Saturday, October 25, 2008

Week #4 / 221.2 lbs

Another Saturday, another early morning meeting.  I lost 4.6 lbs this week.  Yay me!  I realized something as I was sitting in the meeting this morning.  Weight Watchers meetings are kinda like Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.  No, I've never been to an AA meeting, but from what I hear from other people or see on tv (not that you can really take tv for real life), it's a lot like the meetings I go to.

Today we talked about what triggers overeating or mindless snacking.  Other than boredom,  it was mostly emotional reasons (stress, anxiety, depression, guilt, sadness, hurt, loneliness, etc.).  I don't know if I can actually say that at one time I was an alcoholic, but I sure can remember drinking to cope with all of those feelings.  And today, I realize that I eat to cope with those same feelings.  At one point during the meeting, everyone got a chance to say what makes them want to eat and if they give in, or if they have ways of distracting themselves.  After each persons turn, everyone clapped...  much like an AA meeting.  And at the end, everyone went around and said how much weight they'd lost to date (-18 for me), and again, everyone clapped.
  
The topic of addictions comes up pretty often in my everyday life.  After much consideration (and other's may disagree), I've come to the conclusion that an addiction is an addiction, weather it be alcohol, cigarettes, food, gambling, shopping or drugs, to list a few.  And all addictions most likely stem from the same emotional reasons.  There are some people at my meeting who have been going to meetings for over 5 years.  They reached their goals years ago, but they recognize their addiction and know that if they don't want to gain weight (fall off the wagon), they need to stay accountable to someone and the meetings provide that outlet (again, much like AA).  

All addictions are harmful to ones self and if you really think about it, all addictions are also harmful to others.  
  • Smoking around other people = other people getting sick from second hand smoke
  • Drinking alcohol = altered state of mind, causing irrationalism, impaired reflexes, and emotional numbness / all harm other's in one way or another (irrational fighting, drunk driving, spending money that's not there to get your fix, etc.)
  • Drugs = pretty much the same as alcohol
  • Shopping = spending money that you don't really have (hurts the whole family)
  • Gambling = again, spending money (hurts the whole family)
  • Eating = spending money on food, getting fat so people are embarrassed to be around you (shallow, but ultimately true)
So, I guess what I'm saying is that if I expect alcoholics, drug addicts and compulsive gamblers to go to meetings for the rest of their lives to stay clean, then I have to be willing to do the same.  How is it fair that I can cheat when I feel like it, but that an alcoholic or drug addict can't cheat whenever they feel like it?  It's not fair.  

I commit to not cheating.  By not cheating, I will feel better about myself weight wise, health wise and just by knowing that I can follow through with something.  

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