The Power of Starting Over

Week: 24

Pounds Lost: 42.2

WOW. To see it up there in black and white, the numbers are really quite impressive, aren’t they?  I was thrilled this Saturday to weigh in at a nice, even 175. 175 was a real milestone for me, because it was the point at which I drop down to 22 points (from 24) on Weight Watchers. Why would this be important? Well, because my goal weight is 150, 22 points is going to be it for me. You see, your daily "points" allotment drops by 2 for every 25 pounds. So I won’t get to the 20 points mark unless I decide to shoot for a goal weight under 150. Which I might do, since 147.5 is actually the median of my healthy weight range. (By the way…above is a picture of my new black turtleneck…size MEDIUM!!! Obviously that’s not me filling it out, though!)

But all this dickering about goal weight is neither here nor there: I was excited to see 175 for several reasons, the other being that it meant a 2.4 pound drop over last week, which is very exciting given that I’ve been plateauing for a few weeks now. So what did I do differently this week that made a difference? Simple: I started over. Literally. I sat down and said to myself, "pretend that this is your first week on WW – watch everything you eat like a hawk; don’t sneak little bites of the kids’ food (unless you’re willing to take points away for it! i.e. 2 points per mini-choco bar on hallowe’en!); ramp up the fruit & veggie consumption, write it all down, don’t forget to exercise and, above all: go to the meeting!

Thanks to the awesome ladies at my Scrapbooking event Saturday morning who agreed to postpone our start time to 10:15 from 9:00 a.m., I was able to attend the meeting and get back on track, just like a new member. I also spent some time every day last week exercising (even if it wasn’t a 2-hour workout at the gym, 20 minutes of abs & stretching will do) And the proof is in the pudding: I took off 2.4 pounds and will hopefully keep losing for the next several weeks in a row.

I know it’s not a revolutionary tactic…WW leaders always tell you to "get back to basics" if you’re experiencing a plateau…but it’s a dramatic example of how effective simply re-committing to change can be in helping to cement that change in your way of life. Bad habits start creeping back so slowly you don’t even realize it until you see it on the scale. Plus, it’s natural for weight loss to slow down once you get close to your goal. I see that my 2 pound per week progress has slowed to 1.75 pounds per week, and I don’t realistically expect it to ramp back up again by too much, but I’ll do what it takes to maintain the current rate.

So, whether you’re just starting out…coming back…blasting through a plateau…or enjoying your healthy weight, remember the power of re-commitment!