It’s been a while since I wrote a post about my weight loss journey, so I figured this was as good a time as any to bring you up to speed on where I am right now. If you’ve been reading my blog for very long, you know that I started Weight Watchers at the beginning of last year. I was super consistent with it for many months, up until my birthday in August. I had lost about 43 pounds by that point, and I felt pretty damn good about myself. Then it all fell apart.

Since then, I’ve bounced around a LOT. I’ve struggled to maintain focus, even though I went from online only to meetings in person. Up until mid-March, I managed to stay within five or so pounds of my original loss. When the COVID thing happened, though … well, that’s when it really went to hell in a hand basket. I’ve gained about 15 pounds since my lowest, and most of that has happened in the last three months. When I saw the number on the scale on Saturday, that’s when I decided that enough is enough. It was time to buckle down and get serious about weight loss again.

When I stepped on the scale on Tuesday morning (I’m actually writing this on Tuesday), I found that I’ve already lost more than two pounds. Now I know that you’re probably thinking, “Oh, that’s just water weight.” And that may be true, but weight is weight, and it’s two pounds I’m not carrying anymore. Even if it is “water weight” it goes to show just how out of control my eating had gotten, and I wasn’t doing myself any favors eating things that could cause such retention.

My focus this week is on tracking every thing I eat, the good and the bad. And also, I am back to double logging everything. See, here’s the thing … I don’t really stay with WW because I find their program to be revolutionary or particularly helpful. I stay for the social aspect of seeing others in the same place I’m in, or who have been there, and for the recipes and such. My personal opinion on WW is that the program is a little too restrictive in how much I can eat, and that some of their calculations are somewhat ludicrous. I use Lose It! to log my meals in addition to WW, so that I can see how many calories I’m eating. Let’s be honest here – I’m not a small person, and if I stick with the WW points system exclusively, I’m often eating less than 1100 calories a day. The minimum calories needed to maintain bodily functions is 1200. According to Lose It! I should be eating between 2100 calories to lose an average of one pound per week, and 1600 calories a day to lose two pounds per week, so there’s no wonder that I feel like I’m starving when I’m eating about 1200 calories a day. That’s the one thing about WW that really bothers me – they won’t let you determine how much you want to lose in a week, so everyone is pushed in to the same mold.

Even with the current plan, where you can choose one of three options to follow, it still works out to about the same for me no matter what. They do offer a lot of zero point foods on two of the three plans, but even if you eat several of those, it can be very difficult to reach 1200 calories a day, particularly if you’re eating a lot of vegetables. I love vegetables and try to eat a lot of them each day, but even so, to feel full, I need to eat a well rounded meal consisting of meat, vegetables and carbs. I feel like you get penalized with WW for carbs of almost any kind, because the points can be quite high, even if the calories are pretty low.

At any rate, I try to keep my points on WW somewhat even on a daily basis, but if I go over a bit, I don’t sweat it as long as my overall calories are below about 1900. According to Lose It! I can eat about 1900 calories a day and still lose 1.5 pounds a week. I know that as I go down in weight, that will change, but for now, I’m pretty happy with it. At this point, I’m using WW more for the social support aspect, and the healthy habits I can obtain from the program. Also, even though I don’t always agree with the points for some items, it does make me stop and think about what I’m putting in to my body, even if I decide to go ahead and do it. I’ve learned a lot from working the program this way. For example, a boneless, skinless chicken breast on WW blue and purple plans is a zero point food. If I track that same 5 oz chicken breast on Lose It! the calorie count is about 180 calories. According to WW, a serving size of chicken is 3 oz, but to be honest, it’s unlikely that I will eat only 3 oz, and if I did, it would be a paltry 106 calories. That’s why I don’t sweat it if my chicken breast is 5 or even 6 ounces. It’s about 200 calories, and I’m ok with that. If I serve that with a small 3″ baked potato (160 calories plain, add 70 cal for 1 TBSP of light butter) and half a cup of steamed broccoli (30 calories), my entire meal is under 500 calories, and I’m satisfied and not starving in an hour. The 3 oz chicken breast would make this a 350-ish calorie meal. The points for the potato and butter would make it about 7 points on the WW blue plan, which is what I use. On green, it would be about 9 points, and on purple, only the light butter would have points – so 2 points. But regardless of which WW plan you’re on, that meal still has between 350 – 500 calories.

I’m not a big breakfast person, so I have 3/4 cup of a dry cereal (Honey Nut Cheerios and Special K various varieties are my favorites) and a container of light greek yogurt (I prefer Dannon to other brands, but I will eat Yoplait, too). This would be about 200 calories, or on any of the WW plans, it would be about 6 to 7 points. To me, that seems ridiculously high for a 200 calorie meal. Add a banana, and the points stay the same, but the calories increase by 100 or so. That’s because most fruits are zero points on WW, but they always have calories.

One thing I’ve found over the last year is that meal prep is my savior, at least at lunch. I need a plan for dinner and breakfast, but lunch finds me distracted and not at all willing to be reasonable with my choices, unless I’ve already got my lunch prepped. This week, I made Instant Pot Chicken and Rice, and then sauteed some chicken breasts for salads, and have left over pork chops from dinner on Sunday. Anything that doesn’t get eaten this week will be frozen for next week.

When I was double logging everything last year, and making sure I was meal prepped for the week, I was losing weight at a fairly decent clip. I’m never going to be one of those “Lost 100 pounds in eight months” types because I’m not that willing to deprive myself of food. And I haven’t seen many of those types of people who are successful with long term weight management. I’m not saying there aren’t any, I’m just saying there aren’t many. I’m not one of those people who start losing weight then claim to hate all the bad foods that got them to where they were. You’re never going to hear me say, “I lost weight and now pizza is just gross to me!” or “After eating better for a while, I lost all my taste for BBQ!” I think the people who do that are either in denial or they’re lying. I will say that I eat less fast food than I used to, but I’m not sure if that’s because I lost weight or because as I get older my tastes change, and my body processes foods differently. I certainly cannot eat Taco Bell these days, but Taco Casa doesn’t really bother me. And I still love pizza, Mexican food and BBQ. For me, it’s more a matter of not eating all of those things in two or three days.

I still eat some sort of dessert every night. Some of my favorites are a warmed Fiber One 70 calorie brownie with a WW Giant Fudge Bar, or a Fiber One 70 calorie brownie with a sugar free pudding cup; a WW Giant Fudge Bar alone; fruit with chocolate hummus; a sugar free mug cake with a bit of fat free whipped cream … really, if you’re creative, there are a lot of ways to satisfy a sweet tooth with very few calories or points.

This time, I need to stay the course. I have already lost a fair amount of weight, and I can lose the rest of it, too. I just need to stay focused, and get off my backside. Oh, and keep my hands busy at night so I’m not thinking about food all the time. The last few months have definitely opened my eyes, and I know now I need to stay active and focused on weight loss, because if I don’t, I’m going to gain back all I’ve lost and then some, and that’s the last thing I want to happen!