Weight Watchers

So last Monday I joined Weight Watchers.
When I was in college I was roughly 130 lbs most of the time. I took advantage of the Rec Center on campus, walked and ran with friends when the weather was nice, rode my bike frequently, and even played Wallyball on occasion. (Volleyball in a raquetball court....you can hit the ball off the walls and it makes things more interesting!)

Then came grad school.
I tried to exercise. I really did. But the amount of homework kept me indoors and awake into the wee hours. It was stressful. It made me hungry. I didn't have time to cook and did NOT eat well. I gained quite a bit, but thought, oh, after grad school I'll take care of it. I don't know exactly but I'd say I was roughly 160.

Then I got a full time job.
One where quite often I was working my full 40 hours at my work, and then taking work home and keeping busy with that until bed time. Ugh. No time to exercise, no time to cook and eat right. I gained a lot--I was about 190 or more most of that time. I even joined Curves for awhile but as work stress intensified I made my excuses not to go.

While working in retail after being laid off, I lost a bit. It was an overnight shift with lots of lifting and moving around and wow, my arm muscles were big! :)

On our wedding day, I weighed about 187. I don't like looking at myself in our wedding photos.

Even though I've been working on changing our diet to made-from-scratch, no-high-fructose-corn-syrup, more-fruits-and-veggies, and walking all the time, nothing seemed to be changing. A friend from church is doing Weight Watchers and told me all about it. I was impressed and DH and I talked over our budget--we are giving up our monthly date night/going-out-to eat fund so we can afford it.

My weigh-in weight last Monday (Feb 28) was 208.8. UGH. I never, ever, want to see that number again. If the Wii Fit can be trusted, I've already lost 7 pounds. I'll be weighing in next week Monday, so we'll see. They say you make the most progress the first two weeks.

What I love is that Weight Watchers doesn't focus on the big goals--it's the small ones. Your first goal is to lose 5% of your starting weight, then 10%. And you get a little reward for every 5 lbs you lose too. I've set some personal goals as well--to be well out of the 200 lb range by April 1st, and if I lose 40 lbs by Aug 2nd, my husband is spoiling me with spending money for a trip I'm taking with my grandma, mom, and aunts. They say a healthy weight for me is anywhere from 124-155. I'd like to be smack dab in the middle of that within 12-18 months!

So far I'm really inspired, and DH is as well. I'm publishing this out in cyberspace so I can be even more motivated.

Well, I'm off to walk to the library to pick up my Jillian Michaels DVD and Weight Watchers cookbooks on reserve! I will keep this blog updated on my progress!

~Sunshine~