Gathering my Tools

On Tuesday evening I attended my first ever Weight Watchers meeting. I never really thought that I would join Weight Watchers (too much use of the word points for me), but I just feel a bit off track and off balance in my new surroundings. I have friends around England, but nobody close by. I know that I can be disciplined and follow a good routine, but a bit of extra accountability - plus support from a community who is also focusing on similar goals - would definitely be helpful right now. Plus the lack of structure to my day (given that I'm not working at the moment) makes it easy for me to mindlessly graze on food.

So, as I mentioned in a previous post, I've been doing a lot of reading about different type of diets. Again, I'm not looking to follow a particular diet (temporary phase). I'm just looking for information that will help me put together a sustainable healthy eating and living plan.

During the Weight Watchers meeting, I met the group leader and we chatted for a bit. He then led the group talk - no surprises about what he had to say there: If you're stuck, change up your routine; it's not the fruit that makes you gain weight, it's the other stuff -- and a few wise words about staying on track while on holiday, with my favorite line of the night "You're not on holiday from your health."

I think given my background (things I've tried before and what I've studied through my nutritionist certification) I had a few reservations. I mean, looking at the ingredients on a box of WW bars made me want to faint … however, I told myself that if I was going to join this group then I was going to give it a go. I didn't to eat those bars if I didn't want to. There were foods on the list of 'allowed' foods that I knew I wouldn't eat (e.g. sandwich thins and artificial sweetener) but that's true for so many of the other diets that I've been reading about to.

I like that the first week has nothing to do with points or calculating. It's just about making healthy choices. It's the right way to start - look at foods differently and look at all the things you CAN eat vs. what you can't.

Although I am being open-minded about the experience, the one main reservation I have is about the weigh-ins measuring pure body weight vs. distinguishing between lean muscle mass and fat. I lift weights and I lift heavy. Since I want to go to these meetings for both support and accountability (make sure that my weight DOES go down), I don't want to feel like I'm not making progress because I'm building muscle.

That being said, I still have weight to lose regardless of whether I'm putting on muscle or not -- so for now, I'm going to focus on that.