What's on your (PHOTO) Friday Menu?

After surgery I was pretty religious about what I ate. No flour, sugar, breads, pastas. No cookies, candy, ice cream, cake or pie. No corn, no rice, no potatoes, no lima beans, no cereals. I had protein shakes, soups with high protein, salad, and non-starchy veggies. I remember going to a wedding about a year or two after surgery and walking to one of our legendary cookie tables. I looked at everything and finally indulged in one piece of chocolate.

I maintained my weight easily and had no hunger for 30 months. Then I started gaining a pound a week and my surgeon said that it was because I was no longer malabsorbing. When I reached 14 pounds of regain, I went back to Weigh****chers. I bought all of their products and followed their plan but only lost about four pounds.

I stayed higher for years and then was in a relationship with someone who I cooked for every night. He loved mashed potatoes, pastas, cakes, pies, good breads and no low calories foods. I was making meat and potato type meals for him and eating them myself. We both gained a lot of weight. I had to buy bigger clothes.

I got up on New Years Day one year and joined WW again. It did not last. I hate their meetings and weigh-ins. It took a few tries and I finally made a commitment during the pandemic to attend daily online meetings. I was in one, two or more meetings a day. I learned new things and was inspired by some of the members.

I first joined WW in 1973. I have tried all of their plans through the years. The one I follow now is based on their book, The Shift. I had the book in hard copy, on my Kindle, and the audible version. I was always listening to it, taking notes, and learning.

It changed everything about food, eating and losing weight. I am back to my lowest weight after surgery, 128. I eat anything I want. I have very high restriction and no hunger at all. I have to remember to eat. My ex is looking a lot slimmer without my cooking. We both lost all the excess weight when we parted ways. We still keep in touch and check on each other.

There was a point where I learned to eat like a normal person and then controlling my weight was impossible. When I ate big meals, I got hungry, ate too much, had way too many carbs, and gained a lot. For me it is all about eating the amount of food that keeps me satisfied without gaining weight.

I know you have been a big supporter of WW, how do you feel now that they are coming forward and saying "we were wrong about this being a will power thing" and their new alignment with the obesity is a disease issue (which is where everyone should have been, anyway").

WW is one of the programs I tried pre WLS and I have to be honest they can kiss my (smaller) fat A$$ until the end of time with their pivot after they have done so much damage to people. They are nothing more than another money grubbing organization. But I say that not having embraced them and having had the impact you attribute to them so I am genuinely curious.

I ended up being part of their new approach as it was being developed. No more will power and guilt. Because all online, no weigh ins.

Recognition that this is a disease and requires a lot of help for people to recover. It is now a compassionate program that really gave me the answers I started looking for many years ago.

When I joined in 1973, Jean Nidetch, the original founder was still running the organization. It was not the money grubbing thing it became after she sold it. Back then there was compassion and not much emphasis on money. I think it was $3 a week then.

I did not go for years when it became such a money-grubbing organization. I saw how people were treated and knew it was wrong. I was surprised when the Shift book came out and everything changed.

I believe it is finally back on track to what it started out as. A way to really help people struggling with weight.