I have been at this for awhile. This is the first that I am writing of it, but I have been losing weight for the past year and a half. 60 pounds so far. Well, 59.2 pounds to be exact. I have tried to lose weight in the past, but this sure is the longest that I have stuck with it. By a whole lot. What I am doing now must be more effective than the things I have tried in the past...or just easier. Yeah, probably that, because I am lazy. Not reality TV show lazy, but if doing nothing at home is on the menu, I'm buying.
Like a lot of people, I tried Weight Watchers before my wedding. I didn't have a dress to fit into, but I had been steadily increasing my belt size in the five years since college. My future wife suggested that we try Weight Watchers together. She wanted to lose a few pounds, while I could have stood to lose 20 or more. Counting points seemed kind of silly, but I agreed to give it a try. A couple of friends at work, fellow indulgers in high calorie lunches, joined me in the quest to drop some pounds. We would gather in my cube and weigh in, documenting our progress on my white board. We set a goal of one month and each put in $50. My future wife was shocked that our weights would be on display for anyone at work to see, and she informed me that women would never do such a thing.
Undeterred, I went into it full bore, and managed to lose a decent amount of weight quickly. I remember clipping my toenails the night before the end of month weigh in, thinking that it could make the difference. I needn't have worried however, and I won handily. My friends both encouraged me to extend the contest by another month. They knew I was soon to be on honeymoon at Oktoberfest where I would be rapidly undoing the work I had just done. I declined and took the cash, leaving them with empty assurances of resuming the contest when I returned.
So while Weight Watchers did help me win $100, it wasn't a long term solution. I was doing things like choosing low calorie beer in order to be able to drink more, or I'd skimp on points during the day so I could eat better later. I did like stepping on the scale and being able to write down a smaller number, but budgeting points and guilt was not for me.
It lasted about six weeks. My most successful weight loss program until now. And I did try a few other times. Nothing as "official" however. I would simply make myself promises and then promptly break them. I'll get a footlong sub, but only eat half and save the other half for tomorrow. A couple of bites later, and I would have eaten seven or eight inches of that sub, leaving myself with only a snack for the next day. Or, I'll just stop getting chips and fries with my sandwiches and burgers. But everyone else is getting them...and these are just going to waste...
That's how I ended up weighing 245 pounds. I remember doing a double take when stepping off the scale that morning in January, 2014. 245! I wasn't weighing myself with any regularity at the time, so the last time I had looked, it might have been in the 230s. That's still pretty close to 225, which is not really that far away from 200. 239 and feeling fine? Maybe, or at least I was telling myself that. In reality, it was jut the latest evidence I was ignoring. Pants feeling tight? Get some baggy jeans and opt for shorts with better elastic. XL T-shirts getting snug after the dryer? Why not hang them to dry instead. Heck, invest in XXL going forward.
This time it was different. I made changes at a basic level, changes that I could stick with. I did research as I went, and I am sharing that with you here. Smoothies, kale ice cubes, and mason jar salads are just a few things I learned and figured out how to do efficiently. So rather than starting to write about my experience at the beginning, full of enthusiasm but not a lot to say, I am doing so later, with quite a bit of experience under my belt. Success too!
No comments:
Post a Comment