Ever wake up one morning and just know that it was time to make a change in your life? Well, that happened to me a few weeks back. My life was in a mild state of chaos. My apartment was being sold out from underneath me, my life savings was about as safely invested as placing it all on “black” in Vegas and my job was in chaos. I needed control of something, anything really, that would make me feel better about life and about myself. What could it be?

I didn’t need to look far to remember that extra 15 lbs that I’ve been carrying around my waist for the past year – the ones that make me feel tired, reduce my wardrobe to only my fat pants and make me gag at the thought of shopping. That was it, I was going to take control, lose the weight, get back by energy, boost my self-confidence and reclaim my wardrobe. And after that, we’d see about the rest.

Despite my determination, I do admit it took me four weeks to actually act on it – but just last night, I showed up at my first Weight Watchers meeting. To be fair, it wasn’t really my first. I had joined Weight Watchers years ago and successfully gotten down to my lowest weight since high school. All I needed was a refresher course – and that huge scale staring me in the face. (Speaking of the scale, if you’re anything like most women I know – the idea of stepping on a scale in public is not your idea of a fun night out. But to be fair, the counselors at Weight Watchers are very professional and discreet, almost clinical. You can strip down as low as you want to go – I just took off my coat, boots, belt and all my jewelry. And there’s no funny looks, no comments, no judgment. It’s really pretty painless.) 

And so now, I’m on my way. I walked out of the meeting last night with my points calculator and my self-respect. I know it won’t be easy – but I do know it’s doable. My life has changed already. This morning I substituted a pear for my usual mid-morning granola bar snack and saved 3 points. And this afternoon – when the sweet craving kicked in- I took 2 Twizzlers from the pack and left the rest. 1 point instead of 5. Lunch may have been a bit bigger than it should have been – but I’ll tackle that change next week.