With all the excitement of the Today Show airing yesterday, I completely forgot to write about the fact that I am now, officially, a Lifetime Member of Weight Watchers! I feel a little guilty, since I was on and off and on again with Weight Watchers throughout my weight loss journey. However, I have been an on-again, off-again member for over a decade, so I really wanted to get this Lifetime Membership!
To recap the last few years: In 2009, I started my journey by counting WW Points (although I wasn't a member). Then I eventually switched over to counting calories with SparkPeople. When WW started the PointsPlus program, I joined for a couple of weeks to try it out, and really disliked it at the time, so I continued counting calories.
For a while, I stopped counting everything altogether, but that only made me gain weight. And then most recently, I was super inspired by my friend Stephanie's before and after photos to give Weight Watchers another chance. I joined the Weight Watchers Online program. I'm really glad I did! I started it with an open mind, and followed the program to the tee, basically so I could say, "See? It doesn't work." ;)
Obviously, I was wrong, because I lost 23 pounds, getting my weight back down, and reaching my ultimate goal weight!
A few pounds shy of my goal, I signed up for the meetings--so that I could lose the last 5 pounds with WW meetings and become an official Lifetime Member, where I won't ever have to pay for the meetings or the e-tools as long as I stay at goal.
Naturally, I would somehow plan it horribly, to where my final weigh-in for Lifetime would be the day after getting home from a week's vacation in Florida. But I counted my PointsPlus there, and did really well--I actually lost a pound while I was gone!
So yesterday was an exciting day for me--first, I was interviewed on the local news; then my team's story was shown on the Today Show; and then I went to WW for my Lifetime weigh-in. I stepped on the scale, not even caring what it read, because it was a given that I was under my WW goal. I had to fill out a paper to make it official, and then I went into my meeting.
Even when my leader asked if anyone wanted to share about their loss, I didn't speak up. I hate being so shy! I felt like I actually had every right to talk about myself yesterday, but I just couldn't do it. I sat through the meeting, and then my leader gave me my Lifetime award (a little key charm). She also gave me a 10-lb ribbon, meaning I'd lost 10 pounds since joining.
I should have spoken up then, and said that I'd actually lost that, plus another 110 pounds, but was still too shy. Everyone clapped politely for my award, and I could feel my face burn with embarrassment. When the meeting was over, one woman congratulated me on Lifetime and asked how much I'd lost. Finally, I told her--120 pounds. I showed her my before photo, and she was shocked.
From her reaction, everyone else crowded around and wanted to see also, including the leader. My leader didn't even know how much I'd actually lost! She was really excited for me, and I told her that by doing WW Online, my starting weight didn't really "count". She was kind of appalled by this, and gave me a 10% key chain, as well as the 25-lb, 50-lb, and 75-lb charms!
Now I can give my sister her 10% key chain back ;) I also got a little "members only" type card, showing my Lifetime status.
I chatted with some of the members, feeling much more comfortable, and they said they wanted to hear more about my story next week. Now that I'm back on schedule (i.e. Ragnar is over), I can attend the same meeting every week and hopefully get to know the members in my meeting.
During the Ragnar, I was talking with Meredith and Andrea about Weight Watchers, and I was a little jealous--it sounds like they have great relationships with the other members in their meetings. I really need to stop being so shy, and just speak up. I felt awkward talking during the meeting before, because I was new, and everyone probably assumed that I was new to WW as well.
But I really do feel that I have a lot to offer at the meetings, and I would love to talk with the other members about their ideas as well. So I will try my best to speak up at the next meeting.
Yesterday, I skipped my run. I can honestly count on one hand the number of times I've skipped a run in three years! I NEVER skip runs. However, I was exhausted from vacation, I had gotten up at 3:45 AM to go to the news station, and I don't have an active running schedule right now. I just had in my head to continue to run Sun, Mon, Tue, Thur, and Fri.
I thought about running yesterday afternoon, but was so exhausted, and decided not to. I ran hard in Florida (24 miles total on my "vacation"), so I felt justified in taking an extra day off, even though I hadn't planned on it. I spent the entire day like this on the couch:
Today, it was REALLY hard for me to not skip another day. Fridays are my long run days, and I just didn't want to do it. But I did, just before lunch, and I felt a million times better for doing it. Since I don't have an actual running schedule at the moment, I just chose to do 8 miles--not sure where I came up with that number, but it sounded good to me.
I lost my Garmin USB ANT+ stick somewhere between Florida and Michigan, so I can't upload any of my Garmin's data until I buy a new one :( I'm bummed! I'm pretty sure I had it in Miami, right before we left, but I don't have a clue what happened to it.
My splits: 8:58, 8:51, 8:53, 8:50, 8:55, 8:56, 8:45, 8:23. I ran 8.04 miles in 1:10:52 (8:48/mi pace).
I was shocked when I saw those splits! That just goes to show how much the humidity affected my pace in Florida. My pace for my 8.8 miler in Florida was 9:59 (including a couple of traffic stops).
Seeing these splits made me decide that it's time to PR my 10K distance. My PR is 55:05 (8:52/mi pace). Since I ran 8 miles at an 8:48/mi pace, I think I'm ready to kill that PR!
By the way, thanks for all the compliments on the red dress I wore on the news yesterday! I wasn't sure about wearing it, because when I bought it, Renee and Jessica both gave it a thumbs-down (in a nice, I'm-your-friend-telling-you-my-opinion kind of way). While I appreciated their honesty, I really liked the dress, so it's been in my closet for a year with the tags still on it! I like that dress, because it covers the parts of my body I'm self-conscious of (thighs, upper arms), but it's figure-flattering.
I'm glad I ended up wearing it, because I got a lot of compliments on it!
