Weight Watchers - first meeting

Well, today was my first official Weight Watchers meeting. Pretty much, the meeting consisted of getting weighed (eeks!) and having the leader explain the program to us. Boy have I dreaded the weigh-in part, but I guess it's a necessary evil. I was surprised that I weigh somewhat less than I thought I did ~ but the sad fact remains that I am somewhere between 65-73 pounds overweight. Next week, part of the meeting will be learning what our appropriate weight should be - not heavy, not scrawny, but healthy. And from that, a target weight will be decided on - how much I want to weigh when this is all over with. I'm thinking it will take me longer than one 17-week session, to lose 60+ pounds, haha - it took me nearly a year to lose the 30 pounds I lost well over a year ago (and, as previously mentioned in a prior post, it took less than a year to gain every bit of it back!). But, of course, it's not a "competition" -- the idea is to learn to be HEALTHY and balanced.

As you may (or may not) know, the basic premis of the plan is that based on a variety of factors, you are assigned a certain number of "points" for each day. For example, I can eat 27 points worth of food each day. Each food you eat is worth a certain amount of points. For example, the instant oatmeal I had this morning is worth three points per packet. (I had two, so that's six of my 27 used up right there.) Eight ounces of soda, likewise, is 2 points. It adds up pretty quick, really. They told us never to eat less than our alloted number of points (guess they don't want us all becoming anorexic). The idea is to become aware of everything we're eating, keep track of it, and make healthier eating choices. (Yuck!) I can have chocolate and such - but of course, in limited quantities.. it's all about balance. The big thing for me will be giving up sodas... I lost so much weight a couple years ago by simply giving up sodas and not eating a lot of bread. I HATE water, absolutely HATE it... but will have to force myself to drink it more. Soda is to me, what cigarettes are to a smoker - I'm totally addicted to it and HATE to drink water, which has no flavor. blech! (And I can't stand diet sodas, either - have tried to make myself like them, and just can't - ewww, ick!)

On the bright side -- having lost 30 or so pounds "by myself" with no actual plan to follow a couple years ago, I know I can do it again this time around, what with having group support/accountability and with actual "guidelines" to follow. I'm a "gotta have a written plan & rules & guidelines" kinda person, so I'm thinking this should work well. My first full official day of being a "loser" (weight-wise, that is!) is tomorrow.

I came up with the semi-brilliant (or un-brilliant!) idea of posting a pic of me about once a month to hopefully monitor my progress as we go along. The most recent pictures I have available is from when hubby and I visited our adopted Georgia soldier at the end of November - pics can be seen by clicking HERE. Blech - I can hardly stand to look at myself in those pictures, especially that first one... ick! :( Hopefully 17 weeks from now, there will be a noticeable difference!!!!

Stay tuned!