7 posts tagged “weight watchers”

I'm A Quitter

I quit Weight Watchers yesterday.  I realized I was becoming obsessed with food and I was rebeling against the program, doing everything I shouldn't be doing.  I felt powerless and bad about myself.  Guilty for not going to weigh in.  Guilty for gaining at weigh in.  Guilty for not following the program to the letter.  I am constantly beating myself up about my inability to make this work for me.  I think WW is a great program that works, I'm just not mentally where I need to be in order to be successful with it.  I also think that while my leader is great, my group is enabling my food obsession.  I'm going to try to eat better and work harder on getting exercise into my life, instead of focusing on food.  Perhaps Overeaters Anonymous?  Perhaps some other diversion tactic.  Just no more paying $40 a month for another tool to use in berating myself.

The amazing thing is, I came home last night and made and ate dinner, and since then I haven't had one single snack.  Haven't even wanted one.  I generally snack a lot in the evening, so this is a step in the right direction. 

Novel in Progress

I'm writing.  And writing.  And writing.  I had an idea for a novel and started working on it in January and it was going no place, so I stopped.  Then a few days ago I had the idea that my two main characters needed a backstory, so I started writing it as a prologue, but it has taken on a life of its own.  My prologue is now two chapters, and I realized I just caught these characters at the end and the beginning is so beautiful and tragic and magical.  They wake me up at night, these people, with their arguments and their laughter.  I'm enjoying them so much and the writing just flows out of me.  I've never felt like this before about writing. 

Hi-ho, Hi ho...

Work is busy.  We've had 4 people resign in the last 10 days and it is really making life hard on those of us who continue to stick around.  Plus, one of the support staff has a (thankfully operable) cancerous tumor on her brain and so she'll be out for a while with surgery and recovery, etc.  We're being stressed to the limit.  I'm making a lot of sales right now which should cushion my sales goal for the year and give me time to help out where necessary.

Reading, too.

I've got a lot of magazines, plus two books I'm reading right now:

Hating Women: America's Hostile Campaign Against the Fairer Sex by Schmuley Boteach.  It's been fascinating and I'm sure I will revisit this topic in a blog sometime soon.

Get Between the Covers: Leave a Legacy By Writing a Book by Neil Shulman and Eric Spencer.  I just bought this and I'm looking forward to getting started on it, but between my emerging novel and the book above, it's still sitting unopened.

That's it for the updates.  How's things by you?

It was a mixed bag, Saturday.

I'm used to getting up early and putzing around before going to weigh-in, but this Saturday I had to get Irish up, too.  He started teaching that class (which he enjoyed).

I went to weigh in, and I think I've mentioned this before but there is a Sonic being built right outside my meeting location.  Sonic is the major reason I need Weight Watchers in the first place, and the lack of Sonic is this area, while disheartening, has been helpful to me losing, well, anything at all.

The Sonic is getting pretty close to completion.  I think it opens in about a month.

So I get on the scale and the receptionist says "ok" and nothing else.  If you've ever done WW, you know that if the receptionist doesn't say anything, it usually means there is a gain.  I didn't want to ask.

She handed back my card and my pass and I stepped away before swallowing hard and peeking:  DOWN 0.2.  the lowest amount you can actually be down that will register on the scale, but what do I care?  I've been PMSing and drowning my sorrows in chocolate, so this is cause for celebration!

I got there early so I sat down in a different area than where I sit when I'm late.  I sit with a bunch of women that were there when I started and we all exchange tips and generally just chat until the meeting starts.  A few minutes later an older gentleman sits in the seats across from us, and he's eyeing me.

Now, I've seen him at the meetings before, and something niggles in my brain when I see him, like I know him but I'm not sure from where.  He doesn't wear a name tag and I forget by the end of the meeting to ask him if we know each other.

The thing about Florida is all of the old people.  The thing about old people is that unless these old people belong to you in some way, they all kind of look the same.

So he's eyeing me, right?  And it's obvious he thinks he knows me.  So I'm really actively trying to place him in my brain now, only it's not happening.

The meeting starts and it's about activity, and the conversation is lively and this guy continues to eye me throughout the meeting but I'm playing it cool.  About 10 minutes before the meeting ends, I've decided I'm going to go up and say to something to him after the meeting.  Then the leader asks a question, and he raises his hand to answer.

When he opens his mouth I instantly know who he is.

Stalker client.

A few months ago this man called with what sounded like a very viable opportunity in regard to his condominium association.  Since I take the new business calls I was the one who got him.

