Mondays With Rich

Having recently reached new milestones on Weight Watchers, I’ve started to think back to past attempts on plan. As I mentioned in my intro post, this is not my first time having been on plan nor is it the first time that I have shown a successful first several months following everything to the letter. To see where this started, let’s go back about 20 years. I was fifteen, I had been pudgy for the prior decade, and I had a problem with overeating to the point that my mom resorted to the humiliating act of putting locks on the cabinets and freezer for a time. During this time, she seriously thought I may have had Prater-Wili Syndrome though my habit of overeating was part genetic – she eventually had a gastric sleeve put in years later – and part out of boredom and stress. Growing up in small town upstate New York, there wasn’t much to do minus eat, watch TV, and to go to the library for my two escapes: books and the Internet.

I don’t remember the exact why of how things transpired, but when a checkup showed that I was carrying 222 pounds on a 5’5” frame it was a cause for alarm for her. I don’t remember if a doctor’s note was involved (probably not) but we ended up signing up late that Winter under the allure of this newfangled concept of Points. Mom had tried it several times prior but things such as food exchanges and certain foods being discouraged were a total no-go. “It’s so much simpler now,” she exclaimed. Soon enough, we were clearing out 5:30 on a Monday night to go to the only meeting in our area, one town over across the Connecticut state line in the basement of a Methodist church. Our leader was this guy Rich, a blatantly flamboyant man who lived somewhere near New Haven who brought a unique energy to the meetings and seemed to relate to me instantly being one of the few male members of the group. He would exclaim about new finds to the group and we would hang onto his every word, even the ones that weren’t fully feasible as was his near-obsession with the local Connecticut chain Duchess, a chain I had never heard of prior. At a time when I had a strained relationship with my own dad and even authority figures at school had turned on me, Rich was someone to strive being like and I can say that at that point he made me a better and more motivated person.

Through some early struggles, the pounds began to melt off and by my birthday that August I was 180 and had to look for new clothes for my penultimate year of high school. Monday nights had become my favorite time of week and everything was clicking on all cylinders. I had set my goal for something in the 140 range and I just knew that if I stuck to things I could get there, what’s the worst that could happen.

Moving six weeks into Junior year of high school because Mom fell head over heels for an ex-coworker happened. A coworker who didn’t necessarily care and kept such exotic junk food as Nutella around the house. A transfer from a high school where school lunches were practically inedible (which encouraged me brown bagging it) to a high school with such fun things as an amazing popcorn chicken I wish I could find as an adult. Our meeting transitioned from Monday nights at a church to meeting shopping at a suburban strip mall storefront. My mind entered maintenance mode though I knew that if I could click with the right leader I would be down past 150 for sure.

This picture hangs in my Dad’s living room in an exurb of Atlanta. This is my high school senior picture, taken July 1999. I was around 180 or so and even today is one of my favorite pictures of myself. Maybe it was how relatively thin I looked, maybe it’s that this was the summer that Sun-In made my hair look red rather than blond, but I looked good. If I could’ve kept at that, I would’ve been on track. If I could’ve found a leader I could connect with even a tenth as well as I did with Rich, I would have probably reached a healthy weight and my life prospects would be a LOT different.

What happened? A hellish Senior Year where circumstances smothered the budding friendships I had made the year prior and overreach by assorted authority figures made things worse. I gained a little weight, “12 pounds for 12th Grade,” I joked, “better this than if I had a Freshman 15!”. Then my mental health went south as things got worse and the district psychiatrist had a grand idea to put me on a drug to help with assorted issues. While I was on said drug, I stick to plan to a T doing nothing different than I would have done prior.

The first weigh-in after starting the drug, I heard four words I did not want to hear: “You went up 8.” That is a gain of over a pound a day without any major changes in diet or anything nor was there the leeway that now exists – no weeklies, no FitPoints, no rollover, nothing. I was in absolute shock wondering what could’ve gone wrong. The next week showed a similar, but slightly smaller gain. Nothing was different, I wasn’t lying about my points intake, something went wrong.

