Weight Loss & Change.

I'm becoming a bit of a bore. It always happens when I have a lifestyle change because I get a bit OCD in my routine, in order to keep me on the straight and narrow.

Since January, I have been doing Weight Watchers or as they have now re-branded themselves, WW. Mind-blowing identity change I know, but maybe they think people haven't got the time or energy to say 2 whole words with 3 syllables when dieting! I say dieting, but I'm actually not dieting at all. The main changes I have made in how I eat is; to cook everything from scratch, cut out sugar, lower my intake of carbs and make my portion sizes a little smaller. I don't drink much alcohol either but that's mainly due to the fact my RA drugs don't like booze, so it's best to not consume too much.

The other thing I do is leave 4 hours between my evening meal and going to bed so that my body has time to digest properly. As I go to bed around 10 or 10:30pm every night, this means I eat around 6pm, which socially, is quite challenging. You can't really invite people to a dinner party at 6pm. A BBQ yes, but there is something about sitting down for dinner at 6pm that makes you feel like you're sitting at the kids table at a family gathering. It just doesn't feel right. So, I have tended not to go out as much in the evenings as I used to, instead I make lots of plans during the day at weekends because I know I won't fall off the wagon, so to speak. If I do fall off my 'healthy eating' wagon and go out for a big lunch, it's not the end of the world because I just won't have as much in the evening. But it is difficult because I love having dinner parties and I love eating out.

If I do have a dinner party and we are eating late, then I adopt Plan B. I wait 14-16 hours between the last bite of desert and eating the following day which means breakfast might be around 11am, but it seems to work, counteracting the increase of calories with a longer fasting stage. The harder part is not drinking too much, especially during the balmy evenings of summer in my garden, when I don't have to drive and bottles of wine are generously gifted. One glass of Prosecco miraculously becomes 5, as if Jesus has done a party trick, and before you know it, I've consumed my whole day's allotted calories in 40 delicious sips.

But the main thing is that I feel great, and that's all that matters really. As of today I have lost 30lbs which is pretty good, but I would like to lose another stone (14lbs) which will make me the same weight as I was when I was 26. Some people have assumed that I'm losing all the weight because I'm going to start dating again, but that's not the reason at all. In fact, it wasn't even a conscious decision when I signed up to WW on January 1st 2019. I simply did it so I could use the online food diary out of curiosity. It becomes weirdly addictive, logging your food every day, seeing it's nutritional breakdown and counting the good and bad points. It has made me really focus on what I'm putting in my body, especially now that my Rheumatoid Arthritis means that eating anti-inflammatory is much better for me.

So I'm not here bragging or promoting anything, I'm simply saying I'm happy with my body for the first time in years. And if anyone of the opposite sex also finds that my body makes them happy, then that's an added bonus!


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