That was a way hyped-up title. Truth is, I don’t need to be hyped-up for Weight Watchers right now. It’s actually working.
Let’s start out here (if you’ve read my other posts skip down to 2020):
2016: I have wrist surgery for the 2nd time in 2 years and this one is a doozy. I spend a lot of time in my “torture brace” (mentioned before in my story about my wrist) and I spent a lot of time eating, basically, whatever I wanted and drinking whiskey as a means for pain relief. Now, before this I was well on my way to gaining weight. Yes, the surgeries, brace and whiskey were the pieces I pulled from the Jenga that made my weight finally go way out of control, but I was previously on my way there anyway.
2017-2018: I bought a Fitbit and started working out with a trainer because I needed some stability as well as some friendship to get along my way and my trainer was/is awesome. My blood pressure had become an issue so I felt drastic measures needed to be taken. I didn’t lose any real weight right here. Instead, I started working out and I was maintaining my weight but I was losing fat and gaining muscle. After a while I decided I couldn’t afford to work out with a trainer any more and thought I could maintain a good work-out schedule on my own. During all of this, I began setting my step goals and was getting my 10k steps in every day.
2018-2019: I started going to the gym. I mean, I slowly started getting in to it and by the end of 2019, I was going regularly. I was making true gains and my clothes started getting loose. I was working out with a friend sometimes and I was loving my results. Also, my blood pressure was finally getting back under control. I wasn’t feeling that icky (to use the technical term) feeling in my chest anymore.
2020: Yeah. Well. Stupid 2020. Stupid Coronavirus. February came around. The pandemic set in and I was still trying to go to the gym until they shut the gym completely down. The need to workout was strong. I was still working out at my house. As it got warmer I began working out outside (mind you I was still getting my 10k steps in this whole time). Eventually I slowed-up working out. Each time I did it it was painful because I wasn’t doing it regularly enough. My weight stayed the same, but my body resorted to pre-workout status. My clothes began to “fit” again (aka they weren’t loose anymore) and my blood pressure shot through the roof (this was due to a pain med that I took for my sciatica but once I was off of it, my blood pressure still remained high.) I knew I needed to do something but was still struggling with the changes from the pandemic and had a million excuses why I couldn’t fix my eating habits.
One night I was watching Doogie Howser and the lesson of the day convinced me I needed to “decide” to change – here’s the story about this here. That night I made the decision to change my life and my eating habits. I put it off for a week until I was gorging myself on food from UberEats one Friday and I just felt gluttonous and ugly and uncomfortable in my body. I looked in the mirror and didn’t like who was looking back. I decided that night to go to Weight Watchers and sign-up the next morning.
PLOT TWIST, I couldn’t go inside of the Weight Watchers shop. I mean, probably I could have. They were having a meeting when I stopped by and peered into the window that Saturday morning. My face turned bright red and I snuck back to my car. I went and got lunch at Potbelly and then went home and ate it, followed by my signing up online for Weight Watchers. Likely online was where I should have started anyway but I was looking for a little excitement and justification when I went to the store (which I left without).
I signed up and logged the food I had eaten that Saturday morning into the app and BOY was that ever frustrating. I had already eaten all of the allotted daily points in food for the day. That was an eye-opener. I decided that I would “actually start” the following day while trying to eat a decent dinner that evening.
Sunday I began my Weight Watchers journey. So far so good. I’ve sort of given the whole point system my own analysis and decided that the points give the foods value. The higher the points, the worse the food is for you. Now, I’m sure you could have figured this out but really, some of the things I would think have points – don’t. Some of the things I think shouldn’t have points – do.
The first trick was to figure out what my zero point foods were. Quite literally, in my head I thought, no way am I ever going to be full on this plan, what can I eat a load of to fill myself up. I needed it mentally. I needed to know. I found those foods and honestly, I don’t always even need them. Proteins are good – points are lower for most of those foods so I find myself loading up on protein.
You’ll notice I’m going to be calling Weight Watchers a “Plan”. Yeah, maybe it’s a diet… but really I think it’s a lifestyle change. It’s teaching you what foods have more value in your diet and that you can eat whatever you want so long as you’re not eating a ton of high cal/ low nutrition foods all of the time *insert the sound of my mom sighing right here*. My mom has been trying to tell me all of this since SHE started WW and lost all of the weight she was looking to and then some. She was preaching to deaf ears. I wasn’t ready. When it came time though, I remembered all of the good things she said and that’s why I ultimately chose this route.
