My old weight watchers stuff circa 1990s to today
My skinny mother called the other day to tell me she gained about 10 pounds, and the doctor recommended that she start walking and cutting her calories. She said she'd like to start weight watchers. I give her a big one for starting NOW rather than 100 pounds in, like I did. Obviously, she can't become a member to just lose 10, so she asked if I could get her some info so she could do it on her own.
I looked through my diet materials stash and found all my old weight watchers booklettes, member books, and points trackers. I couldn't help but look through all the books... to the past 3 times I've tried and given up. Some things brought back bad memories, but some things give me hope.
The first thing I looked at was my member book from the last time I did weight watchers. According to this book, I did it for 10 weeks, and within that 10 weeks I gained 2 pounds. YIKES. I thought back to how FRUSTRATED I was and how I cried after everyother meeting.
I found a little notebook with grocery and goal lists, etc:
- stay on program no matter what
- walk to the end of the block and back at least once a day
- get to the gym once a week
- continute with set goals
Well, I didn't stay on program after 10 weeks. I do walk to class instead of walk, which is 4 times a week, which can pretty much check off the second item. I don't go to the gym once a week because I don't belong to a gym anymore. Not too bad, I guess. Then I found this: "What I've Accomplished So Far"
- Fat free milk cheese instead of 1 or 2%
- More soy, less red meat
- frozen yogurt or ice pops instead of ice cream
- less eating out, more cooking at home
- eating a "real breakfast" (not just poptarts)
I pretty much still do all these things and it's been more than 2 years. I still eat out pretty often, but not nearly as much as I used to, but that was more for finanial reasons. Still, there are a lot of lifestyle changes going on there. Here is the 3rd thing was was in the little book: "Longer-Term Goals"
- add activity to daily lifestyle
- get smaller meal plan at school
- track more than just weight (clothes sizes, waist inches, mood)
- keep journaling
- find other things besides snacking when stressed about studying
I havn't really done the first one. I don't go to the gym everyday or schedule in walking in the morning or anything, but as I said, I started walking more to class which is a start. I DID get a smaller meal plan at school... the next year I got the second smallest and this year I got the very smallest meal plan (so I don't eat crappy cafateria food every day). Next year I'll graduate so I won't even have to eat there anymore! Yay! The 3rd one I definately do track my sizes and inches regularly now, although I don't track my mood. The 4th... well, I'm here arnt I?! The last item I have been struggling with BIG TIME this past week or two. I'm basically just riding out the wave because this is a time that is SOOOOO stressful it's so hard to stay focused, but I'm still going.
There was one other thing that I noticed while looking through my old WW stuff. The points trackers. I was shicked when I realized the first week I'd be perfect and then after that my trackers were rather BARE. Like, I'd only track half the week and there were days were I didn't finish writing my points or just didn't track AT ALL. Absolutely every time I did WW it was like this. I'm so GLAD I kept these!
So, now is the time to make new lists. This post is so long, I think I will save these lists for later. Good reflection day, but I really should be studying. Just one more weekend left, and I'll be a graduate!