Taking the plunge! - Comments welcome :) -- 8/8 update

[AshleyW]

Hi everyone! I'm new to the WISH boards. But, I just took the plunge and signed up for Weight Watchers online!

I had a "come to Jesus" meeting with myself over the weekend after going clothes shopping - ugh. So, now I'm bound & determined to drop some pounds!

A little about me: I'm 23 years old & engaged to a great guy. We're hoping to get married fall 2012 while on a cruise. Here we are last December:

And us in high school, when we first started dating - about 80lbs ago for me... You'll have to excuse the blurriness, it's a 9 year old picture and I think was probably taken on a disposable. But THIS picture is my motivation - I want that skinny face back, darn it!!

Um... oh yeah, back to the "about me" thing! My parents live in Clearwater, Florida as of about a year and a half ago. My younger brother also lives down there with his girlfriend, and they're currently expecting my first niece or nephew! They're hopefully finding out August 5th if it's a boy or girl. I'm going to school right now for nursing - which is part of the reason I want to get healthier. No one wants a fat nurse.

I work full time and also go to school full time, so I [unfortunately] don't have a lot of free time for exercise. I'm hoping that I can lose some weight with Weight Watchers, and hopefully squeeze in some time to play tennis with DF or take some walks around the neighborhood. We also have a vegetable garden, and I normally spend about an hour there in the weekend pulling weeds and getting nice and sweaty.

So. How about some goals, eh?

Starting weight: 196
7/31 weigh-in: 193
8/7 weigh-in: 192
Pounds lost to date: 4!
Goal weight: 120

WW Points allowed per day: 25
Extra points per week: 35

Activity goal: Gardening 1 hour per week, tennis 1 hour per week, walking 1 hour per week -- I'm figuring this averages out to 30 mins/day for 6 days/week.

I'm not sure how this journal will pan out.. I'm looking for some encouragement and motivation, and I'll hopefully update every Saturday when I weigh in, plus post any questions or observations I come up with.

If you've made it this far.. THANK YOU.

 

[wendy1974]

I think that's great! You can achieve any goal you set your mind to and don't let any little setbacks get in your way. Find someone who will be supportive in your goal and help to keep you on track. And definitely try new things when it comes to exercise. I've always found things like yoga or spin classes to be very good. Throwing some new things in to your routine can make a big difference.

 

[redlight]

Good luck to you, Ashley!

 

[AshleyW]

I think that's great! You can achieve any goal you set your mind to and don't let any little setbacks get in your way. Find someone who will be supportive in your goal and help to keep you on track. And definitely try new things when it comes to exercise. I've always found things like yoga or spin classes to be very good. Throwing some new things in to your routine can make a big difference.

Good luck to you, Ashley!

Thanks, guys! Zac (the fiance) has been really supportive already, asking me every time I eat something - "how many points is that?" It definitely makes it easier to feel like people are supporting you!



Yesterday was the first day of WW and I think it went pretty good. I had 1 point left at the end of the day, and felt pretty satisfied most of the day.

Today, however, is starting off on a bad foot. For breakfast, I made a 6 point breakfast sandwich, which I thought was pretty good. I got to work and remembered you're supposed to have 3 servings of milk products per day, and I'm pretty bad about drinking milk at home - so I thought I'd get one of the little bottles of milk out of the vending machine at work to sip on throughout the morning. So I got it, started drinking - and then thought to calculate the points. SIX points for a little 12oz bottle of milk.

So, it's 8:30, and I've already consumed 12 of my 25 points. Luckily the lunch I brought is only 6 points, but still - this could make for a looong day. At least it's a good reminder to check points BEFORE I eat - and I think it's easier now for me to see why I'm in the mess I'm in... little things that add up, like drinking chocolate milk instead of white skim milk!

 

[hellokitty86]

Good luck from another Ashley. I've recently started working out too. I lost about 10 pounds and then had a sudden death in the family (my Grandfather) which kind of threw me for a loop and our nightly workout sessions went down the drain. I've fallen off track some but luckily haven't gained the weight back. I have hypothyrodism which makes it a little bit harder for me to lose weight. I was doing 2 1/2 miles of walking/jogging 5 nights a week.

