I used to love Slurpees. My girlfriend got me hooked on them, actually. I’d liked them as a kid, but when I was in college and she drove me home after every weekend, we’d get Slurpees on the way. When I started my diet, I realized I couldn’t have Slurpees anymore. So more than a year ago, I wondered about the nutritional information of Slurpees. Then within the past several months, 7-Eleven introduced a few Crystal Light flavors into their Slurpee rotation, with a sign posted announcing they were 4 calories per ounce. Sure, that was an improvement, but I like the 22-ounce Slurpees and that comes out to 88 calories - two Weight Watchers points! I could have them as a treat, but not regularly. Until now! Today I had my very first Diet Pepsi Slurpee. It has no calories, and it tastes just like the Coca-Cola Slurpees they’ve had forever.

I had a little chat with warhol yesterday about diet cola. Here’s what he had to say:

I’d rather have empty calories than artificial sweeteners. [...] I’d rather have something the body was designed to process, albeit in abudance, than exotic chemical compounds. If you’re going to consume equal quantities of both, I’d rather have good old fashioned sugar than some bizarre lab concocted compound whose long term effects are unknown.

I also said “I find it is usually guys who claim diet soda is nasty and insist they prefer regular soda; girls seem to have more sense and understand that regular soda is as bad for you as eating a Big Mac every day.” Somebody else threw in “thats because guys don’t need to convince themselfs that it taste nice” to which my response was “Apparently because guys don’t care about their weight.” Perhaps the wisest comment on the issue was someone else’s suggestion of “beer-flavored diet soda. That’s the ticket!”

But I really don’t get why people would drink regular soda unless they have a legitimate health concern about the artificial sweeteners. There are literally no benefits to drinking regular soda - meaning that there are only negatives! Why drink all that sugar? I can drink as much diet soda as I want and it never hurts my diet. Before I realized regular soda was fattening, I used to get it when I was hungry at work - and it did help with the hunger! But there was no nutritional benefit to it. I just don’t understand why people would knowingly put that much empty calories into their body if they didn’t have to. I have plenty of choices with diet soda - the only ones I’ve missed out on so far are Pepsi Blue, Dr. Pepper Red Fusion, Tropical Sprite Remix (I tried a bit of the regular and didn’t like it anyway), and Mountain Dew Livewire. Any other soda I could possibly want, I can get in diet. (Yes, it was a while between the release of Vanilla Coke and Diet Vanilla Coke, but I survived - and it was worth the wait!) It just doesn’t make sense to me why somebody would choose regular soda.

Added 15 December 2004: I’m closing comments. I’m tired of people babbling on about this in my comments without any citations. Sorry.

There are a lot of Weight Watchers items for sale on eBay. Many of them are motivational books, cookbooks, and back issues of the magazine, but there are also a bunch of other products available. One thing that surprised me was that the POINTS calculator (yes, they always have it in all caps, bold, and italic) seems to go for about $25-35 in auctions. I don’t know how much is charged for it at the Weight Watchers member centers, but there’s one built into WW Journal, an excellent journal and calculator written for the Palm. (I’m aware that page is now a copy of the author’s cease-and-desist letter, but those of you familiar with the Internet Archive can still download the PRC file.) Not only does that program have the calculator, but the patented formula itself can be found by searching Google! Another product that can be had much more cheaply is the POINTS bracelet. To get it directly from WW online, you have to purchase a $125 kit (which sells for about $50 on eBay); I’m not sure how much it costs at the WW member centers (though a friend who attends meetings is going to check next week), but you can make one for a dollar or two by visiting a bead store - there are several in my suburban area.

Somehow I managed to lose a pound in the past week, which I guess is good. A says she can tell I’ve lost inches since I went back on the diet, which is more encouraging than the scale. Of course there’s the rehearsal dinner tonight and tomorrow’s reception that will throw me way off, but I’ll have to manage.

I would just like to say that celery is my best friend.

I finally weighed myself this morning, after a couple of months without doing so and even longer without following my diet. I only gained four pounds, even over the holidays!! I’m delighted with this.

But now I have to run to work!

I did my weigh-in for Weight Watchers today, and because I’ve been drinking more water I’ve lost some water weight. (Or so my girlfriend says, I don’t really know about that kind of thing.) I went to enter my weight in the tracker and here’s what it said:

CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve achieved your 10% target!


However, we notice that you’ve lost more than an average of 2 pounds per week over three or more weeks. This rate is too rapid — it may be unsafe or unhealthy.


While we’re proud of your achievements and pleased you’re making positive changes in your life, you need to concentrate on one more thing: You need to slow the pace of your weight loss to no more than 2 pounds per week. Click here to read more about the effects of rapid weight loss.

Oh, shut the hell up. I know my mother is going to send me a bunch of URLs to studies showing that I am losing weight too rapidly, but I have mostly been making it two pounds per week. It was five pounds the first week and one pound at some point in the middle. Other than that it’s been a steady two pounds per week. Good grief.

Morning squirrel count: 16

And last night on the way home I spotted the albino from across the park. She’s actually quite lovely running around; the more drab squirrels are fun to watch but she’s actually pretty. Also last night, the mallard (who does have both legs!) was actually on the water of the fountain. Because the fountain was turned on, his seas were a little choppy and he bobbed about a bit; it was cute.



Despite my fears, I did manage to lose another two pounds this week, for a total of twelve lost since I started on the diet. I have a long way to go, but it’s really great to see the numbers actually dropping - I didn’t think I could do this!



I’m trying out the new beta design for Yahoo Mail…hmm. Interesting. Definitely very different, looks like an improvement so far.

New rule: no snacks kept near my desk. It’s too tempting. I’ve got meringue cookies and a box of jellybeans here, and while they are both reasonably low in points I shouldn’t be eating them. I have a Diet Sprite too, which is okay, but I want the snacks. So for my own future reference - no more snacks on hand! If I want a snack, I should have to go upstairs and buy one.

Okay, this is just unbelievable. I’m trying to figure out how many points Thai food is - that’s where the ASL dinner is tonight - and so I’m scouring the Weight Watchers message boards. I just came across a signature that says the girl is 15, 5-foot-3, with a BMI of 16.4. Start weight: 115. Current weight: 93. Goal weight: 76.



I don’t think Weight Watchers was intended to be used for structured anorexia.



Update, 12:27pm When A got home, I mentioned this to her, and she agreed that the girl needs help. She suggested I contact WW, so I decided to go ahead and write to them. Here’s what I sent.

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