A Shadow Of My Former Self

Today is the one-year anniversary of my joining Weight Watchers, and I’m proud to say that in that year, I have lost 41 pounds. SO…I thought I’d take a look back at the past year and share some observations.  

Note:  I am not a paid spokesperson. :)  But for more info:

http://www.weightwatchers.com/index.aspx

Two quick points:  first…the because I work in a big enough building, Weight Watchers has a coordinator that comes to the office on Tuesdays at lunchtime, which makes it VERY convenient to go, and removes the excuses for not going. The coordinator (Michelle) is very good, very motivating, and very compassionate with everyone. Second…Weight Watchers in general, and Michelle specifically, is very adamant about the fact that this is NOT a diet, but instead is a lifestyle change. With that in mind, the program is set up to allow some flexibility.  

 

So in the first two weeks, I didn’t make any changes to my eating routine. Instead, I focused on strictly tracking everything I ate using their point system. By doing this, I accomplished three things:  I established a baseline for how much I was eating, I established the point values for the things I typically eat, and I discovered some of my eating patterns. To my surprise, I found out pretty quickly that I was actually NOT eating up to my daily point target. Weight Watchers stresses that the targets they calculate are maximums, but instead are literally targets, not to be exceeded or not reached. I also found that I really didn’t have an eating routine. In general, some days I would over eat, other days I would under-eat, and the effect of that was my body wasn’t burning off calories as efficient as it should.  

The weekly meetings for the first 14-week session were very important, as each meeting had a theme that spoke to many of the typical eating problems, myths, and ways to combat. Again, the meetings were set up to be as convenient as possible…they were scheduled at lunch-time and people were encouraged to eat lunch during the meeting – a very convenient way of spending a lunch break.

After the first month of building a baseline, I started to plan a realistic eating schedule and routines, using the foods I normally eat but cutting out some of the unnecessary side items. I still tracked points, in general more than specifically, just to make sure I didn’t widely overrun or undercut the target. In doing this, I discovered an interesting issue:  I was very good about keeping to my schedule and plan during the week, but weekends were an entire different problem. Because I work a standard nine-to-five, my weekdays are pretty regimented anyway, but weekends were an entirely different matter. Even by loosely tracking my eating, this became pretty apparent.

And again, I have to stress that this was not intended to be a diet, but a lifestyle change, so I tried to make smaller, reasonable changes rather than widespread drastic changes. Even in the meetings, this was stressed – to make sure that changes were made in the right context, made positively, and made in a way that you felt they were achievable. Michelle would say several times that if you’re attempting to make a change, and you try to go forward with a change you don’t think you can make, chances are high that you won’t be able to make the change. You can either then change the attitude, if possible, or find a way to modify the change to make it more achievable. This is where flexibility comes in…there isn’t a list of rules, or specifics, beyond the point target.

I would say that maybe in my third month of doing the program, I felt that I had progressed enough, that making good eating  choices was conscious enough in my mind, that I stopped tracking altogether, and for me that is very important. I couldn’t picture making a permanent lifestyle change walking around with a tracker that I’d have to update three of four times a day.  

At this point, the second 14-week session started, and I found that the meetings were starting to recycle topics, so I stopped attending the full meetings, but I still (and to this day) religiously get weighed-in. the importance of doing that falls into two statements:  first, having the weekly reminder and milestone helps keep the concept of making good food choices in the front of my mind. Second, and probably more importantly, I was able to see a correlation between the choices I had made in the past week, and the impact they had on the scale. For example, I had decided for Memorial Day weekend to relax my standards, since I was expecting to attend a couple of cookouts. And knowing that was a conscious decision, when in fact I gained a little weight that next weigh-in, I wasn’t surprised.

BUT here is the most important concept of all…gaining weight in a given week, or even two weeks in a row, is NOT a failure. It’s not even a setback. It falls into a category best described by my favorite phrase:  “it is what it is.” And Michelle made an important observation several times. She would remind me that that prior week is gone. Done. Finished. And the important thing is to NOT put pressure to try to make up for that week. It’s over and nothing can be done about it. The important thing is to go back to what worked before, and work to have a positive week next week.  

I have to come back to the point of this being a lifestyle change…I didn’t put pressure on myself to come up with a specific weight to land on. My goal was to simply lose weight over time. Now, in the back of my mind, I do have an idea of where I think I’ll feel totally comfortable and I am halfway there. BUT…being halfway there already has benefits; and I have achieved, and am still achieving, my goal of simply losing weight. The months of May, July, and September were plateau months. One week I’d lose, the next I’d gain, the next I’d lose. And every time I’d gain, all I’d do is pick right back and start over. Many times, I would know why there was a gain, and most of them, there were no regrets. Of course there were a few time where I looked back at the prior week and wanted to kick myself for caving and going overboard. But again, “it is what it is.”  

So, now, negative 41 pounds later, I’m still following my general plan. I know there will still, and always, be times and weeks where I slip up, knowingly or unknowingly. But life isn’t about perfection, and it’s not about being rigid. Make realistic goals. Be flexible. Be honest with yourself. Be kind to yourself. Know where you’re coming from and know the general direction of where you want to go. Don’t treat setbacks as lost ground, treat them as learning opportunities. For life is about doing the best that you can with what you have, and constantly moving forward, learning from your mistakes and doing your best not to repeat them. And doing your best won’t guarantee that you won’t repeat, or stumble, even come across some new issue. What is important is the recovery…the act of picking yourself up off the ground, looking around, and stepping forward again.