Lost 53 pounds and counting...

by Cristina
(Canada)

Excellent tips and advice from Cristina!

I had weight problems throughout my teens, but it was never really out of control until I hit around 21 years old. The final straw came when I went to the Doctor's office, and they weighed me in at 190 pounds, and for my height that meant that I was obese. I was devastated. The receptionist looked at my face and saw that and said something like "Yes...it's too much." That day I decided to go on the Weight Watchers program using some books my Mom had, which meant I didn't eat much that day since I had already had a baloney sandwich!

At first it felt impossible to stop eating pizza, cheese, french fries, chocolate, caramels - because I found that even though you can eat a little of those foods, a little triggered a lot. I got rid of all the unhealthy foods I had, bought a whole new stock of food, and that was it!

Another thing I did was find/make recipes that meant I can still tell myself "I'm eating pizza" when it's not take-out pizza. I often made veggie dogs with WW bread and mustard, along with baked vegetable "fries" so that I could say to myself "Hmm, tonight I think I'll have hot dogs and fries."

Substitutions are excellent to help you feel like you're not depriving yourself. Then after a while, you won't even really want to tell yourself you're having hot dogs and fries, or at least for me after a while I like to tell myself I'm eating healthily versus eating comfortably.

My biggest tip is to tell the people who care about you and ask for their support. Tell them that whether they accept you as you are or not, YOU refuse to accept your current situation because it does not make you as happy as you would like, and ask them to support you by not offering to share their foods/drinks, and accepting the answer "no". This was especially important for my roommates and now my boyfriend. They mean well and don't want to exclude you, but they're not the ones trying to lose weight!

I joined Weight Watchers meetings when I found myself stalling at around 40 pounds lost. Weighing myself weekly was SO helpful because the weeks that you don't want to weigh yourself are the weeks that you probably should! I still would like to lose another 15 pounds, but I have reached my goal of being in the healthy weight range, and I cannot believe I have sometimes.

I know it sounds weird, but my life is so much better having lost the weight. I feel like I can go out with people my age and wear what they're wearing, and have people look at me and think positive things instead of being paranoid that if someone looks at me they're thinking "she's so fat!"

It's given me the confidence to feel like I deserve to be treated with respect, and to think respectfully of myself!