Here’s a quick daily meals breakdown (skip down to the dashes if you really could care less what I’m eating):
For breakfast I have been cooking up bell peppers, jalapeños, onions, center cut bacon, one egg and one egg white. I add some Trader Joe’s “Everything But the Bagel” Seasoning and it’s actually a really tasty, low point breakfast. I have my normal coffee because I’m not quite ready to start altering that yet (I tried at the beginning and was sad. That’s not how you want to start a life style change).
For lunch I have discovered these Healthy Choice Power Bowls. I LOVE them. Not all of them of course, but some of them are 4-6 points and they are loaded with protein. For instance, the one I’m having today has 21 grams of protein. I remember the first one I tried. I cooked it, took the paper off the top and was like, “No way am I going to be full eating this.” I was though. I have that with some veggie chips and then I bring a banana for afternoon snacking. Some days I just eat the banana in the afternoon because it’s there. I figure, if I eat it before I’m hungry, I won’t try to eat things that aren’t good for me.
For dinner I’ve been having chicken and french fries loaded with tomatoes (I can sometimes even have some cheese on them if I have a cheap enough lunch). Chicken is basically always what I have for dinner but I’ve found some different ways to consume it – for instance, I found some spinach and cheese chicken sausages that are pretty good. If I eat a zero point veggie with my meat I can even add a piece of bread as a bun #ImFromtheCountry #BreadAsABun .
I should mention also that I have fruits for snacks. I actually try to sneak some grapes in before dinner so I can push it back a little so I’m not hungry in the evening. When I AM hungry in the evening I’ll have a little something – maybe a bowl of cereal if I have points left. Maybe popcorn. If I don’t have any points to work with I’m looking for a banana.
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So far Weight Watchers has actually been great. I’m going to reveal something really embarrassing to you all right now. At my highest weight I was 210 pounds in 2016. Yes, that’s right, I’m 5’3″ and I was 210 pounds. I weighed more than the men who are in my office regularly. I was down around 198 at the end of 2019 and then the vial year that is 2020 began and I went back up to 200-204 where I stayed until about September 12, 2020 when I started the Weight Watchers at 200 pounds even.
Today is September 30th and I weighed-in yesterday at 193 pounds. Yeah, that’s right, it’s been 2.5 weeks and I’m down 7 pounds. Pretty proud of myself I’m not going to lie. It took me 3 years to lose the first 6-8 pounds. Now I have done it in 2.5 weeks. The plan is to adjust to the foods I’m eating and my lifestyle. Not to deny myself when I’m with my friends and family but to eat more whole foods when I’m by myself. It seems like a totally do-able plan.
Not everything is perfect. I mean, I have my doubts about maintaining this over a lifetime. I’ve got to go week by week right now. I’m afraid if I have times where I don’t have foods to snack on I will fall into old habits and order UberEats. Not that I CAN’T do this sometimes… like, WW actually allows for this. It’s sort of a, if you eat well 80%-90% of the time, you’re going to hit your points balance almost every week.
Here’s another thing I’ve realized, right now is an exciting time. I’m following the plan, making my food and losing weight each week and it’s FABULOUS. I know it won’t be like this forever and eventually I will need to make adjustments in order for the pounds to go away. I also realize that I love to go to the gym and eventually I will go back there and that will help.
This is getting a little long and I’m just recognizing and realizing things at this point so I leave you with this: So far I’m loving the Weight Watchers. I’m seeing results. I’m full all of the time (which I never saw coming). I’m hoping to have a closing (I’m a real estate agent) so I can put money back just in case I need to buy some clothes here in the future (yes I’ve thought about it – you get on the scale and have lost 7 lbs in 2.5 weeks, you think about how sexy you’re going to look next year at Sears’ swimming pool. You just do ok? lol). I’m excited to see what happens in the next few months and how I will manage it over the winter and holidays. Likely I will need some positive words as I go through this, so please, if you see a post somewhere and I look a bit slimmer, a bit healthier, a bit happier, let me know. <3