Getting Started On WW

EPISODE 1

LIVING HEALTHY IS NOT A DIET

Hello everyone welcome to my new series about living a healthy lifestyle! This series is based around WW ( formerly known as weight watchers) but if you have 0 interest in WW let me tell you, you don’t have to be on the plan for this information to be useful.Trust me, It’s worth a listen.

Before we get into this post I would like to disclaim that I am NOT a doctor or dietician. The information is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. All of this information is my own personal experience, and knowledge that I’ve learned along my journey. Make sure you double check with your doctor if you have any questions!

Alrighty friends, in case you don’t know what WW is here's a brief explanation. I prefer to call it a “lifestyle change” instead of a diet. A diet generally means to restrict yourself to small amounts or to special kinds of food in order to lose weight. I don't know about you guys but that DOES NOT sound appealing to me. On WW you eat what you want, when you want as long as the foods fit into your daily points… but listen eating 3 cheeseburgers from McDonalds isn’t going to work well for you. The key is to find foods that you ENJOY eating , that fit into your daily points.What WW does is they use a calorie countying system that is personalized for each individual, based on your age, weight, height, and sex. All you do is track everything you eat and drink, as well as your workouts if you choose to do so. You track this thru the very simple and user friendly app or website. In my opinion in this program you learn what to eat, what fuels your body, and once you're at your goal, how to maintain that weight. Let's not get confused though I don't want anyone to hyper focus only on the number you see on the scale. I encourage all of you to want to be the best version of yourself, and whatever that may mean to you. Whether it's losing weight, having more energy during the day , or maybe just learning what the correct things to eat are!

Who is this program for?! Honestly, anyone! It doesn't matter if you are a size 18 or a size 6, you can do it. If you are 25 years old or 75 years old, you can do it! If you want to feel more confident, have more energy, be able to do more physical activity, or just be healthier, you can do it!

There are so many “healthy lifestyle” “weight loss” programs out there, why choose WW?! Well let me tell you other ways I’ve attempted to shed the LBS, and what my personal opinion on them. First starting with the famous and ever so popular Keto. I did some research and started eating the way they recommended, used an app to make sure what I was eating was keto friendly (low in carbs, sugar). After a few weeks I didn’t lose any weight and realized I had never gotten into ketosis. I didn’t give up, I created an excel spreadsheet with meals for the day that kept me in the right amount of calories, carbs, etc. Fool proof plan, right?!? Wrong still couldn't get into ketosis so i said screw it. Also a very big issue I had with keto is, I like to drink. If you drink too much you can get bumped out of ketosis and start the process of getting back into it again. PLUS my skin hated it, you have to eat so much fat, my skin had never looked worse!

Second, I tried to just do what I considered “clean eating” . I struggled with this because I would over eat, and I didn't know how to determine what was good and what wasn't, for example just because it says healthy, or organic does mean it's healthy or good for you.

Third, not eating at all or eating less will not make you lose weight or feel good. Lastly you CAN'T outwork a bad diet. If you are eating crap and tell yourself you will burn it off in the gym, I am here to tell you that is NOT the case. These are a few things that I have tried.

Obvious reasons why WW , is the best program. It’s simple, you can be social, you can go out to eat, you can travel and find foods that fit into your points at restaurants and fast food places. AND I LOVE what I am eating and because of that, it makes this program easy for me, and it makes me be successful with the program, and trust me guys I'm not over here eating salads. Here are some meals from this past week. If that’s not enough of a recommendation, let me tell you this. WW was rated #1 doctor recommended weight loss program and #1 best diet!

PERSONALLY why I love WW, besides losing weight. Growing up I never knew what the correct things were to eat. I didn’t know about calories, portions, healthy food ( except for if it was green it was good). I was a very picky eater, I liked chicken fingers and subway, not alot to work with. My parents always pushed me toward more healthy options but that was a losing battle. When i started doing WW i learned about sugar, fat, protein, natural sugars, ALL the things. I stopped looking at food possessively. As if I would never have the opportunity to eat it again. I stopped eating because i was bored, and it was a hobby. My relationship with food was not healthy, and WW changed all of that. 5 people in my family including me have done WW. There is a reason why it has been around for so many years and is still rated #1. I am a flight attendant, always on the go eating in galleys, airports, random cities, and i can still do this program. I enjoy drinking, being social, going out to dinner, I still do that on this program. I don't find myself having to bring meals with me if i know i'll be out of the house for a few hours, there's lots of food options around me. It’s a dream plan.

