Weekly Meeting Topic: Eating Out

This week's meeting was about eating out. I covered this topic pretty extensively twice before in previous meeting blogs (see here and here), and I don't think there is much more I can say.

So instead of recapping all the same info I already covered, I will mention that I went to a different meeting tonight after work in Manhattan (since my regular weekly meeting was on Labor Day and WW was closed). I really liked the leader - she was a petite, young woman who took off 65 pounds. Despite her age, she really impressed me. She had some great points during the meeting and I enjoyed her meeting style. So much so, that I am considering making this my new weekly meeting. Of course that means I can no longer go to my favorite bar to blog after the Brooklyn meeting, but that might work out because my internet connection stopped working in there a while ago. And as it gets colder/darker, I won't be riding my bike anymore - and I don't like bringing my laptop on the bus. So maybe this will all work out. I am going to give it some serious thought...

One thing I will mention about tonight's meeting was when the leader asked what we do if we over-indulge during a restaurant meal. I replied, and stated what I try to mention here all the time: You forgive yourself and move on. Start over at the next meal/tomorrow.

After years of trying to lose weight unsuccessfully, I got to the point where I no longer beat myself up over bad choices - because I know how counter productive it is. The bottom line is that you cannot and will not be perfect all the time, if ever. You can't go back and un-do what you did (and I don't purge, nor do I advocate purging). All you can do is move forward - learn from your mistakes and make better choices next time. But it's important to not let it bother you, because that can further affect your choices negatively.

I firmly believe that and live by that philosophy. Coming around to that way of thinking is one of the most important changes I have made in how I view what I am doing and is one of the reasons for my success.

Then the leader mentioned something to drive the point home even further, and I thought this was brilliant. Remember - It was not ONE MEAL that got you to your breaking point or where you are right now. So if that one meal was less than ideal, keep it at that - ONE MEAL. Don't let that one meal snowball into more - remind yourself that ONE MEAL did not get you to your highest weight. Because if you let that one meal affect you negatively, that will turn into another meal, and another and another.

And in closing, there was a quote on the board that I liked "One important key to success is self confidence. One important key to self confidence is preparedness."

I'm glad I hit that meeting tonight, I feel really good about the coming week. Have a great one, everyone!