#SaturdaySkinny: One Year Anniversary With WW Netherlands

On 20 January, 2018, the wife and I joined our first WW meeting in the Netherlands. At that time the Saturday 10:00 meeting was the only one in the entire country.

While I liked weighing in on Friday mornings, we had little choice to work with so we embraced the Saturday morning meeting. Over my 9 years with WW, I had almost every day of the week as a weigh-in day. I just knew with a Saturday we would want to travel and potentially miss weeks at a time of meetings, which i was nervous about.

And guess what?

We did!

We were committed and in the meetings for the first four months and then the summer hit. We barely went between May and October. We were in the middle of being off plan and traveling. I KNOW we should’ve kept going when we didn’t want to, but we were just ashamed to be so off plan.

Yes! I the former leader and lifetime member hid from the scale. BUT in October we recommitted. I was feeling gross and was tired of NOT putting my health last. So we recommitted on 20 October and have been feeling “in the zone” since then.

Since October, I have been feeling the balance of a healthy lifestyle: not emotionally eating, enjoying some treats, enjoying my workouts again and feeling proud of the progress I was making.

So when we started on 20 January, I was 185 lbs (84,0 kg). This is 30 lbs (13,6 kg) over my happy weight/goal of 155 lbs (70,3 kg).

On 19 January, I am happy to announce I was 169.8 lbs (77,0 kg). While I wish I could’ve been back at goal in the year we have been here, we did take 5 months completely off plan where I almost returned back to the Amsterdam starting weight.

Total Lost: 65,2 lbs/29,6 kg (47,6 lbs/21,6 kg with WW)
Current weight: 168,2 lbs (77,0 kg)
Heaviest (recorded) weight: 235 lbs (106,6 kg)
Weight Watchers Start weight: 217,4 lbs (98,6 kg)
Goal weight: 155 lbs (70,3 kg)
Lowest weight: 150,2 lbs (68,1 kg)

I honestly haven’t felt so good since before I started making the trips to Amsterdam in June 2017. It really isn’t all about the weight loss, but it is about the life I was finding again. The inner light is starting to respark!!!

I really can’t thank the wife enough for going on this journey with me. I am glad she finally joined WW with me as it is great to have someone going through this with me.

In addition to the wife and my friends in the US being a great support system, I also owe a lot to the amazing people in our meeting room. It just happened to be on our 1-year anniversary that we had organized a pot luck after our WW meeting.

We had a fantastic spread of WW-friendly recipes. Everyone brought a dish they enjoy and it was cool to try so many new recipes. It was great to chat with our members (almost all ExPats) even more after the meeting. This group is more than just about a healthy lifestyle - it is also helping each other navigate a new country/life.

So the goal for Year 2 with WW and the Netherlands is to be more consistent! My goal is to not shy away from the meetings or put myself last for another 5 months in 2019. I am worth hitting whatever goals I want and I will do it!

I have 14.8 lbs (6.3 kg) to be back at goal. I don’t care if it takes me another year, but I will get there. I have done it before and I can do it again.

Either way I am feeling good and am still proud of the progress I am making… one day at a time!