Weight Watchers

At the end of February, Michelle and I joined Weight Watchers and began attending weekly meetings. Though we had tried it once—very briefly—a few years ago, we were not ready for it at that time. But now I feel ready, and the results seem to have borne that out so far. From a starting weight of 249.1, I've been able to come down so far to 234.5 at last night's meeting (on the strength of a satisfying 4.7-pound loss for the week), which allowed me to meet Weight Watchers' initial goal of 5% of my body weight. Eventually, I want to get down to the top end of their recommended range for my height—from 144 (at which I think I'd look virtually skeletal) to 174. But getting to 174 will mean a loss of just over 30% of my starting body weight. This will be a challenge, but it's one I'm committed to continuing to work at.

Weight Watchers works on a points system, with different foods getting different numbers of points, and you 'track' your intake daily. Already, due to the weight I've lost, my daily points budget has dropped from the initial 49 to first 45, then 44, and today, following last night's loss, to 43. But you also earn points for activity, and all the bicycle riding I've been doing has helped greatly. For instance, by virtue of Sunday's 2 hour 20 minute ride, I was able to earn 15 points!