Secrets to my Success |
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Here are the secrets to my success in no specific or special order: Motivation, Determination & Willpower: I’m not going to lie to you……losing weight is HARD! But as hard as it is to take the weight off, it was much harder to have it on. I’ve had to keep my head and heart motivated at all times. There were so many different things that I’ve held close to me throughout my weigh loss journey to keep me motivated. Starting at the weight that I was and having Borderline-High Cholesterol were my first motivators. Having old clothes fit me again, seeing myself slimmer, the endless compliments – these were/are all motivators. But the main motivator, I WANTED IT! I wanted to lose weight, I wanted to be thin, and I just plain wanted it MORE than I wanted food. I had the motivation, the determination and the willpower to lose this weight and so I did. Telling people, “I’m on Weight Watchers”: I have told just about everyone I know that I’m on Weight Watchers. This has helped me gain a huge Support Team outside of my meetings. My family and friends have been there to help me emotionally and physically along my weight-loss journey. They all understand when I can’t go out to eat as often or that I have to get on the treadmill after dinner or why I’ve brought Veggie and Fruit Platters when invited to their homes. It’s a huge weight to have been lifted off my shoulders since now everyone’s been cheering me on. I have to say that Jeff’s been my cheerleader from the very beginning. He finds WW safe recipes, uses my Points Finder when grocery shopping, and is the constant emotional supporter. I really do have a great Support Team. Having a Support Team: Surrounding myself with people who want to help, not hurt, my efforts has been a huge part of my success. As I’ve mentioned, I couldn’t have done it without my husband Jeff rooting me on from the very beginning. From having Jeff at home, Marianne and my group at the Meetings, Arlene and my co-workers/agents at work, my family and friends, it really does help me to have such a strong Support Team. I go to each and every one of these people in my life and they all help me emotionally when I feel that it’s too tough and physically when I get tempted by food. Plan for the Day/Week: WW works best for me when I plan my meals out for the day or week. The night before, I’ll plan the next day’s breakfast, lunch, mid-day-snack, and dinner and night-time snack. When I plan for the week, I start with dinners first since I like to spend more points on them. Sample Day: Breakfast – 3 points:
1 WW Double Chocolate Muffin = 3 1 bottle Poland Spring Water = 0
Lunch – 5 points:
1 PB & J sandwich = 4 1 Banana = 1
Mid-Day Snack – 2 points:
1 100 Cal Pack of Cheetos = 2
Dinner – 7 points:
4 oz. Lean Steak with A1 Steak Sauce = 5 2 Green Giant Small Corn Cobs = 2 1 ½ cups Baby Carrots = 0
Night-time Snack – 2 points:
1 WW Cookies & Cream Ice Cream Bar = 2
Total for Day: 19 points Exercise & Activity: I find it best to exercise when I come home from work. I started working out 4 days a week and now I try to work out between 6 to 7 days out of the week since I’m closer to goal. Monday through Friday I do between 1 mile to 2 miles on the treadmill, Saturday between 1 to 2 miles on the treadmill or 2 to 3 miles walking outside (if the weather is nice) and Sunday between 2 to 4 miles walking outside (if the weather is nice). I started with doing 4 miles each week and I’m up to about 9 to 12 miles on average per week. Drink Water: I drink a bottle of Poland Spring with breakfast, have one with lunch, one on the treadmill/when I go walking and drink Crystal Lite Iced Tea with dinner. I gave up all kinds of soda 100%. The only soda I’ll drink is Ginger Ale when I’m sick. Grocery Shopping.: I ALWAYS have my WW Points Finder with me when I go grocery shopping. For snack items I NEVER bring anything into the house that is more than 3 pts. per serving since I know anything more is a waste. I shop aisle by aisle and pay close attention to the nutrition labels. I’m also always looking for new foods to try. Write the Points Value on the Nutrition Labels: Using the WW Points Finder, I’ll figure out the points of each Item I’ve bought in the grocery store and I’ll use a Black Sharpie to write the point values on EACH nutrition label. Everything from my cereal boxes, to soup cans to tomato sauce jars have point values on them. This way, I don’t have to think about what the points value is or figure it out when I’m hungry, I know by looking at it. Attending the Meetings - Always: Through rain and snow, vacation and holidays, I haven’t missed a meeting yet! I