Its only a matter of time

I had the coolest thought today: "Its only a matter of time". Which on the surface isn't that exciting of a thought. But I had it in regards to weight loss.

Me. Really.

I'm losing weight. I have lost 20 lbs and it wasn't even painful. I don't feel deprived. I feel like I could do this every day for the next 10 years and be okay with it.

I've joined Weight Watchers and I think I'm in love w/ the new Points Plus Program (no I am not being paid or perked in anyway to say this).

I tried WW about 10 years ago and I liked the old Points program okay but I found I was hungry a lot of the time so I didn't stick with it. But they've changed now to the new Points PLUS program and that Plus bit makes all the difference.

For those of you unfamiliar with WW, the gist is this: You eat your own food. In WW there are no "Off Limits" foods. You can eat anything. Really. With one small caveat: You have to have the points.

Every food you eat has a points value (well technically all fruit is zero points and most veggies - they say nobody had to join WW b/c they ate too many bananas lol). And the scale is weighted in favor of protein and fiber. So a food that is high in lean protein or high fiber is going to be lower points than say something of equivalent calories but that gets those calories from processed carbs or fat.

I really like the weighted Points scale of the Points Plus program because it means I'm not hungry all the time. I eat all my points every day and I am FULL. Its awesome.

In fact they give you a "Daily Points Allowance" thats based on your age, gender, height and current weight. You are supposed to eat at least your Daily Points Allowance every day. I say, "At least" b/c you also get a "Weekly Points Allowance". Now this Weekly Allowance is my friend. EVERYBODY gets 49 points a week extra to use as you want.

If you really want that cookie you can have it even if you've eaten all your Daily points as long as you still have room in your Weekly. Some people like to have a little something extra every day, other people prefer to save them up for a big night out or wedding or whatever. And believe me as long as you don't go CRAZY and massively binge out (just stop when you get full and eat your veggies first) I've personally found it very difficult to use ALL my weekly allowance in a single sitting. I didn't even manage it at Thanksgiving!

AND b/c this is a "life style change" and not a diet, WW is going to teach me how to maintain my weight once I get to goal. And once I get to my goal weight and maintain that for 6 weeks I become a "Lifetime Member" which means as long as I stay at goal I get to go to WW meetings FOR FREE. Forever. Seriously. How cool is that?!

And its even more cool than it sounds on the surface b/c there are lifetime members in my meetings that I go to (besides the staff) and some of those ladies have been there for 20 years! And they look great! Its a fantastic way for them to stay on track and motivated and given  my tendency to yo-yo my weight loss the thought of being able to be the same size for 20 years is just AWESOME. So its seriously motivating for me to see these folks who have done it and managed to keep the weight off. Which for me has always been the hardest part.

So yeah. I can do this. And its so so so exciting to feel like its really just a matter of time until I'm healthy, until my joints don't hurt, until I look on the outside like I feel on the inside. And that my friends is seriously cool.