Chronicles of a Late Bloomer

When I decided to go back to Weight Watchers, I committed to myself that I would “shop around” for a meeting leader who wouldn’t make me want to gouge out my eyes with a bookmark and choke myself with a Points Finder ™. Since the WW “plan” is more of a guideline for me and not law, what I really am looking for in a meeting is:

1. Consistent, outward evidence of my commitment to health.
2. Accountability and support.
3. TOOLS TO CHANGE MY THINKING.

I’ve lived through more WW leaders than I care to admit. There was the matronly, blue-haired figure who played to the grandmothers in the crowd. She liked to read cheesy quotes from old, leather-bound books and share “funny jokes” that were forwarded “through the email” by her grandson away at college. Also, she cackled.

Beverly Hills soccer mom chugged fat-free, sugar-free iced lattes through a straw at every meeting. Her voice just grated on me and she laughed at all her own jokes. She had frosted hair and fake fingernails and liked to talk about shopping. I mean, she liked to talk about shopping a lot.

Then there was blue collar type, with what appeared to be a stage-two mullet. Actually, I liked her. She was ultra-real. But, she could get a little lost sometimes, and had a hard time keeping the group on focus. Also, her trademark was that she would hand out (terrible, awful) recipes each week. No, thanks.

Fortunately, the leader who runs the Saturday morning group near me seems to be a much better fit. Here are the things I like about her so far:

• She lost 95 pounds and has kept it off for almost 15 years. I don’t have anything against people who have 20 pounds to lose, but I’m hopeful that she will help me to be realistic about my 100+ goal.
• It took her 18 months to lose that weight. This averages out to just over 5 pounds a month and that’s reasonable, to me. Not too easy but not too die-hard, either.
• She’s not too cutesy. She doesn’t baby you. She doesn’t use cliches or empty, trite cheerleading. She’s realistic and a little rough. Oh, yeah.
• She’s an independent thinker. In spite of being a WW leader for 13 years, the first thing I ever heard her say was, “Well, I’m tossing out the topic this week because it sucks.” Seriously? No goose-stepping to corporate mandates? Awesome. In fact, the topic she substituted (one she had written a few years earlier which was used in WW meetings across the country) was, honestly, inspiring.
• She believes that words have power. This is particularly important to me. She is constantly correcting the members when they use phrases like “slipped up” and “I should have” and other self-defeating phraseology. I buy into the theory that the way we talk is the way we think, and that by changing the way we talk, we can impact the way we think and, hopefully, the way we act. She calls words transformers. I like that.
• Whether she knows it or not (and I suspect she doesn’t), she is making use of some therapy techniques that I think will benefit me. Yes, I’m a therapist. However, I’m not always good at applying this knowledge to my own life. I have hopes that her cognitive-behavioral slant will help me to make some of the lasting changes that have eluded.

  I reserve the right to change my mind, but so far so good Saturday mornings.