Weight Watchers Week 3 Recap

OK, maybe I drank that bottle a few weeks back. But I’m using it as my photo today because I am celebrating something. (And because I heartily recommended it!) On my third official Weight Watchers weigh in, I hit my first goal, which is auto-set by the program to be 5 percent of your total starting weight.

I mean, I started out less than 20 pounds overweight, so I know it’s a much smaller and much easier achievement than for those who have much more weight they want to lose. And as happy I am about hitting that 5 percent mark for myself, it did remind me that I’m not exactly in a health crisis and the pounds I want to lose are basically for vanity.

Yes, I’d love to see my cholesterol in the normal range, but I want to go shopping and feel thinner and fitter even more. I just want to be honest with myself about it.

I also came to terms with the fact that though I’m eating a good amount of healthy food, I’m still on a restricted calorie diet. In fact, my points never tally out to more than 1,200 calories a day. No wonder my energy on the treadmill isn’t exactly what it was back three weeks ago when there was more bread in my life.

Last night I went out for sushi with some girlfriends. I requested sushi because of all the various restaurant cuisines listed on Weight Watchers, it’s the easiest to figure out the points and the point values aren’t too high. I was nervous, but in the end I felt better, like it will be possible to eat out with my friends. I was successful at limiting myself to one glass of wine, passing on the fried communal appetizer in favor of seaweed salad, skipping the frozen yogurt portion of the outing.

And afterward, I walked all the way home from Center City. Hey, I had the energy from the rice carbs! These are the kind of actions and choices I should have been making all along.

Anyway, I haven’t set a particularly ambitious goal for myself. I have no illusions that I’m going to be thin–for real, I like to eat. I could have tackled a man I passed on the street for his pizza boxes this afternoon.

I think it’s likely that I’ll reach my modest goal by October. I look forward to shifting to the maintenance phase, at which point I really hope to be able to eat a little more, even if it means balancing it with a lot of exercise.

Whoa this post does not sound celebratory, but I am actually really proud of myself. I’m still pretty astounded that this Weight Watchers voodoo works.  I actually have hope for the first time in ages that I’m going to be able to permanently modify some of my behaviors enough to find a weight I can live with over the long haul.