Weekly Meeting Topic: Motivate yourself to have Fun in the Sun

With the upcoming Memorial Day holiday weekend, tonight's meeting was a basic recap on how to handle these types of life celebrations. We discussed plans for this weekend, including things like barbeques or similar get togethers many of us are likely to attend.

Some suggested strategies were:

Be Prepared! I can't overemphasize this enough. This is not only important in celebratory situations, but in every day life. It's one of the most important things you can do to be successful. Being prepared entails so many things - grocery shopping so that you have the food on hand that you need, cooking ahead of time or preparing meals to go if you're pressed for time, having a healthy snack or water with you when you're out, carrying your food journal or other materials that help you.

Examples: Find out what will be served at the event so you can plan your points, or bring your own dish/food to better handle portion control and satisfy your hunger while eating healthfully, staying within your points and having fun.

Ask for Help: This is something I admit I am not good at, in all aspects of life. I am fiercely independent and have always preferred to do everything myself. While assertive in most other situations, I will rarely, if ever, admit to needing help. But I have, on occasion, asked for help regarding my health and weight loss efforts. Here are a few times when I did so while on Weight Watchers- 1) Asking my co-worker and the temptress at the coffee shop to stop offering (or buying) me delicious baked goods. 2) Telling my Dad where it was best for me to dine out when we meet for dinner 3) Asking Michael to not enable me by giving into my drunken demands for pizza at 3am and by not buying me treats that he knows I love. It was harder for me to muster up the courage to recite those requests - to publicly admit I needed help - than it was for me to deliver them. And each request was respected. It's something I should probably do more often, but I still have trouble with.

Examples: Tell the hostess your situation beforehand so she doesn't make a big deal about why you're eating differently. Or tell the host that it would help you if you brought your own dish, and ask what would complement what they are already serving.

Take Care of Yourself: Again, this is great advice for every day! I think sometimes (especially Moms) mix up 'taking care of yourself' with 'being selfish'. I am here to tell you they are NOT the same. I firmly believe (and have told this to Moms in my meeting) that you *need* to take care of yourself so you can be there to take care of your family and set a good example. If that means you leave them for an hour a week to attend your Weight Watchers meeting, or plan a half hour a night that someone else watches them so you can go for a walk, relax or do something else to recharge your battery, you NEED to do that. I realize I am single and childless and have no obligations to anyone except my cat (and I love it that way) but I know enough women with children that have a difficult time putting themselves first, and I wish they would see that by taking care of themselves they will be in a better position to take care of others and be a good role model.

Examples: How can you take care of yourself this holiday weekend? Relax, if that's what you want. Here's a radical idea: Just because you may be invited somewhere, you are under no obligation to go. You can stay home and celebrate the unofficial start of summer in the comfort of your home. Treat yourself to a mani/pedi (I plan to get my first pedicure of the season this weekend!). Get a massage, a facial, go bike riding or play a fun team sport in the park with your family or friends. Whatever you decide, enjoy the time you take out for yourself. It will be rewarding both mentally and physically.

Other helpful strategies I would suggest but were not mentioned in the meeting are some of the Tools for Living - things like Positive Self Talk (you CAN do it!), Storyboarding (planning out what will happen and then acting out that scenario when you get there) and Mental Rehearsing (mentally practicing how you will handle some situations that you are likely to encounter).

We ended on a sentiment that I referred to recently - the leader reminded us that Motivation is what brought us to Weight Watchers, but it's our habits that will keep us there. I agree a thousand percent.

Hopefully some of those ideas will get you through this weekend. Either way, don't stress about it too much - relax and enjoy it! Welcome to the Summer of 2009 - make it a great one, because you only get one.