April 28, 2009

Hello everyone,

As the weather gets warmer, what a wonderful opportunity to go walking more and earning some activity points.

Personally, I've never been too fond of exercise. I mean it's hard work! But, when Weight Watchers started that Walk-In Challenge, I can't believe how excited I was at the prospect of starting.

First, I used the coupon they gave us to buy a WW pedometer. It's great. Not 100% accurate, but closer than others. So none are completely accurate. And it's not enough to say, "oh my, I can't get this because I walked 10,000 more steps than it says". No, that's not the case. As I said, it's pretty close. And for $18, why not. It has a stop watch, an activity point giver thing (not sure what it's called, but it's where you put it on this, for a particular event, like a 5K, and it calculates your points). I put it on the all day mode, to see how many steps I get in during the day. Sometimes I don't get enough in to earn an Activity point, but that's okay. I'm still walking more than I used to.

I put the word out online about a walking group I was starting, and the ladies I have met are absolutely wonderful. And we have fun walking. So it takes the work out of exercise. We set it up for in the morning, so we can continue to do this, even after the heat sets in. That's the ONLY drawback, is I'd like to hit my snooze button instead of get out of bed. But the ladies keep me motivated to through off the covers and go walking.

I planted a garden, so been working out there every day. I water by hand with a watering can, to keep weeds in control. I've actually got a couple peppers ready to plant, and this morning I saw a couple zucchini's. I can't wait. I love fresh vegetables. And I actually enjoy going out to pull and hoe weeds. I don't count it as activity points, as I figure it's just an added bonus earning some activity and not eating to counter-act it. But that's my opinion. (And I'm sticking to it)

I'll be off work Friday and Saturday of this week, because I'm meeting Nay (a WW online member) and Cyndy (another online WW member) for dinner on Friday. I can't wait. I have met Nay once before about a month and a half ago, but I have never met Cyndy before. I feel like a school girl, getting giggly as the day comes closer.

While I'm off work on my days off, I will be also working on my website. Any suggestions? Anything you'd like to see added?

I had my WW meeting yesterday. While my doctor wrote me a 'prescription' to keep going to WW and lowered my low end of my range to 124, he does want me to gain some. So he will be happy, as I gained 3.4 lbs this week, bringing me up to 127.2 lbs. Maybe from all the walking and retaining fluid. Also it should be close to TOM. Plus, I added a couple points a day on most days. Not enough points for a 3.4 lb gain, but it made the people at my meeting happy, so that is good.

Have a great skinny week everybody. May you all be 'losers' this week at the scale. But if you're not, don't forget to look at the other changes in you that are happening as well. They are all important, not just what the scale says.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

There is multiple things to help you stay at goal. Weight Tracking pre-planning your meals, drinking your water, exercise, going to meeting, and so on. All these things that take just a few minutes of our day. But, there is ONE thing that keep you from doing these things that is the most important thing to learn to keep the weight off.

You see, as I was losing the weight, what I didn't realize, that was the easy part. I did all I was suppose to, or so I thought. I tracked, I pre-planned my menu's. Everything except learning that there was other things to focus on for my success other than just the scale. How many of us are addicted to stepping on the scale?

I was so busy focusing on what that scale said week to week, day to day, that I didn't take the time to learn what I needed to keep the weight off. I didn't change my habits. I temporarily replaced them because I wanted that scale to go down. But I didn't take the time to make those changes a lifestyle.

So, as you go through your weight loss journey, here is my best advice I can give you, so that hopefully it doesn't take you twenty years to finally 'get it'.

As you lose weight, certainly praise yourself every time the scale goes down. It IS worth rewarding yourself. But, if you're really into this for the long haul, don't focus all your energy on what the scale says. Know that there are going to be times that the scale barely goes down, or even goes up. Know that this isn't a quick loss program. Take all that time it takes to get to goal, to focus on changes you need to make in order to keep the weight off.

If you ever get on the scale and you're upset with the weight loss or gain, you have NOT made all the changes you need to make in your habits to keep it off.

Welcome!

Welcome to my website!

I have devoted 20 years of my life to Weight Watchers. I joined originally 20 years ago and made lifetime. And, I let me get in the way. I can blame life, but in reality, the only thing responsible for me and what I do, is me.

Between now and the last 20 years, I have been on every Weight Watcher version that has come out. I've been on the exchange system. I've been on it when there was no fiber cap. You name the program and the color of the point calculator, and I've been on it. I didn't have to 'return' to Weight Watchers because it failed me. I kept returning because I failed it.

You'd think that during all that time, something would click inside my head as to how to keep it off. 20 years later, it finally did. And not because I wasn't shown how to do it all along. I just wasn't ready to listen.

I'm not telling you this, so that you think you will fail Weight Watchers too. I'm telling you this, because just maybe, you can learn from me and not repeat my own mistakes.

Everything I put on this website is there to try to keep you from repeating my mistakes. It is written not by a nutritionist or someone with scientific facts. It is written from the heart of someone that has, and will continue to be in your shoes. We're all on that same path. We're just at different places on the path. But we all had to start at the same place on this journey. And we all have the same ideals as to where we want this journey to take us.

Welcome! And I'm so glad you're here!