Life As A Fire Wife

I love food. There, I said it. I love to watch it on tv. I love to smell it. I love to cook it. I love to eat it. I really enjoy seeing or reading about a dish that I can’t eat because of dietary restrictions (gluten sensitive and dairy allergy) and then trying to re-create it with substitutions. With all the loving of food I have in me, I am outnumbered by picky eaters. I only have one other adventurous eater, who blesses me by the fact that he also loves to cook. It’s a blessing because not only will he eat something new with me but he will also cook with or for me. I hope he never grows out of that.

With all of this loving of food, I have struggled with my weight for my whole life, going up and down like a yo-yo. I have some deep-rooted food issues. When my adrenals crashed back in 2012, I was the smallest I had ever been in my life, but I was not healthy. As I began to integrate more and more foods back into my life after eating clean for probably two years, the weight easily came back on. For ten years I was up and down. The pandemic shot me back up, like it did for a lot of people, except at 40, taking it off was not as easy as it was at 25 or even 35. Even with daily running, walking, or going to the gym, it took me about a year to lose only 5 pounds. That was very frustrating. But, even with the extra weight, I was healthier than I was when my adrenals crashed so I didn’t want to obsess over it.

Late fall/early winter of last year I asked a friend to take headshots for me to go with my writing. The photos were beautiful, but I didn’t like the way I looked and at that point I decided it was time to get serious and make a real lifestyle change as I was tired of the yo-yo and even more tired of not being comfortable in my own skin. On top of that, I know I have some genetic factors involved like high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes and at 40, I knew it was important to be healthy. Some friends of mine had started Weight Watchers and were having incredible sucess with it so after some consideration I decided to give it a shot.

I never liked the idea of “diets,” especially ones where you have to follow certain rules or count or restrict. But then again, I often times found that I was doing that to myself anyway by cutting out sugar or carbs and with little to no sucess to show for it. Right from the beginning I liked the science behind it, realizing right away that this was teaching me what proper portions looked like, what moderation is, how important movement is, and that I really could eat all the things that I enjoy and lose weight. In 5 months I reached my goal and was down 22 pounds. I couldn’t be happier with how I look and how I feel. It is also notable that this is a lifestyle change. I reached my goal, but if I went back to what I was doing before, I would probably be halfway back to my starting weight already. So, now as I strive to maintain my current weight I am aware of the foods I put in my body during the day and the portions that I have them in.

I really can’t say enough positive things about Weight Watchers. If anyone out there is struggling with their weight or just needs help learning healthy habits, this is a great program. I am not a believer that every diet program works for every person, but I do believe that this one would!

I’m not an expert, but if you have any questions, feel free to comment or message me. I’d love to talk to you about it!