July 2008 Archives

This 4th of July weekend, it was very difficult for me to be on a diet due to all the parties and barbecues I had to attend. But I was able to work with the Flex Plan that Weight Watchers designed for me. This plan allocates points allowed per day. Each particular food group is awarded a certain amount of points. The points are determined by your weight, height, gender and daily activities (exercise, walking, etc). The beauty of this plan is that it does not limit what foods you can eat. What it does, essentially, is limit the portions of food you can have. For instance, being Hispanic, I like to eat rice and beans, fried plantains (Can you believe that?) and fruits. The plan does not prevent me from eating the same things that my family likes to eat so this makes it easy when I am visiting family or cooking for my friends. I try to work out five days a week so that I can gain extra points so that I can enjoy the weekends at various restaurants and parties. This is not a very hard diet to follow being that it is fairly flexible and effective. Good news, after the weekend was over, I was still able to maintain my weight -- This is a big accomplishment.

Last summer I went to a family barbecue and mostly everyone that was there commented on how big my stomach was. Someone even said I looked pregnant. That's when I decided to go and see a plastic surgeon in the Domincan Republic (DR). Over the years, I’ve tried different diets and none worked for me. When I came back from DR, I commented to a co-worker that I had to lose 10 to 15 pounds for the doctor to perform the surgery. She told me she had just started Weight Watchers because she had to lose weight for health reasons. I told her I'd join so we can support each other. We go every Saturday to the weigh-in and meetings. It's a great way to share stories and get motivated to continue to do well. It's really hard to go on a diet in the summer because there are so many social events and barbecues. Latin food is very good and also very fattening and my family doesn't believe in diets so it's very hard to said no to them. My immediate family is very supportive and they are very proud of me. I have lost 10.2 pounds in six weeks, with very little change in the foods I eat. One big difference is that I now eat smaller portions. The program I use is the Weight Watcher Flex Plan. It assigns points to different foods and allows you a certain amount of points a day to control and change your eating habits.