What Madness Is This?

Well, kids, it looks like I've gone and joined Weight Watchers.

Now it's not like I don't need to lose weight, and I have friends who have done really well on Weight Watchers. But I'm not really a joiner and I think to a certain extent it's a rip-off and I have much residual ill will towards it from the time my mother put me on it so she could get my father to do it back when I was twelve (twelve!) so I'm not the biggest fan.

Issues? What issues?

But one of the women where I work wanted to organize a company program, and you need a minimum of fifteen people before they'll come to your office. I knew I was in trouble the day she sent the email and I started counting the number of people in our office who were likely to join. So without letting myself think about it too much I told her that, even though I'm not really a joiner, if she needed me to make the fifteen I would be willing to do it.

Do I even need to finish this story? Of course they needed me and we were still one shy. But this is the kind of company I work for now--the owner said she would pay for the fifteenth place even if there wasn't a body there. And by the end of the week, she decided that the company would pay for all of us anyway.

So how could I not join, I ask you?

The good news is that the program has changed a lot over the years. You can choose between two plans. One plan is a point system, where you have a certain number of points you can have every day and you keep track of everything you eat. The other plan, called the "core" plan, is one where you don't have to keep track of what you eat, as long as you eat the core foods, and you get a certain amount of extra points each week to account for anything that isn't in the core group.

Well, the core group is mostly beans, fruit, vegetables, meat, tofu, and whole grains. Which is what I've been trying to eat for the past six years anyway. Admittedly, for the past year more processed foods have crept back into my diet, but I've been pretty consistent with the healthier eating.

So this is my plan. I'm going to do the core plan to the extent that I will continue the way I've been eating, except that I do plan to be more vigilant in eating whole, healthy foods. I do not plan to keep track of extra points and I do not plan to purchase any Weight Watchers products or books.

And we'll see what happens.

And while I did give some thought to eating anything and everything I've ever craved in the week before starting, I showed admirable restraint. I had some ice cream and my most favorite comfort food in the world.


I got this recipe over twenty years ago from a woman I worked with at the League of Women Voters in Texas. It's disgustingly easy to make, and it never lasts more than two days at my apartment. And I live alone.

Sausage and Corn Casserole
1 lb. Smoked Sausage, sliced in 1" rounds
1 large onion, cut in half and thinly sliced
1 28-oz. can diced tomatoes, with juice
1 lb. bag frozen corn

Brown sausage well on both sides. Add onions and saute until translucent and soft. Add tomatoes with juice, cover, and simmer for 25 minutes. Add corn and cook until heated through, about ten more minutes.

Some of the more observant among you may have noticed some cabbage in that picture. I happened to have a bunch of sweet and sour cabbage soup on hand and used that instead of the canned tomatoes. And that's Trader Joe's roasted frozen corn in there as well. Lip smackin' good.