The weekly weigh in, week 49

Weekly Summary: Weekly change -- Lost 8 pounds. Total weight loss -- 77.6 pounds. Average weekly weigh loss -- 1.58 pounds

I finally got back to my regular Thursday night meeting. I love this group. We're loud, open, outspoken, funny, realistic about our weight, size, appearance, eating and the crap we take from others about all of the above in a very genteel over the hill Southern Lady type of way. At 47, I'm one of the younger members of the group, though the age range goes from 20-something to 90.

The sad news is that we've lost our favorite instructor, the one who was the draw for the Thursday night meeting. She had lost 110 pounds, kept it off for several years, and transformed herself from physically inactive to a marathon runner, despite having some comparatively serious problems with her back and arthritis. Her sense of humor is wonderful. She's incredibly supportive if you have over 100 pounds to lose or only 10, and I'm really going to miss her. She is one of the reasons why I've had the success I've had so far. She helped me believe this was truly achievable despite all the yo-yo dieting I've gone through and the intimidating reality of my size.

She made meetings fun. Every meeting started off with food that she either prepared or bought herself and a recipe with the WW points attached. It was never just any old food though. It always tied in to what we'd discuss that night. When we talked about the discomfort of changing, new attitudes, changing how we relate with other people and ourselves, she brought sushi, something with not too high a place on a typical Southern menu. When we talked about food as comfort and how that has a legitimate place in a healthy life, there was beef stew and cake. I adored the thoughtfulness that she poured into every meeting.

I've found that a Weight Watchers group leader can make or break the attitude the group members bring to their diet. I took my daughter to one meeting because our schedules meant she had to be inconvenienced to do her running around. She described my meeting as an eating disorder convention, and she was right. Everything I heard that night could have come off a pro-anorexia web site. It was all about how wonderful being skinny is, and well,frankly that's just bullshit. It's dangerous. I nearly lost my daughter to anorexia and bulimia, and I know the dangers of putting value on a small body size. I've been to meetings where we were just scolded, and well, no thank you. I've got to put up with enough bs in the rest of my life to deal with that. In others, I was so bored, I was dying to hit the door the minute it was over. For the most part though, I like going to meetings. Connecting with people who are going through this too is helpful.

Since I had missed meeting the previous week, my big gain wasn't reflected when I got on the scale. According to Weight Watchers records, over the last two weeks, I lost .8 pounds. Since I had gained 7.2 pounds the week I missed, I actually lost 8 pounds last week. A lot of that was water. I felt like I couldn't stay out of the restroom this last week. Since I don't remember the last day the temperature was under 100, I certainly sweated my fair share as well. That big gain was nothing more than a frustrating fluctuation, and my big loss this week was my body finding its balance again. I'll take that .8 pound loss with satisfaction.

The spreadsheet and chart tracking my weight loss is available here.

health and wellness, diets, Weight Watchers, weight loss