make sure that if I do not attend the Sunday AM meeting in Middle Village, I go to the Monday PM meetings in New Hyde Park. I’m very lucky to have found Marianne, my WW leader. She is very passionate about WW and a true motivator. The weekly meetings keep me in check with how I’m doing on a week to week basis. I look to my leader and my group for praise when I’ve had a good week and support when I’ve had a bad week. Group Support Helps!!! Recipes & Meals – Adding Points Values to them: I know right off the bat if I want Steak, Corn Cobs and Carrots, its 7 points. Or if I want Lemon/Soy Sauce Chicken and White Rice, it’s 9 points. I’ve figured out the points values of my recipes/meals so I know ahead of time that if I’m in the mood for Chicken with Artichokes & White Rice, it’s 8 points. I don’t have to think about eat food item separately since I’ve paired the Entrée and Side Dishes together for a Total Recipe or Meal Points Value. Eating Out Less Often…..but I Don’t Deny Myself Either: When I eat out, I plan when I go. I plan what I’m going to order before I walk in the door. If I do happen to walk in the door not knowing, I make sure that I order sensibly. I still get Chicken Francaisse when I’m at Georgia Diner, but I’ve omitted ordering and eating the Challah Bread, Soda, French Fries and Coffee/Dessert. I will order my Salad with Creamy Italian Dressing on the Side, Chicken Santa Elena (a lighter healthier version of Francaisse) with Broccoli and Green Beans and Water. Before I eat my entrée, I cut about 5 oz. of Chicken for me to eat and the rest gets tossed. I know it’s a waste of money, but better in the trash than in my mouth and on my waist. I’ve asked both Jeff and my family/friends to help me too. If I want to reach for their French Fries or share a piece of cake with them, I am allowed to have 1 French Fry or 1 small bite of Cake……nothing more. I don’t deny myself to never having a French Fry or a piece of Cake, I just limit how much I eat. This way, at least I get a taste of each food, without the guilt of eating the whole thing. Knowing When to Say, “NO”: Whether it’s aloud to someone or in my head to myself, knowing when to say, “NO” is extremely important. Anytime someone asked Jeff or I to go out for dinner, my answer was always Yes. When someone would ask if I’d like seconds, my answer was always Yes. And when someone would ask if I wanted to Super Size or Jumbo Size my meal, I’d always say Yes. Learning how to and actually saying, “NO” has kept me on that straight weight-loss path. I learned that I don’t always have to eat out, have seconds or have super sized food. I can always go out another time when it’s more convenient for me and I can always get more food if I’m really hungry, not eating because it’s there. Portion Control: I make sure that when I eat, I stick to the serving size. I don’t pile on the chicken/steak, rice or pasta anymore. I weigh and measure the foods that I eat into portion sizes and stick to that. What I do pile on is the Veggies, since they are 0 points value. Flex Plan – Food Journal: Since I’m on the Flex Plan, I write down all of my foods. Even when I go out and I think I might have dipped into my Flex Points, I still calculate and journal all the foods that I eat. This keeps me accountable for everything that I put in my mouth. Learning How To ACCEPT a Gain Learning how to accept a gain was a VERY hard thing for me to do. No one likes to gain. I mean, we’re all losing weight to LOSE weight, not to gain right? So why accepting it? Because IT HAPPENS!!! And for some, it happens a lot. I believe, that gaining is a part of losing weight, it’s just a part of it and whether you like it or not, it’s high time you just ACCEPT IT! I won’t lie to you; I didn’t want to accept it either. With every gain on my Sunday weigh-in meeting, my face would turn pinkish red and I’d wear the upset and hurt all over my face. There was one in particular; I had two weeks with back to back 1 lb. gains. Marianne (my leader) is now known to call that time period my “hostile” time…it’s cool, I can joke about it now. But when I was going through that in October 2006, accepting it was the last thing I wanted to do. So how and why did I accept the gains? HOW: Well, it’s not like it happened overnight or anything. It’s just that once I realized, “Hey, so if I gain this week, I can work my tush off as far as my eating and exercise, I CAN lost the following week”, I started to feel better about gains. Now, this won’t be true with everyone. The way I am, I gain and lose, then gain and lose and so forth…that’s the way my weight graph has been. WHY did I finally ACCEPT the gains? I've always understood gaining to