Hi. Welcome to my blog. I decided to start this blog as a record of the steps I have taken that have led me, a 57 year old, formerly overweight woman to a new and exciting life. On a recent television show I heard a doctor say that when a person loses a considerable amount of weight life just 'cracks open'. This struck me as a pretty powerful metaphor and it has certainly been the case for me.
In 2007 I decided to return to Weight Watchers to lose some weight. I had been a lifetime member since 1978 when I first lost 25 pounds on their program. I became a leader at that time too. I like to tell people that I was 12 at the time but in reality I was 23. I've struggled with my weight and self image all my life. Unfortunately I was unable to maintain my weight loss and they fired me! In my desperation to keep my weight down I developed an eating disorder. Needless to say, I had a number of reservations about returning to Weight Watchers because of all the negative connotations it brought to mind even years later, but I had friends who had been successful and I decided it was worth checking out again. This time I had even more weight to lose; somewhere in the vicinity of 50 pounds, I figured.
Upon meeting the leader of the meeting for the first time I was convinced that her 25 pound weight loss was insignificant. I remember thinking "Yeah, right, Lady. That's like equivalent to my right thigh!" People in the meeting were talking about heating frozen entrees for their meals and baking things from mixes. I had been a pastry chef at one time and considered Julia Child to be my personal cooking mentor long before The "Julie & Julia" blog/book/film ever came out. I also found myself thinking "What's wrong with these people? Don't they know how to cook? No wonder they're overweight!" I was cynical and nasty and did not want to be there. I felt for sure it would never work.
Despite all the cynicism and misgivings (I felt a lot better after I found out you could still drink alcohol) I went home vowing to give it a fair shot. I lost five pounds the first week, five more the second, three the week after that - and then I had an unexplained gain, which was nearly enough to make me want to pack it in there and then. But I didn't. I forced myself to stay for the meeting and stick with it and the weight came off the following week.
It would be nice to say that it all went smoothly and that the weight came off easily and quickly. But that would not be true. I remember thinking, at that first meeting when I looked at my suggested weight on the BMI chart, that to reach the suggested goal weight for my height it would take two years. Guess what? It did.
I kept a journal of this two year long sojourn and in the next few posts I will share some excerpts.
Next up: Getting fit.
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