Weight Loss continues!

Hooray! I FINALLY seem to have broken through my "plateau"! A while back, I said that I was "back on the wagon" and was counting points and doing Weight Watchers. I don't go to meetings, but I have all of the materials.

After I had Gavin, I weighed in at 230 pounds! I had gained 10 pounds in the year between getting married and getting pregnant and then added another 80 to it. I went on Weight Watchers and the weight really came off, but after a while, I got bored and took a break, but every time I started again, I lost. Until... I got to the last 15 pounds. Those did NOT want to budge and right before Gavin turned 3, I tried South Beach, dropped the weight and was back to my pre-wedding weight of 140. That is a good weight for me. THEN, I got pregnant with Ella.

Here I am after Gavin... whew... I was really big! Just check out how far my thigh goes, past Andy's hand! I don't have a good picture of me, after I lost the weight...

I fared better with my second pregnancy, "only" gaining 60 pounds instead of 80. I did really well until the holidays hit. I was 7/8 months along, already big with baby and unable to do much exercise and gosh darn it...Fudge just tastes GOOD! Oh, and so do cookies! And since we all know that when you are pregnant, you should eat healthy food to grow a strong and healthy baby, I ate that TOO! So... I had some weight to lose.

Of course, I started counting points and really slimmed down fairly quickly, until... I got to the last 15 pounds. Those did NOT want to budge (does this sound familiar). Three times now, I have tried to shed these pounds. The first time I quit was when Ella was just over a year old and I thought, well, I must still need the padding. The second time was last summer when I counted and measured and weighed and NOTHING happened. I did do South Beach but got discouraged when the weight did not come off as fast as it had the last time. I dropped 7 pounds in 4 months and then over the course of a year, put it all back on (and then some).

So... here I am again... 15 pounds to shed. (I don't like to say lose, because I really have no intention of finding them again) I really wanted to do Weight Watchers because I think that it is the most healthy and really, I can eat anything I want, so long as I am willing to pay for it! I lost the first 5 quickly and then, I stalled at 150.. ugh....almost 3 weeks went by with no loss. I stuck to the points and REALLY watched what I ate and I exercised too (sort of). At least I walk Gavin to school every day...and it is about 3/4 of a mile! (uphill!) (pushing a stroller!)

I was talking to a group about my dilemma when somebody told me about the "Wendie" plan where you change your point allowance every day going from your extreme low to a mid-range to your highest point level, plus ten and then back down again. After reading about it on line, I thought, well... that makes sense. I am such a rule follower that I don't normally vary my daily points, I eat in the middle of my range and that's it.. and I don't use up any "banked" points, EVER! This way of using points is supposed to help your body not notice the days that you "go low" by feeding it high on the other days, thus keeping your metabolism up. It still keeps you in your weekly range, but doesn't give your body a chance to go into "starvation mode". It is recommended (by Wendie) for people trying to drop that "last" bit of weight. I did it. It worked! I lost 2 more pounds last week AND I ate chocolate cake (that was my big plus 10 treat!). I hope that it continues to work... I am now down 7 pounds and feel so much better. It is amazing how big of a difference a few pounds can make.