So I weighed in the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and I lost .4 pounds.

What?

Yep.  I lost weight.  I wasn’t even trying to lose weight.  Please don’t come looking for me so that you can kick my ass or anything.

I’m sure most of it was because I cooked the dinner.  Like the whole dinner for 20 some odd people.  I remember Thanksgivings past, when my Mom would cook dinner and sit there at the table and not really eat.  She always used to say that after cooking day and night she didn’t feel like eating it.

I now know what she means.  I didn’t feel like eating any of it either.  Watching friends and family enjoy my efforts was more than enough for me, and while I nibbled here or there I really didn’t overindulge at all.

Even if I would have I would have accepted it.  It’s just one day.  The really important thing is what you do the day after.  Do you get back on the wagon, or do you say “Screw it, I blew it so I might as well eat my way through a river of mashed potatoes and gravy with a side of pumpkin pie”.

Even if you did a backstroke through mashed potatoes it’s not to late.  That’s the beautiful thing.  Even if you had a calorie laden breakfast this morning it’s not to late.

You can restart RIGHT NOW.  Not tomorrow, not at dinner, but right now.

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So I’m still here peeps!  I’ve been meaning to write this since weigh in last week but I’ve been busy.

I also lost another half a pound at weigh in, but I’m chalking that up to the normal fluctuations in weight that everybody has.  I think I’m finally leveling off. There has also been another new development:

I’M ON VACATION

Now for those of you who don’t know me personally I work more than most.  Like I probably put in the hours two average people work each week, so when I do finally have some time off I have a lot of things to get done.

Like getting rid of all those clothes that don’t fit me anymore.

I mean even those “skinny” clothes from back in the day are way to big now.

My first week was slotted for doing all those pesky tasks that need completed, and the second week I’m headed to my annual Halloween trek to Vegas.  I worked really hard this week and need a vacation from my vacation!

I’ve made the decision to not stress to much about going over my Smartpoints and the possibility of gaining weight.

Wait, what?

Oh I plan on tracking it all – for sure.  That is part of my life now, but I’mnot going to stress over not eating this or not drinking that.

If I think back to a time in the distant past when I was a normal weight, I never thought about “oh, if I eat this I’m doomed!”  I would maybe indulge a bit and then when I got back home just go back to normal and whatever damage was done would naturally fall off.

I didn’t starve to lose the couple of pounds, hell sometimes I didn’t even gain any weight.  It’s when you start playing those games in your head that you sabotage that.

Will I just go hog wild?  No.  Will I drink a margarita the size of my head?  Probably.

Will I track it all?  You betcha!

That brings me to something else I wanted to ask you all.

And by you all I mean:

Yeah, those are some of the stats for my blog.  I blows me away at how many people actually read what I write, and from all over the world!

Anyway, all 138,000 and some change of you – I want to do a Q&A post when I get back next week.  If you have a question you’d like covered please include it in the comments.  I get tons of questions.

Some people message my Facebook Page or my personal one which is worse because it goes into some other folder that I forget to check all the time.  Some people ask in my Weight Watchers Tough Love group, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest.

It’s hard to keep track of it all, so if you want a question answered about my weight loss thus far please comment! Hey, just comment and say I read your blog.  It’d make my day 🙂

So I had my first weekend out of town since getting serious about my health last February.  I was gone Friday and most of Saturday, so I weighed myself Saturday night.

Stayed the same.  Yes!

I’ll admit I was nervous about eating everything out for a couple of days.  It’s so easy to let old habits just slip right back in.   I go to the Louisville KY Jack O’ Lantern Spectacular every year, and I wasn’t going to miss it this year due to Smartpoints.

It brought a question that I am asked over and over again to the forefront of my mind.

Do you really want to have to count points the rest of your life?

I mean do I seriously want to have to do this forever?  This weekend was just a warm up for my big vacation to Vegas in a couple of weeks.

Yeah, Vegas.  Land where the drinks flow and the food is plentiful and delicious.  Land where you revert to a 22 year old as soon as your plane lands.

So as I was faced with a buffet Friday night and wanted to have some adult beverages I found myself feeling a little weary about the whole deal.

Why should I have to always worry about this?

Then I snapped the hell out of feeling sorry for myself when I remembered going to this same deal last year.

I mean I didn’t have to pack a bunch of meds because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to sleep without major acid reflux.  I mean it doesn’t even cross my mind anymore because it has completely went away.  This is amazing since all the health care professionals wanted to just throw me on medicine and my dietary changes fixed it without giving more money to the evil bastards in the pharmaceutical business.

This particular event also has long lines and you have to stand forever and a day.  Long walk from wherever you finally got to park – I mean it is really physical.  Last year my legs were killing me before we even got to the Pumpkin part and I couldn’t wait to get it over with so that I could freakin’ sit down.

I could have spent hours looking at the pumpkins this year, and I did.  Sitting down because my legs and knee were screaming at me didn’t even cross my mind.  I slept like a rock and didn’t have a jacked up knee for days after like last year.

