Thursday, May 26, 2011

It Has Now Been 5 Years Since I Began My Weight Loss Journey

In May of 2006 I began my weight loss journey when I weighed 442 pounds.

My first step was to begin moving so I started to walk for 5 minutes a day which at that time was a lot since I was carrying so much excess weight.  What this did was get me into the routine of exercising everyday which I still do to this day in one form or another.  I slowly started to add more time to my walks each day so I wouldn't burn out and over the years I have been able to walk for as long as 3 hours. I have also now incorporated resistance training by going to a 24 hour fitness close to my house which I enjoy very much and have a great 3 day a week workout that targets the entire body.

In the past I have lost large amounts of weight just to gain it all back plus more by starving myself and exercising like crazy then falling into my old habits and gaining the weight back.  So this time I wanted to make a permanent lifestyle change but had no idea where to start.  The best decision that I ever made was to join Weight Watchers which I knew wasn't the cool thing to do since it's mostly women that go there but I just wanted to drop the weight and adopt a permanent healthy lifestyle.

At Weight Watchers they go on a point system and each person gets so many points a day plus you can earn extra points by exercising which is an incentive to exercise.  We track what we eat in a daily food journal and also track the exercise points that are earned.  Foods that you eat are given a point value and you just deduct what you eat from your points that you get for the day.  We also get 49 extra points to use throughout the week which is great to use for special occasions, vacations, birthdays, potlucks, etc..  Each week we have a meeting where we weigh in and then have a 30 minute meeting with our leader.  Their are usually about 20 members in each meeting and the leader talks about a different topic each week.  They also celebrate members who have lost weight with the entire group and they can talk about what has worked for them which helps out others as well.  The best part of Weight Watchers is that we eat regular food just like everyone else and this is a permanent lifestyle change and not just another diet that we know all fail.  I have been going toWeight Watchers for 5 years now and plan on continue going even though I have been at my goal weight for well over 2 years now.

This is how I've been able to lose over 200 pounds and maintain the weight loss for over 2 years now. 

Hope this helps out everyone as you continue on your weight loss journey.

Have A Healthy Memorial Day Weekend!!!!

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