In one month, I gained just under 30 pounds, more or less canceling the work I had done a year and a half earlier; eventually, said drug had “extreme weight gain” added to its side effects list. Soon enough, I left Weight Watchers for a carousel of diets and nothing seemed to work; I remember one where you could have no carbs for 23 hours a day but could pig out for one full hour a day. A few later tries had some success but the bloom was off would be off the rose for many, many years.

Today, that church no longer holds a meeting and one living in my old hometown has to drive over 20 miles for any sort of meeting. I have no idea what ever happened to Rich but if I could thank him, I so would. Even though it was gained back, who knows where I would’ve been had I not lost that initial 40 pounds.

Mulan McNugget Sauce

Last week was a bit of a struggle between a night out, several closes at work, and a day where Liz and I tossed our hands up in the air and just didn’t count a day. In preparation for the night out – a paint night where we made some nice signs, I took advantage of some unseasonably nice weather and walked. A lot. I ended up earning nearly 150 FitPoints between walking and the gym which allowed for defensive planning. All those FitPoints ended up going to my head though as our Sunday morning weigh-in had sobering news.

Liz, who “just knew” she was going to gain, was down .4 pounds. I, who had buckets of FitPoints and had rolled over over 50 weekly points and other fun stuff, was somehow up .6 pounds. Odds are I was retaining salt from the day before but given my trajectory .6 might as well have psychologically been 6.6. Mind you, I was given the grace to still be at 50 pounds lost, but it still felt a bit demoralizing and I know I’m sounding a bit petulant here. A rough day at work after weighing in didn’t help matters at all.

Yesterday, scrolling through Instagram, I saw a post from the husband of one of my many cousins showing a picture of McDonald’s revived Szechuan Sauce, a limited time revival based on a meme from the cartoon “Rick and Morty” which itself was originally a limited time offering for the original release of Disney’s Mulan 20 years ago. I will openly admit to having thought the sauce was “okay” in its original incarnation – decent with McNuggets, better with rice, bad when left in the glove compartment of Mom’s 95 Geo Metro hatchback for a month. In fact, this was the first time I was on plan, a time when I had to choose between McNuggets or fries and not take both.  Looking through the app, I realize that I can swing this. A 4 piece McNuggets, a small fries, and said sauce would be a third of my daily points but with dinner and breakfast planned for it was more than doable. After a day of walking, trying in vain to find Trader Joe’s Shepherd’s Pie, and even hitting a meeting, I dove right in.

Prior to going on Weight Watchers, I would eat a LOT of fast food on top of the selections of not-so fast food work would have on offer; having a long commute often meant getting dinner on the way home as a means to eat and kill time. Once I started plan, fast food became a lot rarer of an occurrence and once I began working closer to home the need went down. Then Freestyle started and with it any advantages fast food had went away as what was once a meal that could be a quarter of my daily points became a third or more. Things such as protein bars and hard boiled eggs became my friend as I no longer saw any advantages to food such high in points.

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While the sauce was “okay” as I remembered it, I started to realize that this wasn’t just about memes or sauce or nostalgia of the 90s. It was also about nostalgia of a far more recent past where I would’ve gotten a Buttermilk Chicken Sandwich AND two Buttermilk Chicken Tenders AND a large fries AND this sauce. A past where I would’ve probably have thrown up in my mouth not even an hour later. A past where I felt sluggish and I was expanding out of my pants.  I realized that I was able to make my peace with fast food, that it’s good as a sometimes thing once in a while if you plan for and around it. Was it good to see what the hype was about? Yes. Would I potentially do it again? Sans fries for sure.

Am I happy that my current commute kills most of the viability of fast food in my life? You bet. Besides, if I hadn’t learned to healthy eat who would know that McDonald’s fries and McCormick’s Sriracha Black Pepper make a good pair!

You’re Retired. You Got Too Big

 

The jeans in the picture above have an interesting story that acts as a prelude to my weight loss. And Liz’s to a degree, but my own weight loss. The story began sometime late last summer at the Old Navy in downtown Boston on a day off from work after a workout. Having shrunk out of their off the shelf selection, I noticed in their clearance bin two pairs of jeans in a 46×30, my then-regular size. At $10 a pair, it was the perfect combination of a bargain and finding my unicorn of a size off the shelf so I bought both thinking this was my only shot for a while. Today, these jeans were sentenced to an indefinite trip to storage while their twin is out mainly so I have a pair to wear on my laziest days when I need pants for the sake of pants.

