Sunday, May 19, 2013

Weight Loss Mantra Fallacy

I've been doing weight watchers for 13 weeks now. I've lost 22.2 pounds, and feel like I am doing pretty good and can keep doing it. But, I need to find a leader that doesn't say, "Nothing Tastes as Good as Thin Feels." Because that just infuriates me every time I hear it. If it works for you fine, but realize that it doesn't and won't work for most people who genuinely need to loose weight.

1. I DON'T KNOW WHAT THIN FEELS LIKE. I have never felt thin. Maybe I was thin once, but if I was I didn't feel it. I was a tall child, so even if I was thin I always felt bigger than everyone around me. Also, thin is not my goal, partly because I don't think I'll ever consider myself, or be considered "thin." Thin is society's way of making people feel bad about themselves. You are either not thin, and scoffed at, or thin, and scoffed at. My goal is to be healthy. That is why I am doing this, I wasn't feeling healthy. I know what healthy feels like, and probably a higher percentage of people know what healthy feels like. So maybe if we changed it to "Nothing tastes as good as healthy feels" I wouldn't want to strangle the person saying it, but would still want to slap them.

 2. YOU CAN'T TELL ME THAT NOTHING TASTES AS GOOD. I'm sure we can all think of something that tastes better, if nothing tasted good then so many of us would not be in the position where we would need to loose weight. Even this WW leader who ends every meeting with this make-me-mad-mantra spends most of the time discussing how much she loves the cheddar bay biscuits at Red Lobster, how she can't resist them. The only way this is working for me is I can still have a little bit of those things that taste better than by goal.

3. DON'T FORCE ME TO THINK ABOUT FOOD. When I hear "nothing tastes as good as thin feels" I start to think of dunford doughnuts, and peacan pie, and cheese cake, and brownies, and chocolate chip cookies, and lasagna, and toasted sough dough bread with butter and honey, etc. etc. etc. Especially because I went to the meeting hungry so I could weigh in, and then eat. I always leave the meetings wanting to go through the drive trough at the greek restaurant on the way home and get a gyro, fries, and baklava. I have not yet once felt motivated to make better choices based on what was said during a meeting, only based on what happened at the scale.

So, don't ever tell me "Nothing tastes as good as thin feels" and expect me to smile and nod. I'll just think you have no idea what I am actually going through.

6 comments:

Kay Jones said...

Been there, done that, and understand how you feel. I found that walking helped me, exercise, which is a word I hate, helps also. I lost lots of weight on my mission, but it was the walking, and not always eating right.
Keep up the good work. 22 pounds is a LOT!!!

Tammy Lorna said...

Now I feel like Greek food.

Like, I REALLY feel like Greek Food.

LOL!

I know exactly how you feel and what you're going through, and think that you're AWESOME for doing so amazing on the 'being healthy' thing :)

On the tiny chance that I ever end up living in your part of the world again we should start a healthy living regime: Walk alllll the way to the greek restraunt, eat dinner, then walk allllll the way home again :)

xo Tammy

Lauren said...

Hey Brecken! I'm Tammy's friend. When Tam read the post she told about it because I do WW too :) congratulations on your loss so far! amazing!!

I am actually SOOOO unimpressed with your leader! How ridiculous is that! In my opinion WW is against that type of attitude. You should go along to another meeting for sure! That statement is not about positive body image.. and in my experience that's what sets WW apart. They encourage you to be kind to yourself through this process!

Anyway, you have a lovely blog and your family are adorable! Tammy talks often about how she misses you and about the time you had in NYC!

All the best with WW, you can do it! :) xoxox

Brent Hill said...

Yeah, that saying's a load of horse crap (I think I posted those exact words on my Facebook page around Easter time). I'm generally not a mantra kind of person, but the thing I keep telling asking myself is, "What do I really want?" What I really want is to be healthy, but sometimes what I really want is chocolate. So I eat some chocolate. But most times, I choose healthy.

I just do Weight Watchers online, because the whole idea of attending meetings kind of appalled me. I wasn't sure if I'd have the discipline, but I found that two weeks of consistent results was all it took to help me feel motivated to keep it up. I'm in a bit of a slump right now, but I'm excited to get back on that wagon.

Brent Hill said...

This is Erika, not Brent. Forgot to log him out...

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