Wasted but well-spent

Last week I wasted 33 euros on starting a diet. I’m quite overweight, that’s no secret. Now it’s never been a health issue to me, I might be less fit than the average person but otherwise I’m perfectly ok. Until I get depressed over something, and then the whole idea of being overweight just drags me down even more. Last winter, my state of mind wasn’t that great. I got the idea that my weight was really horrible and a big issue due to popular opinion and the fact that people who are older than me (and no longer my friends, I might add) were still mocking me for my weight. I mean, come on people, it’s 2011 and we’re not eight years old anymore. Although I can still feel like that when that happens.

Then, a while ago, I visited my bookkeeper. She was doing the WeightWatchers diet and showed me a diary indicating everything she’d eaten the past few days and how many points that cost her. Just to explain things: in this diet you’re given a set of points for the day, which you -have- to finish, and an extra set of bonus points a week which you can use for extra things like sweets, cookies, you name it. Of course, fat things cost many points. You’re also required to eat 300 grams of veggies and 2 pieces of fruit, and to drink about 2 liters of water.

I thought about this diet for an eternity, and finally figured I should do it. I was hoping to get a few things out of it: a better eating pattern, and some healthy options for mainly dinner, which aren’t too much of a hassle to put together. What did I get? Well, how do I describe this… in Little Britain, they actually do a parody of this, called Fat Fighters. The woman I saw at the course was a woman who strikingly resembled Marjorie, with a hint of Rita Verdonk (if you’re foreign and you don’t know her, look her up). She kept the group entertained for half an hour with questions (“Do you like the seasons?” “Do you always throw away clothes that are too wide for you as well?”) and completely unrelated stories. Then she gave us a few very random hints and tips, and off the group went. I got the incredibly rehearsed newbie-talk and was sent home with a set of booklets. Good Luck(tm).

I got home at around a quarter to 10 at night, I’d finished planning breakfast and lunch for the next day with what I had in the fridge by half past 11. My regular bedtime is at least before half past 10, so that was very late for me. I didn’t sleep until 1 o’clock and I was wide awake again at 4 in the morning, wondering how the hell I was going to solve the dinner equation. I was incredibly tired but I managed the whole day, not feeling particularly hungry. I finally failed at dinner, because I didn’t have more than one hour to fix myself dinner and eat it. I had to skip the exercise as well. I worked somewhat that evening for extra money and went to bed again at half past 11, thinking the same recipe would do for the next day. Woke up insanely early, literally sweating and worrying about the veggies and the points. This went on for a while, and then at half past 7 in the evening, one hour after my regular dinner time, I was calculating how many points anything I had that wouldn’t take over an hour to cook would cost me. I quit right there and made myself a nice dinner with rice and chicken in about 15 minutes.

Quitting this didn’t feel like failing for even a second. Even if the feeling might have been dormantly present, it was trumped by a huge sense of relief. I don’t count dinner, I eat it. Plus, I learned a lot from this:

• I wanted good recipes, but this diet doesn’t offer me that in a convenient way. I’m better off buying a cookbook or browsing the internet and printing out recipes I like.
• I do need breakfast, it sets my body in motion and makes sure I actually feel better.
• I cannot possibly eat loads of veggies during lunch. Dinner is a different matter.
• Exercise will get me quite far as well and I was already doing well in that area.
• I’m fine the way I am.

All in all that’s a well-spent 33 euros wasted I say.