Earlier today, in a dressing room maybe ten feet from where these were found, this happened.

The jeans in this picture, which I have not bought (yet…) are a 38×30. Granted, it’s a loose so it’s more like a 40-42 regular, but they fit as much of a dream as those 46×30 jeans did only six months ago. In fact, the six pairs of jeans that I now fit into (mostly 42, one 40) all fit pretty well. Trying this on made me feel very good about myself, but at the same time going through my assortment of old clothes has put a feeling of guilt over me.

I know I talked about pants last time, but I’m to the point where I’m torn between savoring the new old stuff I can rediscover versus becoming more in tune with my body and wanting stuff that can be a little more accuentating to myself. For contrast, me with a 40×30 pair about a week-and-a-half ago.

 

 

 

 

So Close and yet So Far

We interrupt your tea for a story of acceptance and perspective.

Liz and I weigh in each Sunday morning and I knew that short of some sort of catastrophe I was going to be showing a loss. This week was a week where I could notice and literally feel a loss as everything has starting to been fitting better. This is good when you have pairs of pants that haven’t fit in years fitting once again (which I will get into in a future post) and having to retire pants for being too big.

Walking in, we found a mass of people because the computers were down, forcing us to wait in line as everything was recorded by hand. “Welcome to 15 years ago…or Maine,” Anne – the regular leader of our group – joked.

“I did Weight Watchers 15 years ago,” I thought but did not say. “Back then, Weight Watchers didn’t have the capacity to process THIS many people.”

Eventually, we snaked to the front of the line and thoughts began to file through my head. Might this be the week I crossed 50 pounds? I could feel the loss in my belly not sticking out as it used to, in swapping work shirts down a size and finding that even those were loose, to mulling the retirement of underwear for starting to get loose. I made it up to be weighed in and when I stepped on I took a mental note of the number.

280.6. Three pounds less than last week but .4 less than hitting 50 pounds lost on the nose. Gathering my superstitious self to get back into my full clothes, I began to feel momentarily resentful, salty even. Sure, I had lost, but I had not lost enough. Maybe if I hadn’t had a cheat day the day before with omelets and pancakes and fried chicken I would’ve broken back into the 270s, even if I was sitting on 140 or so FitPoints plus weeklies plus rollover points. Maybe if we drove the half-mile more and weighed in after doing an intense AquaZumba class the morning before, I’d be screaming “279 and Feeling Fine!!”. I then realized that this was small potatoes in the scheme of things as while on the record of Weight Watchers my “starting” weight was 330.2 pounds, I would not be shocked if my true “peak” was a fair amount higher. Right before I started, I was putting in my weight at the gym in as “333” and I wouldn’t be shocked that I was above that even. As this is my body, I’m just going to say I lost 50 pounds because even in most cases 49.6 rounds to 50. And to be honest, losing 50 pounds feels great especially in the time frame I had lost it in. I mean, if you told me six months ago that I’d be nearly halfway to my “original” goal (225) I would have thought you were crazy as I slowly tried in vain to not reach a 50 waist. In posting this, I was reminded of this picture that was supposed to be a post of its own last week.

I’m lucky enough to work within easy walking distance of a Marshalls and at times I will paw through there before or after my shift to see if there is anything worth buying. Last Tuesday, this caught this my eye on the clearance rack. Six months ago, before I followed Liz on plan, I would have bought those pants without batting an eye at all as I was on fumes of three pairs of work pants that truly fit.  In fact, about a year ago I did buy these pants but in black. Still have them too though they’re getting to the point of being retired because they’re just getting too big. If you follow us on Instagram (and you should), I had some fun with jeans in a 40 waist. I haven’t been a 40 waist in jeans since 2005 and I only remember that because I gave up jeans for years.

Just let that sink in. 2005. What’s old is new again, I guess.

 

A friendly PSA

Stop & Shop isn’t my or Liz’s choice for food shopping, but they do have Premier Protein on sale for $5.88 for a four-pack until February 22nd. That’s the lowest price I’ve seen anywhere (for the curious, Wegmans, $6.79).

I’ll be hopping on the protein espresso bandwagon tomorrow. I’ll write a post reviewing it after!

