Tag: health and fitness

Chapter 2: My First Month with Weight Watchers

Posted on February 3, 2018February 3, 2018 by Mama

January flew the coop and with it went my first four weeks as a Weight Watcher. The month seemed to pass quickly and I guess that’s a good thing when you are embarking on a lifestyle change.

Being on WW truly has made an impact on my life and I like to tell people that it’s turning me into a “foodie.” Gone are the days when I can fall back on my basic, I-can-do-this-in-my-sleep meals; I’ve traded them in food planning and prep, but with a pretty payoff. I am trying loads of new recipes, eating some awesome meals and I’m losing weight! From shrimp fried rice and grilled chicken to salmon and turkey chili, I’m eating it all (and my husband thinks he’s partaking quite nicely too).

So just how much am I losing? Here are the numbers: My first official weigh-in put me at 168.2 pounds. Okay, yes that embarrassing but I’m trying to be upfront with y’all. . . so there it is. Week one I lost 3.6 pounds and week two I lost two more pounds. That put me down a total of 5.6 pounds, which was enough to earn my first WW charm — the five-pound charm.

I stayed the course in week three with a loss of another 2.2 pounds, but in week four I only took off .8 pounds for a total of 8.6 pounds lost. I was a bit disappointed in that final January weigh-in but I gathered a lot of support at my weekly meeting, especially when I announced that I cinched up my belt one notch. Apparently plateaus are common and sometimes we might see what they like to call “beyond-the-scale” victories (i.e. smaller belt size). At any rate, according to my home scale I’m on the other side of my first plateau, so I’ll let you know how it goes at Tuesday’s meeting.

I also earned my second charm of my Weight Watchers journey at the four-week mark because I attended four of my first five meetings. I have perfect attendance at this point because, other than the great personal support, I really love to step on that scale and see the numbers go in reverse!

STARTING WEIGHT: 168.2
JANUARY 2018 : -8.6
CURRENT WEIGHT: 159.6

Chapter 1: How to Join Weight Watchers

Posted on January 18, 2018January 18, 2018 by Mama

Okay folks, I’ve officially been a Weight Watcher for almost two weeks now and I’m already seeing success. Yay! The best part about this plan is that I can eat tons of zero point foods during the day so that I don’t ever really feel hungry. If I start feeling a bit empty, I can eat an apple, peel a banana or even grill up a whole skinless chicken breast if that’s what sounds yummy.

Since I’m enjoying this program right out of the gate, I decided to start my story with a quick guide on how to join Weight Watchers. I researched the program online and also joined via that venue, but I’ve seen several people walk right into a meeting and join on the fly. If you’re like me, I like to know what I’m getting into and look for red flags before I commit myself (and my pocketbook) to a timely endeavor. With that being said, I went straight to Weight Watchers online at www.weightwatchers.com.

Once you are at the WW website, you can read all about the program, view success stories and get the lowdown on pricing options. Of course the longer the term the better the pricing, but it seems like they have been offering special deals all month long. I purchased a three-month membership that included the weekly meetings and the online app (which is totally awesome). You can just purchase the app or even opt for personal coaching if you decide those might be better options for you, but I was told at this week’s meeting that research has proven that people who attend regular meetings see more success. I haven’t actually seen the research, but I’m just sayin’. . .

To find out more about the pricing options, click on the “Pricing” tab at the top of the page. In the middle of the pricing page you should see the three membership choices. You can click on each of these tabs to read more about the different options. When you are ready to make a choice, click on the tab you want and then click on the orange oval below those tabs that says “continue with . . .” for the choice you want to make. You will be taken directly to a page that shows a price breakdown for your particular plan choice. You can view all the details related to a plan and then click on the blue box that says “Select this plan” to make your choice. You will then go to a page that asks for personal information and then payment options that are easy to follow. I will tell you that once you pay, you are active immediately. So if you don’t plan to start right away, you might want to hold off on the purchase until you are ready.

Speaking of meetings. . . here are a few tidbits about finding the best fit for you. Before you decide to sign on with Weight Watchers, you might want to make sure that there is a meeting time and location that works for your lifestyle. Here again, the WW website makes this a simple task. On the page with the three membership tabs (shown above), simply scroll down until you see a heading called “Convenient Locations” and click on the “Find a Meeting” link. When the new page opens, simply put in your zip code and hit the search button to the right. Voila! You will then see all the meeting locations near you. If you click on a meeting location, you can then see all the meeting times and leaders.

The most confusing thing for me about selecting a meeting, was that I thought I had to commit to a meeting time and location and sign up for that particular one. This is not the case. You can show up to any meeting at any time and you will be welcomed with open arms, although those arms really only want to hug you once a week.

There’s a little note at the bottom of the meetings page that urges newcomers to arrive at their selected meeting 30 minutes ahead of time. I think this only applies to people who haven’t signed up ahead of time, because you will need to fill out paperwork and submit payment, which takes a bit. If you join online as I did, you can simply arrive about 10-15 minutes early, wait your turn if there is a line, show your membership information via your smart phone and tell them you are new. At this point, your friendly WW staff member will step up and take good care of you.

*****

Want to know what happens at those not-so-super-secret Weight Watchers meetings? That’s next, so come back soon or subscribe via email to never miss a post.

My Weight Loss, Week One

Posted on January 15, 2016January 15, 2016 by Mama

Well now, isn’t this embarrassing. I only lost a measly half a pound in week one of my weight loss journey, and now I have to tell the world. So let’s see where it all went wrong. . .

First Mistake: my mindset. I figured if I only stopped eating crazy and making merry I would surely lose a pound or two. I ate so horribly for the last month and a half that I thought “better” would make a dent in my excess poundage. Wrong.

Second Mistake: one carefree night. I figured one night of indulgence out with my boys wouldn’t do that much damage. After all, I ordered water to drink. Wrong.

Third Mistake: not counting. I have discovered the best way for me to loss weight is simple math — calories in and calories out. Of course in order for this to work, I need to know how many calories I eat. I have successfully used Calorie Count dot com for this purpose in the past and really like the online program. I have many of my favorite foods plugged in already and can easily track my progress through the days, months and years. The catch to this whole thing is that you gotta use it. I didn’t. I just guestimated and kept a semi-running total in my head instead of plugging it in. Wrong.

Fourth Mistake: excercise, or the lack of it. I made my way to the gym only once last week. Okay, so my son was sick and it was quilting weekend, and the Chiefs were in the playoffs, and I had to buy groceries. . . The list can go on and on, but the fact remains — I didn’t make time to excercise. I’ve found that with a family to raise, mouths to feed and every other interesting thing I have going, I have to make a deliberate effort to schedule time to workout. Never mind that we own a treadmill, free weights and Wii Fit, or that we live in a neighborhood with nice sidewalks and a beautiful trail in our backyard. So with 168 hours of life to work with last week, I used just under one to reach my fitness goals. Sadly, wrong.

Okay, I believe in learning from my mistakes and so I’m ~~hoping~~ planning for a better week two. I plan to change my mindset and be active in my weight loss goals, I promise not to “reward” myself with a little indulgence if I haven’t actually achieved anything, I will actively use the tools at my disposal; and lastly, I will work up a sweat.

Of course I’m curious. What weight loss and fitness tools do you use to help meet your goals? I would love to read your comments and suggestions below.

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