h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The Weight Watchers Points™ system calculates the calories, fat and fiber of a food, to give an approximation of it’s density versus calories. But I don’t think it works over the long haul, ultimately. With some people it’s cookies, with some it’s crisps, with others it’s Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Bar -- it’s really not about the points. Whichever irresistible food it is, for that food it’s not about hunger at all.

Part of it is that we don’t tend to TASTE what we eat anymore. We ate something once and we felt good afterward, so when we need to feel comforted, we go back to that food, unconsciously looking for the same emotional boost. When it’s a bad hair (or traffic or boss) day and we’re looking for comfort, no amount of anything will be enough – we eat so we’re not jittery or angry or stressed anymore.

Now, back to ME. While following the WW plan, I found myself thinking, “Okay, I’ve got X# points I can eat today…how can I maximize the food I choose so I won’t be hungry?” You can see the problem with this already, can’t you? I ate carrots and celery so much to feel “full”, that I crunched when I moved, and “contributed” more to the atmosphere, to boot!

I was a member of WW for years, off and on. The last time, over 10 weeks last year, I lost 6 pounds overall, with a couple of weekly reverses. I was down from where I started, but I got very discouraged from the yo-yo effect. After I dropped out the last time, within five weeks, I lost 8 more pounds – with NO yo-yoing.

I felt compelled to stop WW when I realized that over the past two years, since my heart attack, I had already lost 30 pounds without being on what most people would call a “diet”, and before even joining WW the last time.

Besides the obvious fear factor over my eating habits that got me into that health crisis, I couldn’t walk as well, and everything was so much more effort. Usually, in the past, I’ve eaten far more than I wanted, just because it was already in the bowl, or there was still some in the bag! Of course, there was also the guilt trip from when I was a kid – it’s “wrong” to not clean the plate, don’t you know that Children In Europe are starving? (I suspect they’re eating better now, so I should relax ).

Light bulb moment: Why not eat a little less, then if I have to, go back for a little more? Most of the time I returned for more, to discover I didn’t want it by the time I got there.

If you follow Michael Pollan’s sage advice, “Eat food, not too much, mostly vegetables” to handle your physical hunger (7 words that took him two whole books to come up with!), you can always get a teddy bear or a Wii or a Porsche to deal with the monsters under the bed.

I've become convinced that I can't go to sleep unless I get up and make a peanut butter and mayonaise sandwich...A curse by the Earl of Sandwich and George Washington Carver...over a three year period that's 400,000 extra calories...

I know a lot of people who have had good results with WW. I've never joined it so have no personal experience to go by. But it seems like any diet will work for a while, until you get so bored with it that you can't stand it any longer. Using lots of vegetables and portion control for everything else has to be a part of any successful eating plan. I think making healthy choices most of the time and saving the trigger foods and especially the sweets for special occassions is the most practical way to control our weight. The minute I tell myself I can't have something, then I want it.

Hi Phred, long time no type! Yes, we must blame the old Earl, he's gotten a bunch of us in trouble over the years -- just ask Elvis!

I reserve my highest condemnation for whoever's been coming up with those ghastly burger renditions -- Ray Kroc would be spinning in his grave over some of the monstrous burgers in the ads these days!

Hyp, I'm glad I'm not the only one who wants something all the more because they can't have any...where I'm living now, I'm forbidden chips, cookies, cake, fatty stuff of all kinds, because my friend is permanently on WW. I've eated a lot of naughtly things lately, just for that reason -- didn't even want them much, before that!

Er, think I might've meant "eaten" there...

Mmmmmmmm, peanut butter...another thing I can't have, as it's one of P's trigger foods. She's totally unable to "eat just one", even when it's diet food, like WW's little cakes, stuff like that. Peanut butter is healthy in *moderation*!

Hi, am winghternights , slowly but surely making contacts in h2g2 land . Hope to find you and your 2 cats well . Take it from your handle you could be an astronaut !,
Its rumoured that soon there will not be enough food to go around , my motto , eat up now while we can.

Hi winternights, nice to meet you!

Hunger is a real pressure on a lot of people on this planet. My aim is to eat less so there's more for other people...

I just wish I was an astronaut! By the time I connected with the right people, I was too old. Ah, well, maybe the little ones will be able to do it. Or maybe it's a dream that's not for us anymore, with energy being in such short supply. We'll see, won't we?

I’ve have become what you could call a armchair scientist armed with only copious cups of hot tea , what I can not read about , I draw upon my dwindling vivid imagination to enlighten all the gaps. Plus number one son is always there to put another angle on things !.

I still get the telescope out during those cold winter nights , Its amazing what you can see and it all seemed to be in the correct orbits last time I looked.