Three-Year Plateau, Broken!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’m tellin’ it on the mountain, I’m yellin’ from the rooftops, people. I’m celebrating my success.

An almost three-year plateau finally broken!

I joined Weight Watchers in June 2000. Weighed in at 172.8 pounds. On November 28, 2000 I reached my lowest weight: 145.8 pounds.

Between then and now, I’ve been back up to 158 or so, back down to 148 and have kinda hovered just below 150 for a few months.

Yesterday I weighed in at 144.8 pounds. w00t!

I celebrated by purchasing a new pair of size 6 shorts! They’re a little tight but dammit, I can wear an honest-to-God size 6!

13.8 pounds to goal.

scoutybaby (AKA scout1222), I’m so grateful for leaders like you. My leader kept saying, “Just keep coming to the meetings. It will sink in soon.”

She was right! Woo hoooooooooooooo!

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Congrats! Size 6! Wow! Congrats!

3

Good for you!

How tall are you, if you don’t mind me asking, Gazelle?

I ask b/c my lowest, skinniest, hip-bones-jutting-out-boyfriend-wants-to-feed-me weight was 135, and at 5’10" I still couldn’t fit into anything smaller than a size eight. (Of course, I have God-given, child-bearing hips that would make J-Lo proud, but I digress.)

So put it this way; I’ve never bought a size 6, even at my ideal, perhaps too ideal weight. You go girl! (And we won’t discuss the twenty or so pounds I’ve put on in the intervening five years since I saw those size eights. Perhaps you will motivate me. ;))

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Thanks twicksybaby!

Thanks Audrey! I’m 5 feet, 5 inches tall.

Weight Watchers is the key for me. I remember thinking – before I joined, of course – that people who go to Weight Watchers were losers. Just eat right and exercise, how hard is that?, I thought, and then struggled for years to do just that… Duh! It’s frikkin’ hard! WW gives you tools, suggestions and a support group of people – including leaders – who are either going through or have gone through what you’re experiencing. I just can’t say enough about it. And unlike some of those other weight loss companies, WW teaches you how to use regular food to reach your goal. No food to buy, unless you want to, and most of it is available in the grocery store.

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WTG Gazelle! You’re so right about it being really hard to stick to a healthy diet and exercise regularly.

[Red Green voice]
I’m pullin for ya!
[/Red Green voice]

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Yay!!! Great job.

Did you tell your leader you were grateful, too? I bet she’d love to hear that.

So tell me. How did you do it? Do you know what it was that made you break through?

(just trying to build up my arsenal for when folks get discouraged…)

You’re awesome.

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Thanks Venus!

Awwww scouty! You’re so sweet to me!

Hmm… How did I do it?

I am being nicer to myself and I’ve simplified things. Before, I didn’t feel like I was successful if I didn’t accomplish all or most of my goals: drink all of my water, stick to my points, get all of my veggies and fruits and milk, do all of my planned runs, do well at work, keep my house clean, be a good wife, take care of my dog, be a good friend, etc.

So, the two main things I did that caused my breakthrough:[ul]1. I made sticking to my points my number one priority five days per week. A day is a success if I stick to my points, period.

  1. I’ve given myself slack in the exercise area. 30 minutes of walking or running/walking six days per week.[/ul]When I do both of these things, I lose weight, I feel successful and I have more energy. Thus, I feel more motivated to do the other things on my list.

I thank my leader every chance I get and I hug her all the time, too. She needs to be in WW magazine, she is so awesome.

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Congratulations, Gazelle! You’re just one success after another, what with the marathon and all.

You’re my hero (well, heroine, but that sounded funny), actually. No, really. Whenever I am running I think about your marathon story…

And now this…wheeeee!
:slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

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Sounds like a good strategy. I’d say you have your shit together.

I think that often it really is just all about keeping things in perspective. Things could always be worse, things could always be better, nobody’s perfect, that kind of thing.

Finding out that I was more than 2 pounds over goal early in August made me refocus and do some work to get back down (so I could officially weigh in and celebrate 6 years at goal!). It also reminded me of your point #1. It feels damn good to end the day knowing you stayed where you needed to be.

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Wow, Einmon! You just made my day. Thank you for your too kind words. Big hugs, sweetie!

scout, you know what a struggle it is to get one’s shit together, then keep it together. I feel great right now and I need to remember that feeling.

Oh, I remembered something else that really helped.

In June, I was so excited about my parents coming up from Texas and the marathon that I stayed within my points for several days in a row without really even thinking about it. This feat told me two things: (Am I in a list mood today, or what?)[ul]1. I don’t feel like I’m starving when I stay within my points; 23 points is plenty!
2. This stuff may become habit without me even noticing. I have never had the thought in my head that my new thinking about food would become habit. That was (and is) a great feeling.[/ul]

scout, would you be willing to share a little about being a leader? What do and don’t you love about the job? Do you get paid? Are there ever any WW conventions? Is it a fun company? Are there any politics involved?

Write me via e-mail if you feel uncomfortable answering any of this on the board.

Yep, I’m considering applying for a position. I going to wait until I’m lifetime. The idea scares me a little, but it might just be my calling, ya know?

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you rock the house, gazelle

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I’ll share some stuff. I work both as a leader and as a receptionist (the folks who weigh).

I’ve been on staff for six years. I love what I do. Yes, there are times when there are difficult customers, but they are more than offset by someone succeeding, someone telling me that what I said helped them, by seeing people become healthy and self confident.

