We Lost Weight and Feel Great!

I begin this post today with a little trepidation because I was warned that if I ever shared about weight loss on my blog, I would get some hard hits and ugly comments. I’m not sure why that would be the case, but I’m confident that anyone who disagrees will do so kindly. =) I’m sharing this personal subject matter because it refreshed my husband and me in helping us feel better, and I thought it could encourage and refresh someone who may be feeling as we did early this summer. How is that? In need of taking off excess pounds.

I mentioned on Monday that my husband and I decided this summer that it was time to take charge of our health. I had a high cholesterol report and we both had felt uncomfortable in our clothes and at the sight of the scale. I’m only 4’9″, so if I gain a few pounds, it looks like a lot more. We had been eating whatever we felt like, and it was beginning to show. But what to do? I had tried before to simply “watch what I eat,” to no avail. After a day or two, I’d give up and cave into my old habits, so I looked around a bit at our options…

1. We could do one of the diets where you order their food, drink their drink and eat strange things like cauliflower everything. While I’m happy for those that are helped by these plans, this option just didn’t work well for our lifestyle. We are with people in many settings that involve food and we didn’t want to have to bring our own meal along just to accommodate a diet.
2. We could bite the bullet and sign up for tried and true Weight Watchers. I checked out their prices and found I could initially get 3 months for around $21. I liked the fact that :

• We could eat “normal” foods.
• Weight Watchers would give us an amount of “points” to follow for weight loss.
• We could track every meal on the WW app, making it super simple.
• We could save up extra points for the times when we would be celebrating with family or friends and going a little off the diet path.
• We could find delicious recipes not only from Weight Watchers but also other sites that tally WW points.
• We would not be hungry because they have a long list of “Zero Point foods” that keep you snacking if you need something to eat.
• The WW app lists tons of restaurants and the points of their menu items, making eating out a simple choice of what we could enjoy and what we needed to avoid.
• The WW app is so easy to use and also encouraging as you use it to track your foods and also weigh in each week.

When I contacted WW to begin, they asked for my height, age, current weight and how much I wanted to lose. My goal was ten pounds; my husband wanted to take off 30. They then gave me my number of points to use each day, along with a list of Zero point foods and access to all the great recipes right on the app.

One benefit of having the app was that I could search for a particular food and see the point value before I indulged. It was amazing to me how high some of our “normal” foods were. Seeing the point value gave me the option of choosing to lighten up a recipe, or even have just a bite of that dessert instead of a whole piece…which, by the way, always satisfied my sweet tooth!

In three month’s time, we had both reach our goals! It came off slowly and wisely and we ate so well we never felt like we were really dieting. Oh sure, we weren’t snacking on tortilla chips at the Mexican restaurant anymore or eating sweets each day, but we had delicious and nourishing foods at every meal. I lost track of how many watermelons I purchased this summer. That was our treat with zero points!

We’re both in maintenance mode and feeling terrific. We’ve really changed the way we eat are thankful for the Weight Watchers plan that made it so easy to get on track! I’m still using the app, just to keep up with our daily points. I think it’s going to help us with the upcoming holidays and all the gatherings and wonderful foods that come with them. Again, it’s not that we won’t be indulging, but we’ll know how much to have and when to replace it with something more healthy. I’ve learned that portion control is also key. You can have that bowl of cheddar popcorn for a nighttime snack, but make it a smaller bowl. As they say, all things in moderation.

I get no kickback from my promotion of Weight Watchers, I just wanted to share it with others who might wonder how to take off unwanted pounds easily. If that’s you, I’d encourage you to at least check it out. They’re always offering start-up deals that are quite reasonable. Since your health is involved, it’s a wise investment.

If you have questions about Weight Watchers, feel free to leave it in the comments!

Some of our favorite Weight Watcher recipes:
Pork Chops with Mustard Sauce
Shepherd’s Pie
Four-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
Smoky Tilapia Tacos

Refresh yourself by taking care of the body God gave you; it’s His temple.