So... we are almost a year on!
My GP (or, rather, the diabetes nurse there) referred me to WeightWatchers, for the 12-week NHS referral programme in Febuary 2012, which basically means you do those weeks free.
I was coming to the end of it and losing heart a bit; I didn't really engage with the leaders (I say that as they've had a high turnover at that particular meeting), so figured on giving up at the end of it. I couldn't really afford to keep doing it anyway, although, bless him, the other half did pay for their online support, "e-source" for me, which helped a bit.
I got talking to one of the leaders when I was coming to the end of it, as I know from past experience that if you help out ("clerk") at the meetings, you get to do it for free, and, at their discretion, get e-source for free as well. So I told her I'd helped out in the past, and that it helped motivate me, and I really needed this, etc, and lo and behold, a couple of weeks later, there I was weighing people and giving them the good/bad news.
Well she left shortly after, and along came another leader. A few months later, she went off and we have another now, who promises to stay (although they all do that....!). Actually the meeting is in jeopardy at the moment (and there's a new class there on another day as well, also in jeopardy), as numbers are low and the venue is on the expensive side (it's in a hotel).
So what you will have got from that is that I'm still attending WW - would have given up ages ago, probably, if not for the fact that I help out - and the other half, at the end, packing away. Between the pair of us, we've been able to organise and simplify the storage we have there, and streamline the setting up/putting away time to the extent that people only need to worry about what they need and concentrate on that. I help out at both meetings (I mainly work the shop on the other one) and really enjoy it. It gets me out of the house, gives me something to do and keeps me motivated.
That said, for a few months I wasn't concentrating on it and my weightloss stalled. What I had lost I was beginning to regain. I was losing the will again. But I got talking to someone who had been 30st, and got down to 19st on her own before joining WW. She is now around 16st so she has done a fantastic job and is such an inspiration. I discovered how much she had been on the same day I'd been to my GP about depression and was (and am) on a course of tablets for that. I'm on a much higher dose of levothyroxine now than I was last time I wrote, and although I think it might be the right level, there is still much controversy over how hypothyroidism is treated, but I won't go into that now. This doctor was saying that she thought it was time to consider bariatric surgery, and, for the first time, I actually thought seriously about it. I know it's not an easy route, so those who believe it to be an "easy" way out, I don't believe so at all, I actually think it's a quicker way, but certainly a more difficult way. This is major surgery that takes a lifelong commitment, that could have complications, you may need repeat surgery and, at the end of all that, it might not even work. The long-term complications are not yet known, so easy answer? No. I was also stressed out that this latest leader had bluntly said to me, "you can't keep helping out if you're putting on weight". Not very helpful, and I still haven't forgiven her for that. My life is that sad at the moment that helping at WW is really all I have in life, and she was about to rip it away from me, without trying to help me back on track. And I had put on the those two weeks because I was due on, and can put on up to 10lb temporarily - it all catches up afterwards, but that wasn't good enough....
So... that conversation about Ms. Was-Thirty-Stone made me realise that if she could do it, I could do it - and the most I ever got to was 23st. So far, it seems to have worked. That was about 8 weeks ago. Since then I've lost 21lb.
I forced myself to use the WiiFit Plus 2-3 times a week. It works for me because there's both an entertainment and challenge factor to it, and I usually exceed at what I'm aiming for in a session. The bad news is that the disk can't be read now, so I can't do it until I can get myself a replacement disk. I really miss it!
I had lost access to esource with the intermediary leader, as she wasn't keen on letting me have it (not that it costs her anything...) for some reason. I nagged our current leader into it, and, finally, the week after, gained free access again. So I began to use it.
I get a lot of aches and pains, partially due to the hypothryoidism I think, partly weight, and it was beginning to effect my sleep at night, so the doctor gave me co-dydromol and diazepam to help. Great painkillers, but I got constipation with it, so badly, and already being a victim to 'roids I couldn't/became frightened to poo. Sounds like a jokey subject but I was in so much pain I would be in tears for hours - only the diazepam helped. This was over Easter, and I'm still not mentally over it yet. However, as I was too frightened to eat, and even then, eat solid food, for several days, on and off, I had very little to eat. When I HAD to have something I had chicken bovril, or passata with a very small amount of broken pasta, ice lollies, and moved onto mash and gravy, or fish and mushy peas. So that's been my main source of eating over the last couple of weeks or so!
One thing this helped me realise is how much of a picker I am and that I don't need as much food as I think I do. I feel like a shift has happened (and I'm not referring to the bowels here....!), and I want to make sure I don't lose that.
As for the 'roids, I have to make sure I stay hydrated (never a bad idea, and it gets worse at PMS time), have the senna to hand and not strain or put off going. Not being able to empty your bowels is such a horrible feeling....
Anyway.... current weight loss as of Wednesday (official weigh-in day is Monday though), I was 19st 7.5lb (that's 282.5lb or 123.6kg). I started WW at 22st 6lb (314lb/142.43kg), so loss stands at 2st 12.5lb (40.5lb/18.38kg).
Weird thing is that I haven't gone down in dress size (maybe more exercise needed I guess) but I am beginning to feel it now, and people have started to say they're noticing it. It took me this much to lose though! Makes me realise how far I have to go.
