Taking Care of Me: I joined Weight Watchers

I’ve been thinking about writing this post for a while now, so I’m just sitting down & writing it.

Just over a month ago, I showed up at Weight Watchers for my first-ever WW meeting.

I have been on the online version of WW before with great success. Then life got busy, I stopped tracking points and started making poor choices like skipping lunch which often had me making very poor food choices by the late afternoon.

Earlier this winter, I was feeling like I NEEDED to lose weight.  My clothes weren’t fitting me well and it bothered me that bending over to zip up or unzip my boots actually felt tedious. Worse yet, when it felt tedious, it reminded me that I wasn’t taking good care of myself, which made me feel badly about myself and which made me think about all of the other things that I could be or should be doing better…and it was all so energy-draining.

At least I have been making some ‘baby steps’ in taking better care of myself. At the beginning of this year, I made a resolution to stay hydrated and I have been doing fairly well with that. I also made some changes to my routine and that has been working out better than I would have expected.

Now it was time to make a change in the way I was eating as well. I started to use the WW App to track points. I had never unsubscribed because I knew that the moment I decided to start again ( and I knew that I would) I needed to just jump in and start.

I wondered if I should heed the advice of all those who say that it works better when you go the meetings.

After about a week or so, I happened to be texting with a friend who mentioned that she would be starting. I decided to take the leap & join as well.

I attended my first meeting even though it was 2 days before I left for Disney, I knew that if I would have waited until I returned that I’d be swamped with work & put it off for yet another week and then it would be spring break…and the procrastination would have continued.

Instead, I just showed up.

How was it?

OK.  People were very friendly and I questioned whether I was in the right place, but I stayed. I got some fun mini-magazines with good ideas and they helped me adjust my account from the online version to the membership I had chosen.

I have since gone in to be weighed after I returned from Disney as well as last week ( I missed the week I was at Disney as well as the week that my kids had spring break).

Part of my hesitation in joining had been concern over timing because I have a very demanding schedule, but then I decided that if I was resolved to take better care of myself, I had better be ready to put in the time to do it.

I put in the time for my work. I put in the time for my family. The time has come to put in some time for ME.

The beauty about WW is that even if I am out of town, I can come in to be weighed or for a meeting when I get back.  You can even attend meetings wherever you are in the world- just look for them on the app!

So far I’m doing ok.  I haven’t decided about whether or not I want to share numbers here because it’s more about the lifestyle and the choice to take care of myself than it is about the numbers.  Even WW used the slogan “Beyond the Scale”.

Most people who know me know that I live by an ’embrace yourself’ mentality.  I usually feel good about myself even though  I might be technically overweight.  It was really when I started to feel my energy dip and when I had hard time fitting into my clothes that I started to be unhappy with how I looked and felt.

The reason that I am sharing all of this is because in my first month of doing the program I have come up with some tips & tried recipes that are working for me, and being the perpetual share-er that I am, I keep thinking that “I’ll bet that my readers doing WW would love this!”

So there it is.

I would love to hear from those of you who are on the program or thinking of doing the program.  I’d also love to hear any tips or ideas that you have to share as well

Wishing you a week where you do something for YOU.

Tanya