I was pretty green about condominium associations and the insurance availability, or lack thereof.  So I took his information, sent him an application, and then waited.

The next day I got a call from the property manager of said association informing me that this man was not on the board of directors and did not have authorization to be seeking alternative coverage for the association.  They had a quote, they had an agent and I needed to cease and desist pursuing coverage for them.

Yikes.

So I said ok, left a message for the "client" asking him to call, and then going on my merry way.  Lesson learned.

The day after, I'm about halfway through lunch when the receptionist comes into the kitchen and tells me the client is here to see me.  No appointment, no return phone call, he just shows up during lunch hour.  Mind you, this guy is retired.

So I take him and his wife into an interview room and he hands me a stack of papers, which I return to him and explain the situation.  Prior to receiving the phone call from the property manager. I had been looking at markets and wasn't having any luck anyway, so it was really just not going to happen.

He got very upset and promised he would get to the bottom of this.  He was going to get me a letter from someone on the board of directors authorizing him to make insurance decisions.  I figured it would never happen.

Well, he got the letter and the uproar that ensued was tremendous.  I told him that simply didn't help and that I was sorry but I couldn't help him.  He started calling every 10 minutes all day long and leaving long rambling messages.  If he called sometimes and I was on the phone, he would ring out to the receptionist and insist on holding until I was done.

I was calling the property manager and the board president begging for assistance.  Then the client started calling my boss and my boss's boss telling them I had lied to him and let him believe I could help them, that I could save the association a significant amount of money.  These were words that had never come out of my mouth.

It took over a month to get him to go away.

Now he goes to my WW meeting. 

As soon as I heard his voice I covered my name tag with my hair.  As soon as the meeting was over I scooted out of that storefront like I was on fire.

And then what does a PMSing, stressed out chick who was just confronted with her stalker client do next?  She goes to work.

Yup.  I put in four hours of OT.  I was the only one in the office and it was bliss.

Then I went home and took a nap.

Irish and I went to a birthday party last night that got busted up by the cops, and we got home at 1 a.m.

See?  Mixed bag.

I'm going to go whip up some breakfast.  Toodles.

Thursday looked iffy.  I was exhausted and disheartened and unhappy.  Friday dawned looking a lot better.

I did well at work, made some headway on some projects that I was unsure about.  I even had a call from someone who was referred by another client (her ex-husband, even!) and it was nice to have the reassurance that I'm not a total fuck-up when it comes to my job.

Last night we had dinner with the inlaws.  Irish's mom was off work and wanted us to come out (I think if she had her druthers we'd be living there).  Dinner was nice, but their pool water was too cold for a swim.

Afterwards we stopped at a car dealership (after hours - they were closed) and looked at some cars.  It looks like I'm going to buy something Ford Taurus-ish.  Nice, safe, appropriate for hauling around little ones. (No little ones on the way yet - don't get excited.)

I took two days off from the fitness center because I was tired and the scale kept going up and up.  I got up this morning and the scale did not look good, but I went to meeting anyway.

The meeting was a mess because they just switched to computers and it was slow going, so I spent the whole meeting in the weigh in line.  Good news, though, because I lost .6!  My first loss since September 2!!!!

The reason I say be careful what you wish for is because of what I've often said.. "I can't believe there is no Sonic in Naples!"  There isn't - the closest one is 45 minutes away in North Ft. Myers.

Well, now there is going be one.  I saw the sign this morning.

Right outside my Weight Watchers meeting place.

The subject of the Weight Watchers meeting last Saturday was “sneaking in exercise”.  The leader cited an article in Men’s Health magazine that said that men (in this case we’ll say people) exercise an average of 2 hours per week, and watch TV an average of 28 hours per week.  Does that seem off to anyone but me?

Everyone is always talking about how busy they are, no time to exercise.  I’m not great about it myself.  I swim as often as I can, but I can’t seem to get out of bed early to do it before work, and some nights I just can’t be bothered with suiting up and then going out and getting wet.  I also seem to always be planning to do a walking DVD at home, or go down to the fitness center, but that never happens either.

So I’m going to do some sneaking.  I’ve already started.

I’ve started wearing my pedometer everywhere during the day.  Yesterday was a dismal 2500 steps, but at least I know I spend way too much time sitting at my desk.

