One Month

Exactly one month ago today I walked into Weight Watchers for the first time. My cousin, Trisha, had started on the program a few weeks before and when I was visiting her in California she told me about it and how she lost 8.4 lbs the first week. I'd heard of Weight Watchers before, having fought the weight loss battle my entire life, but hearing about Trisha's success made me want to give it a shot.

To give you a little background, my family and I have always been overweight. I've lost a significant amount of weight twice in the past; once in high school and once in college. My latest successful weight loss endeavor in college resulted in an 80 lb weight loss in just 3 1/2 months. A ridiculous amount of weight...and I felt great. Better than I ever had in my life. I know that's a lot of weight to lose in such a short amount of time, but I really wanted to lose the weight by my 21st birthday. I succeeded, but as we all know, those weight loss successes are short-lived. Old habits come back and once I started incorporating normal foods into my diet again, the pounds began to creep back on.

My weight on my 21st birthday was 185. By the following May I was around 205. Although I should have jumped back into healthy eating, I looked at the weight gain as "not too bad for a year" and I was eating whatever I wanted and having fun. Over the next year I gained another 10-15lbs. That gets me to May of 2009 and I was weighing in around 220 lbs. Again, I should have pushed myself to get back into it but I just couldn't shake my love for food.

When I say love for food, I really mean that. Food drives every decision I make in the day and its all I think about. When I finish one meal, I'm looking forward to the next. It's a sickness. The sad part is, the more I eat, the more miserable I feel. No matter how many diary entries I have that document the hatred of my weight, the way I look, and the overeating that took place that day, I still overindulge. And I mean seriously overindulge. Sneaking cookie dough when I'm claiming to bake cookies for work...half of which I'll eat on the way to the office, and eating before going out to eat and STILL finishing my 1500-2000 calorie meal when I get there.

It really hit me at the beginning of April this year when I was visiting my family in California. My cousins Trisha and Nikki, my Aunt Rene, and my mom decided enough is enough and we joined together and created our own Biggest Loser competition. Now I had come up with this idea in 2008 and got 9 family members involved - I sent out a weekly e-mail and everyone put in $100. My cousin Beth who lives in Oklahoma ended up losing 35lbs! She did great and won the cash. Trisha came in second (she did a crash diet like I did in '07), and I just sent out the e-mails. I didn't even do the final weigh-in because I knew I hadn't lost...in fact, I probably gained a few pounds. I just couldn't find the motivation.

Anyway, we decided to start again but just the 5 of us this time. I weighed in at 232.5 lbs which absolutely disgusted me. I sent out the e-mails for 7 or 8 weeks and then we all fell off the bandwagon. None of us were working out enough and it didn't seem right for anyone to get the $800 prize (we each put in $200 this time), so we extended the deadline to Thanksgiving when we got together at the end of June. Well...since Thanksgiving seemed so far away, none of us really started trying. I know I looked at it like we had plenty of time and I could have another week of eating whatever I wanted...well that led to another week...and another week...until I visited my family in California again in September and it all hit me.

This is when Trisha told me about Weight Watchers. I got home from California on September 12th and attended my first Weight Watchers meeting on September 14th. I was nervous, but excited about the chance to start things over...and lose weight the healthy way. Finally.

I weighed in at 255.6 lbs. In just 5 months I managed to gain 23.1 lbs - I couldn't believe my eyes. How could I let myself go like that? Gaining that much weight so quickly? Not to mention I was supposed to be in a weight loss competition at the time! It was definitely a wake up call. I was headed downhill way too fast and it's time to turn my life around. I didn't get discouraged by the number on the scale. In fact, it motivated me to really give WW a shot. I bought the starter kit and left the meeting feeling ready for what the program would bring me.

I went to the 2nd meeting on September 21st and in just one week I lost 8.4 lbs. EIGHT.FOUR POUNDS! I was shocked. I walked out of the meeting feeling empowered and couldn't wait to come in the following week for my next weigh-in. How crazy is it that Trisha and I lost the same amount the first week?

Anyway, I've now spent 4 weeks on the WW program. I track my points every single day using the iPhone application which I absolutely LOVE. It makes things so easy and although it seems like it would be a pain, I feel like I'm just living life! I don't feel like I have to think about everything I eat because the application thinks through everything for me. I don't analyze the labels on foods anymore...I just type them in my phone to see how many points they are.

After 4 weeks, I've lost 18.2 lbs. This past week I lost 4 lbs! I'm not even working out much...just taking a really fun Zumba class twice a week. I don't feel deprived, and haven't had to change anything about my lifestyle. I just feel better. I still have a long way to go but I couldn't be happier with how this program is going. I really feel like I'm just living my day to day life and just happen to be losing weight.

This blog will be a compilation of varying struggles/successes I encounter on this program...and I hope at the end of it, I can look back at this long journey...and just feel great. About myself and what I've been able to accomplish.

Here's to hoping...