Frustrated with meetings

Lately I've been getting very frustrated with WW meetings. I wonder if others are experiencing this. I've shopped around quite a bit--I've actually sat in on 5 different leaders' meetings now--and while some are better than others, clearly all the meetings have certain formulaic components and approaches that are part of the corporate plan. I'm not loving it, and thinking about becoming just an "on-line" member. On the other hand, I worry I might fall away from the plan if I'm not checking in every week (?). Trying to mull it over.

What annoys me about meetings is twofold, I think. The first is that the level of information seems very basic, even insulting. I suppose it's being pitched at people who are really learning how to eat healthy for the first time, but that ain't me. I've been eating healthy for decades. The portion control is helpful, but that doesn't take a rocket scientist. In general, it's all pitched at the lowest common denominator, and I find it pretty uninspiring. All the focus on packaged food, crap from McDonald's, hoarding all your points for some big blowout at Chili's or Applebee's--I've never even BEEN to any of those places. I cannot relate.

The second problem, related to the first but even more serious than the first, is the obsessive focus on eating management at the meetings. Yes, I realize this is a diet program (uh, a "lifestyle" program). But it's not as if everyone gained weight only because they didn't know how many ounces of fish to have with their rice. Besides the fact that half of what people are encouraged to eat I would never touch--either as a vegetarian or because I don't eat packaged crap bars--I am bored and frustrated by the constant focus on regulating food consumption: as if everyone who is in Weight Watchers is there because they are a glutton who simply has to learn to control themselves. While obviously overeating is, technically speaking, a component of all weight gain, it is so much more complicated than that. People gain weight because of fear, an unhealthy (even if low calorie) diet, self-sabotage, because they are abuse survivors, because of low self-esteem, all sorts of reasons that go beyond just putting too many forkfuls in the mouth. And it's clear that meeting leaders avoid discussing those emotionally-charged topics like the plague... so instead we spend all our time counting forkfuls. That seems to me to be bailing out the basement while the hole is in the roof.

While I understand that meeting leaders are not therapists, I do think that WW meetings are like support groups. But as it stands, they seem to be groups of women (mostly) supporting each other to put down the fork. But not groups of women supporting each other to understand or privately explore whatever it was that led them to pick up the fork too many times in the first place. Again, that physical retraining is essential if you're going to cut down on calories and actually lose the weight. But I wish there were at least some acknowledgement that if you're going to keep the weight off, you're going to have to figure out your stuff. In the meantime, I'm not sure how much I'm getting out of hearing people talk about how many ounces of chicken they are eating, or how much they love the 2 point whatever bars. It just feels like a waste of time.

I dunno. Must be in a grumpy mood today, which I shouldn't be--I am continuing to lose quite consistently, despite a very challenging couple of weeks! In fact, I saw 139.9 on the scale at home this AM: first time in years I've grazed the 130s. Very encouraging!!

Smooches,
Biblio  (5'2";  155/*143/128)  *139.9 at home this AM!