Weight Loss Part 1

Ok…so here is the weight loss post as promised. Well, part one at least…LOL! As I mentioned a few weeks back I was celebrating a year of keeping my weight off. I had lost 50lbs and went from a size 16 to a size 8 from Sept 2008 to March 2009. I wish the answer to how I lost it was simple, but it really isn’t. I don’t actually have a precise answer. All I can do is share what I did to lose the weight and what I think is the reason why I have kept it off.


I’m not sure how many of you know this or not, but I had a hysterectomy in Sept of 2008. A few weeks after my surgery, someone asked me if I had been losing weight. My answer was, “Not that I know of.” Later that night I got on the scale at home to see if I had and I saw that I had lost 18 pounds without even trying. I know…not exactly what you wanted to hear…18lbs WITHOUT EVEN TRYING. Actually, I should say without consciously trying. After my surgery, it took me several weeks to regain my appetite. So…in reality…I had cut back on my food consumption and this had caused my stomach to shrink and decreased my caloric intake.

I also had to change my diet due to some other health issues I had been having. I’m still dealing with these same issues today . I cut out all sodas, candy, and chips for over a year. Foods like pizza, lasagnas, and casseroles…I still do not eat these items. I also cut out most processed foods and fast food items. Now I can’t stand eating at fast food places. I prefer a Caesar Salad over a Burger any day. You are probably thinking, “Well what in the world did you eat then?” Yeah…let’s just say that I only ate because I had to not because I wanted to.

It was at this point where I thought, “Well…I’ve lost 18lbs let’s see how much more weight I can lose.” So…I started Weight Watchers with my next door neighbor. Let me just say that I never thought of this as a diet. I had noticed that Weight Watchers actually had a lot of foods/recipes that I could eat AND make for the whole family. They have some really cool cookbooks!! Weight Watchers is not really a diet at all; it is a lifestyle CHANGE. Weight Watchers taught me about portion sizes, caloric intake needs, and regular exercise. No…they did not pay me to say this…LOL! The thing about Weight Watchers is that you can eat whatever you want but you have to stay within your allotted point range. You learn real quickly what foods to eat and what foods not to eat. For example a small order of fries from McDonalds is 11 points. When you only get 22 points a day, do you really want to allot half of your food points for the day on fries? No way!!! You’ll be starving the rest of the day.

So…the first thing that I did was change my eating habits. Basically, I went to whole food meals and kept track of my portion sizes. Most people do not realize what portion sizes really are and often fulfill their caloric intake for the day in one meal. I wrote down and logged EVERYTHING I ate and drank every day. And here is something that will make you smile; I ate ALL day long. Breakfast...snack…lunch…snack…dinner…snack…AND 6-8 bottles of water a day. The key is to stick with it. I weighed myself once a week. Some weeks I did not lose any weight, others I lost several pounds. The pounds add up and one day it’s like, “Oh my goodness….I’ve lost 20lbs!!!”

I hope this helps. There are two other areas that I will write about shortly, exercise and maintenance. This first post is just a teaser as I have to head to bed; big day tomorrow…surgery #2.

Btw…an awesome website that is FREE and is similar to Weight Watchers is www.sparkpeople.com. This program is very comparable to Weight Watchers and there are no fees to use it; a great place to start researching while I am recouping and writing the next post.


Also...below is a picture of my face close to when I was at my heaviest.  I weighed about 20 lbs more when I was at my heaviest than what you see in this picture.  It may look familiar to some of you as it is also on my Facebook page.