We are moving in 3 weeks where there is a very nice gym and I can't wait to get back on track. We can do this together.

 

[AshleyW]

Good luck from another Ashley. I've recently started working out too. I lost about 10 pounds and then had a sudden death in the family (my Grandfather) which kind of threw me for a loop and our nightly workout sessions went down the drain. I've fallen off track some but luckily haven't gained the weight back. I have hypothyrodism which makes it a little bit harder for me to lose weight. I was doing 2 1/2 miles of walking/jogging 5 nights a week.

We are moving in 3 weeks where there is a very nice gym and I can't wait to get back on track. We can do this together.

Yay, another Ashley! There's so many of us!

I'm sorry to hear about your grandfather. My grandpa passed away about 3 years ago, and that's what did me in, weight-wise. Between all the emotional eating and moving in with my grandma temporarily & eating her emotional cooking, I gained like 50 lbs. I've been stuck here for about 2 1/2 years now.

Congrats on the 10lbs, though! That's awesome! Did you change your eating at all, or is that just from the walking/jogging? You'll have to stop back and let me know how it goes once you get to start using the gym!

 

[hellokitty86]

I didn't follow a strict diet although I am very interested in doing WW. I wouldn't eat at all after dinner (hard for me because I like to snack at night in front of the TV). I cut down on my soda and only had 1 can a day (need to get better at this again- I'm up to 2 a day now).

I kept track of my calories by using the Spark People app (it's called the Diet & Food tracker by SparkPeople and its free!) on my phone. I was eating about 1250-1300 calories a day. I think I would probably be more full/satisfied if I followed WW!

 

[AshleyW]

Okay, first week weigh-in update... I LOST 3 LBS!!! I'm so excited! I think this meals it a little more 'real' - I'm FINALLY going to lose weight, as long as I stick with it! Hooray!

 

[redlight]

You're off to a great start!

 

[joyfulDisneytears]

Woohoo! 3 lbs down!

Sorry to hear about your grandpa. I just lost a grandmother in February and it sure did bring out a whole lot of pettiness and drama in my family, when it should have been about remembering the life of our loved one! Definitely part of the reason I gained a lot of weight back this year, emotional eating and whatnot.

Subbing, let's be weight loss buds!

Are you just weighing weekly for WW, or getting on the scale more often? I'm trying to decide which is best for me...I had a lot of success before weighing daily, but it sort of seemed like overkill.

 

[AshleyW]

Woohoo! 3 lbs down!

Sorry to hear about your grandpa. I just lost a grandmother in February and it sure did bring out a whole lot of pettiness and drama in my family, when it should have been about remembering the life of our loved one! Definitely part of the reason I gained a lot of weight back this year, emotional eating and whatnot.

Subbing, let's be weight loss buds!

Are you just weighing weekly for WW, or getting on the scale more often? I'm trying to decide which is best for me...I had a lot of success before weighing daily, but it sort of seemed like overkill.

Sorry about your grandma - it really stinks, doesn't it?

I'm just weighing weekly for WW. I'm just doing the online program and not going to the meetings, though. So it's REALLY hard for me not to just jump on the scale whenever I'm in the bathroom, but so far I've made it - although I did weigh myself about 4x on Saturday just to make sure that I actually lost 3lbs. I've tried weighing myself daily, but I found out that my weight can fluctuate by about a pound, so I'd weigh myself one day and be at a low weight, then the next day be a pound heavier, and I'd beat myself up over it too much.

And weight loss buds, for sure! All my friends offline are super thin, so it's nice to have people online to talk with about this kind of stuff!

 

[AshleyW]

Okay, mini update time - I lost 1 lb last week! Long story short, my parents are in town from Florida, so I've been busy with them all week and going out to eat a LOT. But, given the circumstances, I'm impressed I still lost a pound.

Now off to work, then school, then more work... so hopefully I'll get around to a longer update later!