So do I want to count Smartpoints the rest of my life?  Not really, but I’d much rather do that then miss out on experiences.  When you factor in the trade off there really is no other option.

Once again…

Anybody older than dirt like me and remember that song?  Loves me some Patti…

Anyway, so my weigh in was a little different this week because I didn’t go to weigh in.

What?

I’ve missed three of my regular meetings since I went back.  They were all at the end of a financial quarter because my life becomes a living hell and I live at work the last few days of the month.

What I did do was weigh in at home, and I was half a pound less than last week, which means I stayed the same because my scale always weighs lighter at home.

Now I knew I wasn’t going to the next meeting.  I knew I was going to work and probably wouldn’t get back to a meeting for a week, maybe two.

And I stayed on track.  I followed the program.  You do not (or maybe you do) realize how big of an achievement this is for a serial Weight Watcher.

Let me break it down for those that don’t understand what I’m putting out there……

It’s my nephew Dominic’s birthday this week, and I have a tradition where I take my nieces and nephews shopping and out to eat for their birthday each year.  I never wanted to be the Aunt that bought them socks or something.

So we went to a burger place and then to get ice cream.  I had a cheeseburger and a small chocolate sundae.

Not the healthiest of food, but it is not realistic to believe you will never have these kinds of things again ever.  I knew I was going, I pointed out my food, and I enjoyed having dinner with a rambunctious soon to be 4 year old.

Now if this would have been me when I did the program previously I would have been all “Hot Damn!  I’m not weighing in so I can have what I want and have two weeks to make it up!”

Oh that small sundae would have been a big one….With whipped cream and nuts to boot.  The cheeseburger would have had double cheese and probably some onion rings to go with it.

And I would have felt miserable the whole rest of the day and more than likely night.

Instead I still made good choices and had a great time.  I wasn’t counting down the minutes in the store because I felt like total and utter crap, but enjoyed spending time with my nephew.

I didn’t feel deprived at all.  In fact, I should have felt deprived before because I wasn’t putting my best foot forward.  I wasn’t enjoying the experience, just the food.

The experience is so much better.

It gives me hope that I have really changed my mindset this time.  I always strove to do that, but in previous versions I was so focused on the scale and the little charms and all that junk that it was more of a competition with that damn scale instead of a program I was going to use to get myself good and healthy.

I’ve turned that corner.  I’m sure of it.

I did it.  I am now a lifetime member at Weight Watchers.  As long as I stay within a healthy weight range I no longer have to pay and it’s free.

IT’S FREE GUYS.

When I first joined WW over 15 years ago I don’t know if I ever actually believed it was possible.

This time I faked it ’till I made it.

I DID IT.

Yes I wanted to be healthier for sure.  There’s also that part of me that wanted to look better – I can admit that.  There’s one reason though that I’ve never really talked about before.

My Mom.

My Mother struggled with weight her entire life.  You wouldn’t know it by looking at her – she was thin as a rail until probably her mid 40’s.  It was how she was skinny as a rail that was the problem.

She didn’t eat, or at least not much.  We both gained weight in the early 2000’s and we both went to WW.  For her years of abusing her body made her so sick she finally had to eat or die and the weight came on.

We really had some awesome talks about weight back then.  I learned a lot about her issues with food.  She always worried about me, because I tend to show elevated sugar when I get heavier, and her Mother died at 54 from Diabetic complications.

My Grandma refused to change her diet when she became Diabetic, and she died because of it.  She drank Pepsi like water and was heavy.  My Mom always had a huge dislike of any kind of pop, and it wasn’t until I lost her that I realized how horrible it must have been for her.

She had three little kids and was only 33 or 34 years old when her Mom died.  I was 41 and that was hard enough.  I don’t know how people younger get through it.

So even though my siblings are much bigger than I am she always worried about me.  She didn’t want me turning out like my Grandmother.

I can see why.

It was funny because I was visiting and one of our distant relatives came over.  They were talking about my Grandma like she was this saint – this awesome person.  After they left I remember telling my Mom how I didn’t know that person.  I knew an angry, mean old lady.

I can still hear her bellowing “LESTER” at my Grandpa every time she wanted something.

I also remember her saying things like “Are you sure you want to eat that” to my Mom while pointedly looking at her.  I don’t care how young you are, kids pick up that stuff.

And they remember it.

My Mom explained that she was really sick most of the time after I was born.  She had to have her leg amputated right before she passed.  She was just sick.

I had asked my Mom why she hasn’t said anything when I or my siblings starting pudging out in our late teens.  She explained how her Mom had always criticized everything that went into her mouth and she didn’t want to do that to us.

Maybe my Grandmother didn’t want my Mom to be overweight like her so that’s why she did it.  Just like my Mom didn’t want me to turn into my Grandma.

I really had no idea about nutrition before I went to WW.  I mean when I wanted to lose 5 or 10 pounds in my 20’s I just would barely eat.

That is what I learned growing up, whether my Mom wanted me to learn that or not.

