To what would you attribute your weight loss success?

Yesterday, I was posed that question by someone who's been trying to lose weight and is working out like crazy, but seeing minimal results.

Have I been successful because of Weight Watchers? Cycling? or Something Else?

My instant answer is I am successful because I tried. Because I wanted to be. But let's be honest, I desperately needed the tools provided by Weight Watchers to be successful. I would have never been successful without it. Weight Watchers all the way. Cycling just allows me to eat REALLY bad stuff on occasion (such as the golden pastrami burger at the busy bee- Yowzas).

The next question was do I pay for weight watchers? Yes, it's $20 a month after the introductory period. and it is VERY worth that $20. Very. I went from a size 12 to a 4. (Though in honesty, my clothes range in size from 4-6, depending on brand, style, and fit.) I am loving being a size 4. I refuse to ever stop being a size 4. :-)

Then, is it hard to stay on track? No. It was easy until summer hit. Then my routine changed and I got lazy/had excuses, and I'm pretty close to my goal, so I've gotten more lax and am taking it less seriously than I was. WW has an app for smartphones (which I don't have), but I think it would be super awesome if I did. I love that you can input recipes and it will give a points value. They also have a database of foods like cheese etc. so even if you don't know the exact nutrition facts for the cheese in your deli sandwich, you can still calculate the points for it.

But do you feel like you're starving or robbing yourself of things you love? No. Never. Not at all. I still eat pizza and cake and whatever else I want. I'm just smarter and more informed about it. We go out to eat way too much, and I'm still losing weight. A lot of it is listening to my body, and thinking about it. I "feel" hungry, but is it because I'm bored, or sad, or stressed, or tired? Do I really need to eat, or am I still full from the last time I ate? I have definitely had to change my eating habits and I've learned to like different foods, but I know that I can still have "bad stuff" (I don't really like to label things "good" or "bad" more like, sometimes foods, rarely foods, and as much as you want foods.) if I want it. I just choose not to want the "bad stuff" most of the time. Or I know different brands/ways of eating it that makes it not quite as bad as it could be, or the mainstream. Honestly, I don't really miss eating the way I used to eat. I don't feel deprived at all. If I want something, I eat it (like the 37 point sandwich I had a few Fridays ago). I just make up for it later (by not eating dinner, because I was till stuffed from my super-sandwich, or by riding my bike to work the next day. It was totally delicious and worth it, by the way.) For me, if I don't see it, I don't think about it and I don't miss it. However, I do suffer from food-envy. If you're eating an ice cream bar, I want one too (so I choose a WW or Skinny Cow one). I can successfully avoid the donuts at staff meetings when I've eaten before-hand. I cannot avoid the donuts when I'm hungry, and they're sitting in the office calling to me for 8 hours.

Honestly, maybe the secret to weight loss is mindful eating. Be aware of what you're eating (it has That many calories?!) and why. If you know you have trouble eating junk food, and that junk food will be available, come up with a plan (like being so super stuffed (on fruits and veggies) that the sound of a donut is not appetizing, or having my WW or Skinny Cow options).

My question to him/her was: Are you using your fancy scale? Maybe you're gaining muscle weight? Is the body composition changing, even if the weight remains the same? I highly recommend that everyone get a fancy scale. There is much more to health than your weight. For example, many obese people actually suffer from malnutrition because they're eating all the wrong things and they're bodies are not getting what it needs. And then there's me:

I have lost over 30 lbs. I weigh under 135. My healthy weight range is 120-150. My BMI is 22.3 (healthy is between 18.5-24.9) In April I had 95 lbs of muscle... I'm down to 92. So, I guess it's not a huge drop considering I've lost 15 lbs since April. I don't have enough good cholesterol and the ratio of good cholesterol to total cholesterol could be better. My blood pressure is also too close to borderline for my comfort. I STILL am 30% body fat (Healthy 21-31%) , so yes, still healthy, but a little too close to the borderline for my comfort. 30% of my weight is roughly 40lbs of body fat. Where the hell is it all? My face is much thinner than I'd like it to be. I've lost what little boobs I had... But I still have my thunderthighs. I had thought that maybe I was "destined" to have thunderthighs, since I'm very near my goal weight and still have them... but seeing that 30% tells me that I still have some work to do. I have spent the day researching how to build muscle mass. It requires weight training, which I have 0 motivation to do alone. It's boring. Give me my bike, please? Did you know that having more muscles protects against osteoporosis? My bones aren't quite as dense as they should be (5lbs, vs 5.3). It's also hard for me to put 4 points into a protein shake... but I'm probably going to start drinking more and more of them again. I'm going to experiment with working out every single day, and see if my muscle mass starts going up...

Also, while I'm giving weight loss advice: Don't do it alone. Being able to talk to others about food ideas, struggles, and tracking your progress with thier's is really good. Weight is contagious. Seriously. The behaviors and habits of the people around you become your own. If your family eats garbage, you're more likely to eat garbage. If one family member starts a diet, the others are likely going to start eating healthier too, even if they're not counting calories, or points or anything else. Look at the families of the people on Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition, they lose weight too. My husband has lost over 10 lbs, without "trying" or concentrating on it to the same extent that I have. :-)