Meet Wendy from our Wednesday Night Meetings...

July 29, 2010 7:58 AM

I look back through my journal and I read time after time, month after month, year after year. I’m so psyched I lost, I stayed OP, I’m doing it, I will get to goal. I always started with great expectations and hope BUT it never lasted and I didn’t know why. I was always very confident that I would be able to lose the amount of weight that I wanted, I knew exactly what to do, but I never totally made it. Even though I never totally gave up, however each time I started over it was a larger amount that I needed to lose.

In my most desperate times I wrote contracts to my sister Pat (my weight loss buddy) attaching to it a monetary reward that she would receive if she ever had to go shopping with me for another special occasion outfit and I was a size 12 or more. I am 5’ ½” so that was a large size for me. (I didn’t write contracts anymore when I was size 16 and maybe higher) It was Pat who would bring me dress after dress to help me find an appropriate outfit for that wedding, christening, funeral or what ever. I was always looking for something that didn’t make me look fat. Poor Pat had the job of telling me it looked good, even when it really didn’t. She always found something for me that hid what it could.

I knew what to do, I have helped others lose weight by weighing them in and counseling them, I worked for Weight Watcher’s, but I couldn’t do it myself. I did reach goal at Weight Watcher’s in the 80’s, but I know now that I set a goal too low for me to maintain and then felt like a failure that I couldn’t stay there.

One day I read a magazine article about a local woman that lost weight. She had a Weight Watcher meeting in the area and I tried for about 1½ years to connect with her but it never happened. Then I heard she was having a book signing to launch the release of her book. I called to reserve a spot and was told there was only standing room, maybe even outside. (I never told Pat that, who of course I signed up too) That was December 30th 2008 a day I will never forget. That local lady was Kim Bensen.

As I listened to Kim, I started to be honest with myself. I am a slow loser, but I had to deal with it, so week after week when I lost .2 or gained .4 I dealt with it. I knew I was following program, my body just needed to catch up and it did. I wrote down the reasons I wanted to lose weight. I read them daily, I e-mailed those reasons to myself and they would automatically come up on my computer daily. I plan my meals, weigh and measure and I write down what I eat.

About 9 years ago I joined a message board and developed a friendship with 13 amazing women from around the world. We chat daily and continue to support each other in our weight loss efforts. Now it feels great that I can inspire them after all the support and inspiration they have given me.

I suspect with my continued honesty to myself, maintenance will be not be a problem.

Thanks to Kim, Penny, Peter, Mark and Matt and my Wednesday night meeting friends. Your support has meant the difference. And of course Pat. And thanks to my biggest supporter and cheerleader of all, my husband, Ken. Thanks everyone! I feel awesome!!! ((Hugs to all of you)) PS When I go shopping now Pat says the 6 is too big, you need a 4.