why can't I make lemon pie? (or subtitled: why losing weight slowly is apparently better than the alternative)
I weighed in today for week 2 of my journey to better fitness and I had lost 1 pound. Add that to the one pound I lost last week and it is a total of 2 pounds. To be fair, my goal is to lose 35 pounds in 2010, and there are more than 35 weeks left in 2010, so if I keep this pace, I can reach my goal.
Nonetheless, it would be false to say that I am excited about my 1-lb a week trend. Having tried other ways of losing weight before (low-carb being the most successful "diety" type way) and in the beginning you lose a lot of weight fast, this pace seems discouraging to me. I want to be one of those people who loses 3 lbs a week for a few weeks and then slows to 1 lb a week (though I know that would be discouraging too).
Weight Watchers gave me an inspirational message today about why losing weight slowly is best and it was good for me to be reminded of the following:
1) my goal is long term fitness and health - I am not currently crash dieting to fit into a bridesmaid dress or to look good for a wedding (as I have had to do before), nor am I trying to trick my body into doing something that I am not planning to keep up. Right now, I'm adding back into my life different types of exercise and activity and finding ways to make that work with a grad student lifestyle.
2) there are enough weeks in the year for me to make my goal.
3) even after only 2 weeks, I am really learning a lot about myself, my eating habits, my activity habits, and my mental habits. I cannot wait to see what those habits are going to look like in week 10.
So for now, I'm taking the small win - I lost 1 pound this week and I'm proud of it, even though I wish it were more. I've lost 2 pounds in two weeks, which is now a trend of weight loss and healthy living and I'm excited about it! I may have to readjust my rewards slightly ( I was getting a reward for every 5 pounds, but maybe now I need to do something weekly instead) so that I can keep a positive attitude.
And thanks to all y'all for keeping me accountable and helping me along this journey!
30 thankful days
12 years ago
3 comments:
The same thing happened to me on WW. I usually lose 5-6 pounds the first week on a new diet but on WW it was <2 and I was initially discouraged. I have to say though the slow steady low numbers became a huge encouragement to me over time. Each week, even on a bad week I would see a small loss and I would think about how it was working and how it was a more realistic way to live and lose weight. Big loses some weeks usually mean big gains on bad weeks with other diets. On WW I found the diet to be very forgiving and manageable and that was a fine trade-off for steady but very slow weight loss. So congrats on your first weigh-in! Whoohoo, 1 pound! Way to go! - A.
Thanks for your encouragement, A! I appreciate the cheerleading and I'm keeping my head and my spirits up about my progress! :)
I love you Tiff... and I miss you very much. I'm living my life by the same motto right now, "Slow and steady wins the race." You can't write a Ph.D. thesis or lose 35 lbs. in a week. Keep up the good work (on the PhD and the WW). Love. - Collin
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