I Did It My Way – Emma’s Story

Oct 14, 2014

Before I had met Susan I had been on just about any and every diet (including fasting and starving myself as a teenager) for the last almost 40 years. I was a serial Weight Watchers joiner and tried OA meetings, Jenny Craig, considered Nutri-System, etc. etc. Actually I had been somewhat successful the last time I went on Weight Watchers, losing 85 lbs (and came within 25 lbs. of my goal) before going on vacation for a week…two years later, I was still on vacation and back to within 25 lbs. of my STARTING weight.

I was so tired of the lifetime of yo-yoing and so I thought maybe it’s psychological or emotional or something inside of me that’s broken, so I started counseling with a very nice woman. After a few weeks, the counselor said that I was fine emotionally and pretty normal and she thought I needed something more structured and recommended Susan. I was disappointed that I had still not hit on the right approach but I made my appointment and hoped for the best…I was willing to try anything.

The first thing Susan recommended was that I keep a journal of what I was eating and when. That was easy because unlike most of the people I know, I don’t mind tracking. I had done it with Weight Watchers so it wasn’t a big deal. Only this time I wasn’t just writing down what I was eating and how many calories I was consuming. I learned to examine my journal so that I could see my patterns of eating. So if I ate a high-protein breakfast, I noticed I wouldn’t be hungry again for 5-6 hours and when I ate the chocolate chip muffin, I would be eating way more calories and feeling hungry again in a few hours.

I learned to recognize triggers whether they be particular foods, people, places or emotions so I can plan for them. I learned to set up rules for myself so that I can still have my treats but in a way that doesn’t cause me to binge on them (e.g., buying my treats at specialty stores rather than the supermarket and buying them a few at a time for the weekend); how to eat in restaurants (I look at the menu ahead of time and know what I’m eating before I get there – I don’t even look at the menu once I’m there); making meals ahead of time or having prepared meals in the fridge so I don’t have to think about what to eat; concentrating on veggies that fill me up for free and using healthy fats to make them tasty; making my environment safe so that I’m not tempted. I know that I cannot bring six cupcakes into the house and kid myself into thinking that they will be around for the next 2-3 weekends. They just won’t last; believe me I learned the hard way!

The other concepts I learned were living as if I already am at my goal weight and “paying back.” From the first day I decided what weight I wanted to be and I ate the number of calories based on that weight. I was eating for my new body from Day 1 so there was never a need for a “maintenance phase.” I also had a weekly budget so if I overspent on Monday, I learned to make up that overspending within that week. That’s something I never really learned anywhere else. I would always hear that if I overdid it today, don’t worry…tomorrow is a new day and we can just start over. I had so many start-over days that I never lost weight!

I also went from being a couch potato to living an active, vital life. When we started talking about incorporating exercise into my new lifestyle, I wasn’t against it, but I just wasn’t that motivated. What stuck with me was when by the third week of promising to do some physical activity, Susan said “anything more than 10 minutes counts.” So that week I started walking 10 minutes a day. I learned that if I miss too many days in a row, I lose my motivation.  So today, I walk about an hour a day, I do Pilates every week and spinning a few times a week. I started scheduling physical activities with friends and signing up for group walks so it’s also become a social activity…it’s just part of my life now and I like how I feel afterwards.

I’ve gone from about 257 lbs. to about 170 lbs. and in that time I learned alot about myself, how I think and act as it relates to food, I’ve learned to look ahead and plan for situations (coming back from vacation, birthday parties, going to a favorite restaurant with friends), and also how to go back to my new behaviors if something unforeseen happens. It’s not about being perfect because I haven’t been perfect these past few years. It’s about going back to where I goofed up and figuring out what tool or behavior I let go of and then recommiting myself to the new behavior.

For me I would say the most important tool is my online tracker. I fanatically keep track of everything I put in my mouth and since I’m on a computer most of the day for work, it’s easy for me. Tracking has also helped me enormously because I can go back to my diary and see what caused an overeating episode. I can plan for certain days to be lower calorie days so that I can bank for treats later in the week or make up for some unplanned “overspending.” The tracker really keeps me on track and since it’s just for my eyes, I am totally honest with it…I make myself face the times I haven’t managed my weight in the best way so I can come up with new solutions for the next time….and I am still committed to stay the course.