A Batch of Brownies

I've always struggled with my weight. I've never been a small person and this didn't really bother me enough to make a change until four years ago when I walked into a Weight Watchers meeting. Until that point, I tried every single diet, diet pill, liquid supplement, blah, blah, blah there was. Nothing worked. And even if it did, the pounds didn't stay off long enough to make any difference.

It took being engaged and having a set wedding date to change all of that for me. Once I had a date set, I knew that nothing else would be put in place until the pounds came off. I didn't want to be fat in my wedding dress. And we all know how "slimming" (insert sarcasm here) of a color white is.

So in June 2006, I walked into a building that changed my life. (Insert sappy music here.) No, but really - Weight Watchers taught me so much. I used to think that counting points and reading nutritional info was too time consuming and not something I would be interested in, but it taught me to control my portions and make better choices. I lost 72 pounds on the weight watcher program in 10 months. Amazing progress if I may say so myself.

I didn't have enough time to enjoy that new body I was rocking because the following month - I got pregnant. All that hard work....but I don't want to say it was for nothing. I achieved my goal and wore my dream wedding dress in 4 sizes smaller than I would have a year before.

I have the WW program memorized and know it like the back of my hand. I gained 45 (yes, 45) pounds being pregnant with AJ. Everyone said if I breastfed it would come right off. So I breastfed. Did the weight come off? NOPE! I exercised. Did the weight come off? NOPE! I lost about 30 of those pounds over the course of 18 months. Then I got pregnant with Aiden. Repeat the whole weight gain thing. This time I only gained 22 pounds. I told myself (and Adam) that I was going to strictly follow the WW plan again as soon as he was born. So I did.... for two weeks and then I slowly started falling back into bad habits. I did this on again, off again stuff for two months before I decided that I was walking right back into the Weight Watcher office that helped me lose weight the first time.

I set a goal of losing 45 pounds. I had my first weigh in this past Friday and I lost....... 8.2 pounds in ONE WEEK! This obviously shows you how badly I must have been eating! I'm also not sure if it has to do with my starting student teaching which obviously restricts my eating all day long. Regardless, I LOST WEIGHT! And I'm going to continue going to the meetings... I actually pre-paid for 12 weeks so I keep going.

The most important thing I've learned about myself through my weight loss journey the first time and has been re-affirmed to me now is that accountability is what makes me successful. It's not enough for me to follow the program at home and weigh myself. It's knowing that I'm going to walk into a place and let somebody see my weight and track my progress. It's what worked for me last time and what will work for me again this time.

Bring on the new body! (I'll make sure to post my progress here too so I'm held accountable in more ways than one!) :-)

Until next time,
Mama Brown(ie)