Conference rocks::weight_control

    Dear Gail,
    
    I could have written that very same letter, and I'm sure we aren't
    alone.
    
    My problem is that I get bored with the diet, or something comes along
    to sabotage it.  I was doing real well on the WW's plan when I came
    down with Hepatitus, next I had my gallbladder removed.  When I finally
    recovered from that I was in the hospital again for another operation,
    on my back this time.  I've been back to work for 10 months now and
    I've not been able to get back on program.
    
    I saw the tail end of an ad on T.V. a couple of weeks ago saying that
    if you wanted information on their "microdiet" to call an 800 number. 
    I called and they sent it with a $5.00 coupon off on their sampler
    package.  I ordered it and just received it Monday, and then a woman
    called me and said she would be my consultant and that we should meet
    so she could discuss the diet with me.  I have an appointment with her
    for Saturday, so I'll know more then.  From the information I was sent,
    it kind of reminds me of "Nutri System" or "Jenny Craig", in that it
    supplies the food.  She told me it was better than JC because it costs
    less and you eat one regular meal on this diet so that you don't have
    to go through the transition later.
    
    I hope this will be what I need to get motivated.  I'm at the point now
    where I hate to look in a mirror that goes below my neck.
    
    Good luck to us both!
    
    Hugs,
    Fran

    Hi Gail,
    
    I too could have written your letter and I would bet alot of people
    out there could claim the same.   I have spent hundreds of dollars
    to lose weight and only gain it back.  The reason was many, boring,
    feeling deprived, costly, etc, etc.  The list can go on why "diets"
    do not work.  When I think of what I put myself thru trying to find
    the magic answer for weightloss it all seems so ridiculous now.
    
    Two weeks before Christmas in 1988 I decided that I had had enough. I
    couldn't stand myself anymore.  I also realized that day that I had
    eaten all three of my meals in my car.   Late for work, drive thru
    McDonalds,  lunch time, errands to do and not enough time to eat,
    so thru Burger King for lunch, and finally at the end of the day with
    commitments to make in the evening I drove the Wendy's.  Well that 
    woke me up.  I looked up overeaters annoymous in the black and white
    pages of the phone book and found out where there were meetings in my 
    area.   The best move I ever made. Lost 55 lbs the first 4 1/2 months.
    I learned "why" I was eating and the quatities. I was eating on
    emotion.
    
    Whether its, disappointment, sadness, anger, frustration, even
    happiness, I would go for food to make me "feel better". Wrong!
    Only makes you fat.  Anyway, I have learned a whole lot about
    myself as well as losing weight. I use to think O/A was just for
    people who weighed 400 lbs.  No so, some people come in who only
    have to lose 25 lbs. There is not a diet.  You have a basic food
    plan but the big thing is no refined sugar or white flour.  Now
    that eliminates alot of products but it works and it changes you're
    life giving you so much inner peace.   But you have to go to
    meetings and listen to what other members have to say. Their stories
    and their "before" pictures convince you this is the easiest way to go.
    I didn't realize how compulsive I was in other areas of my life as
    well.  Plus I am a food addict. It is a 12 step program like AA and
    the support you get helps you so much.  For instance on Thanksgiving
    day I was very jittery worried about all the food and deserts that
    would be on the table.  5 different people called from OA just to say
    hello and to remind me  "just for today" I won't eat sugar and flour.
    
    I was skeptical at first but I kept attending different meetings (they
    have them 7 days a week all different times of the day) and I realized
    this was the only way to permenantly lose weight.   
    
    Other programs get you to lose weight but keeping it off is the secret.
    
    I hope that my experience has given you some new insight.  Once you get
    food in its proper place, other problems seem to take care of
    themselves or you can cope with difficult situations much easier of
    you're not overeating.
    
    Take care and good luck,
    
    Barbara
    

    I, too, could have written the letter.  I lost 83 lbs with WW in 1972
    and managed to keep most of it off for a long time because not only did
    I loose weight but I CHANGED EATING HABITS.  I gave up smoking and well
    I tried everything.  Even though I was a lifetime member of WW I
    managed fool around with the diet.  I was actually fooling myself. 
    Then about a year ago I decided to try The Diet Workshop flexi diet
    that worked well until I figured how to "fool" with it!  Well I must
    admit I have been going faithfully every week and I look back over the
    year and see the "education" I've received from the meetings (which you
    need to attend in order help CHANGE EATING HABITS.)  After the first of
    the year I knew I needed a change in my way of dieting in order to get
    faster results so I joined The Diet Workshop Quickloss 6 week program. 
    I feel great.  I'm loosing again and loving every minute.  It's great
    psycologically for me too because I know it's only six weeks and at the
    end of six weeks I have a chance to meet my mini-goal.  
    
    I have signed up for another six week session which is a different diet
    than before so... there's no time to learn to fool around.  
    
    I am counting my change in eating habits as much a part of my
    weightloss as the weightloss itself because.... that's what will help
    me to maintain.
    
    I wish you the best in which ever diet plan you choose to live on the
    rest of your life.
    
    Mary

    'gail
    
    Yup, me too.  I totally agree with .2, find out why you're eating and
    deal with it.  When you find you don't need the weight any more,
    believe me, it just falls off and you realise that you're on a path for
    life.
    
    Once I finally learned to like myself just the way I was and worked
    through the last little problem in my life then that little voice that
    kept the weight climbing just disappeared.  I've said this over and
    over, I do not consider myself on a diet, just a way of eating for the
    rest of my life.  Also I don't think of missing the chocolates or pizza
    or any other food I've enjoyed as being deprived.  This too is a first. 
    My job is very very high stress but I just flow through it, when I find
    I've hit a brick wall my little voice doesn't yell quick a chocolate
    any more, I just work through it.
    
    Its so hard to describe this change, but it definitely started when I
    accepted myself, then worked out why I had the weight.
    
    Good luck...
    
    ...dale 

    
    Thanks people!
    
    You're a really supportive file, you know that?
    And thanks too to those of you who wrote to me off-line.....
    
    RE: .2
    I hadn't considered Overeaters Anonymous because I'd suffered that
    same delusion as you about needing to be HUGE to go along....
    I'll look them up this evening. As long as they have variable
    meeting times I'll get along.
                                
    Meanwhile, I've tried to distill all the diet knowledge I've got
    and I'm trying the following:-
    
    1) Engage brain before opening mouth
    2) Am I hungry??
    3) Look at food in hand - how does it rate for...
    
    - fat
    - sugar
    - salt
    - "refinedness"
    If you can't recognise it, don't eat it!
    
    Go for EVERYTHING unrefined wherever possible, and eat lots of fruit
    and veggies
                              
    4) Take up jogging - 15mins only to begin with (doesn't sound too
       hard!)                
    
    Very basically, that's it!   
                              
    I'm determined not to get into counting anything again, and I'm
    not going to get obsessive about any category of food, or behaviour,
    or all those other life-cramping things that dieters can do to
    themselves.
    
    I'll let you know how it goes,
    
    Thanks again for your help.
    
    'gail
    
    
    
                   
    

	Sounds like you're headed in the right direction, 'gail.

	If you (or anyone else in here) would like access to the members-only
	Eating Disorders conference, please send me mail and I'll add you in.
	It's for discussing the disease aspects of eating disorders (anorexia
	and bulemia as well as compulsive overeating), as opposed to weight
	control methods.

	Beverly

    Hi Beverly and Gale,
    This note has inspired me as well. Could you please add me to the
    Eating Disorders file?
    Thanks,
    Hang in there Gale.  You're not alone.
    Donna