49 pounds gone

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As the title states, I can’t believe I broke my plateau. I was so incredibly sick this past week with my mental health…but I held on to my Weight Watchers program as hard as I could. I put all my effort into living my healthy lifestyle and it proved to be the right choice. I feel positive and happy, super accomplished and proud of myself. I was not perfect, but I like to think that I live my life as a 90/10 rule. 90% of the time I am staying within my points, hitting my macro goals, hitting my step goal, and getting my 8 hours of sleep…and then 10% of the time is for imperfections.

I call them “imperfections” because once you call them “slip ups” or “bad eating” or “being lazy” or anything negative…it affects your mindset. If you focus on joy each day and approach your journey with love and compassion, you’ll realize that slipping in one extra sneaky Jolly Rancher isn’t a big deal—it’s just a small moment in a much bigger picture. If you’re living a healthy lifestyle and making good choices 80–90% of the time, weight loss will come—it’s only a matter of time.

It all comes down to the four pillars of Weight Watchers (food, activity, sleep and mindset) and the definition of what a “healthy lifestyle” looks like. In the book “The Shift” by Gary Foster it explains what it means to live a healthy lifestyle so clearly following the Weight Watchers program. The first chapter (spoiler!) is all about self compassion and how to love yourself while you are on the journey of wellness. The thing is, if your only goal on this journey is to lose weight and simply reach your target, you’re missing the bigger picture — that mindset alone isn’t sustainable. It would be better to shift your focus to the entire journey of wellness and how even when you reach your goal, the journey never ends.

Lifetime is the next step and I’ve met countless members on Lifetime who still struggle with the program and to maintain their goal weight. It is a life-long journey to maintain health and wellness. This isn’t just about our weight guys, this is about longevity, aging with grace, keeping up with young family, and everything in between.

Now I know I am pretty young at the ripe age of 35, and giving advice about aging does not seem legit. But again, I do have 10 years of experience working with mostly the geriatric age group in the hospital and community in my nursing career, so I have a lot of experience with taking care of people as they age. Let me tell you, the old folks who are still walking their dog, doing laps at the YMCA, or free weights at home (for example) are always the ones who impress me the most. They make their health and wellness a priority (I’m talking in their 80’s here, too) and it is incredibly inspiring.

The other side of the spectrum, is I also have experience seeing unhealthy people as they age, and the effects of an unhealthy lifestyle. I was a cardiac nurse for a few years, and it was astonishing to me seeing how many young people were coming in with completely clogged arteries. The doctors would ask about lifestyle and they would be people who ate out a lot because of their line of work. It’s interesting, because this week’s topic in WW was all about the macronutrient Sodium and how it affects our body. I found it a fascinating week of workshops because I never really looked at sodium and how it affects my body.

For example, I had a high sodium day yesterday and even though I stayed within my points and stayed within my calories, I still had a small gain on the scale today. It is so interesting that because I had over my recommended intake of sodium for the day; it was so clear on the scale. Now I weigh in daily, and reflect weekly so I don’t pay too close attention to the fluctuations or else they can feel stressful. They are completely normal to go up and down everyday. I just hope on average, every week, that I am less than I was at the beginning of the week. That’s my goal on this journey.

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Now let’s talk about the recipe this week. This spicy Asian soup was inspired by having leftover bok choy in the fridge we needed to use up! I told my husband that I was going to create a spicy, pho like soup on Sunday and he said “sounds great!”

It turned out SO GOOD! So light and healthy! It is not incredibly filling, so it would be good to have toast or something on the side to help satiate you but the FLAVOUR!!! Oh man, the flavour. The fresh veggies mixed with the delicious kick of the chilli crisp in there just made my mouth water. It was incredible.

The best part about this soup was that I was incredibly sick with my mental illness when I was cooking, but I found so much joy in this dish. I had John’s help to set me up (thanks honey!) and then off I went. It was a beautiful, therapeutic process to cook this soup. And the fact that it turned out even with some creative twists and turns in the journey was just the cherry on top!

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Check out the video here:

Until next time.

Photography: Lindsay Maclean Studios