So a year ago I joined Weight Watchers online and started with that program. I really liked WW and know that I could have had great success with it but I didn't. The problem wasn't WW, it was me. I just wasn't serious yet. I wasn't "ready" or whatever. I would eat well during the week and blow it all on the weekend. I would lose and gain the same lb or 2 each week. And end up hating myself for it! (Anyone else ever felt like that?!) It's SO frustrating!! So I ended up quitting WW because I couldn't justify the monthly expense if I wasn't really working the program.
Fast forward a few months and something changed, something "clicked". I think it was really a combination of a lot of things that finally got me motivated. I was sick of feeling like crud. I was sick of having to try on 15 different outfits to find one that hid my fat rolls when I sit down and didn't look horrible. I was sick of my jeans being tight all day, I was just fed up with it. I also got inspired! I read some weight loss blogs online and really started to relate to them. I probably have Mama Laughlin most to thank for this. That girl is so inspirational! Reading her blog, I could totally relate to her. She has kids, she has a job, she's busy but she found time and energy to do it. It was hard for her! But she kept doing it. And she got great results! Reading her blog, I felt like I could do it too!
I really think that's what happened. I stopped wishing it would happen, and just got off my big butt and did it! I worked out more. I meal planned and ate healthier everyday (ok most days). I stopped binging the whole weekend and allowed myself one cheat meal a weekend. I stopped snacking at night after dinner. I payed attention to the calorie counts of food at home and restaurants. I made time workout everyday. I just did it! That's really the secret I found, you just have to do it! You have to do it everyday and it sucks! Of course I'd rather have a Big Mac for lunch than a salad. Yeah, I'd rather take a nap than do an hour of cardio at the gym. But you know what I found? Its worth it to make the healthier choice. And when you continue to make the healthier choices your clothes start to get looser, the scale starts to go down, people start to notice and its SO worth it!
I think once I decided to do it the other thing that I had differently this time was knowledge. I started reading health and fitness blogs and learned about what foods to eat, what workouts to do, etc. What worked for other people. Some of my favorite healthy blogs (besides ML) are: Peanut Butter Fingers, SkinnyMeg, Can You Stay for Dinner. There's a ton of people out there just like me who are doing the weight loss thing or have done it. To me that was incredibly motivating and I felt supported. Like I wasn't alone doing it.
That brings me to my 3rd point of what was different this time around: I got support. Whenever I've tried to lose weight in the past I always tried to do it on my own and I ended up quitting. It got hard (duh!) and I just gave up. This time thanks to the wonderful world of social media, I had support. I had a lot of support! Mama Laughlin has a Facebook group with like 6,000 followers. Girls just like me struggling everyday to make the right choices and they can talk about it, ask each other questions, whatever. That's been great. From that group I actually joined a weight loss competition where we were put on small teams. My little team has been great! Since the competition ended we have stayed in touch and check in with each other every day or so. That's been so nice!
In addition to that, on the STLWed message board I read (the mommy board) a group of girls got together to support each other. They do weekly check ins and just generally support each other. That's been great too! We also all got on My Fitness Pal which is an app where you can track your food and exercise. I have it on my phone and its so easy to use. It also has a social media aspect where you can "friend" people on there and they can see your food diary, what exercise you did, etc. That's been SO awesome. Its like having friends to keep you accountable everyday. Someone to say "great job!" when you did an awesome workout! Its great! I recently got up to tracking 100 days in a row on MFP so that was a big success.
So really what happened was like a perfect storm. I found some online resources for motivation/education/ideas, etc. I got motivated and actually got my booty in gear, stopped my bad behaviors and started good ones. And I got support!
Whew! After all of that I guess you are wondering how I'm doing now, weight wise? Well its hard to say for sure because I am bad at keeping track. But I know for sure I've lost at least 15lbs and 2 pants sizes since I started really paying attention about 6 months ago. Yay! Here is a pic from October 2011. 6 months after giving birth.
Here is one from Feb 2012 when I started on WW. You can really tell in my face. Gross!
And now for some happy shots! Here is a side by side comparison: the pic on the left is from September 2011 at Steve's Sprinkler Fitter Graduation and the pic on the right is from a year later, October 2012. What a difference a year makes!!
Here's an even more recent one from this Christmas. I always seem to be holding a baby in my pics...ha ha! Anyways. I'm pretty proud of the success I've had. I think you can really see it in these pictures!
Wow this post is getting way to long! I think I will have to share what I've learned in a separate post! If you're still with me then thanks for hanging on. Stay tuned for part 2!
