After high school ended I slowly started putting on weight. I began drinking much more frequently, not thinking about how many empty calories I was consuming. After getting a car at twenty, I stopped having to walk around which really decreased my activity level. I stayed around 180 (which was a 30 lb weight gain from high school) for a good two years. After I moved in with my boyfriend things really got out of control, my drinking had slowed a lot, but I started eating more to deal with the stress of starting college. Not to mention I worked at a restaurant where each sandwich had about 800+ calories. I was eating one of these about 5 days a week. NOT GOOD!! After weighing myself and seeing the shocking number of 215 pounds I knew something had to change. For Christmas my boyfriend and his dad bought me a one year membership to 24 Hour Fitness. I made the decision to either become vegan again (which I had great weight loss results with before) or give Weight Watchers a try. I decided to go with WW because I felt it was more achievable. The first couple of weeks were pretty tough, I am such a perfectionist so when I went over points I was really hard on myself. I read a lot of advice online and one of the things that really stood out to me was that this really is a lifestyle change and that it will NOT happen overnight. If I messed up on my calories/points for the day I should just start fresh the next day, and so on and so forth. This is why all previous attempts had failed me-I was being too hard on myself. I still have rough days and I’m sure I always will, but the most important thing is to just keep starting over the next day. Eventually you will start having a couple good weeks in a row, instead of just two days in row. I can now say that after almost nine months I am four pounds away from my goal weight of 150 lbs. I completely credit my success with good old fashioned working out and Weight Watchers; I now eat whatever I want in moderation and still lose weight.
Tips:
1. Cut out mayonnaise. It is so incredibly high in calories and fat it just isn’t worth it! (If you really can’t cut it out though I recommend atleast getting a non fat version).
2. Don’t eat so much red meat. For example, I eat a sloppy joe sandwich that is only 3 points with the Morning Star “meat”. I’m sure with real hamburger it would be atleast twice that.
3. Cut out soda! If you must, have a diet soda, but even those are really not great on your body and cause bloating.
4. Drink LOTS of water-you are really supposed to drink ½ your body weight in fluid ounces every day.
5. Have baby spinach for a salad instead of iceburg/romaine-its much healthier & you can’t even tell a difference when you add dressing.
6. It’s really all about making small changes, like getting a light ranch instead of full flavor (you can’t even tell the difference with Hidden Valley light ranch).
7. Lastly, don’t be hard on yourself if you go over your calories/points for the day-it will take time to get used to this new lifestyle.
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