Weight Watchers opened my eyes to how I was eating, and even though I didn’t make it to goal each time I never ever gained back all the weight from the very start.

So getting to goal and making Lifetime is for my Mother, who desperately wanted that for me.  So desperately in fact pretty much the last thing she said to me before she left this Earth was “Please go back to Weight Watchers you can do it”.

I’ve never told anyone that before.  She never stopped worrying that I would turn out like her Mom.

So please remember your kids are watching and learning – the good and the bad.  You can set an awesome example, or you can be a horrible warning.

I never want to be remembered as a mean spirited old lady who can’t do anything.  I don’t want to work my whole life and then not be able to enjoy it when I get older.

My great nephew thinks I’m a ninja.  Let’s keep it that way.

I know there are a lot of people in Weight Watchers that believe in “No Finish Line” or something like that.

I’ve crossed the finish line.  I finished my race.  I did it, I accomplished it.

There’s a new race now that I’m just starting.  I hope you come along for the ride.

Join my Weight Watchers Tough Love Group on Facebook.

To keep up with me:

Follow my blog with the link in the left hand side bar (or bottom of the page if on cell).

Follow the My 30 Point Life Blog Updates on Pinterest

Follow and like me on my Facebook Page.

Join my Instant Pot Healthy Recipes group on Facebook.

So this whole maintenance stuff has been harder than I thought it would be.

I lost more weight, half a pound.  Honestly I am eating 36 points a day and all my weekly points.

I’m eating a lot, or at least it feels like I am.  If you are currently in the weight loss portion of the program you probably want to smack me or beat me up in the parking lot.

Hell I want to smack me or beat me up in the parking lot.

This site has very interesting information about weight loss.  In a nutshell, say you want to weigh 150 pounds.  You need to eat an average of 1,800 calories a day to maintain that weight.  Most people would highly restrict their calories to lose weight if they weighed like 200 pounds.

But – If they just ate 1,800 calories a day they would naturally go down to that weight.  Yeah, it may not be Biggest Loser impressive but would probably be a lot more easy to maintain.

I think the Smartpoints version of Weight Watchers gets this.  The fact that no one ever gets less than 30 Smartpoints was a brilliant move.  I mean I remember back in the day when you would get close to goal you only got like 18 points a day and were basically starving all the time.

I’ve never been hungry this time.  Well I was one time in 6 months, and that was because I saved my points for a big celebration.  I lost weight A LOT faster on other versions of WW, but I could never get to the end.  This time I did.

The fact that I’m still losing and eating very well and balanced and not starving myself tells me that maybe I naturally will be a little smaller than the top of my weight range.  This was freaking me out because to make lifetime with Weight Watchers you have basically a 4 pound weight range you have to be in.  Two pounds above or two pounds below your goal weight at the end of the 6 weeks.

Once you get lifetime you can go smaller if you want, but you have to be in that range to reach lifetime first.

I’m currently 3 pounds below my goal, and I was about to do something like put a roll of quarters in my pocket or wear my shoes on the scale to make up for it.

I stopped myself though, because I made a deal with myself from the start that has served me well:  No games with the scale this time.

So I decided to face the music and be TO SMALL? for Weight Watchers.  I stepped on the scale almost cringing and the receptionist was just like “Oh you lost .6.  Good job!”

Wait, what?

So I’m all “I’ve lost a pound to much!”

And she’s all “Oh we don’t have to stay within 2 pounds on the bottom.  As long as you are in a healthy range you’re fine now.”

Game Changer.  For real.

Now I’m faced with the decision of what my set point is going to be.  Do I keep eating the way I am and see where I end up?  Do I eat more to try and stay the same even though I am not hungry and am very satisfied with the points I have right now?

Eating more than I should is what got me 63 pounds heavier, so I think I’m going to stick with the plan I have now and see what happens.  I can always adjust, right?

I’m not writing this post to be all “oh poor me I can’t stop losing weight.”  I’m writing it for all of you that feel frustrated right now because you might not be dropping weight like you did in the past with Weight Watchers.

The way I see it, it’s a very good thing.  I think now more than ever WW is teaching us a lifestyle change, something we really can do the rest of our lives.

I mean wouldn’t you rather lose slow and be able to keep it off forever than to lose it quick and gain it back with some friends a little down the line.  Don’t get frustrated, keep on plugging through and then you can tell me how hard it is not to lose weight some day.  I promise.

That’s the real game changer.

To keep up with me:

Follow my blog with the link in the left hand side bar (or bottom of the page if on cell).

Follow the My 30 Point Life Blog Updates on Pinterest

Follow and like me on my Facebook Page.

Join my Weight Watchers Tough Love Group on Facebook.

Join my Instant Pot Healthy Recipes group on Facebook.

So this is what losing 62 pounds looks like on a 5’8″ woman.  It’s funny because most days I don’t feel like I look any different than before.  Then I see pictures like this side by side and think “holy crap”.

I mean how can you look this different but not see it yourself until you see your former self next to your new self.

That’s kind of messed up.  I’ll need to think on that one a bit….

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