As the old NDK Health Club topic hasn't had a post since last August I figured I would go ahead and create a new one rather than post to the old and break the forum rules.
Here is the old topic BTW
http://ndkdenver.org/forum/index.php/topic,4710.540.html Don't know how everyone else is doing health & weight wise, but I know I have strugled for years to lose even the slightest bit of weight. When the original topic was started I used it to keep me motivated to keep trying at times, but due a few problems in my life the last few months and hadn't really had the chance to do more than browse the forums until recently so I thought I'd go ahead and restart this topic. Over the last decade I've tried numerous different diets, and even in-person WeightWatcher meetings(never had the time to go to more than one a month due to job schedule so I usually stopped going after a few months as they seemed to be a waste of money to me) I've kept years worth of dietary & excercise journals and could do nothing but watch as the weight slowly added on.
This past Christmas I went back to New England to visit my family and wound up talking with my brother and his wife one day and found out they were both doing WeightWatches online, with my sister-in-law also doing a slight variation of most standard diets where she has one day a week where she can eat whatever she wants (she's losing 1-3 lbs a wk on avg). Now hearing about this and thinking both the WeightWatchers online, and how it seemed much different from the in-person meetings I remembered, plus the one day a week where you can eat what you want was a good idea, but not sure how you could fit both of them together I started to look into it.
It turn out the online program at least does allow for you to have a "splurge" day to eat what you want. For those of you who have never tried the online PointPlus program they have it goes like this. In a nutshell, every item of food has a point value asigned to it, which is subtracted from your daily allowed total. Don't worry if you go over your daily total as you also get a set number of weekly points that get used if you go over your daily total. Plus you can earn points for your activities, anything from a leisurely walk to heavy excercise.
Anyways I came back to Cheyenne on the 5th of January and decided to sign up for the online weight watchers with my official first day as the 9th. I then spent the next few days getting ready by doing things such as buying a pedometer to track how much I walked each day (even at a slow pace 10-12 mins of walking earns me 1 pt, and I've found that I actually walk between 90-120 minutes as a minimum every day without specifically excercising thats 8-10 pts a day) and started to plan out my meals. To do this I used the WW(WeightWatchers) online point calculator just to see what some of the foods, meals, and diets, I've tried in the past to attempt to lost weight and found the results to be surprising. Due to my job hours in the past (anything under 70 hrs a wk was considered a slow week for me) I had mostly relied on the so-called ready-to-eat diet foods available out there along with their recomended daily fruits, juice, milk, etc. I was surprised to find that when I had added everything up that if I tried to eat those 'diet' foods & plans I had in the past under the WW program I would be exceeding my daily points constantly, and I was always hungry doing that in the past.
So first thing I did after that I took out all of those pre-processed 'diet' foods from my new diet and replaced them with fresh or frozen foods, with the occassional dried food thrown in. Also stopped using the pre-prepared cooking sauces and marinades and started making my own for much less calories & carbohydrates, not too mention price.
So after a busy weekend of planning, preparing, and shopping I woke up Monday the 9th, weighed myself at 286 lbs , and went to work. Here we are now on Monday the 23rd with my weighing in at 274.4 for an average weight loss of 5.3 lbs a week. Now before anyone says anything I know that the max avg healthy weekly weight loss is 2-3 lbs a week, and as my extended family does have a history of a disease or two that has rapid unexplained weight loss as one of the symptoms I have set up an appointment for later this week to check if it's just greater than normal weight loss and not something more serious.
In closing, if you've tried everything else and can't lose that last bit of weight, or, as in my case, any at all give WeightWatchers online a try, however it does cost about $50 for a 3-month subscription. Also this post was not meant in any way shape or form meant to advertise for WW, rather how it has seemed to finally given me a chance to truly lose weight, we'll see how I'm doing in a few weeks.
Hope to see you all there this September at NDK.
- Ruthgar
PS. Here's a pretty good tasting spicy marinade/stir fry sauce I came up with for whoever wants to try.
1 1/2 - 2 TBSPs wostershier sauce
1 TBSP hot sauce
1/2 TBSP garlic powder
1/2 TBSP black pepper
1/4-1/2 TBSP parsley
1-3 OZ Water(stir fry) (6-8 OZ marinade)
(optional) 1 Oz Balsamic Vinega as desired for taste.
This recipe make enough sauce for 2-2.5 cups of vegetables uncooked, or enough marinade for 8-10 oz of meat uncooked. Use less water for the vegetables if you're cooking them in the microwave.
