Weight Watching

They've recently announced that they are going to start a Weight Watchers program at work.  They're going to have the meetings and weigh ins there at the plant, and you can do a payroll deduction for the fees. I thought about joining, but decided against it. I just didn't want to deal with the snide comments and obnoxious remarks.

Like, I'll mention that I need to lose some weight, and I'll get the sneering response of "Where?" Um, my butt. My thighs. My stomach...Look, just because I don't weigh 300 lbs doesn't mean I'm not overweight. I know these days, if you aren't morbidly obese, people think you're OK, but that isn't necessarily true. We have become a nation of fat people. We've become so fat that just a little fat doesn't even register any more.

Another thing I get often is something along the lines of "It must be nice to be able to eat what you want and not have to worry about gaining weight." Yeah, it must be. I wouldn't know. Thin people do not have some magic metabolism that keeps them thin. We don't sit around with our feet propped up wolfing down every item of food in sight and magically remain thin. On the contrary, thin people are thin because they work hard at it.

So, I chickened out of joining Weight Watchers. I just didn't want to deal with the staring and the sneering. One of the knitting blogs I read posted a link to a site called SparkPeople.  It is an online healthy living community.  Yeah, it's about weight loss, but it's more about eating a balanced diet and living a healthy lifestyle. 

It is a completely free website and has just about everything you need.  There is a page to track your nutrition-- including calories, carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.  The site even calculates how much of each you need to eat per day to be healthy.  There are message boards, and support teams, and you can add friends like on Facebook.

I've got one.  Friend that is...

You earn points for tracking your nutrition, and your exercising, and reading articles, and participating in message boards.  Granted, the site can be overwhelming at first.  I've been there nearly a month and am still finding my way around.  But I've lost 4 lbs since I started. 

Now, I've never been very overweight.  For years, I'd kept my weight at around 130, and was comfortable with that.  But as I've gotten older, I've found it's been getting more and more difficult to lost the post Holiday 5-7 lbs that I would gain every year.  So, it's been adding up, and my weight has been creeping on up there.  And of course, dealing with the stress of work, more and more I'd been turning to food as a comfort.  I didn't think I was really eating all that much, until I joined SparkPeople and started writing down every thing I ate. 

And just having to write down everything has helped me to not eat for the sake of eating any more.  I think "If I eat that, I'll have to add it to my nutrition tracker, and I don't want to do that."  So I don't eat it. 

Well, instead of me going on and on about it, why don't you click on the link and check it out for yourself.  If you do register, be sure and add me as a friend.  I'm BGUNSTREA over there. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to earn some more Spark Points.