Finally, A Breakthrough! WI #12

Before I get into my breakthrough, here's a brief update since my last post:

• Weigh In 7: - 0.6 lbs
• Weigh In 8: -1 lb
• Weigh In 9: -1 lb
• Weigh In 10: +3 lbs
• Weigh In 11: -3.6 lbs

So my total weight loss at 11 weeks was 11.2 lbs. As of the end of July, I was down an additional 3.5 inches in my waist, 2.5 inches in my hips, and 1.5 inches in my bust. No loss of inches in arms and legs.

Now, onto my breakthrough! Last week I decided to switch from the PointsPlus plan to the Simply Filling plan. I had thought about doing it before, but didn't because I felt it was too restricting. With Simply Filling, you don't get daily points. You eat what's on the Power Foods list (mainly fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy, nothing processed) and anything not on the list comes out of your weekly and activity points. Well, I decided to finally give it a shot. I felt like I was over-eating most of the time trying to get all my daily points in. I would be half way done with my dinner, feel full, and keep eating because I wouldn't get all my points in if I didn't. I would feel uncomfortably full when I was through. That didn't make sense to me. I thought I was suppose to be developing good eating habits?

Second reason for the switch: I was not feeling like I was getting the success I should have been. My average weekly weight loss was less then a half a pound a week. Headed in the right direction, but that would only equal 26 pounds lost per year and would take me over 6 years to lose the weight that I need to lose. Something is wrong with that. I would see many friends on the Weight Watchers website losing more weight then I was each week. They were rarely losing less then a pound each week. I was happy for them, but wondering what was wrong with me. Then one night, a seasoned veteran having much success mentioned to another person that there is a small percentage of people who join Weight Watchers whose points are too high. That got the wheels turning in my head, was I one of those in the small percentage? Maybe.

Listening to everyone on the WW website talk about their issues with weight loss and what led them to their weight gain made me realize some things. I had no problem staying in my daily allotted points, I didn't have huge binge eating days, and some other things I can't remember at the moment...lol. This helped my realize that the Simply Filling plan may be the way to go. I didn't really need to worry about over-eating if I stopped measuring my food. My problem was eating the junk food at night after my children went to bed, and since starting WW, that has not been a problem either. The Simply Filling plan would still help me keep my junk food junkie habits in check, plus I could stop eating when I was satisfied instead of over-stuffing myself and feeling uncomfortable to get in all my points. Made sense to me!

Last Friday I started on the new plan. I went ahead and measured and tracked what I ate so I could find out how many points I would be using if I was on the PointsPlus plan. Guess what? I was eating less points and not feeling hungry! To top it off, my weight dropped dramatically. I couldn't believe it! Now, I'm not sure if this is just because I had made a big change, and next week I'll go back to losing tiny amounts again, but I have my fingers crossed that I won't :) Want to know how much I lost? 6 pounds! My official weigh in this morning: 297.4! I've now lost over 5% of my starting weight, and I'm out of the 300s! Can you tell I'm excited!?!

So I know that 2 pounds a week is a healthy weight loss, and consistently losing 6 pounds a week is not. But losing 6 pounds in one week every now and then is ok. I'm not trying to kill myself, I'm eating a perfectly healthy diet and exercising. I'm working on using my Walk Away the Pounds dvd 6 days a week. It's 20-30 minutes of walking per day. I'm doing 20 minutes of Pilates 3 days a week. That's it, not killing myself of the exercise either. I'm happy with the change so far. I feel like I'm listening to my body, and my body is responding. It feels good :) It also feels so good to hear "two hundred" instead of "three hundred" when I say my weight :)

Beginning Weight: 314.6
Week 12 Weight: 297.4
Total Weight Lost: 17.2 pounds

Note: It may look like my average weekly loss was 1 pound, but remember I lost 6.2 pounds the first week. It took me 10 weeks to lost the next 5 pounds. That's why my weekly average was less then a half a pound.