What's Works for Me: Weight Goal Update

In January, I lost 5.7% of my body weight. I am a little more than halfway to my goal. I am slightly shocked and incredibly pleased with my progress. Both in my original weight loss and now, I am still finding that keeping track of what I am eating is the key to success for me.

Tracking is fun to me. It's kind of like a puzzle to figure out what combinations of foods fill the remaining daily amount with the most flavor and potential to leave me fuller longer. I used Weight Watchers to lose a significant amount of weight in 2006. I used it again to lose my pregnancy weight in 2010. This fall and winter, I let things get a little out of control. I could blame it on any number of emotional dramas and late-night bowls of cereal, but the fact is that I needed to lose 10% of my body weight to get back to where I was in January 2007.

This time, I am using the free online program called My Fitness Pal. I am using it pretty strictly, though I generally take at least a partial day hiatus on one weekend day. I even uploaded a recipe for the delicious Chocolate Snickerdoodle cookies I made (87 calories each if you get 36 cookies out of the recipe). I am also trying to include as many fruits and vegetables into my diet as possible. Apparently, my being full has as much to do with quantity of food as it does the nutritional makeup of the food. I can eat a LOT of vegetables for very few calories, and make up the balance with lean meats and dairy and the occasional aforementioned snickerdoodle.

I love having a choice of what I will eat. Both Weight Watchers and My Fitness Pal hit the same intellectual places for my way of thinking. I can eat anything I want to eat. Literally nothing is off limits. It's totally up to me what I eat. The only restriction is how much, and that restriction is totally on me. I am hoping that the weather and my immune system will cooperate to let me run more this month. Here's to hoping and to trying! Without those two things, who ever succeeds at anything?