It is a paid position, though it’s not a lucrative career. My one wish is that I could do this full time. I like it more than my full time job. Currently there are not enough meetings in my area to be considered full time, and thus there are no full time openings. Add to that the fact that “full time” with WW pays MUCH less than my current salary. The kind of employees you tend to see are those who do it for the love of it, not the money. For the accountability to stay at goal, not the money. About half of us do it in addition to a full time job, while the rest do it more as supplemental income - they are retired, or stay at home parents, or independently wealthy.

As with all organizations, there is a bit of politics. It’s not real bad, though, because we’re a real decentralized organization. We all get together in the same room about 4-5 times a year for staff meetings. Otherwise, you only see those who you are scheduled to work meetings with. Our boss emails us once a week with meeting stats and other employment info. We’re pretty autonomous, and can make decisions on our own how to serve the customer.

Each year there is one big get together called Innovations. It’s where they unroll the new program enhancements for the year, but it’s also like a big party. Those are pretty nice, and are generally fun. They do kind of border on too rah-rah, so depending on how cynical you are (big cynic here) YMMV.

In all, if you’re considering it, I’d say go for it. You can start out as a receptionist, which means you don’t have to speak in front of others, and then work up to being a leader if you prefer. That’s what I did, and honestly, I never would have imagined that I’d be up in front of a group of up to 50-60 people leading a discussion. It’s done wonders for my self-confidence and public speaking ability.

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Hey thanks for the answers, scout. Even more questions for you:

I assume that there is training of some kind?

Is there any “attitude” between leaders at all? Competitiveness?

Is Innovations a national get-together or just regional?

What have the “difficult” customers done?

And finally, got any funny stories?

Did I tell you I went to WW in NYC? Now I gotta check to see whether I related that anecdote. It was an experience. A surreal but good one.

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Thanks, Gazelle, but it was really you who did it, I’m just saying it as it is :slight_smile:

This WW stuff is really interesting - I never went to meetings, so I don’t know whether it’s the same over here. Since you were talking about easy vs. difficult: The WW plan is the first plan for me that was really easy to follow - also one that would “forgive” transgressions the easiest, making it less of a guilt trip to follow.
That’s what I think and I’ve heard (and seen) some successes among my friends.

What I would like to know, scout (only if you can and want to talk about it, of course), what do your customers in general think? Do they “complain” a lot? How would you rate the overall success?

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Hiya rubesbaby! Long time no post!

The NYC WW meeting was hilarious. I felt like I was in the middle of a Woody Allen movie. Sitting and listening to the accents was pure entertainment. And can we talk about nice? There were about twenty people there and they were all so friendly and solicitous! Everyone wanted to know where I was from, they were all thrilled to hear that I was about to run my first marathon and even more excited about my weight loss total. At the end, an older member (a man who had to be late 60s, early 70s) who worked a couple blocks away in the garment district, gave me a huge hug and thanked me for sharing.

The funniest part was listening to a woman who looked and sounded like she could be related to Carmella Soprano talk about going to McDonald’s with her kids, sending them in with her husband and staying in the car to read instead of eat. She was so dramatic; the mundane story was made enthralling.

If I could live and work in Manhattan, I would do it in a heartbeat. Love that town.

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Let’s see…

Training - yep. When I trained to be a leader, it was a 10 week program. We met once a week and discussed how to present, how to answer questions, how to ask open-ended questions, etc. Then there was homework that involved going to a meeting and doing part of the discussion - first for only 5 minutes, finally up until you do the whole thing. Nowadays, in my region anyway, it’s a weekend training - I haven’t heard much about it, other than I know it’s now concentrated all at once. Training for the receptionist position is pretty much on-the-job.

Innovations - is local. There was one in San Diego for SD and the Inland Empire, and one in Pasadena for the LA group, and so on.

I have to say that I have seen a larger amount of members get to their weight goals in the past 2 years than I saw in my first 4 years on the job. More people are sticking it out and not giving up. Unfortunately there are still a large portion of members who join for a while, and then mysteriously disappear. Sometimes I’ll see them come back, sometimes you wonder whatever happened. It strikes me that a majority of people never make it to goal. Essentially everyone who comes in is successful for a while. But not everyone has the determination to make it a permanent change.

A funny story: when I first started working, I was scheduled at a Saturday morning meeting. In it were a few lifetime members who were at goal, but who kept coming every week for the social aspect. They’d been at goal forever and were older than the hills. One such member, “Hal” would, on his official monthly weigh-in day, arrive at the meeting and step on the scale wearing nothing but boxer shorts and a tank top undershirt. I’m not kidding.

I’ve seen women go into the bathroom to take off their underwire bra in an effort to make that scale budge the last 0.2 so they could hit their 20 pound weight loss that night. I’ve made people cry by telling them my story, and I’ve cried hearing other people’s stories. I’m never surprised at how much people say they ate. I’m not afraid to admit that I’ve eaten a whole tube of cookie dough. I’m not afraid to admit that I’ve picked food out of the trash because it was still in “good condition”. There aren’t too many places with real food honesty, and I think that a WW room can be one of those places.

Lest I go off on some heartfelt tangent, I’ll quit now… :wink:

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scoutbabe, consider this a fervent request for the heartfelt tangent. Have you told your story somewhere on the SDMB? I would absolutely LOVE to hear it.

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I don’t think I ever really have.

I do have an LJ that until yesterday was gathering dust. If I can figure out how to do some of those nifty features like cut tags and the like, I may compose something and put it in there. It’s probably more appropriate in a venue like that.

I’ll letcha know.

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Okay cool. Otherwise, send me in an e-mail.

Big hugs, scoutygirl. I don’t know if you noticed, but I sure do like you. :slight_smile:

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Congratulations, Gazelle!