Day 4 of Simple Start. It works, but not alone. You’ll still need Weight Watchers meetings, app and E-Tools  to break those bad habits and learn how to eat right again.

I had my first real test on the Simple Start program last night. The program succeeded, while I failed (a little).  We went out to dinner last night and I ordered a Cobb salad and stayed on track by replacing the salad dressing with oil and vinegar and requesting no cheese (fat-free not available).

A perfect night…until I ordered the 2nd glass of wine. D’oh!

Under Simple Start, a glass of wine is considered an indulgence and allowed.  My problem was the second glass. In my defense, it was just so tasty!

Other than this bizarre bias against the nectar of the gods, I’m enjoying Simple Start. It is living up to its name. The program takes away the guesswork for you. Just follow the prescribed menus or pick from the power food list.

And yet…that ease of use bugs me. I’m worried that people new to Weight Watchers will see how easy it is and think this is all they have to do to lose weight. Two years ago, I would have. I was still looking for the Easy Button. Now I know that one of the hardest things about weight loss is unlearning bad habits. If you don’t understand your triggers, and why you got fat in the first place, you’ll be doomed to dancing the ten-pound-tango every time a new diet comes out.

Certainly my Weight Watchers leader hit this point pretty hard in last week’s meeting.

And yet as the great wizard-philosopher Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore once said, “We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.”

It’s human nature to go with easy.

There is no easy peasy, nor lemon squeezy:

Simple Start is NOT the Holy Grail. The program gives you a kick-start and helps you build confidence. Follow it and you’ll see results on the scale. But if all that interests you is some movement on the scale, without learning from your mistakes, then it’ll be like that time you tried the 3 Day Diet, or the Cabbage Soup Diet, or the Hollywood Diet, or the Grapefruit Diet. Or my favorite one of all, the Tomorrow I’m on a Diet.

It’s common for folks in my meetings to say they can’t scrounge up enough minutes in a day to make healthy choices. Simple Start can help. But if you’re not willing to create time for yourself, no plan, no matter how easy, won’t help you in the long run.  Not even the Tapeworm Diet.

Look, I’m not saying eat perfectly all the time or that I never have moments where I don’t think about what I’m doing.  I still slip up (“cough” wine “cough”).  If you want to lose weight, you have to make yourself a priority in your own life and understand it’s not about dieting. It’s about changing your lifestyle!

I’m off the soapbox now.

(Damn thing’s about to shatter under me anyway…two glasses of wine, hello?)