I am thrilled to tell you that I actually exercised last night. Albeit, it wasn't a three mile run, but something is always better than nothing. I did Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred and it was tough. On the plus side, it was only 20 minutes, so just as I was feeling like I was going to die, the tape was nearly over.
I know that I've said this a million times, but exercise is really the cure for everything. Most importantly (in my opinion) you feel this enormous sense of accomplishment after achieving an exercise goal. The trick, I think, is that the exercise has to be challenging enough. If the exercise is too easy, (aka, in my case, walking three blocks to the store) the feeling of post-exercise satisfaction doesn’t come, haha. The 30 Day Shred Level One was definitely challenging for me (I can feel it in my legs this morning!) and my goal is to do the Shred five days a week for the next month and then switch to level two. Seven days is just not realistic for me, the Queen of Lazy, but I think I can work out 20 minutes a day, five days a week, don't you?
So, I've been thinking a bit about my long-term health and weight loss goals. It's been nearly a year since I first joined Weight Watchers and I've lost roughly 65-70 pounds (depending on what scale I use). While I admit that I’ve made great progress, I think somewhere in the back of my mind, I truly believed that I could lose the entire 90 pounds by this time. When I first joined WW, I think it was too daunting to imagine having to lose weight for over a year, so I planned to meet my goal in under a year—nine months to be exact. I even marked up a desk calendar with the weights I would be at each month, approximating that I would lose 7 pounds a month. Unfortunately, I didn’t account for plateaus, gains, and much-needed breaks from the program.
But now I need to refocus on my weight loss journey and my path to reaching a healthy weight. I would love, someday, to not have to worry about being overweight or having people judge me because of my size. I’d like my weight to be a total non-issue. I don’t necessarily want to be skinny, because I happen to like my curves, but I’d like to go through the rest of my life knowing that I’m just normal. I’ve got somewhere between 20-25 pounds to lose in order to reach a healthy weight, according to BMI and WW, and then if I want to lose an additional 10-15 pounds, I can.
So, the question now is, What is the best, most sustainable way of losing this last 20-30 pounds? What diet would fit best into my lifestyle? Old Weight Watcher plan? New Weight Watcher plan? Calorie counting? Intuitive eating? So many choices that have worked for so many different people. I know, in the end, losing weight is as simple as eating less and moving more. However, there are many different routes to achieving that goal. I’m not entirely sure what will work best for me.
To be honest, I did lose the vast majority of my weight on the old WW plan, so I know that works. On the other hand, I tried counting points yesterday and I ended up using 25 on the old plan (two over my allotted DPs of 23) and 28 on the new plan(one under my allotted DPs). Clearly, I need to make a decision. Do you have any suggestions?
No suggestions. I'm still deciding if I want to stick with the new plan or go back to the old one. I lost 3 lbs in the last 2 wks on P+. I was planning on having another OP week this week but we had food day here in the office and I went to Red Lobster on Sunday so I'm totally out of points unless I tap into my AP's. I know I'll have a gain this week. If I don't lose anything else by the end of March I will be switching back to the old WW plan until I reach goal and then I'll go back to P+.
ReplyDeleteI just bought the 30 Day Shred but have yet to try it. I was thinking I could start that on Sunday after my weigh in.
I recommend trying to stick with PointsPlus (new plan) for at least 4-6 weeks, just to see if you like it/if it works for you.
ReplyDeleteI have loved both Momentum and PointsPlus, but I never felt like I really had to choice to stick with Momentum, since I'm online only, and all of my e-tools changed.
I'm slowly moving out of WW and into Intuitive Eating... I can't wait to be an intuitive eater again! :-)
Good luck on the Shred, I am planning to get that some day to switch up my workouts. I live on the second floor, and have heard that there is a lot of jumping involved... which is why I'm hesitant.
One tip: You may want to start with doing it every other day, or 4 days a week, just to avoid injury.
I totally agree that the idea of being in weight loss mode for more than a year is daunting. But, here I am, over TWO years later, and I'm still not at my goal!! If you told me at the beginning of my WLJ that this is how long it would take, I probably wouldn't have agreed to sign up. But, I've grown and changed so much over these last two years, and in retrospect, I wouldn't really change a thing.
ReplyDeleteSuggestions? Give the new plan a good try, and if it doesn't work for you, go back to the old plan.
I think if you read my blog about swim wear you'll find at the bottom that after all this time and after trying on swim wear I've realized that all the hard work is worth it and eventually the only way to get to goal weight is to suck it up and DO IT! I don't want to workout 3-4x a week but I do because its like a job. You have to decide what is more important to you. Watching Gilmore Girls (love that show!) or getting in some exercise so you can get thinner. Summer is coming so now is the time to make a move.
ReplyDeleteWell, that was a pretty harsh way of putting a simple statement: No one can make the decision to get out there and exercise except you.
ReplyDeleteEveryone knows sitting around on the couch isn't going to help you lose weight, but that said, exercise alone isn't going to make you skinny. Studies have shown that exercise alone is not enough to lose weight-- you have to change what you're eating, as well. Only you know what's best for you, so only you can know how to proceed. I agree with what someone else said, though, you need to give the plan a good, solid effort for 4-6 weeks. No cheating (binging). If you binge, start the count over again. You can't blame the program for something that's not the program's fault.