My Weight Loss One Year Anniversary

I've never written a post about my weight loss although I have started to in the past and deleted it, that was mostly about being stuck in a rut but I didn't know where I wanted to go with it. 

At the end of University (in 2011) one of my friends joined WeightWatchers, which was something I scoffed at (for me) I'd been trying to lose weight ever since coming back from my year abroad in Berlin where I did gain a significant amount of weight. I joined gyms, but saw no difference in my weight. Perhaps a 2 or 3 pound fluctuation but nothing ever stuck. 

I always knew I was bigger than I was happier with, but now looking back on it I hadn't realised quite how heavy I had got. When my friend started to see amazing results (I think she lost something like 7lbs in her first week of WeightWatchers) I began to consider it, previously I had thought it was more of a money grabbing gimmick. I then found out one of my neighbours went so one morning I went to the local meeting with her to sign up - I'd had enough and clearly nothing else I'd done had worked. I was incredibly nervous stepping on the scales and felt quite ashamed of myself that the scales flashed "11.05" back at me. 

This photo, which really brings it home to me how big I had actually become, was taken the night of my University's summer ball in 2011. Naturally this isn't a flattering photo, there are much nicer ones of me from that night but this one really hit home:

I started to attend WeightWatchers weekly and was soon surprised to see it was working - it made me realise how much I was eating and that my portion size was way off too. By the time I graduated I had already lost about 7lbs which I was chuffed about and people had already started to comment on it. 

Fast forward to April 2012, my last few pounds to shift took me approximately 3 months, they were incredibly pesky, but I managed it on the 3rd April 2012 I reached my goal weight. My goal weight was 9.07 although I did drop down to 9.06 a couple of weeks later. I couldn't believe in 10 months I had managed to lose almost 2 stone. 

I can only say how glad I am that I joined WeightWatchers - once I joined my perception of them totally changed. I will admit I don't follow the points system to the T now, however I try to be a bit mindful of what I eat and how much now. 

A few months after reaching my goal weight, I started to gain some weight again which I was incredibly conscious of - so I joined the gym. I had done a little bit of swimming previously but I hadn't joined a gym since the previous year. I managed to creep back up to about 10.05 which really got me down and it took me around 6 months to lose that again. When attaining your goal weight with WeightWatchers you become a 'Gold Member' which means you have free membership for a year, during this time you have to stay within 5lbs +/- of your goal weight (and attend 5 weigh ins), so the maximum weight I could be before needing to pay again was 9.12 - this became my new goal. I avoided meetings like the plague until I reached this goal and continued to gym 2-3 times a week. 

I began to think I'd never get there, but I did. Yesterday, I went back to WeightWatchers for the first time since June, stepped on the scales and was relieved to see I was back within my 5lb limit. I'm annoyed at myself for letting my weight slip but despite taking an age to lose it, I've actually lost more inches in the process. I may be 5lbs heavier than I was this time last year but I'm okay with that and I plan to work towards a minimum of maintaining that weight and aim to get back down to 9.07. 

I don't have many full body shots of me now, the closest two I can find are from a wedding in September where my face looks chubby because of the way I'm smiling and a few weeks earlier in London for the Paralympic Games:

Kate x

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