“Buying in to WW”

“Buying in to WW”


To explore that “Week 1 Feeling,” I’m buying into the WW system.

Buying in is a poker tournament term. It means you pay up-front to get into the game. You pay, and you get a seat at the table. The cards are dealt, and you have to play your cards as well as you can. If you know the rules, you’ll do so much better.

In the poker sense, I’m paying hard earned money to go to WW. I’m getting up early on a weekend morning, giving up sleeping in late on a Saturday morning. I’m sitting through the meeting... I paid for that seat, so I’m damn well sitting in it. And I’m getting the WW materials, and I’m going to utilize them to the best of my ability. But also, like poker, I’m doing it with a sense of fun, but with an eye on the prize. And I’m once again pouring over the 8 healthy guidelines, portion control, and all the other rules that will help me win at losing.

Buying in can also mean taking part in a system. If you want to criticize becoming mainstream, you call it selling out.

The buying-in/selling-out dichotomy for me, is about my struggle with my inner critic. It may shock you: there’s a critic in me that believes that WW is hokey, not meant for me, a fat rip-off, points=gimmick. WW is embarrassing, because I don’t want anyone to know I’m trying to lose weight, in case I fail. Aha! Behind the critic, is fear of failure. A realistic fear based on past results, as well as the multi-billion dollar weight loss industry’s failure rate. The disclaimers "For many dieters, weight loss is temporary" and “Result not typical” are ignored by would-be dieters, just as smokers ignore the surgeon general’s warning on cigarettes.

Yet, with all that said, I’m still buying in to WW in the sense that I believe that if I faithfully follow the program, the weight can’t help but come off. I’m working on overcoming my fear of failure. First, by telling someone (you), then by failing well. Failing well is not blowing it out of proportion, learning from it, giving myself another chance. Because I have failed at weight loss before. Even at WW.

Most powerful of all - take the chance and face it. The odds are against me getting to goal, but I’m taking a chance on WW. I’m going to pull up my chair and play my cards. If I fail, I’ll face it again, live through it, and prove to myself I can survive it.