CC – A healthy life and me

Exercise!  It’s the last thing a dedicated couch potato wants to hear about.  Tipping the scales at over 19 stone,  I could barely walk without breaking into a sweat.  I would however,  make the effort to run (if you can call it running) for a bus just so I could avoid walking the one or two bus stops to my destination.   It would take me about 10 – 15 minutes to catch my breath but hey I’d  saved a couple of vital minutes.

I hadn’t always been inactive, in fact as a child I played a variety of sports, representing my schools and local clubs until I was in my late teens.  So with this previous love of sport in mind,  but not being keen on going to a gym,  I tried to think of something I could do at home.  My bright idea was to buy an elliptical cross trainer, like the ones found in gyms.  Now this wasn’t exactly a cheap option, but I saw it as an investment and that cross trainer is still in working condition to this day.

I set my alarm and got up earlier so that I could work out before going to work. That first week I managed 3 minutes a morning on the cross trainer.  I walked to and from the train station and took the stairs at work instead of the lift.  I wasn’t exactly blazing a trail to the Olympics but I was moving more.  Around this same time there was a government campaign about walking 10,000 steps a day,  so off I went and bought a pedometer.  There’s something hypnotic about seeing a step counter tick over and it made me get up and walk around the house if I hadn’t quite hit that magic number before bedtime.

Over time I gradually built up my time and speed on the cross trainer to 20 minutes several times a week.  It complimented my weight loss,  helping me to lose the recommended 1 – 2lbs most weeks.  As advised by my Weight Watchers leader when I joined,  I took my body measurements.  It’s another way to keep track of the progress made when the number on the tape measure comes down. This was a great source of comfort on the occasions that I didn’t have a loss at the scales. They call it a ‘Non Scale Victory’, I like that.

So this is how I weaved exercise back into my daily life.  Now my favourite workout is with a fitness hula hoop and to have my fitness exploits featured in the Weight Watchers magazine is quite surreal to me.

I’ve done a variety of fun activities which have taken me from being totally unfit to possibly the best shape I’ve been in since my childhood.  I’ll talk more about these as my journey continues.  So for now I’d say,  make the first move!

My home exercise routine helps me to maintain a healthy lifestyle and weight, here’s a glimpse:

I’d got the basics covered and I was getting used to planning and shopping for healthy eating meals,  tracking food and drinks,  being more active and exercising.   I was feeling good, eating more fruit and vegetables and curbing my sweet tooth cravings.  I say curbing because those cravings didn’t just disappear.   Over time I’ve become more aware of them and learnt how to control them instead of them controlling me…..well most of the time.

In the first three months I’d lost 25lbs (just over 2 stones) and my size 26 jeans could no longer stay up,  even with the help of a belt.   What appealed to me about Weight Watchers is the unrestricted nature of the plan.  I’ve never liked the idea of diets,  so I haven’t been a ‘yoyo dieter’.  Don’t get me wrong there were times when as a teenager I told myself that I was on a diet and immediately stocked up on low fat yogurt to eat for lunch.  But with the Weight Watchers plan no food is off limits.  All food and drink is given a points value and I had a personal points allowance,  so what I ate was my choice as long as I stayed within the allowance.

I started to feel like I knew what I was doing.  There was one week when I saw a two pounds gain on the scales,  but this didn’t deter me too much,  if anything it spurred me on to be more careful the following week. The first major milestone celebrated at Weight Watchers was losing 10% loss of your starting weight. This gave me a target to aim for.  I was forming good habits and edging closer to that elusive place where everything is in flow.  The sense of being in control, it’s effortless and everything was going my way.  For me this is being in ‘the zone’.   Unfortunately this was also a new place for me and when I found myself there,  it was like fast moving water and I didn’t know enough yet to glide along with it.   I quickly slipped back out of ‘the zone’ and to be honest over the years  moving in and out of ‘the zone’ has been like riding the crest of a wave following the tide of the sea.

