Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Successful weigh-in

223.2 (official Jenny Craig weight)
220.8 (on my home scale this morning)

Woo Hoo! Just had to share that I had an official loss this week of 3.0 lbs. That puts me at a total of 11.4 lbs down after 4 weeks on Jenny Craig.

I am pretty satisfied with the program. Aside from the one-on-one weekly consultations and their pre-packaged foods, it's really much like any other weight loss program I've tried. The "secrets" to success are portion control, eating more vegetables & less fat, drinking water, eating at a regular intervals, and getting in at least a little exercise. Not rocket science. :-)

As I told my consultant this evening. . . the real question for me is not "can I lose weight?" I know I can lose a certain amount of weight following any diet plan. Just off the top of my head, I can recall four separate occasions in my adult life when I have lost a significant amount of weight (i.e., at least 30 lbs) through dieting & exercise: twice on Weight Watchers, once on Jenny Craig, and once following the Body for Life plan.

No, my real questions are: "Can I continue to lose weight and get to a goal weight?" and "Can I maintain the weight I've lost long-term once I've lost it?" Those are MY real challenges, no matter what program I use to get the weight off. Each time I have lost weight, I have stopped short of reaching a weight within the healthy range for me; each time, I have regained the lost weight within 1-2 years, usually packing on extra pounds besides.

I think the real psychological issues I have related to my weight start to really surface and thwart my progress the closer I get to my goal. Once I get into the 170's and 160's (and below), that's when I'm really going to have to do the hard work; the mental work that it takes for lasting weight loss and maintenance.

For now, I am content to be making progress toward my goal. 11.4 lbs lost in 4 weeks is not too shabby. :-)

1 comments:

Paige said...

Just read your entry at Snackie. On the flip side, I tell people I can't have kids, when really, I just don't want them. I'm only 25 & got tired of being told "Just wait till you get older & you'll want kids"