Disclaimer: I was offered a three-month trial to participate in Weight Watchers.  I was given the choice to join online or in person.  I chose IN PERSON, however the Weight Watchers E-Tools were not included in this trial, so I purchased the E-Tools with my own money.  I have participated in Weight Watchers before and would only recommend brands and products I personally believe in.

It has been a few years since I did Weight Watchers.  After having my daughter, I lost about 40 pounds, ran a marathon six months post-partum and I felt amazing.  Somewhere along the line, I let some negativity creep in and I lost my motivation.  I am not even sure how it all happened now.  All I know is that I stopped giving myself the attention I know I deserve.

Years later, I am working my way back to getting fit.  I have been running on the treadmill and doing about 20 miles a week.  I’ve been doing interval training, which consists of a quarter mile of running all out and alternating with a quarter mile of walking at a 6.0 incline.  I’ve noticed that my endurance has improved tremendously and so has my confidence.  I keep my 5 and 8 pound dumbbells near the treadmill.  I do several sets of dumbbell work during the walking part of my workout, including shoulder presses, bicep curls, triceps extension, hammer curls and lateral raises.  I have been really sore, but I am noticing tiny little changes in my arms.  It makes me feel strong!

This is my treadmill and Surf Shelf.  I’ve made this my own little corner.  I’ve been consistent with my exercise and I’m completely addicted to Drop Dead Diva.  I’ve been watching it when I’m on the treadmill. You can see my smaller hand weights on the right and my large water on the left.  Heart rate monitor is up at the top, with my Yurbuds headphones, pedometer and Garmin.

I have completed two weeks with Weight Watchers now.  The first week, I lost 2.8 pounds.  I haven’t OFFICIALLY weighed in this week, nevertheless, according to my home scale, I am down another 2.5 pounds since my weigh-in on Saturday.  I am moving down the scale!

I got to thinking about it and I really put too much pressure on myself to lose a bunch of weight all at once.  Cognitively, I know how unhealthy that is.  Cognitively, I know it isn’t realistic.  I know I get frustrated when I don’t meet the unrealistic goals I set for myself.  I get frustrated.  I feel bad.  I go off-plan.  This time around, I’m working hard to not do the unhealthy rituals that I’ve done in the past.  There won’t be any of this wearing the most lightweight outfit I have.  There won’t be any skimping on water.  There won’t be any pressure to lose any more than a pound a week.

A pound a week.  In one year, I could lose 52 pounds.  Why do I pressure myself to do more than that?  So far, I’m ahead on the plan.  That’s all gravy.  I mean—-how can I complain about losing 1 pound a week?  In 20 weeks, I’m down 20 pounds.  How awesome is that.  It’s time to get more healthy first.  Worry about the scale later.

I am losing the new Weight Watchers 360 plan.  I am finding it really simple to make good choices, especially since there are so many more ZERO POINT foods to choose from that are healthy, healthy, healthy choices.  I found a really great meeting to attend.  It isn’t the closest center to me.  The thing is, when I went in, I saw people I knew from real life.  It was fun to attend the meeting with others I knew and it helped keep me honest last week, because I didn’t want to fail in front of people I knew. 

This is my exercise tracker for last Thursday.  Yes, I spent two hours on the treadmill.  Did I mention I am addicted to Drop Dead Diva?  That’s two episodes!

I am really enjoying the E-Tools.  I don’t think I could do the IN PERSON Weight Watchers without these!  I take my phone everywhere and for me, gone are the days of carrying pieces of paper around (that I can lose), when it’s so easy to whip out my phone and track what I’ve eaten.   When you sign up for the monthly pass, these fabulous tools are included, however, I am “paying” weekly.  In the future, I intend to do the monthly plan because it is such a cohesive package.  I’m completely loving it!  The barcode scanner makes it so easy to scan MOST foods.  The weight tracker gives you pretty graphs to see your progress in full perspective.  The recipe builder, the articles, EVERYTHING.  I am sure one could be successful with meetings alone, however, I feel so supported with the whole comprehensive package, all put together.

This is my food tracker for Monday, when we had tilapia fish tacos.  They weren’t breaded, but this was as close as I could come to what we were having. They were super delish!

I am off to my Weight Watchers meeting and I cannot wait to find out how much I’ve lost since my last meeting.  Who knew weight loss could be so much fun?

Disclaimer: People following the Weight Watchers plan can expect to lose 1-2 pounds per week.