How did I lose 40 pounds and 5 clothing sizes?

How did I do it? Is the question I get asked most often. I wish I had an easy answer, but it took years of work to change bad habits and create good ones. If you always do what you always did…you’ll always get the same result! So, I had to change it.

December 2003: I was looking through my Christmas photos. Wow – is that ME? I didn’t realize how much weight I’d gained since I’d gotten married. However, I had quit the gym, was eating fast food every day and was going up in clothing sizes. So, I have no idea how I didn’t realize it. I was obviously in denial. I was approaching 30 and I knew if I didn’t change things now, my condition would be much, much worse at 40.

My typical approach to dieting was to choose a commercial diet and vow to stick to it religiously. I would do the same with an exercise routine. However, once I had a bad day or even a bad week, I would give up and the diet would be over. But, here we go again! I had tried just about everything in years past – Atkins, Slimfast and the like. Weight Watchers was about the only “diet” I hadn’t tried. So, I ordered the At-Home kit from their website. There was NO WAY I was going to group meetings.

When the kit arrived, I was pretty overwhelmed. There was a lot to learn about the “POINTS” system and a lot of materials to go through. I wasn’t able to take it all in at once and master it from Day One, so I decided to take a slower approach. Luckily, that was the best thing that could’ve happened to me.

January 5, 2004 I took some (horrible) “before” pictures, as you can see from my blog homepage! I kept reading through my Weight Watchers materials, but I didn’t really do the program for the first month. I did two things: 1) I stopped drinking Cherry Coke. I believe I was up to a liter per day, if not two, and, 2) I started doing 30 minutes of pilates three times per week. Actually, the first couple of times I couldn’t make it through the whole video, so it was less than 30.

I had these changes/habits mastered by February and saw results. Time to integrate the food program! I started following the Weight Watchers POINTS system and kept up with my pilates videos. By April, I had lost over 10% of my body weight and I’d gone from a size 14 to a 10. I thought I’d had it all down and I felt amazing. I finally found something that worked! I kept going for a bit and got down to an 8, which was my original size goal when I started the program. Then, I quit.

I kept up with my exercise, but my food tracking became relaxed. I was able to maintain my weight for a while, but by the time January 2005 rolled around, I had gained enough weight to put me back into a size 10 again. I didn’t like it, but this time I didn’t want to accept failure and give up.

My learnings:
1) Weight Watchers is not a diet. It’s not like the others that say you can’t eat carbs or makes you drink shakes, which is not sustainable. The reason it worked for me is that NO foods were off limits and it taught me to make choices. Also, it taught me about appropriate portion sizes and to eat healthier foods to help give me more energy.

2) You don’t burn that many calories while exercising. At best, I was burning 100-150 calories during my pilates workout. That’s only three WW POINTS. Not rights to a beer and pizza night.

3) I am no longer on a diet. I need to make this a healthy lifestyle change in order to sustain the weight loss. Even better, I WANTED to have a healthy lifestyle change, not just lose weight anymore. I looked better, I felt better and going back to Big Macs was no longer appealing like it used to be.

I needed support. I needed accountability. I needed to get to my goal weight and stay there once and for all!
In March, I decided to get back on the program with full dedication. I finally succumbed to the dreaded group meeting. However, it wasn’t horrible. In fact, I actually started to look forward to the meetings. I was in company with people who struggled like I did and it provided me with the accountability I needed to continue to lose the weight. I was trying things and creating habits that I never thought I was capable of – and things that I had poked fun of people for doing before I’d changed my lifestyle! I took up running and ran my first 5K. I also began weightlifting, which helped me slim down significantly. It didn’t come off quickly, but I eventually reached my weight goal of 140 on May 12, 2006.

It’s three and a half years later and I wish I could say I have it all mastered. That I’m never tempted. That I have a perfect day every day. However, that is not the case! I’d have to say that maintaining the weight is more difficult than losing it was for me. I enjoyed looking forward to the scale drop each week, however now it’s just the same. I’ve had to find new ways to shake things up!

I became a Weight Watchers leader to keep up my motivation, weekly weigh-ins and to help others. I am proof it can be done! I shake up my workouts by trying new things. I just joined a new gym for a change of scenery and tried spinning this past week and I loved it! Remotivation! I’m always looking for new foods or new recipes, so I don’t get tired of the same meals. And, I still journal. It’s really the one thing that keeps me mindful of what I’m doing. The weeks get busy, but this forces me to take time to take care of myself. It’s difficult to ignore the truth when it’s in black and white! It takes up a lot of time and effort, even after years of being healthier.

That said, it is worth it! I’ve been able to maintain my 140 goal and size 4 shape. And, that makes this a lifestyle change!