-Jason

Wake Up Call

Earlier this week, I set up an Instagram account for this blog (if you haven’t done so, go follow @shrinkingcouple, I promise you you won’t regret it) and I tried to look for a picture for our profile picture. I ended up picking our most recent picture together from the holiday party of Liz’s employer, a picture where we both look pretty good even with a good 10 extra pounds combined versus now.

Going through her pictures versus mine, I found that the next most recent picture of us that came up. This picture was taken last September 16th, our sixth wedding anniversary, as we were heading home from an anniversary trip to Vermont filled with food, fun, and what I eventually saw as the last straw.

Liz and I had entertained the idea of a diet for quite some time but for me at least this was the wake up call that I needed because I could not even look at myself without feeling disgust at what I had become. I had seen my pants size balloon up in the last couple of years and my weight tip-toe towards and way past 300 but this picture just made me feel somewhat gross about myself. The warning signs had been there, but I knew for me that a change had to be done. Of course, I wouldn’t be the one to lead here because strong husbands always let the wife go first!

Eight days after this picture was taken, Liz walked into Weight Watchers for the first time in many years. I wasn’t there as my work location and schedule at the time wouldn’t allow for it so I waited a week until I was comfortable joining which happened to coincide with the start of a new month, October. Today we both got our “orange” books after filling up the “blue” books we were given upon our first meeting and I can’t think of a better decision either of us could have made. We’ve bettered our lives and ourselves and the mind blowing thing is that this is only the beginning!

For the record, Liz was down 2.2 pounds this week, I was down 1.2. Together in just over four months we’ve lost 80.8 pounds, roughly shedding a Labrador Retriever or two four-year-olds in the process. We hope that the next four months can be, within reason, just as kind!

Introduction

This blog is about the adventures of Jason and Liz, a couple that as of this writing has lost a combined 77.4 pounds (that’s 35kg or 5.5 stone!) over the last four months. We have accomplished this thanks to a combination of weight loss – namely Weight Watchers Freestyle,  increased exercise and far better food choices. We’ve been married for six years and are the parents of two wonderful cats who may end up on this blog from time to time. This is a Jason post so I might as well introduce myself.

Without getting into details too revealing, I’m 35 and I work for a well-respected food retailer in the Boston suburbs; in my spare time I try to write but I usually end up cooking, more often than not the last four months. I actually started my journey after Liz did by one week but my struggles go much further as I’ve always been a bit on the stocky side but in the last several years my weight which had been stable in the 260-280 range for several years started to balloon up and my clothes options began to shrink as I left the realm of “normal” and ended up in “big and [far from] tall”. The last straw came when finding new shorts that would fit became a procedure and that my “fat” pair (a 48 for the curious) was starting to fall victim to the dreaded “chub rub”. I knew something had to be done as had Liz before me given that we had both gone off the rails. My first weigh-in on October 1, 2017 was at 330.2 pounds, slightly lower than the 332 I had guesstimated in the app the night before. Seriously, I think that my “true” peak was closer to 340 pounds. This is not my first rodeo with Weight Watchers, I had lost 40 pounds in my teens and had kept most of it off for 18 months until some unfortunate medical events led me to pack it back on in one month which I never recovered from even going for years after that massive gain. Some flirtations in the past, often alone or via the online-only program, yielded limited results.

As of right now, I’ve lost 45.4 pounds, more than I had lost during my most successful go-around nearly 20 years ago. I could say the stars aligned for this – I took a transfer to a work location closer to home which ended a long commute and Liz found a gym she actually liked which motivates both of us to work out – but something just feels psychologically “different” in a good way this time. Having your spouse as an in-house accountability partner helps a ton and the bonding we share over finding and making recipes versus what we had before I couldn’t give up at this point. Having a consistent meeting “home” has also helped and is a benefit I couldn’t have had under my old work situation and has built additional accountability there too. Finally, having not really done Weight Watchers proper in the social media era, the amount of accountability and inspiration via the Facebook groups for our regular meeting leader and her backup, Instagram, Connect, Twitter, and more only inspires me more to try new things and be open about my struggles and triumphs.

I’ll let Liz tell her story then come back with some stories of my own. Keep fighting the good fight!