It's Been A While...

For those of you who knew me as a Weight Watchers leader, you may have wondered where I've been. I have been the manager of Get In Shape For Women in Danvers, an all women's personal training gym, since August of 2010. It may sound like I went from the nutrition side of wellness to the workout side of wellness, but the truth is I have always know women need both, and also the "spirit" side, to feel they can be their best self. At this time, I am becoming a certified wellness coach, and continue to learn the best tools to give my clients, friends and anyone who will listen. I plan on udpating this blog with the information I send to my GISFW Danvers clients, and maybe some of my own more personal thoughts. I will update this blog with a few of my most informative emails for the past 2 years and send you to web sites that I think you will find interesting. Information is power. You never know where you will find the words that will change your life. Or maybe you've heard it once, or twice before, but now you are ready to receive it. Here is one of most recent emails: The Weekly Weigh In Do you have water nearby? Did you eat protein today? Did you eat? Remember, don't go out tonight hungry - that bread basket will look very tempting... As you know, the GISFW franchise organization has mandated weekly weigh ins. I would like to tell you why this is a good idea. You know I like to say, information is power. For us to give you the best service, we need to know as much as possible about your health to get you to your goals. Here is some information for YOU. Normal fluctuation of water in your body can sway the scale 2 pounds either way. Your weight can be effected by hormones, salt, food in your belly and being constipated. It can also be effected by a hard workout, a bad night sleep or stress hormones. So, if we weighed you in every other week, and we missed you on one of the weigh ins, it would be almost a month before we weighed you again. And if that next weigh in was a day you had a reason mentioned and registered a gain, you would think "4 weeks and I GAINED 3 pounds!" and get discouraged, when we just caught you on the wrong day. AND even if you do everything right, weight loss is not linear. You may have 2 weeks with no loss and great compliance, and then have a 3 pound weight loss on the 3rd week. I just have to survive your other 2 weigh ins.... The weekly weigh ins are an opportunity to see if you need a different tool from me, or just encouragement that you are still on track, but may have too high expectations. It's also a way for my team to improve and create a better program to give you what you need. OK - you knew it was coming. One of my analogies. My 16 year old daughter has a checking account where she deposits her small weekly paycheck. She mostly uses her debit card to spend her money. We set up the account so she cannot buy something if she does not have sufficient funds. It doesn't mean I don't trust her, I just don't want her to make a mistake and incur fees. We are responsible for her spending habits, but the bank has got our back. However, when I signed up with my bank when moving to Middleton, I DID NOT sign up for bounced check protection (I am making that term up, but you know what I mean...) So, when we mistakingly underfunded my checking account, I got LOTS of FEES that added up to A LOT of money! I had hoped the person I signed up with would have had me signed up for the protection (a simple form). I am responsible for my spending habits, but I thought the bank would have my back. That they would have notified me before the fees got so high. I was very upset! (true story). We have your back. You came to us for a service - to help you reach your goals. The weekly weight ins are important because we don't want too much time (more valuable than money) to pass without us both knowing if you are going in the right direction. Or you may tell us that weight maintenance is what you want. Or that at this moment in time, just getting the workouts it enough for you. We do not make any assumptions about the weigh in. This is your program. The weight lns are not about your being "good or bad", it's about creating action plans and reviewing our progress and adjusting accordingly.