Focusing on Behaviour, Not Weight - Year 1 Report

At 17, I went to my first Weight Watchers meeting to lose weight for my high school graduation. I was fairly successful and felt absolutely beautiful the year I turned 18. Until my mom suggested joining Weight Watchers, I had never really connected how my body looked to the way I ate. Unfortunately, I gained the weight back and more by the time I was 22. I joined Weight Watchers again and lost some weight which I again regained. Between the time I was 18 and now, I have lost and gained weight with similar results 3-4 times.

When I returned to work in 2011 after having my daughter, I was really struggling with being heavier than I had ever been, along with a short bout of depression, work/family stress, emotional eating and binging. My heaviest was 211. I had rejoined Weight Watchers that spring, but just found the whole experience frustrating. The idea that it was crazy to do the same time over and over again and expect a different resulted in a very defeatist attitude and I quit Weight Watchers, knowing my head was not where it needed to be to be successful. I struggled a couple of years more waffling between wanting to lose weight and trying to just accept myself as I was – but most of all – if I was going to lose weight again, I wanted to keep it off.



Between 2011 and 2014, I had been doing some reading on blogs like Can You Stay for Dinner (her weight loss struggle and new attitude towards food and eating is really inspiring) and Drop It and Eat: Drop the Diet and Manage Your Weight (a blog by a dietician who works with folks who suffer from eating disorders). These blogs had convinced me that whatever I did about my weight, I need to approach it in a way that was sustainable and healthy and that was non-punishing. I just wasn’t quite sure where to start or how to go about it.

Then one day last spring, after being a little shell shocked by some pictures taken during a vacation with my family: I was listening to the radio and heard an interview with Dr. Yoni Freedhoff who was promoting his book The Diet Fix: Why Diets Fail and How to Make Yours Work.



The corny title of the book not-withstanding, his interview focused on how 90% of diets end in failure and for chronic dieters, this can mean years of compounded frustration, disappointment and shame--baggage that won't make weight loss any easier the next time. He spoke of “traumatic” dieting and the toll it takes. Then he also spoke of what research has taught him about folks who successfully keep their weight off – whatever you do – aim for the healthiest lifestyle that you can truly enjoy and your healthy habits will stick – don’t just do what you can tolerate, or the weight will creep back. His credentials and history or working with obese patients convinced me to at least read his book, and well, it gave me a good starting place.

After reading the book, I committed to the following:

• Track my food intake for 1 full year using myfitnesspal, as accurately as possible, using a food scale and nutrition information whenever makes sense, and track to best of my ability whenever I eat out or do not have access to my scale.
• Don’t be ruled by the scale, but weigh in 1-2 times a month to monitor progress
• Try to eat under my maintenance calories more than I eat over them
• Review my progress monthly in terms of # of days eating under maintenance vs. over; average of daily calorie intake for the month, and pounds lost/gained.
• Be kind to myself – this exercise was about forming a habit and keeping information to help me find my own way to healthier living in a way that I enjoyed.

When I started this journey, I wasn't even sure what the results would be, but I figured at least I wouldn't gain anymore weight. I hoped I would lose weight, but ultimately I wanted to change the behaviours that got me to 211 pounds and adopt ones that would stop the lose/gain cycle I've been fighting all of my adult life. The result is that I am the same weight now as I was when I got pregnant, and I'm feeling pretty darned good about myself.

Here are the results!

Starting weight on June 1, 2014: 211 pounds
Weight on June 1, 2015: 175 pounds
Total Weight lost: 36 pounds
Height is 5’4” and age is 38.

Some after pics...

These are shorts I wore last year - much too big now!




So what did I learn…

• Consistency is more important than perfection
• Perfection is certainly not necessary
• Being hungry is not necessary – in fact it is an enemy to my weight loss. Too much calorie restriction leads to binging (for me, at least)
• Knowledge is power – track the binges – sometimes they are not as bad as your destructive inner voice would like you to believe. The ability to put a 3700 calorie day in perspective of a whole month is a powerful lesson.
• 1 year can bring you a long way, but I still have a ways to go to creating the lifestyle I truly want
• Emotional eating is still something I need to work on (May was my worst month so far – to be fair my Dad was in the hospital)

Goals for the next 365 days:

• Continue to journal food on MFP everyday
• Participate in at least 30 minutes of physical activity every day for 365 days
• Bring my net daily calorie intake average closer to 1800 calories
• Explore new, enjoyable ways to increase my fitness
• Improve consistency around meal planning during the week and packing lunches the night before.
• Include more vegetables at lunch and dinner