Weight Watcher Redux - It Begins . . . Again . . .
I went back to Weight Watchers yesterday.
I think that's going to be the opening line of my memoir.
Getting on the scale was not as hard as I thought it might be. And the number could have been a lot worse. I'm a Lifetime Member (obviously not at goal). I reached Lifetime in the late 1980s and I maintained for probably close to 5 years. I was even a leader (a pretty popular one). I never really learned to maintain, however, and I've tried the program off and on since then, but continued to gain weight and yoyo up and down over the years.
I joined here in Chicagoland back in 2008. It was in April, three days after my birthday and I was three pounds under my heaviest weight (that I knew of). I spent a lot of time making excuses. I only wanted to go to a Wednesday night meeting because I was trying to recreate my initial success where I went to a Wednesday evening meeting and started my food week on Thursdays. Thursday - my favorite day of the week! So, yeah, guess what, no Wednesday night 7:30 meeting in my area. In fact, no evening meeting anywhere that I could get to because I don't even get off the train until around 6 p.m.
There was a Wednesday noon meeting at the Holiday Inn, just across the river, next to the Merchandise Mart. Very close to my office. I went. The leader was great! I did well for awhile and lost about 55 pounds - and then WW closed my meeting. I tried going to another office building location and it was OK for awhile - and then that leader (who was also great), left. I was forced to go to the center in the Loop - a good hike from my office. The leader was OK - a guy who, you guessed it, left (to pursue his career in theatre). A new woman took over the meeting - and she had the most horrible voice . . . I realize that sounds petty, but listening to her was like listening to my high school English teacher's clipped, nasal, old-lady voice. Needless to say, that didn't last very long.
I tried again a few years ago, and was doing pretty well. I found "my" leader from my original meeting. I remembered that she said she lived in my general area. She has the Saturday morning meetings an the center in Orland Park. Her name is Celia. She's listed on the WW website, so I think it's OK to share her name here. I didn't have my heart in the right place for some reason, and then when the dietitian put me on The Strict Program For Three Months she suggested that I stop counting points. And really, things were going so well with that, that I finally cancelled my monthly pass and went free fall without a net. And I did great. I really did.
Until I didn't any more.
And so, here I am. Again. And yet - somehow, it's OK. WW eTools still had my info from my start in 2008, so I'm 18 pounds less than that number (glad about that) and I still have access to all the recipes and data I entered. I'm going to stop fighting with WW's not-always-great technology and do the best I can. Switching my food week from Thursday-Wednesday to Saturday-Friday. No excuses this time. I'm doing what I can to set myself up for success:
And so it goes. I'll be checking in every week to chronicle my progress. Wish me luck :-)I think that's going to be the opening line of my memoir.
Getting on the scale was not as hard as I thought it might be. And the number could have been a lot worse. I'm a Lifetime Member (obviously not at goal). I reached Lifetime in the late 1980s and I maintained for probably close to 5 years. I was even a leader (a pretty popular one). I never really learned to maintain, however, and I've tried the program off and on since then, but continued to gain weight and yoyo up and down over the years.
I joined here in Chicagoland back in 2008. It was in April, three days after my birthday and I was three pounds under my heaviest weight (that I knew of). I spent a lot of time making excuses. I only wanted to go to a Wednesday night meeting because I was trying to recreate my initial success where I went to a Wednesday evening meeting and started my food week on Thursdays. Thursday - my favorite day of the week! So, yeah, guess what, no Wednesday night 7:30 meeting in my area. In fact, no evening meeting anywhere that I could get to because I don't even get off the train until around 6 p.m.
There was a Wednesday noon meeting at the Holiday Inn, just across the river, next to the Merchandise Mart. Very close to my office. I went. The leader was great! I did well for awhile and lost about 55 pounds - and then WW closed my meeting. I tried going to another office building location and it was OK for awhile - and then that leader (who was also great), left. I was forced to go to the center in the Loop - a good hike from my office. The leader was OK - a guy who, you guessed it, left (to pursue his career in theatre). A new woman took over the meeting - and she had the most horrible voice . . . I realize that sounds petty, but listening to her was like listening to my high school English teacher's clipped, nasal, old-lady voice. Needless to say, that didn't last very long.
I tried again a few years ago, and was doing pretty well. I found "my" leader from my original meeting. I remembered that she said she lived in my general area. She has the Saturday morning meetings an the center in Orland Park. Her name is Celia. She's listed on the WW website, so I think it's OK to share her name here. I didn't have my heart in the right place for some reason, and then when the dietitian put me on The Strict Program For Three Months she suggested that I stop counting points. And really, things were going so well with that, that I finally cancelled my monthly pass and went free fall without a net. And I did great. I really did.
Until I didn't any more.
And so, here I am. Again. And yet - somehow, it's OK. WW eTools still had my info from my start in 2008, so I'm 18 pounds less than that number (glad about that) and I still have access to all the recipes and data I entered. I'm going to stop fighting with WW's not-always-great technology and do the best I can. Switching my food week from Thursday-Wednesday to Saturday-Friday. No excuses this time. I'm doing what I can to set myself up for success:
- Meeting: Saturday morning meeting. Early, baby! 7:00 a.m.
- Tracking: eTools. It was difficult to get my existing account relinked to eTools, but thanks to an awesome staffer at the Homewood location, I'm good to go. I'm switching my food week to start on Saturday to match with my meeting.
- Excercise: I'm keeping my Fitbit and letting MyFitnessPal go because I don't need another place to track and I wasn't on MFP much anyway. I understand that Fitbit now links to WW eTools, but after my disastrous go round with ActiveLink, I'm not going to go that route. I'll track my exercise manually. I'm like the only person in the world who doesn't over estimate her exercise :-D I'm changing my Fitbit week to begin on Sunday - that's as close to Saturday as I can get. Oh well. Not something I have any control over - it's a limitation of the Fitbit software. Still meeting twice a week with my personal trainer.
- Other Tools: re-downloaded the WW apps for both Apple and Android. Oh - there's also a Kitchen Companion app for Apple. I bought a couple of new WW cookbooks for quick meals, and also some vegetarian meals and I have to say that they look better than some of the older cookbooks that I had.
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