…yup, you read that right. I went back to Weight Watchers (last week, actually). Why? Well, let’s just say the pants were getting a little bit tight and I decided it was time to get back on track. Not only did I need a bit of help and support getting back into the old size 10s, but I felt very strongly that I should still work to achieve my original weight loss goal. Back when I joined Weight Watchers, I found out that for my five feet eight-odd inches and thirty-eight years, my healthy weight range is between 132 and 158.
My first reaction was that it was unrealistic. I had spent soooo many years pushing two hundred pounds (and the last three had been spent wavering between 215-225 lbs) that I really thought it would be best to shoot for around 185 pounds. My friends and family agreed that this was a realistic target, so I set out on a mission to lose about 30 pounds.
Once I got going, though, I realized that I would be able to hit that first goal and sail right past it, and so I did. Before I knew it, I was down to 165 lbs (just before Christmas) and managed to push past it to my all-time best of 158 – the exact top of my range! By this time, I had mentally set myself a goal of 150 lbs, and felt so close to hitting my goal and then achieving lifetime member status that I could almost taste it. And then, somehow, things went off the rails. I started skipping meetings, and then just stopped going altogether. Slowly, slowly my newly acquired healthy eating habits melted away, releasing the beast (who never went away) lurking beneath the veneer.
After losing about 40 pounds, here I am at roughly 175. And yes, I am posing with a dinosaur…don’t ask.
For the longest time, I maintained at around 165 lbs. I felt (and looked) good. My clothes still all fit. I was satisfied. Then one day this summer, I realized that my size 10 capris were, simply put, too tight. Not just fresh-out-of-the-dryer too tight, either, but well and truly too tight because I had started to get fat again. I resisted stepping on the scale, because I dreaded what it would say. I knew I had pushed back up into the 170s, and feared that I would find myself even in the 180s. As with the last time I joined Weight Watchers (May 2006), it was my husband who nudged me into it, with a "we can’t keep on like this" comment (he’d gained back a similar percentage of the weight he’d lost as well). So, last Saturday, back I went, rejoined, and weighed in again.
The number was in the high 170s, but I’m not focusing on that. I’m going to take a page out of my Weight Watcher’s Leader’s book. Her remark to me when I got back on that scale, ten pounds heavier, was to say, "Well, that’s wonderful. You’ve lost 41 pounds overall. Way to go! And welcome back." And that’s how I choose to look at it…not as a failure (gaining 10 pounds this summer) but as a success (losing 41 pounds this year) and the next step in my ongoing journey. This time I plan to stick it out and get that lifetime membership!
Me at about my best…around 160 with Haley-O (very early on in her pregnancy!)
My first week back was both easy and difficult. I found day three to be tough again – the motivation is leveling out and the hunger peaks (for me, at least). But I stuck it out, stayed on program and ate all my points (including all 35 discretionary points) and, when I went for my week one weigh in was rewarding with a whopping four pound loss! I know I won’t sustain that rate of weight loss, but it sure is motivating and drives home the point that this is a program that works really well for me and – most importantly – fits well into my life.
As my husband said, "we’re going to be on Weight Watchers for life. That’s just how it’s got to be." Hear hear!
Congratulations Kath! YOu are still an inspiration. Rising above your downs and getting right back to work. I still look to your posts when I am struglging. Thanks for sharing everything with us.
Yay for being back on WW! I just pulled out my stuff and started counting my points again yesterday! I have about 20lbs to go…
It’s so hard to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get going after a slide/setback, but how great that you are doing it! What a great role model you are for your girls and what an inspiration to those of us following your story– thanks for sharing! 🙂
Good for you! Truly inspiring, and I am so impressed that your dh will do it with you, so much better when you are a team.
Go Kath! 41lbs this year?! Truly amazing. Good luck with your ongoing journey. You know I’m here cheering you on!
This is really inspirational – I’ve watched my weight creeeeep up over the past couple of years with a desperate feeling of being unable to do ANYTHING about it. But after reading this, I think that I CAN take control of my weight – thanks!