be a natural part of losing weight and if that’s so, I should accept it. It could be the body adjusting to weight loss, exercise and eating differently, salt, hormones, family history, etc....I don't think that it's any ONE thing, I think there are a TON of factors that go into it. Once I put it into perspective, I think I became more at ease with gaining…not lazy or to the point of quitting, but almost like, “Whatever I gained this week, what’s the worst that could happen…I’ll just lose it next week or the week after”. So, if you gained, don't worry. Just follow the program and you'll see losses. Getting Rid of the Idea of “If I lose X amount of pounds in X amount of time…” AKA “Setting Unrealistic Goals” Yes. We would all LOVE to lose 60 lbs. in 6 days…but that just ISN’T GOING TO HAPPEN! Setting up a goal like “If I lose X amount of pounds in X amount of time…” is considered “Setting Unrealistic Goals”. Why are the unrealistic? Because NO ONE knows how long it will take you to lose weight. It might take Person A 6 months to lose 10 lbs. but Person B 4 months to lose those same 10 lbs. As my leader says, “This is NOT a one size fits all world and we will NOT all lose the same amount of weight in the same amount of time”. And she is right. SO MANY factors go into why and how people lose weight. There’s Gender, Height, Weight, Age, Family History, Eating Habits, Exercise, Medication, Medical Issues, and so on. Plus, if you don’t meet your “losing X amount of pounds in X amount of time…” goal, you’ll be disappointed. That’s the way it was for me. Once I was close to my 1 year anniversary with WW, but not close to my Goal, I was heartbroken. It’s like setting yourself up for failure and why would you want to do that? As WW and doctors recommend, you should really focus on losing between 0.5 and 2.0 lbs. a week. If you happen to lose over 2.0 lbs. in a week, that’s fine, it’s not like you’ll explode or something. It’s just that the focus shouldn’t be “I should lose 10 lbs. every month”, because that too, is pretty unrealistic. As the corny saying goes, “slow and steady wins the race” and with weight loss, that’s so true! Realizing that “I will be watching my weight my WHOLE life and that’s just the way it is”. This one was HARD for me to accept, but I think once I accepted the fact that “I will be watching my weight my WHOLE life and that’s just the way it is”, I was able to focus more and appreciate the weight that I’ve already lost. Why accept that you’ll be on WW your whole life? Why can’t you just “lose the weight you need and leave WW”? Well, because that’s NOT reality. For some people, they might be able to go to WW to lose the weight, be and Goal and make Lifetime, leave and keep their weight off. But for most, that’s just not the way it is. I don’t know or have a statistic of that to back me up, but considering that there are SO MANY Lifetimer’s of WW in my meetings, other meeting rooms in other states and countries including the At Work programs, At Home Kits and on the WW Message Boards and doing Online only…it would be pretty safe to say, “Once a WW-er, ALWAYS a WW-er”. And the sooner, I think, you accept that WW is a Lifestyle Change and you’ll be on this for life, the better more successful you’ll become on WW and the happier you will be. NEVER EVER say when talking about my losses as “I’ve ONLY lost…” ANY loss is a good loss, because it’s A LOSS!!! I learned that pretty early on in losing weight. First off, my leader drills it into your head and secondly, it’s true. If you lose 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 in one month’s time, you’ve lost 2 lbs! Two pounds to start might not seem big but week after week and month after month, those pounds add up and sooner or later, you’ll end up at your Goal weight. Every time I look at my weight graph, I remember the bad feelings I’ve had with some of my weigh in’s after losing a little (or gaining), but now I look at them as “WOW, look what I did!”. The same goes for Staying The Same – that is also a VERY GOOD thing to happen. It means you’ve maintained your weight, which in the end after Goal and at Lifetime, is what you’ll want to do anyway. I joke about it and say that maintaining now is good practice for Lifetime. Deciding on a GOAL WEIGHT and being OK with that decision As you’ve probably read in My Story, I originally wanted to be 130 lbs. as my Goal Weight when I started out as 201.4 lbs. I recently changed it to 135 for several reasons which are:
So basically, even if you decide a Goal Weight from the start, you can ALWAYS change your mind and reevaluate what weight you’ll like to call Goal *. * Within reason of what weight WW recommends for your height or based on your doctor’s recommendations. Following A Plan that Works like Weight Watchers instead of……
