Lisa's Weight Watcher's Journey

After
   
I have lost 40 pounds on Weight Watchers, and have cut my pants size in half!  

Before:
         

My Journey

We have been trying unsuccessfully for a second child since just before I started WW, and have been having recurring miscarriages ever since, so that has complicated the journey. After my first miscarriage, I spoke with my favorite aerobics instructor, and she shared that she had lost a lot of weight on the program,and given my respect for her I decided to try it.

I joined Weight Watchers in mid January 2000.  I had a lot of  preconceived and inaccurate ideas about what the program would be about.  I almost didn't join because of them. However, I had tried exercise, I had tried eating better and seeing a nutritionist, and my weight still kept slowly creeping up.  I was starting to feel that there was nothing I could do about it, but I thought I would give it a shot.

When I first went into WW I had a lot of rationalizations for my weight.  I don't call them excuses, because these were really a self-protection mechanism, and I don't beat myself up for them. For example, I figured this must just be the way I was made - after all, I had been trying hard, exercising a lot, even going through a phase of skipping many meals and eating mostly energy bars.  I felt it was an unfair world - unfair expectations of society for me to want to be different than my "natural" weight.  I had a lot of resentment toward people that were thin, and judged them harshly if I saw them at WW, figuring they were perfectionists that didn't know what a real weight problem was.

Over time, I came to realize that no-one, or almost no-one, is happy with their body, and that often those "thin" people I saw at WW were people that had been where I was, and had worked their way to where they were.  I realized that there is a dichotomy in our society, where portions are huge, eating is a central part of our social connections, and yet, all of the models are completely unrealistic in size.  However, instead of feeling trapped by this, I eventually accepted it as "what is" and learned to find my own path between the extremes.

I lost over 25 pounds in my first year and a half on WW, took a few months off (another miscarriage), started back up again, lost a few more pounds, and then got pregnant again.  This one lasted longer than the others (12 weeks), and was much harder.  I ended up taking a 15 month break from WW.  My weight would start to creep up for various reasons, and I would try to do the WW program on my own, but I never could keep it going. I did manage to maintain my weight within a few pounds, which was a big success for me.  

I started up again in January 2003.  Many people have asked me how I became motivated to start again, and the truth is, I don't really know - it just was the right time and I was in the right mindset. The "straw" that made me go back was that my aerobics instructor and mentor was coming back after a long absence, and I decided to get back on program before she returned. Since then, I've lost another 15 pounds and reached my goal (at least for now).  My doctor doesn't want me to lose any more while we are trying to have another child.

For anyone consider WW, I urge you to try it.  Although it can't replace therapy for emotional eating, it is much more support and information about nutrition, positive self-image, and many other areas than I ever imagined.

(P.S. - I am not associated with WW, though I might consider becoming a leader someday).