JOE’s Weight Watchers Challenge Week 12

We've come to the end of JOE's Weight Watchers Challenge, which has been running for the past twelve weeks. Here's how the three lads got on in their final week.

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Joe Mulligan
Class: Ted Lavelle's, Achill Island
Starting weight: 21st 10lbs
Current weight: 18st 3½lbs

It’s the final week of the challenge and I didn’t hit the 50-pound mark, but I did hit 49. So within the 12 weeks I’m 3 and a half stone down. When I started off I thought slightly over one and a half stone would be a good result. I’ve exceeded that by two stone so I’m absolutely chuffed and 100 per cent delighted.

I definitely have to say a big thank you to Weight Watchers and JOE.ie for the opportunity because it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. The challenge gave me the motivation to actually go about it. Our local leader Bronagh McNamara, her guidance and motivation over the past 12 weeks was invaluable, so it was an entirely enjoyable experience. I’m a little bit annoyed that I didn’t hit the 50 mark, but that’s just extra motivation to keep me going. Over the next week or so I’ll hopefully drop another pound and I’ll hit the 50 mark then, and I’ll be happy with that. So my goal going forward is now to maintain my weight. If I drop another couple of pounds and stay floating in and around the 18 stone mark I’d be absolutely 100 per cent happy with that.

I suppose the hardest part of the challenge was developing good habits, both from the point of view of getting use to tracking the points and getting into the habit of taking exercise. The exercise was surprisingly the easiest part of that, once you got into the habit of course.

The easiest part overall was loosing the weight. My average weight loss was just under four and a half pounds per week. From week one I always had a different goal every week. The first couple of weeks was trying to stay within the points, then that became a daily goal and that had to be followed. Then new goals were applied, which might be to walk two miles a day, ten miles a week or walk every day of the week. Different weeks and different days had different achievable goals. I don’t think I ever had a weight loss gaol in mind for one particular week, because the points were a constant goal but I knew if I could achieve the weekly points the rest would follow. So sticking to those goals made the weight loss the easiest thing.

The challenge definitely changed me. I’m much better off in terms of my energy levels, my attitude and in terms of my general form. I’m not as snappy as I used to be, I’m in better form. Any time there is a curve ball thrown in my direction I take the hit, shake myself off and get on with it instead of dwelling on it. In the past I’ve always been a positive person, but I found that over the course of the challenge there was a number of things with work that cropped up where in the past might have resulted in comfort eating. But that didn’t happen this time. I just got on with it.

As somebody who has benefited significantly from being involved in the programme I shall be singing the praises of Weight Watchers and the Weight Watchers lifestyle. Like, it’s not a diet and I refuse to call it a diet, so I’ll definitely be singing the praises of the lifestyle for sure.

I have literally achieved my goal weight, this worked out better than I could have anticipated. In six months I’d like to be around the same weight but I’d like to tone up a bit more. But I have to say, I’m delighted with the weight that I’ve achieved over the challenge.

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Darren Savage
Class: Carmelite Community Centre, Whitefriar
Starting weight: 17st 13lbs
Current weight: 16st 7lbs

I was actually a little disappointed this week. There was no change up or down, which I’m pretty annoyed about because I thought I had maintained everything a bit better this week. I was at the Munster game at the weekend and I kept myself in focus for that, but it just wasn’t to be. I really wanted to knock off another couple of pounds for the last week but I suppose there’s no point crying over spilt milk.

I was still going out quite a bit even though I was doing the challenge so I’d say the hardest part was trying to keep that focus and keep a rough idea of tracking. That was probably the toughest bit of the whole challenge. Like my mental capacity probably waned with every passing drink, you know. But no, in all seriousness, I suppose that was one thing. Another was that my attention to detail was lacking sometimes ­and my focus was difficult to maintain regardless of whether I was up or down the previous week.

Having said that there was only one week where I was up so I guess that wasn’t too bad. But as you know it was a challenge and just trying to maintain concentration for such a period and just having a good proper go was tough. I think towards the end I kind of lost focus a bit. If I was to get annoyed about anything it would be that I might not have given it the full whack like I could have done. As I said I would have been down by two stone if I did put the effort in but sure look, it’s finished now and I’m still pretty happy with the weight I did lose.

It got to the stage where I’d bring lunch in to work with me and making that was easy. For the first time ever I was making homemade soup and other stuff that had no points in it, you know, like having salads and fruit instead of junk was easy. That really was easy to keep up - easier than I anticipated. Giving up takeaways was also fairly easy, even though the temptation was there it was still manageable. That was another thing that was relatively easy to maintain.

I’m going to keep going to classes even though the challenge is over, because there’s no point dropping a stone and a half and then gaining it back in another 12 weeks, you know. I’ll probably keep going until the summer and see where I am then, but I’ll go for as long as I possibly can.

Thanks to the challenge I feel much better. I’ve been walking in and out of work every day where I’d usually get the bus and I’m not getting up in a bad mood or anything. Before now, the thought of getting up and walking in wasn’t too appealing but now it’s grand. There’s not much of the three o’clock slump anymore either which is good. I have a better knowledge of what points are in what foods and I have a much better understanding as to what’s healthy and what’s not. It’s good that I’m getting more exercise too and that probably wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the challenge.

As I said when I started I want to be down to 15 stone by the end of June start of July and that’s still my target but looking on another three months from that, if I could keep it at 15 stone and just maintain it there I’d be happy. If I went on to get down to 14 and a half or 14 and three quarters I’d obviously be delighted with that too.

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Aaron Chalke
Class: St Mary's Parish Hall, Haddington Road
Starting weight: 15st
Current Weight: 14st 2lbs

Yea I got on good this week. I missed last week’s meeting so I was down 3 pounds since my last weigh-in, which means I was down one and a half pounds last week and one and a half this week, so I’m happy out.

I got a lot more exercise in, which I think was key. Like, I was hitting the road willy-nilly so that really helps. What also helped was staying away from fast foods and just trying to keep an eye on ProPoints™.

However, I have to say I think the hardest part of the challenge was trying to keep track of the ProPoints. Having to keep track of everything and trying to figure out what points are in what food was hard, like you have to look at every little detail which got a bit monotonous and annoying at times. But definitely, the quick reference guides that they give you in class were the handiest parts of the info pack.

Cutting down on takeaways was the easiest part of the challenge because when you see how many ProPoints are in a burger or whatever in plain black and white it makes it easier to say no, you know.

I’ve been cooking a lot more stuff at home too and I’ve been sticking to fresh foods and meats so it’s kind of retrained the way I eat, which is really one of the best things about the challenge. Like, once you get into the habit of home cooking you’re grand.

I’ll definitely be keeping what I’ve learned on board for the future, but I don’t think I’d be going back to meetings. Now don’t get me wrong, everyone there is great and they’re all very supportive, but weekly meetings just aren’t for me. I’d prefer to do it on my own but with everything that I’ve learned from the challenge.

I did stick with it though, and there was good encouragement and that from everyone involved.

The challenge has got me a lot more health conscious and I’m definitely heading in the right direction. It got me into running and like I said I’m doing that a lot more, so hopefully I’ll keep that up. It’s encouraged me to get out more so I really do hope that I’ll keep it up.

In six months time I’d like to be able to do a half marathon. My goal at the start of this was to do a 10k run by April, and I’m doing one on the 29th with some mates, so my goal now is to run a half marathon by September.

We have healthy Weight Watchers recipes every week in our Health & Fitness section. For more information on Weight Watchers, check out their website over yonder.