And then Seanan answered some questions about WW.
All right -- because folks are asking, I'm answering, in a rare, unlocked Weight Watchers post. (I normally lock these to avoid being triggery for my anti-dieting friends. I consider this polite. I also consider it polite to unconfuse my friends, when possible. When these situations combine, I become Captain Pedantic, and answer everything.) There will be references to weight loss behind the cut. There will be references to exercise. There will be explanations and requests. There may even be a monkey. Who knows?
SEANAN'S WEIGHT WATCHERS FAQ: Everything You Never Needed To Know About Your Blonde's Dietary Habits.
Why are you on Weight Watchers?
I joined Weight Watchers in part because I weighed over two hundred and fifty pounds, which is a bit much for a 5'7" woman of my particular build (I was very nearly a perfect physical representation of an ice cream cone -- long, thin legs topped with a spherical body), and in part because OVFF had asked me to be their Toastmistress, and I figured losing fifty pounds would be a great place to start getting ready.
I stayed on Weight Watchers because I discovered that I'm genuinely happier when I weigh less, as it allows me a greater range of movement (and I like to move), as well as reducing my levels of chronic pain. Also, eating a balanced diet makes me healthier and thus more inclined to be full of pep, joy, and not destroying the world. Left to my own devices, I'll cheerfully live on spaghetti and candy corn, then look puzzled when I get seriously ill. Weight Watchers does a lot to normalize, and thus improve, my eating habits.
Why Weight Watchers, and not _______?
Like many people, I require some sort of accountability, or I'm likely to start cutting corners. Weight Watchers works for me really well as a plan, and more, the weekly meetings mean that there are real, genuine, flesh-and-blood people watching my progress as it happens. It also means that I have a tendency to pause and go 'well, do I really want to explain to my Meeting Leader why I gained five pounds?'.
Also, and perhaps more importantly, WW is a sustainable plan for me. I can eat like this for the rest of my life and not feel like I'm being deprived. Sure, I get fewer candy bars than I might if I wasn't on a diet plan, but I didn't really need that many candy bars to begin with. And I'd rather walk eight miles than have a plate of spaghetti, when you get right down to it. My priorities are weird.
I tried WW, and it didn't work. Do you think you're better than me?
No! I keep running into this one, and it always leaves me stunned and staring. Look, everybody -- and every body -- is different. I have a friend who basically lives on the 'McDonalds and M&Ms' diet, and is a natural size six. I have another friend who eats healthier than I would ever want to, and is a natural size thirty-two. You're built the way you're built, and absolutely no diet plan is going to work for everyone. WW encourages portion control and eating a balanced diet. Well, surprisingly, not everyone actually does well on what we consider a 'balanced' diet. If I ate as much protein as Kate does, I would sit around being sick all the time. If Kate ate as much dairy as I do, she'd probably die. And if any of us tried to match Vixy's cheese intake, it just wouldn't be pretty.
I have a lot of self-control when it comes to following clearly outlined rules, I enjoy number-crunching and tracking my own activities, and I do very well on a fairly restricted diet, which means that I can cut myself down to the foods whose Point values I know by heart. Your mileage may, and very likely will, vary. And frankly? I envy the people who can actually handle enough types of food to do something like South Beach. I would die.
Aren't you done yet?
Nope. My current 'goal weight' -- which is a number that I re-evaluate every time I drop another half-stone (seven pounds), just to make sure that it's both realistic and healthy -- is one hundred and forty pounds. Given my height, and the fact that I have a very slim, straight-up-and-down build that doesn't really come with extras like 'hips' or 'shoulders', this is a completely reasonable goal at the current time. I may get there, decide I was happier at one-fifty, and happily gain ten pounds. I may get there, decide I'm not done, and lose ten more. There's no telling before the doing.
I think you should weigh ______.
That's nice. As you are neither my doctor nor my dietician, nor living in my body, I don't much care.
Are you doing this just to be pretty?
