Plateau, Descended

I walked briskly to my Weight Watchers meeting on an overcast day. The clouds were shielding the sun but it was a nice temperature outside, no wind, not many pedestrians...one of those perfectly quiet days where the world is still and you just simply loose yourself in the thoughts inside your head.

The thoughts in my head were of sizes, dress shopping, food, summer BBQ and the impending date with the scale in my near future. You see, I have been at a Plateau for weeks now - 4 of them to be exact. Every Wednesday for a month I stepped on the scale certain that it would be the week I hit the 15 pound mark and every Wednesday for that same month I watched my weight decrease....but by only two tenths of a pound. Two Tenths. It took me a month to lose 1 pound! ONE!

My meeting leader and the awesome ladies in my meetings were always so encouraging. I heard things like...at least you aren't gaining...any loss is a good loss...stick to it you will get past this...everyone plateaus on a diet it can't be avoided just push through it...this week will be your week! Yet, despite the support and encouragement, as I walked to this particular meeting, I had my mind made up to just give up on it all if I only lost two tenths again.

In fact, in my head, I reasoned that there was no point in eating right if it wasn't changing anything for me so I was pretty certain I'd be eating a 3000 calorie meal at Chili's after my meeting. Heck, maybe I'd skip the meeting and go straight to Chili's if the scale didn't tell me what I wanted to see! Then I would have ice cream for dessert and go home and bake a batch of sugar cookies. With cream cheese frosting. I was also going to bake a cheesecake. I miss cheesecake and I was going to do it all if that scale didn't say what I wanted it to.

Before I knew it I had had an internal conversation with myself about all the food I missed so extensively that I was standing outside the building 10 minutes early. Here it was. I took a deep breath and walked in the doors, down the hall, pulled my weight record from the neatly alphabetized box and walked to weighing station number one, took my jacket off, took a deep breath, thought to myself I should have peed first in case that would have given me an edge, and stepped on the scale.

It did nothing. Nothing. It didn't beep. It didn't flash the "thinking" bars. It just sat there doing nothing. I started to think this was just great I am such a chunk I broke the damned scale. Then, we realized it hadn't been turned on yet. You know, since I was 10 minutes early....and we started all over again. Only this time, the thinking bars came out and I waited until the number flashed on the digital reader. I just stared. My leader clapped and I just stared. Then, I looked her dead in the face and told her I'd like to weigh in on the other scale. Just to be sure. So I did it all over again at weigh in station 2. I didn't feel bad demanding this since I was early and I was the only one there.

Alas, both stations matched and I lost a whopping 3.4 pound this week. That's right, I said 3.4 pounds. THIRLLED doesn't even begin to cover the excitement! All it took was some patience, dedication, trust in the system and my body, not giving up, and there that number was. I did a happy dance. Right there. In front of both WW employees. It was the best 5 pound star I have received EVER and then, I moved on with my journey.

I did NOT have Chili's. I did NOT bake cookies. I did NOT eat ice cream. I sent a text message to my husband. I had a dance party in my bedroom. I put a smaller pair of pants on just to see. And this morning, I started all over again with a bowl of Cheerios.

Take that Plateau.