Vanity Led Me To It, and My Writing Made Me Stay….How Weight Watchers Changed My Life

By Margaret Carroll

As of this writing, I’ve just lost 25 pounds. I’m on the Weight Watchers maintenance plan. I feel ten years younger and pretty again.

Like many women reading this, I was a Twig my whole life. My parents cajoled me to eat as a child. Long after my siblings had been excused from the table, I had to sit there until I finished everything on my plate. I wore a Size 4 or 6 (I’m five feet, seven inches tall). Even into my thirties, shopping for bathing suits and underwear was no big deal. I was able to buy those three-in-a-tube patterned dainties from Jockey (remember those?), or sexy strings on sale at Victoria’s Secret.

I got married and then came The Baby. I’ve never known hunger like I knew when I was pregnant. If we had plans to meet friends for dinner, I’d beg to go to Outback and dream of Bloomin’ Onions all week. By the time I gave birth, I had gained 50 pounds.

I lost some of it and gained some back. Lost some and gained some back. Occasionally I would diet. My method was to skip breakfast (except for coffee loaded with heaps of sugar and cream) and put off eating as late in the day as possible. By lunch I devoured anything that wasn’t nailed down.

I began writing fiction seriously in 2003. For the first time, I was alone all day, sitting in a chair in my house. The kitchen was not far away. I wrote and sold four novels. I grew heftier with each book.

Last summer, I crossed a line in the sand. Medically, technically, I became Obese. It was not Baby Weight, technically speaking. Our Baby is now in the third grade.

The problem was, I didn’t know how to stop eating. Seriously, I had no idea. I had gotten to the point with my carbohydrate intake that I needed to eat every two hours or I got the shakes. My energy flagged. I got headaches in the afternoon. I couldn’t concentrate on my work for more than an hour or two at a time or I got sleepy. I made a Starbucks run most days after lunch (I was hooked on white chocolate mocha lattes). And I fell into the habit of taking a half-hour nap every afternoon before school let out.

I grew used to having a gut, to put it plain and simple. With every change of season, I had to go out and buy new pants. The old ones didn’t fit. I noticed I lost confidence, too.

This is middle age, I told myself. Everything gets rounder. Life slows down. I tried to think of myself as a curvy mature woman at peace with herself. But I missed wearing Lily Pulitzer shifts with mules in summer. I was not becoming voluptuous, Beautiful with More to Love. I was growing a fat butt with thunder thighs to match.

By the time I went in for my annual physical, I expected to be diagnosed with Type II Diabetes. I was not, but the news was not all good.

My cholesterol was zooming into the danger zone.

My doctor gave me a hard stare. “You need to lose weight.” Nobody had ever talked like this to me before. Well, the obstetrician had but I ignored him.

“But how?”

“Join Weight Watchers.”

This sounded dreary, like joining a 12-Step recovery program. Despite all the women I’ve known who had lost weight on the Weight Watchers plan, I winced.

“You can do this,” my doctor said cheerfully. “It’s easy. You’re going to lose weight. They’ll show you how.”

The next words out of his mouth were the ones that convinced me. “You won’t be hungry. I promise.”

He was right.

I went to my first Weight Watchers meeting determined to keep an open mind. I was scared. My need for refined carbs had progressed to the point where I needed to pop Hershey Kisses just to get through a trip to the mall or a play date in the park.

So the idea of starting my day with a protein-rich breakfast (such as an egg-white omelette – gag me) and a cup of fresh fruit scared the heck out of me. The idea of coffee flavored with just two tablespoons of fat-free creamer made me wonder if I’d even want to get out of bed each morning.

If I wanted to snack, I learned I could snack on carrots (woohoo). A tasty cup of vegetable soup (no added salt) would replace my midday mocha latte. Mustard and ketchup, I learned at the meeting, would become my condiments of choice (bye-bye, mayonnaise). Everything I ate would be measured and logged. (‘If you bite it, write it,’ my team leader advised.) I learned that you can eat a lot more halibut or tuna than grilled New York strip steak (ouch!), and that white bread is the Enemy. And I began drinking eight glasses of water each day.

I left that first meeting with my new Points Finder and Food Tracker, determined to give it a shot.

I lost three pounds the first week and felt as though I had won the lottery.

I continued to lose, for a total of 25 pounds in six months.

It was simple. I’ve never been hungry, ever. I’ve had a small dessert every day. I’ve dropped down close to my wedding day weight.

But the big surprise is how great I feel. My mind feels sharp as a tack. The fuzziness (which I now call my Carb Cloud) has lifted. My energy level is high, and remains steady throughout each day. No more peaks and troughs. No more shakes. No more naps. I’m down to a single cup of coffee in the morning. I eat four small meals each day, with low-fat protein at each. I eat grains and really do get six servings of fruit and vegetables every day.

My stomach is flat. My concentration level is high. I end my writing sessions each afternoon feeling pretty good, with plenty of energy left for after-school activities, errands, homework, play dates, housework, dinner prep and cleanup.

No more naps! I’m still a Walking Zombie by Light’s Out but at least now I can read a few pages (more if I like the book) or catch a minute or two of Jay Leno’s monologue before the curtain comes down.

To be honest, I would have been happy just to stop gaining. Or even with losing two or three pounds. I did not dream of looking good in Calvin Klein jeans again, or feeling so peppy and alive.

I had no idea food could have this big an impact. For me, a low-fat, low-carb diet is the key to a better life.

~~~

Margaret Carroll’s debut thriller, A Dark Love (Avon) was named one of the top five mass-fiction titles of 2009 by Publishers Weekly. She has three other books in print: Riptide, a Hamptons murder (Avon); and two chick-lit style romantic comedies set in NYC, The Write Match and The True Match (both from Avalon). She is currently at work on her fifth novel, another thriller set in New York.