January 3, 2009 - A dark day

Saturday, January 3, 2009 at 12:30 pm was a dark day in the world of Misti Mancini. (Which was extremely unfortunate since it was only the third day of the new year.) Why was it a dark day? It was the day I found myself sitting at my very first Weight Watchers meeting. I found myself wondering how I got to the point that I needed help with losing weight. Why was I unable to do this on my own? I had lost some of the pregnancy weight during early fall but the scale started going back up during the holidays. I was now 30 pounds overweight. What, what? Dan and I both joined Weight Watchers and decided it was time to make some changes to the Mancini family diet and eating habits.

The line had been drawn in the sand and the big "D" (discipline) was going to be my word for 2009. If I thought Saturday, January 3 was a dark day, it was quickly topped by Sunday, January 4. That is the day my inner child kicked, screamed, and complained that she was starving to death. I eventually had to give her a timeout and let her know she wasn't starving. She just needed to learn how to eat until "satisfied" instead of eating until she was stuffed. Each day got easier and by that Wednesday even my inner child was convinced we could do "this" :)

So, the last five months have been about planning.

For the first time in our almost 15 years of marriage, I started creating a menu for the week. There was no more getting to Thursday and going to Moe's because there was no food in the house. We also started introducing a new recipe each week to make sure we don't get bored and revert back to eating out more then we ate at home.

Saturday, April 11 is the day I reached my weight loss goal. All the hard work (planning, eating healthy, discipline, and etc.) paid off. I was amazed at how quickly the weight came off. I thrived under the structure of the Weight Watcher's program which isn't surprising giving my personality. Also, having Dan's support was invaluable. If I was ever tempted to "cheat", he was there to keep me on task and encourage me. Plus, he too is now 30 pounds lighter. How cool is that?

Now the focus is learning how to maintain my current weight and figuring out how to introduce exercise into my calendar. I'm hoping this new part of the journey will be less time intensive since I've missed the blog world. We'll see :)