I recently told someone that I'm sure the reason for my success this time is my mind set. It isn't just wanting to lose weight, I've felt that most of my overweight years. It has been the conscious decision to eat better and be healthier. How has that differed from before? Most often my drive before was to lose X amount of pounds and get to a certain weight or dress size. Once there, I relaxed and began slipping into old ways. Maybe not immediately, but slowly 5 extra pounds became 10 and so on.
I can honestly say that I have not felt deprived of anything this past year. Not once! It helps that some of the fruits that used to have a point value (bananas) don't have them now. As Suzanne (WW leader) once said, many people might have a control problem with a bag of potato chips but has anyone bought a bunch of bananas and ate all of them in one sitting? Not that I know of.
Before, I would reach a goal along with the way and treat myself with a splurge of food. I don't do that now. I don't mean that I haven't had something that was a splurge before, I just don't look at it as a "treat". I either plan for it or if I ate it at an unexpectedly* I scaled back on consumption for the rest of the day and made sure not to dip further into my 49 extra weekly points.
*What do I mean by unexpectedly? Saturday I had a class from 10 am-1:00 pm at a location that should be 40 minutes away. Construction completely closed down an expressway that would have been my most direct route. Unexpected construction on a surface road near the venue made the trip twice as long. I had planned to come home from class and have lunch. I knew I would be overly hungry ("hangry" as a current commercial for Snickers says) and there was a McDonald's on the corner as I was leaving for home. I had an 8 pt plain cheeseburger and diet Coke before hitting the traffic jam that was worse heading home than in the morning. That 8 pt cheeseburger is my safety food when I'm out and need to eat quickly. Is it the most nutritious thing? No, but it is easy and I know how to count it. I don't get out of control with that choice.
Later that afternoon I had some fruit to hold me over until a later than usual dinner at a wedding reception. I had more meat than I would normally have at home, but I had more tossed salad and vegetables than I used to eat at wedding receptions. It really was good, not a penance, and it certainly helped fill me up. The dessert table looked beautiful but....another HUGE difference....I knew that I wasn't at all hungry. It was easy to admire it and walk away empty handed. Heck, I can admire a $10,000 necklace without thinking I can afford it, need it or be tempted to try it on, and now I can look at desserts that way too. I don't need them. Sometimes they are tempting so I have to think of my WW budget. Can I afford them? Sometimes I can. Sometimes they aren't worth the price.
I was down another .8 pounds on the scale at weigh in for a total of 70 pounds gone! Here I am, dressed for the wedding and holding my month old granddaughter.
Onward and downward!
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