Thursday, January 29, 2009

Weighty Issues

So even though I've had a lot of upheaval in my life over the past couple of months, I have kept my dieting in check. I have stuck with the WW plan, and even find myself doing better on it now that I don't have my former fiance breathing down my neck about it.

What I think is so incredible about the whole thing is that I have lost nearly 35 pounds since September without once stepping foot into a gym. Don't let me mislead you, I still exercise, but it isn't the exhaustion-inducing two hour-plus marathons of my past. I walk the dog, shovel the sidewalks (yay January in New York!) or my favorite, ExerciseTVOnDemand. I do workout videos in my livingroom. Yes, folks, I am one of those women jazzercising on the rug. Well, perhaps not jazzercising, but you get it, right?

I've been hesitant to set a final goal weight since I started my WW fling for two reasons. First, I don't want to feel like a failure if I don't get to that goal as I intend. Secondly, it would be a very large amount of weight, as I started at 253 pounds. Overwhelming, I know.

WW has had the greatest impact in regards to my mental changes. I have lost my mental heaviness, my feelings of being overwhelmed by where I am. I am not afraid of not reaching the number goal I set, because I know that anything, anything less than what I started at, will make me successful in what I'm doing for my life.

I do a lot of thinking when I walk my dog. Sometimes I pray with a little pocket rosary I made (a habit I picked up when my dad was in ICU), sometimes I think about where I want to go in life, sometimes I think just about how strong I am as a person, and the things I know I can accomplish. I've been letting this sink in for a few days: My goal on Weight Watchers is to lose 100 pounds. And I'm going to do it without a gym membership.

That isn't to say I won't use a gym. I have access to one on the campus of the college I go to, and have plans to go twice a week with the best group of friends a girl could have. I also live in a town with four different gyms, whose one-week trial passes I intend to use strategically throughout my journey. I can also swim at the local college pool for a very small donation. And I always have my standby- Fiona, a leash and my neighborhood.

Losing weight isn't going to be cheap. I pay $40 a month for the honor of attending WW meetings. I think I want to do this to show myself that I don't need to be bored in the gym to have a hot and healthy body. There are so many things I can do on my own, for free or nearly so, that I don't need to pour every last dime I have into an exercise mill.

And lets be honest, I'm in college, working 25 hours a week and paying all of the household bills (power bill alone is $300+ over the winter) on my own. I don't have the money for a gym membership, even if I wanted one!

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