Diet is a 4 letter word

Over the last several years, I have seen my weight gradually creep higher and higher, until recently it was close to 300 pounds! During that time, I have tried dieting and exercise to lose the weight, and tried a few different plans. None of them worked out very well, and I would lose interest very quickly (like in a couple weeks).

But, about 3 weeks ago, I decided to give Weight Watchers a try. And after 3 weeks, I'm still going good. I'm very motivated to stick with it. I think it has to do with the fact that you don't have to eat any "special" foods on the plan. I can eat the same things I've always eaten, and when the kids are over, I can eat the same thing I serve them for dinner. I don't have to eat cottage cheese if I don't want to. I don't have to make special recipes for me while everyone else eats something else. And I don't have to buy special foods.

Which brings me to the meaning of the title of this post: "Diet is a 4 letter word". First off, it's quite obvious that it's a 4 letter word. Count the letters. There are 4 of them in the word: D-I-E-T. But the meaning of it goes beyond the obvious. It's not just a 4 letter word - It's one of the naughty 4 letter words.

What makes it so naughty is the entire nature of the word, and the thoughts it is connected with. When you go on a diet, or hear of someone else going on a diet, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Losing weight. That's not a bad thing for some people (myself included). But you get it into your head that you are losing weight, and you set a goal for yourself. But what happens when you reach that goal? You stop the diet. And for many people, the old habits start up again and you start adding the weight back on.

This time around, I'm approaching this with a different attitude. I'm not on the plan to lose weight. Yes, it's a very positive side effect of what I'm doing. But my main goal is to re-teach myself how to eat. As I stated before, I don't have to buy special foods or prepare special recipes. If I want pizza from Pizza Hut, I can have pizza from Pizza Hut. If I want a burger and fries from McDonald's, I can have a burger and fries from McDonald's. And if I want a beer or two while watching the game on TV, I can have a beer or two while watching the game. You can have all this figured into the plan. But it doesn't allow for you doing so every night. And that's just fine: It's enough to keep the craving at bay, while I continue the plan and eat more healthy the other days.

How does it work? You are assigned so many points a day you can consume. Everything you eat has a point value, based on the nutrition information for the item. These daily points are only good for that day, and you cannot carry them over to the next day. But, you also have weekly points that you can use if you go over your daily points. These are good for the entire weeks. And, on top of this, you can also earn activity points that you can use to add more points to your daily total you can consume, which are also good for that week. So the idea is that if you have points left over at the end of the week, you've done good. And the more points left over, the better. They also encourage you to try to use up all your daily points each day. This is to ensure you are eating enough and not starving yourself.

So that's my approach: Learn how to eat properly, and not eat too much too many days. I need to learn how to supplement the foods I use to eat with healthy choices, and learn what the proper portion size should be. This way, once I'm at a healthy weight (which I'm not setting a number on - just using the mirror to tell me when I reach it), I (hopefully) will know how to eat properly, and I can keep it from creepy back on.

I'm also doing an exercise program with it, but I'll write about that some other day.