Fit & Fab; My first Weight Watchers meeting

The next couple posts are going to be ones that I wrote this past winter and never got around to publishing. This is another post I wrote in January/February but never got around to publishing.

I went to my first weight watchers meeting in late January.  I stayed at work a little later than usual so that I could go straight to the meeting and not be at home in-between.  Once I get home after work I like to stay there and it’s supremely hard to motivate myself to go back out, especially into the nasty arctic cold.

I ended up walking into the little Weight Watchers store just on time (6pm) and was a bit confused at first because the set-up was odd. There were a few shelves with products and some motivational posters but it was mostly taken up by computer terminals and large blue screens in semi-circles around scales on the floor. I passed about four of these terminals and walked towards the sound of a woman’s voice, then I encountered another woman who greeted me cheerfully.

I gave her my pre-registration printout and looked around dazedly. Then she asked me if I had ever been in a computer before.

??? what? I stood there looking at her, trying to figure out if she was really so condescending to ask if I’d ever used a computer before, while she asked the question several more times as if repeating it would make it any easier to understand for me.

I told her I had been using the online tools for a few weeks but this was my first meeting.

‘oh, so you’ve never been in a weight watchers computer before?’

I’m still confused, are there special computers for weight watchers? Does she mean the online tools? Perhaps she’s wondering if I’m in their system, but I should be because I pre-registered and have been using WW online. So I’m still trying to think up a proper response when she hands me a clipboard and cheerfully tells me to go on in, and we’ll register after the meeting.

After this confusing experience, I shyly sneak into the back row of the meeting, excusing myself as I try to fit past people in between the chairs. I find a seat and put my stuff down, trying to get the crazy lady out of my mind and listen to the woman speaking.

The woman did most of the talking, but she also asked for others in the meeting to speak about what they’ve been going through. She changed her slide presentation with a little silver clicker in her hand.  They talked about portion sizes and tricks that people have been using, also how people’s lives have changed while using weight watchers. There were some interesting things said. There were many different people there, one woman smaller than me, most a little larger.  One husband and wife came together, saying it was not their first time restarting weight watchers. They have tried many times and had little successes and here they are trying again. The husband said it’s most important to keep trying. I heard the ‘it didn’t get put on in a day, it’s not going to come off in a day.’ One woman said she has started putting her salad on her dinner plates and the ‘main’ entrée in a smaller plate or bowl. ‘It takes a long time to eat salad,’ she said.

It was very interesting and a very relaxed atmosphere. After the meeting, I stayed back to fill out my form and talk to the leader. There were a few other newbies as well and the leader gave us a little orientation to weight watchers and told us about her personal story. She gave us little folders with WW tools and tracking books. She lost weight on WW as well, she said all the leaders have done this. She seemed very nice, although slim, she talked with us about her own struggles with eating too much. We newbies each said a little about ourselves. I said that I had trouble with binge eating and my doctor had told me I was gaining weight too fast, but still I had trouble not gaining. I finally started maintaining my weight in 2012 and then beginning to lose in 2013. But I had only lost 10lbs last year and was having trouble losing any more without gaining it back. We discussed simple start and I said I had tried it but had moved on to tracking for more flexibility. We also talked about weighing ourselves and I explained that I only weigh myself twice a month and not around my time of the month in order to keep myself sane. She said it was a good way to go about it but pointed out that as long as I weigh myself at the same time each day, I will still see my weight loss. So weighing in on Wednesday at 6pm is not a bad thing. It won’t be the same weight that I would get if I weigh myself in the morning, naked, before eating anything, which is what I normally do.

After the meeting, the leader scanned my pre-registration sheet and took my weight. They gave me a little sticker for the tracking book with my weight on it. It was 6lbs heavier than when I had weighed myself naked, in the morning before eating, but she said you have to take clothes and the time of day into account. But just judge that number by the number next week to see the change.

Anyway, it was a good experience and I look forward to going back this Wednesday. I expected it to be longer than half an hour, though.

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