
A year ago I, somewhat on a whim, I signed up for Weight Watchers. I figured I’d give it a year and see what happened.
Now, I should say that I didn’t think much would happen but I knew I needed to lose some weight and figured, “why not?”
See, I’d lost 100 pounds and gained 80 pounds back (though I managed to keep 20 pounds off, so that should count for something).
I dropped all that weight by not eating carbs and working out. That worked well, but it wasn’t sustainable and so I turned to Weight Watchers.

A year later and I’ve lost 94.5 pounds so far, and the craziest thing is that it wasn’t really that hard. Sure, I can’t eat whatever I want (and guess what? I generally want to eat lots of stuff I shouldn’t eat in quantities that aren’t advisable) and I go to the gym more often then I would like, i.e. more than 0 times a week, but overall it hasn’t been that big of a change.
My biggest take-way from this last year is that I have no idea how to eat like a normal person. Most people manage to make sensible food choices every day with actively following a set of rules enforced by an app. I just can’t do that, however, I’m really good at sticking to clear rules about food (which was way the whole “no carbs” thing was my first choice).
The fact that I can eat whatever I want, as long as I have the points to spend, makes me accountable with my eating. Intellectually, I know that having a doughnut from time to time isn’t a big deal… but for me that “time to time” shifts from once a month to once a week to once a day in an astonishing short time.
Weight Watchers also appeals to a strange quirk of mine: I really like to know what I’m going to eat several meals ahead of time. Now I can leverage this oddness to plan out my eating for a couple of days and know what kinds of snacks I can have.
What’s next?
When I signed up for Weight Watchers, as I said above, I wasn’t expecting much but I did secretly hope that I would lose 100 pounds by my birthday. At the moment I am far closer to this goal than I thought was possible, but I’m certain I won’t hit that soft goal (I’ve lost about 1.9 pounds a week on average), but 100 pounds is my goal, which I’m sure I’ll hit sometime by the end of February.
After that… perhaps another 20 pounds? Sure, why not!
4 responses to “1 Year, and 94.5 pounds, Later”
Kudos and congratulations! I’m an Incomparable listener and a Local Mouthful listener… when Marisa mentioned that you were doing so well with WW, I decided to give it another try. I lost a lot of weight with it years ago, but gained it back when I stopped being mindful of my eating and exercise habits. I’m easing back into those good habits slowly, and seeing small results. Thanks for the motivation!
Thanks for the kudos (and for listening!). And hurrah for small changes consistently done. That’s the key to success!
Well done Scott! You continue to be an inspiration. I’m down 11 pounds since Jan 1. Keep posting your progress. It helps me and I’m sure others!
Hi Scott,
Longtime reader of your blog. Huge congratulations, especially for having the courage to have another go. Maybe the gym might even get to become an attractive part of the routine after you’ve been at it for a sufficient amount of time?
Kudos!
Matt B in Ecuador