I May Be a Loser, But At Least I Have Goals*

I rejoined WeightWatchers today. Well, that's not true. I never technically quit WeightWatchers after college [I just continued paying my monthly fee and making occasional stabs at meetings and tracking. Then, on December 1st, I finally bit the bullet and switched plans to an online-only thing and started tracking for real. I even took the awful step of putting in a new starting weight, since I had been heavier than my previous starting weight for several months. I was making a clean go of it. And for the first few months, I was pretty good about it (if we ignore the nom-fest that is the holidays)], but I went BACK to meetings today and I'm REALLY DOING IT this time. I MEAN IT!

In an effort to be completely transparent with myself, I'm going to be transparent with you. I promise I'm not turning this into a weight-loss blog or anything, but I can't promise I won't talk about it from time to time. So if this isn't your bag, go ahead and just skip this post--hopefully, there will be others on different topics for you to read as I get back into the swing of things.

When I started WeightWatchers in April of 2008, I weighed 303.8 pounds. At my lowest, I weighed 204 pounds (in case you can't/won't do math, that's 99.8 pounds lost, which is both amazing and terribly frustrating that I didn't ever hit triple digits). When I restarted in December 2012, I was 322.2 pounds. Wow. That's...not something I'm proud of at all. BUT! It's all changing now.

Today, I walked into a meeting here in Texas and switched my plan back to the more expensive one that allows me to go to as many meetings as I want AND do the online thing. And I'm determined that if I am paying $42.95 a month out of a pocket that is not getting filled right now, I had better make it worth it. This morning, I weighed in at 312.0 pounds.

The last time I lost weight, college graduation was the perfect amount of time away to make it my goal date and that worked incredibly well. I don't have anything like that coming up, so I've decided just to do some quick math and make a date be important--one of the big reasons I moved to Texas was to be healthier, so I just have to jump in with both feet now that I'm settled here. All of my calculations are based on losing 1.75-2 lbs a week, which is close to the average I kept up the first time around. If things are too terribly different this go-round, I'll adjust and make new dates, but you have to start somewhere. Since this is already something I'm doing and Roommate posted this week about her goals for accountability sake, I decided that I needed to write this stuff down publicly so that I would stick with it.

My goals:

• 07/03/13: 16 lbs lost (5% of starting weight)
• 08/07/13: 25 lbs lost
• 08/28/13: 31 lbs lost (10% of starting weight)
• 11/13/13: 50 lbs lost 
• 02/12/14: 75 lbs lost
• 05/07/14: 100 lbs lost (1 year from start)
• 07/02/14: 113 lbs lost (under 200 lbs)
• 09/03/14: 128 lbs lost (ultimate goal)

And I am going to accomplish them by:

• Sticking to WeightWatchers, going to meetings, and tracking my food. (DUH, but also HARD)
• Walking with Bean and Baby Bean every chance I get--starting with once or twice a week and increasing as needed (and I did this TODAY!)
• Buying WW friendly groceries
• Getting a job and keeping myself busy and away from bored snacking (easier said than done, I admit, but I've got a few hopeful things happening right now)
• Joining a gym or taking classes when my income increases
• Remembering not to just LOOK in the mirror, but to SEE in the mirror (I often think I'm thinner than I am, but I also forget to look for progress)

Anyway, this post is mostly for me. But feel free to ask once in a while. It'll keep me honest. And in that same spirit of honesty, I'm going to try to do a quick stats post every Wednesday. And I think I'm going to post my real weight, not just how much I lost. Which would sound braver if I wasn't anonymous on this blog... But I learned last time I did this that they really are JUST numbers when you're making progress. And I'm a stats geek, if that wasn't clear.

I also know that a bunch of you are working on weight loss and that many of you are trying out WeightWatchers, so if you want to leave an encouraging comment or need someone to encourage you, I'm here! Let me know what you're going through, what's working/what's not, and what your goals are. This is always easier when you're not alone.


*This title is for Sister; I don't actually believe I'm a loser. Most days.