Early in the year I had talked about taking care of myself in 2019. There has been a lot done including working on my shoulder, straightening my teeth, all my checkup doctor appointments, eye exam, mammogram, my hysterectomy. Lots going on. I gained some weight in 2018 mostly because of stress eating, so I’ve been kind of picking away at that over the year.
During my 6 weeks of doing *nothing* while recovering from my surgery, I kept feeling flabbier and flabbier even though I wasn’t gaining weight. And now it is taking forever to get my strength back to what I want it to be – not that it isn’t improved greatly, but it’s taking much longer than I expected. I just get tired so easily. It was surprising that I didn’t gain any weight during my recovery as I wasn’t all that careful about what I was eating and there definitely was some pity eating in there LOL. So, time for a change. However, I did something that normally I don’t do – I made a timed weight loss goal.
We booked a trip to New Orleans in early February — YAY!!!!!– and I told myself that I wanted to lose 20 pounds by then (so I can gain them all back eating beignets). This was at the beginning of September and while it seems pretty doable on paper, this is the start of the eating season 😀 It’s going to be a challenge and to help me be accountable, I decided to join WW online. Paying for the online subscription is a way to keep my mind focused since I don’t like to waste money. I had thought about paying for My Fitness Pal premium instead, but that really is still just me without any “outside” help. Early in the year, I did a trial of Noom, and while I think this would be good for a real “beginner” at weight loss, I was finding all the advice and steps where things I already knew about and thus it wasn’t motivating for me. Plus Noom is pretty expensive.
Anyway, I have done WW in the past and while there are things about the program that annoy me, it is doing the job of nudging me with food choices like eating fruit instead of cereal for a snack. I did WW when it was the points/Core system, and it really seems like it hasn’t changed all that much, honestly. There are a lot of new “free” foods like chicken breast and eggs. And while free doesn’t mean calorie free, one isn’t likely to binge on chicken breast. There is a definite push to stay away from sugar and other processed foods as those are a lot higher in points. I get 23 per day, plus 35 to use however I want during the week and exercise points. I generally just eat the daily plus exercise points and sometimes the extras (mostly on weekends). There is definitely less of a focus on weight loss and more about mindset changes, which is a great direction for them to go. On the app, your weight is kind of buried under your profile so you don’t see it when you go into the app each time.
I also have tracked what I eat in My Fitness Pal to compare points to calories and I end up about where I want, which is 1500. I have found my calories cycle a little more than when I do straight calorie counting – and I think that is benefiting me as far as shaking my body up a bit.
So far, so good and I lost 6 pounds in September. I anticipate it will be much slower with the holiday season coming up, but putting some guardrails in place for myself will hopefully help with that.
I’m going to try to be posting more food days, repetitive or not 🙂
Good for you, getting older and changing hormones make healing and weight control a challenge in my experience. I checked out SmileDirect and thought it was expensive and don’t know that I can wear the aligners for months. How are your results holding up? What did your regular dentist think of the process?
Smile Direct is a commitment, like regular braces. I am thrilled with my teeth. I wear a retainer while I sleep right now to keep my teeth where they are. My dentist was really interested in the process. He doesn’t do orthodontics, so it’s not like it took any business from him. He had a lot of questions for me. Apparently he gets questions on a daily basis about the invisible at-home aligners.
Funny, I tried that free trial of Noom a while back and totally agree with you. I kept feeling, “I already know all this stuff!!” Then it started feeling annoying. So yeah, not gonna pay all that money for that.
Good luck with WW. I do think it’s a program that works for many as long as you actually follow the program. And I sincerely hope you won’t track both WW and MFP. Give yourself that gift at least.
6 pounds is an excellent start!
The double tracking is more for getting a bead on things. I don’t plan on doing that for the long run, but it’s good to assess sometimes. One of the things that always annoyed me about WW, or maybe the users of WW rather, was all they ways to try to cheat the system and then wonder why no weight loss.
I was surprised at how much my hysterectomy affected me hormonally. I can’t remember if you had a full hysterectomy (I am thinking you did not), but my emotions were all over the place for months afterwards, as was my appetite. Physically it was not a big deal, but emotionally, it was one of the toughest things I have been through with my health. Sounds like you are doing really well!
I kept my ovaries, but my surgery was open instead of laparoscopic, which contributed to the longer healing. My hormones seem to be back to what they were before my hysterectomy, so that is something at any rate LOL!
Good job on changing your eating habits, Lori! 6 lbs. is an impressive loss – I’m glad WW is working for you. I tried setting a timed weight loss goal for my son’s wedding last month, and managed to gain 2 pounds 🙁 So, yeah, I’m going to need to shake things up, too. As you said, it will be challenging heading into the holiday season, but the thought of waiting until the new year to kick-start something sounds like a bad idea. Wishing you continued success!
Sometimes just maintaining during the holidays is a great victory 😀
I know you can lose weight when you focus, as you’ve shown in the past. Good luck and may the beignets be with you…soon. 😉