Was I really that thin?

Crunching the numbers has got me thinking a bit. Was I really once 56kg? I lived in stones and lbs when I was in the UK. Wow! I must have been almost skinny.

I have no recollection of ever being skinny, well not since I was about 8 and accused of being bony, but in my 'adult' life, nope, pretty sure I've never been skinny. Although at 56kg I can't have been huge, that's for sure. That's right down near the bottom of my healthy range.

It's a bit of a shock to me now to work this out. This must be where our body image problems start. I mean, I must have been thin, but I never thought of myself as thin. I had lost weight that summer, getting fit for the start of my undergraduate degree studies. I worked in a swimming pool over the summer holidays, double shifts whenever I could get them, made good use of my free access to the gym in my lunch breaks, and lived on a diet of chocolate and chip butties (I wonder if that would still work now). Every so often, well actually quite often, the chocolate vending machine would spit out doubles, I'd eat both in one go, no problems. So it's not like I was 'dieting' to be that size, just busy, and 19. Other than at work I was living at home, so the rest of my diet was pretty healthy, but I don't think I deserved to be that thin.

I asked Sam (my husband) this morning, he says he doesn't remember me as 'thin' either, certainly not fat, but not thin. Not 20kg different than I am now. It's not that I've ever considered myself to be fat, even now, when I'm borderline for dropping out of the overweight category and into the very overweight with my BMI of 29.

Weight Watchers

There are hundreds of weight loss programs out there, from calorie counting, to meal replacement shakes to ready prepared meals, so why Weight Watchers. Well, apart from it being one of the biggest in the world, there are a number of reasons.
I've used it before with some success and know others who have too
It has great online tools and access
and as part of their offering they are giving away a booklet called 'makeover secrets' well, it's like it's meant to be, how could I resist.

According to Weight Watchers, at 163cm tall (5'3") and 76kg (12 stone 1lb/169lbs) I have a BMI of 29 (oops) my 10% goal is 68kg and my healthy weight range is 53-66kg.

So I have 10kg to lose to be healthy, and 20kg to lose to be at the thin end of the range.

Easy, now I have three goals to aim for, 68kg (110stone 10lbs/150lbs - 10% weight loss), 66kg (10stone 6lbs/146lbs, healthy weight range) and 56kg (8stone 11lbs/123lbs, a bit skinny?).

So is it realistic? Well, I was 56kg (8 stone 11lbs/123lbs) when I met my husband in 1996 (and 73.5kg/11 stone 8lbs/162lbs) when I married him in 2003. So it is somewhere I've been before, and although I'm older now, maybe I could go there again?

And weightwatchers recommend an average of 1/2 - 1kg per week, so 20kg in 52 weeks should be 'easy'...

So here I go, phase one of my makeover program underway.