Divine Intervention and Weight Watchers

Carol Buchanan

Almost one year ago to the day I joined Weight Watchers. I decided that I had watched my weight go up long enough and now it was time to watch it go down. I had started walking with my sister about three months prior to joining Weight Watchers. I’m sure we didn’t break any land speed records on our walks. In fact, I’m sure we talked much faster than we walked BUT we were moving. Anyway, the exercise alone wasn’t helping with weight loss probably because I was eating more to compensate for the energy expended. I tend to rationalize overeating.

So, I decided that for Lent I was going to join Weight Watchers. I knew the program would work if I worked it. I was a lifetime member having reached my goal after the birth of my youngest child (decades back). I reached it AGAIN when I was fifty and now AGAIN at sixty (plus a few years). I’m counting on the cliché “third times a charm” holding true.

I know that some people think that giving up something for Lent that can bring personal gain isn’t the way to approach Lent. I think God blesses any attempt to give up a bad habit. He certainly did this for me. I could not have been successful on my own. I am a “foodie” through and through. First off, I’ve been in food service for the past thirty years; it’s my career. My favorite place to shop is the grocery store. I can browse for hours in Whole Foods. The only magazines I’ve subscribed to in the last few years have been Cooks Illustrated and Food Network. I collect cook books. I like to cook. You name it; if it’s related to food I’m in. But, I also know that prayer changes things and I prayed. I thought for a while God wanted me to stay overweight. I thought wrong.

I followed the program religiously (no pun intended) which included being persistent not perfect. WW stresses eating a variety of foods, keeping track of food eaten, drinking plenty of water and exercising. All through last winter, spring and summer I ate what was recommended, drank lots of water, tracked almost every morsel I put in my mouth and walked with my sister. At the beginning of the school year my sister and I started having difficulty getting together for our walks because of schedule conflicts. About that time Gail Busam came along and asked everyone in our department if we would join in the fitness center challenge. At first I thought it was too much of a commitment. I had tried it the year before and gave up almost as soon as I started. Gail was a true cheerleader and convinced me and several others in food service to get involved. I believe exercise has been the main reason that I have continued to lose weight. I know that the eating program that Weight Watchers recommends helps the weight to come off but the exercise makes it come off faster and keeps it off. I need both.

I don’t believe this was a coincidence. My sister and I couldn’t get together for exercise. This would have been a time that I could so easily have stopped working out. God provided another way to get me moving. When people ask me “How did you lose weight?” I say, “Divine intervention and Weight Watchers.”