Weight Loss & Accountability
A lot of people already know that I joined Weight Watchers last spring in an attempt to get myself down to a healthy weight before I turn forty in 2011. Well, today marked 26 weeks on the program, and even though I’ve lost about 40 pounds since this time last year, I’ve only lost about 19.5 in the six months I’ve been on WW. Mostly because I’ve been lazy and haven’t been perseverant in disciplining myself to changing my eating habits.
When I did best on program was from March through July, when I worked with several other women who were also on the program—two of whom I ate lunch with at least four days a week. We talked about program, we shared recipes, we encouraged each other, and we went to meetings together, so there was a lot of accountability to stick to program.
Since I got laid off (July 21), I’ve managed to only lose a net total of 1 pound. There is no excuse, just the simple fact that I’m lazy and I’m a food addict—especially high-fat/high-sugar foods.
My friend Georgina and I both realized that the reason we’ve been barely maintaining—if not outright gaining weight—is because our accountability was gone. So we’ve started going to a meeting together on Sunday afternoons, and then going out for skinny, sugar-free Caramel lattes where we can talk about life in general and set goals for the upcoming week.
Last week, I’d set a goal of getting myself back onto a daily schedule and going through and cooking up most of the stuff in my freezer (all of which sticks to the Core program that I’m on). However, even though I went to an additional WW meeting on Monday (the meeting leader on Sunday isn’t necessarily the most inspiring, and I really liked the Monday group I’d been going to), I didn’t stick to program, didn’t cook anything from the freezer, and ate a bunch of stuff I know I wasn’t supposed to eat.
Somehow, I was down a quarter of a pound this week. But one of the things I did before Georgina and I parted ways this afternoon was make a specific goal for the week: I’m going to walk the neighborhood at least three times this week and I want to be down 2 pounds at weigh-in next Sunday. I’ve written the goal down, I e-mailed it to Georgina. But I don’t think even that will be enough accountability.
So every Sunday afternoon when I get home from WW, I’m going to update my weight loss tracker at Gyminee and write about my weight loss journey. If you’d like to use these Sunday posts as a forum to talk about your own progress, discuss problems you’re having, and celebrate successes, I really hope this can become a place where you, also, can find accountability.
Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, I’m going to actually admit where I started and where I am—because it’ll be right there, in my right hand widgets bar, all week long.
Fall 2007 I was at my highest weight ever at 315 pounds.
When I had my first doctor appointment of the year on MLK day in January, I was at 305.5.
When I joined WW the second week of April, I was at 295.
When I weighed today, I was at 275.6, for a net loss of 39.4 pounds.
In the chart on Gyminee, you’ll see that I have my weight loss goal set at 250. That’s my short-term goal, because I need to be at or below that weight to qualify for health insurance—a very important thing since I’ve decided to give freelancing fulltime a chance. So that 250 mark is my goal for December 31. If you’re like me, you may wonder how I think I’m going to lose 25.6 pounds in 12 weeks. All I can do work really hard to get control over my cravings and exert some discipline in my eating and exercising habits.
In addition to sticking to program and increasing my activity level, I’m going to start eating all of my meals at the kitchen table and not eating in the office or while watching TV. I’m going to make sure I have somewhere to go every single day—whether it’s to the library, to Bible study at church, or to that extra WW meeting. I’m going to limit the amount of TV I allow myself to watch during the week. And when I do sit down to watch TV, I need to be doing something with my hands—whether it’s folding laundry, ironing, knitting, drawing, or whatever. Because my worst times for “cravings” is when I’m not doing something.
As I said, use these Sunday posts as a forum to talk about your own weight loss journey—the ups, the downs, the discoveries, the successes, the pitfalls. Let’s do this together.
Comments are closed.
KayeDacus.com 
You go girl! That’s very brave of you to lay it all out like that, but doing so will make you actually do something about it. None of us want to admit to others what we actually weigh, but in doing so it gives us a “fire” to want to rectify the situation. We are all here to support you and you know you can do it. You are such a knock-out now, when you lose a few pounds, world watch out!! I’m so proud of you for doing this. I love having you share this journey with me. It’s not always easy, but we can do it. Coffee is on me next week, I just know it!
LikeLike
I am so with you, kaye!
I currently weigh what I did when I gave birth to my first daughter 😦 Very depressing!!!
My downfall is going out to eat, and also the fact that I’m a VERY picky eater, and like very few vegetables. (and before anyone tells me to tough it out and just eat it, well, yeah, easier said than done!)
I’ve had moderate success before with slimfast and kept the weight off for a while, but I have 65 pounds to lose to get down to where I was when I was married.
But to back it up, I have 10 pounds to go to the lowest I’ve been since I gave birth to baby #3, Gabby Jo.
I have 20 pounds to loose before I am at what I was when I got pregnant with baby #2.
I have 35 pounds to get down to the lowest point I was between Karalynn and Lacy.
I have 50 pounds to where I was when I got pregnant with Karalynn.
Those are my celebration points.
My ultimate goal is to lose 50 pounds by next October. It is my hubby and my 10th anniversery and I SO want to go some place and not feel like a beached whale in a swim suit.
I really want to lose the 20 by Christmas, but I’d be tickled pink to lose the 10. This is the hardest time of year for me, with Halloween candy, Thanksgiving, and *groan* Christmas!!!
I look forward to seeing your progress, Kaye!!!! I know you can do it!
LikeLike
You’ve had a lot of success so far, and I’m sure you can reach your goal. I love food too, so I know how hard it is when everything looks, smells, and tastes so good.
Praying for you right now. Success today 🙂
LikeLike
Forty pounds! Isn’t that like a Doberman Pinscher!?? Congratulations!
One thing that helps me is that I never buy snack foods. If I want a cookie so much that I’ll make it, I can have one. Also the whole ice-in-your-drink thing. I don’t know if your body actually uses calories warming it up, but it feels virtuous. Lately I’ve been creating a playlist for my characters (“lonely” themes, “change” themes, “love” themes) and playing it while walking my dog. I could never get myself to exercise on a machine for 20 minutes, but for some reason it’s easy to walk for an hour.
Keep posting your progress!
LikeLike
Kaye, you can do this!! For twenty weeks straight last year, I lost consistently 2 lbs a week taking me to my goal “healthy” weight, so you can certainly meet that goal. Those last few points into the healthy zone are by far the most difficult to shed!
For me, the number one thing that I notice is that if I don’t take in my eight glasses of water a day, I can’t lose weight. Now, that’s MY thing. I think we each have something we need to discover within ourselves that triggers success. For some, it might be pitching the salt shaker, for others, if may be certain starches can’t be touch during the weight loss time because it’s too much for you to stick to just a little bit. Experiment, Kaye, and honestly, once you get on the roll of eating only what works for your metabalism, that’s well-rounded and healthy, you’ll feel the unhealthy-desires slipping away.
I’ve gained a couple pounds over this Thanksgiving weekend and have to get back to losing again, too. I’ll set my goal of two pounds shed by next Tuesday on me. I’ll be praying for both of us to succeed!
LikeLike
Wow, that’s mighty brave of you to lay it all out like that. I hope this is a great motivator for you. It sounds like you have a good plan in place. You can do it!
LikeLike
Very inspiring, Kaye. Thanks for sharing.
LikeLike