Initial Goal Met!

The day we got to meet Samuel, I resolved to start taking better care of myself. I'd been exercising, but not really watching what I ate, so I wasn't seeing a lot of results from the exercise.  I set a goal to loose 42 pounds by his first birthday. I stepped up the amount of exercise that I was doing, but I didn't get a a very good handle on what I was eating until October last year.  That's when I joined Weight Watchers, and I saw results right away.
Here's a photo from 2010 when my weight was at it's worst:

 Here's a photo from this past September, just before starting Weight Watchers.  I'd been exercising regularly for 8 months, and I'd yo-yo with my weight. I had only been able to keep about 6 measly pounds off.

Here's a photo from last night.

Those jeans were so tight a year ago, that I couldn't comfortably wear them. I bought the Cardnial's t-shirt back in January with the hopes that it would fit by opening day of baseball season - which is today! I've lost 42 pounds since October.  I'm about half-way to my long term goal, but I'm happy with the results so far.

James has been super supportive. Dinner is the only meal that we eat together most of the week, so he gets to eat whatever he wants for breakfast and lunch & we eat a Weight Watcher's friendly recipe together for dinner.  I could not do this if I was having to prepare a separate dinner for myself. We've enjoyed almost every recipe that we've tried.  There are a lot of recipes on the Weight Watcher's website, and there are several food bloggers that post Weight Watcher's friendly recipes. My favorite food blog is skinnytaste. I tried a few of her recipes before I started Weight Watchers, and they were what got me to seriously consider giving Weight Watchers a shot.  Here's some of our favorite recipes from that site:

Three Cheese Tortellini and Mushroom Soup (We're having that for dinner tomorrow.)
Loaded Baked Sweet Potatoes (Sounds odd, but they are quite good)
Crockpot Corned Beef and Cabbage
Turkey Taco Lettuce Wraps

I'm still exercising. I try to get in 4-5 hours of cardio each week.  I rotate between one hour on an elliptical machine or stationary bike and walking outdoors.

The main thing that I like about Weight Watchers is that it is flexible. You don't have to entirely give up eating out or desserts.  You just have to plan for indulgences and make smarter choices.  Most fruits are vegetables and considered "free" - so they don't count towards your daily limit.

I've had a few people ask me if it is hard to follow Weight Watchers.  There is a learning curve when you get started, but after you get into the routine of things it's not that tough.  They have a mobile website that I use on my smart phone to keep track of what I've been eating if I've not close to a computer.  There are a ton of chain restaurants and fast food places in their database, so you don't have to make a guess about the food at those places.  It is a little time consuming to keep track of every last little thing that you ate and to weigh or measure your portions of food out, but it is worth it!  I'm just using the online program with WW for now. I haven't been to any meetings yet, but I think will eventually start going to them.  If you're wondering about cost, the online program is less than $15/month.  That's the cost of three trips to Starbucks. I've traded in my weekly trip to Starbucks for a healthier me.