Weight Loss

Two weeks ago I started a new diet and I refrained from posting about it until I was sure I could make a go of it. This morning I "weighed in" and had lost a total of 4.5lbs (actually more because I rounded down on my first weigh in from pure shock!). I am really excited about this! Usually, when I try to diet I am successful to the rate of only about 1lb a week for 4-5 weeks at which time I fizzle out, cheat, fall into discouragement and begin eating like crazy again. I then ignore the scale for a few months until my clothes become too tight and the cycle begins again. This time I had ignored the scale far too long. Summer months brought me wearing a lot of loose clothing that did not suggest how far my weight had gone up. I was somewhat shocked when fall weather forced me to try on my "fat jeans" and I found them to be too tight. Ughh! So here we again but with more to lose.

I decided to try Weight Watchers online. My mother has been very successful with Weight Watchers for over a decade (becoming a lifetime member) and in the past I had fiddled with an unofficial version of it with some success. I am so far very pleased with the online effort. WW works with a point system and given my natural goal-orientated personality it is a good fit. The website allows for you to easily keep up with your daily & weekly points as well as track your progress. I am using the digital scale at work so I know it is consistent. The biggest change is that I, a professed vegetable hater, have been forced to eat more vegetables. I haven't changed my opinion about them but when one is hungry one will eat a lot of things otherwise discarded.

My husband is also dieting. He seems to experience good success with dieting. He can loose 8-10lbs with hardly any effort. He doesn't seem to be as tempted by junk food as I am (as long as I don't fix any brownies!). With a little effort he may loose 5 lbs in a week with little exercise. He has had success with the low-carb diets which I could not tolerate. He can skip meals and sustain himself with peanut butter and crackers. I don't hate him.

I have also been doing a little bit of exercise. I don't enjoy it either. In the past I have used walking as my only exercise, walking about 2.5 miles 3 days per week. It is good to have some activity but it does not promote weight loss or help with that extra "flab". This time I am trying a combination of inline skating and using the Nordic Trac.

I could do an entire post on the NordicTrac and its adventures in our lives. We've had it over.10 years and it has spent most of it's life like a piece of furniture. But like a good friend, it is always there, waiting for you to come back and spend time with it.

Rather than shoot for the weight loss ideal weight goal I am shooting for a date. We are scheduled to leave for Disney World in 8 weeks. That of course means I'll be dieting throught the holidays which is tough for most people and almost impossible for those of us who love to eat and eat and eat. For right now I am only taking one week at a time.