Today was weigh-in day at Weight Watchers.  I lost 8/10ths of a pound. Hubby lost 1 and 4/10ths of a pound.

Hey, that’s pretty good for Memorial Day Weekend!

We ate at a friend’s house on Saturday night. He made at stir-fry chicken dinner. AND he bought all organic! The price of organic chicken just about killed him, but I sure appreciated it.

Yesterday, the Weight Watchers the leader talked about portion control. Many times you can still eat the same things, you just need to measure the size of your portions of food.

She also gave us each a Storyboard (R). She said, “Now don’t use this as scratch paper. Write down your goals and fill in the boxes.”

When I looked at the Storyboarding(R) paper, I thought about all of you out there in cyberland. That’s what many of you are doing. You are setting goals for yourself. Some of you are weaning off your psych meds, others want to get outdoors more, or exercise more and some one to try to eat a more organic diet. I especially  thought thought about Jazz and her series on using journaling and/or writing to heal. 

(Today, as I revisit those posts on her blog I think maybe storyboarding is quite different than journaling, but it is a technique that uses writing down your thoughts as a part of your journey to wholeness. It’s just that you are encouraged to post this on your refrigerator rather than keep it private.)

The Storyboarding(R) technique asks you to write down your dream (goal) and then fill in rectangular boxes, listing step by step what you will have to do to realize your dream. 

People in the group also shared their successes and pitfalls. One lady in the group finally lost 20 pounds. She did it o-n-e   p-o-u-n -d   at a  t-i-m-e and it was soooo sloooow and frustrating for her. One week she went camping, biking and hiking and she didn’t lose one measly little-ol-pound. She said after he weigh-in that week she pulled her car into a McDonald’s parking-lot, sat in the car, and cried. 

“The important thing,” the leader said, “Is that you didn’t give up!” And she didn’t go into the McDonald’s and pig out.

I thought about the people I have met in cyberland who, at times, just want to throw their hands up and say, “I give in. I can’t do it!”  But the important thing is to stay on the path and not give up.

I always bring healthy “treats” to eat in the car after the meeting because my husband is so starved after work that he wants to chow down on anything he can get his hands on. After the meeting, my husband and I sat in the car with our dog.  My husband said, “It is tempting just to crash diet and lose it all at once and be done with it.”  (Now just how long do you think a man who is starved after work would stay healthy if he crash dieted?)

That reminded me of some of the people I bump into on the Internet. They want to get off their psych drugs right away and be done with it. But weaning off your drugs too fast because you just want to reach your goal is like the people who crash diet. If you crash diet, you will crash and burn. It’s the same with weaning off psych drugs. Slow and steady will give you lasting results. You don’t want to yo-yo with your weight or your psych meds. 

Warning: If you want to withdraw from meds you need to do it carefully or you will get sick. Visit Duane Sherry’s  or Gianna Kali’s sites to locate resources.