994. I took my first desk job then.

By 1997, when I got married, I weighed 185.

By 2003, when I got pregnant with my daughter, I weighed 219. (While I was pregnant, I topped out at 267.)

After Meg was born, and once the nursing tapered off, I went up again. Last year, I weighed 230.

It wasn't entirely an upward trend. I did diets every so often, and they worked for a little while. But then I'd get bored with it or decide I wanted chocolate more than weight loss, and that was it. I didn't see what the point was in dieting, anyway, because I love food and I love cooking, and dieting seemed like a punishment -- not just to me, but to my family.

But last year, I started thinking more seriously about my eating habits. It had been getting harder for me to move around. I have asthma, and the weight wasn't helping that, either. I felt sluggish and I began to wonder... "I'm hitting 35 this year. Am I going to just keep doing this?"

And that's when I had to sit down and evaluate how I ate, how I thought about eating, and what was really and truly going to work for me to be healthy. I recognized that a diet where I had to restrict anything (carbs, sugar, fats) wasn't going to work. I recognized that I had no idea what portion size really was. I recognized that I needed an eating plan that would work with my family's eating patterns and needs (I didn't want to be cooking an extra "diet" meal for me). I recognized that I didn't want to give up haute cuisine. And I recognized that I had to be the reason I lost weight -- not my husband, or my daughter, much as I love them.

The day that Half-Blood Prince came out, I went to my first Weight Watchers meeting. I had my husband take my picture and I put it up on the refrigerator, as incentive. And this time I stuck with it. I made it through the first week, thinking, "that wasn't so bad," and lost 4.5 pounds.

I was below 200 pounds by November. I'm now in the 180s, and still heading down. I've lost 46 pounds so far.

I think the plan is part of my success (WW is constructed so that you can eat pretty much anything so long as you plan for it and watch portions, which works well with my goals), but mostly, it was that I finally made up my mind to do it. The rewards have been wonderful -- I feel better, move better. I think I'm sexier.

And I'm not done yet (I'm about halfway to my goal), but I know I can get there.

[kerryp.livejournal.com]

I want to congratulate you and wish you luck with the rest of your goal! We are of like ages and weights. I am a short person who weighs 189 pounds. In 1994, I weighed 125 pounds. In 2001, I weighed 155 pounds. I am not liking the trend. My doctor and partner have both urged me to lose weight, but like you, I consider dieting to be punishment, and I don't feel I have done anything worth punishing. I am curious as to whether you think you could have done it without Weight Watchers (e.g., just by watching portion), or if joining Weight Watchers was that important to the process? Congrats again, and keep up the good work.

[peacockharpy.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I think I needed Weight Watchers. I don't think everyone needs it or that it's a cure-all, and certainly if you have the self-discipline, you can follow a very similar plan on your own. I didn't feel I had the self-discipline; I'm very good at rationalizing things to myself (I can eat another handful of chips and salsa, 'cause salsa is no-fat; I deserve a candy bar because I've been good; I had a salad for lunch, so that was healthy, right?).

WW helps me with a couple of things. First off is honesty. The weekly weigh-ins are part of it, but writing down every scrap of food I eat is another. And being honest about portion sizes. It's much easier for me to be honest when I know I'm going to step up on the scale at the end of the week. And I have an incentive not to be dishonest with myself, because when I'm honest, the results are good.

Second is the points, which make it relatively easy to figure out what I can eat and make choices accordingly. It means that I can have, say, a slice of the hazelnut chocolate meringue cake with ganache frosting, or a serving of fries, or a fabulous French meal -- I just have to make sure I cut back somewhere else during that week.

And third is the encouragement and the acknowledgement that this is a long-term process, which will take time to accomplish (6 months so far) and won't be "finished" just because I hit my goal weight. I feel like WW is teaching me how to make good choices for the rest of my life. Not limitations, but choices.

However. If you are self-disciplined, if you're good at figuring up portion sizes and calories and so on, and if you are willing to be stern with yourself, you could probably do it on your own.

Good luck!