My name is Lorie and I'm a diet diva. I have tried every diet from Atkins to The Zone. There was Slim Fast, The Cabbage Soup Diet, Eat To Live, intermittent fasting, low carb, keto and something involving apple cider vinegar that I would rather not revisit. All of these diets worked, but none of them were sustainable.
in the mid 90's, I joined Weight Watchers and successfully lost 75 pounds. I was newly divorced and busy with raising two small children. At that time, I followed the Exchange Program, which was easy to understand. I had an arsenal of great recipes and I tracked like an anal retentive accountant. Every morning before I shuffled my children to daycare, and myself off to work, I got up at 5:00 a.m. and did videos of Sweatin' To The Oldies. Susan Powter was a much admired unicorn goddess and I Stopped The Insanity right along with her.
As a single mom, money was tight so I had to sacrifice the weekly meetings part way through, but I still stuck to my goals. As my children grew, and were involved in various activities, I stopped tracking and exercising and over the next ten years, I regained every pound.
In 2006, after a harrowing encounter with a full length mirror, I joined Weight Watchers a second time. I relocated to Florida a few months later and found a meeting before I found a job. Again I was diligent about tracking and exercising. The Points Program was the new kid in town and I loved it. I used my little Points calculator to convert my favorite recipes and I was off and running. Money was still an issue and again I quit the meetings and continued on my own.
I reached my goal weight in 2007 and the weight off until, I stopped tracking. By this time I had fallen in love with Walk At Home and Leslie Sansone's energy and positive spirit, but even she wasn't enough to get me off the couch. Slowly I started to regain. See a pattern here?
I fell into the diet diva mentality and for the past several years I have "dieted" myself fatter. I also spent a good portion of time self loathing and mentally beating myself up. How could I lose 75 pounds and gain 40 pounds back? What kind of moron does that? The things I said to myself were ridiculous. I would never, ever speak to someone else like that. It was horrible.
A week before Thanksgiving 2018, I was holiday shopping and passed by my old meeting !ocation. I parked my car and sat there for approximately one minute before deciding to return.
A week
Before
Thanksgiving!
If the place was still open, I would have walked in there and signed up. Instead, I went home and joined for 6 months in advance. I downloaded the app and started tracking Freestyle Smart Points that day.
Of course, I had to weigh myself to get started and there it was. 185 pounds. I took a deep breath and told my inner diet diva to shut up. That first week, I lost 4.5 pounds and a few weeks later I averaged a loss of 1.5 pounds. I still have a long way to go, and I gained a little over Christmas. I didn't beat myself up once.
Now you might ask, "What in the world were you thinking joining WW a week before Thanksgiving?" I knw, it was a little nuts, but you know what? I just knew that if I didn't do something soon, I would have easily ate my way through the holidays and gained even more weight. Let me tell you from the bottom of my heart, it's the best thing I did.
On New Year 's Eve, as I sat on my patio enjoying the fireworks, tears were streaming down my face, I was incredibly happy because I have set some attainable goals for this new year. I set up a Ditching The Diet Diva Facebook page, and an Instagram account. I'm interacting with fellow members on Connect and surrounding myself with like minded people. I love my coach and my workshop is a supportive and safe place.
I created this blog to share links to amazing recipies, tips, motivation and support. This blog is for anyone, Weight Watcher member or not. I'm an equal opportunity cheerleader! Whatever program is working for you is YOUR program. I'm choosing Weight Watchers because I have had great success with it in the past. I've learned a very hard lesson indeed, that I'm one of those people who have to track my food intake, exercise and attend my weekly Workshops every single week. I need to ditch the diet mentality that has tripped me up so often in the past.
We can achieve our goals this year and beyond. We can become that person who we all have in our minds. We can have that dream and make it a reality. Beating ourselves up for past mistakes serves no purpose. Please don't look back for the purpose of what should have been. Look forward to what can be. I can do this. You can do this. We can do this together.
As always, I'm always right here to help and support you in any way I can. You can find me on Facebook by searching Ditching The Diet Diva and on Instagram by the same name. You can also email me at ditchingthedietdiva@gmail.com.
Thank you so very much for stopping by. We got this!
