Picture it: it’s September of 2011…I’m writing another bloody paper for graduate school, counting down the days until graduation in May. My sister-in-law messages me. She’s planning to go on a cruise the following May, was thinking about joining Weight Watchers to lose some weight in preparation for the trip, and did I want to join her? I remembered my grandmother doing WW when I was young, but had for some reason never really considered it for myself. Of course I had tried many things to get in shape and lose weight, none of them very successful or long-lasting. I had been overweight for as long as I could remember. I was proud of my sister-in-law for wanting to better herself and wanted to support her in any way I could, so I jumped into the WW world right along with her.
Like I said I had been overweight for as long as I could remember. Growing up I was always the “fat kid”, the kid I’m sure many of you can relate to: last picked in gym class, teased all the time, hating to change in the locker room, constantly self-conscience, etc. Could I really work this program? Could I really lose weight successfully? I had lost some weight in the past with different methods, but nothing that ever lasted very long, and always ending with me gaining the weight back and more. I was topping the scale only a hair shy of 300 pounds, and boy did I NOT want to see that 3– on the scale! The most minor of activities exhausted me: grocery shopping, walking around the mall shopping (I love to shop, but of course it isn’t so much fun when you can only shop in a couple stores that carry your size), and doing things like visiting the Botanical Gardens in the above photo. My constant self-consciousness was still there strong as ever, I was sure everyone was looking at me, and so I would constantly pull on and adjust my clothes to try to cover the fat and the rolls.
So I messaged my sister-in-law back and told her yes, I would join her. I figured I didn’t have anything to lose; also, this would make a great thing to write about for the research class that I had just started that month. Win-win!
So in I went for my first weigh-in and meeting. The idea of weighing in with a stranger terrified me. I think that was the first aspect of WW that really made the plan work for me…the total fear of humiliation at that scale! It definitely still is a big part of my motivation today. In those first weeks as I learned the ins and outs of the plan, I also learned that I could control what I ate, and that I didn’t have to deprive myself of my favorite foods; I just had to find the balance. Balance is a huge contributor to maintainable weight loss in my opinion. I’m not going to live the rest of my life never eating pizza or ice cream again, so I have to figure out a way to make it work!
Before long I was at my 5% and 10% goals, I couldn’t believe it (and I got an A in that research class by the way LOL)! It wasn’t all smooth sailing though, I definitely had weeks when I gained or maintained…sometimes it was expected and sometimes not. For a while I was sure I was living in opposite land: weeks I thought I did well I would gain, and weeks I thought I didn’t do so well I would lose. I really started to understand this graphic very well:
When I started WW I didn’t exercise at all. I was introduced to the Just Dance games for the Xbox, and I loved it! I began incorporating some exercise into my routine. The dance games were so much fun, it didn’t really feel like exercise! This led me to check out the Zumba games for Xbox and then I got my own Xbox for Christmas! I had been a couch potato pretty much all my life, I was never an athlete or into sports, even in high school. The concept of enjoying exercise was completely foreign to me, but it all snowballed after that: I was doing Zumba several times a week in my living room and loving it. After a few weeks I started seeing real definition in my legs, it was so exciting! Soon after that my sister-in-law and I ventured out and started going to a Zumba class once a week or so. Not long after I decided to give Couch to 5k a try, which began my love affair with running. And following that I began attending strength training classes at a local gym twice a week. Though I haven’t done Zumba in a while, today I am still running 3-4 times a week, strength training and boot camp twice a week, yoga once a week, and swimming every couple of weeks! This is a lot of activity, and while I realize it’s not for everyone, I think it illustrates the idea of being open to finding some sort of activity you like, and this leading to your willingness to continue to try new things.
The first 85 pounds or so that I lost were…well…not “easy”, but certainly “easier”. Don’t get me wrong, my weight loss has been VERY SLOW in comparison to some others’. But It seemed as though once I hit that point, I had to reevaluate my eating and working out. I had to begin paying closer attention to the amount of fruit I was eating (having used fruit primarily as a replacement for the more unhealthy snacks, I was eating a lot of it!), and I had to change up a bit the way I was working out (this was around the time I added in the boot camp classes).
As of today, I am down a total of 121.4 pounds. My goal is 128.2 (which will put me at 160 pounds, having started at 288.2). I’m here to tell you that it’s not easy, in fact it’s damn hard, but IT IS WORTH IT! The renewed sense of confidence, self-esteem, energy, and endurance I have gained made every step of the way well worth it. And I have met wonderful people along the way who have added support, direction and encouragement to my journey. Folks for whom I will be forever grateful.
