And in this corner.......

Weighing in at 261 pounds, Matthew White!!!!!

There you have it. I weigh 261 pounds. Wow. That’s a lot when I look at it on paper. I’m announcing my weight to the world because I will never see that weight again – we have joined Weight Watchers! We weighed in last Thursday at my and Sarah’s first meeting. I sorta felt like a student going to a remedial math class. I walked in a little hesitantly confident (if that makes sense.) Confident like, “oh, I’m just here looking for someone, I don’t NEED to be here like you people because I weigh a mere 261 pounds.” But instead of leaving, I hopped on the scale.

This is going to be a long process, I know. It took me years and years to put this weight on – I know it’s not going to drop off overnight. The problem is, I am so in love with food. It’s just part of who I am. I love to look at it, eat it, cook it, smell it – everything. I grew up in a restaurant for crying out loud. Perhaps I can blame my family? Nah.

You see, my grandmother and mother are both AMAZING cooks. Everything they make is so good. So good food is all I know. Please understand that when I say “good food” I don’t mean Coq a Vin or Bouillabaisse. I’m talking about: fried shrimp, cole slaw, collard greens (shout out to Metaphase!), corn bread, cheese grits, black eyed peas, potato salad, sweet potato soufflé, chicken and dressing and any pea or bean with a ham hock in it.



I love all foods. I love everything from sushi to short ribs and I’m INCREDIBLY critical about food. Herein lies the problem. Couple all of this with a new one year old, and you can see where poor food decisions can be made. You see, I love to cook, but I’m telling you, with my job I don’t always want to come home and grill a chicken breast, steam some broccoli and sugar snap peas and bake a potato. I want to swing by McDonalds and grab, my new favorite that I’ve only ever had once until two weeks ago, a Big Mac. By choosing McDonalds, my kitchen stays clean (to Sarah’s joy), I get more time with Celie and all in all, it’s just easier. By NOT choosing McDonalds, I lose weight.

Why oh why must America be a country of convenience?????

Sarah and I have both been VERY successful on WW so far this week. We’ve made good decisions and planned accordingly. I get way more points than her because 1) I’m fatter and 2) I’m a guy. Guys automatically get six more points for just being guys. YES! I get 39 points each day. A lot of times I find myself wondering around the house going, “Oy, I still need to eat five more points, what can I have?” Meanwhile, Sarah is cursing at me in her head. I’m not used to eating frequently and that’s a struggle. WW makes you eat all the time. On any typical day I just ate lunch and dinner and that was it. Just lots of it and really bad decisions.

Now I’m eating breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack. Water, water, water, healthy oils, low fat dairy and at least five servings of fruits and veggies (note: the peas with ham hock do not work on WW). I’m really excited about it. I feel lighter already – seriously. I can already tell a difference in my body. Not a difference like, “Oh, praise the Lord, I’ve already lost 10 pounds.” But a difference like, I’m not swollen, I feel my stomach shrinking and ***NOTE, this could be TMI – please fast forward to next paragraph if you’re not interested*** I’m having nice, regular, firm number two’s. YAY!

So this is going to be good. It’s a new start for us. My fear is that Sarah is going to, once again, turn into Susan Powter and make us work out every hour of the day. Have I ever stated that I think exercise is SO overrated? Well, I do. Nonetheless, I can feel the beginnings of change and I’m so happy. I owe a lot of this to my friend and co-worker SR. She’s the one who sold me on it. She’s much, much older than I and has lost almost 35 pounds. She is testament that it works.

I can’t wait for Thursday to see my weigh in. I’ve already told myself that I’m not going to be upset if it’s only one or two pounds. It’s pounds I didn’t have before. After this week, we are going to start some intense cardio into our routine, so that should be fun…..no, not fun, but at least contributing to a better weigh in.

Oh and let me say this…..WW is not a place with a bunch of fattys. It’s regular people. Some are large, some are small. Some are actually too small to be in there like this one lady who I almost wanted to hit while she was on the scale. I was like, “Hey lady, you weigh 45 pounds, why are you here?” So annoying. Anyway, it’s normal people wanting everyone to succeed. We have an entire table of work people there, so we’re all on the same page. It’s fun. Ok, it’s not fun. It’s actually like a bad Sunday School class where the teacher is basically reading AT you, but it’s only 10 minutes long and I can deal with that. Plus, you get really great tips from the other WW people.

I promise to update on Friday with my +/- pounds. This should be fun!!

Hey – if anyone else wants to go with us, just let me know!!!! We’ll do it all together!

YAY FATTYS!