Brandice Says

My Weight Loss

In the past years, I’ve been answering a lot of the same questions over and over again about my weight loss, how I’ve done it, and what WeightWatchers is all about. This is now officially my catch-all post for the following:

• People who are thinking of joining WeightWatchers (WW)
• People who have just joined WW and would like tips from an existing member
• People who think they “aren’t runners.”
• People who simply want to know about my weight loss journey

My journey in bullet points:

• February 1st, 2010: Joined WW with an official starting weight of 214 lbs. First weigh-in revealed over 7 pounds lost in 1 week.
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• March, 2010: Started the Couch-to-5K program. Never been into fitness in my entire life. Started off just running 30 seconds at a time. Earned my 10% keychain at WeightWatchers.
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• Spring and Summer 2010: Ran my first ever 5K race, following by a second 5K, and a 2-mile. Replaced my entire wardrobe over the course of the summer. Bought a bike and started riding. Also joined a gym.
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• September 2010: Ran a 10K portion of the Akron Marathon. Surpassed 50 pounds of weight loss and kept going.
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• December 2010: Fit into size 8 pants (from a size 16 when I started), weight within normal healthy range, new wardrobe and resized wedding rings obtained.
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• January 2011: Less than 15 pounds from goal weight, signed up for half marathon in May, nearly 70 pounds lost in a year.
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• May 2011: Ran the Cleveland Half Marathon in about 3 hours and hit the 75 pound milestone. Almost at my 80 pound goal, wearing dresses, and still going strong!
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• September 2011: I hit my goal weight, for a total weight loss of 80 lbs! I also got updated body measurements! Now I’m just trying to maintain that healthy weight and keep up with a healthy lifestyle. :)

Reasons this has worked when everything else has failed:

• WeightWatchers is EASY and worth it. It’s so flabbergastingly simple.
• Dieting is temporary and never works. WW is not dieting. I hope to be going to my Monday night WW meeting at 6 pm five years from now.
• Healthy eating AND exercise long term = success. Period. I’ve done each without the other and it does NOT work. Not like this past year has worked for me.
• Staying active takes a lot of energy, but gives me a ton of energy. I feel more energetic AFTER a run than I ever did during my couch lounging days.
• I have friends who are doing this with me, both from a distance and locally. These people hold me accountable and also count on me to be a good example and hold them accountable. This has been crucial.
• I talk very openly about my weight loss journey. It keeps me accountable to everyone, and makes giving up a very public thing that I don’t want to do.

If you’re considering WeightWatchers:

• Feel free to come to a meeting with me sometime and check it out. I go on Mondays at 6 pm in Canton. 
• Yes, it is worth the monthly cost. I do the unlimited monthly pass and it’s worth every penny. I haven’t missed a single weekly meeting, and the meetings are important. Find a GOOD meeting.
• The basic idea of WW is that you have a certain # of points each day to spend on food. You also get a weekly allowance to spend above and beyond that for splurge nights, etc. The points are calculated based on nutritional info.
• I am not going to be able to tell you how many points YOU would get in a day, and no, I am not going to sit down and tell you the point values for all your daily foods. You memorize your daily food values very quickly, and you don’t need to worry about those things before you’ve even taken the first step and joined. Once you’ve joined, you will be given all the tools you’ll ever need.
• I am NEVER left feeling unsatisfied at the end of a day in terms of food. With most vegetables and all fruits being zero points, there is always something I can eat even after my points are all gone if I’m truly hungry or just want a snack.
• WW has me eating more fruits and vegetables now simply because I’m rewarded for doing so through the plan, and this has very sneakily guided me gently into a healthier way of eating that still allows me to have ice cream when I want it, pizza when I want it, and I never feel deprived, which leaves me feeling like I can stay on this path long term.
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If you’re considering running:

