I’ve been a Weight Watcher member for 10 year now and all I can say is: what a journey it has been. The good, the bad, the ups, and the downs…and a few more scale ups than downs.
One thing is for certain, I wouldn’t be where I am had it not been for Weight Watchers and all this program, its members, and its leaders have taught me. Add to that all the fantastic support I’ve had from both near and far, family and friends, and even from strangers.
In 2015, I lost my way. I wasn’t attending my WW meetings except for once a month, I wasn’t weighting and measuring my food, I wasn’t tracking nor was I getting in my activity. I was avoiding the scale and burying my head in the sand when it came to facing the re-gain that had been making me feel bad about myself. You could pretty much say that for all intensive purposes that I quit WW. But, it wasn’t until 2016 when a coworker asked me, “are you still doing WW?” that I realized I had basically quit even if I didn’t want to admit I had quit.
Why would I quit something that was such a large part of my life and what used to make me so happy? Mostly it came down to a shift in my priorities and not putting myself first. For the first time in almost 10 years, WW didn’t feel fun and encouraging or positive. It felt shameful and negative. You see, nobody was making me feel this way. I was just really good at negative self talk and it felt like I was drowning. Suddenly, losing weight again felt overwhelming just as it had when I started this journey weighing in at 304.8 pounds.
I needed an intervention…and quick! In July of 2016, I finally got serious again when my weight reached an all-time high since reaching my goal weight of 253 pounds. I was living at my parent’s house while our new house was being built and started to attend my original WW meeting on Monday nights in Nampa. For the first time in a long time, it felt like I had a WW home and that I could once again start to get my grove back. For several weeks, I lost really consistently and almost earned my 10 pound sticker. Over the next few months, I continued to stay in the 240s floating up and down the scale.
In December of 2016, I gave myself a pep talk as I have many times before only this time it stuck. I joined a meeting on Monday nights in Meridian (the same meeting I joined after I reached goal, however, a different leader) and continue to feel at home among the members and leader. This is a great group and a great leader. If I can’t be at my Tuesday morning meeting with Leader Donna, then my Monday night meeting with Leader Gretchen is a very close second. I’ve also occasionally attended Tuesday night with Leader Susan. Both meetings have wonderful support in its members and he leader.
IT FEELS GOOD! It feels good to focus on me again. It feels good to track. It feels good to meal plan. It feels good to exercise (when I’m not ridiculously sore after a session with the personal trainer I hired in December). It just feels so good to be successful and as the scale moves down, Weight Watcher feels positive again. I am so happy I re-committed and while I did quit…I’m glad I never actually quit. WW will always be my center. It will always be what grounds me no matter how far I seem to stray from it. WW is home.
Cheers to the last 10 years and a toast to the next 10 years to come.
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