First, let me explain my week… last Monday (6/27/11)  I weighed 405.4… I started watching my foods and trying to cut way down on my intake and on what I ate… it was hard sometimes like when my family and I went to a Chinese place for dinner… I stuck to my plan and had steamed fish and veggies.. I took a bite of 2 of the dishes floating around the table… but only a bite… anyway today I weighed in at 394.0… that is a loss of 11.4 pounds in a week… my goal was 10 pounds so I am very happy!

On top of that  my two best friends in the world (Stuart and Joe) contacted me and said that they were both going to be at Weight Watchers this week.. Stuart has been going and he talked Joe into going… they asked me to join too… at first my immediate response was to say no thank you.. but then I started thinking… Stuart and Joe have been my best friends since Kindergarten… that is 42 years ago.. they have always been there through thick and thin… and have always been very supportive to me.. how could I pass up the opportunity to get and give support from these two?  I couldn’t.. so I sucked it up and got up on a Sunday morning and signed up for Weight Watchers.

Now I have never been involved with Weight Watchers, but I have heard good things about it… and I know that even when I have success with my own weight loss efforts they are usually short lived… the meeting was good.. the instructor was nice and knowledgeable… after the main meeting we had an orientation and the system was explained… pretty much like I figured.. instead of counting the way you do for the Richard Simmons plan you count with Points… there is an easy way to calculate points from nutritional facts.. there are a bunch of tools on the website for members to use that seem very cool…  So I dove in!  Started right then and there.. my official WW weight was 400.6 which with my gender and age gave me 71 points per day…

During the orientation the lady mentions that the points go from 29 to 71 max.. so that hit me too that I am at the max allowed points for their system.. at first I thought ‘cool’ but then it started to bother me…  It is very cool that everything is totally anonymous.. unless I tell someone my weight or points allowed they have no idea and it is never mentioned… I like that.

So after the meeting we stood around and talked for a little while, then I went home and started learning about the WW plan.. I stuck to it with really no issue… we had a BBQ planned for dinner and decided to try a new place out here for lunch… I chose to have 6 buffalo wing appetizer and a side order of sauteed veggies and a fruit cup… It was all very good… and it was hard to watch my youngest eat a cheeseburger that had grilled cheese sandwiches on the top and bottom in place of the buns… and my middle son eating a sausage and chili omelet… but I survived… then at the BBQ dinner I was able to have a rib eye steak, grilled Portabella mushroom, baked potato with sour cream and butter, corn on the cob with butter and a hot dog (no bun) for dinner… note these were all smaller portions than I would normally have… the rib eye was a thinner cut so it was only about 8 oz where I would normally be 16 oz or more…

After all was said and done I had used 66 points so I was under my allowance by 5 points.. and it wasn’t ‘that’ hard.

So now I have a specific plan and I am going to be doing it with my buddies.. I am using the momentum of the successful week and spring boarding into another 2 digit loss week…  my goal this week is 10 pounds lost.