Tuesday, February 20, 2007

My WW History

I am excited about this new blog as a place to come get some encouragement in my continued battle of the bulge. As an author on this sight I figure I should introduce myself with my WW story.

I joined WW originally in January of 2000, after my beloved mother in law (I do love her-- she is the greatest MIL a fellow could have….that could be a blog post all on it’s own) got started and encouraged me. I had let my weight get up to 226 lbs. and I am only 5-10 and the top of my weight range is 174 lbs. Over the course of the next few months I lost all the weight I wanted to and got down to about 160 lbs. On May 1, 2000 I became a Lifetime WW Member.

I started running during my weight loss, which helped shed the lbs quicker than my WW leader wanted, too bad I thought. I got more and more addicted to running. We had no children and my wife was a teacher and had evening work so I had time for long runs. I did a couple half marathons and signed up for a full marathon. This was a goal I had had for years. I completed the Great Potato Marathon in Boise, ID in 3 hours 52 minutes, my goal was under four hours.

At this point in my life I had no need to count points anymore, logging 40-80 miles a week burned enough calories to afford me to eat as I liked. I feel it is important to note that I did not exist on ho ho’s, Twinkies, Slurpies and Cinnabon, but consistent exercise seems to breed healthier eating habits. It is very cyclical (I like that word) exercising, makes me want to eat healthy, eating healthy gives me what I need to exercise, etc.

I was for the first time in my memory satisfied with my body. I was wearing a size 32 waist (first time since 2nd grade I think), shirts were a medium and larges were too big and most importantly to my moobs (man boobs) were gone.

I will also mention that I taught Weight Watchers at Work for 2 years. I used my wife’s classroom and taught a number of teachers from her school and co-workers of mine.

Five years and two kids later I am back to struggling with my weight. I have gained back about 30 lbs and that is enough thank you very much. I often tease that I gained the weight back during my wife’s two pregnancies, as I could not have her eat cookies all by herself at 9 at night or maybe it was just that there is not time with two kids. I know that the two main contributors are that I quit counting points or even paying attention to the foods I put in my mouth and I struggle to make time for exercise.

A quick note on the not enough time thing… I know that if I am going to exercise regularly I have to make time, I have to make it happen. This for me means I have to get myself out of bed in the morning. I used to be in my office by 5am meaning getting up by 4, I now struggle to get to my office by 7. I used to get up early so I know I can do it I just have to want it bad enough.

So I am I back on WW as of four weeks ago and down 7 lbs. I need to get more on the ball as I should be down about 14 lbs, but I will gladly take the 7.

2 comments:

BandK said...

Hi Jim, Thank you for sharing your wonderful story! You are so smart to do something about your weight while its only a 30 lb. weight loss. Good for you! I have to do non-impact or very low-impact aerobic exercise, so walking is about the only thing I can do -- that or riding a bike. I am trying to figure out a way to incorporate exercise into my routine, and I have no children excuse any more because mine are grown, but its amazing how many excuses I can come up with! "I'm too tired" "It's too dark (late, cold, rainy, etc)" Yikes!!

I'm so excited we've created this community of support! Congrats on your 7 lb. loss and at least you're going in the right direction! That weight will be off before you know it.

rae ann said...

dude... i so wish we lived closer together. back in the day, i was quite a runner. i have high aspirations to be that person again someday very soon. with compnay, long jogs in the rain sound kind of nice.