Atkins to Weight Watchers: My Lessons Learned

Before & After
After Photo by Cordele Photography and hair and makeup by Janeen Jones Hair and MakeUp

I tried everything from Atkins to Weight Watchers when the pounds were piling on.  Off the top of my head, I can tell you I tried Atkins, The Cabbage Soup Diet, Dexatrim, Diet Workshop, The Fat Flush Plan, Fen-Phen, Jenny Craig, Lean Cuisine, Metabolic Designs, Nutrisystem, Slim Fast, South Beach, Weight Watchers, and a library full of diet books in between.  While some things worked for a short time, I would invariably stray and the weight would find me like a bug at a picnic. Margaret Thatcher once said, “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it” and I firmly believe she was talking about dieting. The preliminary battles were not for naught, as I learned a bit along the way from each of the failed attempts at my own, personal ‘Battle of the Bulge.’

“What have you learned Dorothy?”  I learned that not only are there no magic pills, but that attempts to find any such short cuts can have serious health risks.  I learned that pre-packaged, high sodium foods weren’t the answer.  I came to understand that when I eat starchy, white carbohydrates, I may as well advance the scale five pounds, like some sort of Day Light Savings penalty. I learned that, while I am allowed to have a slice of pizza on some diet plans, I don’t have the discipline to limit myself to one, or even two, slices of pizza, so that it’s easier for me not to have any.  There aren’t enough points in a day to change this fact for me.  I also learned that there is absolutely no correlation between how much you spend on a program and the number of pounds you lose. If simply spending more money was the solution, I would have been thinner a lot sooner!

Through trial and error, I also learned some useful lessons along the way.  I loved the cran-water and Fat Flush Soup recipes from The Fat Flush Plan, I love the myriad of things you can substitute with cauliflower in The South Beach Diet.  One of the most helpful tips I learned was from Diet Workshop, where the counselor explained how BLT’s (bites, licks, tastes & sips) can add up.  She strongly cautioned about the urge to eat the discarded crusts from your child’s plate, and I remember gasping when she explained that licking the butter knife after you make a peanut butter sandwich could tack on 90 extra calories!

Cran Water & Fat Flush Soup

It took a mortifying experience at a day spa, when the one-size-fits-all robe didn’t and I had to ask the snooty receptionist for a larger size, to make me take my 100^th first step back into the fray and learn some hard truths to any successful battle plan. Some of those axioms are as follows:

• Your battle with weight loss is never really done, and there is no finish line or touchdown dance. Rather, it’s the day-to-day choices that you make.
• You need to find out, not only what works for you, but also what you can live with.
• No matter how much you work out, you can’t outrun a bad diet.
• I also learned that moderation is for maintenance.
• That vodka leads to Oreos.
• And that you’re no busier than a fit person.

So let my years of dieting “research” be both a cautionary tale of what to avoid, and give you hope that you can find the right battle plan that will work for you!

Comments

comments