The Rubber Band (Wo)Man!

Week after week I contemplate changing my weigh in day from Saturday morning to a weeknight. But week after week I choose to keep my standing date with the scale on Saturday morning for two reasons:

1. A Saturday weigh-in keeps me honest on Friday nights (not ALL Friday nights, but most). On Friday nights I try to avoid salty foods and cocktails loaded with sugar. So that means I spend more Fridays at home than at Don Pico's eating chips and salsa while drinking the best Margaritas in town. And yes, this blows!! A little known fact about me...salty food makes me puffy. The salt makes my fingers look like a pack of Ballpark Frank hot dogs.
   
   A Saturday weigh-in also means I miss out on a lot of outings with friends on Friday nights. If I feel like my willpower may waver, then I choose to just stay home rather than torture myself with food and drinks that jeopardize positive weigh in results. So friends, nothing personal...I just want to reach my weight loss goals and maintain a healthy lifestyle (but keep the invites coming!). That's me enjoying a Friday night out with coworkers.
   
2. The second reason why I choose to keep my weigh in day the same, the Saturday meeting always provides the support I need after a disastrous week...like THIS PAST WEEK! I relapsed, more like collapsed thanks to two holiday parties this week. I saw a pizza box and lost my mind. Pizza for me is equivalent to someone waving a red cloak in front of a bull.
   

This week's meeting topic, The Snowball Effect, helped me to put my indiscretions behind me, forgive myself, and move forward. The leader gave everyone a rubber as an ANCHOR reminding members that quitting is NOT an option, so we need to bounce back like the rubber band.

An ANCHOR, one of Weight Watcher's tools for living, serves as a process for creating cues and triggers to remind yourself of your weight goal and the inner resources you have to achieve your goal. When this weight loss endeavor gets tough, that's when ANCHORING come into play. People use anchoring every day. For example, when you hear a song that makes you smile because you associate it with a certain memory, that's an anchor to that memory.

I myself use several anchors:

When you lose 10% of your starting weight, WW reward members with this gold key ring. After losing 25 lbs, I received the silver ring, and after I lose 50 lbs (7 lbs away from this goal), I will receive my 50 lbs ring to add to my key ring.

I also use Hungry, the star of the WW commercials as an anchor. Hungry lives on my fridge and his bro resides in the pantry. Sometimes Hungry keeps me honest. Other times, I roll my eyes at Hungry and threaten him to try and pry the bag of Hot Fries from my hands.

During times of trouble and distress he knows it's best to just sit by the soup and keep his mouth shut!

My favorite and most treasured anchor, my butterfly ring. When I first began my weight loss endeavor years ago, I told myself I no longer wanted to be the big fat fuzzy caterpillar...I want to be the butterfly. As I alter my lifestyle I spin my chrysalis. Soon I will break free from my chrysalis of fat and emerge as the beautiful butterfly!


O, my weigh in results...
Despite my week of food calamity, I managed to stay the same -/+ 0...talk about second chances. Folks, this week I WILL bounce back like my rubber band...TWANG (the sound of my rubber band bouncing back...lol)!