Success!  I reached my 10% weight loss target (27lbs lost) and was presented with a special key ring to mark the occasion.  There are many reported health benefits to losing 10% of your body weight.   I let them soak in and carried on doing what I was doing.

I was curious to know what my ultimate target weight would be,  as I was doing so well,  I didn’t think it would take me very long to reach it.   The following week at the meeting I asked my leader about it.   When my leader informed me I would have to lose a total of 7 stones to reach the prized goal weight,  my first reaction was to laugh,  because surely she was joking!   I can still feel the sense of disbelief and deflation that I experienced on that day.   That was an impossible task and I didn’t think I had any chance of achieving it.   I bought a Chinese takeaway for dinner that night, followed by an ice cream desert.  My points allowance didn’t matter because I felt destined to be overweight forever.

There’s a really good reason why goal weight isn’t mentioned when you join up, I guess a lot of people would leave and never come back.  A good nights sleep helped me to put things into perspective,  I didn’t get this big overnight and I wasn’t going to reach my goal overnight.   I was going to try my best, I’ve always been a bit stubborn so there was no way I could give up. This was going to be a marathon,  not a sprint…….little did I know the challenges that lay ahead of me.

When you set out to do something in life, it is enviable that there will be challenges.   I’d never had any ambition to be a mountain climber but when I set out to lose weight,  it felt like I had a mountain to climb.   After reaching my 10% weight loss milestone I got into my stride.  Seven months in and I reached the next milestone, 50lbs weight loss.   I was presented with a certificate to recognise my achievement, which I framed and proudly displayed at home.

The change in my shape was noticeable and people would comment on it, saying I was looking well.   Although I always knew that I was doing this for myself,  it was good to hear the positive comments.

I was aware of the change in my general health and wellbeing.   I had more energy, less pain in my legs and increased motivation.   My doctors were also pleased with my progress after health checks revealed a decrease in my blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

There I was cruising along nicely, when it happened.  The road I was travelling on took a turn off course.   I didn’t see it coming,  there was no signpost or diversion warning.   Two weeks after my momentous 50lbs weight loss celebration, I had a 1.5lb gain.   This in itself was no major concern,  after all,  each week cannot be the same,  unexpected events happen,  occasions, etc when I may have more indulgence foods than I had planned for,  or my activity levels may be lower.

It was one step back,  but I carried on and was pleased to lose it again the following week,  one step forward.   Two weeks later my concern level perked up when I registered another 1lb gain.   Ummm,  this was starting to worry me a bit.   It affected my mood,  making me feel down which in turn seemed to send a signal to my brain telling me I need to eat something sweet/comforting to make me feel better.   I’ve always been an emotional person.   I now understand that this has a major influence on my eating habits.

The challenges of this ‘one step forward,  one step back’ dance continued for about five weeks.  The longer it went on,  the more frequent the weight gains came.   It was very frustrating,  I was stuck in a loop,  which I came to learn was called a plateau.  This was my first encounter with a plateau,  it wouldn’t be my last.

I had to do something to break out of this loop and get back on the right track.  So I refocused and thought of some things that would shake up my body a bit because it seemed to have gotten too used to what I was currently doing.   I made sure that I was accurately weighing and writing down my food and drink according to the Weight Watchers plan.   So I changed a couple of the foods I was eating regularly,  e.g.  some days switched from cornflakes to shredded wheat.  I also added a couple more minutes to my exercise routine.  These combined efforts did the trick and shifted me off the plateau and I began seeing more consistent weight losses again.

This was a valuable learning experience for me in how to deal with challenges.  I’m not saying that I haven’t ever found myself in that frustrating little dance again but when I did,  I knew where I was.   One positive thing to come out of that particular period of my journey was my increased appreciation for non-scale victories and when weight loss targets are few and far between,  non scale victories are a real cause for celebration.

For more about non scale victories, click here.