I thiiink I'm getting over 'carb flu' but not really sure. However, just indulged in a home cooked grass-fed beef tenderloin steak grilled to perfection with a side of asparagus. I have a good grillmaster in my house ;) No recipe today but instead a little back story of my beef with a major weight loss program that frustrates me.
Today's rant: My problem with 'Weight Watchers'
Before you go thinking "Oh, she only hates WW bc she is in love with Paleo" you are wrong. I have done WW in the past. Multiple times actually. I have done it over all the different versions that have existed over the past 10 years. Most often it the results were always the same:
Today's rant: My problem with 'Weight Watchers'
Before you go thinking "Oh, she only hates WW bc she is in love with Paleo" you are wrong. I have done WW in the past. Multiple times actually. I have done it over all the different versions that have existed over the past 10 years. Most often it the results were always the same:
- Frustration over how little food I actually could eat and be full
- Weight loss as slow as a snail's pace
- Hungry. All. The. Time
The first times I tried WW, I did all the low-cal, fat-free, sugar-free, reduced-fat BS. And even though you could have all the fruits and veggies (most any way) for ZERO points still didn't make that salad full of veggies w/fat free ranch taste any more delicious. My last attempt at WW was back in June when there was a online promo and after returning from a trip to California I wanted to get beach ready. Over 6 week I lost 7 pounds, which is about average but I did not feel right about not eating real food and trying to dumb down recipes with their low fat alternative mostly because my convictions about food had changed since my previous WW attempts. Even the 'extra points' I got with WW for breastfeeding didn't make my hunger better. Somewhere around this time I tried to squeeze Paleo into WW and well, they are like oil and vinegar! CrossFit and WW are the same. You need calories and fat to fuel a workout! So, I could stick with the national 'Skinny Fat' club of WW or (wo)man up and not be afraid to eat.
I was scared as hell. How was bacon gonna make me skinny?! I understand that WW tries to teach portion control and how you can indulge in moderation and make it a lifestyle. But is teaching someone to eat almost nothing all day so they can bank points and have cheesecake really a healthy thing? I mean, isn't this just teaching someone to fit their old junky life to live like a poor college student??
"Can't eat today. Only have X amount of dollars and I need that for beer money!"
That's how I see it anyway ;) For the record, I always ate in college. It was more important than beer! Can you say 'ladies night'??!
When you realize that an ancestral diet, like the paleo lifestyle is teaching you to eat more natural, unprocessed nutrient dense foods, you see things in a different light. It was not this magical 'get thin quick' diet I was following it really was a lifestyle. Living the way life was intended when my great grandparents were around. I loved some of the other principles of a paleo lifestyle including exercise/play that is fun and sleeping in a dark, cool cave (We don't really sleep in a cave FYI. Pretty sure cavemen didn't have good thread count sheets...). So you can see my problem with a recipe that teaches you to use fake sh*t for ingredients and tastes sub-par. It leaves you wanting more.
Enter the nay-sayers: "Well, that's fine and all, but do you really expect me never to eat a piece of cake, bread or cheese ever again?!" No, I don't. I sometimes eat these, but now I know when my habits are getting out of control and I need to clean up my ways. I have worked way to hard to get where I am to bail on me now. WW says the same thing in a recent annoying commercial featuring Jennifer Hudson:
The thing is, we aren't SUPPOSE to eat the 'extra large, extra cheese' in the first place. 'Good food' doesn't have to be defined as cheesy-deep-fried-whipped-cream-on-top. Good food can be healthy.
WW had a slogan a while back that 'diets don't work.' They are right, diets don't but lifestyle changes do! So here's to never counting points again!
