Weight Watchers Round Rock

Vanquish Weight Gain During Vacation!

Donald GrierLeave a comment

I have just come back from a week of vacation and was able to maintain my Lifetime Goal weight at Weight Watchers when I weighed in the week following.  How was I able to vanquish weight gain during vacation?  I was able to maintain the hard fought 175 lbs. (actually lost a pound) using 6 simple tricks!

Washington Monument
Washington at Night
  1. Wherever I Went I was Walking! One of my favorite movies is Forest Gump and the line I love the most is when he starts the jogging craze in the 70’s – “From that day on, if I was going somewhere, I was running!”.  Being on the backside of fifty and with somewhat creaky knees, I modified Forest’s plea to walking.  It is low impact and allows you to take in your vacation at a more leisurely pace.  Almost all the tours I took in Washington and Virginia historical areas were walking tours – averaging over 15 k steps a day with the peak day over 30 k.  Walking the streets of Williamsburg and the hills of Monticello and Montpelier allows you to take in the sights and sounds of our Founding Fathers and Mothers the way they did.  It also allows you to eat some more food and counter it with exercise.
  2. Indulge but count. Which brings me to point to.  You should indulge a bit on vacation.  The new Weight Watcher’s program allows you to do just that.  While on Vacation, I shared a few deserts with my wife for the first time in a long time.  But I was also careful to track everything I ate to know that I was in striking distance for the week.  By tracking and not attacking the buffet line, I was able to enjoy some of the colonial recipes and comfort foods in Virginia in a controlled manner.  I was able to indulge and avoid the bulge!
  3. Drink water to counter the beer. One thing that I indulged in during the trip was beer. I love microbrews and the beer recipes from earlier times (Williamsburg has beer based on 300-year-old recipes that are off the charts!).  Besides counting the points for each beer, I was careful to drink water to remain hydrated and trigger my metabolism.  Beer dehydrates you, so it is important to balance your beer with water that is clear!  (A little Dad joke for you all!)
  4. Destress, rest and learn something new.  This fourth point is a critical one.  You are on vacation and the purpose is to destress and rest.  It is therefore important to put work on hiatus or at the very least plan the times people can reach you if critical tasks are at hand.  Here is a case in point.  I really needed to take a work call but there was a show about Martha Washington that I wanted to see which overlapped the call.  I got to the show early to get a seat that would allow me to listen to the first hour of the show and then sneak up to a hill that had a great view of Williamsburg but was isolated enough to take the call.  It is better to turn off on Vacation but in my case, I get more stressed if I do not balance critical work with fun. By planning, I was able to destress by learning about Martha Washington for the first hour and still was able to take a critical call.  A little planning on vacation goes a long way!
  5. Vacation with someone that has your back. It is also important to vacation with someone who understands how far you have gone on your weight loss journey and wants to help you.  My wife Colette is great in this respect.  She has always been able to maintain her weight (I envy her metabolism).  When we go out to eat, she is very accommodating in the places we select and does not push me to eat something that would push up the points.  On the flip side, she does not nag me not to eat something if I make a choice to indulge.  Lastly, she knows how important it is to me to track my Smart Points, so she allows me to use my phone while at dinner.
  6. Wait to weigh in. This last point is the most important one.   The best way to maintain your weight on vacation is to not obsess about the scale.  I did not weigh myself until the Sunday evening after I returned.  In addition, I was mentally prepared to be higher than I normally am on a Sunday evening prior to my next Saturday weigh in.  In this case, I was 3 lbs. higher than my normal Sunday weight but had confidence when I hit Weight Watchers the next Saturday, I would be at the goal weight I needed to maintain.

So, there you have it.  Vacations are for fun!  You can control and ultimately vanquish the vacation pounds by applying these and other simple rules from Weight Watcher’s Freestyle and other lessons learned.

Heroes in Health Episode 1: MOTHER of Weight Loss and a Freestyle Life

Donald Grier2 Comments

This is the first blog of a many part series called Heroes in Health. Each series episode will be composed of two parts.  In the first part, I will introduce a person that I and others consider a hero in health.  Someone whose life, teaching and inspiration drives us forward to a healthier living and a better life.  The second part will be an actual interview with the person.  I am going to start off with a blog/transcript but hope to change it overtime to a podcast. The subjects that I hope to include are everyday heroes in health like spin instructors, football coaches, chiropractors, and health care practitioners.

I telegraphed this blog series a few weeks back in this blog when I mentioned one of the top ten influences in my life Julie Faircloth (see here The Why’s of Weight Watchers! ). Julie is the Weight Watchers coach/facilitator for me and hundreds of other team members in Round Rock/Central Texas area (WWW Round Rock ) She has been a Weight Watchers leader for many years and a member for even longer.   We will get to more on that in Episode 1b.

