Weight Watchers Update - One Year at Goal - January 13, 2013

I was poking around my blog when I realized that one year ago today I wrote about how I'd hit my Weight Watchers goal and had begun Maintenance. As this also means I'm coming up on one year of being a Lifetime member, I thought I'd write a little update (my first since my sort of manifesto-post from last July).

Yes. I'm still at my goal weight, one year later. (As I wrote in the manifesto-post, and in the interest of total honesty, I'm a bit under the initial goal set by Weight Watchers, which is what I hit last January, but I'm still within what they consider a healthy weight range. My official goal has since been adjusted in the WW-borg computer system to account for this.)

I have found as the year has gone on that I've finally begun to internalize the lessons that Weight Watchers taught me. While I still track most of the time pretty often sometimes, I'm far more laid back about it now. (Sometimes I will guesstimate a meal. Sometimes I will use the Quick Add to note a whole meal rather than adding its parts. Sometimes I will, uh, forget.) But what I know for a fact is that I eat less than I did before I started WW because I learned what a real portion is and I learned that almost always (not always!), I feel satisfied after eating a proper serving. It just all feels different.

Plus, I think something that has kept me on track is that there is no category of food that is off limits. I will never go off the rails and eat a forbidden food - because nothing is forbidden. I still eat real full-fat ice cream and cheese, real bread, pasta (whole wheat, please!), tortilla chips with queso dip, and so on...and if I eat "too much" of something, I adjust the way I eat for the rest of the week. I like this a lot.

And I refuse to use the word "guilt" in relation to eating.

Mini cupcakes are wonderful things.

Yes, I have weeks where I gain weight. When that happens, I find that I make little adjustments after weigh in so that the following week I'm back to where I want to be. It's a constant process of tweaking - but it's not always a conscious process. I've seem to have settled into a range that is good for me, and when I see things creeping to that upper limit of the range, I know that I have the tools to make changes before things get out of control - and it's up to me to use those tools.

I am still not thrilled with my body. That bothers me, but it's true. I haven't been exercising the way I want to - and the way I should. I ran two 5Ks in early 2012 and then stopped running altogether. I hope to change that in 2013 because that is a huge missing piece in my life - even if I can sustain my weight loss purely by diet, I really need to be in shape for my overall health.

I believe that with the tools and the support that I gained through the Weight Watchers program, I will be able to sustain this weight loss for years and years. (Fact: Women's bodies change as we age. Things will be different for me every year. Life throws curve balls. You never know. I will take things as they come.)

I love that after I hit my goal and became a Lifetime member, I wasn't dropped off a cliff. Everything continued. I may be bad about tracking, but I do track and I do use the other online tools and the apps all the time because they are free for Lifetime members (good move, WW). But more importantly for me, I still go to a meeting almost every week. (I'm only required to go to one a month - and I don't even have to stay for that one, I just have to weigh in. But I always stay.) There's still accountability and there are still people to lean on. I still clap and cheer as the people around me reach new milestones. And I like getting my Bravo stickers. And I just got my second Lifetime key when I hit 10 months as a Lifetime member. Truth: More trinkets = more happy Marla.

Two Lifetime Member Weight Watchers Keys - plus my star for reaching my goal...

OK, I get it - it may not work for everyone because that's just not reality - there is no plan that works for every single person. But it did work for me for many reasons. It just fit. And I do think it's one of the best programs out there for someone looking to lose weight (US News & World Report thinks so too) and will not hesitate to recommend it over and over.

I stand by what I said last July. My body is not your body and this is about me, not you. I post these types of updates because I'm happy with what I've done and want to share in the way anyone who has worked hard for any sort of goal is happy and wants to share it. While I will happily discuss how much weight I lost (30+ pounds), I would rather not discuss what I weigh now or what I weighed before I started or what size I am (because I am about four different sizes, if not more, anyway, thanks to vanity sizing and inconsistency within clothing and being a savvy thrift shopper, so what's the point?), and I don't expect you to share those things with me either unless you choose to. Those are personal things and they are just numbers that don't take a myriad of factors into account.

Do your thing. Be happy with who you are. That's what's important. I wasn't happy with who I was or where I was so I took steps to change my situation. That's all. (Next up: Changing my hair...)

And here I am. It's been a year, and I'm really proud of what I've accomplished.

Ridiculous self-portrait in mirror at department store - December 2012