12:27 am - 11.29.2008
Weight Watchers - Maintenance (WK 6)

This past Sunday marked my sixth, and final, week of �Maintenance� on Weight Watchers.

I went in expecting another slight gain, like the week before, since my eating/point-counting hadn�t been all it could�ve/should�ve been (And I was feeling pretty guilty about it).

But I clearly hadn�t reckoned with the dramatic effect of my barium enema �prep� (A 24 hour �fast�, accompanied by various pills and potions designed to �clean out my system�) - I actually ended up losing 3.6 lbs.

(When I recorded the weight on the WW website, I got a message, for the first time ever, that I�m actually losing weight a little too fast for their tastes - WW doesn�t want you averaging more than two lbs a week of weight loss, considering more than two pounds a week potentially �unhealthy�. But anyway...)

Last week�s loss put me at 188.8 lbs, under my 190 lbs �personal goal�, and way under my official WW goal of 195 lbs.

It was fun to post my �Before� and �After� photos (Here, and on my Facebook page), to show people, and more importantly, to remind myself, just how far I�ve come in a year�s time.

(It�s pretty dramatic...if I do say so myself.)

I definitely want to stop losing at this point - I feel like I�m a hop, skip, and a jump from people telling me how good I look, to nervously inquiring about my health (�Jim, you�re so thin - are you dying...?�). And that�s just not the public reaction we�re going for here.

I think, in general, if I�m in a 185-195 lb range, that�s fine - that�s the upper end of my �Healthy Weight Range�, it�s a good �look� for me (Slim, but not emaciated), and it�s something I should be able to maintain without undue stress and strain.

I�m still very worried about my ability to stay motivated, and have been spending a lot of time thinking about things like attending weekly meetings (And am I still going to, now that I�m �Lifetime�?), buying a scale (Since, if I do stop attending weekly meetings, I�m going to have to take charge of weighing myself), and how my working (or not working) at WW will impact my �motivation�.

(Now, whether I�m considering myself a WW Employee or a �Lifetime Member�, I only have to officially weigh myself once a month. But as I�m trying to �stabilize� my weight loss, I�ll need to weigh myself a couple times a week at home).

I did a good thing for myself this past year (And once again, thank you Jane for giving me the jump-start I needed); beyond the issue of just losing weight, I�ve proven to myself that I can set a goal for myself and actually see it through.

That�s a very big deal to me - I don�t think of myself as a guy who ever �sees things through�; I�ve always been more of a guy �who peters out before the finish line...if he bothers to try at all�.

And now I want to build on that good feeling I have from accomplishing a pretty impressive feat, by keeping off the weight I�ve lost. I want to be the guy who �sees things through�, not just for a year�s time, but for a lifetime.

Cause as a �Lifetime� member said today, regarding our mutual �Lifetime� status (I worked an early meeting in West L.A.) - �Now the work really begins...�.

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