Uh, hello. I am 5'7", blonde, stacked, with legs that go all the way to Nebraska, a well-constructed face, big blue eyes, and a fondness for tight shirts and short skirts. My mommy thinks I'm pretty, and so do the people with whom I happily and enthusiastically swap spit on a reasonably regular basis. The idea that I'm somehow magically going to become pretty just because I lose weight is not only silly, it's kinda insulting. I was a pretty fat girl, now I'm a pretty plump girl, and I'll eventually be a pretty thin girl. Note how 'pretty' has stayed constant. Sheesh.
If you're on WW, does it bother you when people eat things you can't in front of you?
It depends on how it's done. If you're eating cake while I'm eating tomatoes? Nope. It doesn't bother me in the least. If you're eating candy corn while going 'look, Seanan, I have caaaaaaandy corn, don't you wish you had caaaaaaandy corn?', then yes, it will bother me. At least until I kill you and take the sweet, sweet candy corn away.
Should I stop you from eating things I know you shouldn't?
Only if I've specifically asked you to. See, I'm kinda an automatic eater -- if the food is there, and the food is something I actually like, I'm more than reasonably likely to stick it in my mouth without thinking about it. So sometimes, I may ask people to steer me away from party buffet tables, and suchlike. But as a rule? If you say 'are you sure you want to eat that?', once I say yes, your job as a good friend is done. I am a big girl. I can own my cheesecake, and don't want to force my friends to be the diet police.
Is there anything I can do to help?
Don't buy me sweets unless I ask for them. I love candy corn, I love chocolate, and if I have them, I will eat them. So spontanious gifts of candy, while they make me feel very loved, are not actually terribly helpful right now. Also, please don't try to make me eat things after I've refused them. Pizza is awesome, but I don't want any. Ditto spaghetti, that muffin, and your steak. Sometimes I say 'no' because I don't like things, but sometimes I say 'no' for dietary reasons, and that 'no' is a lot harder to stand by if you pressure me.
Do you expect me to join WW?
Only if you want to. Frankly, diet, don't diet, eat an entire wedding cake with a spoon just because you can, whatever makes you happy. As long as you're healthy, I don't care.
What's the best thing about WW?
Broccoli.
And that's the FAQ.
SEANAN'S WEIGHT WATCHERS FAQ: Everything You Never Needed To Know About Your Blonde's Dietary Habits.
Why are you on Weight Watchers?
I joined Weight Watchers in part because I weighed over two hundred and fifty pounds, which is a bit much for a 5'7" woman of my particular build (I was very nearly a perfect physical representation of an ice cream cone -- long, thin legs topped with a spherical body), and in part because OVFF had asked me to be their Toastmistress, and I figured losing fifty pounds would be a great place to start getting ready.
I stayed on Weight Watchers because I discovered that I'm genuinely happier when I weigh less, as it allows me a greater range of movement (and I like to move), as well as reducing my levels of chronic pain. Also, eating a balanced diet makes me healthier and thus more inclined to be full of pep, joy, and not destroying the world. Left to my own devices, I'll cheerfully live on spaghetti and candy corn, then look puzzled when I get seriously ill. Weight Watchers does a lot to normalize, and thus improve, my eating habits.
Why Weight Watchers, and not _______?
Like many people, I require some sort of accountability, or I'm likely to start cutting corners. Weight Watchers works for me really well as a plan, and more, the weekly meetings mean that there are real, genuine, flesh-and-blood people watching my progress as it happens. It also means that I have a tendency to pause and go 'well, do I really want to explain to my Meeting Leader why I gained five pounds?'.
Also, and perhaps more importantly, WW is a sustainable plan for me. I can eat like this for the rest of my life and not feel like I'm being deprived. Sure, I get fewer candy bars than I might if I wasn't on a diet plan, but I didn't really need that many candy bars to begin with. And I'd rather walk eight miles than have a plate of spaghetti, when you get right down to it. My priorities are weird.
I tried WW, and it didn't work. Do you think you're better than me?