But I'm going.
My GP (or, rather, the diabetes nurse there) referred me to WeightWatchers, for the 12-week NHS referral programme in Febuary 2012, which basically means you do those weeks free.
I was coming to the end of it and losing heart a bit; I didn't really engage with the leaders (I say that as they've had a high turnover at that particular meeting), so figured on giving up at the end of it. I couldn't really afford to keep doing it anyway, although, bless him, the other half did pay for their online support, "e-source" for me, which helped a bit.
I got talking to one of the leaders when I was coming to the end of it, as I know from past experience that if you help out ("clerk") at the meetings, you get to do it for free, and, at their discretion, get e-source for free as well. So I told her I'd helped out in the past, and that it helped motivate me, and I really needed this, etc, and lo and behold, a couple of weeks later, there I was weighing people and giving them the good/bad news.
Well she left shortly after, and along came another leader. A few months later, she went off and we have another now, who promises to stay (although they all do that....!). Actually the meeting is in jeopardy at the moment (and there's a new class there on another day as well, also in jeopardy), as numbers are low and the venue is on the expensive side (it's in a hotel).
So what you will have got from that is that I'm still attending WW - would have given up ages ago, probably, if not for the fact that I help out - and the other half, at the end, packing away. Between the pair of us, we've been able to organise and simplify the storage we have there, and streamline the setting up/putting away time to the extent that people only need to worry about what they need and concentrate on that. I help out at both meetings (I mainly work the shop on the other one) and really enjoy it. It gets me out of the house, gives me something to do and keeps me motivated.
That said, for a few months I wasn't concentrating on it and my weightloss stalled. What I had lost I was beginning to regain. I was losing the will again. But I got talking to someone who had been 30st, and got down to 19st on her own before joining WW. She is now around 16st so she has done a fantastic job and is such an inspiration. I discovered how much she had been on the same day I'd been to my GP about depression and was (and am) on a course of tablets for that. I'm on a much higher dose of levothyroxine now than I was last time I wrote, and although I think it might be the right level, there is still much controversy over how hypothyroidism is treated, but I won't go into that now. This doctor was saying that she thought it was time to consider bariatric surgery, and, for the first time, I actually thought seriously about it. I know it's not an easy route, so those who believe it to be an "easy" way out, I don't believe so at all, I actually think it's a quicker way, but certainly a more difficult way. This is major surgery that takes a lifelong commitment, that could have complications, you may need repeat surgery and, at the end of all that, it might not even work. The long-term complications are not yet known, so easy answer? No. I was also stressed out that this latest leader had bluntly said to me, "you can't keep helping out if you're putting on weight". Not very helpful, and I still haven't forgiven her for that. My life is that sad at the moment that helping at WW is really all I have in life, and she was about to rip it away from me, without trying to help me back on track. And I had put on the those two weeks because I was due on, and can put on up to 10lb temporarily - it all catches up afterwards, but that wasn't good enough....
So... that conversation about Ms. Was-Thirty-Stone made me realise that if she could do it, I could do it - and the most I ever got to was 23st. So far, it seems to have worked. That was about 8 weeks ago. Since then I've lost 21lb.
I forced myself to use the WiiFit Plus 2-3 times a week. It works for me because there's both an entertainment and challenge factor to it, and I usually exceed at what I'm aiming for in a session. The bad news is that the disk can't be read now, so I can't do it until I can get myself a replacement disk. I really miss it!
I had lost access to esource with the intermediary leader, as she wasn't keen on letting me have it (not that it costs her anything...) for some reason. I nagged our current leader into it, and, finally, the week after, gained free access again. So I began to use it.
I get a lot of aches and pains, partially due to the hypothryoidism I think, partly weight, and it was beginning to effect my sleep at night, so the doctor gave me co-dydromol and diazepam to help. Great painkillers, but I got constipation with it, so badly, and already being a victim to 'roids I couldn't/became frightened to poo. Sounds like a jokey subject but I was in so much pain I would be in tears for hours - only the diazepam helped. This was over Easter, and I'm still not mentally over it yet. However, as I was too frightened to eat, and even then, eat solid food, for several days, on and off, I had very little to eat. When I HAD to have something I had chicken bovril, or passata with a very small amount of broken pasta, ice lollies, and moved onto mash and gravy, or fish and mushy peas. So that's been my main source of eating over the last couple of weeks or so!
One thing this helped me realise is how much of a picker I am and that I don't need as much food as I think I do. I feel like a shift has happened (and I'm not referring to the bowels here....!), and I want to make sure I don't lose that.
As for the 'roids, I have to make sure I stay hydrated (never a bad idea, and it gets worse at PMS time), have the senna to hand and not strain or put off going. Not being able to empty your bowels is such a horrible feeling....
Anyway.... current weight loss as of Wednesday (official weigh-in day is Monday though), I was 19st 7.5lb (that's 282.5lb or 123.6kg). I started WW at 22st 6lb (314lb/142.43kg), so loss stands at 2st 12.5lb (40.5lb/18.38kg).
Weird thing is that I haven't gone down in dress size (maybe more exercise needed I guess) but I am beginning to feel it now, and people have started to say they're noticing it. It took me this much to lose though! Makes me realise how far I have to go.
But I'm going.
