Slightly Less Heavyweight

I have currently lost 7 1/2 pounds on Weight Watchers. I think I may have lost more than that (not tons more, but maybe as much as 10 pounds total), but I didn't have a scale at home until about two weeks into the diet.

It is both easier and harder than I thought it would be to make this change. On the one hand, it feels good to do something healthy and positive for myself. Weight Watchers doesn't have a policy of starving participants, so I'm not any hungrier than I used to be. I also like a lot of the foods on the list of "core foods." On the other hand, eating at restaurants is a minefield. Even the salads contain forbidden cheeses, bacon bits and fatty meats. I also have to eat foods that I don't like, such as dairy, in incarnations I like even less, such as the vile substance known as plain non-fat yogurt. The biggest "other hand" of course is that I feel like I still have a long way to go before I get to a weight I'm told is healthy for my height.

The point of Weight Watchers (and of all good diets) is to effectuate a lifestyle change, not to reach a magic number on the scale, so it's wrong-headed to focus so intently on getting down to a certain size. But still, it's daunting to think that I've only come about one-sixth as far as I want to go.