Saturday, 28 January 2012

Blog 7 - Weight Watchers! Let's lose weight and count Points!

Hi All,

So I thought I might take some time to explain what I was doing to try and lose weight before I choose the opertation, first stop, Weight Watchers!

I believe that WW is actually a great way of trying to lose weight, it works for a lot of people but why didn't it work for me?

WW Worked (at the time back in Jan 2006) by calorie pointing food, you were allocated X amounts of points per day to eat based on your BMI, weight, height and sex. For me being a 22yo male 208kgs (457.6lbs) and 183cms I was allocated 33 points per day to use. With help from mum we worked out a plan that worked for me, because I had finished my Diploma at Tafe and was looking for work I decided to spend the time at the gym doing 4-5 days 1-2 hour sessions. I know what your thinking now "it's all well and good if you can spend that much time and energy everyday at the gym however the average "working" person does not have this luxury and we get by doing what we can" I understand that, hell WW even understands that and that's what's great about WW, if you can put in as much exercise as possible and you count your points you will have a great chance of losing weight.

My past blog was about calorie counting and I mentioned that I had to eat less than 2000 calories a day to lose 2.5kgs (5.5lbs) a week with some general exercise, this is basically what WW does, they calorie count for you and do this part so you can lose weight with minimal effort, well until you plateau then your on your own, at least that was my experience. For those wondering I lost 35kgs (77lbs).

Now please take note this was how WW worked back in 2006, I have heard that they have changed the way they count foods and something about how you don't count points anymore but you eat certain food groups X amounts of times per day. Whatever I really don't care to be honest with you, I was treated like garbage when I asked for help when I plateaued, I would rather not go into it but WW employees only read from the books provided, don't you dare ask them anything that isn't part of their fairy tale story of weight loss.

Enough of that, so June comes around and I'm wasting money with WW so I ditch them, stack the weight back on (as you do) and a good mate of mine tells me he wants me to Gym with him (yes Gym is now a verb!), come late 2007 and we do this, problem is he lives about 20kms (about 12miles) away and I don't drive, as good as that was it didn't work out, he had to drive me home after each session and the cost of fuel got excessively high. In that time I lose about 25kgs (55lbs) and my mate about 20kgs (40lbs) himself we both put the weight back on (and then some).

The above paragraph pretty much explains my title 2007 - Ups and Downs to weight loss and 2008 - Losing weight with a mate!

Ups and downs of weight loss, what a drag, get into a good routine then bam you plateau, you have to keep your body forever changing, never let it get used to what you are doing, change your food, exercise and routines, easier said than done indeed!

Back in 2005 (after the heart attack scare) I was asked by my GP if I was interested in this brand new gastric banding operation (Lap Band) which assisted with weight loss by placing a band around your stomach so when you eat a smaller portion of your stomach digests the food before it hits the acidic area for breakdown, because you eat into a small pouch you fill up quicker and don't eat as much, at that time I turned him down telling him I wanted to try and do this myself and not go for any assistance options that may have been available, he was reluctant but agreed it was worth me trying on my own.

To be honest with you I hadn't had a chance to lose weight on my own, I wanted to give it all a go, it was new to me, it was exciting, I would watch the Biggest Loser and get motivated then go and workout myself, it was these failures that I had to experience to finally accept that I needed a more permanent solution to my problem...

2009 - Backed into a corner, nowhere to run!
2010 - Acceptance, the hardest decision made!

The next blog is going to be about the two above topics, to summarise let's start with  how I failed the prerequisites to the lap banding operation, how I managed to gain weight while on OptiFast and my experiences with depression, oh the joys this will bring to my lovely readers.

It's going to be a very personal Blog this next one, there are so many things in my head that I need to put down on paper or talk to somebody about, I've been told to see a psychiatrist for these issues but I'm interested in seeing if this ends up being therapeutic for me.
Rest assured though I won't go into too much just enough to not pass that 4th wall but enough to hopefully help others who may feel or felt this way.

Thanks for reading,
Big Age.

Remember any questions or comments you can email me directly evileldrin@gmail.com or add me on facebook if you haven't already you can find me under Adrian Cuvello

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