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Ok! finally! WW had a few words on maintenence on their website. Not only that, but a little good sense as well. I have encountered WAAAAAY too many ww dieters and worse, leaders, who claim they don't eat their extra weekly allotment and never the activity points. This is very hard for me to hear because I want to be successful, but I simply don't want to live that kind of a lifestyle. Messages like the one I read yesterday where a lifetime member said, "I eat a few more points, but basically it's the same as what I was doing before" do NOT inspire me. I admit this is mostly because I have in mind some person who is eating in a highly restricted way that I would never want to do, but also because I hope not to have to count points so rigidly all my life. I DO expect to have to closely monitor my weight, work out and watch what I eat---but I hope to slowly morph into a more intuitive lifestyle where what a WANT to eat pretty much matches what I should be eating.
Anyway--the surprisingly good sense from ww maintenence is this. They revealed that at goal weight I would get 6 more points. Actually that's not too bad! Last week I ate an extra 7 points everyday from my weekly allotment and it really helped. On maintenence it would be a base of 35 points plus another 7--that's 42 points a day! That's quite a lot! In fact, it's about what I eat on a normal day when I'm not derailed by movie popcorn or an Olive Garden orgy. THAT is a lifestyle I can wrap my mind around. Weigh weekly, workout daily, keep the exceptions under control--count points if my weight starts to drift upwards and STAY at 155 until my body figures out that that is the weight it really wants to be--then stay there the rest of my life in a hopefully more intuitive fashion.
I don't seem to be able to spit out what I want to say today---the good sense from WW is that they really encouraged USING those weekly points AND at least some of the activity points too--because if you don't then those extra six points a day are going to be a real shock and you will probably gain weight. ABOUT TIME! Hallelujah!! THIS is thinking I like---let's condition our bodies to eat a satisfying amount and maintain a reasonable weight. YES! THAT is what I'm trying to do. I adore Sean from losingweighteveryday.blogspot.com---I read his blog every day, but I have no interest in living on 1500 cal a day. It just isn't necessary! The skinny people I know don't live like that. They do eat less than I do, but they also have days when they eat a great deal more than 1500 cal. My highest weight ever was lower than Sean's goal weight and I wasn't maintaining that on anything like 1500 cal! More like 4,000 cal.
Like I said, those extra 7 points make all the difference. Today's menu--breakfast--a lite bagel with fat free cream cheese, two slices of bacon, milk, diet juice, a banana and some strawberries. Lunch will be--a wrap with roast beef and horseradish, a lipton "cup o soup", a dill pickle, six olives, an ounce of fancy cheese from Ireland (a decent size piece--this still surprises me!), and half a snickers bar. So far I've only planned a bowl of chili and a biscuit for dinner, but I have another 6 points to play with today. Yesterday's "Korean" dinner was terrific and plentiful. It's been ok. I'm losing about a pound a week or so and the suffering has been reasonably minimal.
Losing weight in spite of myself.
I began this blog in February 2011 as a way to help me not quit trying to lose weight, and to learn a few things. It's been an interesting and powerful experience. It certainly confirms what I've long suspected--that although I am a genuinely happy cheery person in the main, I am NOT a happy cheery dieter. I DETEST losing weight. I resent being overweight in the first place and I am a virtuoso in the art of self-sabotage. And YET--I'm doing it! I'm fighting and kicking and EATING all the way down, but the weight is finally going down. The plan I was following in February was a half-baked one largely based on wishful thinking. I gained a little weight and decided to get real. I knew I couldn't just join weightwatchers or count calories or do any one plan and expect to be successful. I decided if I was going to bother to make the effort to lose weight I was going to throw everything I could think of at the problem. And so I do. My real "Day One" for this blog is April 1, 2011. I joined weight watchers, I joined caloriecount.com (awesome website), I read the blog losingweighteveryday.blogspot.com religiously, I keep this blog faithfully, I joined the health programs sponsored by my insurance, I use the principles from overeater's anonymous, I use my church's 12 step program as well, I subscribe--and use--Healthy Cooking Magazine.
The result of all this? Painfully slow progress (About 20 lbs in 10 months). But it IS progress and like the little engine that could I keep on trying in my rebellious way. I have no intention of quitting. This is by far the longest sustained weight loss effort I've ever made in my life. Successful I think, because for the first in my life I've done this MY way--which I've discovered, involves a lot of pizza and restaraunt food. I'm convinced this is the only way to lose weight. For me it must be MY way. For you it MUST be YOUR way. Not weight watcher's way, not your doctor's way, but YOUR way. Any plan or idea I use is only a tool.
The latest plan to lose weight my way began on Oct 29, 2013. It really is my own crazy plan. As you'll see if you read that post. I've implemented the best ideas of all sorts of eating plans and thrown out the scale. A couple of months in and I'm definitely healthier. I'm actually enjoying myself. I won't weigh until April 1, 2014, so I'll see then if this works the way I hope it will.
There is no magic weight loss bullet. But there IS a great deal of magic in the discovery of what I can happily live with (very different from what weight watchers tells me I can happily live with) and still have the body and health I want.
Good luck to all of us on this journey. It's quite a trip!
The result of all this? Painfully slow progress (About 20 lbs in 10 months). But it IS progress and like the little engine that could I keep on trying in my rebellious way. I have no intention of quitting. This is by far the longest sustained weight loss effort I've ever made in my life. Successful I think, because for the first in my life I've done this MY way--which I've discovered, involves a lot of pizza and restaraunt food. I'm convinced this is the only way to lose weight. For me it must be MY way. For you it MUST be YOUR way. Not weight watcher's way, not your doctor's way, but YOUR way. Any plan or idea I use is only a tool.
The latest plan to lose weight my way began on Oct 29, 2013. It really is my own crazy plan. As you'll see if you read that post. I've implemented the best ideas of all sorts of eating plans and thrown out the scale. A couple of months in and I'm definitely healthier. I'm actually enjoying myself. I won't weigh until April 1, 2014, so I'll see then if this works the way I hope it will.
There is no magic weight loss bullet. But there IS a great deal of magic in the discovery of what I can happily live with (very different from what weight watchers tells me I can happily live with) and still have the body and health I want.
Good luck to all of us on this journey. It's quite a trip!
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