I am SO excited about this announcement I can hardly stand it. About an hour ago I wrapped up my very first meeting on JoinYardstick.com, a new site my friend Esther is launching.
More than 20 years of research shows people lose up to 3 times more weight if they check in at least once a week with someone else. This is the idea Weight Watchers is based on and something I can say helped me immensely when I was losing. It’s also why I started the idea of a Wednesday Weigh In here on the site.
Now with the help of Yardstick, I can host live weigh-in meetings!
A few days ago I shared this on my Facebook wall:
For those of you who have been following me from the beginning you know I lost 70lbs in 2005-2006. I did this with the help of WW and blogging.
I’ve since become a runner (still weird for me to say), maintained my weight though a second pregnancy, and am now somewhat of a fitness fanatic. (Freaking out over my CrossFit competition win this weekend!!)
Anyway, I’ve come a LONG way but it’s very easy for me to remember my 15 years of yo-yo dieting and being stuck in that cycle of gaining/losing because of low self-esteem and a bad body image.
A huge part of my weight loss success was the weekly WW meetings I attended. I committed to them and looked forward to the accountability and sense of community I had there.
I’ve since pulled away from WW as the plan changed from the one that worked for me (Flex), but I still think there is power in the approach of a weekly check-in and community support. That’s why I’ve been keeping up with my Wednesday Weigh-In posts on the blog.
Well, all of this is a long intro to the actual announcement!
My friend Esther is launching a new site called JoinYardstick.com. It’s a place for “leaders” to host weekly weigh-in meetings and I’m excited to get the opportunity to be one of those first to participate.
For years everyone told me I should be a WW leader but it never felt right. This feels right. It’s not tied to any particular eating or diet plan and I firmly believe everyone has to find what works for them.
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I’m nervous but excited I get a more personal way to help people who are where I once was. I really want to help those who want to lose weight, but more importantly, I want to help people break out of the yo-yo dieting cycle of hell because being in it sucks.
Here’s the link to my leader page on the site:
Today I hosted my first meeting. It was SO much fun! We talked about our weekly successes, food journaling, accountability and setting goals for the next week. I’m working on a series of topics to chat about with the group every week.
Right now I’m only offering one meeting on Wednesdays at noon Eastern time, but if this is something you guys think you can benefit from, I’m completely open to hosting a few more throughout the week.
This is a great way for me to connect more personally and help those who are stuck in a cycle I know all too well.
On a more personal note, this is also something that scares the bejesus out of me! I have butterflies just typing this. Blogging comes easy to me. I type what I’m thinking, I hit publish, you read it or don’t, it’s all good. Live meetings? Yikes! There’s a bit more pressure for me to be on time, stay on point and really help individual people.
But I think I’m up for the challenge. I’m ready, which brings me to my other announcement: I’m done with the scale. Finished.
I hopped on this morning (no photo) feeling AMAZING and it was the highest number I’ve seen in weeks (155.6) and I realized if I truly want to train, lift and compete athletically I can not preoccupy myself with the scale anymore. I just can’t. I’ll still “weigh in” weekly with everyone here, possibly sharing the topic of the week from my live meetings if I can get into a groove. I need to move on from the weight-loss mentality I’ve been clinging to and that’s another reason why I want to do these meetings. In a way I feel like I’m graduating. It’s time. Inner mean girl be damned.
For my weekly Weigh-in’ers: I promise, no more hijacking weekly weigh-in posts. I’ve just had a lot going on. Please update us below. How are you doing? How was your week? Any goals this week?
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