A Letter - No. 43

I have mentioned in the past that I work at Weight Watchers on Thursday nights as "The Weigher".

I was telling a couple of friends at a party tonight about an email I sent recently to the Weight Watchers Newsletter when I had 'artistic differences' with one of their methods discussed in the newsletter.

One of my friends commented something to the effect of (and this is not word perfect) "It (the email) would be good, you can 'Feel' Julie's writing". I have had many positive comments on my writing, but I had never realised that particular point. FEEL. Wow! Have you noticed how many hits I have had on this site? The counter on the front page is now up to 269 hits.

I am amazed that many people are visiting the site. It doesn't necessarily mean that they read anything, but they find it in the world wide web! There is one blog (web diary) site I have found on the web where the lady gets on and writes about stuff happening in her life, I visit often and read what she is up to, so I suppose its the same.

Anyway for the email to W W.

Hello,

I read the News for Weighers article in February Meeting Matters with great interest and wanted to tell you about my experience.

I started off as a member last year in May, and on my first weigh in after joining, I could not understand why the weigher didn't talk. After a quick 'hello' my weight was recorded and handed to me. I thought to myself "is that it?" "Did I lose, did I gain?"

As I have an outgoing personality, I went away thinking 'what an unfriendly bunch'.

During my third meeting the Leader announced that the weigher was leaving and they needed someone to volunteer. Everyone squirmed in their seats. I decided that I was going to really commit myself to life long weight control, so I stayed behind and volunteered. In hindsight it was the best thing I could have done, as I know now, I would have given up after week 4 otherwise.

After about six weeks training (where basically we still said nothing to the members), our weigher (a girl in her mid twenties) left.

Once I was on my own, I started to do things how I would have liked it done for me.

After greeting the member, as soon as the member stepped on the scale, I would move the slider to the previous weeks weight and if it went 'clunk', I knew they had lost weight. I would look up and make eye contact and say, "well you have lost". Immediately, you would see the tension go out of their shoulders and their whole face would light up.

If it went the other way, I would say "hmm, looks like you have put on a tiny bit" and then say something like, "well the important thing is you are here, and I look forward to seeing your result next week". My Leader is very supportive and is ready to step in when called.

Now each week, its like greeting an old friend. I live in a fairly small suburb and often run into members in the supermarket etc. and when a member achieves a milestone, like 5 10 20 30 40 kgs or goal weight, I usually give them a big hug and often have to wipe tears away, as I am so excited for them.

Also, I try to make a special effort for the week 2 members, it is a big step for many to decide to come to weight watchers and I want to make it as positive as I can.

As for myself - well when i joined, I expected to lose 3 kgs the first week and then 1 kg a week after that. The reality is, it has taken me 10 months to lose 5 kgs. As a result of working for Weight Watchers, I have learnt to be very happy with that result.

I love working for Weight Watchers and hope to enjoy it for a long time to come.