New Year, Old Me, But In a Good Way

Last fall, several women I work with decided to start a Weight Watchers group at the hospital. Moving to a more car-centric city, having a more sedentary job, getting married and eating catered lunches at least twice a week had taken their toll, and I wanted to join with these women in losing weight. My whole thing was that, as I have aged, the weight has crept up and been harder to get rid of. I didn't want to wake up on my 50th birthday and go, "Oh, crap! I'm 30 pounds overweight!" Also, I needed to reign in my portion sizes and reset my thinking as far as food choices in general. So I mentioned to some of the women who were in the group that I'd like to be a part of the program.

You know what? They were actually quite snotty to me when I mentioned it. "You're so skinny!" "Why do you want to lose weight?" Those were the things that were said to my face. The words weren't defensive, but the tone and the body language said it all: We don't want you here!! I'm aware that they were less-kind behind my back.

Well, fortunately, the majority of them have done very well during the first twelve weeks of the Weight Watchers program, and weren't as territorial when I asked if I could join them when they started up again in January.

At first, I thought that I would be stubborn and keep eating the way that I had been eating. After all, I thought, I'm not really doing that badly. I know how to eat healthily, and Rowdy and I cook sensibly. However, once I started counting points and keeping track of my intake, I realized how out of control my portion sizes had been, how much I was really eating at those lunches, and how much I was grazing at work.

Today was my third weigh in, and I have lost 5.8 pounds!! Yay! I haven't felt deprived at all. I've gotten a better sense of what a reasonable portion size is and have been more deliberate in my food choices. My clothes fit comfortably again, and I think that I look younger. Actually, I look younger because I look like I did three years ago, the last time I was at this weight.

Along with eating more healthily, I have also been exercising three times a week. I have wanted to get back into running, but my snail-like pace has always made it discouraging and difficult to maintain. My parents gave me a nice Amazon gift certificate for Christmas, and with it I bought new running shoes; a runner's journal; and Run Less, Run Faster, by Bill Pierce, Scott Murr and Ray Moss.

Run Less, Run Faster is a program developed by three exercise physiologists at Furman University. Their plan is also called "3plus2", meaning that you do three quality runs during the week, interspersed with two aerobic cross-training workouts. Since I hadn't been running regularly, I started with their beginner program, in which you combine walking and running for twelve weeks, gradually increasing the running intervals and decreasing the walking intervals.

I have to say that I feel like I'm not shuffling as much when I run. The GPS watch Rowdy gave me for Christmas has been a great tool in my training. Instead of my usual 12-minute-miles, I am running usually 9:30 miles comfortably. And it feels much easier to keep up with. I start with 10 minutes of walking, so even when I kind of don't feel like running, I do feel like walking. After that, I'm ready and even excited to run.

So, yeah, I totally recommend Weight Watchers to anyone who wants to lose any amount of weight. And I recommend the "3plus2" if you're wanting to get back to running or increase speed.

And I'm back to being me!!!