• You should know that I never ran a step prior to starting the Couch-to-5k program. I was a completely sedentary person. Even when I was a skinny gal in grade school and high school, I failed the mile run in gym every single year.
• My first 30 min workout of the program (which is 30 seconds of running following by 90 seconds of walking, repeating) including no small amount of actual crying, some dry heaves, desperately wiping dirty snow on myself due to overheating even in winter, and then collapsing in a snow drift in my front yard until my husband came outside to see what our dogs were barking at in the front window. I simply did it three times each week until I was running a 5k on Memorial Day and it really did just keep getting easier.
• The runner’s high is totally real, and totally worth it.
• There’s never a bad time to start. I started in winter, and it remains my favorite season for running. I hate being overheated and drenched in sweat, so 30 degree weather is my favorite time to be outside and moving.
• There are few things that have given me more of a rush than a race. The crowds on the sidelines cheering you on are AMAZING, and crossing the finish line is just… yeah. It’s freaking awesome.
• Not really wanting to push yourself to non-stop running? I’m doing my 2011 half marathon training using the Galloway method, which includes scheduled walking periods, allowing for easier recovery, less pain, and personally, I feel like I’m much more in control. I LOVE running this way.
• I absolutely love RunKeeper. There’s an app for Android and iPhone, tracks your activity using GPS (manual input also an option) and keeps a running tab of your stats (distance, pace, elevation, course map, etc). There are also training classes, like the one I’m using for the half marathon training. Great site, great service.

If you’ve just joined and are brand new to WeightWatchers:

• Always, always, always track everything. Took one bite of someone’s food? TRACK IT. Blew it and you’re pretty sure you’re over your allotted points? Sit down and track it, because you’ll either be forcing yourself to truly face the music or you’ll find out you did better than you thought you did. Be aware of every single thing you put in your mouth.
• Measure everything. Portion sizes are key, and no matter how skilled you are, you will not always grab the right number of Pringles or an exact tablespoon of low-fat peanut butter. The only way you can continue to eat some of your favorite foods is if you do it in a measurable, controlled way, with an awareness of what you’re putting in your mouth.
• You can STILL EAT your favorite foods, and you probably don’t even know what all of them are yet. I thought I would miss cheese and Doritos, but as it turns out, I would much rather spend my valuable points on peanut butter and ice cream when I want treats. You don’t have to change everything you eat, and if you don’t like the lower fat or lower sugar versions of your favorite foods, then just eat smaller portions of them and compensate with some fruit or your favorite veggie.
• Start moving, even if you’re not into running. Find some kind of cardio and do as often as possible, at least a few times per week. The weight comes off a bazillion times more easily when you combine healthy food AND exercise. I’ve done one or the other and failed every time. I’ve also noticed that people who stay active and fit through the process tend to have a lot less excess skin and sagging after they’ve lost more significant amounts of weight. That’s definitely been true for me compared to past weight loss efforts.
• Eat your weekly points (the splurge points). Eat them all, and ENJOY them, because the people who use them are more likely to stay on plan and be happy on plan. Deprivation is just a recipe for resentment and failure. WW is not a diet; it’s a lifestyle, and you need to do WW in a way that is sustainable for the rest of your life. Do NOT skip eating your daily points.
• Find a friend who can support you along the way and go to meetings with you. It makes a world of difference to have a bit of solidarity along the way, and you need to be accountable to someone other than yourself in order to succeed, whether it’s your WW leader or the friends in your life who should be cheering you on (and calling you out when you drop the ball).
• Don’t eat all of your activity points unless you really need to, and assume that WW is probably *over*estimating what you’ve earned. If you eat everything you’ve burned off in exercise it will slow your weight loss down (and possibly derail you if you’re inadvertently eating more than you’re burning). Going to the gym and then having pizza with the activity points you think you’ve earned is NOT going to result in steady weight loss.

You can also click here to see a continually updated list of my favorite foods and my ongoing fitness schedule. Keep in mind that this is what is currently working for me, and your staple foods might be very different, but hopefully a snapshot at what I’m doing these days will be helpful. :)