FATURDAY

Today is Faturday or what we used to commonly call Saturday but Dr. Oz coined this word as the day of letting up on the diet and treating yourself.  The concept is it kick starts your metabolism.  I was thinking about Fat Pat the other day or quite frequently.  I miss her at Weight Watchers.  When I first met Fat Pat, that is how she introduced herself.  She wasn't nearly as fat as me but every week she would weigh in and not lose a pound.  Sometimes she would even gain.  The net change in 6 months was zero for her.  I heard her tell the leader at one session that she ate the same every day and it sounded pretty lean to me.  Andrene, the leader, didn't give her much solace when she told her everyone was different without actually offering solid hard-core advice.  Well, Dr. Oz's advice is to shake it up a little.  There is something in our bodies that recognizes the amount of nutrition going into it.  If you eat the same thing everyday, the metabolism sets for that amount.  If you are stranded on a mountain with a bottle of water and a few peanuts for days on end, the body protects you from starvation and resets your metabolism to survival mode.  The day off re-jigs your metabolism so it isn't necessarily set on accepting 26 or 29 points daily.  It is like the woops that is just like starting over.  Do you ever notice that when you diet, you always lose the most during the first week?

I suppose Fat Pat wasn't the only one who had this because as I attended Weight Watchers the last few times I was in town and it was filled with strangers and yet I know that the last bunch didn't lose the allotted weight they had set out to do.  As for me I am up and down settling around minus 22 lb. on my own scale this week.  I guess I need to shake things up myself.  I was perturbed when the point system cut everybody back from 29 to 26 points a day.  They announced it as a new and flexible program for 2012 but I wasn't buying into it.  I did however last week and it worked but it really changes what you can and can't eat.  I did lose a couple of pounds with it but they have reappeared because Faturday was also Fat Thursday and Fat Friday. 

Fat Thursday was good until the Book Lover's Ball.  I went with Anita, from Banquets at the Royal York and sat with her at the best table in the house, ringside to the fashion show.  I had a ball but the little glass of wine I had that was only to be one escalated to every time the server came around and refilled the glass.  There was a lovely selection of Artisan rolls on the table, a bowl of butter cut into large tile slabs and I was in heaven.  The scale didn't exactly agree with my idea of heaven the next morning. 

So then there was Fat Friday.  I was really keeping track and at the end of the day had around 27 points but there had to be a miscalculation.  The scale hasn't budged.  Friday night dinner with my husband is the enjoyable relaxation we so look forward to ending the busy work week.  It is the time where everyone has left for the weekend and and the loudness of being busy has diminished to a dull roar.  As careful as I am in my cooking, I always have to go back and re-evaluate my misgivings.  Last night I made pasta alia olio... except I didn't have the pasta part.  I had the mushrooms, shrimp, grilled asparagus and cherry tomatoes sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.  On the surface, it seems okay but I think the minimal oil in the fry pan with the shrimps and mushrooms was downfall #1.  The grilled veggies in the oven also had olive oil and that was probably downfall #2. ....  or maybe, my body still hadn't gotten over Fat Thursday.

I am definitely needing to retreat and regroup.  There isn't a Weight Watchers meeting at the local church where I attend today as it was pre-empted by another event.  I like the location and the time but am uninspired by the leader now as I feel she goes through the motions without giving any advice. 
As well, my cohorts in crime are missing and I really don't know most of the people who are there and that was part of the support system.

I am going to be missing the next few Saturdays since I will be away on the weekends.  I will have to re-evaluate what I am going to do going forward.  Should I be blaming the group or myself?  Who do I answer to?  I have decided to keep my own records every Saturday morning as I weigh myself when I get up and not with clothes on.  It is more consistent that way.  I don't have to hold a pair of yoga pants in one hand and one in the other to see which is heavier before I weigh in.  You would have thought by now, I would remember the yoga pants that weigh the least.

So today is Faturday.  I am going to take a positive approach and keep to Dr. Oz's off day... but not totally.  Tonight we are going out with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law for dinner to Hy's Steakhouse.  I plan on the steak or half of it and the wine.  It will be my let up day and I plan on enjoying it.  Now if we changed the S to F on every day that has an S in it, then tomorrow would be Funday.  I am going to smile about that.  I am thinking of a funny childish joke.  "Why are fish so easy to weigh?"  Answer: "Because they have their own scales."