Eating Ice Cream With My Dog by Frances Kuffel Read Free Book Online Page B

Alcoholics Anonymous: 13 “Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program…” 14 There are meetings to attend, calls to make, histories to be written, amends to make to people we have harmed, books beyond the Big Book to be read.
    Weight Watchers, which itself is a brand name open to interpretation (someone who is “watching his weight” is usually trying either to maintain his weight or lose a few, rather than a lot of, pounds. Or does the weight watcher watch his weight the way birders observe the Bicknell’s thrush?), offers two diet plans, the Flex and the Core plans. The names probably say it all, but Flex allows the greatest variety of foods, each of which is assigned a certain number of points. The Core Plan, which doesn’t use points, relies on the Core List of foods, which are basically fresh, unprocessed foods and do not include any breads. Denise, a responder to my blog who uses the Flex Plan, instructed someone who asked about Weight Watchers, “You are supposed to eat as much of the Core foods as it takes to feel ‘satisfied,’ which is the scary part of that option. Who is ever satisfied when it comes to food? If I knew that feeling, would I have a weight problem to begin with…?”
    No counting? How can you lose weight without counting? If you don’t count calories (or points), you’re going to have to count something else. Ounces. Cups. Units.
    Weight Watchers is the most lucrative company in the fifth-largest industry in our economy, generating $50 billion a year. In 2003, Weight Watchers’ revenue was approximately $943 million, while Jenny Craig saw $280 million and LA Weight Loss achieved $250 million in gross income. 15 Their revenues are higher yet when special supplements and branded foods are added.
    Diet programs are not cheap. According to Forbes , the first week in Weight Watchers, in which one pays initiation fees and shops for new foods in order to follow the Flex Plan, costs $385. If the average American household spends $5,781 a year on food, this breaks down to about $27.79 a week per person, exclusive of fast food. 16 Diets culled from books rather than organizations are equally expensive. Following 21 Pounds in 21 Days: The Martha’s Vineyard Diet Detox calls for a $200 kit of supplements, a juicer, weekly visits to a colon therapist, and organic foods.
    Successful dieting relies on devout dieters, and the various programs have their own scriptures, saints, forms of worship, and accountability to some kind of authority, whether it’s a food journal, a weekly weigh-in, or Weight Watchers’ online POINTS Tracker with its twenty-seven thousand foods. Lindsay designed her own computer program, using the Weight Watchers Flex Plan points and the calorie deductions of her exercise regime, and one of our readers’ husband designed a computer spreadsheet program based on protein/carbohydrates/fats.
    Programs, regimes, spreadsheets?
    Then again, there’s always the “Unrequited Love Weight Loss Method.”
     
     
    I’m hungry, Wendy thought as she practiced pull-ups in the shallow end of the pool.
    With that, she breathed in a large stream of water, proving that humans can scream under water. Marilyn, her instructor, waded over to help steady her while she sputtered and coughed.
    “What happened?” Marilyn asked. “What made you panic?”
    Wendy was still clearing water from her nose, making her accent more Southern and her voice as atonal as if she had a cold. “I lost my concentration.” Her heart broke open for the eighty-second time that day. Wendy had to remind herself that this wasn’t Marilyn’s problem.
    “Why don’t you try the crawl over to the fourth lane and then pull up from it,” Marilyn suggested. “If you have more to concentrate on, you won’t lose your feet.”
    She meant well, Marilyn did. This was Wendy’s third terrified swimmer’s class with Marilyn, and she didn’t almost drown very