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Weight Watchers and the Raw Food DietWhy would anybody who is on the raw food diet want to join Weight Watcher’s? Don’t all the Weight Watchers products such as the processed packaged foods and the recipe books filled with cooked and meaty recipes fly in the face of the Raw Food Diet? Well, yes in fact they do, but there also is important common ground. I have broken down my rationale for joining and remaining on Weight Watcher’s into three areas of commonality: accountability, connection, and programming. I have lost over 15 pounds since joining Weight Watchers and even more on the raw food diet. I do not track points at all, although in the future I plan on calculating the points for some of my favorite raw food recipes just to help others and myself better understand how the raw food diet translates into weight loss success.
Weight Watchers has been offered in my workplace since the beginning of the year and many of my coworkers have succeeded in releasing a significant amount of weight as a result. In June of this year, around the same time I transitioned to a high raw food diet, I decided to join Weight Watchers in part to connect with people with the same desire to lose weight. I had already lost weight eating raw foods but I wanted additional accountability and support. My motivation joining Weight Watchers in the workplace was not exactly as straightforward and merely connecting with others with the same interest in obtaining and maintaining a healthy weight. That was a big part of it though. The less obvious part of it was to help to turn the tides of my workplace vibe in my favor and not against me. Due to issues with Sound Sensitivity, my workplace represented something of a battleground to me, particularly in August and September of 2008. One of my many escapes was to ease my anxiety through food. Finally in September, I was permitted to work at home much of the time and even better; in February 2009 we found an isolated workspace for me in the building. That took a lot of stress off of me but still left me with some bad feelings about how hard it was to get an accommodation that I felt should have been common sense. You may wonder, why I did not just up and leave. That certainly was a consideration, but I wanted to leave on my own terms and not in a bad way. I want to leave for the right reasons. I have informed my boss of this and am taking action to make this happen sometime in 2010. Here is where the raw foods come into to play again. In my current job, I do get to work with wellness, but not in an optimal way takes full advantage of my skills and not with the optimal message that a vegan raw food diet is the way to go. Until then, I would like enjoy as many common points of connection as I can in the workplace and have found Weight Watchers to be a valuable way to achieve this goal. This way something in my work environment is working for me and not against me. There are lots of points on commonality such as frustration with all the junk food that is available in the workplace and a true desire to change the workplace culture around wellness. Now I get to be part of others being genuinely happy for my success and vise versa. I am not just that weird employee with the sound problem who eats weird foods, but I am a fellow human being who wants to maintain a healthy weight for life.
This was probably the number one appeal of the program for me. I like that Weight Watchers is structured so that you weigh in every week and that when you meet certain criteria—staying within two pounds of your goal weight, you can remain a lifetime member for free. To maintain the lifetime status, you must weigh in at least once a month. The program allows you a free pass in a 16-week session if you feel you really screwed up and do not want to be weighed that week. I never have and I never will miss a weigh in for that reason. It defeats the purpose of why I pay to be a member of Weight Watchers in the first place! I have accepted that weight management is a lifetime commitment regardless of what type of diet you are on. Recently I have been eating a very high fat raw food diet—so there is room for improvement even though I am high raw. Also, it is very possible to eat a raw food diet and be overweight. It is also possible to fall off the raw food diet bandwagon. So Weight Watchers meets me where I am and helps me to stay accountable. At work eating events, I am definitely aware of other Weight Watchers members around me as I put food onto my plate.
Currently I am about 10 pounds away from my goal weight although I have already reached a weight that according to the charts is healthy for my height and age. Some Weight Watchers members try to game the system by establishing a goal weight that is on the high end of their range but is really several pound greater than the weight they truly want to achieve. They do this so that they can maintain the weight for 6 weeks required to achieve free lifetime membership status. They then plan to adjust their healthy weight down if they lose more weight without having to pay for it. I find this to be a very self-defeating tactic. I feel that I am in essence purchasing accountability and a powerful goal-setting tool by enrolling in Weight Watchers. I am will to pay the financial price for doing it the correct way. Stated goals are very powerful!
Attending the half hour session once a week has been wonderful. Our instructor, Christy is very humorous and says things just right the right way. I feel that regular positive messages I receive make a difference in the way I think and ultimately impact my motivation and actions.
Am I getting messages that do not resonate with me? Absolutely. First of all, there is a whole display of foods that I do not eat. Well…almost…so there was this one time when I was hungry before a Weight Watchers meeting and I bought a package that included six bags of crackers. I ate the whole thing within a couple of hours. Processed food is so addictive and increases by hunger. My body wants to keep eating due to the lack of nutritional value in the food. Had I had some raw crackers instead, I would have been satisfied with fewer calories and my body would have been happier too. That was an isolated incident however. Normally I just automatically censor images and messages that do not resonate with me. For me, it works just like I am doing a hypnosis CD. In fact, some hypnosis CDs mention that you should disregard messages that you do not find empowering. One of my weight loss CDs includes a suggestion to eat lean meats. Since I am a vegetarian, I automatically disregard this message.
Likewise, when I am attending a Weight Watchers meeting, I remain open to the good programming that I get from the leader and the other participants, while I automatically censor material that does not apply to me. There are plenty of messages and tips that apply to me. Most do, in fact.
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