Is Accountability Important for Weight Loss?

At times during my weight loss and maintenance journey I have found that different levels of accountability are important to me at different times.  Before I realized just how important it was I tried to do it all on my own.  It didn't take me too long to realize that I needed some or even a lot of accountability to live the healthy lifestyle that I wanted to live.

During this point of my journey I need all of the accountability that I can get.  I am to a place in my weight and health where most people would look at me and think that I have it all under control.  Those people don't know what goes on in my mind every day. They don't know how many times I am tempted in a day and how many times I give in.  They don't know that I am just as human as the next person with a weight issue.  Although I am at a healthy weight I know that I can and do slip at a moment's notice.  Those slips are what I work so hard to avoid day in and day out.

These are just some of the accountability people and places that I have found:

1. I go to my Weight Watchers meeting each and every week.  This hasn't always been the case.  Last year whenever I didn't feel like going or weighing in, I didn't go. I didn't find that helpful at all so I have now decided that I need to go each and every week.  I've been going every week for this year but haven't always taken it seriously.  Sometimes I go but do not weigh in.  That now has to stop too.  I need the accountability of being weighed in by someone each week at my meeting.  Don't get me wrong, going to the meeting is certainly a step in the right direction but I need to do the weigh-in too. Sometimes I have decided days before my meeting that I will not weigh in this week and that causes my choices to waiver.  That is no longer going to happen because I am telling you now that not only will I go to my meeting every week but I will also weigh in.

2. I regularly tell Bryan and the kids when I am finding myself needing some extra encouragement. This certainly does not take care of all of my eating temptations but it helps.  It's nice when Bryan or one of my kids reminds me that I have already eating enough for one meal or that I don't really need to eat that dessert.

3. My mom loaned me a book a few weeks ago that has helped me with accountability.  It's a devotional that is written specifically for women who have weight or eating issues.  I have found myself more accountable because of this devotional.  It's nice to read about how others struggle with the same issues that I do and then ask God for help.  God has become the ultimate accountability through reading this devotional.

4. I have several friends and family members who know that I am a Weight Watcher and know my struggles.  When I led meetings I made many friends that I still keep in touch with.  I love sharing my journey with them.  I sometimes see them in meetings or hear from them by email or phone. Having these friends is immeasurable.  Last week I found myself thinking about one of them so I texted her.  Just having a little conversation with her over text helped me keep my head on straight. It helped me to hear about her recent successes and want that for myself too.  I value my friends and family members that ask me how things are going.  My mom regularly asks me how things are too. It's really good accountability to know that she cares and wants to see me be successful.

5.  I recently added a new person to my life that helps me too. Her name is Kim and she is my health coach. That sounds kind of silly to me because really, who has a health coach?  My husband's company offers a health coach for free with their health insurance.  It's something I have had access to for the past year and a half but have just finally given in to.  She calls me once a month and we talk about how things are going in my life.  We talk about my health goals, how I did last month and what I can continue to do to attain those goals.  I've only had 2 calls so far but I like them.  It's nice to take the time for myself and think about what I need in my life to keep me healthy.

6. This blog is a great place for me to be accountable to many people.  I always want to be honest with all of you about my triumphs and struggles.  I blog as often as my life allows.  Some weeks it's hard to fit it but I know how vital it is to my life.  Thank you to all of you for sharing in it with me.

Accountability is such a valuable part of a successful, healthy journey for me.  If I didn't have people, things and places to be accountable to, I know it would be much harder to stick to my goals and pick myself up when things don't go as planned.

Find as many people, places and things to be accountable to as you can.  I have found over the years that I need as many things as possible because at one time in my life I may need a talk from a friend while at another time in my life I may just need a WW meeting.  Because I have worked hard to build up these accountabilities I know that there will always be at least one of them there for me when I need it the most.

Have a great day,

Corinna

PS. As a side to my message that we need help to keep ourselves healthy, here is a link to a video my brother-in-law made last week.  He tried to do it all himself but found that he even needed a little help from his daughter to learn how the play the cup.  Watch it!  It's fun!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSK7VAbx_7A
If the link doesn't work, google: Funny Cup-Drumming "Cecilia" Music Video and you should be able to find it on youtube.

