I Got Me a STAR Today!

Lurker Reader JDL asked me several weeks ago to write about how the hypothyroidism/Weight Watchers was going. And I never wrote about it because a) I think diet blogs are boring for everyone except the author; and b) losing weight doesn't count until you get up to about 20 lbs. lost. Anyone can lose 5 pounds. Get to 20 and you can actually say you are getting somewhere. So, I decided I would wait until I reached the big Weight Watchers 10% (loss of your starting body weight) goal.

Which I reached today. Now, if I tell you this, you are going to know how much I weigh, but I don't get what the big deal is. You can look at me and SEE that I'm overweight, and probably guess my weight within 10 or so pounds. I can't hide it as well as I hide my crack habit, you know, so why try? So, I am 5'5" tall. And I've lost 19 lbs. My 10% goal was to lose 18.8 lbs. I will pause while you do the math. Yes. That is how much I weighed on January 1st. It is the most I've ever weighed save pregnancy (where I got up to 205! Yeep!!)

I did something different with WW this, my second time around. I jumped in my first try last year and adhered to it perfectly from day one. Then I got really pissed off when after only one week they dropped my point limit by two points. It sort of threw me over the edge. But I kept at it for two months and netted a total loss of like 2 pounds for all that effort. Then I quit, cold turkey.

This time, I spent all of December tracking points with weight watchers (I do it online), but eating whatever the hell I wanted. I decided to ramp up into it and also kind of get a baseline for how many points I was eating already. It was the holidays, and my only rule was that I had to track everything I ate, no matter what. It got to be kind of perversely funny. I would eat up to 75-85 points some days. (I am supposed to eat around 25 right now.) I wondered if I could break the points calculator. I wondered what the top amount of points any one on WW had ever logged and if I was getting close. It was a fun, maniacal experiment for me. Hmmm. How much is a WHOLE PACKAGE of Oreos, I wonder? What about double stuff. It was kind of educational as well. I found out that these chocolate chip muffins are 13 points each and these other brand are 6, and I really can't tell the difference in taste, so now I know what brand to buy if I'm going to eat junk. It was gluttony at its finest.

But January 1st, I reset my starting weight, and eased into the plan. Reducing my points each week and slowly becoming more compliant. I made small goals for myself and met them. Like, this week I am just going to get at least one activity point a day. (I'm going for 28 total.) Or this week I am going to meet my water and milk requirements. I don't think I was totally compliant with the points until about February. I also decided not to recalculate my daily points when WW told me to, I was going to do it on my timetable. I think they want you to do it every 5 or 10 pounds or something. I decided that I would only do it when I went two weeks without a loss. (So I've only done it once and I went down by 1 point. I'm now at 25.) So, this plan has worked well for me. So here is my chart:

But because of the hypothyroid drugs, it kind of feels like I'm cheating. (Although the barfing of last week's rotavirus did give me a nice nudge! And no, I'm not thinking of becoming bulimic anytime soon.) See that blip at 2/5 where it goes up a few pounds? That was when I was off of Levothyroxine for two weeks. Remember how I had the itchy and scratchy crazies? I went off the generic thyroid medication for two weeks, then went back on Levoxyl, the name brand version. No itchies and I merrily went along losing weight. It all seems too easy. I just more or less follow the plan, which still allows me to eat my new found favorite, Betty Crocker Warm Delights, on occasion, and I lose one or two pounds a week! Off the drug, I gain 2 pounds. It feels like cheating. Man, I love this new found discovery that my thyroid sucks ass. Lucky me!

I'm still not perfectly in compliance with WW. Points-wise, I usually am, but I often don't get 5 servings of fruits and vegetables or two servings of "good" oils. Also, I have yet to get to 28 activity points. So, those are my current little goals I'm trying to improve.

Isn't this boring so far? Well, now it will be more so because I'm going to jot down my current exercise regimen.

• Monday I go to the gym and either take an hour long "Body Flow" class which is aerobics with some yoga thrown in. Or, If I'm late for that class, I do half treadmill and half bike. ( I get bored.) On either, I have to reach 15 minutes, one mile, and 100 calories burned. All of those-before I can get off the damned thing. Hate it. Then I do a bunch of yoga stretches for like 20 minutes. I also give myself credit for walking there and back, which is 20 minutes each way. I can earn up to 7 points like this.
• Tuesday, I try to take the kids for a walk and I do 1/2 hour of abs and barre stuff from old ballet classes I remember. I can usually get two points for this.
• Wednesday, back to the gym for swimming. Sometimes I will take one of the kids swimming with me for the first 1/2 hour. Lifting them around is a lot of strength work in the arms. Then, I do laps. I do a warm up sort of cross country ski-ing lap. Then 4 sets of 4 laps of crawl stroke, backstroke, crawl stroke, kickboard without stopping. I stop for a few seconds between sets. Then another cool down cross country ski lap, then about 15 minutes of stretching in the therapy pool. Add in walking and I can get 7 or 8 points here.
• Thursday is the same as Tuesday.
• Friday, I used to go to the gym, but I just decided recently that that is too much for the kids there. I don't think they get interacted with enough there. I think they are left on their own a lot of the time. It's okay for a bit, but not three mornings a week. Also, I've needed additional time to go work at D's, so I need this morning to go over there.  So, now I've been experimenting with doing videos at home, which is kinda hard for me to do, and Naim HATES it when I do them. Like has a screaming fit. I can get 2-4 points doing videos, but I'm having trouble squeezing them in lately.
• Saturday and Sunday I don't do jack-shit, except sometimes I have to walk to church or to the store, so I count that and might get 1-2 points a day.

