The week after Halloween blues

Last Friday I was headed to my Weight Watchers meeting, but with as much enthusiasm as a kid on his way to detention. I didn’t want to go. I know: you’re thinking, “But, hasn’t she been super successful at Weight Watchers? Doesn’t she love to just jump on the scale and see those great numbers?” Well, I used to, but the last couple of weeks I’ve been on a heck of a backslide and I had to face it all on the scale.

So, what’s been going on? Well, first there was Halloween. Last year I allowed myself one single piece of candy. That worked, so this year I started with that rule – which quickly changed into one piece of each type of candy (and we had 4 different bags of the “variety pack” style, not to mention all the stuff my kids brought home. You do the math). Then there was the one slice of pizza I was allowed for dinner that turned into 3 plus whatever was left on my kids’ plates. The day after Halloween, Peter K posted a blog about putting whatever damage was incurred at Halloween behind us and just moving forward. That was great advice – if only I’d taken it. Instead, I ate all the candy my coworkers had brought in to get it out of their house, and followed that up with lunches out where I didn’t even bother to guess my portion sizes or track my points and calories.

Now, a taller person might be able to get away with a bad week, but I’m not even 5’0” (though that’s what my driver’s license says. Hey, the form I filled out said “Height”. It didn’t say “Your Height.”). So, not only am I going to be seriously upset if I ‘m not at least 5’10” in my next life, but in this lifetime I don’t get much room for error.

Fortunately for me, I had a session with Peter half way through this horrendous week. I thought about hiding my recent eating habits from him, but I knew I needed to “stop the bleeding” so to speak, and I confessed to everything (well, most of it). One good thing about working with Peter is that he knows what to say to his clients to help steer them back on track. For me, he talked about my kids, asking me what it was that I wanted to teach them. This made me think things I know they’ve already learned. My 2 ½ year old son, Benjamin loves the movie “The Incredibles.” One day Ben was watching the movie and he turned and asked me, “Mommy, is Mr. Incredible strong because he eats his vegetables?” (I replied that he was ). Another time, my 5 year old daughter, Olivia, and I had returned from food shopping and I asked her to run inside and get my husband to help me with the shopping bags. Olivia looked at me funny and then finally asked, “But, Mom? Aren’t you stronger than Dad?” (I replied that I was ).

After my session with Peter I was a bit more on track. Candy stopped living in fear of me, and I started tracking my food again. But on my way to Weight Watchers, I worried the scale would break beneath me, and I was generally just embarrassed over my recent food frenzies.

I got to the meeting and I was right. The scale wasn’t happy, and neither was I. In truth, it wasn’t as bad as I had feared; I think it was because I’d gotten a bit of a handle on things in the latter part of the week. The meeting started and I was barely listening. Then I realized another member was addressing me personally. She was telling me that several months ago she had kind of given up on both Weight Watchers and herself. She had decided to come to one last meeting, and in it I told a story about my daughter. In the story, Olivia had been asking me about an indoor triathlon I had done last November, asking if they let me have water whenever I wanted or if I had to ask permission. I had answered Olivia’s questions, and she said to me, “Well, when I’m a mommy and I do triathlons, I’m going to use your water belt so that I can drink water whenever I want.” The woman was so inspired by that story that she had gotten back on track and proceeded to lose 100 pounds.

I thought about what the woman was saying and what Peter was trying to show me in my training session with him. I’ve taught my son to think that vegetables give you super human strength, and I’ve taught my daughter to think that all mommies do triathlons. I learned that it’s possible to get inspired by inspiring others.

Between my session with Peter K and Weight Watchers, what had originally been one of my worst weight weeks ended up being one of my best. Peter says to set goals. Mine are to continue to teach my kids to be healthy, and to find ways to inspire complete strangers. Buckle your seat belts, folks; it’s going to be a heck of a ride.