I’m probably not going to do an update on this every month, but things are still changing fast enough that it is worth it for now.
- my weight has dropped almost two stone — I’m still averaging about two pounds a week1, and my usual routines have reestablished themselves. I feel lighter in myself.
- I’m able to wear clothes I haven’t fitted into for years — I mentioned shirts last time, but now it’s trousers and jeans in smaller sizes which I can not only squeeze into but actually spend a comfortable day in.
One side note here is that the smaller jeans in particular don’t have big enough pockets to hold my phone. The last time I wore these was before I got a smart phone, and my current device is huge in comparison to the flip phone I had before. So I have had to get a phone holster to go on my belt so I can sit down while wearing my jeans.
Bonus: I can use this holster with anything. - running continues to be easier — I am routinely seeing sub-nine minute pace over some pretty challenging routes, and even had a sub-7:30 mile coming down hill2. Today’s run is emblematic: I did a standard route and thought I had gone quite slowly because I kicked out too fast and then had to slow down a bit in the last mile, but when I checked my records it was the fastest I had run that route.
More significant is that I can run more; I have been able to increase my runs to five a week from four without additional discomfort. In fact, my joints feel much less painful in general.
Also, I just like how loose-limbed I am feeling when I run now. It’s relaxing to go out rather than dreary.
It’s been very positive.
The immediate goal is to regain my lifetime membership status with Weight Watchers3, a goal with which I have a slightly contentious relationship.
The last time I was following a Weight Watchers programme, I followed the plan but I wasn’t eating enough. The zero point foods were very restricted and contained no protein, and I ended up dropping weight past my goal to the point where I couldn’t stop losing. I increased my food intake with maintenance points and I was still shedding, so the meeting leader and I finagled the goal weight a little bit so I could stabilise at a lower weight that was closer to where I had landed while still satisfying the rules as they were then. Then I got my lifetime membership.
But the lower weight was not sustainable, as I had feared, and the purported lifestyle changes didn’t stick because I had been depriving myself in order to stay on programme4. I basically went back to my old eating habits within a month.
So, as I approach my goal weight, I find myself reviewing my records from 2006 and thinking that I need to talk to the leaders at my meeting to see what they think is the best way to negotiate this process. Do I aim for the original goal weight, which is less than ten pounds away now, or for the lower weight I have written on my lifetime membership card (which would probably be sustainable, given the newer programme).
It’s an interesting problem, but it’s a good problem to have.
[1] a kilogramme
[2] which obviously doesn’t count as a PB, but does have the benefit of teaching my body what that feels like so I can push for that pace on the flat.
[3] soon to be rebranded as “WW”, mostly to de-emphasise the weight loss portion of the programme, but I have thoughts on that I will share another time.
[4] the point of Weight Watchers is to encourage lifestyle changes and to not feel deprived in the process, but the older programme didn’t support that at all.