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Watching our weight in a lifelong food fight
© St. Petersburg Times A sultry British voice answers the Weight Watchers' 1-800 number. "Hi, this is Sarah, the Duchess of York. There's nothing more satisfying than losing weight ..." Fergie, what a short memory you have! Remember that romp in the Caribbean with the stockbroker we all shared with you on the cover of a supermarket tabloid? I'd planned to just slip into the lunch-time meeting of Weight Watchers in South Tampa, sign up, get weighed, forgetting January is the most trite time of the year to lose weight. Women were lined up from the scales to the door. We take off our shoes as we approach the scales and those who haven't worn socks put them on. (You can't weigh in barefoot.) A woman ahead of me takes off her big clunky earrings. Scales are set up so nobody, not even you, can see your weight on the scale -- cardboard is taped over it -- which always seems to me kind of beside the point. We can see one another, can't we? I scan the room for women thinner than me, attractive and younger, so that I can align myself with them and not the women who really need to be here. It's not hard; all ages and sizes are here, two young attractive blonde women for the first time. The leader, name-tagged Clara, is slim but not skinny in black slacks and a white V-neck sweater, and, thank heavens, has a sense of humor. Today she's debunking some myths about dieting. Like, you'll lose weight at salad bars. Not if you eat the cheese and the bacon bits, and the goopy dressing. One woman speaks up. The Chinese chicken salad at Sweet Tomatoes, her favorite, turns out to be way up there in points! (Weight Watchers count points, not calories.) Like, menopause makes you gain weight, adding, that's not for men, of course, they don't go through menopause. "Oh yes they do!" cries out a woman, but we never get the details. Maybe her husband just bought a Miata. Like, your metabolism makes you gain weight. A woman raises her hand and announces excitedly, she just found out she has a thyroid problem. This is how nuts we are; we'd rather have a disease than have to do the one thing that will make us lose weight and keep it off: Eat less, exercise more. Mostly, eat less. I've been here before. In fact, I'm a lifetime member. I'm not overweight according to any chart, so those of you who are probably really hate me. I once complained to a friend who's got two wardrobes -- one fat, one thin -- that I can't keep Haagen-Dazs Chocolate Chocolate Chip in the house because I'll eat my way through it in a week. She looked at me like I was insane. "Not at one sitting?" she asked deadpan. But staying under the line in the charts doesn't come easy. Most thin women work for it. Clara, today's leader, joined Weight Watchers in 1979. I've been watching my weight since I was 11. (I lost eight pounds then, down to 74. Boy did I look great in my fifth-grade picture.) Things were going well for a while, actually, but when serious stress hit, I turned into a sugar junkie. I went to Publix just for the chance of a free bakery sample. More than once, I actually bought a doughnut there, ate it in the car on the way home. I stopped in Starbucks, but even non-fat blueberry cake adds up. Chris' (oversized) cookies at Woody's. Pistachio ice cream cones after dinner at Java n Cream or the Old Meeting House. What was I thinking? Of course I wasn't thinking at all. So back to hyper-vigilance, and counting points. I used to think it would end, that at some time we'd throw this over, eat whatever, not care. I'm not sure what that magical age is, but the mother of one of my friends is back in Weight Watchers, too. She's 80. And she looks fabulous. - Sandra Thompson is a writer living in Tampa. She can be reached at Tampa@sptimes.com. City Life appears on Saturday.
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Times columns today Steve Bousquet Sandra Thompson From the Times Metro desk Sandra Thompson |
