Once a Weight Watcher, always a Weight Watcher.

Because I'm a leader I don't often see the LT's that come in once a month for their weigh in but yesterday I was filling in as receptionist and got to catch up with E. who said I could share her story. I'm not often floored but she got me.

E. has been at goal for many years and has always seemed to me to be one of the lucky ones who "gets it" meaning gets what it takes to stay at goal.  She looked fabulous, as always, happy and friendly, as always.  And then I asked her how she's been and she said, "Well, 3 months ago I found out I had cancer and had a mastectomy, but it all went well and I feel great."  That news was upsetting, as it always is when you hear that someone has had cancer and we chatted about her experience.  E. mentioned that her weight had started to drop for seemingly no reason.  At first it was great, (once a Weight Watcher, always a Weight Watcher, right?) but she also knew something was wrong.

This is the part that floored me. After catching up it was time for weigh in and E. was suddenly anxious about getting on the scale and very seriously said, "Oh, I hope I haven't gained.".  And I, very unprofessionally, blurted out, "Gained?  Are you serious?  You just had mastectomy 2 months ago! Are you telling me that after having cancer you are still worried about whether or not your weight went up???"  Yup, floored.

And then we started laughing and agreed...once a Weight Watcher, always a Weight Watcher, even in the wake of cancer! We usually think that life threatening experiences forever change how we view everything else in our lives but E.'s story reminds us how deeply rooted our fear of the scale can be.

I want to thank E. for not only allowing me to share her story, but encouraging me to do so. As she continues her journey to live Beyond the Scale, I hope you find the strength to do so as well.  It's time, don't you think?