Week 7

To start: I have a very normal, very private and very boring blog. This shall be blog number 2. Hopefully it will not be as boring as blog number 1, but so far I'd say I'm not off to a very good start.

Why a second blog? Because I want to have a place to track the progress (for better or for worse) of my goal to live healthy. I started Weight Watchers 7 weeks ago and it's time to blog about it, baby! Or at least it's time to make very lame/slightly strange comments that amuse and delight.

In the past 7 weeks I have lost 15.6 pounds. I feel pretty good about that number, as I am very close to my goal of losing 8 pounds a month. The last month was hard, as I was in tech week, it was Dan's birthday, my own birthday, Dan's parent's came to town, my parent's came to town, Dan's brother came to town and my good friend Cassie came to town. Somehow I survived it without having a huge train wreck. So now I'm hoping that as life eases up on me (and inevitably gets extremely busy again) that I'll be able to cope.

I've joined Weight Watchers several times in my past, the very first time being in 9th grade. The first time I lost any amount of weight I was too young and too full of drama to keep it off. The second time I lost weight I actually made it to my goal and held there for a year. There were several factors to my gaining it all back. My mom passed away at the end of that year and my coping mechanism became food. She was also my weight loss partner, so joining without her was extremely hard. I also had some not so nice run ins with various aunts and uncles who managed to make me feel extremely guilty over her death while also making it quite clear that the weight I'd lost made me look so much like her. There were various other reasons (a mean boyfriend, college, being in theatre, etc), but I want to stop with the excuses now and just say this. It was a hard time mentally and physically. I'm trying to get over it.

So what is different in my life now? For the first time in a very long time, I feel very put together. I am dating a man who supports my decisions, who doesn't care that I am heavy, but is 100% supportive in my weight loss goals. He has literally changed his eating and exercise habits to accomodate mine (or at least to support mine). Having a continuously supportive friend who sees how important this goal is to me has been really helpful thus far. He never makes me feel ridiculous when I stop to write in my weekly tracker or feel the need to discuss the grocery list with him 500 times a week. He is awesome.

I also have a very dear friend who is going to Weight Watchers with me! She is the first real partner I've had at Weight Watchers in the city and her own success and support has been so motivational for me! I love that I can call her up to discuss where I've eaten out, how much I've exercised, and that we have a weekly check in at the meetings. I also feel really good that I am supporting someone else. There is a lot of motivation in accountability, whether it is to the scale or another person.

Finally, it has been really helpful to me that my Dad has also started Weight Watchers. My dad is buff, tough and takes weight loss very seriously. It's fun to check in with each other over the phone and know that I have support even out of the state. It's also helpful to keep in mind that there will be another calorie obsessed person at our Thanksgiving and that each time I get to see him, he will hopefully be seeing a "thinner" me.

I have weigh in number 9 tomorrow night and I am slightly dreading the scale. I was able to follow my exercise plan (30 minutes 30 days a month) on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Monday and I went swimming on Sunday afternoon. Since it was the first weekend where I actually had some down time, I think I snacked a little more than normal. I stayed within my points and didn't go over my weekly points allowance, but I still feel a little nervous (for whatever reason).

Also, if anyone is interested, here are the goals I am currently tracking:

30 minutes 30 days a month - August
45 minutes 30 days a month - September
60 minutes 30 days a month - October

30 pounds by Disney World (October 8th)
50 pounds by Christmas (December 25th)