Katherine's Calorie Counting Success

AKA "ANNIE123" on Weight Loss Resources

About Katherine

I’ve always been a healthy eater but realised two years ago I had put on weight. I think it came down to poor discipline about going to the gym and living on my own with a lack of control and understating of portion size.

I had also got lazy about accepting treats. I am a great believer in “a little of what you fancy…” and in my case that’s always a nicely chilled glass of very dry white wine. The problems started when someone else offered me a little of what they fancied and I accepted!

I live on my own and love cooking but I really had no idea about portion control. It’s only when you weigh out a portion of complex carbohydrates that you realise how small it is. I do know a lot about food so I didn’t even have the excuse that I didn’t know how poor my diet had got.

I work long hours rarely getting home before 7.30pm so there was always a temptation to pick up something “ready”.

Dieting History

I’m not a yoyo dieter. Twice before I have lost weight but never from being very overweight with calorie counting and exercise. In some ways a bit like WLR but the breadth of what is available on WLR has given me a much better understanding of what, in my life impacts my weight and how to manage it with my lifestyle and my kind of foods.

Calorie counting solely from a book can be very limiting. It means as with other diets as soon as you go “off piste” you’re in the dark again.

How Being Overweight Affected You. . .

I’m a confident person but hated the fact I had put on weight. I know about food, know what a healthy diet is so there was no excuse. I had got lazy physically and mentally and felt quite ashamed by that.

What's Your Motivation to Lose Weight?

I suddenly realised I had become a “large size 14” rather than just a 14. What was funny was that I had always thought at 5ft 7 I had a large frame but only since I have lost the weight have I discovered it’s actually quite small!

How Weight Loss Resources Helps

There are three main reasons that I have been successful with WLR.

• The food database is fantastic. It means you have easy access to a wide number of foods so you really can eat the type of food you like. There is no restriction to what happens to be on someone else’s list or published in a book –you can even add foods to the database if something is missing. I love cooking and the fact that you can create recipes means I can cook – fill the freezer and then know later exactly how many calories there are in each recipe – always assuming I remember to label it.
• The exercise diary means you see exactly what you need to do to either earn extra calories for something special or make up for some past indiscretion!
• The Member Forums. I didn’t post at all whilst I was losing but I did read and learnt a lot from other wise members. Once I started maintaining my weight, I started, nervously at first, to post on the maintainers board which is a great source of support when you come to realise that the new phase of maintaining a new healthy weight can be as challenging as losing weight was to begin with. Through this I have met some fabulous people.

The Best of Weight Loss Resources

When I was losing weight, I religiously used the food diary and the exercise diary. Now I use them either post holiday (!) or if I have a specific food I am cooking and I want to know how cautiously to treat it. THE most useful part of the food diary for me is the Calories History button. It means that whether you are losing or maintaining you are in control – you know your daily calorie quota, what you are planning and you can add in a bit more exercise – or plan to eat slightly differently. Using the Calories History report I could plan for several large glasses of dry white wine at the weekend or a meal out.

How Weight Loss Resources Helps

WLR is not a diet as such. WLR gives you the information you need to make good choices. With diets you feel you’ve failed if you eat chips one day but the WLR ethos makes you realise you can eat foods like that and still lose weight, as long as cut back somewhere else or exercise to offset it.

WLR members on the forums have kept me going. They can always be relied on to give you a kick up the rear when you need one, or a sympathetic shoulder. They make you realise that one bad day, or even week doesn’t matter as long as you keep going, long term it will work out.

Why Do You Think Weight Loss Resources Helped When Alternatives Haven't?

WLR works because it sets you up for the long term. In the same time as it took me to lose 2½ stone a friend of mine, using a meal replacement diet, lost 3 stone and put it all back on again. So six months after we first started I was 9½ stone and she was back to square one. WLR sets you up for maintaining with the lessons you learn about losing weight, eating healthily and keeping fit.

Katherine's Calorie Counting Tips

As well as exercising in the morning the other big help was taking breakfast and lunch to work. When I get home at night the first thing I do is prepare them. Not only are they better, and healthier, it removes any temptation that might occur if I was going to the canteen everyday.

When I’m at home I still weigh certain foods and have my own portion measure for others. Sometimes particularly with things like rice it’s easy to find you’ve doubled the quantity by accident.

There’s often a debate on the boards about whether you have to give up alcohol. I never did. I knew that if I tried to do that I would feel deprived and fail. I only drink at the weekend. I just ensured that I remembered the formula – one bottle of wine = one spinning class!

When I started with WLR, my father was very sick and later died. All I wanted to do when I got back from the hospital each time was to order a takeaway and drink a bottle of wine. Tempting though it was it couldn’t make it all better and whilst sometimes I did give in, mostly I didn’t. In fact having one small element I was in control of helped tremendously.

Now that I have lost the weight I am quite aggressive (with myself) in my approach to stress and mentally say to myself that I refuse to let someone/ something else impact me and make me put on weight.

Lifestyle Changes

I love the fact that I’m really fit and healthy. I’ve started running again for the first time in years and have completed four races this year – with another three planned. I’m at the back of the field but they’re fantastic fun particularly when you end up with lots of WLR’er in the pub afterwards. I’ve learnt a lot about myself and how my body reacts which is very satisfying.

Diet Changes

I ‘ve always eaten my “5 a day” but now I do so in prodigious amounts- well over 20 portions a day. I always have a starter or two before my evening meal – sounds an effort but its usually only something like griddled courgette or roasted butternut squash. Breakfast is a huge bowl of fruit during the week and porridge with a couple of types of fruit on at the weekend. Once you get in the habit its easy.

Exercise Routines Adopted

I have changed how and when I exercise. It was too easy at the end of the day to find “good reasons” (a.k.a excuses) not to go the gym after work so I started going to the early morning classes.

The alarm goes of at 5am. I have a cup of coffee, while I come to, and leave the house at 5.50am. Classes start at 6.15am and amazingly are often full at that time of day - there’s a good sense of camaraderie between you and the other mad people who have fallen out of bed!

I do a mixture of spinning and circuit or go for a run in days where classes are not convenient. There are two good things about going early in the morning – 1) it’s over and done with and 2) one tends not to graze or pick at things “because they were there – (the ubiquitous shared mini bites at work!) If you have got up at half past silly in the morning!

Any Major Changes?

I’ve changed job since losing the weight and that’s made
some things easier – they know I’m not in until 8.30 as I’m
at the gym – they also know not to talk to me until I’ve put
my makeup on and had breakfast!