Why You Shouldn't Skip A Meeting

Recently I switched my weigh-in days.  It's easier both for childcare and for my buddy to attend.  It's also WAY later in the day.  I'm fairly starving by the time the weigh-in happens.  If I want to play the glad game, I can eat at freakin' huge dinner.  I usually do.

This week the meeting numbers were down.  It's usually a smaller meeting, but there were only 14 or 15 people there.  Normally we have about 20.  It's nothing to be too upset about. 

Unless your leader does a traveling journal.  WW has journals that last for 3 months and are intended for you to track your points, your activities and to set weekly goals for yourself.  They're like a food journal/diary all in one.  Our meeting does a traveling one.  A person from our meeting takes the journal for a week, documents what they do and then brings it back to the next meeting for someone else to take.

With no volunteers, I got the traveling journal.  I feel immense pressure to eat more veggies and fruit than I ever have in my life.  Apparently if people are going to look at what I eat, I want to eat healthy.  Which I'm sure is the whole point of the book!

A Great Find

I am surrounded by people doing WW.  I'm not sure if that's God's way of giving me support or if I'm more tuned into it.  Like when you buy a new car and then you start seeing that car everywhere.

Awhile ago a friend told me about a ranch dressing that she found that was worth 1 point.  Ranch is my absolute favorite.  Then she told me it was Johnny's and I knew I had to try it.  She warned that it was a bit peppery, but she liked it.

I tried it last night for the first time and it's actually really good.  It does have quite a bit of pepper to it that really hits after you swallow.  It doesn't taste like 1 point salad dressing. 

Thank you Johnny for making my salads taste great and low points.  You are my new food hero.

10%

I've made it to another milestone.  I've lost 10% of my starting weight.  In all actuality, I've lost a bit more.  Yesterday at my WW meeting, I got my 10% keychain.

As I got on the scale and realized I reached this goal in such a short time, they are a little concerned that I'm losing weight too fast.  In all honesty, I'm just following the program.  I'm not deviating.  That's just how quickly I'm losing it. 

Apparently all the steak fries dipped in ranch was really bad for me.  Now that I haven't had one for 2 months, my body is finally shedding years of steak fries dripping with ranch.  If the speed of loss is any indication, I used to eat quite a few of them.

Bloomsday

This weekend was our annual Bloomsday Run.  It's a 12k or 7.46 mile race.  I've been doing it since I was 7.  I missed a few years, but I've done more of them than I've missed.

The course has changed over the years based upon changes in our city or to make it easier for the runners.  This year I wore a pedometer to see exactly how many steps I took.  From my car, through the race and back to my car was 20,236 steps.  That's just over 10 miles.

My official time was 1:44:10.  That's about a 14 minute mile.  For someone who is carrying extra weight and did no training, I'm glad with this time.  I just wanted to do it in under 2 hours and to shave over 15 minutes off that, is more than I hoped.

Next year maybe I can shave another 15 minutes off my time!

Kate Moss May Have Been Right

I was getting ready for work today.  For almost May, it's chilly here.  I'm still wearing sweaters.  I put a sweater on and it fits better than it has in years. 

If that's not motivation to lose weight, I honestly don't know what is.

Weight Ain't Nothin' But A Number

I've been going to WW for 7 weeks now.  I've averaged over 2 pounds a week loss.  My clothes are fitting better, I feel like I have a little extra energy, I'm eating more veggies.  All good things.

I'm close to a big milestone, which is exciting.  When you hit milestones, the leader always asks what you've learned or what's worked.

On Monday night a lady achieved her lifetime status.  She's reached her goal, continued to come to WW for 6 weeks after achieving the goal and has maintained.  You can remain a lifetime member as long as you maintain within 2 points of your goal.  What an accomplishment. 

In all honesty, that's my goal.  I don't want to have to do this again.  I don't want to go back to the way I ate that helped put on 10 pounds a year.  I don't want to buy bigger jeans.  I want to be healthy.  I want to make good choices.

As I think about reaching my next milestone, I realize that one major thing has changed.  I don't make excuses for my added pounds anymore.  I'm ready to just be healthy.  I want to be a good example to all three of my girls.  I don't want them to have to join WW because I didn't lead by example. 

I'm ready for a new lifestyle.  It's been almost 33 years in the making.  I think for the first time in my life, my head is in it as much as my heart.

Tracking

One of the biggest tenets of the Weight Watcher system is to write down everything you eat.  Granted you need to do that to track your points, but I thought I would get tired of writing all my food.  I thought by now I would be taking a mental note of my points and guestimating. 

I'm not.  I'm writing everythink I bite down.  Somethings have been totally surprising.

I eat quite a bit.  I actually track my hunger based upon how many points I have rather than how I'm feeling.  What's more amazing is most days I don't eat all my points.  Simply because I'm full and forget they're there.

I thought all this writing stuff down wasn't going to be useful.  What I'm finding is that it's the most useful part.

I got to wear some skinnier jeans to church on Sunday.  What's more amazing, I could breathe in them.