Up 2

So I had a bad week.

Ate too much fatty food on the fourth. Ate too little other days. Ate way to much yesterday at the local city fair.

I'm trying to think positive. Even though I over did it, I did better than I would have before starting Weight Watchers. I did not over eat. I shared a plate with Vince. I stopped eating my Chinese at half and did not clean my plate. I turned down Dawn's leftovers, even though I LOVE LOVE LOVE what she had. (Fried Chinese lo mein. YUMMY). I did not have a cotton candy or a Fried Twinkies, both of which I really wanted.

I'm wondering though is the I did better than the past a real idea, or just justification. I'm not sure. On some levels it is progress, on others it is just an excuse.

Things I will do this week to have a better week:

1. Go grocery shopping so there is healthy food in my kitchen.
2. Count. I did not track last week.
3. Monitor portion sizes.
4. Attend the meeting next week as well. I only weighed in last week, skipped the meeting.
5. Keep a positive attitude.
6. Take Sydney for a walk in the evening 3 times this week.

So those are my goals. Do-able I think.

Last week I was really chaffing at the counting and writing it down, mostly because Vince is so over the top with it he is driving me bonkers. I can keep my points written down and still remain me.

I've done imagery for how I want this afternoon to go. I am going to Lagoon, the local amusement park. I will bring healthy snacks. I will not go nutso on the amusement park food. I did that at Disneyland, I can skip it at Lagoon. I will make wise choices at dinner. I might eat at their Subway, or I might eat somewhere else, but I will write it down. I'm picturing how I want this day to go, so I have a mental plan.

Any psychics out there? Have any idea where my nice swimming suit is? I can't find it and I have looked EVERYWHERE. I found the skirt that goes with it, but not my suit. I got it last year and have wore it once or twice. It was not an inexpensive suit by any means at all, either. I spent $150 on the suit and skirt, and I think I looked OK in it. It actually supported me, which my old suit does not do so well. Oh well. I can't afford to go buy a new one, since hopefully sometime soon I'll need a smaller size.

5 WHOLE POUNDS!!!

Yes. I lost 5 whole pounds in 9 days. I am amazed!

I feel better already. I am actually eating veggies... why because they are free. I have not had fast food in over a week. I feel so much better.

When I'm loosing weight, I can feel it. I don't have a way to describe it, but my skin fits better, looser. I feel softer. It is weird.

I am so very excited about this. If I keep the weight loss up, I'm not touching my nursing points, unless I plateau.

I find eating all the points I have hard. I have 32 now. It is REALLY hard to eat all that when you are trying to eat healthy. Funny.

Vince lost 6 pounds. He is doing very well. He is psycho nutso about tracking, like he thinks there will be a test. Oh well. I'm very happy at how well we have done.

After the weigh in, I went to Wal-Mart to get some things. I wanted to shout over and over, I lost 5 pounds, I lost 5 pounds.

New Ticker, New Goal, New Me?

Anyone else notice my new ticker? (Of course I saw it because I went and made it then pasted the code here. )

Vince and I started Weight Watchers yesterday. Yup, went to a meeting, paid the dues, stepped on a scale, and joined.

I'm not at my high weight, where I was the last time I started WW. However, I'm over a number I said I would never be over again... but only by 8 ounces., but I AM over that number. (It was my tampon, I swear.)

I do weigh more than I did the day I walked into the hospital to have Sydney. I do weigh much more than I should.

I am very committed. Yesterday for lunch I had a last Hurrah! I had a Crown Burger, fries and fry sauce. Very yummy. Very fattening. Very much a very rare treat from now on. (if ever) I looked at this like Mary Tyler Moore did when she went to the Betty Ford Clinic. I read in her autobiography that she got on the plane to go to the clinic sat down in first class, and was offered a drink... she figured one last chance to enjoy so she did and she showed up at the Betty Ford clinic very drunk. I showed up at the Weight Watchers meeting full from pastrami, cheese, and burger, but comitted and ready to make major life changes.

I was looking at pictures of me, and saw how heavy I am. I'm not happy at this weight. So I'm doing something about it.

I'm amazed at the number of points I'm allotted a day. Last time, I had 26 I think. This time, I have 36. GASP I'll never lose weight. I talked to the leader, and because I'm still nursing, but not nursing a baby that is only nursed, I removed 3 points, down to 33. I wanted to remove 6 points, cut the nursing points bonus in half (nursing moms get 12 points extra) but Vince thought that was too many. We will see, if I loose at 33 I'll stay there (although I lose a point when I lose a pound because of where my weight is). I just might drop down to 30 if I don't lose. I was impressed that the leader was supportive of nursing, and did not once ask if/why I was STILL nursing. Good for her.

For now, both Vince and I are doing flex, the plan where you count points. At some future time, we may switch over to core, once we are used to eating better and not so much.