By way of introduction, I would like to use an appropriate acronym for this Mother’s Day, 2018 – MOTHER in Weight Loss and a Freestyle Life.  I use Mother not in a chronological way – Julie is more like a sister in that respect – but rather in terms of the way she guides both me and others in our Saturday class.  Her teachings and inspiration have nurtured me and countless others during her career to our weight loss goals (she was my coach through my entire 170+ weight loss journey).  In addition, she leads us not through a fad diet or intense Biggest Loser like competition, but an inclusive, instruction-based program at Weight Watcher’s called Freestyle.  Unlike other programs based on the whim of the day, Freestyle focuses on the latest learning on the three pillars of health: Nutrition, Exercise, and Joyful living.   The program uses weekly lessons on these pillars to provide team members the Freedom to Style their own, lifelong path to health living!

Mother both as a concept and an acronym is a good way of explaining why Julie is my and other’s hero in health.  A mother teaches and nurtures her family to be the best rendition of themselves.  Julie does this in her vocation as Weight Watcher’s leader daily.  MOTHER also serves as a useful acronym to further expound on this concept.

Makes us better!  –  Julie makes us better through weekly lessons on the three pillars of the Weight Watcher’s program.  I have learned so many things that have helped me change my life to be a better person.  Here are just a few.  I now use mindfulness and meditation to remove stress.  I have transitioned from peanut M&M’s, pizza and chicken nuggets to apples, grilled chicken and other healthy staples.  Indeed, I can now call up Smart Point and nutritional content for foods like a pastor can quote chapter and verse!  Finally, I have rediscovered that exercise and fun are not antonyms!

Other Focused.  Julie conducts her classes in an other-focused manor.  She does not lecture but calls on all to participate with inciteful questions and empathy.  Unlike coaches on shows like Biggest Loser, Julie does not cajole or berate, but instead provides a shoulder to lean on and an ear to listen.  She provides guidance in a non-judgmental manner and allows the team to teach each other

Teacher.   Julie is a teacher at heart.  She is always prepared with the latest information and is patient in helping others learn the ways of healthy living and a health life.

Helpful and Hopeful.  You cannot force someone to change through cajoling or force of will.  Instead, like a mother you need to help them to learn on their own.  Julie provides guidance in a helpful manner.  A mother also inspires hope in her children and is always hopeful of their success.  On several occasions, Julie inspired me to hope for a healthier life even when I was stuck on a plateau.  I see her do this for others at each meeting.

Everyday Living.  The Weight Watcher’s Freestyle program and Julie’s teaching is focused on everyday living.  You are given the tools to make healthy choices and when you on occasion decide to deviate (which you are free to do) to get back on track.  You learn how to get healthy and lose weight using the style that is best for you!

Renew and Rejoice.  Each week I attend Weight Watchers even though I have reached my Weight Loss goal.  I go there because of the environment that Julie fosters among our team members.  We are renewed through sharing lessons and trials of the week and rejoice in seeing our friends reach their goals!  I love the awards and seeing people rejoice in their new health!

To close, Julie is a true Hero in Health.  Like a MOTHER, she nurtures and leads her team to a better life and healthy living!  Thank you, Julie!

The Why’s of Weight Watchers!

Donald Grier4 Comments

On January 9th,2015, I walked into my first Weight Watchers class at Round Rock, Tx and my life was transformed.  Back in May 2014, I have made my first steps at getting my health back, but I had been stuck after losing a quick 20 lbs chiefly due to medication.  I had started to fall back into my old ways with my weight creeping back due to too much food and too little sleep.  So, it was time to do something different.

At first, I contemplated what I had done when I was younger when dealing with my weight.  Back in the day I could jump on some fad diet or drink some nutrition shakes and quickly shed some weight.  But I was 50 now and had been stuck in this quagmire for a good 10 years.  It was time to change.

Luckily, I noticed an email from my company offering a discount to Weight Watchers on January 1st.  I will be forever grateful to my company Accenture for that email, the discount, and their internal program Accenture Active.  With nothing to lose, I clicked on the link and signed up for my first class at Weight Watchers.

I did not know what to expect initially.  I had heard that Weight Watchers was more appealing to women and was a little nervous. I am not the silent, quite type but at times can struggle with my feelings or asking for help.  Despite this skepticism, I took the leap and encountered one of the greatest organizations that I have ever known!  I don’t throw the word greatest around lightly.  I consider Weight Watchers up there with my alma mater West Point and the US Army when it comes to comradery and being a purpose-built organization to accomplish a specific mission.  The Army is built to protect our country and battle against our enemies.  Weight Watchers is no less purpose-built, designed to protect your health and win the long-term battle against the bulge!