"Two are better than one, because they have a better reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him - a threefold cord is not quickly broken." -Ecclesistes 4:9-12

The Merry-Go-Round of Weight Loss

Sammy having fun on his first Merry-Go-Round ride as I walk around waiting to catch him at any moment.Walking in these circles reminds me a bit of the circles I have walked in through my weight loss journey.

Today I will continue telling you of my journey that led me to today's healthy lifestyle.  If you haven't read the previous 2 posts, this post will make more sense if you go back and read them.

After Gabriella was born I was at the heaviest weight that I had ever been.  I knew I had a problem but didn't really know exactly how to fix it.  My life was busy.  I now had a 4-year-old, 18-month old and a newborn.  I was often tired but also sick of feeling so depressed about my weight.  I didn't ignore it.  I did try to do something about it but my attempts often felt like failures.

One of the most pivotal moments in my journey was the Mother's Day after Gabriella was born.  She was born May 2nd so she was just a couple weeks old on Mother's Day.  Bryan (being the sweet husband he is) got me a special Mother's Day present.  Since this was my first girl, he went shopping at Target to find my baby girl and I matching outfits.  He later told me of his adventure going from the women's department to the baby department over and over again to find something that would match.  He said he eventually enlisted the help of a female employee.  I opened Gabriella's sweet outfit. I can still picture her little jean skirt and neon yellow shirt.  I opened my outfit too.  It was a pair of jean overall shorts and a bright yellow and orange striped shirt.  It was a cute outfit too.  I loved wearing jean overalls during and after my pregnancies.  They were comfortable and felt like they hid things a bit better.

When we put Gabriella's outfit on her she looked adorable.  When I tried to put mine on, it didn't even come close to fitting.  I know that I was only 2 weeks postpartum but it was a bigger size than I had previously worn and the thought of it being that tight made me so sad.  I sat down on my bed and sobbed.  Bryan consoled me and tried to encourage me by telling me, "Don't worry honey, we'll get you there."  I had heard this before but didn't know if it would ever come true.  It was nice of Bryan to say that he would help get me there but it was at this moment when I realized that it was something that I would need his support for but I was the only one that could really make it happen.  I would need Bryan's support, I would need God's help, but if I wasn't completely ready to lose the weight the weight wouldn't come off.  When was I going to make the commitment to become healthier?   How many children would it take?  I read all of the books to try feeding them healthy, when was I going to apply those principles to myself?

I would like to say that it was only downhill from here but being a mom with a 2-week-old baby, I knew there was only so much I could do.  As soon as Gabriella turned 6 weeks old I broke out the WW books and threw myself in full force. I wouldn't go on feeling sorry for myself unless I was going to take matters into my own hands.  I knew though that I needed help.  I had Bryan there for support but he was not willing to count points.  I started on my own with the outlook that if I could find someone to join me in my journey I would stick to it longer. I had a sister-in-law who just had a baby a month after me so when she was ready we started calling each other once a week to check in and counted points together.  This was great for accountability but just as all best laid plans, if one of us didn't have such a great week, the phone call was easily forgotten.  After some time the accountability phone calls ended and we were on our own again.  Part of me thought that was okay because if I wasn't able to do it for myself I didn't know if I would stick to it anyway.

For the next few months I would go from relative to relative and friend to friend looking for the magical accountability to get the weight off.  At one time or another I had a pact with my mom, 2 of my sisters-in-law and both of my brothers.  These are the people I can think of now,  I may have had more people on the hook that I am not remembering at the moment.  I would go up and down on the scale and that would get frustrating.  The encouraging part was that I would usually go down more than I went up so overall, I was losing weight.

When Gabriella was just 7 months old I got pregnant with Ethan.  I know it sounds like that was a complete wrench in my weight loss efforts but trust me, I wouldn't give him up for all the skinniness in the world.  The good news is that my weight loss efforts over the 5 months before his pregnancy proved to be somewhat successful.  I started his pregnancy at a lower weight than I had started Gabriella's pregnancy.  That was a step in the right direction - a direction in which I had not stepped since I started having children.

