Why Are We So Hard on Ourselves?
Filed Under: Curvy Conversations, Fitness
Confession: I’m a Weight Watchers drop out.
My first 30 pounds came off in one year with Weight Watchers, but then… I began to cheat the system… staying “under my points” but still not eating well (did you know that a Skinny Cow ice-cream bar is only three points? Which means I could have two for dinner and only use six points!) Yeah, it was bad. I gained 10 pounds back. And then… I told myself I couldn’t show my face at a meeting to get weighed in until I had lost the 10 pounds. Which meant I was paying for a membership I wasn’t using, so I canceled it.
A few months after canceling my weight watchers membership, I began to work with my nutritionist and embrace clean eating (bye, bye skinny cow ice-cream bars!) I quickly lost the 10 pounds I had gained, plus eight more and I’m currently hovering over the 40 pound mark. I’m happy with the work I’m putting in, I’m happy with what we’re learning in #PSPfit bootcamp.
Then last week something happened; I ran into my old weight watchers leader and suddenly felt like I wasn’t far enough along, I hadn’t lost enough weight and I was a complete failure.
Did my WW leader ask about my weight? Nope! She asked me how I was doing and we caught up like normal people, but in my head she was looking at me and judging my progress.
Do you have people in your life that you want to see once you’re different in some way? Maybe you fantasize, “the next time I see them I’m going to be ________ ” It could be anything… “next time I’m going to look fabulous/have a great job/be in a fulfilling relationship” …whatever. I think my WW leader is one of those people for me. I think somewhere in the back of my mind, I decided that I the next time I saw her I was going to be significantly smaller… but she made her cameo in my life early and I wasn’t prepared!
I can laugh about it now, but in the moment I was emotional. Seeing her when I wasn’t at my “best” really made me feel like I hadn’t lost ANY weight, which of course is not true and if it was someone else saying this to me, I be telling them they were crazy for having a meltdown. But its different when its me.
Anyway, today I can be more objective– I can say that I am smaller/healthier/fitter than I was at my last WW meeting. I can say that I haven’t reached all of my fitness goals, but I’m closer. I’m eating better and working harder and I’m *this* close to having lost 40 pounds… and just because I’m not where I wanted to be by now, doesn’t mean I’m not farther along than I was before.
*sigh*
We are we so hard on ourselves?





