Just call me Grumpy

I went out into the cold this morning to bring in the newspaper, and got an unexpectedl treat. The sun was just coming up behind my neighbor's house, peeking around her garage in a pale blue sky crisscrossed by pink, fluffy ribbons of cloud. The landscape lay under a faint, optimistic, pinkish glow.

I didn't care. I don't feel optimistic. It's hard living with a guy who lost a hundred pounds on Weight Watchers. There's nothing like a convert to make everyone uncomfortable. I have gotten tired of his lovingly pointing out to me that I'm obese.

Not chubby. Not pleasingly plump. Obese. The "O" word.

I come from a whole family of cheerfully obese people, thank you very much. They enjoyed life; they enjoyed food.

They got diabetes in their 60s. They didn't enjoy that very much. So much for my argument.

So here I am, day two of Weight Watchers, glaring balefully at my breakfast of 3 Rice Krispies and a tablespoon of fat-free milk. "I'm so proud of you," J. exclaims, as he munches on soggy shredded wheat. He has been up working out for an hour. I have just dragged my carcass out of bed.

What have I come to? I am so hungry I could gnaw off my own arm. Maybe I'll wait till after lunch, and do it in front of all my colleagues. Can you see the headline? Dieting Librarian Gnaws Off Limb, Inquires How Many Points for an Arm?

My biggest regret of the day: I can't get my tongue all the way into the Yoplait Light container.

Pray for me.

Comments

sharecropper said…
Ah, Judith, praying hard for you. Losing weight is a chore. I have been doing Weight Watchers since mid May and I've lost 16 pounds. I started with two friends. One has lost 50 pounds and the other has lost 40 pounds. I'm lagging.

I was losing about a pound a month until September when we began remodeling our house. Now I'm just maintaining, but I continue going to meetings and weighing in because, if I don't, I'll quit and gain it all back.

I think that the first three weeks are the hardest. You learn that what your mind says about eating is not healthy, and you can't figure out what you can eat that will satisfy the cravings for food (almost any kind of food would do for me).

Gradually, you begin to figure out what will work and what won't. You will make bulges in your points and you will learn to live within them. And, charting your points every day is the only way to keep track.

You have my sympathy, empathy and bestest prayers. Keep me posted.
MadPriest said…
The trouble with the word "diet" and schemes like weightwatchers are that they are a constant reminder to you of the pain of losing weight. You need to trick your mind into believing you are not on a diet at all. Use phrases like "eating more healthily" in stead.

Do not replace edible foods (such as butter) with inedible foods (such as margarine). Either eat them as normal or give them up completely.

At your weight if you simply stop eating sucrose completely you will lose 8 pounds in 2 weeks and 14 pounds in a month.

Alternatively, become a crack addict. I have read that it is an excellent appetite suppressant.
Dave said…
I'm on day 5 of Weight Watchers, so yes, I feel your pain. Also, what sharecropper said.
Thank you, my friends!

Now, on day 3, I am a little less hungry. And a little less bitchy. Could be my body is adjusting. Or it's the power of paryer!

I still think fat-free crackers taste like cardboard, however!
Why don't you lovingly tell him to go boil his head. If you want to lose weight fine, but do it at your own pace, in your own way and to suit you, not to please anyone else. It is the sheer competitive bitchiness of programmes like Weightwatchers that is producing weight facism. Don't forget WW exists to make money, they don't actually care one way or the other what your weight is.
susan s. said…
Well, TheMe and Judith, telling him to boil his head is not a well thought out plan...getting a punching bag and hitting it with the thought that it is he is better but not great. ;-) I read MadPriest. That's why I'm here. He sent us, you know.

As a weight watcher that lost 100 lbs and then gained 60 of it back while I was having treatments for cancer, I can speak to you of stick to your ribs food...The best breakfast I can think of is hot oatmeal (2 Points) with a not quite 6 inch banana (1 Point)cut up into it. Along with that I have a latte made with 1 cup of non-fat milk(2 points) and I do add some Splenda because I am a sweet freak and need that taste. That's 5 really good filling points(at least to me). I am currently trying to get back into the losing mode myself, so I feel your pain. It's much harder now that I don't have cancer. Live tumors contribute to weight loss, but I can tell you that you don't want to lose it that way!

Oh, and while I'm at it, be sure to read all the material they give out. It really can be helpful. And no one's making you eat fat free crackers, girl. Even if there is a smaller number of foods you can eat you might want to try the Core plan. At least you can eat as much as you need that way. More questions? Email me from my profile page. I'll be glad to go on and on about this without the baggage you are getting from your skinny guy!

Hang in there!
Aghaveagh said…
When I go crazy I find that celery with salsa makes me think I am eating real food! And a bit of Trader Joe's non-fat Greek style Yogurt mixed into the salsa can give it that creamy sort of mayo type feel.

I have no sweet tooth: dips and fat are my downfall.

And I like the Volumetrics plan: more food for fewer calories! Good luck and keep up the fight!
Jan said…
It would certainly be hard to be around someone who had successfully lost so much weight! I was supposedly doing WW, but have skittered to trying to be sensible. That's helped me to lose 1 lb. a week since Christmas. If I could keep this up, in a year, I'll be where I should be. . . .So my prayers and thoughts are with you.
Psalmist said…
I'm here because of your sidelink to my blog, Judith, and I thank you kindly for that.

As a fellow obese person who is slowly losing weight and has in the past lost a significant amount, here's the one lasting pearl of wisdom I have gleaned from the process:

It is OK to feel hungry.

(You are free to throw your shoe at me for saying that. I don't mind.)

I've also learned to tell the difference between my perpetually hungry mouth wanting food and my stomach actually feeling hungry. That took some doing for me to learn, let me tell you!

And one last observation from my own painful experience. Once upon a time, I was married to a very tall man. (I am short.) He gradually became overweight (not obese) and also developed diabetes. His doctor prescribed a diabetic diet and gave him six weeks to follow that diet, with a targeted weight loss of 20 lbs. I could also have stood to lose nearly that much at the time (I was much younger and not obese then), so I went on the diet with him. Sweet 'n' Low was the only artificial sweetener on the market at the time. I learned it tastes dreadful on cereal. I broke my sugar soft drink habit forever by discovering Diet Dr. Pepper. I followed the diet religiously. He cheated. The results? I lost 5 lbs. but he lost 25. And to celebrate, he took me out to eat and he ordered a calzone (they made them HUGE at that restaurant) and a meatball sub, just for him. Our waitress remembered that order for years and remembered him as "the guy who ate the whole calzone." The moral of that story is, many men can lose weight much more rapidly than most women can. It is not fair, but it is what is.

I hear you and sympathize. And I agree completely about Yoplait Light. Hang in there and celebrate the attempt as well as the victories.
Hi friends,

Just a quick update to let you know how much your comments have meant to me this week! And the news is ... I weigh the same this week as I did last week. LOL! I will keep at it and see what next week brings.

At least I'm not grumpy anymore, thank to celery and salsa!

Popular posts from this blog

When life turns on a dime ...

What I said ...