A New Start to a New Me

As a gamer, weight loss felt like an impossible feat.  I mostly play World of Warcraft, which has me sitting on my butt in front of a computer for hours on end, grouped up with friends to kill imaginary dragons.  I had always been heavier, but as I got more and more into the game, my weight steadily increased until I stood in front of the mirror one day, and cried.  You see, I had reached 221 lbs.  On a 5'2 female frame, that puts me in the obese category for the BMI.  This was my rock-bottom moment.

Obese.  It's such an ugly word, it's almost taboo.  Most people aren't going to point to someone they don't know and tell them how fat they are.  It's something whispered, something known but not discussed.  Even friends will put on blinders, pretending the weight doesn't exist.  Oh some fat people will joke about being fat, but really that is a cover up for their insecurities.  Nobody that I know of are actually happy to be fat.

So after crying for several hours, I strapped some steel to my spine and started looking online for information.  Solid information is easy to find, but misinformation is even easier, I discovered.  I googled all sorts of diets, from South Beach, to Atkins, to Paleo, to Nutrisystem, and so on.  So many people recommend these diets, but as I was looking through a lot of the do's and don'ts, I found that these diets really wouldn't work for my lifestyle.  I love certain foods, and didn't relish the idea of giving them up.

Weight Watchers

I discovered Weight Watchers about 1 ½ months prior to hitting my rock-bottom, when my Grandmother had shown me some of the reading material.  She is a lifetime member, and her and my Grandfather both use it to maintain their weight.  At that time, it was only a couple of weeks before my birthday, and she asked me if I would be interested in starting Weight Watcher’s. I said sure, because heck, never hurts to have more weight loss information around.  She gave me most of her own reading material right then and there, and then mailed me the PointsPlus Calculator a week or so later (we live 3,000 miles apart).

I knew that the weight loss would be slower on Weight Watcher’s, and that’s why I initially didn’t look at it as my diet plan of choice.  But as I started drifting from the reasonable diets to the fad diets, to the diets that sounded absolutely crazy (the Cookie Diet? Really?), I realized that Weight Watchers would probably be the one that fit my lifestyle the best.  After all, it wasn’t about cutting out the things you love, but eating them in moderation.

I utilized Weight Watchers from May 5^th to June 22, 2013, with moderate exercise, and lost 9 lbs.  That is an amazing number, since I thought it was never going to happen.  But I noticed that I lost more in that first month…a lot more.  I lost 6  lbs that first month, and I’m only 11 days from finishing my second month, and only lost 3 so far, even though I have bumped up my exercise.  I hit plateaus frequently where I don’t budge for several days, or even gain a few oz.  I was getting frustrated, and I felt I needed to do more about it.

MyFitnessPal

Many people told me about MyFitnessPal, and I'll admit, I resisted trying it because everyone was using it.  I didn't want to be another one of those people who jump on the bandwagon.  After trying it yesterday, I do wish I had started using it from the beginning, but I can always go back and add the information from my food journal should I wish to.  It keeps my food list nice and neat, I can add my exercise to it, and it keep track of the calories automatically so I really don't have to figure it out for myself.

My goal is 1200 calories a day.  On average, this should drop about 2lbs per week.  It's an ambitious goal, for sure, but I am so tired of being obese. 

Weight on 6/23/13: 212.3

6/23/13 Food Diary:
1 Banana-110 calories
1 Tall Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte (Starbucks)-100 calories
9 Pieces California Roll (Sushi)-286 calories
Rice-a-Roni Rice Pilaf, 1/2 cup prepared-155 calories
1 Pork Chop-140 calories
Corn on the Cob, 1 ear-118 calories
1 Reeses Peanut butter Cup-90 calories
1 Colby Jack Cheese Stick-90 calories
1Weight Watchers Triple Chocolate Ice Cream Bar-110 calories
1 Chicken Breast, skinless, 4 oz-128 calories
Total: 1327 calories

 6/23/13 Exercise Diary:
Elliptical for 1 hour-504 calories burned

Total Calories Used: 1327-504=823

What Happens Now?

I started this blog to help keep me accountable, and to maybe inspire other gamers to lose weight, as well.  There's a stereotype of gamers being lazy and fat, and I know I would love to not be a part of that statistic.  I'm not perfect, so I expect there to be ups and downs, good days and bad days.  But I'm glad to have started this journey.

Thank you for reading, and I look forward to many future posts!