What do these
weight loss products/items have in common? (Not in the long run to MAINTAIN weight lost) Yup, that’s right. THERE IS NO MAGIC PILL!!! And if there were a magic pill, don’t you think EVERYONE would use it and NO ONE would be fat or have health problems? If you want to Lose Weight, you will have to do it NATURALLY with good old fashioned DIET AND EXERCISE!!! What do I mean by “Diet”…I mean, healthy eating. Yes, when Weight Watchers throws the word “Diet” around, they mean Healthy Eating, like the phrase, “Eat a well balanced diet”. It does NOT mean “diet” as in “you’re dieting” like a hoaxy thing. With Weight Watchers, you are focusing in on several major things like Healthy Eating, Portion Control and Exercise….which are a necessity to losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight. If you get strip WW of FLEX and CORE program and look at it from just WHAT IT IS, you can see that FLEX encourages you to watch your PORTIONS and CORE focuses on eating until SATISFIED and not stuffed. Do you really think that drinking “a shake for breakfast, a shake for lunch and a well balanced dinner” like in the Slimfast slogan, you’ll really be full? Do you really think that you could give up Pasta, Bread, Baked Potatoes and Rice as in the Atkins Diet? I know I couldn’t. And why would you want to? Do you really feel like eliminating an important food group that provides your body with fuel? And Nutra System…where a company delivers food to you. Oh yea, that is REALLY teaching you how to eat properly, by having well portioned out and healthy meals DELIVERED to you. Where is the learning in that? Don’t get me started on taking Colon Cleansers…that’s just NASTY!!! Sorry, I’d rather poop the good old fashioned way with having leafy green vegetables, thank you very much! And ultimately, would you really want to resort to Lap Band Surgery or Gastric Bypass Surgery where you have to be CUT OPEN in order to lose weight? Do you really think that will solve your problems? With surgery and cutting open of the skin alone causes it’s own set of problems from the surgery not going well, to your scars not healing properly and becoming infected to the fact that you could DIE on the table!!! And, if you’ve watched Celebrity Fit Club 4, you’ll remember that Carnie Wilson (daughter of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys and former-band member of Wilson Philips) had Gastric Bypass Surgery (GBS) and lost weight. Now, if she lost weight with GBS, why was she heavy again to qualify for Celebrity Fit Club and why did she need to lose weight again? Oh yea, because GBS DOESN’T WORK!!! Yes, she DID keep off a certain amount of weight from having GBS, BUT as stated on her site called Life and Hope (http://www.liteandhope.com/carniewilson.html) “…Gastric Bypass Surgery coupled with good eating habits, regular exercise, taking supplements and psychological support have helped me to cope with my illness”. (Referring to having a weight problem/overeating). I bolded the part where she mentions that even AFTER having GBS, she has to EAT HEALTHY, EXERCISE, TAKE SUPPLEMENTS AND NEED PSYCHOLOGICAL SUPPORT because I think many people think of GBS as the end all be all “I can have GBS and be thin, I don’t have to worry after that” and that way of thinking is WRONG! I’ve heard countless stories, besides Carnie Wilson, of people having GBS and either gaining their weight back (in some cases all), not being able to hold down foods, throwing up if eating more than will fit in your tummy and more. Does that really sound all that pleasant??? Think of it… If eventually, after GBS, you are going to have to EAT HEALTHY, EXERCISE, TAKE SUPPLEMENTS AND NEED PSYCHOLOGICAL SUPPORT, then WHY oh WHY would you want to take the route of having surgery to begin with? Why not TRY eating healthy, exercising, taking supplements and having a good support team as I’ve talked about (ie: psychological support). Why not try it? I mean REALLY try it. What else have you got to lose? And if you think “I can’t do it”, go look yourself in the mirror and say, “I CAN DO THIS!!!” Because you CAN! Now go to my FAVORITE WEIGHT LOSS SITES page and take a GOOD HARD LOOK at my friends from the WW Message Boards websites. ALL OF THEM are success stories of Weight Watchers and will wholeheartedly agree that WW is the best and healthiest way to lose weight AND maintain your weight loss. DISCLAIMER: It’s cool if you disagree with me, but know that this is MY opinion and we are all entitled to different opinions.
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