We went to the meeting together yesterday. My sister was around and watched Syd. I want to be able to go with him all the time, but am unsure if that will happen... remember that letter I wrote a while ago? I'm calling her next and see about a night meeting where children are welcome. I know Vince will be more comfortable if I'm there with him in the meetings, at least at first. When we were getting the paperwork done, a regular member meeting ended. 3 men walked out, and about 45 women. One staff member there was a male... funny he did my weigh in, and a woman did Vince's.

So we are off and running (counting). As you can see from my ticker, I have plenty to lose.

My motivations for weight loss... the leader encouraged us to put it in writing...

• I want to look better.
• I want to be able to wear more fashionable clothing.
• I want to be able to wear cute clothing found on the clearance rack.
• I want to be healthier.
• I want to feel better in my skin.
• I don't want roller coaster rides to be tight on my hips.
• I want my seat belt to fit better.
• I don't want movie seats to be tight anymore.
• I want to live longer.
• I want to eat healthier.
• I want to eat less process and fast foods.
• I don't ever want to read that "maternal habitus" (read: my fat) interfered with a ultrasound ever again.
• I want to be able to run with Sydney.
• I don't want to ever worry I won't fit into the MRI machine.

At some point in the future, once I've lost a bunch of weight, I want to try to have another baby. I want that pregnancy to be healthier than Sydney's. I can't control the IUGR, placental stuff, but I can control my weight. Somehow I avoided gestational diabetes, hypertension, and pre-eclampsia, all of which weight makes much worse.

I'm done being fat. Last time when I reached this point emotionally, it was when I realized that the fat was costing me a baby. I lost 35 pounds, and got pregnant the first cycle. I firmly believe that the weight loss let my hormones get normal enough to get pregnant. I think that next time with even less extra weight hanging around, I could have an easier or healthier pregnancy without all that weight messing with the hormones.

Last time the fat was costing me a baby. This time it could cost me being able to raise my baby, and that is just too high a price to pay for Twinkies and cookies.

Response from Weight Watchers

So they responded. Still now WOW evening meeting, but at least they read my letter and are thinking about it. From Faith's suggestion, any readers in the Utah or Idaho area who wants to have an evening WOW meeting, please let me know, and I'll send you their emails so you can write a letter too. She liked my letter!!!! See I can write a powerful letter.

Begin letter....

Hi Wendy! My name is Gina T. (snip) , the Executive Director of Weight Watchers of SLC, Inc. I have to say, I loved your e-mail. I don't often get many e-mails with so much time, effort, and research put into them. Thank you! All of your points are so very valid and definitely ones we keep in mind as we look at our demographics and geographical locations, and make decisions based on such.

Currently, our WOW meetings are still in their infancy stage. In fact, these came about due to the consistent feedback we received from stay at home moms. So, we're working on accomplishing our first goal of getting a WOW meeting into each market area. So far so good with the daytime WOW meetings, they really seem to be meeting the need. Granted, there will never be a perfect day and time for everyone and we knew that going into it. In fact, even if we venture into making a night meeting into a WOW, it would still be hit or miss based on members' work schedules and kids' activity schedules. We get so many different requests for times and days that it is hard to make it great for everyone. We take a big risk opening up new meetings, specifically population specific meetings. We've always run the business with the idea that we'd hate to give something only to have to take it away due to minimal success. However, this doesn't mean that we won't continue to monitor the need. Your feedback is most helpful and will be used in future discussions about just this subject.


The fact of the matter is Wendy, the requests for WOW meetings dropped substantially when we introduced the daytime WOW meetings, so we had some evidence that they were filling a need. Though, as you mentioned, not everybody's needs. I wish there was a way to take care of everybody's needs, but unfortunately, it just isn't possible, especially when the majority of our members have been so clear in communicating that they appreciate meetings without children so that focus can be on the members vs. the many distractions we find in the WOW meetings. I'm so sorry our lack of choices doesn't allow you to attend with your husband, especially because having a friend or family member really promotes increased success with the program. I hope that you will still consider attending separately in order to get the value of the meeting experience which you clearly understand is a large factor in overall weight loss success.

Would you please contact me personally if you would like to speak in greater length about our decision making process? I can be contacted at (removed) if desired.

Again, I thank you so much for time and energy into stating your desires and concerns. Truly, I appreciate you providing us with this information for use in future discussions about new meetings.

My best,

Gina T.

Letter to Weight Watchers

So, since I'm never one to just take no for an answer, at least not the first time I'm told no... I wrote a letter to Weight Watchers. Here it is.

Please forgive the traditional "spin" on the letter. I could not figure out how to include co-habitating/ GLBT and all the other types of families out there into my letter. Also, from my experience with WW, they are a fairly conservitive bunch, and I was trying to plead my case to that audience.

Dear Weight Watchers:

I am writing to request that you consider having an evening or weekend “Wee Ones Welcome (WOW)” meeting at each of your locations, especially the Layton office.

Please allow me to provide you with some background information supporting my request:

According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.nr0.htm) the following information is current to the year 2005:
Working families:
Husband only working: 20.2%
Wife only working: 6.5%
Both Husband and Wife working: 51.3%

Working mothers (Percentages are out of all mothers):
Percent of mothers in the workforce: 70.5%
Married mothers in the workforce: 68.2%
Single mothers in the workforce: 76.1%
Mothers with children less than a year old in the workforce: 53.8%

Charts are available at the above link which provides greater detail to this information.

