Weight Watchers = Role Playing Game. It’s a pretty fair comparison, actually. I think that’s why I was so successful on it. If you’re smart, you can work out a winning strategy pretty quickly. The problem, of course, is that by viewing it that way, I wasn’t really changing my longterm habits. I was just playing (and winning) a game. When the game’s over, you go back to real life… which is the problem. For the last week I’ve actually been playing around with Calorie King, which is a free nutrition and exercise tracker. It works the same way as WW Online does, and their support for Australian foods is really good. I’m hoping that by avoiding the WW “Points” abstraction, I can concentrate more on getting a healthy and varied diet and less on tricks and hacks to let me win the game.
Jen
August 20, 2008 — 2:46 pm
I liked Calorie King – I was doing that before I got pregnant, and found it really good. I liked the exercise tracking bit too. I’ll probably go back to it once the sprog pops out. 🙂
Tricia
August 21, 2008 — 2:56 pm
I’ve continually been impressed by your ability to stick to diets and succeed. I always get hung up on that “the bagel takes up 25% of my day; I’ll starve” mentality and stop playing. I would think that the tricks and hacks should be fine if they’re healthy and work… (says one who doesn’t have tricks, other than try to fit as many veggies and whole grains in as possible).
Kris
August 21, 2008 — 3:54 pm
Oh Tricia, that’s just because I’m too embarrassed to blog about the failures. Four years ago I was fine sharing my successes with everybody, but now I feel like such a huge fraud. I’m ashamed – REALLY ASHAMED – to admit I’ve gained back more than half what I lost on WW. I’ve been kidding myself for a long time that just because I’ve been running, I can eat whatever I want. It’s just not true. And the excuses I’ve been reciting in my head for months now – it’s because of my stomach problems; it’s because of my new desk job; it’s because it’s winter – are suddenly looking really shitty. It really hit home a few weeks ago, and Snookums can vouch that I pretty much had a breakdown when confronted by the reality of the situation. (The three weeks in America, Land of Junk Food, didn’t help.)
So I’m starting over again. I’m trying not to be so hard on myself this time. I’m trying not to have unrealistic expectations. It’s been 1.5 weeks, and so far I’m doing okay. We’ll see.
Rachel
August 22, 2008 — 10:51 am
You totally have my support. It’s so easy to lie to yourself about why you put on weight. About 2 years ago I was about 60-65kg, training martial arts but it was beginnig to slip, then I got pregnant and despite gestational diabetes I packed on a huge amount of weight, 10 months post partum and I am only a fraction away from my final pregnancy weight. horrible. So for the first time in my life I am thinking about dieting, really dieting, but I think I need a coach. In my kitchen 24*7.
Kevin
August 23, 2008 — 3:54 am
Funny, I was thinking along these lines just yesterday morning, when I said to myself, “K, I need to walk Berk, then do my WoW and WiiFit dailies…”