Weight Watchers Report Week 2

First the nitty gritty details, I lost 1 lb. this past week.

New Totals:

Starting Weight - 243.8 lbs
After week 2 - 238.8 lbs
Weight lost - 5 lbs

If that's all you are interested in you are dismissed. If you want to hear about the inside 'skinny' on a WW meeting stick around.

I guess you stayed...I thought you might. First, you walk into the door and wait on line to stand on the scale. People, predominantly women, shed everything but their clothes to make sure they are as 'light as possible' and then hop on. This part is pretty rudimentary and has little comedic value.

From there however, we enter the 'meeting' portion where the wheels fall off into absolute hysterics! Number one, there is a sign that says, "Members who stay for the meetings are 3 times more likely to lose weight than those that don't". I guess this is suggesting the 'power' of the meeting. To me it means if you stay for the meetings you are probably more committed that the person who shows up, weighs in and walks out. I mean really, why pay $39 a month to step on a scale? I get the accountability crap and all but really $39 a month for that...sorry I digressed.

OK, so we are sitting and bought in (OK, I'm not bought in but I do want to lose weight and like I alluded there is great comedic value here). We have a group leader, a really nice woman. I believe the credentials to be a leader is you must have reached your GOAL WEIGHT through WW and maintained it. Our leader is very Southern as are many in the room...duh, it's Atlanta. She is sugary sweet and starts with asking folks if they deserve 'Bravo Stars'. Bravo Starts are literally the little gold stars we got as kids. These folks LOVE them! Next we go into the topic for the night. Tonight's theme is around food in the house and followed up on last weeks what have you replaced in your house or gotten rid of. I have to veer of course here for a second. Nothing in MY house has changed! I love my wife but we will not be getting rid of the kids junk food and the stuff she likes. Is she supportive of the weight loss? You bet, but my kids need there snacks and there is usually home baked cookies, cupcakes or something else around. Personally I have had NO problems with this thus far. I am sticking with Weight Watchers ice cream bars (actually quite good) and jello for snacks. Bottom line, asking my family to remove the junk food from the house is like discussing military with drawl from Iraq, in principle it sounds good and both sides agree to something but at the end of the day I'm the Democrats asking for a firm withdrawl date and Ilene is George Bush saying, "It's not the prudent thing to do, not at this juncture"...

OK, back to the meeting I think you got the picture up there...

So we go around the room discussing what items are in the cupboards and what isn't and every once in awhile the Leader sticks in a shameless plug for Weight Watchers measuring items, a POINTS calculator or even the food they sell after the meetings. I assume everyone in the room realizes that this is all shameless self promotion but maybe not. Then the real fun begins, she starts asking folks for what they make and do. I LOVE it! Here's the analogy that works for me...I play golf. I love golf. I'm not half bad. On a good day I break 90 and can hit the ball pretty far. I would never tell Tiger Woods how to hit a 300 yard drive around a tree onto a fairway with a tournament on the line. However, I am sitting in a room of FAT PEOPLE telling me what they make to lose weight! Maybe if I saw a before and after picture I might lend some credibility. There's one GUY in the room who is no less than 350 lbs. I have heard him discuss his Personal Trainer and yoga! Last night he raised his hand 5 times to talk about what he eats and makes! Unless he used to weigh 900 lbs. I can't really get too excited. Then there's the 50 something rural woman who substitutes eggs with pumpkin! Now, maybe it tastes great, but I'm more than a little scared about the twig of an Oak that is her family tree!

So we wrap up the meeting with more 'awards' this time for achievements. I get my FIRST star for losing my first 5 lbs. The Leader asks me how I feel. My first mistake in WW! I told the group I don't feel different yet! The room got downright frosty. Word of advice, "losing the first 5 pounds felt like the world has been lifted off my shoulders and I can now accomplish anything". I think that would have gotten a rousing applause. I must admit I was impressed with the woman who last 65.8 pounds in less than a year. That deserves the accolades. Five pounds off of 243.8 is pretty insignificant, but it's a milestone.

This week I am going to try and stick even harder to the points and not eat out as much. I'm only eating chicken and vegetables when we go out but I know they are sneaking in butter and stuff like that to make the food taste better and the portions are probably too large.

If you stuck around for the whole post, thanks. Let me know what you think.



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