So, If I get all this done, I can get at most 22-24 points. I don't see how I will ever get to WW recommended 28, unless I went back to figure skating every day or something, which isn't likely to happen anytime soon. I like working out. I am athletic and built as such and I like being in shape. I like having my body be able to perform like I want it too. I like that I have muscles and strength. I am hugely at risk for diabetes, which is scary for me because I've had so many friends die of it. So I like the fact that I'm eating better and getting healthier.

I like being skinnier as well, of course, even though I still have a ways to go before anyone would call me skinny. But I've gotten significantly less vain in my old age. I saw a commercial recently (for shampoo?) that shows a woman doing a billion career, housework and kid related things and getting progressively less fixed up and made up and fashionable as she went along. It says something like 89% of mothers report that they have "let themselves go." It kind of pisses me off. It's like it is my job to look skinny, sexy, fashionable and attractive all the time, and if I put my priorities elsewhere, than I'm failing as a woman, my number one job being to look attractive for you.

Fuck that. My priorities have changes since my 20's when I was a lot hotter by far than I am now. Then I wanted to be hot. I wanted men to look at me. I wanted all the little perks you get when you are hot like free drinks and great customer service. If I had to pay a billion dollars I didn't have for clothes and spend three hours on defrizzing my hair and putting on make-up...then so be it. Now, I want to be clean, neat and healthy looking. That's it. And I want to do it in as little time as possible with as little effort and money as possible. I just got rid of a bunch of clothes that had holes in them and pretty much bought myself a whole new, very simple wardrobe for under $250. Right down to the underwear. I hadn't bought clothes in probably 6 or 7 years. When I was pg, I bought two pairs of maternity pants and wore all of D's shirts mostly. Since hole-y clothes weren't passing for the neat criteria, I had to break down and buy some new ones. But it was just like whatever will work with the least amount of effort. I don't have time to shop for more or the money either. I wear foundation because it has SPF in it and I should be wearing that anyway for my health requirement, but I usually don't wear other make-up. Too time consuming. My hair? Always usually clean and out of my face, but rarely straight ironed or producted.

Its not that I think hair, and make-up and clothes and stuff are bad. If you want to do it, great. And sometimes I want to do it. Sometimes I will have extra time and do my hair and put on eye shadow and stuff. And someday, when I have more money or more time to shop, I might buy more clothes. I think that there is an art and an aesthetic to it. All cultures self-decorate and preen. This isn't a whole feminist rebellion thing. I think if it is enjoyable or important to someone to spend more time on the extras of their appearance and it is a form of expression for them , then go for it. But I resent having to do it. And I won't if my time/money/effort are drawn to other more important things. Hey, its one of the great perks of being a SAHM. Most days I can be ready to go in 20 minutes.

It's interesting the different ways you get treated when you are young and all hawted up in your 20's vs. walking around in jeans and t-shirt with no make-up and some extra weight on you in your 30's. (And for the record, I was always blind with funny looking eyeballs, so I was NEVER all that hawted up anyway. But did have a halfway decent body in the days of yore, which is all men seem to need to give you extra attention sometimes.) This may sound like I'm one of those fat people that hides behind their weight and who knows, maybe I am, but I like it better this way. I like the anonymity and the just dealing with people without so much of that factored in. Its less anxiety inducing.

But, alas, my neat, clean and healthy criteria do require me to have a decent BMI and be outside the high risk category for diabetes. So WW it is. And I'll keep counting them damn points. I suspect it is going to start getting harder real soon. I'll let you know how its going in about 20 more pounds or so.

Comments

[process]

I am sort of kind of using WW my own way, not quite like you are, but I eased into it too, starting just by tracking what I ate and then reducing things a little at a time. I'm stuck now though, haven't lost a pound in a couple of weeks. I don't do much in the way of activity, and I know I need to, and I admire that you do so much!

[Kathryn]

Lisa, Great post. I have been wanting to do ww for awhile but don't have time to go to the meetings. I will check out the on-line version.

But you have me inspired to do it now.

Great post in general too about age and all the lovely things that women have to deal with along the way.

You really do need to write a book in all your free time!