As you can see from the above referenced information, most mothers are in the workforce. Most mothers of children under one are in the workforce. Most families also have both parents working. More than 75% of single mothers work. However, your only meeting which allows parents to bring their children with them is during the day, at a time at which most people who work are at work. The current WOW meeting accommodates the minority of parents with children, while leaving the majority of parents without a time which is convenient to them. Most parents do not have the ability to leave work to attend a Weight Watchers meeting during the week, leaving them to attend a night or weekend meeting. This means that parents must chose between attending the meeting and spending time with their children. If they are to attend a meeting, they must arrange substitute care for their children. While this may work for married parents in which only one spouse is participating in Weight Watchers, this does not work for either married couples in which both spouses are over weight and wish to participate or single parents.

You may be asking why not have the parents attend different meetings, with the other at home with the baby? 1) This suggestion does not work for single parents. 2) From my past experience with Weight Watchers, the average meeting lasts approximately an hour and a half, from weigh in time to meeting completion, with travel time added to this. It then becomes very likely that a family could be apart for an additional 4 hours each week. If the parents want to attend together, they must arrange care, with the time and expense related to that, or using the good will of family and friends. There is also a large hassle factor in this, and it basically is much easier to stay home and not have to deal with finding child care, coordinating who will attend and who will be home with the child, etc.

As you already know, people who attend Weight Watchers meetings lose more weight than people who attempt to lose weight on their own. It would make sense that in a family where a weight loss plan is under way, that a couple would do better if they could attend the sessions together, so they can discuss what they learned as a family.

I can completely understand why most of your meetings are adults only. As I see it, adding an evening or weekend WOW class would add to the market base which Weight Watchers has. This would allow more single and two parent families to participate in your program. This would benefit the participants as they would have the support and guidance from your company, and would benefit your company, as a new member base which is currently underutilized would be available.

In our situation, I was a member over a year ago. I lost 30 pounds, then stopped attending, mostly because the family members I had been attending with stopped going. I then got pregnant, had a baby, and now need to lose baby weight. When I was an active participant in the program, my husband also lost weight, but frankly, I lost more than he did, and was more committed, likely because I had the support of the weekly meetings. We now both want to attend Weight Watchers, and lose the weight we have gained. With our young daughter, unless there is an evening or weekend WOW, we will not be able to attend, and will be forced to decide which one of us can attend when, rather than being able to make this a joint experience.

Earlier this week, I called your 1-800 number asking why there was not a WOW meeting in the evening. The woman stated that usually the baby stays home with the husband. That statement assumes several things, including that there is a husband, and that the husband does not want to participate lose weight. Thank you for considering my request. I would appreciate hearing from you at your earliest convenience. I would appreciate it if my letter is forwarded to the franchise owner. Please feel free to contact me via phone, email, or mail.

Sincerely,
Wendy J. LastName

My attempt to up my placement on google for this post: Weight Watchers, Salt Lake City, Utah, UT, mother, weight loss, Weight Watcher international.

Weight Watchers – not family friendly

So Vince and I are overweight. Dr. Calm mentioned that I should consider losing more weight before I TTC again…. Dr. Big Shot wanted my weight around 150, I am not there. I am 30 pounds lighter than my heaviest, but from the weight today, I actually have gained 2 pounds since I HAD the baby. I still have a net loss from the pregnancy, but to have gained weight after the baby…. Vince also says his jeans are tight, and needs to lose some weight for military purposes. I’m emotionally ready to lose more weight, and I do need the support and monitoring of a formal program.

Well, we want to go to the same Weight Watchers meeting. Here they have one “Wee Ones Welcome(WOW)” meeting a week, Monday morning. Nothing the rest of the week. I called the 1-800 number and asked about having a “WOW” meeting in the evening. I explained that DH and I want to attend together, and don’t really want She said they really only have the one meeting, for mom’s who don’t work.

GRRR…. Tangent here: WHY does everything here revolve around people who don’t work? This exists in so much craft classes, reading groups at church, so many things I want to do, but can’t because they are forgetting that most women go to work.

I asked her why no evening “WOW” meeting. She said that usually the baby stays home with the husband. I said that we both work during the day, and we do our best to be together in the evenings and weekends. I’m not happy that I have to either: flex my schedule to go to a daytime meeting, or swap the baby with Vince, or arrange day care. Either way, unless Sydney is with someone else, no Weight Watcher meetings together for us.

My brother has gotten VERY sensitive about us asking them to watch Sydney for a shot time. He went off on the IM to me. What would have worked is to drop her off for an hour and a half, go to the meeting, but there is no way I’m asking him. His wife would help, but I’m not dealing with my brother at all about this. He was really nasty and vindictive on the IM, and I’m not giving him any ammunition. I’ll just steer clear.

So, I’ll figure something out, but it won’t be what I want.