There is no better time than NOW, so let’s get excited to get back to a healthy weight and do this!!  The holidays are over and now it’s ME (YOU) time!!!

My sister and her family just left our house at 6am this morning to head home to McKinney, Texas. After a good, long, bawl my eyes out, ugly-face cry and a severe wave of the “how can the holidays be over already?” blues,  I made a decision.  I’m going to be grateful for the amazing memories we made and I’m excitedly going to move into the next phase joyfully!!!

 

Oprah is calling 2016 “the year of our best bodies”. Of course I like that, but if I had my own Weight Watchers commercial, I’d call it “the year of learning to best love our own bodies.”

I don’t want to bore you with writing about me, me, me, soooo, caution:    If you’re bored by my Terra stories, it’s probably best to stop reading now, ’cause this is a long one!  You won’t hurt my feelings if you just don’t tell me :))

I’m going to share the details of my personal experience with the new Weight Watchers Beyond the Scale program, because it’s been incredibly helpful in getting me back to a healthy weight.  Here are the Q & A I have been most asked by Weight Watcher members and friends I have talked to lately:

Q.  Has the Weight Watchers program really changed that much?

     A.  YES, absolutely!

Q.  Is it difficult to cut out so much sugar?

     A.  YEP, at first it is because it isn’t what most of us are used to.  The thing is, once you’ve done it, controlling your eating is SO MUCH EASIER.  Sugar causes cravings and forces us to rely on our will power (of which, I have little).  The more sugar we cut out, the less we crave and the less it’s about will power.  Sugar losses it’s control over us, the less of it we eat it and eating healthy portions of food becomes natural. It becomes much easier to eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full.

Q.  Is WW’s Beyond the Scale livable and does it work for weight loss?

     A.  ABSOLUTELY.  I’ve mentioned my WW progress over the past few months, but here’s the specifics and hopefully you’ll see that if I can do this, so can you!!!  The food choices Beyond the Scale pushes us into making will jump start weight loss and keep us eating the healthy way everyone should for the rest of our lives…spouses and kids included!!!

Setting the Stage

March 2015 – Took a break from leading & going to WW meetings and tracking.  I felt chunky and didn’t love the weight I was at, although it was considered healthy based on the Body Mass Index (BMI).

July 2015 – I really hesitate to “talk numbers” because it’s embarrassing for me and quite personal,  but I’m afraid if I don’t suck it up and tell you, you won’t have as good of an understanding of what changing my eating has done for me. Soooooo, by the end of July 2015, my weight was up about 19 pounds. WA, WA, WA :-((

August 2015 – Went on vaca, saw photos of myself and couldn’t stand it. Started tracking religiously Saturday, August 8th, on the drive home from Hilton Head, SC. By the end of August, I had lost 3 pounds.

September 2015 – Was re-hired by WW and attended trainings. Changed my eating plan completely over to the new (but not yet public) Beyond the Scale WW program and tracked exclusively.  Lost 4 pounds this month for a running total of 7 pounds lost total. 

October 2015 – I had a 3 pound “undeserved” gain one week, so by the end of October, I only had a net loss of a measly 2 pounds!!!!  Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!   This was a very mentally challenging experience!  I’d cut way back on sugar & processed food, I was exercising and feeling great!  What happened??  I still don’t know why the scale went up, but I could feel that I was losing inches and I was down 9 pounds total, so I vowed to keep doing what I was doing.  Ever been there???

November 2015- 3.8 pounds even with the Thanksgiving holiday.  Total weight loss so far, of 12.8 pounds.

December 2015 – 4 pounds lost for a total of 16.8 pounds lost total. :-))))

So that’s the story of my 2015. It was a tough year for me on many fronts…Paige moved away, Cole was away at college, I was back in a more sedentary office environment daily, I gave up my WW support network because I didn’t think I had time for it anymore.  Plus after 13 years, I was sure I could do it alone. WOW was that a poor choice of things to cut out of my life!  Worst of all, I deceived myself into thinking it would just happen on it’s own when it came to managing a healthy weight for myself. Uh—-NO!

The most interesting thing to me is that I’m elated to be almost 17 pounds lighter than I was this summer, but in fact, I’m only back to the weight that I was so upset about in February!!  PERCEPTION, friends!!  It’s all about your perception of yourself!!  Let’s be HAPPY…let’s be grateful for wherever we are right now!!!! It could always be worse and the fact is, right now is pretty darn good, if you’ll let it be!!  Learn to love yourself as you are NOW.  You are beautiful whether a your 5 pounds more than you want to weigh or 105 pounds more. YOU ARE PERFECT JUST AS YOU ARE THIS MOMENT!!!  If you’d like to make changes in 2016, GREAT!!   I’m all about helping you but please, please, please….start those steps towards change from a place of gratitude. Love is never found on the scale at any weight.  Start from a place of Love for yourself and we can accomplish ANYTHING we want!!!

Happy New Year!!  Love you guys!!!

All is well❤️

Terra😄