Back on Weight Watchers

I'm reposting this entry from two years ago..  After I wrote this, I lost like 25 lbs.  It was awesome.  And I've pretty much kept it off since then, but lately the pounds have been creeping back up, so now I'm back on the healthy eating wagon.  What I liked most about this diet is that it gave me a feel for how much food to eat, so after a while, I didn't have to count points anymore and it came naturally.  If I only have to count points for 1-2 months every couple of years in order to keep my weight down, that's actually pretty easy.  I'm on day 2 now, and so far I'm not suffering at all.  

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After I got married, I gained 25 lbs INSTANTLY. About a year later, my husband and I went on the South Beach diet. It was a pretty good diet, and without any portion control, I managed to lose about 20 lbs. The main idea behind South Beach is that any food with a high Glycemic Index (GI) raises your blood sugar too fast, and when it crashes you have big cravings. It's low-sugar and high-fiber and well-suited for diabetics (although I am not diabetic.. And Insha Allah I won't be any time soon). Some people consider it to be low-carb, but it's actually not at all, you just switch to unprocessed carbs like whole wheat bread and brown rice instead of FREAKIN' DONUTS!

Even after I went off the diet, I didn't gain the weight back. But I wanted to lose more weight, and I didn't want to go through phase 1 of South Beach again.. it was too hard! For two weeks, you can't have any sugar, and that includes the sugar in fruit! So I found this other diet, called the Glycemic Load (GL) diet. It's like South Beach, but considers the GL of each food, rather than the GI. Which means it takes into account, not only the GI but the portion size, so you can have small amounts of high GI food, and it's okay. This made more sense to me, because South Beach prohibited CARROTS in the first two weeks because of a high GI, but in fact carrots will only make your blood sugar rise too quickly if you eat like a pound of them in one sitting.

The only problem was... I didn't lose any weight from this diet. And my husband GAINED weight! I THOUGHT it was too easy... I emailed the author personally, and he was surprisingly available for questions, but when I asked him why my husband was gaining weight, he said it was because he wasn't exercising enough, and that you have to exercise for this diet to work. The problem with that logic is that he wasn't gaining any weight before, when he wasn't exercising OR dieting!!! Dude!

But NOW... now.... things are different. One day, I read an article about a guy who lost 50 lbs in 3 months. Now, that's a lot, but what caught my eye were his unconventional tips. Firstly, he didn't diet on the weekends. And he didn't cut things out of his diet, he just found healthier alternatives so he wouldn't feel psychologically deprived. AND, he wasn't a total Nazi about it, so if there was a party or a birthday or something, he would just switch that day with one of his "weekend off" days. And he used the Weight Watchers plan.

Now, he didn't join Weight Watchers. No, no. He just read their Patent. How smart is that?? Well, I did a little reading, and discovered that this is, in fact, all you need in order to do Weight Watchers. So my husband and I have been doing the POINTS program without paying for it for about a week and a half now, and it's working! And it's really easy too! I wish I'd done this to begin with, in fact.

My mom actually joined Weight Watchers some time ago, and she lost a ton of weight. She's in waaaay better shape than I am. Hopefully we can get into great shape as well, and if it continues to be as easy as this from now on, I think we've got a shot!