Diet Update

Ok, so its been one week since I started the Weight Watchers diet. I have to admit, I was a bit nervous when it came time to weigh in. I lost 10.4 pounds! I now weigh 271.2 pounds, and I have to say I’m pretty happy with my results so far. Of course, I fully realize that you lose weight much faster in the beginning, and the weight loss tends to slow over time. So I am prepared for the fact that I probably won’t lose that much in one week again.

Overall, I’m finding the diet pretty easy. I can eat most of the foods I want, and those 35 free bonus points really help out. Just knowing that, if I want, I can go eat something bad for me, and still maintain the diet is a real help. Its one thing when you think “I can’t have those french fries”, but another when you think “I could have those fries if I really wanted them, but I won’t”.

There were a few tough times during the week. The first came when I went out one night to Boston Pizza. I have a huge weakness for chicken wings. I love the little bundles of deep-fried fat. Sure, I know they’re trying to kill me, but to me, eating chicken wings is like having the best sex of your life with an assassin who is trying to kill you. Sure, fine, I know she is trying to kill me, but the great sex is worth the risk.

I was standing there with Gary when I watched a waitress carrying a large bowl of chicken wings to a table. I started cussing a blue streak, and I believe I wished all sorts of horrible, disfiguring accidents on diseases on everyone in the world who was eating chicken wings. Hey, it made me feel better.

Friday night was another speed bump. Its become a bit of a tradition with us karaoke types to have everyone drink a  Dr. Pepper together (this drink, unlike the soft drink that inspired it, contains beer, cola, and a shot of amaretto). I was worried that a drink would be too many points, but the whole thing was only 5 points (I get 31 a day, plus a weekly allotment of 35 bonus points). So I could have my drink and still stay on the diet.

The last issue for me was on Tuesday. Craig and I go out to work on Backsliding once a week, and we usually go to Ben Pho Tahn (an amazing local Thai/Vietnamese place in Hamilton, famous for its surly waiter man) for lunch. I always – and I mean always – have the pad thai. I never pictured myself as the kind of person who would have the same meal every time he went to a restaurant, but God love me, I absolutely adore pad thai.

How much do I love pad thai? Here’s a for instance. I’m walking across a bridge, when I spy a plate of pad thai resting on the side of the bridge, a top a pile of coiled rope. Its steaming and tasty looking, and there is a set of chopsticks sticking out of it that say “Hey, look at me, I’m ready to eat!”. As I approach the plate, I look over the bridge, and I see a man drowning in the water. To save him, I will have to throw the rope into the water, spilling the pad thai all over the road.

Now the dilemma: do I eat the pad thai, or save the drowning man?

Naturally, I save the drowning man. I’m not an asshole. But for the rest of his natural life, I will contact him once a year, on the anniversary of my saving his life, and call him a dirty, non-swimming fuckwit for causing me to miss out on that plate of pad thai.

So, back to the restaurant. Craig and I went, and I was worried about the pad thai. I knew it was probably waaaaay expensive in points, and should be avoided. But I love it so much, I just said to hell with it. I had the pad thai, and I counted 20 points for it. As it turns out, it was only 18 points. So, even though it has a pretty high point cost, I can still have it once a week.

So, I lost 10 pounds, and I haven’t had to give up one single thing that I really like. Pretty freakin’ sweet.