No! I keep running into this one, and it always leaves me stunned and staring. Look, everybody -- and every body -- is different. I have a friend who basically lives on the 'McDonalds and M&Ms' diet, and is a natural size six. I have another friend who eats healthier than I would ever want to, and is a natural size thirty-two. You're built the way you're built, and absolutely no diet plan is going to work for everyone. WW encourages portion control and eating a balanced diet. Well, surprisingly, not everyone actually does well on what we consider a 'balanced' diet. If I ate as much protein as Kate does, I would sit around being sick all the time. If Kate ate as much dairy as I do, she'd probably die. And if any of us tried to match Vixy's cheese intake, it just wouldn't be pretty.
I have a lot of self-control when it comes to following clearly outlined rules, I enjoy number-crunching and tracking my own activities, and I do very well on a fairly restricted diet, which means that I can cut myself down to the foods whose Point values I know by heart. Your mileage may, and very likely will, vary. And frankly? I envy the people who can actually handle enough types of food to do something like South Beach. I would die.
Aren't you done yet?
Nope. My current 'goal weight' -- which is a number that I re-evaluate every time I drop another half-stone (seven pounds), just to make sure that it's both realistic and healthy -- is one hundred and forty pounds. Given my height, and the fact that I have a very slim, straight-up-and-down build that doesn't really come with extras like 'hips' or 'shoulders', this is a completely reasonable goal at the current time. I may get there, decide I was happier at one-fifty, and happily gain ten pounds. I may get there, decide I'm not done, and lose ten more. There's no telling before the doing.
I think you should weigh ______.
That's nice. As you are neither my doctor nor my dietician, nor living in my body, I don't much care.
Are you doing this just to be pretty?
Uh, hello. I am 5'7", blonde, stacked, with legs that go all the way to Nebraska, a well-constructed face, big blue eyes, and a fondness for tight shirts and short skirts. My mommy thinks I'm pretty, and so do the people with whom I happily and enthusiastically swap spit on a reasonably regular basis. The idea that I'm somehow magically going to become pretty just because I lose weight is not only silly, it's kinda insulting. I was a pretty fat girl, now I'm a pretty plump girl, and I'll eventually be a pretty thin girl. Note how 'pretty' has stayed constant. Sheesh.
If you're on WW, does it bother you when people eat things you can't in front of you?
It depends on how it's done. If you're eating cake while I'm eating tomatoes? Nope. It doesn't bother me in the least. If you're eating candy corn while going 'look, Seanan, I have caaaaaaandy corn, don't you wish you had caaaaaaandy corn?', then yes, it will bother me. At least until I kill you and take the sweet, sweet candy corn away.
Should I stop you from eating things I know you shouldn't?
Only if I've specifically asked you to. See, I'm kinda an automatic eater -- if the food is there, and the food is something I actually like, I'm more than reasonably likely to stick it in my mouth without thinking about it. So sometimes, I may ask people to steer me away from party buffet tables, and suchlike. But as a rule? If you say 'are you sure you want to eat that?', once I say yes, your job as a good friend is done. I am a big girl. I can own my cheesecake, and don't want to force my friends to be the diet police.
Is there anything I can do to help?
Don't buy me sweets unless I ask for them. I love candy corn, I love chocolate, and if I have them, I will eat them. So spontanious gifts of candy, while they make me feel very loved, are not actually terribly helpful right now. Also, please don't try to make me eat things after I've refused them. Pizza is awesome, but I don't want any. Ditto spaghetti, that muffin, and your steak. Sometimes I say 'no' because I don't like things, but sometimes I say 'no' for dietary reasons, and that 'no' is a lot harder to stand by if you pressure me.
Do you expect me to join WW?
Only if you want to. Frankly, diet, don't diet, eat an entire wedding cake with a spoon just because you can, whatever makes you happy. As long as you're healthy, I don't care.
What's the best thing about WW?
Broccoli.
And that's the FAQ.