After six months of trying to lose weight and giving up, then trying again and giving up, then trying again and giving up... I joined Weight Watchers online! I have a few good friends who have joined and had incredible results. After a week, I am already seeing results, and that's very exciting. 

It's been an eventful year so far. 2012 is flying by. Personally, I will be very glad when the Mayan threat is over. I've had a lot of successes in business and my personal life, and that is something to be proud of. But that weight loss goal still hovers over me. In all other areas, I'm borderline obsessive when it comes to accomplishing my goals. What is it about losing weight that is so stinking hard? I guess it's because you have to break a whole lot of habits, including snacking, eating out of boredom and stress, and being relatively inactive. My husband has compared it to quitting smoking. 

I've discovered that I really hate the gym. I don't like exercising in front of people, I don't like dragging my kids to the childcare available there, I don't like walking on a treadmill. It's just an all-around unpleasant experience. My best friend loves it, and goes every day. Yay for her, but her enthusiasm just is not rubbing off on me. What I do like is jogging through my neighborhood, doing heavy yard work, rearranging furniture, and taking Zumba classes. I even found some aerobic classes on Netflix that work for me. So in order to get more exercise, I've made a conscious decision to do what I love instead of trying to fit into someone else's idea of the best type of exercise. There is a hill in my neighborhood that seems to rise up in opposition of my existence as I climb it, but it's a great heart rate booster and better than any treadmill. 

When it comes to dieting, all kinds of plans have been recommended to me. South Beach, low carb, Eat to Live, the Good Mood Diet, the Raw Food diet... yeah, those are not good options for me either. What I love about Weight Watchers is that it teaches you portion control and moderation. It doesn't cut anything out. My experience with low carb dieting has been that I can cut out the carbs for about three days, then I binge on something like a bag of chips or a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I believe that Weight Watchers will be the perfect fit for me. 

What works for you? Any suggestions? Any bad experiences?