Its been 2 weeks on the weight watchers program and I have lost 1.5kg. I lost 1.5kg the first week, then stayed the same this week. I'm totally happy with this so far! Last week was pretty disastrous and I was expecting a gain so I'm happy I stayed the same!
I did weight watchers about 6 years ago and lost 17kg at the time (I went from 89kg to 72kg). Back then I was living with my parents and was a full-time uni student. I found it fairly easy to lose the weight and had a great time getting fit. I was hitting the gym daily and looked and felt amazing. Its when I finished uni and started working full-time shift work and moved in with my fiancée that the weight just piled on over the last 5 years with extra!
This time around things are very different. My whole lifestyle is different so compared to back then doing weight watchers, I used to apply all the principles id learnt at meetings to my single student life. Now I have to re-learn how to apply these principles to my adult married full-time shift work life! Its definitely a different experience. Also back then I was so so fixed on the numbers on the scales each week whereas now I'm feeling alot more relaxed about it. I'm trying to keep myself more focused on the development of healthy habits and how I react to them then the numbers each week.
At my meeting this week there was a few ladies who also started at the same time as me and were abit disgruntled with the fact they were doing everything perfect and by the book and only losing 1kg a week! It was bloody hard for me to not slap them out of their silliness! I was shocked! For 2 reasons. Firstly was I don't understand how you can go from living such an unhealthy lifestyle to 'perfect by the book' in a week, and secondly that you are unhappy with 1kg a week losses! I realised that these ladies have a higher chance of failure as they placing so much pressure on themselves and obviously working at a faster speed then they handle and then get the shits when they don't see the results they want. I thought about this for awhile and realised that I definitely used to be like that as-well but my way of thinking has shifted significantly.
I no longer place so much pressure on myself. My expectations are no longer part of the equation. Now, I don't see expectations as the same as I do goals. If I say, my goal is to lose 30kg by end of 2012, to me this is different to saying 'I EXPECT to lose 30kg by the end of 2012'. Think about this for yourself. Say to yourself what you want to do but interchange the words 'GOAL' and 'EXPECT'. Now which one makes you feel like you're under pressure? For me, I definitely feel more under pressure when I say & think things with an expectant attitude which to me is a negative attitude. Saying and thinking goals is a positive attitude. And the more positive we see our goals then the more we will follow them. This is just how my way of thinking has changed.
I remember the last time I did weight watchers I was always focused on the idea of 'ive lost this many kg's in this many weeks' and I gotta say, this way of thinking is all weight watchers fault and its actually a negative one which they have tried to disguise as positive. When we say things like this again, I feel this brings another element of negative pressure attached with it. One weight loss quote I now try to live by is " Begin as you would like to finish". So begin your weight loss journey the way you'd like to end it- living a healthy lifestyle. Don't go out with guns blazing restricting chocolate and being religious about 'rules'. Just live life and live it in the healthiest way possible. Its OK to have chocolate. Just not a whole family block everyday. But you can have a few squares everyday instead! And this is much less negative. I think its a lovely way to approach things.
The only way things will be easy, is to be easy on oneself.
XOXO
