One Year On

Before joining Weight Watchers 

One year ago today I got to my goal weight with Weight Watchers. At the time I set it I choose to have it be at the top range of my healthy BMI 10st 6lb or 146lbs for a number of reasons. One I still was amazed I had managed to get to a healthy weigh, I had been over weight most of my life.  The few times in my life I had not been over weight I had either been on fad diet and gained all the weight back after I stopped dieting or I had been eating really unhealthy and doing silly things like only eating one meal a day (let me stress I did not have an eating disorder I was in my early 20 working a crazy job that was 14-18 hours a day with few breaks it just kind of lent it self to crappy eating habits some how I was surviving on coffee, cigarettes, and way to much booze and really it wasn't a pretty sight).

I was only slightly over weight but on a whole happy when I moved to England at the tail end of 2005 but trying all the food that came with a new country and settling into a relationship where I quickly started to match Philip on portion sizes meant the weight started to creep on.  It was slow and also the fact that clothing sizes are different in the UK I half didn't notice and half ignored as it was happening.

The summer of 2008 a good friend at work joined Weight Watchers and in desperation not to be the last "fat friend" I went along as well I had an amazing weight loss and by late fall I had lost almost 30lbs I still had about that much to loose again to be a healthy weight but excited about how well I had done and knowing that we wanted to start trying for a baby soon I decided to give up smoking.  My weight plateaued for a number of weeks and started to move up by a sneaking 1/2lb here and there, add to it that Philip was made redundant and money was tight I told myself might as well give up Weight Watchers to save money as I wasn't loosing anyway.  It took 6 months for Philip to find permanent work and by that time we seriously wanted to start a family so I told myself no point in going back to WW I would be pregnant soon.  Well in the 6 months it took for me to fall pregnant I had put on every bit of the 30lbs I had lost and I was miserable.  Just before I found out I was pregnant I was measured for a uniform and the tailor made a jab about my size and I was horrified. I went into the bathrooms and cried I was so upset.  I was well and truly uncomfortable in my skin.

A week later I found out I was pregnant and the happiness was short lived.  On my first visit to my midwife at 10 weeks she let me know that my BMI was in the clinically obese category and that could cause problems in my pregnancy.  She told me not to gain more than 30lbs while I was pregnant but didn't really offer any advice on how to do that.

I went away and decided that while I was not going to actively try to restrict what I ate while I was pregnant I was not going to let pregnancy be an excuse for eating what ever I liked.  By 36 weeks I had managed to only gain 28lbs and while I am sure I went over I didn't weight myself after that.

By 2 weeks after Jocelynne was born I was back to my pew pregnancy weight and by the time I had my 6 week check and could rejoin Weight Watchers I had already lost 5 or 10lbs. ( I attribute this to nursing because I was eating like a horse).

Weight Watchers made a lot of sense for me because they catered for a nursing mum and even provided information about good foods to include while you were nursing to get the nutrients you needed.  They also set realistic weight loss goals for nursing mums while most women can expect up to 2lbs weight loss a week nursing mums are told up to 1lb a week as not to compromise their milk supply.

I had a fabulous leader Jackie Parsons and on a whole I had what most would call a straight forward weight loss journey.  If you average out the weight I lost over the weeks it took to get to goal I lost 1lb a week.  If you look at it on a week to week basis there were weeks I stayed the same, weeks I lost 1/2lb, and weeks I lost 3lbs.

Activity was a huge part of not only getting to goal but being able to maintain for the last year.  I can honestly say for the first 6 months I was loosing the only activity I did was walking.  I know some people think you have to be out doing high intensity activities if you want to make a difference but if your not use to that kind of thing I think jumping into something that hard can actually put you off it.  About six months into my weight loss journey a friend form our birth class invited me to start going to a mummy and me class where I could take Jocelynne.  It was just basic Jane Fonda aerobics but from there one thing led to another.  About the time J became more mobile and less willing to play happily while I worked out one of the mums introduced me to a kettle bell class that I could make some weeks.  The thrill of doing something I considered "hard core" like kettle bells gave me the guts to start doing a Sunday morning boot camp.  Philip's job changed again and I was unable to do the boot camp and kettle bell classes so I looked at joining a gym with a creche so I could work out during the week when Philip was at work.  J hit a clingy phase and refused to go in the creche so I went back to mainly walking and getting to a class at the gym when Philip had an early.  We seem to have found an good rhythm now and most weeks I get to 2 Spin classes a week and try to lift weights after at least one of those classes.  The rest of my exercise still comes from walking, I wear a pedometer (mine is a  WW's one but i urge anyone looking to up there exercise to get one and see if they are getting to the recommended 10,000 steps a day) I just have to get crafty with getting more walking in, we go to a park that is 1.5 miles away instead of the one 5 minute walk away and its a nicer park anyway so a win in both regards.  I walk us down to the nice beach 2 miles from our house and let J have a run around so she is more willing to chill out in the push chair so I can get a decent walk in on the way home. I can honestly say that with out being so conscience of including activity into my day EVERY day I would not be able to say that I have now maintained my goal weight for over a year.

I am not going to lie it has been something I have had to work on every one of those 52 weeks I still weigh in almost every week and attend a meeting as I know the group support is key to being able to keep the weight off.  I am so much happier in my skin and not because I am as skinny as Kate Moss because I am not, but because I am healthy I can now buy clothes at the normal shops I don't have to go to the Plus size shops or look in the plus size sections hoping that everything is not just a tent.  I have  leaned healthy eating habits and I am able to pass those on to J and I hope that with any luck she won't have to do what I did in my 30s she will just grow up enjoying healthy food and know how to regulate a healthy weight.

June 4th 2012