I gained 50 pounds with Ethan's pregnancy.  I know what you are thinking: what happened to learning from your mistakes?  Why didn't you gain less weight with this pregnancy?  I don't know.  I did try from time to time but I also ate plenty.  I honestly find it very hard not to eat a lot during pregnancy. I also think that I wasn't on my healthy run for long enough before his pregnancy to make it a true habit.  I had plenty of bad habits in my past that were easy to hold onto during Ethan's pregnancy.  The good news was that I now knew that I could get that weight off. I had proved that it was possible with a lot of hard work.  I just had to be willing to work hard enough.

After Ethan was born I knew what I had to do.  I was now busier than ever.  I had 4 children ages 6, 3, 16 months and a newborn.  Somehow I was going to get past being a busy, home school mom and find some time for me.  I remember calling my relatives again and enlisting help whenever I could.  I remember watching what I ate and exercising only when I could.  I told myself that I could lose the weight by watching only what I ate. I felt the necessity to do it that way because every time I would try to fit in exercise I would get frustrated with the kids hanging on my ankles of the lack of time due to household duties.  In order for me to feel good about being a mom to my kids and still lose weight I decided to concentrate on the one thing I had no excuses for: what I put in my mouth.  No matter how busy I got, I could always control what I put in my mouth. I could control the contents since I was the one who did the cooking and grocery shopping.  I could control the portions because no one was force feeding me.

These efforts got me to a point where I lost all of the weight I had gained from Ethan's pregnancy.  Since I had lost all of Gabriella's pregnancy weight before I was now working on Josiah's pregnancy weight. This was the way that I made goals for myself.  I took the weight off one kid at a time.  I struggled day in and day out, week in and week out. Again, I would get frustrated with myself because I would lose for a couple of weeks and then gain.  Again, the light was that I usually had lost more than I had gained so overall I was making progress.  Because of the gains though, it was a painfully slow process.  Right now, as I look back at it, I don't feel the pain anymore but I remember getting frustrated with how slowly it was all going.

This frustration caused me to ask Bryan if I could officially join Weight Watchers.  He didn't understand why I needed to do that.  We are very frugal with our money. We are a large family working with a small budget and have always been that way.  I didn't want to spend the money but I also didn't want to continue fighting with myself.  I knew what I was missing, the accountability, ideas, tips and tricks that could come from the meetings. I had decided that if ate less due to the meetings, I could make up the cost with fewer groceries to buy.  When I approached Bryan with my idea he said, "No, you don't have to join meetings, I'll be your accountability. I'll do it with you."  He did.  He counted points each day and lost 20 pounds in a couple of months.  It was amazing.  It helped me a ton to have him doing the program with me.  It was just what I needed. Of course, I didn't lose 20 pounds in 2 months but I had lost some weight.  After those 2 months he gradually stopped following the program.  I kept at it as much as I could.  Again, I struggled with some nice losses and then a gain.  I was finding myself more frustrated than ever.

I voiced my frustration to my mom who was always happy to support me as well.  She convinced me that after the holidays we would join WW together. Ethan was born in September 2004 and it took us until February 2007 to join a Weight Watchers meeting but eventually I did it.  Joining the meetings was the catalyst I needed to get the last pounds off.  I didn't lose every week.  As I look at my weight record I see that I gained at least one week per month but I didn't give up.  By the end of 2007 I had finally met my goal. I had finally lost all the weight that I had gained from having each of my children. In fact, I had even lost a little bit more.  I had even lost some of my newlywed weight.  I lost more than I even knew I could.

I am so glad I didn't give up. I was tempted to over and over again. In fact, I think I did at least a few times but I got my wits back and continued on.

I lost a total of 70 pounds. That takes into consideration my highest weight (after Gabriella was 6 weeks old) and my lowest weight (before Sammy was born).  I'm not back to my lowest weight just yet (due to Sammy's pregnancy) but just like I kept picking up myself all of those years, I will keep picking myself up now and get back down to that weight where I feel just right.  Until then, I'm willing to be patient and happy with my life that has gotten me this far.

Thanks for reading and joining me on this journey,
Corinna

"For thus says the Lord : Only when Babylon's seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill you to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you." -Jeremiah 29:10-12