I take the stairs from the 2^nd floor parking garage to the 5^th floor where I work, both up and down.  On my bathroom breaks I sneak out to the stair way located by the bathrooms and walk up two floors and then back down, every time.  On morning break, instead of having a snack sitting in the break room I walk down the stairs to the first floor, walk over to the drug store and do a little window shopping (maybe buy some flavored water or gum or nail polish, or just walk around the building), then walk back up to the 5^th floor.

I also plan to leave work a little bit earlier than my usual 6 p.m. (my normal office hours are 8-5 but I always work late) and stop by the mall and walk around.  It’s one and one-third miles all the way around on the inside.

It’s working already.  My thighs are unhappy with me, but the number on the scale is inching down, and I feel better about myself, more in control.

Next step is to do some walking in place during commercials.  I’ve tried it and it feels dumb.  Maybe I need to go out and walk the parking lot or something.

Where can you sneak exercise into your day?

It's been a football-filled weekend.  Both of our college teams won yesterday.  Even better, Irish's college team beat Texas, which was like Christmas came early!

My Weight Watchers meeting went ok.  I've been in a kind of plateau for the past 4 weeks.  I gained .2, then I gained .6, then I lost 1.4, then this week I stayed the same.  I'm not surprised by any of it.  I've gotten complacent, if not lazy.

The meeting was about getting back to basics.  Try new recipes.  Review the  8 Healthy Guidelines.  Recommit to exercise.

I decided to try a new recipe, which is the 0-Points Vegetable Soup from the Getting Started book.  I've never tried it because I'm not a huge vegetable fan.  It suddenly occurred to me that I could make the recipe using vegetables that I enjoy.  I wasn't limited to the veggies in the actual recipe.

I also found a recipe for Fall Fruit Compote and decided to try that.  It has a lot of pears in it, which I'm not crazy about, but I'm branching out.

So I spent yesterday afternoon peeling and chopping and dicing, and I ended up with two terrific outcomes.  The soup is great.  The compote is yummy. 

Today was also football.  The Cowboys were on network TV, and Irish is a Bears fan, so we decided to go to the bowling alley to watch the games at the same time, since they have the NFL Season Ticket or whatever it is.  So we get there, and they change the channel to the Bears/Packers game.  They can't find the Cowboys/Jags game.  The network swapped the Bears for the Cowboys game, and the Cowboys game wasn't available on the NFL package, so I got screwed.  Not that it matters, because they lost.  OK, so I got to see the last two minutes or so.

And tomorrow is a big, sad day.  After work I'm going to come home, have dinner with my husband, and then go to the movies (he's got pool practice).  I'd rather not be home alone with the TV tomorrow night, what with a million "remembrance" shows about something that I'll never forget as long as I live.

I think I'll go see Little Miss Sunshine.  I've heard good things about it.

The "Manning Bowl" is on right now.  Talk about boring.  Almost as boring as this blog!  :)

What magazines do you subscribe to, and why?

Jane.  It used to be Sassy, and then it wasn't anymore.  I still like it.

Allure.  I am a makeup fanatic and this is a good magazine for it.

Mensa Bulletin.  It comes with the membership.

Weight Watchers Magazine.  I'm a Weight Watchers girl.

Magazines I read regularly:

Mademoiselle

Cosmopolitan

Glamour

The QotD's have been leaving me cold here.  I was counting on them to keep me writing every day.

As it is, the past few days I've been feeling tired and wrung out.  I think part of it was the mid-week trip to the Tampa area.  I don't like major changes in my routine, and that one was a doozy smack dab in the middle of the week.  Plus, it was there and back in one day and that was too much.

Work has also been weird.  I'm being promoted August 1, and handing over the reins of my job to two other girls.  I'm good with the handing over part, but my new job has me a little bit concerned.  There was supposed to be a lot of training this past month and it really hasn't turned out that way.  I'm feeling less confident about the move that I thought I would.  I know I can do the job, I just feel really stupid about it right now.  I hate that feeling.

On top of all that, my in-laws are out of town, so Irish and I are babysitting their neurotic dog at their house.  They have a nice big place out in the sticks, in-ground pool etc.  It's nice enough, it's just not home.  I like my own home and my own bed and all that.  We stayed out there Thursday night, and last night I stayed at our apartment while he went out there.  I have an early appointment this morning so I didn't want to have to drive in from out there.

There are just external forces that have me unsettled and it's making my sleep not restful enough.

On the bright side?  Married sex is amazing!  If I had only known...

I'm off to my Weight Watchers weigh-in, and to get my hair cut.