As a guy who lost 170+ lbs.  with Weight Watchers, I could write a hundred reasons why Weight Watchers rocks!  But I am going to stick to the top ten.

  1. It is evidence based, data driven. As an IT professional, I know that the best systems get better through the proper application of research and data analysis.  Amazon uses data to help you find products that appeal to your preferences, Google to find the information you need based on your search patterns, and Weight Watchers to find the combination of food and exercise to restore your health.  Since joining Weight Watchers, the company has tweaked their Smart Point algorithm based on data and research.  Each time the change pulled me out of a rut and took me to a new level of fitness.  I love the fact that you can track your food and activity and then Weight Watchers applies an algorithm to show you where you stand.  In addition, its website is a treasure trove on the latest research on losing weight but also on being healthy and happy!
  2. The WW application is top-notch. The latest craze in the IT world is Design Thinking and the Weight Watcher’s online application has it in droves.  It is purpose-built with all the tools you need to stay active, fit and lose weight.  It has a scanner to tell you when the wrap or other food item you are about to eat has more Smart Points than you might think!  I once used it to stop myself from eating a seemingly healthy turkey wrap from a popular restaurant.  What I though was a maximum of 8 Smart Points was 19 Smart points (half a day’s allowance) due to being loaded down with cheese and mayo!  It also has charts that tracks your weight loss journey, a social media site called Connect with like minded persons with inspirational stories, and a Chat Help feature which allows you to connect with a Weight Watcher’s coach 24*7.  I once used it to get someone to talk me down from eating a late-night Quarter Pounder (one of my old habits!)
  3. It’s habit forming! – The only way to beat a bad habit is replace it with new habits that change the direction between stimulus and reward.  Through food tracking, journaling, and weekly meetings, Weight Watchers teaches you new habits to replace the old!
  4. The people, the people, the people! I love my Saturday class at Weight Watchers chiefly because of my fellow journeyers.  The coaches are great (more on that next) but you learn equally as much from the other people in the class with you.  Also, we have our own Facebook group where we share inspiration outside of class (this blog is going up there momentarily).  Each person in the group is concerned with sharing and caring.  I have formed fast and long-lasting friendships with my team members.  We celebrate each other’s successes and we help each other pull through their hardships!
  5. Caring, knowledgeable coaches! The coaches who facilitate the weekly meetings at Weight Watchers and are their throughout for you are true heroes in health.  They can quote Smart Points and the latest Weight Loss research like a Pastor can quote Chapter and Verse! But more importantly, they are engaging, humble and inclusive.  They strive to pull everyone into the meeting discussion knowing that you learn more through sharing than lecture.  I rank my coach Julie Faircloth at Round Rock as one of the top 10 influences in my life.  But more on the specifics in a forthcoming blog series Heroes in Health.  For now, let me just thank Julie from the bottom of my heart.
  6. The bling! Ok sounds a bit crazy from a guy but I do love the charms that you get after passing each weight loss milestone.  Pictured at the top of this blog and here are my rings of honors.  And on second thought, maybe it isn’t so strange that a former soldier likes the charms.  They are like military awards given for achievement in this case for weight loss and staying with the program.  Indeed, one of my favorite awards in my life is my lifetime key that I received by staying at target weight for now over a year.IMG_3401
  7. Balanced approach encapsulating eating right, being active, and feeding your soul. Too many weight loss programs are focused on eating certain foods or the foods that a company is selling.  Weight Watchers knows that long term, weight loss and maintenance is based on a tripod of right food, exercise, and the nurturing of your soul and your friends.  Some of the best Weight Watcher classes are focused on giving you ideas on how to reduce stress, vision goals, or simply to have fun.  You need to transform your thinking just as much your eating in long term weight loss.  And Weight Watchers shows you how.
  8. Not a gimmick. Takes weight off slowly with approaches based in medicine!   Too many of the weight loss programs and shows like Biggest Loser is focused on rapid weight loss.  But that is not health.  Extreme Weight Loss even offers excess skin removal as a prize!  During my Weight Watchers journey, I lost over 170 lbs. in 2 lbs. increments.  Slow and Steady wins the Weight Loss journey and the race.
  9. Not trying to sell you a bunch of proprietary food. Along the same lines, Weight Watchers does not try to sell you a bunch of proprietary food.  Too many programs push their products that once you get tired of them or run out of money, you gain the weight back.  Weight Watchers has products but that is not their primary or even secondary focus.  Instead, the program teaches you to each real food in the real world.
  10. It is located everywhere! Weight Watchers has locations everywhere, so you can keep up with the program. I have been to WW meetings in Houston, New York, Salt Lake City, Denver, Columbus, just to name a few.  This is fantastic for those that work (or play) on the road.  You keep up with the program and meet new friends!