In this series I want to make something very clear. There will be no fat shaming, or skinny shaming. This series has open arms to everyone, whether you want to lose 5lbs or 255 lbs I am here for you! No one person is the same we are all different shapes, and sizes, and we are all beautiful. This will be a safe zone and anything other than positivity or constructive kind criticism will NOT be tolerated. This is a very vulnerable subject for many people and we are here for lifting others up, not bringing them down. I know what some of you may be thinking, why should I listen to this woman? What does she know about struggling to lose weight? I get it, I really do, but losing weight never came easy to me. I was never the skinny girl in the room. I have been in that dark place that food and the scale can put you in, and WW was my secret weapon that made this lifestyle change doable for me. I’ve lost most of my weight, I still have a few lbs to go, and I'm still working on being my best self. Don’t judge a book by its cover and don’t assume i can't relate to each and every one of you, because in some way i'm sure i can. I’m here to support you on this journey and I am very excited!

I want to briefly share my WW journey so you all know i’ve been there and done it. I successfully did WW for the first time about 5 years ago. I lost about 30 lbs. My weight was around 120 (I am 5’5 for reference). I hadn’t been that size since 6th grade. I couldn't believe how well the system worked, and all I had to do was eat within my points. Fast forward 2 years, went to my flight attendant training, went through a break up, while moving to a new city with a new job, basically an entire new life. I was drinking too much, eating WAY too much of the wrong things and had no balance. I gained the weight back and struggled for about 2 years doing WW off and on, and never fully stuck to the program. I made excuse after excuse. I knew how easy it was to do the program and because of that i told myself i could do it at any time. Fast forward to October 2020, many months into quarantine, just was furloughed from my job. I put my foot down and told myself we were going to do the damn thing. Here we are January 2021 just a few lbs from my goal weight.

Before getting started we’ll need a few things starting with our mindset. MINDSET IS EVERYTHING. You have to be ready for change. You know yourself better than anyone, so be HONEST with yourself. Are you ready? Are you gonna do what it takes to be successful? If yes then let's decide how we will go about this. Will you do better if you dip your toes in the water and start slowly? Or dive head first into the water, no BS throw out all the bad food and commit. I’m a dive head first kind of girl. Next is a scale. Hopefully we all have one at home, if not time to order one. We will be using one scale and one scale only, because we want accurate numbers. When I go to the doctor I tell them I don't want to know my weight and I look away. If you use a different scale the number could be off, either higher or lower and that's not a fun game. It is important to record your starting point. Progress pictures are great, taking measurements, and even just how your jeans and clothes fit! It’s important to remember where you started to see how far you've come.

You are ready to take the plunge then let's sign up! During this process you are asked a series of questions so BE HONEST so you get the plan that's best fitting for you. They have different options if you think you'll need more one on one support or maybe you just need the app. Do what you think will help you best, no excuses. I don't know your financial situation, and it's not my business….but if you are going to starbucks 3x a week or getting a mani pedi 2x a month, and you aren't picking the plan you know you'll be most successful with, then you better be cutting out the starbucks.

EATING. Finally lets talk about eating and points. When signing up you are assigned a number of points you are given a day based on your height, weight, sex, and activity level. You want everything you eat to fit into those daily points. Here's a tip, scan something in the app before you eat it! The SmartPoints system assigns every food and drink a point value - one simple, easy-to-use number based on calories, saturated fat, sugar, and protein. Foods that are higher in sugar and/or saturated fat are higher in SmartPoints values, and foods that are higher in lean protein are lower in SmartPoints values. Zero point foods as you guess it are 0 points! No matter what color plan you are on (get to in a minute) you have a list of zero point foods, so they won't go into your daily number that you are given. You don't have to track them but in the beginning in my opinion just add them into your daily tracker so you see what you're eating and double check it doesn't have points.

Choose your plan between blue, green, purple. .When choosing what plan you want to do (green, blue, purple) take a look at the list of zero point foods first. “If you can't personally see yourself eating a good amount of the zero point foods on that list don't pick that plan.” My cousin Steven use to work for WW and gave this great advice. You can just google to see the list of 0 point foods for each plan. If after a few weeks you find that you want to switch your color you can do that too.

I will stop here so no one gets overwhelmed, this is the information part of the series. This series is going to be a one stop shop for you. I'll be sharing breakfast options, lunch, dinner, snacks, alcohol, fast food, coffee, etc. We’ve got this! I also want to say that this would be great to do with a friend,family member, loved one, hold each other accountable. Definitely can do it alone, I've always done it that way, and it's worked great. I find sometimes I can get worried telling people i'm starting a journey like this because they may be discouraging or tell me I don't need to, so don't feel like you need to share this with anyone. Here's my take on it, if someone is comfortable enough telling you their opinion on what you should or shouldn't do with your body, you can comfortably tell them to F off :). Love that for us lol. That is all I have for this episode, can't wait to hear some feedback!