Weight Watchers

There have been some times in the past when I tried to lose weight. When I was younger it seemed easier to shed off the excess kilos. But since I moved to the UK it has been difficult.

Why? For many reasons.
The first one, living on my own and cooking on my own. I realised that cooking when you don't have skills take way longer than other people and when you are trying to get a master degree in a year, you have little time to even take showers, let alone plan your meals.

Second, having no scholarship and not being rich makes you want to stretch your money and eat whatever is available or cheaper.

Then, linked with the previous one, the need to have a part-time job in a greasy fast food joint such as KFC was a blessing in disguise. I didn't have to worry about food on weekends but the no control in the possible combinations of burgers, chicken pieces, hot wings, popcorn etc etc, increased my weight to numbers I had never seen before.
NOTE: KFC in the UK doesn't make my favourite side dish: Mashed potatoes.

Finally, in the UK high street shops have larger sizes. According to my empiric experience, a size in Mexico would relate to UK by adding one.
When I arrived in 2004 I was a size 13 in Mexico. I was in the upper end of buying normal young modern clothes. If I had increased one size, I would have had to start buying clothes in the old ladies section. But here in the UK I was a size 12-14 which was not the highest in my favourite stores. It made me complacent and when I reached a size 16, I wasn't really bothered. Then my jeans had a better fit if I bought a size 18. That's when I felt it was too much and I couldn't bear be a size 20 (inexistent in Mexico) so I decided to join a structured program to lose weight.

Who hasn't heard of WW. It's everywhere and the ads here run all the time. I gave it a chance and chose the Core Plan which seemed easier. You just eat 3 meals of frsh home cooked food from a list of permitted ingredients, eating until you are full, being able to snack on fruit and veg and having 21 points (based on calories and fat content) to spend in whatever you wanted in a week.
Seemed to good to be true.

The truth is I have stuck to it and have lost 15 pounds in 8 weeks. It is a great victory.

I love the fact that weight here is measured in stones instead of kilos. One stone is 14 pounds and losing 1 or 2 pounds every week seems better than losing 450 or 900 grams. Besides, having a weight of 13 stones doesn't sound as bad as 80 something kilos. Ooops said too much.

Way to go. Let's hope Xmas in Mexico won't spoil my weight loss too much.