My first time ....

With weight watchers was back in 1991. I’d just finished my course up at Tech. Lucky for me it also finished my love affair with the cafeteria and the sausage rolls. I think I was about 28 or so and I weighed 66.2kgs. Now it doesn’t sound like much and I would like to be that weight again, but to be honest I was or felt just as big then as I do now. Your body dynamics certainly do change as you get older. Maybe your bones get heavier. Anyway it took me 13 weeks to get down to 56 kgs. I felt and looked great. That much I can remember.

So I’ve been thinking about what I did to lose it. Well back then I was single, raising my children on a low income. I had no choice but to plan every single meal. I had to budget for everything that went in my mouth. And I did. I didn’t have fancy meals. In fact at least two of my dinner meals a week consisted of a couple of slices of luncheon and a large salad. I also had my own little vege garden and we had stir fry veges stuffed into pita pockets and then in the oven with a bit of grated cheese and hey presto – very yumolicious. It was a great way to get my littlies to eat their veges and it was really filling at the same time. I was extremely organised. And 100% committed to losing. There wasn’t a lot happening in my life and I needed to have something that I could focus on.

Having gestational diabetes taught me that I can go without butter, oils, sugar and sweet stuff. So I started grilling or steaming my food. I use to save my butter for night to have on my boiled potato. I used lemon juice a lot. On fish, meat, salads and my water. I struggled with water back then too and I used to stand at the sink and make myself drink a whole glass every couple of hours or so. I kept a bowl of ww jelly in the fridge all the time to cover snacky periods. I was really focused and it worked. I admit some of my food might have been a bit bland but it didn't worry me and I was rewarded every week with a loss and what more motivation and inspiration do you need other than that. My one treat every week was after my ww meeting I would buy a bag of Eta chips, a big one of course and go home and polish them off watching telly. (I use to make sure the kids were in bed so I didn't have to share them) I figured if I was going to indulge I’d do it once a week straight after weigh in and then I would have a full week to deal with any gain I might have.

I use to have my hungry moments. From memory these were mostly at night time. To distract myself I use to go down to the bedroom and try on clothes. I couldn't afford to buy new clothes but my sister and her daughters always had plenty and every year I use to get a bag full of clothes. So I had plenty and in different sizes. Looking good makes you feel great. Trying on clothes and finding you can get into them or they’re getting looser makes you feel fantastic. The thought of food is gone, you’ve got a smile on your face, your spirits have lifted you might even go and put on some makeup do your hair, prance around in front of the mirror and you earn extra bonus points by having to put all the clothes back on the clotheshangers and back in your wardrobe. The binge is thwarted.

One thing I never did was exercise. I did have two hyper active boys tho that didn’t stop from 7.00am till 6.30pm. It seems I was always on the go. I know this for a fact because I was never able to drink a whole cup of coffee in one hit. I’d be up and down all the time. To this day I still drink cold coffee.

So re-reading this, what worked for me then was being organised. I think being organised gave me more discipline and willpower to succeed. Planning meals where I would eat every 2- 3 hours made it easy to sustain from unnecessary picking. If you don’t have anything planned you’re more likely to make the wrong choices.

So time to get organised.