Slenderized - A Dieter’s Journey

The discouragement wants to move in like a long forgotten friend that shows up at your doorstep one afternoon. Bu I look back at the time we’ve spent together and am reminded that our relationship was never a healthy one; it never brought me anywhere except unhappy. And so, I choose to forge on despite the numbers on the scale.

The first week on the Weight Watchers program was convoluted and, quite frankly, a week I’d prefer to forget. To the letter and ounce, I watched my food consumption. Keeping the personal food journal helped me learn a lot about my eating habits: I don’t eat nearly as many fruits or vegetables or drink as much water as I once thought. In fact, I don’t eat nearly as much as I thought I did — and therein lies the problem.

Looking back over the first few days of the food diary and letting the emotions of it wash over me, I learned that my body had been in ultimate survival mode. Inadvertently, I’d been starving myself for quite a while. By day three on the plan, in a paranoid haze, I made absolutely certain to eat every last point worth of food necessary, plus any points added due to exercise (which totaled 10-14 some days) for the remaining four days.

After stepping off the scale and seeing that I had gained 3 pounds, I felt utterly defeated. What had I done wrong? Why was my body reacting so adversely?

My lessons learned that first week were many, but the most crucial was that you didn’t have to eat any additional points from exercise. That is something I wish they had shared with us on the first meeting or in the first pamphlet. Of course, it’s very possible that Weight Watchers wasn’t anticipating any already active individuals to join and decided to tuck that valuable nugget of information in with the second week pamphlet.

Once I found a balance between my paranoid forced feedings and relaxed into a routine, the weight began dripping off slowly, but surely. The second week’s weigh in showed a decrease of 3 pounds, which placed me squarely where I had originally started. Hardly seems like progress if you think about it, so the third week, I skipped the weigh in altogether. (Don’t get me wrong, I was still following the plan. I just didn’t go in to the meeting or for the weigh in.)

By week 4, I picked myself back up and found my second wind. I’d lost 1.6 pounds from my last weight in (week 2) and that brought my grand total weight loss up to 2 pounds. Then and there, I decided that losing half a pound a week just wasn’t going to work for me — I have been expecting 2-3 pound per week results.

Going into my second month on the Weight Watchers program, there are things I’ve learned and new goals I’ve set for myself. One of these goals is to add one extra day of exercise to my current routine (weight training to help tone and build fat burning muscle).

And I’ve also picked up a few other weigh in tips and tricks:

• Pick a morning weigh in and skip the big breakfast. (Something light, yet energy filled such as a whole wheat English muffin or toast will work.)
• Never drink alcohol or eat/drink anything salty the night before weigh in.
• Drink plenty of Gatorade (or electrolyte enhanced water) and take a laxative the night before if you’re not already a regular person.
• Wear light clothing, thin socks, and sandals to the weigh in. (No jeans, sweats, or bulky shoes.)
• If you’ve saved up your 35 “fun” points for the week, right after weigh in is the perfect time to spend them.

Tags: diet, weight loss, weight watchers
Filed under: 30 Day Fitness Plan, Diet Tips, Personal Ramblings, Shedding Pounds