RITA'S WEIGHT LOSS ON THE WEB

Welcome to my website.

I wanted to share my weight loss progress and perhaps be an inspiration to others who may be having a hard time.

To see some before and after pics click_here.

Click to view a cbsnews_video_clip - my 15 minutes of fame when I was interviewed for a CBS News story on dieting.

This is a work in progress, so check back again.

Please be sure and sign my guestbook!

December 2005

A Short Bio -

A little about myself..................

Where do I begin? At my heaviest I weighed 233 pounds. I couldn’t get up off the couch without a push. Going up and down the stairs was an effort. My knees hurt. My back hurt. I had dieted and lost weight many times over the years. I lost 50 pounds on Jenny Craig once and gained it all back plus more. I lost another 50 pounds once on the Weight Watchers Exchange program several years ago, and proceeded to gain it all back plus more again. Every time I thought I had it all figured out, I proved myself wrong. I was a failure.

I’ve always been a “big” girl. Once I hit puberty I filled out rapidly. Because I was always tall (I’m 5’10”), I could carry the weight, so looking back now at pictures of me then I see that I wasn’t ever really fat. But my self image being what it was from low self-esteem, I was always “on a diet”.

Back to more recent history - I know we are told not to make New Years resolutions. However that’s what I did in December of 2003. I told myself I was going to give Weight Watchers one more try. I joined in January 2004. At my first meeting I found out that my WW center was going to be a test site for this new plan they were working on called Core. If we committed to it for 6 weeks we got $25. When I heard it involved no counting or journaling, I was immediately interested. I knew right away that this would be the last and final time I would lose this weight.

Through Weight Watchers I was able to make the changes I needed in order to lose and maintain a healthy weight. Besides changing what I was eating, I have also made other behavior changes that I needed to so I could make this a lifestyle change, such as exercise and working on my emotional relationship with food. Going to WW meetings was a big part of my success, and I continue to attend meetings once a week. My leader is wonderful. I learn so much from meetings - mainly that to be successful requires much more than just a list of foods. And the support is not the least of it.

I made my goal in November and Lifetime on December 2004. I recently had my first anniversary which means I have maintained for one year. I have been inspired by others who shared their weight loss success online, so here I am – hoping to inspire somebody else.

December 2006 Update

Here it is December 2006 and another year has gone by. I am happy to report that I am celebrating another year at Lifetime. That's 2 full years of free Weight Watchers meetings. Yes I continue to attend weekly meetings and monthly weigh-ins. The support of my leader and fellow meeting goers is invaluable. And the bonds that I've made with my WW online friends can not be matched. We call ourselves the monkeys and some of us have actually met each other in real life. They have all helped me more than they know.