Done

Well, I made it to my goal last Friday and I weighed in yesterday and stayed at goal (after much celebrating over the weekend). Anyway, I said I would report whether or not it's been worth the huge cost. I would have to say yes for me. I lost the weight that I've been holding on to for more than ten years. I'm at 135 fully clothed - about 132.5 nekked!

After my fourth baby was born I got down to 135 for a trip to Hawaii. He's now 12. I hovered around 140 for a few years and slowly made my way up to a comfortable 150-ish. After trying WW several times and ways, I managed to get back down to 145 at the lowest before I quit. Why? Too damn slow. The old "it took a long time to gain, it'll take a long time to lose" is b.s. The weight packed on quick and came off slow.

Anyway, I figure for 30 pounds, 13 weeks of stuff, I spent about $2500. I didn't buy all of the supplements that I was supposed to, but I also bought stuff that I didn't use, so I guess that's about what a person who needs to lose 30 pounds, following the plan exactly, would spend. The cost covered twice weekly visits with a "counselor," S4L vitamins, and S4L supplements (bars, shakes, snacks). Counselor visits were not worth the cost. They don't know jack and they're all on the plan. Many are just kids. The vitamins are reasonably priced and they seem to help - I only took the once daily and the EFAs. Vitamins are expensive wherever you go. I never took the recommended 9 a day of the EFAs because I can't justify that a 200 lb man and a 150 lb woman need the same amount. Simple math - I took the lowest amount, 6. The supplements are a bit overpriced, but not by much. Protien bars at 2 bucks a bar is pretty competetive with Luna or Pria. And you can get deals if you buy in bulk. You can also get deals for any of the products online with a simple google search.

Would I recommend it? If you have the money, are really committed this time, and don't have a lot of weight to lose, then I'd say yes. I just can't see someone who's 100 lbs overweight sticking to it, however. The counselors simply don't have the knowledge or skills to help with that. I'm now on maintenance which, after all of this depravation, seems like huge amounts of food. I'll check back in now and again to report on my progress.

Stats: 165/135/135

Horseshoes and hand grenades

Well, weigh in was yesterday and I'm a quarter pound away. The counselor weighing me announced it to the other counselors and Leslie told me to get back into the scale room and take something off! I told her I'd get it off by Friday. Then I went home and ate my way through a bag of ginger snaps. Self sabotaging. That's me.

Today they had a pizza party at work. It smelled sooooo good, but when I went through the line and looked at the greasy slabs of fatty pie it actually turned my stomach. I can't believe it. One of the women I work with - a lovely gal who happens to be from another country - kept asking me why I couldn't eat pizza and I had to explain to her about eighty five times how I could eat whatever I want, I just didn't want to eat pizza. "What you can't eat?" Well, dairy, onions, carbs. "Oh, you on carb diet. That's good for you." Well, no, it's carbs, fat, and calories that I'm cutting. "Oh, so you can just eat cheese? Is good for you." No, it's full of fat and oily. "No oil, just cheese." AHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I almost choked a peice down just to make her stop. She's sweet, but...

Stats: 165/135.4/135

Last half pound

Well who knew. My weigh-in was last Friday and I'm a half pound from goal. I wasn't as excited as I thought I'd be. Oh, well. I'm a little blue all around. My husband, aka Mr. Critical, came back from his hunting trip and life is back to normal.

Last night at bowling one of the guys asked me how much I'd lost. I told him and he congratulated me and asked me if I was going to keep going. I sort of looked at him like he was mental and said, "No I don't think so." And he said, "Yeah, you probably should give it a rest for a while." What a shithead. Like it's up to him to decide when I'm thin enough. Oh, please mister man, can I be done starving myself? Do I look good enough yet? What a shithead.

Stats: 165/135.8/135

Renewed resolve

I'm so close to goal - just 3 pounds away. I'm trying really hard to stop cheating and to keep exercising. I'm going to do this. My official end date at Slim4Life was today and my official goal weight was supposed to be 130, but I got three extra "free" weeks and I changed my goal to 135. Still, I don't feel like I've failed. I think I've come a long way.

Stats: 165/138/135

BMI (b.s.?)

We were talking about our BMIs at work today. According to my height - 5'2 - I should be between 103 - 136 lbs. to be "normal." That's a huge range. We started talking about differences in women and how at 5'2 one woman can look good at 110 (cuz I don't know anyone who looks good under that) and another woman can look like a skeleton at that weight. What's to account for that? Body parts! I mean geez, how much does an implant weigh and how does that compare to real ones? According to this site http://www.justbreastimplants.com/size.htm - a couple bigguns would be about a 1 1/4 lbs. So I guess the big message is don't rely on the quickie calculators - http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/bminojs.htm - completely. They're only a ballpark guide. I'm currently at 136 lbs (according to my home scale) which is a BMI of 24.9. point one away from the "overweight" category.