The Lighter Side of Weight Loss: Chapter Two

The Lighter Side of Weight Loss
By Sandra Warholic Seeley

Chapter Two

Thanks for asking. I lost 4.4 pounds since last Saturday, my weigh-in day.

In a recent WW studio, the topic was "Gratitude".

I'm grateful for countless things, but in WW, I'm thankful for second, third (choose your number) or infinite number of chances to succeed at weight loss. But come on WW, I'm a Lifer since the 70's and resistant to change. Calling my leader a coach, my meeting room a studio, my meeting a workshop is just wrong. That's as sacrilegious as if the Pope would decide to alter the words in The Lord's Prayer. Please don't do it Coach Francis! I'm still going to say it my way.

Which leads me into temptation...the topic. When junk food calls to us WW (Weight Watcher!) members, here are my suggestions for fighting Mr. Temptation:

• Create busy work for your hands. For example: learn American Sign Language so you can silently tell Mr. T. what to do with his addictive sweets wrapped in sheep's clothing that turn you into a ravenous wolf.

• Learn to play a musical instrument. In my case, I'm trying to learn how to play my guitar, again. Something I've been trying to do since my Flower Power days in the 60's. I think of my guitar as an acoustic food deterrent.

• Read a metabolism boosting thriller. A personal favorite of mine is James Patterson's Guilty Wives. You will be turning the pages faster and faster near the end, and if you haven't gotten any food stains on the pages, you may have lost a pound or two.

• Play outside with your fur baby. Adopt one if you don't have a four legged friend. Zeus is my 119 pound German Shepherd. He is a magnificent combination of muscle and Alpha-ness. A K-9 cop, Mike Garrow, who helped train Zeus in intermediate and advanced classes, told me I had to be more Alpha. He also called me petite. I told my husband that I love Mike! But I digress. A fur baby will bring out your inner child to the playground. He will also keep you from snacking. If he is trained, he will sit and stare at you with puppy dog eyes. If he is like Zeus, trained but stubborn, even if he is outside and you are inside, he will hear the crinkle of opening a snack package, and teleport himself to your side, where he will try to eat the snack and you. We have ongoing discussions about who is Alpha in our pack.

• Take a nap. If you are retired and unemployed like me, take as many as you want during the day. Just don't dream about "ice cream castles in the air!" They are not zero point foods.

• Hope for a grandchild. I'm a first time Grammy and my 14 month Eliza makes me so happy. We laugh, play, read, watch "Puppy Dog Pals" and she even shares her melt in your mouth Gerber Cereal Puffs with me. My personal favorite is banana flavored. Note to self: scan the barcode for smart point value. Did I mention she is 25 pounds of Energizer Bunny and Alpha-ness? Eliza Rose is walking now, so I'm constantly chasing, bending and retrieving. Great activity points.

• Think yourself thin. Just visualize a Pac-Man inside your body gobbling up all those fat cells in all those problem areas.

• And eighthly, follow me on Connect. I would love to hear from you. I have a long journey ahead of me, and need all the support I can get from my travelling companions. Want to play Twenty Questions on this trip?

Sandra Warholic Seeley - All my life, and half of someone else's, I have lived in a humorous place called Earth. My muse is a tiny menehune from the island of Oahu in Hawaii where I lived for a year. Ernest Hemingway once sat under the exact same coconut tree where I did most of my writing. I'm also a sensitive to criticism Virgo who loves to get paid for writing and speaking funny stuff. Even though my mind is filled with volcanic ash residue and I'm still finding sand in my shorts, I will continue to write until my muse retires or I run out of pretty blue drinks, whichever comes first. Don't be bashful, email the author.