"It's choice - not chance - that determines your destiny."
- Jean Nidetch, Founder of Weight Watchers (WW)
OK. So this year, two things WILL happen in my life. I will turn 40 and I will get back into my "skinny jeans".
I have no choice about turning 40. I can fight it, but unfortunately, it will happen no matter how much I deny it. The skinny jeans are another story. I have been a WW lifetime member for 10 years. I lost 40 pounds following the program, and I know it works. The problem is: sometimes I choose not to follow the program very closely, and I struggle with maintaining my weight loss. In fact--I feel like I have gained and lost my last 10 pounds about a million times. Unfortunately---right now I am once again struggling to lose that last 10 pounds.
So-- I have decided to do something a little bit zany. I have chosen to go "Back in Time" and incorporate some of the original WW program guidelines & recipes into the current plan and write about it... All in an effort to get back in my skinny jeans! Please note: this is NOT about deprivation. This is about having fun and shaking things up!
What on Earth prompted this insane idea you ask? Well...
Recently, I was able to get my hands on a copy of the "Weight Watchers Revised Program Cookbook" (WWRPC) published in 1972. That, coincidentally, was also the year my mom joined WW and lost a great deal of weight. I am fascinated by this book. I love to talk to my mom about her experiences in the early days of WW--the liver, the tuna, the cottage cheese! She still eats some of those crazy concoctions! I have often wondered what it would be like to follow the same plan that Jean Nidetch and my mom followed almost 40 years ago.
I also recently read "The Jean Nidetch Story". I was incredibly inspired by her story. Jean lost over 70 pounds on the original plan and continues to maintain her weight loss 45 years later. Did you know Jean was 40 years old when she founded the company. Coincidence? Hmmmmmmm.
I hope to accomplish two things with this "experiment":
1.) Get back into my skinny jeans;
2.) Pay tribute to the history of the WW program and how far it has come--while having a little fun in the process.
In order to maintain some sort of structure, I have set up some rules for myself to follow:
RULE #1: I must try at least one new recipe from the WWRPC every week.
RULE #2: I must incorporate the original program "rules" to the extent that it is possible and to my best effort. (more on the "rules" later.)
RULE #3: I must attend a WW meeting once per week.
So here goes nothing! Jean Nidetch founded one of the most important international corporations in the history of mankind when she turned 40. All I have to do is get back into my skinny jeans. Piece of cake.
3 comments:
Hi! This is the first time I've ever been on your blog and I love it! I'm your 202nd follower. All of your hilarious recipes are somehow very inspiring--and side splitting too.
:D Marion
I just came upon your blog from happening upon The Mid-Century Menu blog last night. Your blog is awesome for me, as 1972 is the year I was born and some four years later my mom was doing WW and found that it was easier just to take me along to the meetings with her. Although I only have a vague recall of being in the place where the meetings were held, my mom has told me a number of stories about my questions and comments during and after the meetings, that I feel as though I do really remember being in those meetings. The one she recounts to me most often is that I regularly told everyone that she was attending "Fat Lady School." I think she finally stopped taking me with her to the meetings after she discovered I was really paying attention during them and fancied myself her food police, scolding her when I thought she was eating something they had mentioned as being off limits. Thanks for the jog down memory lane!
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