I'm Taking the Plunge....

Sure, you read the title, it's 96 degrees outside and you could safely assume I'm about to dive into a post about my family's summer swimming habits...Well, you're wrong. I'm taking an entirely different plunge; an entirely more anxiety inducing plunge into the Weight Watchers pool.

In 2004, I was rapidly approaching the 300lb mark. I wasn't there but I could see it on the horizon and it scared me. My wife and I began following the Weight Watchers program using materials we borrow from her mom. It worked, I lost about 70lbs and my wife was also successful.

Trouble is, since then I've been up and down and unfortunately for the last year I've been on a steady journey back up. I'm in a different place in my life than I was in 2004. Now I have a 13 month old baby girl at home who is watching very carefully what I do. It's one thing for me to be unhealthy, but there is no excuse to let my poor eating habits begin influence her.

My pants were getting tighter (I even broke down and bought a few larger pairs), and I thought it was time to get back on the horse, but this time the right way. It's one thing to borrow some books and information about Weight Watchers, but an entirely different thing to go to the meetings and learn how to successfully change your lifestyle. This all sounds kind of cheesy, but the more I stay positive about my weight loss the more likely I am to actually do it.

My wife went back to Weight Watchers after our daughter was born and she recently hit her goal weight...

This means three things:

1. She feels really good about her hard work over the last year.
2. She looks fantastic.
3. Her Weight Watchers meetings are now free.

That last one is important in terms of my decision to go to a meeting myself. You see we've been paying for meetings for about a year so what difference will it mean to our bottom line if I started paying for meetings? You're right, none. So last week I went onto the interwebs and signed-up for Weight Watchers Monthly Pass. Now I can go to meetings every week and be held accountable for the poor habits that have resurfaced in the last couple of years.

I'm not one for meetings, but just like when I saw 300lbs on the horizon I realized something had to be done. This time I want to stick it out so that my little girl will grow up in a houseful of healthy eaters. I'm not naive, I know she'll love her pizza and ice cream just like the other kids, and I want her to know that it's OK to eat that stuff sometimes...Just not all the time, like I do.

Are the meetings going to work? I'm not sure, but I'm exercising again and really trying to keep my food intake in check. Something had to be done, so I'm doing it.