On the Menu This Week

Greek Style Cheeseburgers
Vegetarian Black Bean Chili
Roasted Cornish Hens with Quinoa and Broccoli

Friday, July 10, 2009

Six Months

Six months ago today I started WeightWatcher's (for the second time). I went to the 9:30 Woodinville meeting and got a great vibe from the group, lots of chatting and high energy, which boded well. The meeting was good, the leader, Heather, was great. She had the right balance of knowledge, engagement, humour and interest in how pepole were doing. After the meeting I attended the getting started session and liked her even more, she presented the program in a very straight forward way.

Six months later I'm living 24 miles from that meeting but still going, afterall I learned the last time that I did WeightWatchers that meeting attendance is one of the keys to success for me and a boring meeting is hard to attend. Come winter I will look more closely at the local meetings but for now I'll continue to make the drive.

My first impression of a great group has proven to be true, people are supportive, open to sharing and a great cheering squad for everyone. Several people have gotten lifetime in the last 6 months, talk about motivation!

My trip to San Francisco, Vegas (to get married) and Anaheim in August will be the first time I miss weighing in. I have missed a couple meetings due to moving or travelling but I have always made the weigh-in. I guess it will be a true vacation and I do plan to allow myself to gain some weight as I'm not going to Vegas and skipping the great restraunts!

At any rate at the six month mark I did measurements again and I'll take a picture sometime today. I have lost a total of 31.25 inches!!! I'll get pictures up soon so stay tuned...

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My Plan

I did WeightWatchers once before in 2004-2005. I lost 50 pounds. I gained some back going through my divorce but the good news is I kept off 20 of them until I restarted WeightWatchers in January 2009.

For the first time, I have found a plan that was easy to stick to. Something just felt right this time. Before embarking on WeightWatchers I re-read some books I had found helpful in the middle of my last journey. The books are listed under "Weight Loss" Books on the side bar, and a blog post about them will follow soon. These books helped get me mentally prepared to lose weight and they are the reason I think I am finding losing to be less of a struggle. I am not letting myself get discouraged by small gains and I am seeing far more consistent results.

WeightWatchers gives you a points target based on weight and basic daily activity level. Every food has a points value based on calories, fiber and fat. Then its like a checkbook you start with your daily balance, subtract for foods eaten and add for activity done which can earn you points. Exercise=More Food. Each food point is roughly 50 calories and each activity point is worth roughly 100, I use a heart-rate monitor to calculate my activity points earned.

You also get 35 weekly points to use as you want anytime during the week. For me the most successful both mentally and on the scale is to use most of those points on Saturday night for a splurge and to then stick to my daily points fairly closely the rest of the week. It helps me to know my favourite foods are only a week away if I want them. People can manage the plan however they want but for me this is the most successful. When I'm working out a lot I try to eat some of those activity points as well. Ironically I get much smaller losses the weeks I don't eat those points on Saturday, maybe it shakes up my metabolism, who knows I just know it works

Finally my last key to my plan is attending meetings. It helps keep me accountable and on track.

Weight Loss Slideshow