I said I was going to tell you the ten Why’s of Weight Watchers.  Let me add one other.  It works!   This means both when you are losing the weight and when you are maintaining your new lifestyle!  I am prouder of keeping the weight off for over a year now then when I was losing 170 lbs.

 

And there you have it.  I have given you 10 Why’s if you are struggling with Weight Loss to join Weight Watchers.  My question to you if you are still contemplating it is Why Not, try?  You will not regret it.

Two Essential Ingredients to Weight Loss – Family and Friends (Part Two)

Donald GrierLeave a comment

Two key ingredients to sustained and maintained weight loss are family and friends.  They are just as important to your weight loss journey as healthy food, careful tracking, water, and exercise.  I wrote about the first of these ingredients – family – in Part One of this blog here Two Essential Ingredients to Weight Loss – Family and Friends (Part One).   On this one, I tackle Part Two – friends – in this blog.

There have been three categories of friends that have helped me as I lost 170 plus pounds and kept it off.    Here is how Work Friends, Facebook Friends, and Fitness Friends at Weight Watchers and Lifetime Fitness have helped me along the way.

1.       Work Friends – My friends and colleagues at Accenture have encouraged me on and challenged me over these last two years.  First, my company has a program called Accenture Active where I had the good fortune to be one of 30 selected Journeyers when we initiated the program.  As a Journeyer, we had bi-weekly meetings to touch base and learn from each other.  We also had access to special lectures to inspire.  One particular one was given by Diana Nyad who told us how she trained to be the first person to swim from Florida to Cuba.  She accomplished it at 64, after several previous tries.  Her story a long with the Accenture Active group inspired and made it easier to keep on plan.  If someone can swim to Cuba, I can lose a 100 lbs.  Here is a link to Diana’s wiki page if you want to learn more. 

Diana Nyad

Second, my office friends and colleagues formed a Fitbit group.  I cannot tell you how the many contests drove me to exercise more!  I actually walked the halls of the Columbus Sheraton to pull ahead of my colleagues.  My friends also helped me accomplish a long-term goal of walking 50 miles in one day.   My friends from our sales team that walked 10 miles with me with their kids, partly in the rain!  That is what I call support! Below is a the Fitbit badge to prove it. 

Image of FitBit 100,000 step sandal
50 miles in one day!

2.Facebook Friends – My friends on Facebook were also a great help in my Weight Loss.  First, they gave me Likes to my corny workout rhymes (Example:  Today I did the typical, 5 miles strong on the elliptical!).  They also gave me Likes and a few Loves as I hit my weight loss milestones.  Along, with individual friends on Facebook, I was helped immensely by some of the Facebook groups.  Four groups in particular, Weight Watchers Saturday Round Rock Group, Sheri’s FIT (my sister-in-laws great workout group), Spreading Positivity, and the West Point Class of 85 site.  Each site gave me helpful hints and encouragement.  For example, yesterday I learned that I could get Center Cut bacon which was only 2 Weight Watcher’s Smart Points for 3 pieces!.  That made my day and helped me get my bacon fix while reducing calories and keeping the pounds off. 

3.       Fitness Friends –  I already discussed my fellow Journeyers at Accenture Active.  There are two other fitness and weight loss friends I want to give a shout out to.  First is Weight Watchers in Round Rock Texas.  This group literally changed my life.  I love meeting with them every Saturday to trade tips, words of encouragement, and recognition.  I also found out for me as a guy it was a good fit, so do not let anyone discourage you guys out there.  I found that it had the accountability and recognition of the scale while it taught me to be more empathetic and listen more. Here is a link to the meeting if you decide to join us!

Weight Watchers Round Rock

The second group is my exercise groups at Lifetime Fitness.  As I got more fit, my fitness classes changed from Water Aerobics to the Spinning AMP course.  I even have done Zumba and Yoga!  In all the classes I loved the friendship, exhilaration and fun!  I want to give a special shout out to Corey’s Saturday EDG class at Life Time Austin North.  I now know as many hip-hop songs than some of my kids (although I will never beat my son!).  I also know I can get over 130 RPMs (wait till I get my cycling shoes this Tuesday).  Spinning is Winning!   Here is the link to Life Time North Austin location.

LifeTime North Austin

 

In closing, weight loss is not an individual sport.  It takes family and friends to help you to reach your milestones.