A year ago in September, I went home for lunch and stepped on the scale. I said, “All right. That’s enough. Something’s got to change.” And I signed up for Weight Watchers online. At first, I just tracked my food and I started to lose some weight. Not huge amounts, but enough to be encouraging. After a few weeks though, the weight loss slowed down. In October, I added exercise to my routine and that has made all the difference in the world. By February, I was down to my goal weight. Not some ridiculous two digit weight, but a weight that was healthy for me given my age and height.
Today, it occurred to me that I’ve been exercising regularly for about a year now. I’m still at my goal weight. It fluctuates a pound or two, here and there, but that’s normal. I’m stronger and slimmer than I’ve probably ever been my whole adult life and it only took six months. I wish everyone could do this. I mean, anyone CAN do this, but there’s a whole host of reasons why people don’t. It all comes down to you. If you say to yourself, “Self, I’m ready to change myself and my habits and I’m not going to give up until I get it” then you can. And it doesn’t have to happen all at once. I made my changes slowly, a little bit at a time.
When I first started tracking my food, it was so hard to stop myself from eating too much. I was snacking WAY too much. I love chocolate. I always had some in my desk. My portions were outta whack. The first few weeks were definitely the hardest because I was learning just how many “points” my usual meals were costing me and I hadn’t yet learned healthier alternatives. I was hungry a lot then. But as I was able to acclimate myself to smaller meals and healthier snacks, I found that smaller portions were enough for me. The stomach is a very elastic thing; the more you stuff in it, the more it stretches and the more food it takes to fill it. If you stop stretching it so much, it shrinks back down after a while.
The wonderful thing about Weight Watchers is you can eat any food you want. I could eat chocolate and cookies, and I still do. The key is portion size – it has to be small. The minute you tell me I can’t have something, that’s the only thing I want. You do have to exercise a lot of restraint with those things to keep the portion small, but you can still have it.
I was lucky when I started WW I had already given up soda a few years ago. My stomach can hardly tolerate it now; the carbonation kills me. If there was just one thing you could do to improve your health, if nothing else – don’t drink soda. It has a lot of calories and no health value whatsoever. The phosphoric acid is bad for your teeth and probably your bones as well. And you can save a boat load of money by not buying it. That’s my two cents on that. HATE SODA!
Anyway, that’s all there is to it. Lots of little changes that add up over time. Less food. More activity. So easy.
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